🤖 Gemini rewires Google Search | 💽 Huang blasts US chip curbs | 🛍️ Supply-chain hack snares 500 shops

U.S. stocks opened soft as traders digest a hot services PMI and brace for Friday’s PCE print. Treasury yields nudged up, dollar’s firmer, and oil popped on renewed Middle-East jitters. Tech mega-caps tread water after last week’s Nvidia-led rally, while small-caps lag on recession chatter. Options flow shows more hedging than FOMO, yet VIX still hugs 14—call it cautious optimism. Keep an eye on tomorrow’s Q1 GDP revision and any Fed-speak—rate-cut hopes are this season’s brittle backbone.

S&P 500: $SPY ( ▼ 0.23% ) 

DowJones: $DJI ( ▲ 0.08% ) 

Nasdaq: $QQQ ( ▼ 0.44% ) 

German DAX: $DAX ( ▲ 0.17% ) 

Indian NIFTY: $NIFTY50.NSE ( ▲ 0.05% ) 

Bitcoin: $BTC.X ( ▼ 0.49% ) 

Ethereum: $ETH.X ( ▼ 2.79% ) 

XRP Futures Pop on CME Debut

TL;DR: One day in and CME’s new XRP contracts clocked $19 million in volume, stoking ETF speculation and giving Ripple fans fresh hopium. Vol open interest hit records as traders pile into both standard (50 K XRP) and micro lots.

Why it matters: Institutional rails for alt-coins broaden liquidity and—perhaps—signal regulators’ softening stance.

Further read: https://www.theblock.co/post/239443/xrp-futures-first-day

SEC Slaps Unicoin With $100 M Fraud Suit

TL;DR: Regulators charged three Unicoin execs for touting bogus asset-backing and lying to 5,000 investors; tokens plunged 47 %.

Why it matters: Post-ETF, the SEC is flexing that it can still swing the hammer—projects pushing the envelope, take note.

Further read: https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-charges-unicoin-100-million-fraud

Solana’s ‘Alpenglow’ Could Rewrite Consensus

TL;DR: Core devs propose Alpenglow, a tweak promising faster finality and lower re-org risk; mainnet vote slated for Q3.

Why it matters: If adopted, Solana may shake its outage rap sheet and scale for DePIN, gaming, and other high-TPS dreams.

Further read: https://crypto.news/solana-alpenglow-consensus-change/

Huang Says US Chip Curbs ‘Failed’

TL;DR: Nvidia’s CEO told reporters the China export controls merely pushed customers to local knock-offs, slicing Nvidia’s share from 95 % to 50 % and torching $5.5 B in revenue. He lauded the Trump administration’s talk of a global license regime instead.

Why it matters: A policy pivot could unlock a $50 B market for U.S. chipmakers and ease geopolitical tech tensions.

Further read: https://www.ft.com/content/ai-china-chips-nvidia

Supply-Chain Hack Backdoors 500+ Shops

TL;DR: Attackers slipped malware into a popular checkout plugin, skimming cards and planting cryptominers on checkout pages—turns out the only “supply” delivered was headaches.

Why it matters: Third-party code remains the soft underbelly of online retail; SBOMs and runtime monitoring just jumped from “nice” to “mandatory.”

Further read: https://theregister.com/security/2025/05/21/ecommerce-supply-chain-breach

Gravitee Banks $60 M for API Control

TL;DR: Sixth Street Growth led the Series C, pushing total funding to $125 M as enterprises scramble for multi-protocol API gateways amid AI agent sprawl.

Why it matters: APIs are the bloodstream of AI workflows; observability and rate-limiting are the new uptime.

Further read: https://venturebeat.com/data-infrastructure/gravitee-funding/

Tariffs Give Perovskite Solar a Boost

TL;DR: With U.S. slapping up to 3,400 % duties on Southeast-Asian silicon panels, perovskite makers spy cost parity by 2026 and tout 34 % tandem efficiencies.

Why it matters: A faster, cheaper route to green gigawatts could upend a $200 B solar supply chain.

Further read: https://restofworld.org/2025/perovskite-solar-global-shift

AI Beats Humans at Persuasion

TL;DR: Researchers pitted GPT-4–powered bots against people in Oxford-style debates and the bots swayed undecided listeners 70 % of the time.

Why it matters: Election-season deep-convincing could be the next misinformation front—policy and platform safeguards lag far behind.

Further read: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/ai-persuasion-study-debate

AI Mode Reinvents Search

TL;DR: Google’s new default opens with an AI chat panel that can plan trips, code snippets, and shop—all in one query.

Why it matters: It pushes publishers further down the page and bets Google’s future on generative answers.

Further read: https://www.axios.com/2025/05/20/google-ai-shopping-features-virtual-try-on-clothes

Flow & Veo 3 Put Hollywood on Notice

TL;DR: “Flow” lets creators stitch eight-second AI clips into storyboards while Veo 3 adds sound and longer prompts.

Why it matters: Google jumps into Sora turf, chasing the synthetic-video gold rush.

Further read: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/20/google-i-o-2025-live-coverage-gemini-android-16-updates-and-more/

Gemini Comes to Chrome

TL;DR: A sidebar assistant will summarize pages and—eventually—navigate sites for you.

Why it matters: Browser wars shift to AI copilots; Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs just got company.

Gmail’s Smart Replies Grow a Brain

TL;DR: Contextual replies now mine your entire inbox and Drive for tone-correct suggestions—formal for boss, chill for mom.

Why it matters: Productivity win or privacy headache? Either way, Gmail’s 1.8 B users are the test bed.

Further read: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/20/google-updates-the-gemini-app-with-real-time-ai-video-deep-research-and-more/

$250/Month ‘AI Ultra’ Subscription

TL;DR: Power users get priority on Google’s top-shelf models and up to 10× usage caps; CFO says it’ll “keep GPUs fed.”

Why it matters: SaaS meets GPU-meter—sets a price floor for premium AI access.

Further read: https://www.reuters.com/business/google-unveil-ai-upgrades-io-conference-amid-search-challenges-2025-05-20/