Bending Spoons has snapped up Airtable to add to its portfolio of software companies, alongside AOL, Evernote, WeTransfer, Brightcove and Vimeo
Airtable made its name as a builder of low/no code database services, aimed particularly at non-technical staff, but is now one of many vendors facing financial difficulties in the face of the SaaS/AIpocalypse. The arrival of AI coding tools, which offer non-technical employees more flexible ways to build business applications, has hit demand for its services.
Bending Spoons bought Airtable in a deal it valued at just $1.285 billion, a far cry from the $11.7 billion Airtable was worth at its peak.
Bending Spoons has built its portfolio by buying once-successful companies like Airtable that have struggled to cope with newer, nimbler competitors or failed to adapt to emerging technologies. Bending Spoons takes these companies, cuts costs and markets them aggressively with the goal of returning them to profitability.
“Airtable is a pioneering brand reshaping how teams organize data and manage critical workflows. We’re committed to investing in Airtable for the long run, and doubling down on its core strength: bringing teams and workflows together in one flexible workspace. We plan to expand what can be done across the full spectrum of work and make Airtable even more valuable to customers at every scale,” said Luca Ferrari, Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder.
This article first appeared on InfoWorld.
Apple has agreed to acquire PlasmaSolve, a Czech materials science company specializing in plasma simulation software, according to a regulatory notice published today on the European Commission’s website, as spotted by MacRumors
Earlier this year, Apple informed the European Union that it would acquire the entire issued share capital of PlasmaSolve s.r.o. through a subsidiary and hire certain employees from the firm. PlasmaSolve develops solutions, including plasma simulation software, to design and optimize plasma-based manufacturing processes.
Founded in 2016, the company has focused on creating simulation tools to help manufacturers work with various plasma-related technologies. Its website remains active and details grant funding it has received for its research over the years.
PlasmaSolve’s primary product is MatSight, a suite of applications designed to help manufacturers simulate the results of vapor deposition processes for metals. Apple has used this technology for years across multiple products, including various iPhone models, to apply a durable thin film to casings that helps minimize scratching and other damage.
No financial terms or further details about the deal’s timeline were disclosed in the regulatory filing.
MacDailyNews Take: The acquisition underscores Apple’s continued investment in advanced materials and manufacturing processes that improve the durability and quality of its devices.
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On July 28, 2012, Apple acquired biometric authentication company AuthenTec. This gave Apple tech that would power Touch ID and Apple Pay.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
Apple is quietly shopping for AI chip companies. According to a new report from The Information, the company has been approaching chip startups and consulting with bankers about potential acquisitions — a notable shift for a firm long known for its reluctance to make big hardware buys.
The move comes as Apple grapples with limitations in its current AI infrastructure. Its Private Cloud Compute servers, which power parts of Apple Intelligence, currently rely on internally designed M2 Ultra chips. These have proven insufficient for handling larger, more demanding AI models.
The Siri Overhaul Problem
One concrete example stands out: Apple has been working on a major Siri overhaul powered in part by Google’s Gemini models through a partnership. When engineers tried running these advanced models on Apple’s own servers, the M-series hardware fell short. As a result, more complex Siri tasks are now routing through Nvidia GPUs hosted in Google’s cloud infrastructure.
This dependency clashes with Apple’s long-standing preference for controlling its own silicon and protecting user privacy through on-device and Private Cloud Compute processing.
Baltra Delayed
Internally, Apple has been developing its first dedicated AI server chip, codenamed Baltra. The company had originally targeted a 2026 launch, but the timeline has slipped. Baltra is designed as a purpose-built server ASIC (with Broadcom contributing key networking and interconnect technology) to reduce reliance on third-party GPUs for cloud AI workloads.
The reported pursuit of acquisitions suggests Apple wants to accelerate progress on its next-generation server silicon — either by bringing in specialized talent and IP or by acquiring teams that have already solved similar challenges.
A Rare Shift in M&A Approach
Apple has historically avoided large acquisitions, preferring to build technology in-house. Its most recent notable deal was the January 2026 acquisition of Israeli audio AI startup Q.ai (reportedly valued around $2 billion). With roughly $45.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of late March 2026, Apple certainly has the financial firepower if it chooses to move.
This new interest in chip startups marks a pragmatic acknowledgment that the AI hardware race — particularly in data center-scale inference and training — moves extremely fast. While Apple excels at designing efficient mobile and laptop chips, scaling specialized AI accelerators for servers is a different challenge that hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, and Meta have been tackling for years.
Broader Context
This development comes just days after Apple announced a major multi-year expansion of its partnership with Broadcom, worth more than $30 billion. The deal includes custom silicon components and supports U.S. manufacturing expansion in Colorado. It underscores Apple’s broader push to strengthen its custom silicon capabilities while also highlighting how much it still relies on external partners for certain advanced technologies.
What It Means
If Apple follows through on acquisitions, it could help close the gap in its cloud AI infrastructure faster than organic development alone would allow. Success here would support more ambitious on-device and private-cloud AI features without heavy dependence on external clouds and GPUs.
It would also represent a meaningful evolution in Apple’s strategy: from a company that largely designs its own chips from scratch to one willing to acquire specialized expertise to stay competitive in the AI era.
The coming months will reveal whether these discussions lead to actual deals — and whether they can meaningfully accelerate Apple’s ability to run sophisticated AI models on its own terms.
MacDailyNews Take: The mad scramble to catch up continues. Hopefully, new Apple CEO John Ternus can quickly kick things back into high gear after far too many years of coasting along in neutral.
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Apple's SigLens acquisition brings Cupertino an app-monitoring tool that could make Xcode’s debugging tools a whole lot smarter.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
Paramount Skydance is accusing Netflix of maintaining a campaign against its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
In a June 5 letter (PDF) addressed to Jared A. Hughes, acting section chief of the Media, Entertainment, and Communications Section of the US Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Antitrust Division, and A. Maya Kahn, a trial attorney for the Antitrust Division, and first reported on by Politico today, Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim accused Netflix of trying to influence stakeholders about the merger. The letter reads:
Indeed, Netflix’s panic-level response and scorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders against the Transaction shows just how seriously Netflix takes Paramount as a scaled competitor.
The letter from Delrahim, a former assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division, is a response to a letter that The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent to the DOJ in March. The teamsters' letter argued that Paramount and WBD's merger would threaten film and TV workers. The union, which has 1.3 million members, asked the DOJ to block the merger "unless substantial and enforceable safeguards are put in place to increase domestic production and protect jobs," per an announcement from the group.
© Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times
Disney currently has no plans to shutter Hulu as a standalone streaming service or app, according to a company representative.
In a report from Variety today, the spokesperson said that Disney, which took total ownership of Hulu in June 2025, will continue to sell subscriptions to Hulu in the US and that “there are no current plans to sunset the Hulu app.”
Disney owned two-thirds of Hulu before closing its acquisition of the streaming service’s remaining third from Comcast last year. Since then, some reports have suggested that the Hulu app would be phased out in 2026, while others have speculated that Disney would likely, but not definitely, shutter Hulu. Disney’s statement today means that people should be able to continue watching stuff on Hulu without having to pay for Disney+ for the foreseeable future; although, Disney is free to change its mind at any point.
© The Walt Disney Company
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