Exa reaches a $2.2 billion valuation by reinventing search for the AI era. Google fires an engineer over ethical objections to military AI work. Catena Labs raises $30 million to create banking infrastructure letting AI agents handle their own money autonomously.

May 20, 2026 — 619 words / ~4.1 min

Stories covered:

  1. Exa Hits $2.2B Building Search Google Can't Compete With
  2. Google Fires AI Engineer Who Refused to Build Tools for Israeli Military
  3. Catena Labs Raises $30M to Build the First Bank for AI Agents