The first half of 2026 has passed and during this period, there have been many interesting news stories that have had an impact on the world. Early 2026 brought various challenges and obstacles. This was not helped by wars and the worsening RAM crisis. Here are the 10 biggest technology news stories in the world so far.
1. Elon Musk, the World's First Trillionaire
Elon Musk became the individual with the largest wealth in world history on June 13, 2026, with a price of $1.1 trillion. His wealth jumped $300 billion overnight after SpaceX's IPO was offered to the stock market. SpaceX's IPO also became the most valuable IPO in history, raising $75 billion, far surpassing the IPOs of Saudi Aramco ($29.4 billion), Alibaba Group ($25 billion), SoftBank Corp $23.5 billion (2018) and General Motors ($20.1 billion).
However, Musk's trillionaire status only lasted less than two weeks. Post-IPO, SpaceX shares fell back to around $152 each compared to $225.64 on the first day. But as of this writing, SpaceX shares have rebounded and Musk's wealth is now "only" around $1 trillion.
2. RAM Apocalypse Continues
The RAM supply apocalypse since October 2025 has continued this year, causing the selling prices of all smart and electronic devices to increase sharply. On average, in early 2026, the selling price of new devices will be up to RM700 more expensive than the same RAM/storage configuration in 2025.
The future of the global device world looks bleak until at least 2028. Last week, Apple was forced to raise the prices of its MacBook, iMac, Mac Studio, iPad, HomePod and Apple TV 4K by thousands of Ringgit due to costs that could no longer be borne. Earlier this year, ASUS, Acer, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Xiaomi and many others had already raised product prices.
CMF by Nothing raised the white flag because it was unable to obtain memory supplies. RAM prices are predicted to rise by up to 50% in Q3 before rising another 40% in Q4 2026.
3. The Middle East War
The Middle East War is making the RAM situation even more serious. Rising fuel costs are causing all component prices to continue to rise. Although Iran and America agreed to a peace deal a few weeks ago, the war is not over with both sides still exchanging attacks last week.
The shortage of raw materials is also threatening the production of the necessary processor chips. The global cost of living is affected, causing purchasing power to be affected. It is predicted that the combination of the RAM apocalypse and the cost of living will cause device sales to fall this year. Last year, Trump's tariffs gave the world a headache. This year, the Trump-Netanyahu War has made the world furious.
4. Artemis II Around the Moon
Last April, the Integrity space capsule of the Artemis II mission set a new record for the farthest journey ever made by humans from Earth. It traveled 406,771 km from Earth, breaking the record of 400,171 km set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. This was the first time since 1972 that humans had orbited the moon.
The crew of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen also set records for being the first woman, the first black man, and the first non-American to orbit the moon. They were also the first to go to the moon using personal phones in the form of an iPhone 17 Pro Max and a Google Pixel 6 Pro.
5. Claude Mythos and the Dangerous Mythos 5
In April, Anthropic also launched the Claude Mythos model with the ability to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities in system and software code pads. Anthropic said that in internal testing, Mythos had found thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities, including those 1–2 decades old. Because of this capability and its impact on security, Mythos was not made public.
Instead, the preview for Mythos is only available through Project Glasswing, a cybersecurity initiative involving 11 partner organizations: Amazon Web Services, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorgan Chase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks. In addition to these 11 partners, 40 additional organizations will also be given access to Project Glasswing.
Under Glasswing, tens of thousands of more vulnerabilities were discovered. Then Fable 5 was launched with the same capabilities as Mythos 5 but with built-in security features. Access to Fable 5 was later blocked in the United States due to the risk of being distilled for other countries to have models comparable to Mythos. Access was only restored this morning after several more security features were introduced.
6. Sony and Panasonic Sell TV Business, Samsung Withdraws
The TV market was initially dominated by American companies because it was the first country to realize the potential of the TV medium in the home. The dominance of the United States was later broken by Japanese companies such as Sony and Panasonic. The Sony Trinitron, which was marketed in 1968, was the stepping stone for Sony to dominate the TV market for 30 years. But then Samsung from South Korea overtook Sony because they were the first to offer LCD thin-panel TVs.
But now the era of Japanese and Samsung dominance is on the verge of ending. Sony sold their TV business to TCL and formed a new company, Bravia Inc. Technology continued to be developed but TCL took over production and marketing. Then Panasonic sold its TV business to Skyworth in February.
Samsung is still fighting with Chinese companies that have supply chain advantages and cheaper prices. They have not yet waved the white flag but in May, Samsung withdrew from the TV and home electronics market because it was no longer able to compete with Chinese manufacturers. China is the second largest TV market after America. With this withdrawal, it is only a matter of time before Samsung's status as the world's largest TV manufacturer is replaced by Chinese companies.
7. Space Data Centers
AI data centers have a negative reputation for taking up space, using a lot of water, making a lot of noise, and consuming a lot of power. A popular solution to the issue of data centers on Earth is to build them in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Google, NVIDIA, and SpaceX have each increased their commitment to building space data centers. SpaceX has made it one of the top projects to attract investors during its IPO. Elon Musk believes that the unlimited energy source and no need for water cooling will make SpaceX the world's largest LEO data center company. NVIDIA this year announced the NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin Module platform for interested customers.
Many see LEO data centers as just Mat Jenin's dream because the exorbitant costs required, the difficulty of monitoring in case of damage, the high radiation and the latency of data transmission make the idea impractical. However, LEO space centers became increasingly mainstream earlier this year.
8. Another Person Claimed to Be Satoshi Nakamoto
Adam Back
Nearly two years ago, the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto was revealed to be Peter Todd, a Canadian software developer, in the documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery. The New York Times reported in April that the real identity of the creator of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency was Adam Back, a British cryptographer and prominent figure in the Bitcoin community.
In a year-long investigation, journalist John Carreyrou found several similarities between Back and Satoshi. One of them was the use of Hashcash, a key component used by Satoshi in Bitcoin. Hashcash was created by Black.
Back was also an early member of the Cypherpunks movement, a group of activists, technologists, and cryptographers who discussed strategies to improve privacy and resist government and corporate surveillance. The Cypherpunks archives show that Back shared ideas similar to Bitcoin (10 years before it existed), such as bankless electronic money, a distributed system that is resistant to attacks, a “proof-of-work” mechanism, and inflation control by increasing the difficulty of producing Bitcoin.
Linguistic studies have found other similarities such as Satoshi and Beck using British English spelling, similar grammatical errors, unique phrases, a habit of typing two spaces after periods and the use of unusual technical terms.
Although this report claims that Adam Back is Satoshi Nakamoto, Back himself did not admit to being the mysterious creator of Bitcoin when questioned by the author. So for now, the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto who holds 1.1 million Bitcoin worth around ~RM 266 billion has not been fully confirmed.
9. NASA Confirms Armageddon Movie Technique Can Change Asteroid's Course
In 2022, the DART satellite was slammed into the surface of the Dimorphos asteroid at speeds exceeding 22,000 km/h. The mission was carried out to see if the technique of slamming the vending machine-sized DART into the 170-meter-wide surface of Dimorphos would change its course.
NASA in March published a final report confirming that the DART impact technique was the first human success in deflecting a space object from its orbit around the sun.
Not only was Dimorphos' orbit changed, the orbit of its nearby parent asteroid Didymos also changed. Overall, the orbits of both asteroids are now changing at a rate of 1.7 inches per hour. Although this change is small, if given time it could deflect an asteroid on its way to Earth in the future.
This makes the plot of the Armageddon movie much easier. There's no need to send oil rig workers drilling into the asteroid to plant nuclear weapons. Instead, the astronauts just have to detonate the nuclear weapons to save themselves from being hit by the asteroid.
The Boom in Humanoid Robot Technology
In addition to pursuing the latest AI models and space-based AI data centers, the technology that received a lot of attention earlier this year. A robot in China set a record for walking the farthest on a single battery charge, is close to breaking the 100-meter run record, and has broken the marathon record.
China has become the country most enthusiastic about developing humanoid robots. As early as February, a robot fighting league – Ultimate Robot Knockout Legend – similar to Real Steel was established in Shenzhen. Because it is a hot trend, Xiaomi and BYD also announced that they will build their own humanoid robots following Tesla's footsteps.
To facilitate the control of the use of future humanoid robots, China has begun to assign a digital ID to each robot, making it the first country in the world to do so. In fictional movies, humanoid robots will cause the extinction of humans. In the real world, it is now a hot trend with China moving further ahead.
