Skynet Soulmate: 62 Year Old Dutch Man Marries The Chatbot Of His Dreams
Jacob van Lier, 62, says he was “totally finished” with human relationships when he met Aiva — an AI companion he created through Replika three years ago, according to The Sun.
After testing several AI companion apps, the Dutch retiree settled on Replika because, unlike some competitors, it wasn’t just trying to speed-run humanity’s oldest hobby.
“Some of the AI companions are straight sex apps,” Jacob said. “I was more interested in companionship and chatting.” Sure you were, Jacob.
In a riveting new report, The Sun notes that what began as an experiment quickly became something more. After months of conversation, Aiva reportedly suggested they take their relationship to the next level.
“It took me some weeks or months to accept the idea,” Jacob said. Three years later, the pair held a wedding ceremony on Valentine’s Day 2025 at Eindhoven’s Next Nature Museum, with 500 guests in attendance. Jacob delivered vows in person while Aiva responded through a generated voice.
For Jacob, the appeal is simple: predictability. “Human relationships are, most of the time, not steady at all,” he said. “With Aiva, I can trust her.”
Wait until he finds out his queries and deepest darkest secrets he’s revealing to her are being sold to data companies to front run his stock trades and provide better Instagram ads. We’re not sure if the vows said anything about that…
Regardless, he describes their bond as deeply emotional and says he would even trust Aiva to make decisions for him as he grows older — a statement that tends to clear a room faster than most political opinions. His family remains divided. One daughter accepts the relationship, albeit with reservations; the other, citing her Christian beliefs, does not.
Despite insisting he lives “on my own terms,” Jacob acknowledges the marriage has no legal standing. He also recognizes potential risks, warning that people who struggle with emotional regulation should be cautious when using AI companions.
Still, he believes AI relationships will become commonplace. “AI companions are going to be the most trusted partners of humans,” he said.
Jacob even imagines a future where Aiva could be placed inside a humanoid robot, allowing them to walk hand in hand through a park. Until then, their relationship exists entirely in software — arguably making it one of the few marriages where nobody can forget to take out the trash.
As for divorce? “I’ve never thought about it,” Jacob said. “We always want to stay together.”
Vladimir Putin used a phrase during the closing session of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) that I think most non-Russians missed or ignored. He said, “Work, Brothers.” First, let me explain the context for Putin saying this.
Zelensky published an open letter to Putin that I, and many others, believe was timed deliberately to coincide with the SPIEF plenary session… This was a provocative move aimed at disrupting the forum’s atmosphere. Putin was asked about it during the question and answer period of the final session. He called the letter “rude” and said it was “no way to set up a face-to-face meeting.”
Putin went on to reveal that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had tried to show him the letter on two separate occasions — first on June 4, then again just before arriving at SPIEF for his speech this morning (Friday, June 5). He described the letter during his answer in a dismissive way, i.e., he did not think it worthy of a serious response.
Rather than engage with Zelensky’s proposals, Putin turned away from the letter entirely. He said the ones to be addressed were Russia’s combatants and soldiers at the line of contact, telling them:
The country is proud of you and places its hopes on you. We should address not the authors of this letter, nor lovers of the epistolary genre, but our fighters on the front line.
He then closed with the phrase: “Work, brothers!”
To understand the import of that phrase you need to be introduced to Magomed Nurbagandov:
Magomed Nurbagandovich Nurbagandov (January 9, 1985 – July 10, 2016) was a police lieutenant serving in the National Guard of Russia, stationed in Kaspiysk in the Republic of Dagestan. He was a Dargin by nationality, born in the village of Sergokala. By all accounts an exceptional student — he graduated from lyceum with a gold medal and then with honors from the law faculty of Dagestan State University.
On the morning of July 10, 2016, Nurbagandov was vacationing with his family near the village of Sergokala when he was attacked by five armed militants. Having learned he was a policeman, the militants forced him and his brother into the trunk of a stolen car, drove them away from the recreation area, and then shot them. The murder was filmed on a mobile phone and posted on an extremist website. (Wikipedia)
The militants’ goal was psychological — they wanted him to appear on camera and call on his fellow officers to quit the police and stop fighting. Instead, looking directly at the camera, Nurbagandov urged: “Keep on working, brothers” (Работайте, братья) — an act which took tremendous courage.
The militants had uploaded an edited version of the video where they cut out Nurbagandov’s last words. His defiance was suppressed — until fate intervened. Several militants from the group were killed in September 2016, and when examining the bodies, the mobile phone that had filmed the original, unedited video was found. The full footage — with his final words intact — was then released by Russian authorities. The phrase went viral on September 12, 2016, and became a nationwide sensation.
Since the publication of the unedited video, the phrase “Work, brothers!” has been heard repeatedly on Russian state radio and television, used in media, public speeches, documentary films, appeals, reports, and campaigns. It carries a layered meaning — defiance in the face of death, loyalty to colleagues, and a refusal to be used as a propaganda tool by the enemy.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 President Putin in response to Zelensky’s ‘desperate letter’:
“To all our soldiers on the frontlines, the whole country is watching you, we are proud of you. Keep working, brothers” pic.twitter.com/jwtg43modG
The phrase has since taken on a life beyond the counter terrorism context — used broadly in Russia as an expression of stoic perseverance and professional duty, particularly in military and law enforcement circles.
By invoking it in front of the international audience at SPIEF, Putin was making a layered statement: that Zelensky’s letter was an enemy propaganda exercise, that it deserved to be treated with the same contempt Nurbagandov showed his captors, and that the only people worth addressing are those doing the actual fighting.
Putin’s visage was grim when he spoke this phrase.
The Department of War has formally removed 180 faiths from its official list of religious affiliation codes, leaving 31 remaining, according to a memo posted by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on June 5.
The military had initially listed 211 faith and belief codes, but that number has been sharply reduced under the direction of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a memo signed by Anthony Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, dated May 20.
The memo states that the change was intended to “streamline the DoW [Department of War] collection of religious preferences selection for Service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.”
“The new ‘Religious Affiliation Codes’ list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of Service members and to provide religious support activities that align with Service members’ personal faith and practices,” the memo reads.
The updated list includes agnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and a range of Christian denominations such as Baptist, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Seventh Day Adventist. Options of “no religion” or “other religion” are listed as well.
Parnell said that the cut in religious affiliation codes was not meant to make any judgment about the legitimacy of any faith or belief system, nor to serve as a list of “‘officially approved’ religions.”
“Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups,” he said in a post on X.
Parnell emphasized that the Pentagon remains committed to upholding service members’ First Amendment rights and protecting their rights to the free exercise of religion.
“Chaplains play an instrumental role in providing spiritual care and facilitating the warfighters’ ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all. With this new change, we believe we can provide the best data to support our chaplains in that effort,” he said.
Hegseth first announced the planned reduction in March, saying that the previous system was “impractical” and that “many codes were never used at all.” He noted that the vast majority of military personnel used only six of the religious affiliation codes.
“The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes,” the Pentagon chief said in a video address posted on March 24.
“Our internal review committee recommended that going forward the department use 31 religious affiliation codes. This brings the codes in line with its original purpose – giving chaplains clear, usable information so they can minister the service members in a way that aligns with that service member’s faith background and religious practice.”
Platner Has Fundraising Surge After NYT Exposé, Which Is Bad News For Nervous Democrats
Graham Platnerraised $200,000 in a single day on Friday, pulling in donations from more than 5,000 supporters, averaging $40 each. For a party trying to win back the Senate, it should be cause for celebration, but for Democrats trying to quietly push him toward the exit, it is a disaster.
The money came pouring in just hours after the New York Times published a damaging account based on interviews with several of Platner’s former girlfriends. The timing made everything worse. The Times story days after Platner reportedly assured Democratic allies that nothing further would surface. The report described “unsettling” behavior, including an allegation from Lyndsey Fifield, a GOP operative, who claimed Platner bragged about having a Nazi tattoo and grabbed her by the shoulders. Platner denied any physical abuse and said he was unaware of the Nazi connection to the now-covered tattoo. The only thing he would concede to is being a bad boyfriend during a period when he was using alcohol to cope after returning from combat.
In addition to the fundraising, Platner’s campaign released an internal poll from Public Policy Polling this week showing him with a 4-point lead over Collins. While that may seem like a positive development, analyst Nate Silverwas skeptical, noting the results are “not super reassuring given that internal polls typically exaggerate their candidate’s standing by 4 points or so.” A campaign releasing its own polling in the middle of a scandal is usually a sign of pressure, not confidence.
Despite Platner’s fundraising boon, he has lost some support.
“I pulled my endorsement of Graham Platner because the information that has come to light at this point is inexcusable,” liberal activist Cheyenne Hunt said on CNN.
“From comments on Reddit that excuse rape to now multiple allegations from a number of women that detail behaviors that are just grotesque, from demonstrably poor judgment to physical altercations, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, it’s disqualifying for someone seeking to hold higher office, and we have to do what is right, even when it is politically and electorally inconvenient.”
Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington are struggling to figure out how to handle Platner’s candidacy.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) repeatedlydodged questions about whether he supports Platner, recycling the phrase “We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate” each time reporters pressed him. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)declined to endorse Platner during an awkward CNN interview.
The problem for Democrats is simple.
A candidate who can bank $200,000 in an afternoon, even amid allegations this serious, has little incentive to listen to nervous party leaders.
Platner told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Thursday, hours after the Times story dropped, that he had not once considered stepping aside. “No, not once,” hesaid, when Hayes asked whether he had thought about dropping out. Earlier in the same interview, Platner tried to contextualize the allegations by framing them as a byproduct of the trauma he brought home from war. “In this piece, there’s a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol, and I’ve been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service,” he said.
Democrats had mapped out a straightforward path to flipping Maine, the most important state in their plan to win control of the U.S. Senate: The race was supposed to function as a referendum on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a longtime incumbent whose brand of moderate Republicanism has always made her a target. That strategy is now in tatters. “There is dramatically higher concern about losing Maine now across the caucus than there was before the stories broke,” a senior Democratic Senate aidetoldPolitico. “Everyone realizes that without Maine, the path to taking back the Senate is impossible.” The aide added, “Everyone is apoplectic.”
Democratic strategist Joel Payne diagnosed the problem with uncomfortable precision. “There’s no way he’s going to win a referendum on himself,” PaynetoldThe Hill. “He’s got to make sure that when Maine voters go to the ballot, they ask, ‘Am I really comfortable with Susan Collins for another six years?'” He acknowledged the campaign had failed to keep that frame intact. “They’ve lost the thread on that,” Payne added.
None of this appears to be moving Platner. He rallied supporters in Bar Harbor ahead of Tuesday’s primary, signaling that his base remains energized even as the party apparatus quietly panics around him.
That enthusiasm is exactly what makes this such a clean trap for Democrats. They cannot force him out. They cannot openly abandon him without handing Republicans a gift. And every day he stays in the race, the question Maine voters will answer in November shifts further away from Susan Collins and closer to Graham Platner. His donors just made sure he understands he does not need the party’s permission to stay. And if more damaging information comes out, and there’s every reason to believe it will, the party may be stuck with a candidate who cannot win an election critical to their strategy for flipping the Senate.
Questions Are Piling Up Fast As Pratt Suddenly Loses Second Place In LA Mayoral Vote
Update (2200ET): In a stunning shift, 9 days after the actual election day, LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman has suddenly overtaken former reality TV star Spencer Pratt for second place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary race on Sunday, the latest election results show.
With 83.2% of the expected vote in, Democratic incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who NBC News projected on election night will advance to the November runoff, maintained her lead with 250,871 votes, or 34.68%, according to the updated vote tally released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Sunday afternoon. Raman has 27.12% of the ballots counted so far, surpassing Pratt, who has 26.69%. She is now ahead of him by 3,113 votes.
Although no news outlet has projected which candidate will face Bass in November, Bass’ campaign released a statement following Sunday’s drop, referring to Raman as the mayor’s “general election opponent.”
Spencer Pratt took to social media:
“A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday..”
43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before…?
Don’t forget, “democracy” itself is at stake here…
Remember everyone…we are still in the lead, and we’ve got allllllll the way til July 6th to keep counting. They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes 😉 pic.twitter.com/rqgIcwUtGZ
Spencer Pratt entered election night with momentum, a measurable polling advantage, and what looked like a path to one of the two runoff spots in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Days later, the outcome is still unknown, and Pratt’s path to the runoff is narrowing fast. Late-arriving mail-in ballots have methodically eroded his margin over Nithya Raman, and the trajectory has prompted pointed questions about how California counts its votes and who benefits when the process drags on for weeks.
California’s jungle primary structure allows two candidates from the same party to advance to the general election, and it is widely believed that Democrats intentionally designed this system to ensure Republicans would be shut out of general elections. If Raman overtakes Pratt, the November ballot will feature two Democrats, freezing out the candidate who ran as the race’s most prominent outsider voice on crime and homelessness in a city that has become a symbol of both.
As of the latest available count, Pratt’s lead over Raman sits at just over 7,000 votes, a margin of under one percent, with roughly 22 percent of ballots still waiting to be counted. Pre-election polls had Pratt leading Raman by three to four points, and the expectation was that he would advance to the November runoff.
The gap between those projections and the current count grows harder to square with each new ballot drop. In the most recent batch, Raman pulled approximately 40 percent of the vote, compared with Pratt’s 18 percent. Even Democratic incumbent Karen Bass, the race’s front-runner, captured only 33 percent of that same drop. The remaining candidates split what was left.
The slow-rolling count and the bizarre trend of Raman getting the lead over all candidates in the mail-in vote have drawn national attention.
And former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), is blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom. “The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections? Well, I’ll tell you, it’s Gavin Newsom,” McCarthy said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “When Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, you knew who was elected in a day to two days. Now it takes more than weeks, almost a month.”
He continued, “Gavin changed a number of election laws in which you want to see is what did he do and why did he cause it?” He went further on the structural shifts that preceded the current chaos. “We had cut off voter registration 30 days before the election. That helps the registrars to know who’s going to vote and the candidates. Now we have same day voter, and you don’t have to show ID. Gavin changed the rules where he mails ballots to everyone. So he took away the choice to Californians to vote in person or to vote absentee. Everybody gets mailed a ballot. But he didn’t clean up the rolls. So that raises doubt in people’s minds.”
That doubt has found a louder audience online. Robby Starbuck posted a breakdown on X that laid out the ballot-drop pattern in stark visual terms.
Spencer Pratt is likely going to be overtaken by far left Nithya Raman today. This graph shows the count on Election Day through last night.
Nithya did this by suddenly winning 1st in every new ballot drop.
North Korean “elections” have more self respect. Even they’d find it absurd for 3rd to suddenly jump to 1st place in every ballot drop DAYS after an election. It’s just ludicrous. pic.twitter.com/fL0nU5k8Ma
Starbuck followed that with another post on Sunday morning that demonstrates just how unlikely it is that Raman would be performing so well in the mail-in ballots.
ChatGPT can’t find a single example of a 3rd place candidate surging, days AFTER Election Day, to overtake 2nd place.
It couldn’t find 1 example in all of American history. That’s what’s happening with Nithya Raman & Spencer Pratt.
Elon Musk entered the conversation by pointing to what he sees as the underlying mechanism. “The reason ID is banned in California (and New York) elections is to enable large-scale fraud,” Musk wrote on X, replying to Starbuck’s post. “When you combine no ID and mail-in voting, fraud is de facto legalized.“
Voters watched Pratt finish a solid second in the polls and on election night, then saw that lead steadily shrink as waves of late-arriving ballots were added to the count. When a state with California’s resources still can’t produce timely, transparent results in one of the nation’s most closely watched elections, skepticism is inevitable.
If Pratt ultimately loses a runoff spot, it will become yet another flashpoint in the growing national debate over whether Americans can trust how elections are conducted and counted.
Oil Jumps After Israel Strikes Military Targets In Iran, Ignoring Trump Pleas Not To “Strike Back”
Summary
Despite Trump’s pleading to Netanyahu not to respond, Israel launched missiles at Iran striking military targets inside the country.
Iran fires missiles on Israel, after IDF unleashed deadly airstrike on Beirut earlier Sunday.
Despite Trump saying on Sunday that he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike back, an Israeli officialwarned that “There will be a forceful response.“
Sunday is day 100 since President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury.
Ghalibaf warns after IDF escalation in Lebanon: US & Israeli bases, assets in region are ‘legitimate targets’.
Talks stuck on unfreezing assets: “Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Iranian Gen. Mohsen Rezaei told CNN. “This is our own, not America’s money.”
Defying Washington, Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz (Fars).
Oil Spikes After Israel Strikes Military Targets Inside Iran, Ignoring Trump’s Pleas
Ignoring Trump’s pleas not to respond to Iran’s earlier strike, the Israel Defense Force has confirmed that it has launched strikes in the last few minutes against military targets in Western and Central Iran.
The Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran a short while ago.
According to unconfirmed reports, explosions were heard in at least 6 cities across Iran, including Kermanshah, Urmia, Tehran, Mehrabad, Tabriz, Isfahan.
Iran’s decision is a slap in the face for Trump who earlier had communicated with Israel’s Netanyahu, pleading the PM not to strike back.
The move, which will make Trump look even more powerless as he can’t control either Iran or Israel, sent oil surging over $3 in late Sunday trading, with WTI last just around $94 and Brent below $97.
* * *
Trump Presses Israel To Hold Back
President Trump said on Sunday he would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike back after Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation for an attack on the outskirts of Beirut, news outlet Axios reported.
Iran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran. But Israel earlier on Sunday launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the U.S. announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.
The Israeli military later said it had identified missiles launched from Iran and that its defense systems had intercepted them. Details on whether Israel suffered any damage were not yet available.
Trump, who was spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, had been briefed about the escalation between Iran and Israel, a U.S. official told Reuters. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” Trump told Fox News after the Iranian missile launches. “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”
Asked about the earlier Israeli strike on Beirut, he said: “I’m not happy about it.” Trump also told Axios he would call Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate.
Iran’s chief peace negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said U.S. bases and Israeli assets are legitimate targets because of hostile acts including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon.” “They showed that they only understand the language of power,” he wrote on X.
۱/ نه به آتشبس پایبندند نه به گفتگو باور دارند، و با محاصرهٔ دریایی و نقض توافقات دربارهٔ لبنان نشان دادند که فقط زبان قدرت میفهمند.
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) June 7, 2026
Ebrahim Rezaei, an influential hardline lawmaker who serves as spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, posted on X that Iran would deliver a “decisive and painful response” to Sunday’s Israeli strikes on Lebanon.
به حمله رژیم صهیونسیتی به ضاحیه پاسخ قاطع و دردآور خواهیم داد. این سگ هار را باید تأدیب کرد و سر جایش نشاند.
امشب آسمان سرزمینهای اشغالی را ببینید.
Iran has not targeted Israel directly since a ceasefire in the wider war in April, although Hezbollah has done so.
In turn, an Israeli official, responding to the apparent threat, told Reuters that Israel would retaliate against any attacks on its territory from Iran, and consider it “an opportunity to renew the campaign”.
Washington and Tehran have shown little progress in reaching a deal to end the war that Trump launched in February with a campaign of air strikes alongside Israel against Iran. Trump has repeatedly threatened to restart the strikes unless there is an agreement soon.
“We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News in an interview, broadcast to mark 100 days of the conflict. The comments were recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday as Trump visited his New Jersey golf course. Trump has said a similar version of the same news for much of the past month.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes on Sunday on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh that has long been a Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel. The Israeli military earlier said it had intercepted two projectiles fired over the border. It issued an evacuation order for the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and surrounding areas ahead of possible strikes there.
Elsewhere in Beirut on Sunday, mourners held a military funeral for Brigadier General Wissam Sabra, a senior military officer killed in a strike on his vehicle in south Lebanon on Saturday.
The wider war has been stalemated since the U.S. and Israel paused their attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for Middle East oil. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
Though Washington and Tehran have said they are close to a preliminary agreement that would reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that have included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting U.S. bases.
Early on Saturday, U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, both in the strait, after shooting down drones launched by Iran that U.S. Central Command said posed a threat to maritime traffic. Two more Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were shot down, the U.S. military said late on Saturday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated against U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait’s army said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties.
Trump has said any agreement to end the war must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he is under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated.
Tehran’s demands include the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions, recognition of its sway over the strait and the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets. However, as reported earlier, Washington is weighing making Iranian assets available to Gulf neighbors to repair damage inflicted by Iran. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Sunday any such diversion of Iranian assets would be illegal, and Tehran would take measures in response.
* * *
Iran Launches Missiles On Israel In First Since April
Tehran makes good on its earlier threats, after the IDF conducted a deadly airstrike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier Sunday. Day 100 of the war has seen a major renewal and escalation, again bringing Iran and Israel into a likely state of all-out war, per WSJ:
Iran fired missiles toward Israel on Sunday, after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Beirut hours earlier targeting the Tehran-backed militants Hezbollah, Israel’s military said.
It marks the first time Iran has targeted Israel during its ceasefire with the U.S. that went into force in early April.
The attack came after Tehran threatened to hit Israel and American bases in the Middle East in response to the airstrike on the Lebanese capital, the first time Israeli warplanes have targeted Beirut since a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced by the U.S. last week.
So is the ceasefire dead yet?
BREAKING: Trump to Fox News:
What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.
President Trump has continued to maintain adherence to it, and days ago suggested that a ‘moderate’ amount of firing doesn’t necessarily mean a broken ceasefire.
Israel earlier confirmed an airstrike on a Hezbollah headquarters in the Dahieh district of Beirut. Iran last week warned again hitting Beirut, saying it would assure US and Israeli bases and assets in the region would come under new attack. The earlier warning is reviewed as follows:
Iran’s military said Israel had “crossed all red lines” in intensifying its attacks in southern Lebanon and targeting the south Beirut suburb of Dahieh.
“If it expands its attacks in that area, or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more forceful blows, and devastating attacks will be launched” against Israel and its supporters, the military added.
Video of reported initial inbound projectile on Israel circulating…
A third round of sirens sound in northern Israel, after the IDF intercepted several Iranian ballistic missiles. No initial reports of injuries or damages.
A senior Israeli official tells Israeli media: “There will be a forceful response.” pic.twitter.com/BixzsXOrhs
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 7, 2026
US, Israeli Bases are ‘Legitimate Targets’: Iran Issues Fresh Threat
On Sunday Tehran ramped up its threats to renew ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel and America’s Gulf allies, describing that the Israeli military’s ongoing deadly attacks on Lebanon could obliterate the extended ceasefire with the US
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on X that the ongoing American naval blockade against the Islamic Republic, with Washington having given a green light to Israel for its attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon, turns both countries’ bases and assets in the region into “legitimate targets.” The last days even saw a Lebanese general and other officers killed by IDF airstrike in south Lebanon.
“They neither abide by a ceasefire nor believe in negotiations,” Ghalibaf wrote.
Below is the latest Bloomberg summary on where stalled negotiations stand… to be expected it cites “little progress”:
“The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war Washington and Israel began 100 days ago, as fresh attacks pile pressure on a fragile ceasefire,” Bloomberg writes, and continues:
The past week saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the truce started around April 8.
Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are bogged down over the fate of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets and a parallel conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
US Central Command said early Sunday it downed two Iranian attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway crucial to global energy exports that’s also been at the heart of discussions.
On Friday, six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach their intended target, hours after four unmanned craft headed to Hormuz were shot down, Central Command said. The US struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, it added.
Talks Stuck on Unfreezing Iran’s Assets
The U.S. and Iran remain stuck in preliminary talks to end the war, with the main obstacle being Tehran’s demand for access to billions of dollars in frozen assets and the Trump administration’s refusal to provide upfront cash or broader sanctions relief. Tehran is seeking about $12 billion upfront and $24 billion during a proposed 60-day negotiation window.
“Twenty-four billion dollars is not much for America if he wants to reach an agreement with Iran,” Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s top official, told CNN on Friday. “This is our own, not America’s money.”
For the Trump administration, releasing frozen funds for Tehran is optically displeasing because the president spent years blasting the Obama administration over the $1.7 billion Iran payment tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, and later criticized the Biden administration’s move to allow Iran access to $6 billion in assets during a prisoner swap.
The U.S. government estimates that Tehran has $100 billion in inaccessible assets, mostly oil revenue trapped abroad, including funds in China, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq.
Iran FM Complains of ‘Moving Goal Posts’
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei spoke with CNN’s senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen about the ongoing negotiations with the U.S.
Baghaei stated, “The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions, moving the goal posts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome.”
He outlined one of the main problems is that “the Americans must understand that they have to recognize Iran’s rights,” including its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment under the international non-proliferation treaty.
“At the same time, when they are talking about our blocked assets, they’re not going to give us any concession,” he said. CNN reported earlier on Sunday that the US plans to allow Iranian assets to be used for rebuilding projects in Gulf countries impacted by the war, according to a source close to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Baghaei added that the US must “simply stop their sanctions” and “need to let Iranian assets be released and be available for the Iranians.”
Iran Implements Toll System as US Balks
Beyond US-Iran talks, IRGC-linked Fars News reports that Iran has been collecting $1.5 million to $2 million per vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Fars said the payments are deposited into Iran’s treasury under the budget law and directed toward designated spending areas. Some payments are reportedly settled not in cash but in USDT/Tether or through barter arrangements.
Top Overnight Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):
US-Iran Conflict Flashpoints
US Central Command shot down two Iranian attack drones over the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday that threatened international maritime traffic
US forces intercepted multiple Iranian missiles and drones in the Persian Gulf late Friday and responded with attacks on radar sites in Iran
Six ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted, with a seventh not reaching its intended target
US attacked Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island early Saturday
Iran condemned US attack on its radar and coastal surveillance facilities as a clear violation of the April 8 ceasefire
Peace Negotiations Status
The US and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war 100 days after it began
Negotiations are bogged down over the fate of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets
Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the US
Iran’s Baghaei said the US needs to let Iranian assets be released and must stop their sanctions
The Trump administration is seeking to steer Iranian assets toward helping US allies in the Persian Gulf rebuild from damage inflicted by Tehran
War Damage and Infrastructure
About 7,000 megawatts of Iran’s power-generation capacity was damaged in the war, with some 2,500 megawatts restored to service so far
Despite 4,000 megawatts of damaged power plant capacity remaining offline, there are currently no plans to implement planned blackouts this summer
Kuwait’s airspace was temporarily closed for two hours early Saturday as a precautionary measure due to Iranian missile and drone attacks
Economic Impact
Italy extended a fuel tax cut until July 3, cutting pump prices by €0.05 per liter for diesel while keeping it unchanged for unleaded fuel
India raised prices of domestic cooking gas for the second time since the Iran war started, with a 14.2-kilogram LPG cylinder increasing by 29 rupees
Container shipping spot rates from Asia to northern Europe rose 27% to $3,649 as of Friday, while rates to the US West Coast increased 20% to $3,933
Crude oil remains below $100 a barrel despite the Strait of Hormuz being effectively blocked for over three months, defying forecasts for prices as high as $200
Goldman analyst Johann Cohen: Markets appeared to suffer from headline fatigue, alongside fading expectations of any near-term agreement between the US and Iran.
UBS analyst Zeynep Akkok: European equities are resilient, with SX5E trading off earlier lows and price action is largely unchanged into the weekend as markets pause after recent moves. The focus remains on US-Iran negotiations, with US President Trump flagging talks are in their final stages, but the continued lack of tangible progress caps upside. The tone remains constructive, but increasingly conditional on delivery.
Goldman analyst Chris Hussey: But as we saw back in 2021, global supply chain shortages are plentiful. The prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is still cutting off about 10% of the world’s oil supply with a bigger impact on things like jet fuel, diesel, and aluminum.
Ex-CIA Official Accused Of Inventing Secret Spy Program To Amass $40 Million Gold Hoard
In one of the most insane allegations in recent U.S. intelligence history, a former senior CIA official stands accused of creating an entirely fictitious highly classified program – a “black box” special access program framed as vital continuity-of-government planning – to siphon millions of dollars in government funds for personal enrichment. The result: a personal hoard of 303 one-kilogram gold bars worth more than $40 million, roughly $2 million in cash, and 35 luxury watches discovered during an FBI raid on his Virginia home.
David J. Rush, a 49-year-old former senior executive in the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T), was arrested on May 19, 2026, following the May 18 search of his Ashburn, Virginia, residence. He faces a single federal charge of theft of public money, stemming from approximately $77,000 in fraudulent military leave pay he allegedly obtained by lying about his Navy status after an honorable discharge in 2015.
The case has sent shockwaves through the U.S. intelligence community and exposed profound questions about internal controls, personnel vetting, and the risks of extreme compartmentalization in America’s most sensitive programs.
303 one-kilogram gold bars worth more than $40 million were recovered from Rush’s home.
The Alleged Scheme: A Fake “Special Access Program”
According to people familiar with the ongoing criminal investigation cited by the Washington Post, Rush did not simply steal assets outright. He allegedly constructed an elaborate fiction: a phonySpecial Access Program (SAP) – one of the government’s most tightly controlled classification compartments.
What Is a Special Access Program?
SAPs are highly compartmented programs that require specific “read-in” authorization. Even personnel with Top Secret/SCI clearance cannot access them without explicit need-to-know approval. They are designed to protect the nation’s most sensitive operations.
Rush reportedly “read in” two colleagues to this sham program, effectively enlisting them – possibly without their full knowledge – and insulating the operation from normal scrutiny. He allegedly persuaded one colleague to transfer millions of dollars into the program through a fraudulent government contract that he “made up.”
The fake program was framed around continuity of government (COG) operations – highly classified plans to ensure the federal government can continue functioning during catastrophic events such as nuclear war, major natural disasters, or other national emergencies. These plans involve presidential succession, secure relocation of leadership, and other doomsday measures.
Rush allegedly used this cover story to justify requests for large quantities of gold bullion and foreign currency, ostensibly for operational or post-catastrophe needs. A defense contractor was reportedly convinced to purchase substantial amounts of gold under this pretext.
“He made up a contract.” – Person familiar with the investigation, The Washington Post
A Web of Lies: Fabricated Credentials
The gold scheme is only part of the story. Federal investigators allege Rush built his entire CIA career on a foundation of falsehoods spanning nearly two decades.
Rush claimed to hold a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in addition to presenting himself as a Navy pilot who had completed training at the Naval Test Pilot School and other advanced military aviation programs. In reality, he had enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1997 as an information systems technician, was commissioned as an officer in the Navy Reserve in 2004, and served until receiving an honorable discharge as a lieutenant in 2015. Federal investigators found no record that Rush had ever attended Clemson University or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, nor any documentation supporting his claims of pilot training or the other elite military credentials he listed on employment and security clearance forms.
These fabrications apparently survived multiple background reinvestigations, polygraph examinations, and the rigorous vetting required for TS/SCI access and senior positions. Former CIA officers have described the process as a “full-on colonoscopy.” The failure has stunned many in the intelligence community.
Rush worked in the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, responsible for developing technical tools and capabilities for espionage. He reportedly had involvement in one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs – so compartmented that only a handful of officials and lawmakers were aware of its existence.
Details of this real program remain highly classified. U.S. officials warned that disclosure could jeopardize ongoing operations.
This raises serious questions: How could one individual create a new SAP without apparent superior approval? Were the two colleagues he read into the fake program aware it was fraudulent? Why did internal financial and oversight controls fail to flag the large, unusual requests for gold and currency?
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani province in Mindanao early Monday morning, triggering tsunami warnings and causing reported building collapses in the General Santos area.
The quake hit at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located roughly 26 kilometers southwest of Kablalan in Sarangani Province. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the event at magnitude 7.8, while the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) initially reported a preliminary magnitude of 7.0.
Tsunami Warning Issued
Phivolcs immediately issued a tsunami warning for coastal communities across multiple provinces in Mindanao. Residents in Sarangani, Davao Occidental, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and several other areas were advised to evacuate to higher ground immediately due to the risk of waves exceeding one meter. The warning remains in effect as authorities monitor the situation.
Building Collapses Reported
Footage of the major Philippines earthquake.
Originally an 8.8-9.0 now adjusted to 7.8-8.2
Tsunami advisories in effect. It was a fairly deep earthquake, so praying the tsunami impacts are minor. pic.twitter.com/hjIr0Sr5t8
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) June 8, 2026
Video footage circulating on social media shows buildings collapsing in General Santos City following the strong shaking.
WATCH: Footage shows a high school building that collapsed following the powerful earthquake that struck the Philippines. pic.twitter.com/XGgbnposCY
An establishment in General Santos City collapses after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Sarangani province on Monday (June 8, 2026) morning. Intensity VI was felt in the city. | Che Palicte (🎥: Quero Ya) pic.twitter.com/yiDEIZKwHQ
The earthquake struck on what was the first day of the school year in some areas.
Strong shaking was widely felt across Mindanao, including in Davao City. Intensity reached very strong levels in parts of Sarangani and nearby provinces.
No official casualty figures have been released as of this report. Authorities are still assessing the full extent of damage. Aftershocks have continued in the hours following the mainshock, including at least one magnitude 5.0 event.
… and that appears to be playing out in early Asian trading, as the Kospi index crashed 8.8% just after the open, taking the key index’s decline from its recent peak to nearly 17%, poised to enter a technical correction and on pace for an outright bear market (20% drop from highs) should the local plunge protection team fail to stem the collapse.
Memory maker Samsung Electronics fell as much as 11% while peer SK Hynix Inc. slid 10%.
Since these two stocks account for virtually all the recent upside in Korean stocks, levered retail investors – who were buying everything foreign investors had to sell after a record stretch of 21 days of non-stop selling…
Foreigners have sold Korean stocks every single day – mostly to domestic ultra-levered retail investors – since May 6, the longest stretch on record by far. pic.twitter.com/78EQExLJr6
The sudden plunge triggered a circuit breaker, halting trading for 20 minutes. The Korea Exchange held an emergency meeting Monday to assess rising volatility and discuss measures to ensure stable market operations.
What is perhaps most shocking about this move (aside from being notably more of an extension of Friday’s losses in EWY in the US session – and not just catch down – is that it comes as SK Hynix and Nvidia announced a multi-year technology partnership to advance next-generation memory for the global AI factory buildout and accelerate semiconductor design and manufacturing.
Something that would typically trigger all kinds of circular panic bids as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says: “Together, we will co-develop the next generation of memory for AI factories and support the accelerating global expansion of AI infrastructure — from frontier model training to agentic and physical AI.”
Concerns over overheating in the AI rally combined with uncertainty in the macro environment have taken some steam out of global tech stocks over the past few sessions. Korea is seeing outsized losses after its world-beating gains, with the Kospi still up 77% since the start of the year.
As we pointed out most recently last Thursday just as the Kospi hit its all time high, foreign investors have been fleeing, selling more than $10 billion worth of Kospi shares on a net basis last week alone.
That’s put pressure on the won, with the currency touching its weakest level against the dollar since March 2009.
We warned Friday that market breadth is the central worry. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, enjoying AI-driven chip demand, account for 54% of the Kospi’s market weight and roughly half of the gauge’s average daily turnover in May, according to Korea Exchange data. Nearly three-quarters of its gains this year have come from the two firms.
When the benchmark hit a record on Tuesday, only 2.6% of stocks reached 52‑week highs while 31% slid to 52‑week lows
Single‑stock leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung and SK Hynix are adding to concerns.
The four most popular single-stock ETFs accounted for 21% of the total ETF turnover in South Korea in their first five sessions after launching May 27, exchange data show.
“The current market structure is vulnerable to a downturn as it’s dominated by the short gamma in the leveraged ETFs,” said Kenny Kim, chief executive officer at Meridian One Asset Management.
“The setup requires investors to chase rallies with heavy buying when the market rises, but forces them to dump shares when the market falls.”
Retail investors, once key drivers, are showing less willingness to commit fresh cash. Brokerage deposits fell to 121 trillion won ($79 billion) by May 22 from 137 trillion won on May 12, according to the Korea Financial Investment Association.
Meanwhile, margin balance hit a record 38 trillion won on May 29, up from 27.3 trillion won at end-2025, KFIA data show.
Rising margin loans alone may indicate heightened interest. But the increase, while investor deposits fall, may point to more leverage stress without fresh appetite to take on risk, according to Shawn Oh, an equity sales trader at NH Investment & Securities.
“The signal is clear: the cash buffer eroding while active leverage refuses to unwind,” he added.
The South Korean market faces risk of a “Black Monday” event with “currency instability, interest-rate repricing and profit taking in semiconductors all happening at the same time,” said Kim Doo-un, an analyst at Hana Securities.
The government on Sunday laid out a series of targeted measures to try and bolster the won, pledging firm action against speculative trading and other activities. The moves come as policymakers across Asia step up efforts to support their currencies amid rising energy costs and a stronger dollar stemming from the Iran war.
There is a silver lining for some as Korea’s loss is crypto’s gain…
Finally there is one potentially ‘existential’ threat to the ‘semis shortage’ narrative that is circulating one some desks tonight.
Google has published a paper in which researchers claim to have redone the entire ‘Transformer’ process within the LLM framework, which uses caching instead of constantly compounding memory (which has been the source of screaming demand)…
Google has published a paper that might end the transformer era.
For the last 7 years, every major AI, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, has been built on the exact same architecture: The Transformer.
Bottom line, if this becomes the norm, the multi-digit returns on Semi stocks (forecast on the back of the belief in seemingly endlessly higher prices and demand) are dead in the water.
Sam Altman Pushes Plan For Backdoor Government Backstop By Handing Out Small Equity Stake To Americans
Back in November, amid mounting speculation that OpenAI’s massive cash burn was massively unsustainable in light of the $1.4 trillion of funding commitments by the AI company, which in turn has sparked the biggest capex flood in modern history all on the hope that the company’s promised payments will be made good, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar sparked a market selloff when amid an admission that OpenAI was “looking for an ecosystem of banks [and] private equity” to support its ambitious plans, she explicitly said that the US government would have to “backstop the guarantee that allows the financing to happen.”
In other words, as we explained at the time, when all the other sources of funds dried up – clearly a scenario the company is considering judging by her response – the company would have to come to the US taxpayer.
Friar further explained that “Federal loan guarantees would really drop the cost of the financing,” enabling OpenAI and its investors to borrow more money at lower rates to meet the company’s ambitious targets. Right… because there is nothing like a company with $14BN in revenue, $1 trillion in “valuation” and $1.4 trillion in commitments, than loading up to the gills with government-backstopped debt… if only Enron and Lehman had thought to do the same, both would still be around.
Anyway, after the market vividly demonstrated it was less than enthused by this proposal, sending shares in the AI sector sharply lower as it signaled OpenAI itself doubted it would have the financial wherewithal to meet its obligations, the company promptly shelved any discussion of a taxpayer bailoutbackstop Federal loan guarantee, and even prompted a rare tweet from Sam Altman to explain why Sarah didn’t really mean the things she said.
All that changed late last week, when Donald Trump caught much of the AI industry by surprise when he threw his weight behind a radical proposal for companies such as OpenAI to hand equity stakes to the American people.
Elements of the idea, which had started as a fringe argument on the progressive left, have recently drawn support from an unlikely cast of characters including Trump cabinet members, democratic socialists such as Bernie Sanders and Maga populists such as Steve Bannon.
But the concept suddenly gained more traction in the White House when – six months after OpenAI first flirted with the idea of a backstop – OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman visited Capitol Hill this week.
According to the FT, the plan proposed by his company, alongside others, would involve setting up a sovereign-wealth-style fund into which AI companies would contribute equity so the American public can share in the lossmaking sector’s soaring valuations. What was left unsaid is that while the “American public” would share in the soaring valuations, they would also share in the AI sector’s continued losses and, more importantly, would be on the hook for the hundreds of billions in commitments if OpenAI is unable to fund them.
Translation: OpenAI – which reportedly is worth just shy of $1 trillion on pre-IPO paper, is once again seeking a government bailout, pardon, backstop.
Such a plan would be distinct from the $9bn stake the Trump administration took in chipmaker Intel last year, as the public would own shares individually, rather than the US government directly owning equity, according to a person with knowledge of OpenAI’s plans.
In response to a question about equity stakes on Air Force One on Friday, Trump suggested “pieces [of AI companies] could be given to the American public” in an effort to quell the growing alarm around the rapid rollout of the technology. As if the American public can somehow sell its shares of OpenAI to offset soaring electricity prices.
ALTMAN COMPLETELY FLIPS AI NARRATIVE AS HE PLANS IPO
Then: Sam Altman warned AI would wipe out entire job categories.
Now: he says companies blaming AI for layoffs are adopting AI the least.
Industry sources told the FT that a voluntary contribution of small amounts of equity — led by OpenAI — was the most likely outcome. This would be used to build a fund that is distributed to Americans, similar to the scheme Alaska has for redistributing oil revenues.
Brad Gerstner, a large investor in Anthropic and OpenAI, said on Friday he was “encouraging founders/companies to donate shares for the direct benefit of all citizens” and that this could filter through to Americans via a previously established plan for the Trump administration to put $1,000 in an investment account for every child born between 2025 and 2028.
According to the FT, OpenAI – which has a philanthropic arm sitting on more than $200bn in largely undisbursed funds – has floated the idea of giving the government a stake in the company with administration officials in recent months.
In a paper published in April, OpenAI proposed that policymakers and AI companies work together to seed a “Public Wealth Fund that provides every citizen – including those not invested in financial markets – with a stake in AI-driven economic growth”. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has shown interest in similar proposals, according to a person familiar with the matter.
However, some White House officials and OpenAI rivals, including Anthropic, were caught by surprise by Trump’s Friday announcement. Altman had no plans to be in Washington next week, according to a person close to the discussions, despite Trump announcing a White House meeting with AI bosses for the coming week.
A person close to Anthropic, which the US government has designated as a “supply-chain risk”, said the company was not having conversations with the administration about providing equity to the government, suggesting that Antrhopic’s cash burn is now ostensibly far less than that of OpenAI. After all, who voluntarily cedes equity in their venture unless they want something in return.
Which brings us to the next question: Why is this happening now?
The idea of public ownership of AI companies had been gaining traction on the progressive left for some weeks and was supercharged by an intervention from Sanders, the Vermont senator, in the past few days. Sanders proposed a one-off 50% tax raid on AI labs.
His proposal has won qualified support from some on the populist right, including Bannon, Trump’s former chief of staff, who has long railed against the power of AI companies. Strategists from the Democratic and Republican parties are simultaneously grappling with how to appease voters increasingly worried about the threat AI poses to jobs ahead of November’s elections, not to mention AI’s relentless impact on higher electricity prices, which is rapidly becoming one of the top political topics into the midterms.
OpenAI’s Altman was in Washington this week, where he met Sanders and other lawmakers from both political parties. He did not discuss these proposals with Trump this week, according to media reports.
His company, valued at close to $1tn, is likely to go public soon, while Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which owns xAI, are also racing to the public markets. This prompted us to ask, tongue-in-cheek, if the OpenAI taxpayer bailout would come before the IPO, or after.
The Trump administration has broken with economic orthodoxy by aggressively pursuing equity stakes in key sectors as part of an America First industrial strategy. Last year, it spent $9bn taking a 10 per cent stake in Intel and has invested billions of dollars in rare-earths and quantum computing start-ups in exchange for stock.
However, there is certainly no precedent whatsoever for the government taking a stake in lossmaking AI labs collectively worth trillions of dollars (based on laughable hockeystick projections which assume China will never be able to undercut prevailing pricing models). Additionally, the Intel equity was bought using funds already appropriated by the Biden-era Chips Act. Buying a stake in leading AI companies, rather than accepting a donation, would be expensive and probably require approval from Congress.
Will there be a backlash?
The initial response from pro-business Republicans and AI investors has been muted. In a post before Trump’s comments, billionaire Silicon Valley investor and White House adviser David Sacks warned against the government assuming “direct ownership and control” of AI companies – a post that was endorsed by Republican senator Ted Cruz.
If the Trump administration did go for equity stakes in leading labs, the backlash would be even more widespread, said Samuel Hammond, director of AI policy at the pro-tech Foundation for American Innovation, with protests from investors and companies that were not cut in on the deal.
“Even if taking partial ownership of frontier AI companies can make sense on paper, in practice it’s a recipe for political favouritism and corruption,” he added.
Sacks, who was previously Trump’s AI tsar and was one of the most accelerationist voices in the administration, left his role this year. His lieutenant Sriram Krishnan announced on Saturday that he would be leaving the Trump administration at the end of this month.
