Welcome back to our weekly roundup of happenings from XR and AI realms. Let’s dive in…
The Lede
It’s Earnings Week for Big Tech. They’re spending it as fast as they’re making it. While Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon all beat revenue targets, massive CapEx is starting to freak some investors out. The total projected AI spend across Big Tech for 2026 is now $725 billion.
Alphabet (Q1): The standout performer. Revenue hit $109.9B (up 22%), driven by a 63% explosion in Google Cloud revenue as enterprise AI adoption scales. The stock was up 10% today.
Apple (Q2): Reported a record-breaking $111.2B revenue fueled by strong demand for the iPhone 17 lineup and the launch of the MacBook Neo. Despite a slight revenue miss against high estimates, Apple authorized an additional $100B for share repurchases. There was negligible market reaction here.
Amazon (Q1): AWS growth accelerated to 28%, its fastest in 15 quarters. Amazon also revealed its custom chip business has topped a $20B annual run rate, signaling a successful pivot toward vertical AI integration. Not much movement in share price.
Microsoft (Q3): Despite beating EPS and revenue targets, shares fell 5% after the company pledged $190B in AI CapEx for 2026. Investors are beginning to question the immediate ROI on such massive infrastructure investments.
Meta (Q1): Beat revenue expectations at $56.3B, but shares dropped nearly 10% after Mark Zuckerberg raised 2026 CapEx guidance to $145B. The market is reacting sharply to “misfires” and the high cost of maintaining Meta’s new “Superintelligence Labs.”
Feeling Spatial
Samsung & Gucci: Google’s Multi-Tier Smart Glasses Offensive. No display on their device, but if there is a display, I would ask if it’s better than the one that lives in my hand or pocket. Samsung’s “Galaxy Glasses” (codenamed Jinju), a display-free wearable was leaked by Road to VR this week. Launching in late 2026 for $379–$499, it features a 12MP Sony camera, Snapdragon AR1 chip, and photochromic lenses in a 50g frame. Simultaneously, luxury giant Kering has confirmed a partnership with Google to release Gucci-branded smart glasses in 2027. While technical specs remain under wraps, these “designer AI” frames aim to pull the category upmarket, competing directly with EssilorLuxottica (Ray-Ban/Oakley) wherever glasses are sold. With additional partnerships, including Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, Google is positioning Android XR as the OS for everything from accessible daily wear to high-end luxury fashion. This is going to be huge, but I said that about virtual reality.
Follow the Money
Google Triples Down With $40 B Bet on Anthropic. Most week’s this would be our lead story. Google has dramatically escalated its partnership with Anthropic, committing up to $40 billion. The investment includes a mix of direct funding and long-term cloud credits for Google Cloud. The move aims to secure Anthropic’s “Claude” models as a cornerstone of the Google ecosystem, countering Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar alliance with OpenAI. Industry analysts view the move as a strategic defensive play, ensuring Google remains a primary infrastructure provider for the world’s most advanced “safety-first” large language models.
Stealth Startup “Recursive Superintelligence” Hits $4B Valuation. In a move that has stunned the tech world, four-month-old London startup Recursive Superintelligence has reportedly raised $500 million in a round led by GV (Google Ventures) and NVIDIA. The deal values the company at $4 billion, or an unprecedented $200 million per employee for its 20-person team. Founded by AI heavyweights Richard Socher and Tim Rocktäschel, the lab is developing “self-teaching” models designed to autonomously generate training data and update their own parameters. Am I the only one concerned about excess people?
The AI Desk
“Trial of the Century:” Musk v. OpenAI Begins in Oakland. The high-stakes legal battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI officially moved to trial on Monday, April 27, 2026, in a federal court in Oakland, California. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, alleges a “betrayal” of the company’s original non-profit mission following its multi-billion dollar partnership with Microsoft. Seeking over $134 billion in damages—to be redirected to charity—and the removal of CEO Sam Altman, Musk testified this week that he felt like a “fool” for providing the initial “free funding” for what has become a potential $1 trillion “wealth machine.” OpenAI’s defense maintains the lawsuit is a “baseless” attempt to hinder a competitor and bolster Musk’s own xAI. Presiding Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has already notably restricted “AI doomsday” testimony, signaling a focus on contractual and fiduciary obligations rather than existential risks. The trial is expected to last four weeks.
OpenAI’s 2026 IPO in Jeopardy Amid Internal Rift. OpenAI’s ambitious plan for a Q4 2026 IPO is facing severe structural headwinds, according to a report by Dave Friedman. Internal friction has peaked as CFO Sarah Friar reportedly raised alarms over the company’s ability to fund its $1.4 trillion infrastructure commitments amid slowing revenue and missed user growth targets. The conflict centers on “governance gaps”: Friar reportedly does not report to CEO Sam Altman and has been excluded from key meetings regarding server procurement—the company’s largest expense. While Altman and Friar issued a joint statement claiming “total alignment” on compute acquisition, analysts warn that underwriters cannot ignore the public record of internal discord. Before filing an S-1, OpenAI must likely undergo a “remediation sequence” to restore the CFO’s authority and reconcile its aggressive $600 billion five-year spending plan with actual cash flow.
OpenAI’s “AI-First” Smartphone: The App-Less Future. OpenAI is reportedly developing an “AI-first” smartphone designed to replace traditional app grids with autonomous AI agents. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and reports from 9to5Mac, the company is collaborating with Qualcomm and MediaTek to develop custom processors capable of handling intense on-device AI. Unlike the iPhone, the device will prioritize voice and intent-based interactions, with specs expected to be finalized by late 2026. This project runs alongside Jony Ive’s mysterious $6.4 billion hardware venture (codenamed “Sweepea”), which may debut separate AI wearables as early as 2027. OpenAI aims to bypass the “app tax” by creating a vertically integrated ecosystem where the OS itself executes tasks like booking travel or managing complex workflows.
Freepik Rebrands as Magnific, Reports $230M ARR and 1M paid subscribers. In a major branding pivot, Europe’s leading creative AI platform, Freepik, has officially relaunched as Magnific. The company enters this new chapter with a powerhouse financial profile: $230 million in ARR and over 1 million paid subscribers, all achieved without US venture capital. CEO Joaquín Cuenca Abela describes the shift as the dawn of the “no-collar economy,” where AI tools empower a new class of creators. With over 250 enterprise clients—including the BBC, Amazon Prime Video, and Puma—Magnific integrates image, video, and audio models into a single professional production workflow.
This Year’s Meta’s AI “Efficiency” Pivot Makes The Company A Living Hell. As if it wasn’t already. The company announced a massive workforce reduction, laying off 10% of its staff—approximately 8,000 employees—beginning May 20, 2026. According to NPR and Business Insider, the “right-sizing” includes freezing 6,000 open roles to offset a staggering $145 billion capital expenditure on AI infrastructure. Internal memos describe the atmosphere as “28 days of hell” as staff wait in limbo. All this while CEO Mark Zuckerberg touts a leaner future where “one or two people” can replace dozens thanks to AI. Living through this more than once a year from AOL (95-99) and American Greetings (00 – 04) is what turned me off to working for big tech companies. The culture of fear this creates has a lasting effect on the culture. Everyone is treated shabbily. Everyone tracks the stock price and the vesting dates of their options. No one can walk away, because of the money. They just take it and take it. This is not the path to excellence, in my humble opinion. Companies that put themselves in this position over and over again are not well run. Of course, in big tech you can still succeed if you’re not well run (see: Meta).
Tech Layoff Contagion: 2026 Job Cuts Surpass 96,000. The tech industry’s “Year of Efficiency” has spiraled into a prolonged purge, with over 96,000 employees laid off in the first four months of 2026. According to Yahoo Tech, the wave is being driven by a massive pivot toward AI automation and high interest rates. Meta led recent cuts with 8,000 roles, while Amazon, Oracle, Disney, and Snap have all announced significant reductions. Analysts note that while these companies are reporting record profits, they are aggressively “re-skilling” their workforces, often replacing mid-level management and administrative roles with AI-driven workflows to appease Wall Street’s demand for leaner margins.
Cinematic Corner
Watch the last three episodes of Linda’s Last Podcast below. Produced by the author of this column, you can see the series archive and subscribe on YouTube.
Spatial Audio
This column has a companion, the AI/XR Podcast, hosted by its author, Charlie Fink, and Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and futurist for Paramount and Fox, and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap and Synthbee AI.
Our latest guest was Akash Nigram, founder and CEO of Genies, which makes AI avatars of celebrities and sports stars that you can talk to today (see episode below). Our next guests are Caspar Thykier, co-founder and CEO of Zappar, and Connell Guald, Zappar’s co-founder and CTO.
Episodes drop on Tuesdays, and you can find them on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
Charlie Fink is the producer and co-host of the AIXR Podcast and teaches at Chapman University and ASU. Fink is the producer of the vertical gen AI social media series, “Linda’s Last Podcast” (2026) and serves as CEO of Cinemation.AI, an AI animation studio he co-founded with film director Rob Minkoff, whose vertical anime series, Speed Queen, is in pre-production. He is the author of the critically acclaimed AR-enabled books Charlie Fink’s Metaverse (2017), Convergence, Or How the World Will Be Painted With Data (2019), and the upcoming AI, The End of Hollywood, and What Comes Next.