Business & Media Markets

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> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.8%, Dow +1.9%, Nasdaq +2.5%) after President Donald Trump calls off Iran strikes

> US wholesale prices rise 1.1% in May, putting annual rate at 6.5%, the highest since November 2022 (More) | European Central Bank raises interest rates for first time since 2023 amid Iran war, becomes first major central bank to do so (More)

> Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix; perks include priority rides and 10% back in loyalty credits per trip (More)

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🔭 Winning the future

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The Wall Street Journal named a "Best Companies For the Future" list, based on factors that include AI readiness, talent, innovation, financial strength and resilience. The top 10: Nvidia. Alphabet. Microsoft. Meta. Cisco Systems. Salesforce. Mastercard. Amazon. Adobe. Intuit. Browse the full list ... How the companies were picked (gift link).

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🚀 Extraterrestrial data centers

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

With data center protests gaining momentum on Earth, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others have been eyeing outer space — with its ready supply of unimpeded solar energy — as the next frontier, Axios' Ina Fried reports. Tech giants like SpaceX and Google as well as some startups are already working on launching data centers into space. How it works: In a report this week, real estate research firm JLL says it sees space as particularly suited to energy-intensive, but less urgent tasks. Data centers on the ground could handle real-time computing work while those in space tackle training AI models. Keep reading.

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U.S. blocks top Anthropic models

When you use Claude this morning, it tells you: "Claude Fable 5 is currently unavailable." Here's the backstory, as scooped last night by Axios' Alex Isenstadt and Maria Curi:

The Trump administration is blocking foreign governments, companies and individuals from accessing Anthropic's most advanced AI models.

• The company promptly took the model down for everyone, just two days after releasing it with great fanfare.

Why it matters: The move marks an escalation in Washington's effort to treat cutting-edge AI systems as national security assets. Anthropic is on a Pentagon blacklist deeming it too dangerous for the government's own use, and in a Commerce Department licensing regime calling it too dangerous for foreign use.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei yesterday saying that the Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models would be subject to export controls to any location outside of the U.S. and to all foreign persons within the country.

• An administration official told Axios the Commerce Department decided to take the action after another company claimed it was able to jailbreak Mythos, alarming the administration about possible national security risks.

⏸️ The administration tried to get Anthropic to pause releasing the latest models but was unsuccessful, the official said, prompting the export control letter.

• The model needs to remain locked down until the U.S. government's national security apparatus is hardened, the official said, adding that could happen in the next few weeks.

Keep reading.

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Fox to buy streaming pioneer Roku in a $22 billion deal

Fox Corp. has agreed to buy the streaming pioneer Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $22 billion, including debt.

https://apnews.com/article/fox-roku-tubi-streaming-824089dbe16631fade634becdb164c94?

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🤖 Anthropic crackdown's hidden risk

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

As the Trump administration shapes its AI regulatory regime in real time, the precedents it sets could reverberate far beyond an individual showdown with Anthropic, Axios' Mike Zapler writes. Why it matters: The move against Anthropic — which came as the Pentagon was already tangling with the company — has some foreign governments doubting they can depend on U.S. AI. 🔬 Zoom in: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that the "situation we're in collectively right now with Mythos and Fable is something that can happen with overreliance on certain models. You'll hear me say this over and over again. It is never a good idea to have one option." Early this month, the European Union launched a "tech sovereignty" initiative to reduce dependence on foreign technology providers, including American AI and cloud companies. It wants to dramatically expand data centers and semiconductor production. The bottom line: Consulting firm Gartner noted yesterday that this was the first time that a government has intervened to block access to an AI model customers were already using — and warned it probably won't be the last.

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🦊 Fox's new era

Data: Nielsen. Chart: Axios Visuals Fox's $22 billion deal to buy Roku marks a turning point in the streaming wars and a new era for the Murdoch media empire, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes. Why it matters: The agreement represents the biggest bet made by Lachlan Murdoch since he was named Fox's chairman and CEO in 2019. The big picture: Streaming is no longer a paid subscriber race. It's an opportunity for entertainment giants to accelerate other parts of their businesses where they have a competitive edge against Netflix. For Apple, Amazon, Disney and Comcast/NBCUniversal, that means selling devices, e-commerce subscriptions, parks/movie tickets and broadband, respectively. For Fox, it means bringing more eyeballs to its live programming and selling more digital TV ads. 📺 How it works: The merger would make Fox the owner of the top digital TV operating system in the U.S. Fox could promote its content and apps to the 100 million global households that subscribe to Roku. It would have global distribution to leverage in sports rights deals.

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🚀 Charted: SpaceX soars above Amazon

Data: FactSet. Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios SpaceX jumped another 4.8% yesterday, enabling Elon Musk's company to leapfrog Amazon in market value and become the world's fifth biggest company, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. Why it matters: The gain underscores the extraordinary power Musk's mastery of the stock market gives him. Case in point: SpaceX announced a $60 billion all-stock deal yesterday, essentially using its stock as currency to buy fast-growing vibe-coding startup Cursor. That instantly bolstered SpaceX's Grok AI division against Anthropic and OpenAI. Sam Altman walks through the Hart Senate Office Building on June 3. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters ⛰️ Sneak peek: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, befitting the leader of a tech giant with the power of a nation-state, is in the French Alps for the G7, and is holding one-on-one meetings with many heads of state. Today, he's expected to emphasize the importance of ensuring AI is as widely distributed as possible. Altman is expected to highlight OpenAI's commitment to being a reliable and long-term partner. The ChatGPT creator works with most of the countries, both directly with governments and through companies representing critical infrastructure, and provides cybersecurity defensive tools through the GPT-5.5-Cyber program.

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🎰 Stat du jour

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

Kalshi, the prediction market platform, is generating more than $2 billion in annualized revenue — triple its November run rate — as NBA Finals and World Cup bets juice trading volume, The Information's Yueqi Yang reports ($). What to watch: The fast growth has sparked early conversations between Kalshi's top executives and investment banks about going public.

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Microsoft CEO takes on AI rivals

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is taking on OpenAI and Anthropic with a rival AI vision: cheaper models, more user control and political messaging that wins the public's trust, The Wall Street Journal reports.

• "You can't say: Hey, all white-collar jobs are gone, and this could even be a weapon, and we will use all the power to build data centers," Nadella told the Journal. The public, he predicted, won't tolerate just a few models and companies "doing all of the learning for the world."

Why it matters: Nadella, who has long played the role of elder statesman in the AI race, didn't directly name OpenAI or Anthropic. But his blistering critique "made clear that Microsoft is seeking to steer the AI race away from a future dictated and controlled by frontier model-builders."

💡 The context: Nadella previewed his criticisms in an essay on X a week ago. "In my view," he wrote, "our priority has to be building a frontier ecosystem, not just a frontier model, so value flows broadly across every company, every industry, and every country."

• Journal gift link.

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Lingo: Dexit

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

"Dexit" — shorthand for companies ditching Delaware as their legal home — is gaining traction after Elon Musk's clash with the state's courts, Michael Steinberger writes in The New York Times Magazine. Why it matters: Delaware is the legal domicile of roughly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies and "has become the de facto arbiter of U.S. corporate law." Keep reading (gift link).

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> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.0%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq -0.5%) | US Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index—key inflation metric monitored by the Fed—rose 4.1% year over year in May, highest level in three years (More)

> Apple shares drop 6% after it raises prices for MacBooks and iPads due to higher memory chip and storage costs (More, w/price hikes) | Microsoft raises Xbox console prices for third time in 13 months due to higher component costs (More)

> Dating app Bumble reportedly exploring sale amid slow growth | Inside the dramatic story behind Bumble's founding—including a Russian billionaire and a Tinder cofounder (More)

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Scoop: Anthropic's Fable 5 on track to return

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The Trump administration is close to allowing Anthropic to restore access to its powerful Fable 5 model, which has been offline for 15 days because of security fears by the government. Insiders expect the administration's limits on Fable 5 could be lifted as soon as this coming week, a source familiar with the situation tells me. A second source tells Axios' Sam Sabin that conversations are expected to continue over the weekend, and Anthropic expects to restore Fable access soon. 🦾 Why it matters: For developers and even non-technical early adopters, Fable 5's blackout was unprecedented and deeply jarring — a top-tier model, already in users' hands, pulled offline due to government intervention, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. 🏛️ The big picture: The progress toward liberating Fable 5 marks a thaw in a bitter four-month, bicoastal standoff between the administration and Anthropic, based in San Francisco. In another sign of de-escalation, the Commerce Department yesterday allowed Anthropic to restore access to Mythos 5, the company's strongest cybersecurity model, for a limited number of trusted users. Mythos 5 has guardrails to deter its use in cyberattacks or biological terror, and has never been freely available. 💻 Fable 5's return is eagerly awaited by users, who quickly fell in love with the model's deep thinking and quick, sophisticated coding. Developers were wowed by the leap in capability. Every new model, especially open-source ones, is being measured against Fable 5. The Pentagon and National Security Agency still have to give Fable 5 the green light, so the outcome remains unpredictable. But other government agencies have determined Fable 5 can safely return to the wild. 🔎 Behind the scenes: I'm told that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have helped defuse the fight between the administration and Anthropic. Anthropic "has worked positively with the government," one administration source told Axios. That's quite a change from the furious statement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designating Anthropic a "Supply-Chain Risk to National Security," after he and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei couldn't agree on how the Pentagon can use Claude. 🔭 Zoom in: Anthropic had billed it as the most capable model ever released to the public. The "Vibe Check" newsletter from Every, a media and software company, called it "the best coding model in the world" before it was pulled, just three days after launch. In early testing highlighted by Anthropic, the payments company Stripe used Fable 5 to overhaul a 50-million-line codebase in a single day — a job that would have taken engineers more than two months by hand. When access vanished June 12, developers found automated work frozen mid-task. Companies raced to swap in rivals, including cheaper Chinese models. Go deeper: Commerce Department greenlights limited return of Anthropic's Mythos.