Wednesday, June 3, 2026
In today’s digest, Knicks fever takes over the city, a new food hall, and what we learned at the Axios AI+NY Summit. 🤖
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Get your game face on, New York. 😤 The Knicks’ NBA Finals run — their first Finals appearance since 1999 — is turning the city into one giant watch party, with sold-out Madison Square Garden viewing events, a free Central Park screening, and official Knicks bars packed across all five boroughs. Game 1 against the San Antonio Spurs tips off at 8:30pm.
Here are some of the best places to watch the game tonight. 🏀 (NBC New York)
Watch-party tickets at MSG sold out within minutes, with proceeds benefiting the Garden of Dreams Foundation.
The NYPD has lifted the ban on Knicks watch parties directly outside MSG for Game 1 tonight against the Spurs.
Plus, this postseason run has generated $202 million in economic activity for the City of New York to date, and could generate an additional $263 million if every home game is played.
Also competing for our attention: The Tribeca Festival kicks off today with nearly 120 feature films, dozens of world premieres, live music performances, podcasts, gaming events, and a heavy dose of New York storytelling. 🎬 (CBS New York)
The festival was founded after 9/11 to help revitalize Lower Manhattan and has since grown into one of the city’s premier cultural events.
This year’s lineup celebrates its 25th anniversary with music-focused premieres, Broadway programming and stories rooted in New York City. More details here.
Cheese conveyor belt? Say less. Your lunch is about to get an upgrade as Shaver Hall, the 35,000-square-foot, street-level food hall complete with three restaurants and 11 food stands is set to open later this month on Fifth Avenue, between West 38th and 39th streets. Here’s what to expect from the food hall in the former Lord & Taylor building. 🍽️ (Eater)
In other reading:
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AI at New York’s Front Door
Today was the Axios AI+NY Summit, presented in partnership with Tech:NYC — an annual half-day gathering on how AI is reshaping finance, media, health care, and policy from the middle of New York’s economy. 🤖
The AI conversation in New York right now is about leadership, policy, trust, and who gets to shape what happens next.
A few moments that stuck with us:
“People are hungry to be led.” That was the line from the opening stage from Axios co-founder Mike Allen. 🚀
Alex Bores on the AI policy shift: The Assemblymember running for Congress said AI was supposed to be maybe “five or 10%” of his campaign conversation.
Now, he said, it’s “the number one thing people come up to me and talk about.”
Not just founders or policy people, either — everyday New Yorkers on the subway.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna gave the cleanest read on the policy conversation: He said the Trump administration’s AI executive order, which asked tech companies to voluntarily give the government oversight of new AI models before releasing them to the public, “hits the Goldilocks spot” between regulation without hampering innovation. 🐻
Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone made a different case for AI’s future: Better products rather than bigger models.
He described Yahoo’s Scout search product as “very publisher forward,” built to give robust answers to questions while letting users see the sources.
🗽 The bigger picture: This is what AI in New York is starting to look like — confluence with real institutions like city and state politics, media economics, enterprise software, public trust, and regulated industries.
That matters because New York’s edge is that the city forces the technology to meet the real world early.
In other reading:
Trump dodges AI rules for now with latest executive order (Axios)
How AI could improve economic policy making (Wall Street Journal)
An OpenAI model solved a famous math problem that stumped humans for 80 years (Ars Technica)
Adaptive Innovation, an NYC- and Dallas-based AI-powered home health care company, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by Bain Capital Ventures, Optum Ventures, Sunflower Capital, BoxGroup, Dorm Room Fund, Constellation, and SV Angel.
AlphaSense, an NYC-based market research platform, raised $350 million in Series G funding at a $7.5 billion valuation from Vitruvian Partners, Accenture, JPMorgan Asset Management, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, and D.E. Shaw Ventures.
Centrical, an NYC-based provider of performance management software, raised $39 million in Series D funding. Leeds Illuminate and Kingfisher Investment led the round, joined by JVP.
Cyera, an NYC-based data security company, raised $300 million at a $12 billion valuation. Evolution Equity Partners led the round, joined by Georgian, Greenoaks, Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Cyberstarts, Coatue, Accel, and Spark Capital.
Findigs, an NYC-based AI-native leasing decisioning platform, raised $32 million in Series C funding. RPM Ventures led the round and was joined by Nyca Partners, Frontier Venture Capital, and Western Technology Investment.
Ilant Health, an NYC-based AI-powered obesity and cardiometabolic care company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Cornucopian Capital led the round and was joined by naturalX, Peakbridge, Semcap AI, Evidenced, Operator Partners, and others.
Plot, an NYC-based social video analytics platform, raised $10 million in seed funding. XYZ Venture Capital and Mischief Ventures led the round and were joined by Seven Seven Six and Acme Capital.
Pitchfest is a matchmaking program that pairs city and state agency staff with support from university faculty and Civic Fellows on short-term, high-impact projects. Civic Fellows typically have at least five years of work experience in tech, consulting, or an adjacent field. Apply to be a Civic Fellow by June 5 here.
Tech:NYC has partnered with Company Ventures, Blackstone LaunchPad, NYCEDC, and the Zahn Innovation Center to run the NYC Startup Internship Program, connecting NYC college students with paid summer internships at early-stage startups across the city.
We’re looking for volunteer mentors to support interns as they gain firsthand experience in startups and tech throughout the summer. Apply to be a mentor by June 12 here.
Make It In Brooklyn is accepting applications for their Renewable Energy Pitch Contest, spotlighting companies advancing the future of clean and renewable energy. Selected startups will pitch before a panel of industry leaders and compete for up to $10,000 in funding and commercialization support. Apply here by June 18.
The Social Science Research Council has opened applications for their Just Tech Fellowship, a one-year, unrestricted award of up to $60,000 for researchers, artists, and practitioners working to understand and shape how technology impacts society and public life. Apply here by June 28.
KPMG Private Enterprise is accepting applications for their 6th Annual Global Tech Innovator Competition for entrepreneurs who are successfully making the transition from the startup phase to the next stage in the growth of their businesses. Apply here by July 6.
Endless Frontier Labs has opened applications for its 9-month program which helps founders transform their science and tech based ideas into commercially scalable companies. Apply here by July 31.
CUNY 2x Tech’s NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency Program, connecting high-potential Computer Systems Technology students with NYC-based employers for 10-week, full-time internships focused on software engineering and data analytics. Employers can express interest here.
HubSpot’s How You Hustle, where you and your business could be featured and receive free press exposure to their 1.5 million subscribers. Apply here.
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