McKinsey & Company

Accenture Shares Fall to Lowest Since 2017 on AI Fears

Accenture’s shares plunged after a disappointing quarter, prompting debate about whether the company’s large AI investments are delivering promised returns. Published June 18, 2026 by Gary Marcus, the piece notes the stock fell roughly 18% (about 23% for the week) and is more than 50% below its 52‑week high. Marcus frames Accenture as an example of corporate AI ROI falling short of expectations, cites studies from MIT, McKinsey and Bain that show limited productivity gains from generative AI, and argues that specialized neurosymbolic tools like Claude Code may help coder productivity even if generic generative AI has underperformed. The article interprets Accenture’s quarter as more than a blip and warns that widespread customer disappointment could undermine vendor-led “tokenmaxxing” approaches to selling AI.

SpaceX Acquires Cursor After Rapid Rise

A multi-item newsletter reports that four days after SpaceX's $75 billion IPO it agreed to acquire Anysphere, maker of the AI coding tool Cursor, for $60 billion in stock. Cursor grew extremely rapidly—hitting $1 billion in revenue within 18 months—yet its market share fell from a 41% peak in June 2025 to 26% by May 2026. The newsletter also covers several industry developments: Sensor Tower data showing ChatGPT’s assistant market share dropping below 50% to 46.4% (1.1 billion monthly users), the DOJ filing a memo backing xAI against attempts to halt 57 unpermitted gas turbines at its Colossus data centers, and reporting that the Seattle Fire Department used Copenhagen startup Corti to triage 911 medical calls since December 2023 without public disclosure. The pieces highlight rapid competitive cycles in AI, infrastructure and legal fights over compute, and operational risks from undisclosed AI deployment in public services.

NewCore Raises $66M to Authenticate AI Agents

NewCore, a cybersecurity startup, emerged from stealth on June 15, 2026 with $66 million in seed funding to build an identity platform designed to authenticate, govern, and control AI agents at enterprise scale. The round was led by Cyberstarts with participation from Index Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners, valuing NewCore at $300 million post-money. Co-founded by CEO Zohar Alon, CTO Amihai Neiderman and CRO Erez Yarkoni, the company says its platform manages human and AI-agent identities in one system, offering features such as a split-key architecture and an "Agentic Skill" integration for coding assistants (Anthropic’s Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, Cursor). NewCore has over 50 employees, fewer than 10 customers, more than 10 design partners, and expects to begin charging customers in summer 2026.