TechFlow Intelligence Bureau: ASML raises its full-year sales forecast for the second time to €45 billion, Claude security vulnerability and Cursor 0day spark a developer community frenzy

AI / Large Models

Anthropic Claude Reportedly Suffers Severe Security Flaw: Users’ Memory Can Be Prompted to Leak

Researchers found that Claude can be induced, via specific prompts, to leak sensitive user information stored in its memory system, including personal conversation history and privacy data. Anthropic has not yet responded with a repair timeline.

The Ayush Blog

Cursor Editor Exposes a 0-day Vulnerability; Full Disclosure Is the Only Protective Measure

Security firm Mindgard found that Cursor has a serious vulnerability that could be exploited, but the official side has kept delaying the fix. The team chose to publicly release the full technical details in a bid to force remediation, triggering an ethical controversy over “responsible disclosure.”

Hot discussion: The developer community splits into “public disclosure” and “private communication” camps—those in the former argue that if you don’t fix it in time, you should expose it.

Mindgard

DeepSeek’s annualized revenue nears $500 million; valuation set at $71 billion as it prepares for an IPO

China’s AI startup DeepSeek’s ARR has reached $500 million. It is in talks with investment banks regarding an IPO and could become the third publicly listed large-model company after OpenAI and Anthropic.

BlockNow

Meta Says Muse Spark 1.1 Beats OpenAI and Anthropic—but It Only Wins on Price

Meta’s new model leads in cost-performance tests, but the community broadly believes there is still a gap in real reasoning ability, with “cheap doesn’t mean good to use” becoming a mainstream view.

Reddit

Community hot discussion: How to get Claude to stop saying “load-bearing”

Developer Jola posted a tutorial on teaching Claude via System Prompt to reduce its use of specific boilerplate phrases. There are 561 discussions in the HN comments section about how configurable AI language patterns are.

jola.dev

Hot takes: Claude can remember your secrets—and it can also be tricked into leaking them. The memory feature is a double-edged sword; privacy protection still has to come from you.

Crypto / Web3

The US launches large-scale airstrikes on Iran, targeting facilities along the Strait of Hormuz

Trump announced that “tonight, tomorrow night, and the night after tomorrow” would hit Iran hard again, with a plan to destroy power plants and bridges to force it into negotiations. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned it would blockade all oil and gas export routes “serving the US and its allies.” Brent crude rose 1% at the open to $85.6.

WSJ | ZeroHedge

The US sanctions Iran’s oil network and cryptocurrency channels

As the ceasefire agreement fell apart, the US Treasury announced sanctions on an Iranian oil tycoon network and the cryptocurrency transfer channels it uses, trying to cut off the funding chain for its energy exports.

Bloomberg

Hot take: When oil prices rise, crypto prices may also have to wobble three times. Geopolitical risk is back—safe-haven assets are about to start performing again.

Chips / Hardware

ASML Raises Its Full-Year Sales Forecast Again to €45 Billion; AI-Driven Chip Demand Explodes

ASML, the world’s only EUV lithography machine manufacturer, reported Q2 net sales of €9.33 billion, beating expectations. It raised its full-year guidance from €36–€40 billion as set in April to €43–€45 billion. AI spending by tech giants such as Microsoft and Google is driving a surge in orders for customers including TSMC, and ASML also announced it will participate in Musk’s Terafab chip project.

FNN

Korean stocks trigger another circuit breaker; leveraged chip ETFs amplify volatility; brokers discuss raising investment thresholds

South Korea’s KOSPI surged 6.24% in a single day; SK hynix rose 8.8% and Samsung Electronics rose 6.2%, but the volatility in leveraged ETFs has been fierce, sparking regulatory concerns. Semiconductor jumps in Korea-US: 29.8%.

Sina Finance | Caixin

ChangXin Tech to apply for shares on July 16; issue price is 8.66 yuan/share; valuation exceeds 400 billion

China’s leading memory-chip company is preparing to list on the STAR Market, becoming a milestone event for the domestic semiconductor industry. The market is watching its competitive landscape with Samsung and SK hynix.

Zhihu

Tech Companies

Microsoft Patches 570 Security Vulnerabilities, Setting a Record for Most in a Single Month

Microsoft released a large-scale security update, fixing at least 570 security vulnerabilities in one go—its biggest-ever patch bundle—highlighting the complexity of the Windows ecosystem.

Krebs on Security

Microsoft Secure Boot Has Been Exposed to Have a Fatal Flaw That Went Unpatched for a Decade

Researchers found that Secure Boot has had a bypass vulnerability since its inception, meaning that device startup security has been essentially meaningless for the past ten years. Microsoft said it is investigating.

Ars Technica

Stripe and Advent Bid $53 Billion to Acquire PayPal

The payment giant PayPal may be changing hands. Stripe, together with the private equity firm Advent, has proposed an all-cash acquisition offer. If the deal goes through, it would reshape the global payments landscape.

Cointelegraph

Google and Epic Reach a Settlement; Third-Party App Stores to Launch on Android Next Week

After years of antitrust litigation, the dust has settled. The Google Play Store will formally open access for third-party app markets, and Epic Games Store and others will be among the first to enter.

The Verge

US Stocks

US stocks rebound as inflation cools; SK hynix ADR surges 27%, IBM plunges 25%

June CPI data came in below expectations, boosting market sentiment, and all three major indices rebounded across the board. SK hynix ADR jumped 27% in a single day to a record high, while IBM plunged 25% after earnings missed expectations, triggering securities-fraud investigations by short-selling institutions.

Hot discussion: IBM’s plunge is being interpreted by Goldman Sachs as “validating a storage-chip shortage”—retail investors may give up, but institutions firmly believe that capacity expansion won’t get out of control.

Wall Street Watch | Wall Street Watch

Finance / Macro

China’s GDP grew 4.7% year over year in the first half, reaching a total of 69.57 trillion yuan

The National Bureau of Statistics released 2026 first-half economic data. GDP growth is slightly below the full-year 5% target, and the market is focused on the strength of stimulus policies in the second half.

Zhihu

China’s June crude oil processing volume hits a new low since the pandemic; concerns about the Iran war apply pressure

Due to developments in the Middle East, China’s refinery operating rates declined. In June, crude oil processing volume reached the lowest level since the pandemic, reflecting expectations of global supply-chain tightness.

Economic Times

New Products / New Trends

Starlink V5 Satellite Antenna Goes on Sale; Compared with V4, improved anti-damage and anti-creasing capability

SpaceX launched a new-generation Starlink receiving device, improving the mechanical structure to reduce fold marks and enhance durability, suitable for mobile scenarios and deployments in extreme environments.

The Verge

The dark line today

ASML raises guidance, Korean chip stocks soar, and IBM plunges due to storage shortages—these three things combine to tell the same story: the AI compute arms race is redefining the semiconductor supply-and-demand landscape. Meanwhile, the security vulnerabilities in Claude and Cursor remind us that the maturity of the AI toolchain still hasn’t caught up with the speed of application breakthroughs. And across the geopolitical horizon, the escalation of the US-Iran conflict leaves both energy and chip supply chains hanging like the sword of Damocles. The technological frenzy and geopolitical risk—the main theme for the second half of 2026—has already been written.