tech

Apple’s iPhone is the top-selling smartphone in urban China

Apple’s second-quarter earnings beat expectations and underscore its growing strength in China, where it is closing in on the top spot in the smartphone market.

“We are thrilled with the performance in Greater China,” CEO Tim Cook said, noting that iPhone was “the top-selling model in urban China.” Cook first called the iPhone the rather than a top-selling model there during the company’s first-quarter earnings earlier this year.

Data from IDC and Counterpoint Research show Apple accounted for 19% of smartphone shipments in China in the first calendar quarter of 2026, just behind Huawei at 20%. Analysts say Apple is poised to take the lead soon, helped in part by rising memory chip costs that are pushing up competitors’ prices.

Apple’s China revenue rose 28% in the March quarter, ahead of analyst estimates, and is up 33% in the first half of the year.

Apple is on its way to becoming the biggest smartphone seller in China

Apple is on its way to becoming the biggest smartphone seller in China

Data from IDC and Counterpoint Research show Apple accounted for 19% of smartphone shipments in China in the first calendar quarter of 2026, just behind Huawei at 20%. Analysts say Apple is poised to take the lead soon, helped in part by rising memory chip costs that are pushing up competitors’ prices.

Apple’s China revenue rose 28% in the March quarter, ahead of analyst estimates, and is up 33% in the first half of the year.

More Tech

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SpaceX’s compensation plan for Musk is partially tied to creating a permanent human colony on Mars, America’s favorite planet

The conditions of SpaceX’s pay package for founder Elon Musk were revealed in a confidential registration statement, which was reviewed by Reuters last week.

While the compensation plan, approved by the SpaceX board in January, includes a sky-high valuation target of $7.5 trillion, it turns out Musk will only be awarded 200 million in super-voting restricted shares if he also establishes a permanent human colony on Mars with more than a million people, according to excerpts from the statement.

Luckily, there might be some volunteers to become cosmic X-patriates, since Mars just so happens to be Americans’ celestial body of choice. According to a new YouGov survey, published Tuesday, Mars is Americans’ favorite planet (19%), followed by ring-laden Saturn (14%) and 143,000 kilometer-wide Jupiter (8%).

Americans favorite planet YouGov — Sherwood News

Respondents were less enthused by Mercury and almost-planet Pluto, with roughly 1 in 5 respondents calling one of these their least favorite planet — though a majority of US adults (55%) simply didn’t know what their least favorite planet was, like the 38% who couldn’t say what their top choice was.

Whether Mars is America's favorite because of manifold endeavors to colonize it, or whether its proximity to Earth, relatively livable climate (Mercury’s temperatures, for example, are a little more mercurial, hitting 800°F in the day then dropping to -290°F at night), and grip on pop culture, from Ziggy Stardust to chocolate bars, have given us a rosier view of the Red Planet, is unclear.

Ahead of the company’s highly-anticipated IPO, it had appeared that SpaceX’s priorities were shifting away from Mars, further towards the Earth’s Moon. But if the world’s richest man wants to ensure even more company shares come June, SpaceX’s path to Mars shouldn’t be eclipsed.

Luckily, there might be some volunteers to become cosmic X-patriates, since Mars just so happens to be Americans’ celestial body of choice. According to a new YouGov survey, published Tuesday, Mars is Americans’ favorite planet (19%), followed by ring-laden Saturn (14%) and 143,000 kilometer-wide Jupiter (8%).

Americans favorite planet YouGov — Sherwood News

Respondents were less enthused by Mercury and almost-planet Pluto, with roughly 1 in 5 respondents calling one of these their least favorite planet — though a majority of US adults (55%) simply didn’t know what their least favorite planet was, like the 38% who couldn’t say what their top choice was.

Whether Mars is America's favorite because of manifold endeavors to colonize it, or whether its proximity to Earth, relatively livable climate (Mercury’s temperatures, for example, are a little more mercurial, hitting 800°F in the day then dropping to -290°F at night), and grip on pop culture, from Ziggy Stardust to chocolate bars, have given us a rosier view of the Red Planet, is unclear.

Ahead of the company’s highly-anticipated IPO, it had appeared that SpaceX’s priorities were shifting away from Mars, further towards the Earth’s Moon. But if the world’s richest man wants to ensure even more company shares come June, SpaceX’s path to Mars shouldn’t be eclipsed.

Apple beats estimates on earnings and revenue

Apple reported second-quarter earnings after the bell Thursday.

Apple CEOs John Ternus and Tim Cook

tech

White House said to oppose Anthropic’s plan to expand Mythos access to more companies

Anthropic is ready to invite a wider group of companies to gain access to Claude Mythos, the company’s powerful next-generation AI chatbot.

The tightly controlled model has been deemed something of a security risk by Anthropic itself, due to its ability to find thousands of software vulnerabilities and potentially be used for sophisticated cyberattacks.

About 50 companies have been given access to test the capabilities of the new model, and Anthropic wanted to expand that to 120, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is blocking the move out of concerns that the new technology could fall into the wrong hands, per the report.

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic was in talks to raise money with a $900 billion valuation — higher than its archrival in the AI chatbot world, OpenAI, which was recently valued at $852 billion.

White House Opposes Anthropic’s Plan to Expand Access to Mythos Model

White House Opposes Anthropic’s Plan to Expand Access to Mythos Model

About 50 companies have been given access to test the capabilities of the new model, and Anthropic wanted to expand that to 120, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is blocking the move out of concerns that the new technology could fall into the wrong hands, per the report.

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Anthropic was in talks to raise money with a $900 billion valuation — higher than its archrival in the AI chatbot world, OpenAI, which was recently valued at $852 billion.

tech

Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta plan to spend more than $700 billion on capex this year

Big Tech’s big capital spending continues to surge even higher than the companies had previously expected.

Alphabet raised its 2026 capex outlook to between $180 billion and $190 billion, up from $175 billion to $185 billion. Meta increased its 2026 forecast to $125 billion to $145 billion, up from $115 billion to $135 billion. Microsoft, meanwhile, said it’s planning on spending $190 billion this calendar year, about $55 billion more than the FactSet analyst consensus. Amazon, the lone outlier, didn’t boost its capex forecast, keeping it at a cool $200 billion.

Combined, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta plan to spend more than $700 billion on capex in 2026, nearly double what they spent last year and $100 billion more than they’d expected just last quarter, as they continue to build out the AI infrastructure to support their AI futures.

big 4 tech capex meta microsoft google amazon — Sherwood News

Microsoft AI Tour

Microsoft’s capex outlay this year would be enough to buy every outstanding share of Disney

CFO Amy Hood said on last night’s earnings call that the company will spend $190 billion on capex in 2026.

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