TECHNOLOGY

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max is shaping up as one of the most compelling flagship upgrades in years, with leaks pointing to a bigger battery, advanced camera hardware and subtle design tweaks that could make it a must-have for power users when it arrives this fall.

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max is shaping up as one of the most significant redesigns in years, with fresh leaks pointing to under-display Face ID, a groundbreaking variable aperture main camera, a larger battery and a striking new Dark Cherry color option as the flagship prepares for its expected September launch alongside a foldable iPhone model.

NVIDIA Corp. shares rose more than 1% Friday, climbing to $200.67 in midday trading on the Nasdaq as investors continued to bet on the company's dominance in artificial intelligence infrastructure, even amid broader market volatility and upcoming supplier earnings reports.

Instagram appeared largely operational Saturday but users continued to voice frustration over intermittent posting and publishing issues, according to real-time tracking sites, even as no widespread global outage was confirmed by Meta Platforms Inc.

AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk's audacious Terafab project, a vertically integrated semiconductor powerhouse backed by Tesla, SpaceX, xAI and now Intel, is reshaping ambitions for American chip manufacturing and the future of AI compute on Earth and in orbit.

TOKYO — Sony Interactive Entertainment has given no official word on the PlayStation 6, but mounting rumors and analyst reports in April 2026 point to a significant delay, with the next-generation console now most likely launching in late 2028 or even 2029 rather than the previously expected 2027 window.

AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands has emerged as one of Europe's most dynamic AI ecosystems in 2026, boasting the continent's highest density of AI talent at 10.9 professionals per 10,000 inhabitants. Despite challenges in scaling startups, the country's deeptech strength, strong university ties and strategic location have fueled growth in hardware, software, data platforms and applied AI solutions.

OAKLAND, Calif. — With jury selection set to begin April 27 in a federal courtroom here, Elon Musk has escalated his long-running legal battle against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, filing an amended complaint this month that seeks to remove Altman and President Greg Brockman from their leadership roles while directing any monetary award to OpenAI's original nonprofit arm rather than himself personally.

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Meta Platforms Inc. stock has delivered solid gains in early 2026, closing at $676.87 on April 16 after a strong week that saw shares climb more than 7 percent in a single session earlier in the month.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart shoppers across the United States reported widespread frustration Friday as the retail giant's website and mobile app experienced intermittent access issues, sparking questions about whether Walmart is down amid high weekend demand.

NEW YORK — AXT Inc. shares exploded higher Thursday, surging nearly 30% to close at $81.78 after a volatile session that saw the stock swing from $59.30 to an intraday high of $82.19, as momentum traders piled into the compound semiconductor maker amid broader excitement over artificial intelligence infrastructure demand.

FREMONT, Calif. — Aehr Test Systems shares surged more than 16 percent Thursday as the semiconductor test equipment maker announced a record $41 million follow-on production order from its lead hyperscale customer for package-level burn-in of custom artificial intelligence processor ASICs.

NEW YORK — Alphabet Inc. Class C shares traded modestly lower in early morning action Thursday, slipping about 0.15 percent to around $333.97 as Wall Street digested recent gains and prepared for the tech giant's first-quarter 2026 earnings report later this month amid a record capital expenditure plan focused on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

SAN FRANCISCO — Bluesky experienced a partial outage Thursday, with users across multiple regions reporting difficulties accessing feeds, loading posts and connecting to the decentralized social media platform as its official status page confirmed an ongoing incident.

NEW YORK — Verizon Communications customers across the United States reported no widespread service disruptions Thursday, with real-time monitoring sites showing normal operation for wireless voice, data and home internet services more than three months after the carrier's notorious January outage that affected hundreds of thousands nationwide.

SEOUL, South Korea — Pearl Abyss' ambitious open-world action-adventure game Crimson Desert has sold through more than 5 million copies worldwide just 26 days after its March 19 launch, marking one of the strongest debuts for a new single-player title in 2026 and delivering a significant revenue boost to the South Korean developer.

NEW YORK — As the foldable smartphone market heats up in 2026, buyers face a tantalizing choice between Samsung's battle-tested Galaxy Z Fold 8, expected to launch in July, and Apple's long-awaited first foldable iPhone, rumored for a September or later debut.

NEW YORK — Meta Platforms Inc. has officially ended support for the standalone Facebook Messenger desktop experience, with messenger.com no longer available for messaging as of April 2026 and users now automatically redirected to the integrated Facebook messaging interface at facebook.com/messages.

NEW YORK — Facebook Messenger's standalone website messenger.com stopped functioning for messaging on April 16, 2026, as Meta Platforms Inc. completed a long-planned consolidation that forces desktop users to switch to Facebook's integrated messaging interface at facebook.com/messages.

NEW YORK — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited shares rocketed more than 54 percent in midday trading Wednesday, surging to around $22.68 as investors piled into the newly public photonic quantum computing company amid a sector-wide rally triggered by Nvidia Corp.'s launch of open-source AI models designed to accelerate quantum research and development.

NEW YORK — Anthropic's popular AI assistant Claude faced fresh disruptions Wednesday as users worldwide reported elevated errors across claude.ai, the API and Claude Code, prompting frantic searches for alternatives and highlighting the growing pains of rapid AI adoption.

NEW YORK — NVIDIA Corp. shares rose more than 1 percent in midday trading Wednesday as investors cheered ongoing production ramps of the company's Blackwell AI platform and expectations for explosive demand in agentic AI systems throughout 2026.

AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk reignited excitement around Tesla Inc.'s long-awaited electric semi-truck Wednesday with a simple two-word post on X that quickly racked up millions of views, spotlighting the production-version Tesla Semi as the company prepares for customer deliveries later this year.

NEW YORK — Alphabet Inc. Class C shares edged lower in early trading Wednesday, dipping 0.47 percent to $329.01 as investors paused ahead of the company's first-quarter earnings later this month while weighing heavy artificial intelligence investments against broader market optimism over potential de-escalation in the Middle East.

BOSTON — Boston Dynamics has unveiled a striking new demonstration of its four-legged robot Spot, now empowered by Google's Gemini Robotics AI, autonomously completing everyday household chores from a handwritten to-do list in a residential setting.

AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk congratulated Tesla's AI chip design team Wednesday on completing the tape-out of its next-generation AI5 processor, marking a significant step forward in the electric vehicle maker's ambitious push to build custom silicon that could accelerate autonomous driving, humanoid robotics and energy storage optimization.

NEW YORK — Travere Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TVTX) emerged as one of the biotech sector's biggest movers in mid-April 2026 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval for its drug FILSPARI (sparsentan) as the first and only approved treatment for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in patients without nephrotic syndrome, sending shares surging more than 30 percent in a single session and reinforcing a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating among Wall Street analysts.

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple's long-awaited first foldable iPhone remains on track for a September 2026 launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, with the device entering trial production and featuring a striking wide, tablet-like design that promises the most significant form-factor overhaul in iPhone history, according to the latest reports from supply chain sources and analysts.

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max is shaping up as one of the most compelling flagship upgrades in years, with leaks pointing to a powerful 2nm A20 Pro chip, a groundbreaking variable aperture main camera, a significantly smaller Dynamic Island and potentially record-breaking battery life when it arrives alongside a new foldable iPhone in September 2026.