Jerome Powell and Sam Altman Speak At Federal Reserve's Regulatory Capital Framework Conference

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OpenAI’s Altman: Our rushed deal with the Pentagon “looked opportunistic and sloppy”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared an internal memo in which he expressed some regrets for the bad optics of the company’s hasty deal with the Pentagon, and outlined new additions that were made to the agreement.

Jon Keegan

3/3/26 11:37AM

The fallout from Anthropic’s messy breakup with the US government, and OpenAI’s hasty deal to take its place, is still settling across the AI industry.

Last night, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared an internal post on X in which he expressed some regrets about how the deal came to be as well as some new additions to the agreement.

The new conditions centered around the mass surveillance of Americans, one of the key issues that blew up Anthropic’s deal with the Pentagon.

Altman said they added language to clarify that, in accordance with the Fourth Amendment and laws already on the books, “the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.” The rub is that the scale and reach of data collection today, in pretty much every corner of our life, lets anyone — including the government — buy massive amounts of sensitive data that can be used for surveillance without getting a warrant.

Altman acknowledges this gaping loophole in personal privacy protections, and also included this language:

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Department understands this limitation to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals, including through the procurement or use of commercially acquired personal or identifiable information.”

This exact issue is one that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei flagged in a post last week as he outlined the company’s red lines surrounding the government’s use of its AI tools.

Altman also acknowledged the bad optics surrounding the last-minute deal as the Trump administration attacked Anthropic. Altman said they shouldn’t have rushed to do the deal, saying, “It just looked opportunistic and sloppy.”

But where does this leave things? It seems that Altman was able to get the same deal that Anthropic was fighting for. Meanwhile, Anthropic faces a potential catastrophic blacklisting that could cripple countless partnerships and investments.

In the post, Altman said he told the Pentagon that Anthropic should not be designated as a “supply chain risk,” and hoped that it would be offered the same deal that OpenAI ended up with.

Here is re-post of an internal post:

We have been working with the DoW to make some additions in our agreement to make our principles very clear.

1. We are going to amend our deal to add this language, in addition to everything else:

"• Consistent with applicable laws,…
— Sam Altman (@sama) March 3, 2026

Rani Molla2h

Palo Alto Networks surges after it beats revenue and earnings estimates

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks jumped more than 10% in postmarket trading after reporting fiscal third-quarter results that beat analyst revenue and earnings expectations.

The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.85, versus the FactSet analyst consensus estimate of $0.79 on $3 billion in revenue. (Wall Street had expected $2.94 billion.)

The company also boosted its guidance for the full fiscal year. The company now expects non-GAAP EPS in the range of $3.77 to $3.79, compared to its previous projection of $3.65 to $3.70 (and analysts’ expectations of $3.68). It also forecast revenue of $11.415 billion to $11.425 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 24%, compared to previous growth expectations of 22% to 23%.

Through Tuesday’s close, the stock had risen more than 60% in the past month.

Jon Keegan3h

Microsoft releases 7 new models, next-gen quantum chip at Build conference

Microsoft is making it clear it can stand on its own as a competitor in the AI arena.

Today at its annual Microsoft Build developer conference, the company made a flurry of announcements that move it further away from the shadow of its complicated relationship with partner OpenAI.

Among the products announced:

New Nvidia-powered Windows PCs: the Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface RTX Spark Dev Box.
Seven new homegrown AI models: MAI Image-2.5, MAI Image-2.5-Flash, MAIN Transcribe-1.5, MAI Thinking-1, MAI Voice-2, MAIN Voice-2-Flash, and MAI Code-1-Flash.
Majorana 2, the company’s next-gen quantum chip.
Microsoft Scout, an integrated always-on agent built on OpenClaw.
Project Solara, an AI gadget operating system.

Investors were unimpressed, however, as shares were down over 4% after the announcements.

PHASE 2: Noon - Microsoft Build 2026

New Nvidia-powered Windows PCs: the Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface RTX Spark Dev Box.
Seven new homegrown AI models: MAI Image-2.5, MAI Image-2.5-Flash, MAIN Transcribe-1.5, MAI Thinking-1, MAI Voice-2, MAIN Voice-2-Flash, and MAI Code-1-Flash.
Majorana 2, the company’s next-gen quantum chip.
Microsoft Scout, an integrated always-on agent built on OpenClaw.
Project Solara, an AI gadget operating system.

Investors were unimpressed, however, as shares were down over 4% after the announcements.

Rani Molla9h

Amazon’s Prime Day is coming early this year

Amazon is moving its four-day Prime Day event up from July, where it’s been for the last five years, to June 23 through 26.

The retail giant cites scheduling clashes with the FIFA World Cup and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence as reasons for the move. Prime Day is one of Amazon’s biggest sales events of the year, helping drive $24.1 billion in US online spending last year, according to Adobe Analytics.

More concretely, the move means Amazon will pull a massive chunk of sales from one of its biggest events into Q2, which ends June 30, rather than Q3.

Beyond the top-line revenue shift, Amazon is also using the event to flex its newer strategic muscles, aggressively cross-promoting its same-day grocery delivery networks and its Amazon Haul discount storefront.

Rani Molla10h

Tesla’s China-made EV sales grew 39% in May, marking 7 straight months of growth

Sales of Tesla vehicles made at its Shanghai plant — produced for China, Europe, and other international markets — grew 39% in May to 85,982 vehicles, a record for the year.

The data marks the company’s seventh straight month of year-over-year wholesale growth for made-in-China vehicles and the company’s continued stabilization overseas. Across the entire Chinese auto industry, overall wholesale volume of so-called new energy vehicles — EVs and hybrids — produced domestically grew 12% from May 2025.

The China Passenger Car Association will report China-only sales later this month, offering a clearer picture of performance in Tesla’s second-largest market. On Monday, several European markets posted year-over-year sales growth for Tesla.

Tesla China May wholesale volume reaches 85,982 units, highest this year

Rani Molla6/1/26

Alphabet announces $80 billion equity raise to fund AI infrastructure, including a $10 billion bet from Berkshire Hathaway

To fund its rapidly expanding AI infrastructure push, Alphabet just announced a whopping $80 billion equity capital raise.

While concerns over share dilution sent the stock down slightly after-hours, the deal secured a major anchor partner: Berkshire Hathaway, which is backing the offering with a $10 billion investment. (Berkshire was run by Warren Buffett until he stepped down as CEO at the beginning of this year, handing the reins to Greg Abel.)

Alphabet plans to spend up to $190 billion on capex this year.