Business | The Verge

SpaceX cuts a deal to maybe buy Cursor for $60 billion

2026-04-22T05:40:37-04:00

With an IPO looming for Elon Musk's SpaceX / xAI / X combo platter of companies, SpaceX has announced an odd arrangement to either acquire the automated programming platform Cursor for $60 billion or pay a fee of $10 billion. Buying this startup that's focused on AI coding could help xAI's tools compete with market leader Anthropic, as well as the other competitors. A report by The Information this week said Sergey Brin has directed Google's "strike team" to help its agentic AI tools catch up, while Sam Altman reportedly declared a "code red" at OpenAI last year before shutting down Sora to focus on the ChatGPT superapp and its own Codex too …

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The SpaceX IPO is a trillion-dollar gamble on the future of space

2026-04-21T08:38:20-04:00

Booster 19, or ''B19'', is seen atop pad 2 at SpaceX's South Texas facility in Cameron County, Texas, ahead of an igniter test on April 13, 2026. (Photo by Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images) | NurPhoto via Getty Images

The great SpaceX IPO is looming, allowing outside investors - including regular Joe Schmoes, or retail investors - to buy a stake in one of the buzziest and most controversial companies on the planet for the first time. Depending on who you ask, it's either the best investment opportunity you'll see this decade or a fool's errand to rip off credulous Musk fanboys. With valuations of the company going to sky-high levels, over $1 trillion according to some estimates, there's certainly a furor around the potential for rich returns.

But is there really any money to be made in space?

Let's be clear: There are plenty of companies making money …

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John Ternus is taking over from Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO

2026-04-22T10:35:21-04:00

John Ternus and Tim Cook | Image: Apple

The multitrillion-dollar home of the iPhone, Mac, and so many other tech gadgets is getting a new leader this fall, as Apple has announced that Tim Cook will be replaced as CEO on September 1st by current hardware boss John Ternus. How will we look back on Cook’s legacy, and what will Apple look like under the leadership of Ternus and new chief hardware officer Johny Srouji?

We’ll keep track of all of the latest updates right here, starting with a live recording of The Vergecast.

Here’s how Amazon’s price fixing allegedly drove up prices everywhere

2026-04-22T02:34:49-04:00

On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed the evidence of alleged price-fixing by Amazon. The state filed a request to the Supreme Court in February for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon's behavior while the lawsuit it originally filed in 2022 proceeds, and is now making that 16-page document available, "largely unredacted." It lays out how Amazon allegedly schemed to raise other retailers' prices ahead of Prime Day, or worked with its vendors to make sure items available at a discount elsewhere were suddenly out of stock and unavailable for the lower price.

In response to a request for comment from The Verge, Amazon …

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Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want

2026-04-20T16:19:49-04:00

The long-term risks of the All-In Podcast, illustrated. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Turbosquid, Getty Images

One of the most mortifying things about knowing a lot of techies is listening to them tell me excitedly about some very important discovery that they believe they have made. Recently, I ran into an acquaintance of mine, who began talking my ear off about an amazing discovery he'd made with LLMs. Knowledge, it turns out, is structured into language! You could put one word into ChatGPT and it might understand what you wanted, or make up a word and see if it understood what you meant! These amazing new tools have revealed that the English corpus contains so much about its speakers!

He concluded that LLMs are a discovery on par with writing.

…

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Betting on the news raises ethical questions for journalists

2026-04-17T14:24:01-04:00

Prediction market exchanges have created an environment where just about any piece of information is potentially monetizable: How well will BTS's new song perform this week? How hot will Los Angeles get? Will Donald Trump be impeached? Users can wager on all of that and, on some platforms, more gruesome and violent outcomes in the real world.

The rapid rise and expansion of Polymarket and Kalshi have put newsrooms in a strange position. Prediction market evangelists often claim that their odds are more trustworthy and accurate than polls and traditional media - effectively positioning the industry as a replacement for news. At the same time …

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Allbirds announced a switch from shoes to AI and its stock jumped 600 percent

2026-04-15T16:22:25-04:00

Allbirds had a hit a decade ago with its Wool Runner shoes, but after a $4 billion IPO in 2021, the business never turned a profit, and sales dropped nearly 50 percent between 2022 and 2025. The company recently announced it would sell off its name and assets for $39 million to American Exchange after closing the remaining stores. That shell listing, however, still has some use as the Financial Times points out, and now CEO Joe Vernachio has announced a plan to raise $50 million from an unnamed investor, which will turn NewBird AI into "a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider."

NewBird AI expects …

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Snap is laying off 16 percent of its staff as it leans into AI

2026-04-15T07:26:08-04:00

Snap is laying off roughly 16 percent of its global workforce in a cost-cutting effort to chase improved profitability with the help of AI. The cuts will impact around 1,000 full-time employees, according to a memo sent to staffers from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. An additional 300 open roles are also being closed.

"While these changes are necessary to realize Snap's long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers," Spiegel wrote in the memo, which was included in the company's 8-K filing. …

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Slate raises $650 million to make its budget electric truck

2026-04-13T12:38:31-04:00

Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, raised $650 million to fund its effort to build an affordable electric pickup truck expected to start in the mid-$20,000s. The company plans on delivering its first EV later this year.

The Series C round was led by TWG Global, headed by Guggenheim Partners founder and LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter and financier Thomas Tull. Slate didn't disclose its latest investors, but both Walter and Tull were investors in Re:Build Manufacturing, a Bezos-owned company from which Slate spun off last year. The company also didn't disclose its latest valuation, but was at $1.2 billion as of January 2025, acco …

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Tesla is un-canceling its plan to build a smaller, cheaper EV: report

2026-04-09T11:03:30-04:00

It looks like a smaller, cheaper Tesla is back on the menu.

Today, Reuters is reporting that the electric automaker is calling around to suppliers about building an all-new - that is, not based on the Model 3 or the Model Y - electric SUV that would be more affordable than its current lineup. The report, which is based on four anonymous sources in the know, said the vehicle would be built first in China, before eventually being brought to the US and European markets.

If true, this would represent a pretty major reversal for Tesla, and especially for Elon Musk, who has insisted over the past few years that the company doesn't need to make …

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