AI News: May 7, 2026

1. DeepSeek Closes In on a $45B Valuation Led by China’s State Chip Fund

DeepSeek. DeepSeek is reportedly nearing a $45 billion valuation in its first formal funding round, with China’s state-backed chip investment fund leading. The round would put a state-affiliated price tag on China’s most internationally visible frontier lab, reinforcing the geopolitical framing that has shaped chip export controls. Source

2. SpaceX Weighs $119B “Terafab” Chip Plant in Texas

SpaceX. SpaceX is studying a chip factory in Texas — internally codenamed Terafab — with a budget that could reach $119 billion. The project would put SpaceX directly in the silicon stack alongside its Colossus-1 GPU clusters and the new Anthropic compute deal, blurring the line between hyperscaler and chipmaker. Source

3. Samsung Hits $1T Market Cap on AI Chip Demand

Samsung. Samsung crossed a $1 trillion market capitalization, driven by surging memory and HBM demand from AI training buyers. The milestone confirms the AI buildout is now reshaping the league table at the very top of consumer electronics, not just at GPU vendors. Source

4. Match Group Slows Hiring to Fund AI Tooling

Match Group. Tinder owner Match Group told staff it is slowing hiring to free up budget for expanded AI tooling, joining a list of large consumer-software companies trading headcount growth for AI infrastructure spend. The move is notable for being one of the first explicit hiring-vs-AI tradeoffs disclosed by a large dating-app player. Source

5. Genesis AI Demos a Full-Stack Robotics Foundation Model

Genesis AI. Khosla-backed Genesis AI showed a full-stack demo combining its foundation robotics model with humanoid hands performing dexterous tasks. The startup is positioning itself against established players by owning model, simulation, and embodiment layers in one stack. Source

6. Ethos Pulls $22.75M From a16z for Voice-Onboarded Expert Network

Ethos. Ethos raised a $22.75M round led by a16z to scale an expert network onboarded entirely via voice. The pitch is that AI voice agents can vet and onboard thousands of subject-matter experts a week, dropping the per-expert acquisition cost that limits traditional networks. Source

7. Barry Diller: “Trust Is Irrelevant” as AGI Nears

Industry. Media veteran Barry Diller said he trusts Sam Altman personally but called individual trust “irrelevant” against the structural risks of AGI, calling for systemic guardrails over reliance on labs’ good intentions. The comment lands as US Commerce expands pre-release model access at the policy layer. Source