🪙 Meta Eyes Stablecoins, Apple Boosts AI Chips, Robots Stumble
Plus: Huawei Breaks with Windows; Apple Faces Global Legal Storm.
Good morning. It’s Friday, May 09. Today we are covering:
Meta in talks to deploy stablecoins three years after giving up on landmark crypto project
Apple Is Developing Specialized Chips for Glasses, New Macs and AI Servers
Casualties of the U.S.-China trade war: humanoid robots
Huawei unveils a HarmonyOS laptop, its first Windows-free computer
How Apple Created a Legal Mess When It Skirted Judge's Ruling
Let’s dive in
Meta in talks to deploy stablecoins three years after giving up on landmark crypto project
By Leo Schwartz via Fortune
Meta is in discussions to explore the deployment of stablecoins, marking a potential return to crypto initiatives three years after abandoning its high-profile Diem (formerly Libra) project.
Talks involve partnerships with Circle, the issuer of USDC, signaling a shift towards established stablecoin infrastructures rather than developing proprietary assets.
This move reflects Meta’s renewed interest in digital finance, despite regulatory headwinds that derailed its previous cryptocurrency ambitions.
𝕏: "According to five sources familiar with the matter, @Meta is in discussions with crypto firms to introduce stablecoins as a means to manage payouts, and has also hired a vice president of product with crypto experience to help shepherd the discussions." - Mike Dudas (@mdudas)
Apple Is Developing Specialized Chips for Glasses, New Macs and AI Servers
By Mark Gurman via Bloomberg
Apple’s silicon design group is developing specialized chips for future products, including its first smart glasses, next-generation Macs, and advanced AI servers.
Progress on the smart glasses chip suggests Apple is accelerating work on this product to compete with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart spectacles.
These developments reinforce Apple’s strategy to expand its ecosystem across wearables, personal computing, and enterprise AI infrastructure.
𝕏: Apple is working on a dedicated chip for upcoming non-AR glasses to rival the Meta Ray-Bans, new chips for AirPods and Apple Watches with cameras, a high-end AI server chip, as well as new M-series Mac chips. - Mark Gurman (@markgurman)
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Casualties of the U.S.-China trade war: humanoid robots
By Kinling Lo via Rest of World
Escalating U.S.-China trade tensions, including a 145% tariff on Chinese imports and tighter chip export controls, are stalling progress on humanoid robot commercialization, with the U.S. leading in AI software and semiconductors while China dominates the global supply chain for robot hardware.
Companies like Tesla and Figure AI aim to produce up to 12,000 humanoids annually, but face supply chain challenges; Chinese firms like Agibot and Ubtech plan smaller production runs while struggling with restricted access to cutting-edge AI chips.
Despite viral online fame, humanoids remain mostly publicity tools and research subjects, with limited industrial adoption; Chinese entrepreneurs, like Zhao Binran, capitalize on this trend by renting humanoid robots for events at rates up to $2,768 per day.
𝕏: Trump’s trade war slows AI humanoid robot production in China and U.S. Chinese firms make up 63% of global humanoid robot supply chain, providing hardware components, actuators, sensors, lithium-ion batteries. Most importantly, REE magnets… - Paul Triolo (@pstAsiatech)
Huawei unveils a HarmonyOS laptop, its first Windows-free computer
By Coco Feng via South China Morning Post
Huawei unveiled its first HarmonyOS 5 (HarmonyOS Next) laptop, moving away from Microsoft Windows after its PC license expired in March 2025.
The unnamed device features AI assistant Celia, capable of tasks like slide creation, meeting summaries, and document searches, and comes preloaded with apps like WPS Office and Alibaba’s DingTalk for productivity.
It supports a growing ecosystem of over 2,000 mobile apps by year-end, including popular platforms like RedNote, Bilibili, and ByteDance’s Feishu.
How Apple Created a Legal Mess When It Skirted Judge's Ruling
By Tripp Mickle via The New York Times
Apple defied a court ruling by imposing a 27% commission on external app sales, after internal debates led by Tim Cook, despite legal concerns from executives and the creation of a “sham” economic report to justify the move.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in civil contempt, citing executive perjury, document withholding, and a deliberate cover-up, undermining the company’s credibility amid ongoing global antitrust cases.
The ruling strengthens the hands of prosecutors and regulators in the U.S., EU, UK, Spain, and China, who are now more likely to challenge Apple’s defense tactics and demand greater transparency.
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