Good morning. Britain’s spy chief says the U.K. and its allies face a “narrowing window” to stay ahead in the global war for digital intelligence and cyber supremacy.
“Warfare is being reconfigured; increasingly data-driven, AI-enabled, and automated in conflicts from Ukraine to Iran,” GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler warned Wednesday.
The Brits’ principal adversaries come as no surprise: China and Russia. But now it’s “10 times more urgent,” she added. (Oh, goody.)
Perhaps it’s time to reset those passwords, hmm? More tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. Here’s a good read by colleague Sheryl Estrada about Big Tech’s penchant for hiring women in the CFO spot.
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Meta introduces subscription plans for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp
Picture this: You’re the head of a publicly traded Big Tech company. You’ve committed to spending 12 digits’ worth on AI this year. Investors wanna know that you’re not gonna tank earnings while waiting for all that spending to pay off. You need to show revenue growth. You’re already grinding on advertising dollars. You just cut costs by laying off 10,000 employees.
Time for subscriptions, yeah?
That’s the (apparent) thinking for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company this week has begun rolling out subscription plans for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and—in a test—Meta AI chatbot users.
So-called Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus subscriptions will be $4 per month. WhatsApp Plus will be $3. Meanwhile Meta AI will cost $8 to $20 a month depending on usage. It will all roll up under the name “Meta One” in a nod to Google, Bono, or both.
The Silicon Valley company promises enhanced features for users and businesses to justify the consumer expense, but details—for now—are sparse. (Per TechCrunch: “Profile customization, super reactions, and story insights” for the social platforms and “personalization” for the messaging ones. Mmmk.)
We’ll soon find out more. At any rate, it’s a daring but necessary move for Meta, which generated a staggering $196 billion in ad sales in fiscal 2025 but a paltry $2.6 billion in other revenue. —AN
Google engineer charged with insider trading for Polymarket bets
A Google software engineer has been charged with using confidential company information to earn $1.2 million on Polymarket.
Michele “AlphaRaccoon” Spagnuolo, 36, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with commodities fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, and more for allegedly placing bets on search trends using internal Google data.
Prosecutors allege Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, bet $2.7 million on 25 wagers about Google's most-searched person of 2025.
For example, he allegedly bet nearly a million dollars that designer Bianca Censori, who is married to Kanye West, would not top the list. He allegedly bet more than $600,000 that Pope Leo XIV wouldn’t, either.
Spagnuolo has been placed on leave at Google, which called the actions “a serious breach of our policies.”
It’s the second federal criminal case about trades on so-called prediction markets. The first, in April, alleged that an active-duty U.S. Army servicemember used classified military information to place profitable trades on Polymarket about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. —AN
Robinhood rolls out agentic trading
In the latest sign of AI’s growing footprint in online commerce, Robinhood announced on Wednesday that users can now instruct agents to make purchases on their behalf using the Robinhood Gold card.
To illustrate the potential of agentic shopping, the company cited examples: “A sneakerhead can tell their agent to buy a coveted new release in their size whenever it drops below $300” and “A foodie can instruct their agent to book the most exclusive restaurant reservation in town as soon as their preferred date and time becomes available.”
As a practical matter, the agent is not given the same card number as the customer’s Robinhood Gold card, but is instead assigned a related virtual card that can be deleted at any time.
The service also comes with additional safety precautions, including options to put a monthly cap on the agent’s spending, or to receive notifications for agentic transactions that exceed a given dollar amount.
Robinhood is not the only company to offer agentic shopping with a credit card. The payment firms Stripe and Ramp offer virtual cards for agents too, while Visa and Mastercard have rolled out related processing and security services for such cards.
But Robinhood’s move stands out since it is the first big retail brand to offer agentic credit card shopping to its users. The company currently has around 700,000 Robinhood Gold customers, whose purchases could meaningfully increase both the volume and scope of agentic payments. —Jeff John Roberts
More tech
—Dell does a deal with the Pentagon. A five-year, $9.7 billion contract to provide software to the U.S. military.
—Last.fm is independent once again. Go on, scrobble the new Drake; we won’t tell anyone.
—Snowflake shares soar 35% on strong Q1 earnings. The data company commits to spending $6 billion on Amazon silicon and cloud services over the next five years.
—Valve raises Steam Deck prices in reaction to “rising memory and storage costs.”
—Illinois lawmakers pass SB 315, a bill requiring annual independent third-party safety audits of top AI firms.
—Uber’s stake in Berlin’s Delivery Hero is now 37%, according to new reports.
—Salesforce forecasts Q2 revenue below expectations. Q1 earnings beat the Street, though.
