OpenAI on Monday began emailing more than 8,000 developers who applied for its invite-only GPT-5.5 party with a surprise consolation prize: a tenfold increase in Codex rate limits on their personal ChatGPT accounts, effective immediately and lasting through June 5.

“We had over 8,000 people express interest in just 24 hours, and while we wish our office was big enough to welcome everyone, we weren’t able to make space for every person who applied,” the company wrote in the email, which VentureBeat obtained. “As a small token of appreciation, we’ve 10x’ed your Codex rate limits until June 5th on your personal ChatGPT account.”

The gift is not limited to the lucky few who scored invitations to the party itself. Everyone who raised their hand — whether they were accepted, waitlisted, or turned away — received the rate limit boost, according to the email and confirmed by multiple recipients on social media.

CEO Sam Altman telegraphed the move on X shortly before inboxes started lighting up. “We are gonna do something nice for everyone who applied for the GPT-5.5 party and that we didn’t have space for,” he wrote. “Hope you enjoy!” The post amassed more than 521,000 views within hours.

What a month of supercharged Codex access actually means for developers

The practical implications are huge. Codex, OpenAI’s AI-powered coding agent, operates under daily usage caps that vary by subscription tier. A tenfold increase to those caps gives developers dramatically more room to prototype, debug, and ship code using GPT-5.5 — which OpenAI says matches GPT-5.4’s per-token latency while performing at a higher level of intelligence and using significantly fewer tokens to complete tasks.

The 31-day window is generous enough to reshape habits. By flooding thousands of developers with expanded access during a critical adoption period, OpenAI is effectively subsidizing the kind of deep, sustained usage that turns a curious trial into a daily dependency. It is a bet that once developers experience Codex at full throttle, they won’t want to go back — and that when the limits reset on June 5, a meaningful number will upgrade their subscriptions to preserve the workflow they’ve built.

The developer community responded with a mix of glee and regret. “I’m literally not taking my Codex hat off for the month,” one developer declared on X. Others kicked themselves for not signing up. “That’s the last time I don’t sign up just because I’m not in SF,” one wrote.

Several users raised a question OpenAI has yet to answer publicly: does the boost stack with the existing Pro $200 tier’s 20x multiplier? One user reported that OpenAI support said no — users get whichever limit is higher, not a combined total. “The key question isn’t whether the 10x boost is only for party applicants,” they wrote. “It’s whether it stacks with Pro.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the boost stacks with Pro-tier limits.

Inside the low-key meetup that an AI planned for itself

The rate limit gift is a sidecar to the main event: “GPT-5.5 on 5/5,” an invite-only gathering running tonight from 5:55 p.m. to 8:55 p.m. PDT at an undisclosed San Francisco venue. OpenAI billed the evening as “a low-key meetup with Sam and the team behind GPT-5.5,” promising food, drinks, community, giveaways, and swag — not a product announcement. Even the address remained secret until invitations were confirmed — a touch of exclusivity that generated its own buzz.

In a detail that doubles as a product demo, Altman revealed that GPT-5.5 itself planned the party. The model proposed the May 5 date, suggested that human developers give the toasts rather than the AI, and recommended setting up a suggestion box for the next-generation model. Altman described this as “weird emergent behavior.” Registrations closed shortly after opening due to overwhelming demand, with Codex handling the selection process.

Altman also extended an unlikely invitation. He publicly asked Elon Musk to attend, saying, “He can come if he wants… the world needs more love.” The gesture arrives amid Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI seeking up to $150 billion in damages — a fact that makes the invitation read less like diplomacy and more like performance art.

Anthropic’s competing reception turns a scheduling overlap into a Silicon Valley spectacle

Here is where the story gets interesting. VentureBeat has confirmed that Anthropic is hosting its very own invite-only event in San Francisco on Tuesday evening — a “Media VIP Welcome Reception” at nearly identical times to OpenAI’s party. The reception serves as a warm-up for Anthropic’s Code with Claude developer conference, the company’s second annual gathering focused on its API, CLI tools, and Model Context Protocol (MCP). The conference proper takes place tomorrow.

The scheduling overlap is difficult to dismiss as coincidence. Both companies are hosting developer-focused events on the same evening, in the same city, targeting many of the same people. Whether this was deliberate counter-programming or genuine coincidence, the optics neatly capture where things stand in the industry’s most consequential rivalry.

Anthropic’s conference will feature its executive and product teams discussing Claude Code, agent implementation strategies, and the product roadmap — all squarely aimed at the same developer audience that just received a month of free Codex upgrades from OpenAI.

How Anthropic overtook OpenAI in revenue — and what it means for the coding wars

The dueling cocktail hours are a social manifestation of a far more consequential battle playing out in revenue, developer adoption, and investor confidence — one that has tilted sharply in Anthropic’s favor.

According to Counterpoint Research data, Anthropic surpassed OpenAI for the first time in global LLM revenue market share in Q1 2026, capturing 31.4% compared to OpenAI’s 29%. But the headline near-tie obscures a dramatic structural divergence. Counterpoint estimates Anthropic achieved that share with roughly 134 million monthly active users, compared to approximately 900 million for OpenAI — yielding average monthly revenue per active user of $16.20 for Anthropic versus $2.20 for OpenAI. OpenAI commands massive scale; Anthropic extracts roughly seven times more revenue per user. That gap is the central tension in this rivalry.

The enterprise shift has been building for over a year. Menlo Ventures — whose portfolio includes Anthropic — estimates the company now captures 40% of enterprise LLM spend, up from 24% the prior year and 12% in 2023, while OpenAI’s share fell to 27% from 50% over the same period. Anthropic has maintained an almost unparalleled 18 months atop the LLM leaderboards for coding, starting with Claude Sonnet 3.5 in June 2024. That dominance in code — AI’s first true killer app — has become the on-ramp to broader enterprise adoption and the engine behind Anthropic’s revenue acceleration.

The top-line numbers tell the rest of the story. Anthropic said earlier this month that its annualized revenue has topped $30 billion, up from $9 billion at the end of 2025, with more than 1,000 business customers now spending over $1 million annually — a figure the company says has more than doubled since February.

Sources familiar with Anthropic’s financials told TechCrunch the run rate is currently closer to $40 billion, driven largely by demand for Claude Code and Cowork. OpenAI, meanwhile, topped $25 billion in annualized revenue as of February, according to Reuters — but the Wall Street Journal reported that the company has recently missed its own projections for user growth and revenue, with CFO Sarah Friar warning colleagues that if growth doesn’t accelerate, the company could face difficulty funding future compute agreements.

The momentum has carried into fundraising at a pace that could redraw the industry’s power map. Anthropic raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion in February. Bloomberg reported last week that the company has begun weighing a fresh funding round that would value it at more than $900 billion, potentially leapfrogging OpenAI as the world’s most valuable AI startup. OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in late March after closing a record-breaking $122 billion funding round. If Anthropic proceeds at the terms described, the company would not only more than double its valuation but would also surpass OpenAI — a reversal that seemed unthinkable six months ago.

Two parties, two visions, and one city at the center of the AI industry’s defining rivalry

For the 8,000-plus developers who applied for the GPT-5.5 party, the immediate value is straightforward: a full month of dramatically expanded Codex usage, free of charge, during a period when both companies are shipping at a breakneck pace. For the industry, the signal is harder to miss. The two most valuable private companies in the world are competing for developer loyalty with a combination of free perks, invite-only parties, celebrity CEO engagement, and multi-billion-dollar enterprise ventures — all within the same 24-hour window, in the same seven-square-mile city.

The broader stakes extend well beyond cocktail napkins and rate limits. Both companies are barreling toward potential IPOs. Both are courting the same Wall Street backers for enterprise joint ventures. Both are racing to define how the next generation of software gets built — and by whom. The developers caught between them are, for the moment, the beneficiaries of a spending war that shows no sign of cooling.

Tonight in San Francisco, the Anthropic reception starts at 5pm. The OpenAI party starts at 5:55pm. VentureBeat will be at both. And somewhere between the two venues, 8,000 developers who couldn’t get into either room will be burning through their new rate limits — building the future with whichever model they opened first.

Michael Nunez is an editor at VentureBeat covering artificial intelligence. He is attending both the Anthropic Code with Claude Media VIP Welcome Reception and the OpenAI GPT-5.5 launch party tonight in San Francisco.

This story is developing and will be updated.

When Bose acquired McIntosh Group in late 2024, the audiophile world did not just raise an eyebrow. It looked up from its $12,000 power cords and wondered what just happened. One of the most successful consumer audio brands on the planet, better known to most people for ANC headphones, automotive audio, soundbars, and mass market dominance, suddenly owned McIntosh and Sonus faber, two of the most respected names in high-end audio. That made some people nervous. It should have made them curious.

After spending the day with the Bose team at Bose House on Manhattan’s Upper West Side last week and hearing the new Bose Lifestyle Ultra Wireless Speaker, along with the rest of the Lifestyle Ultra lineup that includes speakers, a soundbar, and a wireless subwoofer, one thing is obvious: a lot of audiophiles have been missing the boat. Bose is not guessing. This team knows exactly what it is doing.

With all three products in-house for reviews that will publish on May 15, the bigger question is rather obvious: does Sonos need to be worried? And for that matter, should Bluesound, Denon, Samsung, and LG be paying attention as well? Bose has clearly been working on the Lifestyle Ultra Wireless Speaker, Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, and Lifestyle Ultra Wireless Bass Module for some time, and the goal is not subtle.

The company wants to rebuild its wireless speaker and soundbar lineup around better sound, broader streaming support, and pricing that does not require a family meeting. The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Wireless Speaker starts at $299 in the standard Black Smoke and White Smoke finishes. Bose is also offering a limited-edition Driftwood Sand version for $349, with a soft beige finish and a solid white oak base that gives it a warmer, more furniture-friendly look. Sonos has had a long run in this category. Bose just walked back into the room with a Boston attitude, sharper pricing, and zero interest in playing nice.

The new Lifestyle Collection is also a reminder that Bose did not appear in home audio last week. The company has been shaping compact, easy-to-use home audio systems for more than 40 years, from the original Lifestyle systems to the Wave radio, which became one of the most recognizable audio products of its era.

That history matters here because the new collection is not trying to win over the cable riser crowd with exposed transformers and a chassis that looks like it was machined for a submarine. It is built around a simpler idea: make better sound at home easier to access, easier to control, and easier to live with, without asking buyers to choose between convenience, design, and performance.

As Raza Haider, president of premium consumer audio at Bose Corporation, put it, “With the Lifestyle Collection, we wanted every detail to serve a singular purpose: making exceptional sound easy to enjoy.”

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Wireless Speaker: Features and Core Technology

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is the most flexible product in the new Lifestyle Collection because it can be used in several different ways without changing the core hardware. A single speaker can work in an office, bedroom, kitchen, or smaller living space for everyday listening. Add a second unit and Bose supports 2.0 stereo pairing. Use two of them with the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer, and they function as rear surround speakers in a larger home theater system. Bose lists supported configurations as 1.0, 2.0, 7.0.4, and 7.1.4, which makes the speaker more than a standalone wireless product. It is the modular piece that helps tie the whole Lifestyle system together. 

The hardware is compact, measuring 4.8 inches wide, 7.3 inches high, and 6.6 inches deep, but Bose is using a three-driver array to create a larger presentation than the enclosure suggests. The layout includes two front-facing drivers and one up-firing driver, with Bose’s TrueSpatial audio processing analyzing content and adding height and dimensional depth through that up-firing design.

That matters because the speaker is not relying only on left-right dispersion from a small cabinet. It is using direct sound, reflected sound, and DSP to create a broader soundstage from a single speaker, with the effect becoming more substantial when two are paired in stereo. 

Bass performance is handled through Bose CleanBass technology, which combines the speaker’s woofer, advanced digital signal processing, and a proprietary QuietPort acoustic opening designed to reduce distortion in a compact enclosure.

That is the important part to understand: Bose is not claiming this replaces a large speaker or a proper subwoofer. The goal is controlled low-frequency output from a small wireless speaker without the bloated, one-note bass that often ruins products in this category.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker also supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, and 3.5mm AUX, along with Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect for multi-room streaming. Setup, stereo pairing, home theater pairing, EQ, controls, and settings are handled through the Bose app, while the speaker’s tactile controls cover playback, track skipping, volume, microphone mute, Bluetooth, and Alexa prompts. The new Lifestyle Collection also supports Alexa and Alexa+ in the U.S., with Alexa+ adding a more advanced AI layer to voice control.

What the Bose app does not do is replace your streaming apps. It is there for setup, system control, EQ, and configuration, not as a full music browsing hub. Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect are supported, but TIDAL Connect and Qobuz Connect are not supported at launch, and Bose has not indicated that either one is coming. That matters for listeners who use TIDAL or Qobuz and expect direct app-to-speaker control without using AirPlay or Cast.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra First Impressions: Bose Puts Sonos on Notice

One of the most useful parts of the Bose Lifestyle Ultra demo was the setting itself. Bose did not park one speaker on a table in a quiet showroom and call it a day. The system was installed throughout a large brownstone, which looked far more modest from the outside than it felt once you were inside. The center staircase ran from street level, what the rest of civilization might call a basement but New York real estate law apparently calls ambition, all the way to the top floor. Think John McClane working his way up Nakatomi Plaza, minus the broken glass and Alan Rickman.

Bose placed Lifestyle Ultra Speakers in bedrooms, hallways, dining areas, the kitchen, and a home office to show how the system works in real rooms, not just in a controlled demo space with one perfect chair and suspiciously expensive lighting. The point was practical: different room sizes, different layouts, different placements, and different use cases. Some speakers were used on their own, others were grouped for multi-room listening, and the broader setup showed how the Lifestyle Ultra range can move from casual background music to more focused listening without making the house feel like it had been wired by a panic-stricken installer at 2 a.m.

Because of embargo rules, I can’t go too deep into full sonic impressions yet. That has to wait for the review. But I can say this without needing a lawyer, a priest, or a burner phone: Sonos has a problem. Did Bose hit one over the Green Monster, clear Lansdowne Street, and send somebody scrambling into the parking lot?

For $299, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker makes a very strong first impression. It sounds larger than its cabinet suggests, throws a surprisingly wide and tall soundstage, and delivers the kind of imaging precision and clarity I was not expecting at this price.

Our in-depth review lands on May 15, alongside reviews of the other two Lifestyle Ultra products. Don’t forget to bring the cannoli. Or the Fluffernutter. Bose came dressed for Boston, but apparently packed like it had business in North Jersey.

For more information: bose.com

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The 20th-anniversary iPhone will get solid-state buttons with haptic feedback on the sides, if claims about the curved-glass model turn out to be correct.

Apple is expected to be bringing out the 20th-anniversary edition of the iPhone in 2027, and there have been many wild claims about the model. Now, it is believed that the release will bring with it an often-rumored technology to its edges.

In a post to Weibo, serial leaker Instant Digital wrote on Tuesday about the various features they say will be included in the 20th-anniversary iPhone. While most of the features are fairly normal-sounding bits of speculation, it leads off with a hefty discussion about buttons.

To Instant Digital, the anniversary model will include a solid-state button on the edge. Apparently, it is a feature that is still undergoing testing in a variety of situations.

This includes being used with gloves, wet hands, under extreme temperatures, and through a case.

Helping the button’s operation is an “ultra-low powered chip” that will apparently detect the button’s use even if the iPhone is turned off.

This has been raised before by the leaker back in October 2025. At that time, Apple had apparently finished the “functional verification” of its solid-state button system.

Solid state buttons function by detecting changes in pressure, such as a finger pressing a device’s edge, instead of relying on a mechanical or capacitive system. The advantage is that manufacturers can create devices with seamless, smooth surfaces that aren’t interrupted by a physical button.

For Apple, this plays into rumors that it is considering an all-glass iPhone for the 20th anniversary. Using solid-state buttons would be an advantage there, due to it being a very aesthetic-focused release.

Solid State buttons have been a rumor that has circulated for quite some time, but has frequently failed to become a reality. In 2023, it was speculated that Apple would use solid-state buttons and a low-powered controller chip for the iPhone 15 Pro, which turned out to be wrong.

Other (obvious) specifications

The Weibo leaker added a number of other features to their post, which all sounds quite plausible. Either because it’s been rumored about before, or it’s guessable to the point of being practically obvious.

That list includes an under-display Face ID system using a sub-screen infrared system and an under-display front camera. Continuing the theme, they speculate that there will be “under-display sound,” which would eliminate the earpiece hole at the top of the screen.

A dual-layer OLED screen is also proposed, bringing the iPhone in line with the iPad Pro display panels. However, leakers say that Apple has moved to use a “four-micro-curve” OLED panel from Samsung for the iPhone 20.

For power, Instant Digital claims it will use a battery with a capacity of approximately 6,000mAh. Reverse wireless charging has also been claimed by the account, reviving similar unfulfilled rumors that go as far back as 2019.

Lastly, the leaker says that the front display glass will have “Ceramic Shield Ultra.” They admit the name is “made up,” but insists that the screen will not scratch while in a pocket with keys.

This too is a very easy prediction to make, considering Apple repeatedly updates the protective glass on its flagship product. It’s also something the leaker has previously latched onto as a rumor for earlier models.

Weibo leakers don’t have a great track record when it comes to accuracy, with many regurgitating rumors from elsewhere to engage their followers, with little to no analysis or fact-checking. Instant Digital certainly fits into this category, and the post certainly seems like wishful thinking on their part based on previous rumors.

from the America-Last dept

FCC boss Brendan Carr has spent much of the last five years on cable TV whining incessantly about foreign entanglement with U.S. companies. Even companies he doesn’t regulate.

He was positively apoplectic about China’s ownership of TikTok, which you may recall they “fixed” by offloading the social media company to Trump’s billionaire friends (while curiously maintaining Chinese co-ownership). He’s also been endlessly whiny about Chinese entanglement in U.S. hardware, recently imposing a “ban” on foreign routers (which is actually more of a lazy extortion scheme).

But when it comes to a Trump-allied right wing billionaire buying up the entirety of U.S. media companies with Chinese and Middle East autocratic help, Brendan Carr is suddenly nowhere to be found.

A new filing from Paramount related to its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers reveals the finalized deal will result in a company that’s 49.5% owned by foreign interests (including the Chinese), and 38.5% owned by a a trio of Middle Eastern funds, including the journalist-butchering folks over in Saudi Arabia:

“In a petition for declaratory ruling to the FCC signed by Paramount legal chief Makan Delrahim, Paramount asks the Brendan Carr-led commission to sign off on the deal involving Saudi Arabia’s PIF (public investment fund), L’Imad, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and a Qatar Investment Authority fund.”

If you’re playing along at home, that’s the same Makan Delrahim who used to be Trump’s DOJ “antitrust enforcer” during his first term. Delrahim “enforced antitrust” at the time by helping Sprint and T-Mobile gain rubber-stamp approval for their job and competition eroding merger. He even used his personal phones and computers to give the companies advise on how to bypass regulatory scrutiny.

Normally the FCC wouldn’t have any say in this deal because no local broadcast stations or public airwaves are directly involved, but it does have some say in how the deal is financed. The Communications Act of 1934 restricts foreign entities from holding more than a 25% indirect equity or voting interest in a U.S. company that holds broadcast licenses. Obviously, 49.5% bypasses that.

Paramount and Brendan Carr have already insisted this is all irrelevant and Carr has openly signaled to a top GOP donor (Larry Ellison) that he won’t object to any part of the foreign financing. Paramount’s filing continues to insist the deal (and its massive debt) will be great for consumers, creatives, and everybody in between. From a Paramount statement:

“When the transaction and equity syndication close, the Ellison family and RedBird will collectively hold the largest equity stake in the combined company and continue to be the sole owners of Class A Common Stock, representing 100% of the voting shares, with no other equity syndication party having any governance rights, voting shares, or Board representation. The combination of Paramount and WBD’s complementary assets will enhance competition while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice.”

There is, as we’ve explored, nothing that supports this last claim. That massive level of debt will inevitably result in mass layoffs, corner cutting, and price hikes. This is what always happens. And this is before a potential AI bubble pop impacts the Ellison family financials even more. There’s a very good chance this deal implodes in a giant fireball regardless of who is financing it.

Still, it’s curious that a GOP that spends so much of its time engaged in xenophobic and racist tirades about foreign investment in U.S. free market innovation goes so quickly silent when they stand to personally benefit. In this case both financially via Larry Ellison’s patronage, and ideologically via Larry Ellison’s conversion of CNN, TikTok, and CBS into (global) autocrat-friendly propaganda machines.

Filed Under: brendan carr, consolidation, fcc, foreign ownership, larry ellison, media, mergers, propaganda

Companies: paramount, warner bros. discovery

Apple doesn’t want to fight a battle on two fronts in the ongoing Epic Games case, so it has turned to the Supreme Court for a pause on proceedings in the Circuit Courts.

The Apple vs Epic case could go down as one of the more convoluted cases Apple has ever faced. The back and forth that has taken place since Epic first filed a lawsuit in 2020 will take you at least two hours to read through.

In a new filing viewed by AppleInsider, Apple has requested a stay on the mandate that would require it to reconvene with Epic in court and decide upon a new App Store commission for external purchases. It was previously granted a stay by the Circuit Court, but that stay was overturned after a complaint from Epic.

The filing makes it clear that Apple hopes to pursue its case with the Supreme Court before dealing with whatever might take place within the Circuit Courts. The entire problem that’s being challenged on both sides is Apple’s right to charge a commission on external purchases.

From the filing:

A stay is now needed before Apple is forced to litigate its commission rate under an erroneous and prejudicial contempt label— in proceedings that could reshape the global app market— before this Court can consider whether to grant review.

The Circuit Court has agreed that Apple deserves to charge something, but it disagrees with its initial implementation. When Apple was ordered to end its anti-steering practices, the new rules put in place were said to be a violation of the injunction.

As a result, Apple was punished by being forced to take zero commission on all external purchases. Since that order was placed in April 2025, Apple has complied and taken zero money on purchases made via links from apps to external platforms.

That’s where the Supreme Court comes in.

Apple’s fight in the Supreme Court

Apple is taking the case to the Supreme Court to challenge two specific aspects of the April 2025 ruling. One is a challenge to the scope of the ruling, which requires Apple to change the commission for all developers, not just Epic.

The second aspect being challenged is the contempt finding itself. Apple believes that its new external commission system followed the letter of the law, but it was violated based on the spirit of the law.

If the Supreme Court takes up the case and agrees Apple is correct on both counts, it could mean an end to the back and forth. Of course, Epic could always find some other avenue to attempt and continue proceedings.

If only the question of scope is agreed upon, and the injunction violation remains, then Apple will have to return to the District Courts. However, the discussion would be about what rate to charge Epic Games, and not the entirety of the developers in the United States.

While Apple hasn’t shared any details about its plans, that could mean a return to the previous 27% commission that caused the injunction violation to be filed in the first place. Only time will tell where all of this lands.

Apple clearly wants to avoid unnecessary litigation in the lower courts if the Supreme Court could render it all moot. Epic Games, on the other hand, believes it has Apple right where it wants them and will succeed in getting a bargain basement rate.

For now, developers in the United States continue to link outside of Apple’s App Store without paying any money. It’s not an ideal situation for Apple, especially since everyone has agreed it is owed something.