🌏 $50 billion chips

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Here’s what you need to know

China is pouring almost $50 billion into its chipmaking efforts. The investments come despite a blow from U.S. sanctions.

Bird flu has been found in beef tissue from a sick cow. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the H5NI virus was found during routine testing, and no infected meat entered the food supply. Meanwhile, researchers are developing an experimental bird flu mRNA vaccine.

Boeing’s improvement plan is due to the Federal Aviation Administration. Back on Feb. 29, the agency asked the planemaker to come up with quality and safety solutions, and time is up.

Hess shareholders approved Chevron’s takeover bid. The $53 billion deal is expected to give Chevron access to a major oil development that could significantly expand its asset base.

On the hunt for bargain hunters

Inflation-weary Americans are searching for sales, and big box retailers, fast food chains, grocery stores, and the like are doing everything they can to grab their attention.

A slew of quarterly earnings reports and other company announcements in recent weeks have highlighted the extent to which customers are looking for a deal. Some retailers and restaurants are one-upping each other on discounts, while others are closing locations to cut costs as revenue falters.

Some are taking a different route: price cuts. Target is slashing prices for more than 5,000 items this summer. McDonald’s and Wendy’s are duking it out with $5 and $3 meal deals. Amazon Fresh plans to slash prices by up to 30% on 4,000 items on a weekly rotating basis.

And that’s not all. Quartz’s Francisco Velasquez examined all the other ways retailers are hunting for bargain hunters.

Starbucks’ union talks are hot and ready

Starbucks and Workers United are heading back to the bargaining table this week.

The session will pick up where the two parties left off in late April, when Starbucks and Workers United, the union that covers workers across the chain’s U.S. locations, said that they had made “significant progress.” Read about what’s on the table this time around.

More from Quartz

💸 OpenAI’s Sam Altman pledged to give away the majority of his wealth…

👋 … and a former OpenAI safety leader went to rival AI company Anthropic 

🧠 Elon Musk’s Neuralink was exempt from sharing trial details — but it’s doing it anyway…

👀 …and Tesla is offering shareholders factory tours with Musk as it pushes to approve his big pay plan…

🤖 …oh, and Musk’s xAI just raised $6 billion in funding. Who’s behind it?

💉 Novo Nordisk says Ozempic is expensive because of America’s healthcare system

Surprising discoveries

One way to resurrect the Walkman CD player: get a K-pop group to release their next album as a CD and include a player with it. Honestly — they’re already sold out on some sites.

Those players probably won’t ever get to hold Once Upon a Time in Shaolin inside. The rarest CD in the world is going on display in Australia.

Volcanoes on Venus may still be active. The planet has thousands of them!

A grave of 28 horses was unearthed in central France. The stallions were buried 2,000 years ago and may be linked to the Gallic wars.

A rare blue-eyed cicada was spotted outside of Chicago. Usually the insects sport red eyes.

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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, CD players, and rare CDs to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.