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Verizon completes $1B spectrum buy

Verizon finalised the purchase of spectrum licences from the infrastructure company comprised of the remnants of UScellular not included in the sale of the bulk of its wireless assets to T-Mobile US.

The buy from Array Digital Infrastructure signs-off a deal struck back in October 2024. It was cleared by the US Federal Communications Commission on 14 May 2026.

Approving the deal the regulator endorsed Verizon’s view the buy would help the operator provide “a better overall experience to its customers” including by enhancing rural and indoor coverage in the parts of the country the assets cover.

In addition to the sale to Verizon, Array divested $168 million of assets to T-Mobile last month and completed a $1 billion deal with AT&T for other spectrum licences in January 2026.

Array noted the latest moves “further the objective” announced in May 2024 “to opportunistically monetise remaining spectrum following the sale of the T-Mobile wireless operation”.

Its president and CEO Anthony Carlson said the company had made “significant progress in our spectrum monetisation efforts and are pleased with the value realised in this sale”.

Array owns and operates shared wireless communications infrastructure in the US, including more 4,400 cell towers across the country.

In December, the company inked a partnership with Verizon which saw the latter sign-up to use its towers to strengthen its 5G network.

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Nvidia chief pushes industrial humanoid robot opportunity

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang positioned the adoption of humanoid robots in industry as opening a multitrillion-dollar economic opportunity, as it announced a model for academics using hardware from Unitree and Sharpa intended to accelerate advances.

In an announcement made at Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, the executive backed humanoid robotics to “bring physical AI to the world’s largest industries” but indicated there were barriers to academic work to this end, which it aims to resolve by introduction of the “reference robot”.

The machine uses Nvidia compute systems and Isaac GR00T development platform, a Unitree H2 body standing at almost 6 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds in weight, and Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands.

“Nvidia Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot gives researchers a single, open platform to make breakthrough discoveries toward general-purpose physical intelligence,” Huang added.

During his keynote at the event Huang explained “we built this for higher education and university researchers, because for them to build this is insanely hard to do”, pointing to the complexities and expense of starting from scratch in every project.

Nvidia noted by using its “compute and open software stack” at the core “the reference design gives research teams a more unified, secure foundation for advancing humanoid robotics”.

Discussing Sharpa’s role founder David Li said “partnering with Nvidia on a humanoid robot reference design and end-to-end development solution is a meaningful step toward deploying robots that can perform real work, in real settings”.

The executive added its “vision is to make robots genuinely productive – by advancing fine manipulation skills through dexterous, tactile hardware and the AI models that power them”.

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Uber to deliver e& $100M for Careem stake

UAE operator e& struck a deal with Uber to sell 12.5% of its stake in digital platform provider Careem Technologies for $100 million, leaving it with a 37.5% shareholding which the taxi app giant has an option to acquire the rest of.

Careem Technologies builds and operates its namesake app and related services. The app is used for various consumer services including food and grocery delivery, payment and other lifestyle services.   

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and includes options which can be exercised by either side for Uber to buy e& out of Careem completely. The options can be activated between December 2031 or January 2032.

In a stock market statement, e& noted from the deal Careem would benefit from Uber’s experience and synergies with its global platforms.

For e& the sale reflects an “increased strategic focus on its core businesses and disciplined capital allocation priorities”, while allowing it to maintaining some exposure to the app business.

Uber already owns the other 50% of Careem Technologies and the entirety of the ride sharing business it was originally spun-off from.

Careem Technologies was separated from the taxi business in 2023, with e& taking a 50.03 per cent stake in that business in exchange for an investment of $400 million in it.

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Samsung begins distributing latest HBM chip

Samsung Electronics began sampling its latest high bandwidth memory (HBM) units among selected customers, a chip it asserted helps maximise computing performance for large language models (LLMs) and next-generation AI systems.

Claiming an industry first with the 12-layer HBM4E unit, the company noted the release followed mass production and commercial shipment of its HBM4 earlier this year.

The latest release is said to achieve transfer speeds of up to 16Gb/s with improved energy efficiency and thermal performance.

Samsung head of memory development Sang Joon Hwang said the company had “once again demonstrated its distinct technological edge with HBM4E”.

“Through our advanced manufacturing capabilities and pre-emptive infrastructure investments, we will continue to drive the growth of the global AI memory market.”

Samsung noted the chip “delivers a stable pin speed of 14Gb/s”, a 20% increase over the HBM4. The rate of the latest product can be scaled up to 16Gb/s “to support increasingly intensive data processing requirements,” it added.

The company added its “comprehensive portfolio spanning memory, foundry, logic design and advanced packaging” meant it would be able to “continue to ensure a stable semiconductor supply for the booming AI market”.

Along with peers, Samsung has been reaping the rewards of high demand and associated price rises for memory chips driven by global demand for AI systems.

Samsung booked record quarterly sales for its memory business in Q1, attributed to addressing “high-value-added AI demand despite limited supply availability”.

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Anthropic approaches $1T valuation

Anthropic raised $65 billion in its latest funding round, taking its valuation to $965 billion as investor money continues to pour into big name AI companies.

Financial Times reported Anthropic’s valuation overtook OpenAI’s following the round.

Anthropic plans to use the latest funds to advance “safety and interpretability research, expand compute to meet growing demand” for AI assistant Claude “and scale the products and partnerships our customers rely on”.

The financing was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital. Other investors include private equity funds and the company’s partners. The $65 billion includes $15 billion in previously-committed cash from so-called hyperscale companies.  

Micron Technology, Samsung and SK Hynix, which Anthropic describes as “strategic infrastructure partners”, were also among the lengthy list of backers.

Cash
As with peers in the AI boom, the company is no stranger to funding rounds amounting to multiple billions of dollars.

In February, it raised $30 billion, which brought its valuation at the time to $380 billion.

Anthropic noted since that round, its Claude AI offering gained further traction with enterprises around the globe and across a range of industries, with its run-rate revenue crossing the $47 billion mark this month.

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T-Mobile US slices 5G on the fairway

T-Mobile US inked another big-name deal in the world of golf, with the United States Golf Association (USGA) adopting its 5G network to improve on-course decisions and enhance spectator experiences.

A multi-year partnership involves the USGA employing the operator’s technology to aid rulings during play, and deliver event connectivity and immersive experiences for its members.

It is the company’s latest swing at putting 5G front and centre in golf, having already struck a long-term partnership with the PGA Championship.

The operator stated the latest deal sets “a new standard at the sport’s biggest events, powering the action on the course and experience around it”.

Starting at the association’s US Women’s Open held in June, USGA officials will use a 5G network slice to gain faster access to what is going on in the course.

They will be able to assess video footage and communicate with colleagues in real-time, providing the means to deliver decisions from anywhere on the course and eliminating coverage dead zones.

Other uses for T-Mobile’s network technology include connecting ticket scanners, point of sale terminals and distributing media from content providers.

The arrangement is also to be used during the men’s open and other USGA national championships.

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