Note

2026-03-10

News Briefing — 2026-03-10

Anthropic Sues Trump Administration Over "Supply Chain Risk" Designation — After refusing Pentagon demands to remove restrictions on AI use for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, Anthropic was blacklisted from all government contracts. The company filed two federal lawsuits alleging illegal retaliation and First Amendment violations, saying the action jeopardizes "hundreds of millions" in revenue. Source: CNBC / CNN / Washington Post
Nscale Raises $2B Series C — Largest in European History — The UK-based AI infrastructure hyperscaler hit a $14.6B valuation. Investors include Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Point72. Sheryl Sandberg and Nick Clegg join the board. Source: Nscale Press Release / PitchBook
Samsung Goes Multi-Model for AI — Samsung is partnering with OpenAI and Perplexity rather than locking into a single assistant, pursuing a multi-model strategy across its devices. Source: TechStartups
86% of Enterprises Increasing AI Budgets in 2026 — NVIDIA's State of AI report finds 87% say AI helped reduce annual costs, driving accelerated enterprise adoption. Source: NVIDIA Blog

Nscale's $2B Round Signals European AI Infra Boom — The record European raise reflects a global shift: investors are pouring into the physical backbone of AI (power, racks, chips, cooling) as the compute bottleneck becomes the defining constraint. Source: EU-Startups
Pronto Raises $25M Series B for Indian Home Services — Epiq Capital led the round valuing the on-demand marketplace at $100M. Source: VC News Daily
AI Software Stocks Hammered — Box Down 20% YTD — Fears of AI disrupting traditional software business models have sent SaaS stocks tumbling in 2026. Source: Schwab
VC Focus Shifting: Infrastructure > Applications — The Nscale raise and continued NVIDIA photonics investments signal VCs are betting on AI's physical layer over application-layer startups for now. Source: Alternatives Watch

US Economy LOST 92,000 Jobs in February — A massive miss vs. the 50K gain expected. Unemployment rose to 4.4%. Health care lost 28K jobs due to Kaiser Permanente strike. December revised to a loss of 17K (previously +48K). Third time in five months the economy lost jobs. Wages still rose 0.4% MoM / 3.8% YoY. Source: CNN / CNBC / NPR
Oil Smashed Through $100 — Briefly Hit $119/Barrel — Brent crude surged 30% on Sunday to $119 before pulling back. Crude is up ~50% since the war started Feb 28. CNN calls it "the biggest oil disruption in history." Source: CNN / Al Jazeera
Global Markets Crashed Then Rebounded — Nikkei plunged 7% (worst since Aug 2024), KOSPI -6%, Dow futures -1,100 pts. But US markets recovered: S&P +0.83%, Nasdaq +1.38% after Trump signaled war could end soon. Nikkei bounced 2.88% on Tuesday. Source: NPR / Bloomberg
Saudi Aramco Warns Hormuz Disruption Could "Severely Destabilize" Global Oil — The oil giant cautioned that extended shipping interruptions threaten global energy security as ~150 ships remain anchored. Source: CNBC

Iran War Day 11 — Trump Signals War May End "Soon" — US has struck 5,000+ targets and destroyed 50+ Iranian vessels. Trump told Republicans the war is "very complete" but later said "ultimate victory" is still needed. Iran's IRGC rejected the claim. Source: CNBC / Al Jazeera
Iran's FM Rejects Negotiations While Attacks Continue — Foreign Minister Araghchi called Washington "untrustworthy" and said there is no room for ceasefire talks while bombing continues. Source: Iran International
Death Toll: 1,200+ in Iran, ~500 in Lebanon, 11 in Israel — Netanyahu said "we are breaking their bones" and the war's aim is popular overthrow of Iran's government. Hegseth promised Tuesday would be "the most intense day yet." Source: NPR
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei Succeeds Late Father as Supreme Leader — Iran selected Khamenei's son to succeed as supreme leader after the elder Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes. Source: CNN
Japan Deploys First Domestically-Developed Long-Range Missiles — Upgraded Type-12 land-to-ship missiles to be deployed at Camp Kengun in Kumamoto by end of March, amid regional security concerns. Source: NPR
15th Anniversary of Great East Japan Earthquake — Japan marks the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster that killed nearly 20,000 people. Source: various

Fetched at 08:00 AM