Delft-based Orange Quantum Systems (OrangeQS) has closed a second tranche of its seed round, extending total funding to €15 million with a €3 million investment from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund. The additional capital follows a €12 million first close in June 2025 led by Icecat Capital and brings EIC Fund board member Zeina Chebli onto OrangeQS’s board. The company makes automated, cryogenic test equipment for quantum chips—the MAX system for high-throughput industrial testing and the FLEX system for R&D—with an open-source OS, OrangeQS Juice. The firm says MAX can test large chips (100+ qubits) in days rather than weeks, addressing a key bottleneck as quantum development moves toward foundry-style manufacturing. OrangeQS has launched the MAX Partnership Programme, with Rigetti Computing, QuantWare and Peak Quantum as founding partners, allowing hardware makers to influence the product roadmap while retaining IP. Customers and deployments include IQM in Finland, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Berkeley Lab and QuTech. OrangeQS, which has about 30 employees, will use the funding to expand production, hire staff and advance non-destructive and parallel testing capabilities outlined in a new white paper.

Apple announced on April 20-21, 2026 that long-time hardware boss John Ternus will succeed Tim Cook as chief executive on Sept. 1, with Cook transitioning to executive chairman. Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who joined in 2001 and rose to senior vice president of hardware engineering, has overseen major product programmes including iPad, AirPods, Mac transitions to Apple silicon and the Vision Pro headset. The move preserves leadership continuity at the world’s most valuable consumer-technology company, which grew under Cook from a market cap of roughly $350 billion in 2011 to about $4 trillion today. Investors noted only a muted share reaction. Ternus inherits pressing strategic tasks: reducing Apple’s dependence on the iPhone for revenue, accelerating AI integration across devices after lagging peers, and converting hardware expertise into new form factors amid competition from Nvidia, Google, Meta and AI startups. Apple said Cook will remain through the summer to help with the transition and will continue engaging with policymakers as executive chairman.

Over the weekend of April 18–20, attackers drained roughly 116,500 rsETH — about $290–293 million — from liquid restaking protocol Kelp DAO by exploiting a LayerZero-powered cross‑chain bridge. Security firms and LayerZero pointed to North Korea’s state‑linked Lazarus group (TraderTraitor) after attackers allegedly poisoned RPC nodes used by LayerZero’s decentralized verifier network (DVN), launched a DDoS to force failover to compromised nodes, and fed a forged cross‑chain message that authorised the transfers. Kelp DAO paused rsETH contracts, blacklisted attacker addresses and said it had stopped further drains; LayerZero says Kelp’s single‑DVN setup created a single point of failure, a claim Kelp disputes, saying it followed documented defaults. DeFi platforms moved quickly: Arbitrum’s Security Council froze 30,766 ETH (about $71 million) linked to the exploit and transferred it to a frozen wallet pending governance action; Aave froze rsETH markets. Firms and analysts warn of contagion across lending and liquidity pools and are modelling potential bad‑debt scenarios if backing cannot be restored.

Dyson on April 21 launched the Supersonic Travel, a compact version of its flagship Supersonic hair dryer designed for travellers. The new model is 32% smaller and 25% lighter than the original while retaining Dyson’s high-speed motor and intelligent heat-control system that measures airflow temperature 100 times per second to limit heat damage. The Supersonic Travel features universal voltage compatibility for use across countries and magnetically attached styling heads; it is compatible with attachments from existing Supersonic and Supersonic Nural models and ships with a smoothing nozzle. Pricing varies by market: Dyson lists the unit at $299 in the US, £249.99 in the UK and AU$449 in Australia; availability is currently direct from dyson.com in those markets. Dyson says the tool was re-engineered for portability without sacrificing performance. The travel model aims to fit in carry-on luggage and handbags, with colour and finish options reported in some markets. Additional attachments are sold separately and wider international rollout details are pending.

Amazon announced on April 20-21, 2026 it will invest up to $25 billion in AI startup Anthropic as part of an expanded long-term cloud arrangement. Amazon will make an immediate $5 billion investment with up to $20 billion more tied to commercial milestones; the new funds add to roughly $8 billion previously committed by Amazon. In return Anthropic pledged to spend more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services over the next decade, securing access to Amazon’s Trainium and Graviton chips and up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity to train and run its Claude models (around 1 GW of Trainium2/3 capacity is expected by year-end). The deal follows Amazon’s earlier multi‑billion commitments to other frontier AI labs and comes as Anthropic reports rapidly rising revenues (annualised revenue cited near $30 billion). Amazon shares rose roughly 2.5-3% on the news. The transaction deepens a commercial tie that blends equity, procurements and chip supply to lock in long-term demand for AWS infrastructure.

Multiple technology outlets on April 21, 2026, report that Apple has tested a 200‑megapixel periscope telephoto sensor for future iPhones but is unlikely to ship the module before 2028. The timeline comes from prolific Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station and aligns with an earlier Morgan Stanley investor note. Apple is reportedly prioritizing optical flexibility and low‑light performance over a raw megapixel jump; this year’s iPhone 18 Pro line is expected to stick with 48MP main and telephoto sensors, plus variable‑aperture technology. Rumors indicate Samsung may supply the 200MP module, with Sony also competing, and that the sensor would be significantly larger than current iPhone sensors and used mainly on a telephoto lens. Android manufacturers have already deployed 200MP sensors in recent models, but higher pixel counts raise concerns about noise and low‑light image quality unless sensor size and processing keep pace. Supply‑chain signals and leaker updates have pushed back prior suggestions that a 200MP iPhone camera could arrive sooner.