Nvidia's 15% Hike Reveals AI's Tollbooths
Nvidia warned of 15%+ system increases as Stripe agreed to pay $7.5B for OpenRouter and OpenAI committed to a 10GW Ohio data center. The week rewarded control over compute, routing, safety, power, and permission.
Sources: Iran-linked hackers shut down a small UK power plant for four days, coinciding with a wave of Iran-affiliated attacks on US water utilities
Unprecedented cyber attack believed to be most successful of its kind — Tony Diver , Political Editor. Rozina Sabur , National Security Editor.
President Trump says communities that oppose data centers are “making a mistake” as they create “tremendous amounts of jobs and money”, amid bipartisan backlash
President Trump defended the expansion of data centers in an interview with his former fixer, Michael Cohen, that aired in full on Sunday.
Sources: foldable iPhone feels durable, fits well in a pocket, has useful iPad-like app layouts, excels as a camera viewfinder but lacks telephoto and Face ID
Also: Get ready for iPhone price hikes. — Apple is about to bring some of its product magic back with its first foldable iPhone.
Ramp data: Fable 5, launched in early June, has plateaued at ~11% of spending on Anthropic tools, as companies shift to cheaper models; Opus 5 surpassed Fable 5
AI lab's Fable 5 has met with sluggish demand from corporate clients — Anthropic's US customers are using cheaper alternatives …
At Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, a robot built by Honor ran 100m in 9.39s, and another Chinese robot finished 400m in 38.16s, both beating human records
Chinese humanoid called Tiangong Ultra nearly five seconds faster than 2016 Rio Olympic time — It may have stumpy arms …
Alibaba debuts Wan3.0, an AI video generation model that can generate 30-second videos from documents, spreadsheets, slides, and web pages, after an August beta
Alibaba (9988.HK) officially rolled out its latest AI video generation-model Wan3. on Monday with enhanced capabilities after the Chinese internet giant launched …
The UK backs Ofcom to take “tough action” under the OSA against social media sites failing to remove dangerous driving videos, after a crash killed seven people
Downing Street condemns ‘utterly disgraceful’ clips and says sites are legally obliged to take them down
Mercury Research: AMD's share of x86 client CPU shipments tops 30% for the first time, hitting 30.3% in Q2, up from 21.1% two years earlier, vs. Intel's 69.7%
For the first time, AMD's share of the x86 client CPU market, covering both mobile and desktop, has crossed 30% …
Apple reverses its plan to move iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses to private.icloud.com after user backlash; the feature will continue using the icloud.com domain
Apple today said it is reversing its decision and will not change the email domain used for the iCloud+ Hide My Email feature.
The Trump administration proposes a $103,265 fee on H-1B applicants hired within the US after a court blocked a more limited fee on workers from outside the US
The Trump administration wants to add an expansive $100,000 fee on the H-1B program, applying it to individuals hired within …
Alibaba plans to raise ~$10B in a follow-on share offering to fund AI investments; sources: it plans to offer 710M shares at a 3.6% discount to Friday's close
China's Alibaba (9988.HK) on Sunday launched a HK$80-billion ($10.2 billion) share placement to fund artificial intelligence-related development.
The UK becomes the first foreign nation to gain access to Ukrainian combat data used to train AI models to strike Russian targets, as part of an AI partnership
Trove of combat imagery used to train AI models to identify and strike Russian targets — Britain will become the first foreign country …
Nvidia says its inference accelerator Groq 3 LPX has entered full production and Nebius has signed on as the first customer, and SpaceX will deploy Vera CPUs
Chipmaker Nvidia Corp. says its dedicated artificial intelligence inference accelerator Groq 3 LPX has now entered full production …
Sources: Hugging Face is exploring a sale that could value it at $13B+, up from $4.5B in 2023, and has been working with a bank to evaluate bidders' interest
The AI industry's next blockbuster acquisition may not be another model maker. — Hugging Face, whose platform helps developers discover …
A look at the collapse of Zondacrypto, Eastern and Central Europe's biggest crypto exchange, which went dark in April and is facing money laundering allegations
The mysterious collapse of a European cryptocurrency exchange helps to explain why the industry hasn't shaken off its reputation as a magnet for criminals.
A look at the playbook Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others use to shape US schools to their benefit, and the pushback against unproven AI tools
One humid afternoon in the summer of 2025, representatives from Microsoft were waiting as some 200 teachers trooped into a conference hall in downtown Manhattan.
New Zealand plans a bill to ban social media for under-16s, requiring “high risk” platforms to check user ages or face penalties of up to 10% of global revenue
New Zealand plans to ban under-16s from social media, joining a throng of countries worldwide seeking to limit online harm to children.
Ukrainian officials say an AI-guided, fully autonomous Russian drone picked its target in a Zaporizhzhia gas station strike in July, killing three Ukrainians
An attack by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone with an Nvidia chip presages a dystopian future of weaponry untethered to humans.
Sources: Shein voluntarily sought the US Treasury's CFIUS national security review of its $80M deal to acquire US clothing retailer Everlane, an unusual move
US authorities are conducting a national security review of Shein Global Holdings Ltd.'s purchase of American clothing retailer Everlane …
Sam Altman says a few powerful players could end up controlling AI because the magnitude of risks could push people to “trade off a lot of liberty for safety”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he worries that AI will one day be controlled by a handful of companies, models, or people …
Fasset, which offers stablecoin-powered banking services across Asia and other emerging markets, raised $68M at a $1B valuation, after raising $51M in May
Stablecoin-focused digital bank Fasset said Monday it has raised $68 million in a funding round led by Japan's SBI Group …
Sources: Netflix has discussed adding streamers like Peacock and Fox One as it seeks to compete with YouTube and Roku in becoming a one-stop shop for TV content
For years, Amazon has persuaded tens of millions of people to use its Prime Video app to subscribe to other services …
Sources: some of Nvidia's top customers have been told that prices will jump 15%+ on systems, including Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell, starting in early 2027
The careers of Z.ai's Tang Jie and Moonshot AI's Yang Zhilin, once teacher and pupil at Tsinghua University, show that China's AI leap is no sudden development
University lab nurtured the computer scientists who are using ingenuity and imitation to chase down Anthropic and OpenAI; ‘they know perfectly how to monetize their work’
Source: AI researcher Luke Metz, who returned to OpenAI from Thinking Machines Lab in January, joins Meta's Superintelligence Labs, reporting to Alexandr Wang
Prominent AI researcher Luke Metz has joined Meta's Superintelligence Labs, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Axios.
Sources: Nvidia is in talks to invest in Perplexity's round that would value it at $30B+; Nvidia considered a tech licensing deal and hiring some of its staff
Nvidia is discussing investing in Perplexity as part of an equity round that would value the AI startup at more than $30 billion …
Xiaomi launches the Xring O3, a 3nm SoC for its mobile devices, as it seeks to reduce reliance on foreign chips from longtime suppliers Qualcomm and MediaTek
Xiaomi Corp. launched a mobile processor for its marquee devices, putting pressure on Qualcomm Inc. and MediaTek Inc., which for years supplied the key component to the Chinese company.
Temu and Pinduoduo owner PDD reports Q2 revenue up 8.1% YoY to ~$16.72B, missing est. of ~$17.17B, and net profit down 12% YoY to ~$4.04B, above ~$3.63B est.
Rising competition from livestreaming and social e-commerce is challenging PDD's market position — The Chinese owner of bargain-shopping …
IBM says it is developing a dual-architecture processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE systems that can natively execute both IBM's z/OS workloads and Arm applications
IBM is announcing today at the annual Hot Chips conference what may be the most consequential change to mainframe architecture in decades …
Global central banks are pushing CBDCs to defend monetary sovereignty against USD stablecoins, but are struggling to find demand for their digital currencies
Cryptocurrencies emerged in part as a protest against central banks flooding the global economy with money during the financial crisis 18 years ago.
Irish lawmakers reconsider the country's 1999 nuclear power ban, as data centers' growing power demands account for nearly 25% of the country's electricity use
Banned by law since 1999, Dublin reconsiders atomic energy — Rising electricity consumption by Ireland's insatiable data centres …
Canada-based logistics software company Descartes acquires Tai, a California-based transportation management system provider, for $100M in cash
Logistics software giant Descartes has acquired transportation management system provider Tai for $100 million in cash, the companies announced today.
The US FTC settles its lawsuit against Zillow, resolving claims that Zillow violated antitrust law by paying Redfin $100M to stop competing in rental listings
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday said it is settling with Zillow (ZG.O), ending its lawsuit accusing …
Sources: Nvidia plans to use its $6B deal with Poolside to build an open-weight AI model to compete with Chinese models like DeepSeek and Kimi
Alabama AG Steve Marshall launches an investigation into OpenAI's security procedures following the Hugging Face breach in July
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall launched an investigation into OpenAI's security procedures after one of its AI agents escaped a testing environment and hacked AI firm Hugging Face in July.
Oxford Economics: US corporate spending on equipment and facilities is set to rise 40% from 2021 to 2027, over 3x faster than in Europe, driven by the AI race
The bloc struggles to keep up with US spending on high-tech equipment and facilities
Source: robotics startup Generalist, which released its GEN-1 model to complete physical tasks in April, raised ~$200M led by 8VC, after raising $400M in June
Generalist has quietly raised around $200 million in new funding, just two months after the robotics AI startup raised $400 million.
A profile of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over US state AGs' social media addiction lawsuit against Meta and oversaw the Musk v. Altman trial
SoftBank plans a ~$6.3B retail bond sale, the biggest by any issuer in Japan and its third in 2026, as the conglomerate raises funds for its OpenAI commitments
A look at startups like General Intuition working on large action models, aka world models, which are trained on videogames and simulations, to pilot robots
Taiwanese prosecutors indict nine people, including Nvidia and Super Micro employees, for allegedly helping illegally export 74 high-end AI servers to China
At his first Cursor all-hands, Musk said Grok needs to catch up, AI will become impossible for humans to control, Anthropic is leading the AI race, and more
Earlier this month, on the day SpaceX announced it had completed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, Elon Musk called …
Sources detail how Trump intervened to get a settlement before the DOJ's antitrust trial against Live Nation, after CEO Michael Rapino met White House officials
How politicians who once championed data centers, including Greg Abbott and Josh Shapiro, are now slowing their development as the issue becomes a liability
in person, over text, in my comment section — helped inform the Executive Order I signed this week that will block bad projects if the local community doesn't want them...Robinson Meyer /@robinsonmeye...
The popularity of risky leveraged chip ETFs in South Korea prompted regulators to cap individual exposure and mandate a weeklong investor education course
US business schools are racing to prepare students to become chief AI officers, even as companies are still figuring out what the newest C-suite role entails
Business schools are racing to prepare executives for the newest C-suite role, even as companies are still figuring out what the job entails.Forums:r/ArtificialInteligenceForums:r/ArtificialInteligenc...
Sources: ByteDance is merging coding platform Trae and agent-building tool Coze into Doubao, and plans to launch Doubao Work to compete with Tencent's WorkBuddy
ByteDance Ltd. is consolidating the resources behind two of its artificial intelligence developer products to bolster China's …
Chinese EV maker XPeng says its robotics business raised $900M+ led by IDG Capital at a $6.3B+ valuation; Gaorong Ventures, Tencent, and Alibaba also invested
Sources and documents detail how Tether's plan to build two bitcoin mining sites in Uruguay fell apart amid a dispute with state utility UTE over power supply
Sources: smart ring maker Oura and some of its backers seek to raise up to $3B in a US IPO that could take place as soon as September and value it at over $16B
Oura Health Oy, a maker of smart rings that track health, fitness and sleep, and some of its backers are seeking to raise …
Docs: Meta plans to launch its version of OpenClaw, codenamed Hatch, in late August or early September and its latest AI model, Watermelon, in October
Meta Platforms plans to launch its consumer version of the OpenClaw AI agent, dubbed Hatch internally, as soon as the next several weeks …
China's Bilibili relaunches its international app and plans an English-language website, after already pushing MrBeast and others to post on its Chinese website
THE SCOOP — China's equivalent to YouTube is making a play for the rest of the world and courting non-Chinese creators to boost its appeal.See also Mediagazer
Greg Abbott says data center companies “dug their own grave” by moving into communities without first gaining support, signaling growing Republican backlash
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivered one of the starkest warnings yet from a Republican to the AI industry …
Sources: Flipkart Minutes, the quick commerce service of Walmart's Flipkart, is now delivering 1.1M-1.2M orders per day, up from ~390K-400K in November 2025
Semiconductor cram schools are flourishing in Seoul as applications to Samsung and SK Hynix surge, fuelled by record earnings and eye-catching worker bonuses
Minimus, a cybersecurity startup started by Twistlock founders, shuts down after failing to gain enough commercial momentum; Minimus raised a $51M seed in 2023
Apparel retailers like Zalando, Zara, and ASOS are betting on AI virtual fitting rooms to create a better online shopping experience and cut costly returns
The UK's Office for National Statistics: UK digital infrastructure investment crossed £11B in 2025, hitting dot-com boom levels, amid an AI data center surge
Filing: Shein will debut on the Hong Kong exchange on September 1, seeking up to ~$1.8B in an IPO at a $27B valuation, a fraction of its $100B valuation in 2022
Shein Global Holdings Ltd. is seeking to raise as much as $13.9 billion ($1.8 billion) in its Hong Kong initial public offering …
Ukraine says Russia used an Nvidia Jetson Orin computing module in its fully autonomous AI-guided drones; Nvidia says they're widely available on resale markets
The young woman ran for her life, but it was too late. A small Russian drone resembling a model airplane swooped down from the sky …
Nvidia says its Groq 3 LPX racks delivered 3,400 tokens per second in an Artificial Analysis benchmark running Gemma 4 31B with a 100,000-token input sequence
Nvidia's $20 billion bet on Groq's LPU tech sure looks like it was a good one. On Monday, the GPU giant offered the first glimpse …