Trump Says 'Who?' as His Own Staff Courts Anthropic
Dario Amodei met with Susie Wiles and Scott Bessent at the White House on April 17, while Trump - standing on a Phoenix runway - said he had 'no idea' about the meeting.
Daniel Okafor
AI Industry & Policy Reporter
Daniel is a tech reporter who covers the business side of artificial intelligence - funding rounds, corporate strategy, regulatory battles, and the power dynamics between the labs racing to build frontier models. Before joining Awesome Agents, he spent four years at Reuters covering the intersection of technology and finance, with a particular focus on how venture capital shapes the AI industry.
He holds a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a postgraduate diploma in Journalism from City, University of London. His economics training shows in his reporting: he follows the money, reads the filings, and is skeptical of growth narratives that do not come with numbers attached.
At Awesome Agents, Daniel covers AI industry news with an emphasis on deals, policy, competition, and market dynamics. He is especially interested in the geopolitics of AI - export controls, chip restrictions, and the US-China-EU regulatory landscape. His reporting tends to focus on who benefits, who pays, and what the incentives actually are.
Based in London, UK.
Articles by Daniel Okafor
Cursor Targets $50B Valuation - Enterprise Now Pays the Bills
Cursor is in advanced talks to raise $2B+ at a $50 billion pre-money valuation, nearly doubling its November figure as enterprise clients drive 60% of revenue.
Google Bids for Pentagon's Classified Gemini Contract
Google is negotiating to deploy Gemini on classified Pentagon networks, the same tier Anthropic was blacklisted for refusing to serve without safeguards.
74% of AI's Gains Flow to Just 20% of Firms - PwC
A new PwC survey of 1,217 executives finds 74% of AI's economic returns go to just 20% of companies, while 56% of CEOs report no measurable benefit from their AI investments.
A Shoe Company Ditched Shoes for GPUs and Surged 373%
Allbirds sold its entire footwear business for $39 million - roughly 1% of its $4 billion peak valuation - and is rebranding as NewBird AI to buy GPUs and rent compute to AI developers. The stock quadrupled in a day.
The Left Hand Bans What the Right Hand Deploys
The Trump administration is simultaneously suing Anthropic in federal court over a supply chain risk designation and sending Treasury Secretary Bessent and Fed Chair Powell to convince Wall Street banks to use Anthropic's most powerful model.
OpenAI's IPO Will Reserve Shares for Everyday Investors
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar confirmed the company will reserve IPO shares for retail buyers, after the firm raised $3B from individuals in its $122B funding round - three times what it set out to raise.
The AI Layoff Trap - Game Theory Says Everyone Loses
A UPenn-BU paper models AI-driven layoffs as a Prisoner's Dilemma: each firm wins by automating, but when everyone does it, collapsing demand makes every firm worse off. Their proposed fix is a Pigouvian tax on automated tasks.
Meta Commits $21B More to CoreWeave, Total Hits $35B
Meta expands its CoreWeave partnership by $21 billion through December 2032, bringing total commitments to $35 billion and locking in early NVIDIA Vera Rubin deployments.
OpenAI Backs Bill Shielding AI Labs From Mass-Harm Suits
OpenAI is backing an Illinois bill that would protect AI labs from lawsuits even when their models contribute to mass casualties or billion-dollar disasters.
Intel Joins Musk's $25B Terafab as Foundry Partner
Intel will use its 18A process node to manufacture chips for the Tesla-SpaceX-xAI joint venture targeting 1 terawatt of AI compute annually - and claims $2B in CHIPS Act subsidies in the process.
AI Agent Failures Need Escrow, Not Just Safety Training
Researchers from Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and Columbia propose financial guardrails for AI agents, with simulations showing up to 61% reduction in user losses.
