Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Digital music OG Napster, the world’s first online music streamer, is coming back — in a way!

Infinite Reality, a “metaverse” startup that snapped up Napster for $207M, has renamed itself as Napster Corp. and aims to relaunch the iconic brand as something else entirely. But can this next-gen Napster make its mark as radically as it did in the early 2000s?

In today’s tech rundown:

• Napster rebranded as an AI company

• Fintech darling Chime eyes $25B valuation

• Ex-Amazon execs launch health startup

• Microsoft’s AI predicts weather and air quality

• Quick hits on other major news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NAPSTER

🎧 Napster rebranded as an AI company

Image source: Napster

The Rundown: Infinite Reality, an immersive tech company known for its ventures in XR and AI, has officially rebranded itself as Napster, following its $207M acquisition of the iconic music streaming service in March.

The details:

• CEO John Acunto announced the rebranding to Napster Corp. in a shareholder meeting, positioning it as an “AI-driven digital experiences” provider.

• In addition, a new Napster AI division is debuting products focused on AI, immersive technologies, and agentic AI tools, but details are scant.

• Napster—a once revolutionary peer-to-peer music sharing platform— was shut down in 2001 after a wave of lawsuits over copyright infringement.

• Forbes reports that Infinite Reality has undergone multiple rebrandings, and past acquisitions include esports and online shopping companies.

Why it matters: Once valued at $15B, Infinite Reality is reinventing itself as Napster with ambitions to become the next digital juggernaut. The strategy is still taking shape, but the company teases immersive 3D concert arenas and interactive events, banking on its built-in base of millions of digitally native fans to fuel the transformation.

CHIME

💸 Fintech darling Chime eyes $25B valuation

Image source: Chime

The Rundown: Fintech startup Chime, which targets moderate- to low-income Americans, is readying its long-awaited Nasdaq IPO. After a lull in fintech IPOs, all eyes are on Chime’s valuation, which could land anywhere between $10B and $25B.

The details:

• Based in San Francisco, Chime delivers essential financial services through a sleek mobile app and strategic partnerships with FDIC-insured banks.

• The company’s core offerings, including fee-free checking, savings, and credit-building products, target households earning under $100K.

• Its digital-first approach is also resonating well with customers: as of March, the company had 8.6M active users, a 23% YoY increase.

• Chime also plans to go beyond its original niche with filings revealing ambitions to roll out lending, investing, insurance, and wealth management products.

Why it matters: A blockbuster Chime IPO could spark a fresh wave of fintech public offerings and reshape how traditional banks and regulators perceive digital banking upstarts. The move also highlights a resurgence of investor enthusiasm for fintech, positioning Chime as one of the year’s most anticipated and influential tech debuts.

GENERAL MEDICINE

🩺 Ex-Amazon execs launch health startup

Image source: General Medicine

The Rundown: After selling online pharmacy PillPack to Amazon in a $1B deal, its founders, TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, have reemerged with General Medicine, a new startup aiming to make accessing healthcare as seamless as shopping online.

The details:

• The PillPack team, joined with former Amazon Health exec Ashwin Muralidharan, launched the company this week with $32M in funding.

• It aims to be a one-stop digital marketplace for medical care, matching users with providers, booking appointments, and handling prescriptions.

• The startup is designed to accept both insurance and cash payments, and integrates with a network of specialists, clinics, and labs for end-to-end service.

• However, unlike telehealth rivals, General Medicine is aiming for a hybrid care model that blends virtual and in-person services.

Why it matters: By taking on the U.S.’s fragmented healthcare system with a tech-driven approach, General Medicine is setting its sights on shaking up both legacy providers and early telehealth pioneers. However, the real challenge lies ahead, as it faces Amazon Pharmacy—a heavyweight that could curb its growth ambitions.

MICROSOFT

🌨️ Microsoft’s AI predicts weather and air quality

Image source: Microsoft

The Rundown: Microsoft has published new research in the journal Nature, citing that its latest AI model, Aurora, can accurately predict air quality, hurricanes, and other weather-related events better than traditional meteorological methods.

The details:

• Aurora was trained on over 1M hours of atmospheric data, pulling from satellites, radar, weather stations, global simulations, and historical forecasts.

• It is a “foundation model” for weather, which means it can be fine-tuned with smaller, specialized datasets to deliver highly localized predictions.

• In head-to-head tests, Microsoft says that Aurora outperformed the U.S. National Hurricane Center’s five-day tropical cyclone track forecasts.

• Beyond standard weather, the model can also forecast air quality, ocean wave heights, sandstorms, and other environmental phenomena.

Why it matters: Microsoft has released Aurora’s source code and model weights to the public, encouraging researchers, meteorologists, and developers to experiment and extend its capabilities. A specialized version of Aurora is already powering the MSN Weather app, including new metrics like cloud cover.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Nvidia is launching a new AI chipset for China at a dramatically reduced price in response to recent U.S. export curbs, Reuters reports.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to halt a new child-safety law in the state requiring the company to verify the ages of device owners.

Starfish Neuroscience, a stealth startup supported by Valve CEO Gabe Newell, is slated to launch its brain-computer interface chip this year.

Zoox, the Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle firm, has issued its second software recall in a month after a minor incident involving an e-scooter rider in San Francisco.

Tech investor Prosus plans to launch five IPOs in India this year to expand its portfolio in the country to reach a $50B valuation within the next three years.

Samsung is reportedly looking to invest in California-based medical device startup Exo, in a round that could reach $100M.

Tesla’s sales in Europe fell 49% in April from a year earlier, despite battery-electric car sales led by BYD rising nearly 28%.

Apple devices are set to power a hospital in Georgia for the first time, marking a milestone in the company’s push into the healthcare sector.

CERN is developing specialized shipping containers to transport antimatter to labs throughout Europe, a move that could accelerate research in fundamental physics.

Cloud-software giant Salesforce acquired data-management software firm Informatica in an $8B deal.

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Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team