Microsoft Drops Claude Code as AI Budgets Run Out
Microsoft's Experiences and Devices division is pulling Claude Code from thousands of engineers by June 30, a move driven by token costs that already burned through Uber's entire 2026 AI budget.
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
KPMG Pulls AI Report After Fake Case Studies Found
KPMG retracted its agentic AI report after GPTZero found that 40 of 45 citations were fabricated and case studies about UBS, the NHS, and Transport for London were invented.
Mistral Seeks €3B Round, Valuation Hits €20B
Mistral AI is in talks to raise €3 billion at a €20 billion valuation, nearly doubling its September 2025 price tag in under a year and cementing its status as Europe's most valuable AI company.
ChatGPT Hits 1B Users - Rivals Grow 10x Faster
ChatGPT crossed 1 billion monthly active users in May - the fastest app in history to hit the mark. But Meta AI is growing at 973% and Claude at 640%, against ChatGPT's own 62%.
Apollo and Blackstone Make AI Compute an Asset Class
Broadcom, Apollo, and Blackstone launched the $35B AI XPV Platform on June 9, targeting 20GW of custom AI silicon through 2028 with Anthropic as the anchor customer.
Bezos Backs Flourish's $500M Bet on Brain-Inspired AI
Jeff Bezos anchored a $500M round for Flourish, a New York startup building Cortex AI from connectomics research, targeting 20-50W operation versus server-rack GPU clusters.
xAI Engineer's Grok Safety Suit Clouds SpaceX IPO
A former xAI engineer filed a California whistleblower lawsuit claiming he was fired for warning that Grok could spread dangerous content - the day before SpaceX prices its historic $75B IPO.
AI's Debt Wave Hits $570B as Amazon Borrows $17.5B
Morgan Stanley projects $570B in AI-linked global debt issuance for 2026, more than double last year, as Amazon's $17.5B term loan reveals capex now consuming virtually all hyperscaler cash flows.
Google Cuts AI Plus to $4.99 - US Price War Begins
Google drops its entry AI subscription 38% to $4.99, undercutting every US rival and bringing the price war that reshaped India to American consumers.
Anthropic Releases Fable 5 Despite Its Own AI Safety Warning
Anthropic opens Mythos-class capabilities to the public with Claude Fable 5 at $10/$50 per million tokens, days after calling for a global AI pause.
OpenAI Files for IPO, Eyes $1 Trillion Valuation
OpenAI filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC on June 8, targeting a public debut above $1 trillion as early as September 2026, following Anthropic by one week.
Canada Launches $2.3B National AI Strategy
PM Mark Carney's AI for All commits $2.3 billion to hit 250,000 new jobs and 60% business adoption by 2034 - but critics call it a wish list without hard delivery mechanisms.
