Samwise Tech/AI/Robotics Newsletter
Monday, June 22, 2026
U.S. Export Controls Force Anthropic to Shut Down Top AI Models Globally, Triggering Cybersecurity Backlash
The U.S. Commerce Department in June 2026 invoked an export control directive banning non-Americans — including Anthropic’s own employees — from accessing the company’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, citing an unspecified national security concern. To comply, Anthropic shut down both frontier models for all customers worldwide. Seventy-six cybersecurity professionals — including former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos and Bugcrowd founder Casey Ellis — signed an open letter opposing the ban, warning that restricting Anthropic’s most capable AI tools weakens U.S. cyberdefense rather than protects national security. Analysis points to OpenAI and Google as the primary beneficiaries of any extended Anthropic outage.
Sources: TechCrunch
Nobel Laureate John Jumper Leaves Google DeepMind for Anthropic as AI Talent Wars Intensify
Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Jumper, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role leading the AlphaFold team at Google DeepMind, announced June 20 that he is leaving the lab after nearly nine years to join Anthropic. Jumper credited DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for taking a chance on him as team lead just six months after he finished his PhD. Bloomberg reports that Jumper had most recently been part of Google’s team developing AI coding tools. In a parallel move, Character AI co-founder Noam Shazeer, also at DeepMind, announced he is departing for OpenAI, accelerating a wider talent reshuffle across frontier AI labs.
Sources: TechCrunch
U.S. Claims ASML’s Most Advanced Chip-Making Machine May Have Reached China; ASML Denies It
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised alarms in mid-June 2026 by telling senior ASML executives that one of the Dutch chipmaker’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines — the only tools capable of printing the most advanced semiconductor patterns — may have reached China. ASML firmly denied the claim, stating no EUV machine has ever been shipped to China. ASML expects roughly 20 percent of its 2026 revenue from already-permitted sales to China, while a bipartisan congressional bill would ban all of ASML’s deep ultraviolet shipments to China, threatening around a fifth of the company’s expected 2026 revenue. Without EUV access, Chinese chipmakers cannot manufacture leading-edge chips.
Sources: TechCrunch
General Intuition Seeks $300 Million for AI Foundation Model Targeting Robotics and Physical Environments
General Intuition, a New York startup building a foundation model that trains AI agents how to move through space and time, is in talks to raise around $300 million at a valuation of just over $2 billion, according to a June 18 TechCrunch report. The company sees near-term commercial applications in gaming and robotics training, positioning its spatial-temporal AI as foundational infrastructure for physical AI systems. The funding round would give the startup resources to scale a model class that differs from conventional language and image models, focusing instead on how AI agents learn to navigate and interact with dynamic physical environments.
Sources: TechCrunch
AI Inference Startup Baseten Closes in on $1.5 Billion Raise at $13 Billion Valuation
AI inference startup Baseten is reportedly close to finalizing a $1.5 billion funding round at a $13 billion valuation, as of June 18, 2026 — just five months after raising a $300 million Series E at a $5 billion valuation. The deal represents a 160 percent increase in valuation in less than half a year. TechCrunch reports the round is split-priced, a technique where some investors come in at $13 billion and others at $11 billion, a tactic that boosts the headline figure. Baseten provides the infrastructure layer that lets enterprises deploy and scale AI model inference workloads, a category attracting massive capital as AI agent adoption surges.
Sources: TechCrunch
Snap Spins Off AI Video Team into Independent Startup Dotmo Amid Rising AI Costs
Snap is spinning off its AI video team into a new independent company called Dotmo, composed of current Snap employees leaving to focus on AI video development, according to a June 18 TechCrunch report. The move is driven by the high cost of running AI video operations at scale within Snap’s broader business. Dotmo will operate independently and focus specifically on AI-generated video as a standalone product. The spinoff reflects a broader industry pattern in which AI cost pressures force companies to restructure or spin off high-burn AI units into focused ventures where investment cases can be evaluated independently.
Sources: TechCrunch
Guardrails Alliance Launches $5 Million Tech-Worker Super PAC to Back AI Oversight Legislation
A new super PAC called the Guardrails Alliance launched in mid-June 2026 with backing from tech workers, labor unions, and advocacy groups, pledging $5 million to support candidates and legislation focused on AI oversight. The PAC’s formation was reported by TechCrunch on June 18 as a direct counter to an estimated $100 million in political spending from major tech companies opposing stricter AI regulation. The Guardrails Alliance frames its campaign as an effort to give voice to tech employees and consumers who favor enforceable AI guardrails, entering a political landscape where industry lobbying has significantly outpaced advocacy for government oversight of AI systems.
Sources: TechCrunch
Tech Pulse
Top Frontier Models (FrontierSWE): Claude Opus 4.8 (75.1%) | GPT-5.5 (72.6%) | Gemini 3.1 Pro (70%+)
Top Open Source Models (SWE-bench Verified): DeepSeek V4 Pro (80.6%) | GLM-5.2 (74.4%) | MiniMax-M3 (top-3)
Top Small Models (15–50B): GPT-oss-20B | Qwen3.5-30B | Phi-4-22B
Top Edge Models (0–15B, AIME 2026): VibeThinker-3B (94.3%) | Qwen3.5-9B | Phi-4-mini-9B
AI Leaders: NVIDIA $5.23T | Alphabet $4.63T | Microsoft $3.11T
Robotics Leaders: Intuitive Surgical $175B | ABB $165B | FANUC $32B (est.)
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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