AI Industry Development & Policy Dynamics

Opening A venture backed by Blackstone, Anthropic, and Hellman & Friedman has acquired San Francisco-based startup Fractional AI, establishing it as the venture's operating core for enterprise AI services. The acquisition ends Fractional AI's 11-month partnership with OpenAI. The venture aims to h

KKR Backs Beauty Platform Fresha at $1 Billion Valuation Fresha, a London-based marketplace for beauty and wellness bookings, announced on May 22 that KKR invested US$80 million, valuing the company at more than US$1 billion. KKR made the investment through its growth equity arm, which focuses on

According to Bloomberg, a venture backed by Blackstone, Anthropic, and Hellman & Friedman has acquired San Francisco-based Fractional AI as its operating core. The deal marks the venture's first acquisition and ends Fractional AI's 11-month partnership with OpenAI. Other investors in the venture

Opening Hark, an AI startup building models and hardware for a personal assistant, announced on May 21 that it raised US$700 million in a Series A funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital, valuing the company at US$6 billion post-money. Founder Brett Adcock, who previously started Figure AI an

According to TechCrunch, AI lab Hark raised $700 million in Series A funding on May 21, valuing the company at $6 billion post-money in a round led by Parkway Venture Capital. Founder Brett Adcock, who previously launched Figure AI and Archer, established Hark in late 2025. The company plans to

According to BlockBeats, Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, stated on May 22 that Ethereum will serve as the settlement layer for finance and AI. Lee highlighted Ethereum's leadership and developer community as key factors ensuring its continued role in the sector. He remains bullish on

According to Paradigm, the fund has open-sourced Centaur, an AI Agent Runtime co-developed with Tempo that supports multi-user collaboration and secure self-hosted operation. Since internal deployment began in January, Centaur has transformed workflows across investment, engineering, design,

Taiwan prosecutors are seeking to detain three people accused of using forged documents to ship Nvidia AI servers to China, according to the Keelung District Prosecutors Office announcement on May 21. The servers were manufactured by US server maker Super Micro. Prosecutors allege the suspects

According to Bloomberg, Taiwan prosecutors are seeking to detain three people on May 21 for allegedly using forged documents to export Nvidia AI servers to China. The servers, made by US-based Super Micro, were reportedly purchased in Taiwan and shipped with false declarations despite being

The White House has postponed a scheduled artificial intelligence executive order signing ceremony, according to reports on May 21. The reason for the delay was not disclosed.

According to LPL Financial chief economist Jeffrey Roach, artificial intelligence may help offset the impact of aging demographics on the U.S. economy. In a statement on May 21, Roach said AI can address labor shortages by boosting worker productivity rather than relying on workforce expansion. It c

Spotify and Universal Music Group announced licensing agreements on Thursday that will allow Spotify Premium users to create AI-generated covers and remixes using music from participating artists and songwriters. The tool operates as a paid add-on, with participating artists and songwriters

Spotify and Universal Music Group announced licensing agreements on Thursday, allowing Spotify Premium users to create AI-generated covers and remixes of music from participating artists and songwriters. The feature will launch as a paid add-on. Participating artists include Taylor Swift, Billie

According to Deli Chen, a DeepSeek engineer, on May 20, the company announced it is recruiting a team in Beijing to build Code Harness, a native agentic coding tool designed to compete directly with Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex. The team is hiring a product manager and an R&D engineer.

Researchers at Brigham Young University, the Institute for Family Studies, and the Wheatley Institute found that 15% of partnered U.S. adults ages 18 to 30 regularly use AI romantic companions. According to a new report titled "Secret Soulmates," 69% of regular users said it was important their part

Bank of America reiterated its "buy" rating on Nvidia and raised its price target from $320 to $350 following the chipmaker's record first-quarter earnings, which saw revenue reach $81.6 billion—up 85% year-over-year and exceeding analyst expectations of $79.1 billion by 3.1%. The stock declined

TAO faced renewed selling pressure after repeated rejection beneath descending resistance throughout recent trading sessions. Rising trading activity during the decline reflected stronger seller participation across the broader corrective market structure. Analysts continue monitoring the

According to PANews, AI startup Hark completed $700 million Series A funding on May 21, with a post-money valuation of $6 billion. Parkway Venture Capital led the round, joined by NVIDIA, AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, ARK Invest, and other strategic investors. Hark plans to expand GPU

According to Japan's Nikkei newspaper, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and NVIDIA announced on May 21 plans to deepen collaboration on Physical AI technology and establish a robotics research and development center in the United States. The partnership will leverage NVIDIA's simulation and digital twin pl