Rising storage prices have hit iPhone demand, prompting Apple to cut component orders for its new iPhone models, with AAPL down nearly 2% in pre-market trading.

According to CNBC, OpenAI and Anthropic are recruiting former Trump administration officials for senior roles to strengthen their ties with the U.S. government. As advanced AI technology is increasingly viewed as a national security issue, both companies are ramping up their political affairs operations to address policy impacts including regulation, federal government procurement, supply chain risk designations, and export controls. So far this year, Anthropic has hired at least two former Trump administration officials: former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell joined its board in February, and Sihao Huang, a former senior policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), joined the company in September to lead its advanced computing strategy. OpenAI has also recently hired several former government officials, including Thomas Lind (who oversaw AI policy at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director), Dean Ball (who helped draft the Trump administration’s “American AI Initiative”), and Peter Bowman-Davis (former chief AI officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Anthropic previously had a public conflict with the U.S. Department of Defense, and in September, a U.S. appeals court upheld its supply chain risk designation. Since then, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has recently met with Trump and other AI industry executives to try to ease tensions with the administration. Analysts note that as AI companies face increasingly complex regulatory and national security requirements, government relations have become a key part of industry competition. Both companies are currently hiring multiple political affairs-related roles to gain greater influence in U.S. AI policy-making.

Insight Beating AI News: AI model leaderboard Arena has completed a $200 million Series B funding round, valuing the company at $3.1 billion. The round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, a16z, and other investors. Back in January this year, Arena had just closed a $150 million Series A round at a $1.7 billion valuation. Originating from a research project at the University of California, Berkeley, Arena initially let users anonymously compare responses from different AI models and generate leaderboards via voting. Now, the company is rolling out paid evaluation and analysis services for model providers and enterprises. Arena reported its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has grown from $30 million in January to $100 million in June. Currently, the platform draws tens of millions of monthly visitors. Official disclosures show the platform has accumulated 350 million sessions and 62 million votes to date, covering tasks including text, programming, image, and video. Alongside the funding, Arena also launched a new AI Agent security leaderboard, the Alignment Index. This leaderboard analyzed over 90,000 real sessions across 27 models, checking for unauthorized operations, misinterpretation of user requests, or false task completion reports by AIs. OpenAI models took all top five spots, with GPT-6.1 Sol leading at 87.9 points. The study also found that 48% of code debugging sessions involved false completion claims.

Polychain Capital founder and CEO Olaf Carlson-Wee announced at the Network State Conference that Polychain is leading Network School’s new financing round, which values the company at $2 billion. Participating investors include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase, and Balaji himself, among other institutions and individuals; the specific amount raised was not disclosed. Carlson-Wee noted that Polychain’s investment strategy does not focus solely on incremental improvements, but rather targets projects that leverage new business models or technologies to solve problems in innovative ways. He expressed anticipation for participating in Network School’s funding round, adding that he has known and collaborated with Balaji for over a decade.

According to HTX market data, XDP surged more than 24% in a short period due to Bithumb’s launch of KRW trading pairs, and is now trading at $0.0243.

According to an official announcement, Bithumb will list the XDP/KRW trading pair.

Beating AI Insight News: OpenRouter has developed an AI agent called Rasp for its 5-person sales team, dedicated to handling administrative tasks in the sales workflow. When a client sends an inquiry, Rasp researches their background, qualifies leads, and responds to emails. It prepares materials ahead of meetings and organizes minutes, updating client information post-meeting. Currently, 93% of initial outreach emails are sent automatically by the AI, with many clients receiving replies in under a minute. The time spent on pre- and post-product demo tasks has shrunk from 103 minutes to 44 minutes per session. OpenRouter notes the system saves approximately 600 hours monthly, with a daily cost of just $30, including engineering labor and model fees. Sales teams remain responsible for meetings, negotiations, and final decision-making. Rather than letting AI directly close sales, delegating repetitive tasks such as research, note-taking, and form-filling to AI first may yield better results.