Meta Pauses Africa Internet Cable Expansion Due to Iran Conflict Risks

• Microsoft revealed a $10 billion investment plan in Japan focused on AI infrastructure, cybersecurity cooperation, and developer training. • The initiative partners with Sakura Internet and SoftBank to train one million engineers and developers by 2030, boosting local AI capabilities. • Sakura Internet's stock surged sharply following the announcement, signaling market optimism for Japan's tech infrastructure growth amid US tech ripple effects.

• NeuBird AI launched its autonomous production operations agent, expanding beyond incident response to prevent IT issues and optimize cloud and on-premises environments. • New features include Preventive Risk Insights, Advanced Context Map for infrastructure dependencies, NeuBird Desktop CLI tool, and FalconClaw skills hub preview. • The company also announced $19.3 million in new funding led by Xora Innovation to drive enterprise adoption.

• AI's growing appetite for compute power is forecasted to hit $100 billion, creating new industrial layers like AI factories and energy-to-intelligence conversion. • This shift is rewriting rules for tech supply chains, with Nvidia at the forefront of the transformation. • The development signals a pivotal moment for US AI infrastructure investment and energy demands.

• Anthropic expanded its AI strategy by acquiring AI drug discovery startup Coefficient Bio for approximately $400 million and launching a political action committee to influence AI regulation. • The company is also seeing surging investor demand for its shares amid tightening AI infrastructure supply and growing market appetite. • These moves position Anthropic to shape policy, enter life sciences, and capitalize on demand for leading AI technologies in the US.

• Salim Ismail of Moonshots warns that the 'AI comet has struck,' with AI capabilities doubling every 8-10 weeks and technology costs collapsing. • This rapid shift is reshaping innovation, workforce dynamics, and business survival in the US tech sector. • Ismail predicts most organizations won't survive without adapting to AI-driven disruption.

• Plug and Play hosted Demo Day on April 6, 2026, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, showcasing 10 winning teams from 285 applications in the NJEDA-supported AI Innovation Challenge. • Winners include AgentGov for AI-powered fraud detection in government, NJSecure for cybersecurity in community banks, CardioLink for cardiovascular care intelligence, and GlucoSync for real-time diabetes decision support. • The initiative advances AI solutions in government services, clinical intelligence, climate resilience, and energy forecasting, with up to $3.34 million in sub-grant funding available for pilots and commercialization.

• OpenAI reached an $852 billion valuation and launched the ChatGPT super app on April 4, 2026, integrating chat, coding, search, and AI agents into a unified platform. • The app serves 900 million weekly users, positioning it as a comprehensive AI workspace for enterprise and personal use. • This launch intensifies competition in multimodal AI tools amid surging demand for integrated platforms.

• Depthfirst, an applied AI lab specializing in software security, closed an $80 million Series B funding round led by Meritech Capital. • The funding will support the company's development of AI-driven tools to enhance software security and vulnerability detection. • This investment reflects growing venture capital interest in AI applications addressing critical cybersecurity challenges in enterprise software development.

• Shield AI, a U.S.-based developer of autonomous pilot platforms, secured $1.5 billion in Series G funding as part of a $2.25 billion capital package on April 4, 2026. • The round values the company at $12.7 billion, a 140% increase in one year, with its Hivemind platform selected by the U.S. military for defense applications. • This funding underscores surging investor confidence in AI-driven defense tech amid rising geopolitical tensions.

• METR released a new application of its time-horizon methodology to offensive cybersecurity, based on a study with 10 professional security experts. • The research evaluates AI capabilities in security tasks, accelerating evaluations every 5.7 months on 2024+ trendlines. • Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.3 Codex exceed benchmarks, solving tasks taking humans ~3 hours.

• Meta Platforms acquired Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup, in a deal valued at over $2 billion to advance AI infrastructure. • The acquisition bolsters Meta's capabilities in AI development amid US tech competition. • Details on Manus technology integration remain pending announcement.

• Palo Alto Networks released Prisma AIRS 3.0, advancing its AI security platform to counter evolving threats. • The update enhances detection and response for AI-specific vulnerabilities in enterprise environments. • As a NASDAQ-listed leader, PANW strengthens US cybersecurity amid rising AI adoption.