The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• Sources: Apple is discussing multiyear content deals with publishers to deliver current news and information for Siri AI, with a potential nine-figure budget (Alexandra Bruell/Wall Street Journal) [29d]
• Sources: the White House is expected to expand its AI oversight framework in the coming months to cover open models once they reach frontier capabilities (Hugo Lowell/Wired) [29d]
• Twitch says it intends to use videos streamed on its platform to help train Amazon's generative AI models and tells creators how to opt out (Amanda Silberling/TechCrunch) [29d]
• A livestream of the Made by Google 2026 event hosted by Trevor Noah (Made by Google on YouTube) [29d]
• Cisco reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $17.25B, vs. $16.82B est., AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers worth $4B, forecasts FY 2027 revenue above est. (Juby Babu/Reuters) [29d]
• Cerebras reports Q2 revenue up 74% YoY to $180M and raises its annual revenue and gross margin forecasts; CBRS drops 14%+ after hours (Reuters) [29d]
• Mistral says its platform will support third-party open models, starting with Z.ai's GLM-5.2, and run them on the same infrastructure as its own models (Mistral AI Blog) [29d]
• Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept sue Trump after Trump Media & Technology offered a subscription service for faster access to Trump's posts (Bernard Condon/Associated Press) [29d]
• Kalshi referred 32 possible insider traders to the CFTC in the three months through June; sources: CFTC has up to 20 ongoing probes using just Kalshi's evidence (Sharon LaFraniere/New York Times) [29d]
• Sources: Kalshi is in advanced talks to raise $750M+ co-led by Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management at a $40B valuation; Kalshi was valued at $22B in May (Yueqi Yang/The Information) [29d]
• Sources detail moves behind Google's AI reshuffle; Sergey Brin urged key staff to go all in on Gemini, and some teams shifted from DeepMind to corporate Google (Kenrick Cai/Reuters) [29d]
• Sources: Apple hired Nate Gatten, an American Airlines exec with GOP ties, as government affairs VP, seeking someone who could align with Trump administration (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [29d]
• Sources: the UK government is planning to regulate the use of AI in gene synthesis to prevent terrorists and other bad actors from using AI for bioweapons (Ellen Milligan/Bloomberg) [29d]
• Bank of America says it plans to deploy $250B by July 2027 to support US digital and infrastructure projects, including data centers and energy infrastructure (Reuters) [29d]
• SpaceXAI releases Grok 4.6, saying it matches GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, and prices it at $2/1M input and $6/1M output tokens (xAI) [29d]
• Silicon Data, which offers real-time compute pricing data to financial institutions and exchanges, raised a $30.5M Series A led by the Valor Atreides AI Fund (Chris Metinko/Axios) [29d]
• ClearJet, whose AI-enabled logistics service connects shippers with unused cargo capacity on commercial flights, raised a $25M Series B led by Edison Partners (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News) [29d]
• FlightAware withdraws its lawsuit against Kalshi, a day after it alleged Kalshi is using its data without permission to let users bet on flight cancellations (Sumedha Mukherjee/Reuters) [29d]
• Google's Pixel 11 introduces Camera Looks, a total rethink of how the camera captures and styles an image, as users seek "more authentic or traditional" photos (David Imel/The Verge) [30d]
• Google says the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL are its most durable Pixel phones yet, using spacecraft-grade aluminum frames and a more scratch-resistant coating (Mariella Moon/Engadget) [30d]
• Google DeepMind launches SL2T, a multilingual sign-language-to-text model debuting on the Pixel 11 in Gboard and Live Transcribe, first with ASL and English (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE) [30d]
• Google is cutting the Google One AI Pro trial bundled with Pixel 11 Pro and other handsets from 12 to 6 months, and removes the free trial from the Pixel 11 (Damien Wilde/9to5Google) [30d]
• Google is introducing an insulin-resistance trend feature that uses AI, accelerometer, and other sensors, launching first on the Watch 5 and Fitbit devices (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg) [30d]
• Google says Android's AirDrop-like Quick Share will now let some devices exchange files and contact info when tapped together, starting with Pixel 6 and newer (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge) [30d]
• Google raises Pixel 11 prices by $100 and the Pixel Watch 5 by $50; the base Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL come with 12GB of RAM, down from 16GB in the Pixel 9 and 10 (Kris Holt/Engadget) [30d]
• Google says the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will get new features, including dynamic ANC and sleep sync, via a software update in September, and adds a new Olive color (Will Sattelberg/9to5Google) [30d]
• Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold hands-on: a letdown after Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 8, with minimal design changes, and it feels like Google is coasting (Sam Rutherford/Engadget) [30d]
• Google Pixel 11 series hands-on: a $100 hike, minimal design changes, a new HiLight status light, new colors, and small camera and performance improvements (The Shortcut) [30d]
• Google plans to launch the $29 Pixel Tag on November 11 with a four-pack priced at $99, matching AirTag 2 pricing, offering UWB, Find Hub support, and more (Dominic Preston/The Verge) [30d]
• Google unveils the $399 Pixel Watch 5 with a satin pyrite case finish, offline Gemini, proactive AI suggestions, better GPS maps, and insulin resistance trends (Victoria Song/The Verge) [30d]
• Google unveils the $1,899+ Pixel 11 Fold, with a stronger hinge, inner and outer displays that are 20% brighter, Tensor G6 chip, and an updated 48MP camera (Jessica Conditt/Engadget) [30d]
• Google unveils the $899+ Pixel 11, $1,099+ 11 Pro, and $1,299+ 11 Pro XL, with Tensor G6, new Gemini features, Magic Capture to pick the best frames, and more (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [30d]
• AT&T says open models currently account for ~25% of its AI usage, and it targets 70% to 80% over time; AT&T uses an average of 45B AI tokens per day (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal) [30d]
• AI code review startup CodeRabbit raised a $143M Series C co-led by Atomico and Smash at a $1.5B valuation, after raising a $60M Series B in September 2025 (Prakhar Srivastava/Reuters) [30d]
• Thrive Capital's Thrive Holdings, which acquires traditional service businesses and adds AI, raised $2B from SoftBank, D1, and others at a $12B valuation (Michael J. de la Merced/New York Times) [30d]
• Amsterdam-based neocloud Nebius reports Q2 cloud revenue up 514% YoY to $575M and total revenue of $582M, above $557M est.; NBIS rises 15%+, and is up 131% YTD (Paula Doenecke/Bloomberg) [30d]
• Skan AI, which is building a "context graph of work" by observing staff using enterprise software, raised a $63M Series C co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell (Michael Nuñez/VentureBeat) [30d]
• A look at AI news website RuntimeWire, which costs $100/day to run and "beat" human reporters to OpenAI's Black Hat disclosure, favoring quantity over quality (Kate Knibbs/Wired) [30d]
• African e-commerce company Jumia raised $50M, including $25M from the World Bank's IFC; Jumia's US-listed shares have fallen from $60+ in 2021 to $6 now (Loni Prinsloo/Bloomberg) [30d]
• The NYC Council sent letters to Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan to investigate alleged deceptive marketing practices and targeting minors (Wall Street Journal) [30d]
• AI code-testing startup Blacksmith raised a $45M Series B led by Peak XV Partners at a $550M valuation, up from $60M after it raised a $10M Series A in 2025 (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch) [30d]
• Q&A with Redwood Research Chief Scientist Ryan Greenblatt on AI R&D, RSI, whether human expert data is bottlenecking progress, token prices, alignment, and more (Dwarkesh Patel/Dwarkesh Podcast) [30d]
• A look at the challenges facing incoming Google DeepMind head Koray Kavukcuoglu, who joined DeepMind in 2012 and will oversee Gemini and frontier AI research (Kai Nicol-Schwarz/CNBC) [30d]
• Former Alibaba star researcher Junyang Lin launches Shanghai-based Pragmatik Labs to build digital and physical AI agents; Pragmatik hit a $2B valuation in June (Juro Osawa/The Information) [30d]
• Foxconn reports Q2 revenue up 41% YoY to ~$78.4B, with cloud and networking products contributing 50%+ for the first time, and net profit up 35% to ~$1.86B (Sherry Qin/Wall Street Journal) [30d]
• Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$30.4B, above ~$30B est., and net income of ~$8.3B, driven by surging WeChat advertising and resilient game spending (Bloomberg) [30d]
• Stockholm-based AI coding startup Lovable raised $400M at a $13.3B valuation, up from $6.6B in December 2025, becoming one of Europe's most valuable startups (Ben Dummett/Wall Street Journal) [30d]
• Sources: AI coding startup Cognition is in early talks with investors to raise $1B+ at a $40B+ valuation, after raising $1B at a $26B valuation in May (Rebecca Torrence/Bloomberg) [30d]
• Some health and fitness obsessives are using AI for hyperpersonalized training, building custom dashboards and tools to analyze their sleep, workouts, and diet (Wall Street Journal) [30d]
• Briter: Africa-focused startups raised $3.3B in H1 2026, up 73% YoY, driven by Zipline's $950M raise; US- and UAE-incorporated entities raised half the capital (Nduka Orjinmo/Bloomberg) [30d]
• Bengaluru-based Yulu, which gets ~95% of its revenue from renting e-bikes to gig workers, raised a $93M Series C, sources say at a ~$170M post-money valuation (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch) [30d]
• Sources: Singapore-based data center operator DayOne confidentially files for a US IPO, aims to list as soon as next quarter, and is considering raising ~$5B (Bloomberg) [30d]
• Researchers say suspected Chinese hackers used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool that compromised Taiwanese government websites in July (Tom Wilson/Financial Times) [30d]
• OpenAI VP of Global Policy Ann O'Leary says AI policy in the US is anchored in the states and informed by California's AI transparency law passed last year (Chase DiFeliciantonio/Politico) [30d]
• A look at Candy Crush's continued popularity 15 years after its launch, with an estimated 81.5M MAUs and in-app revenue of $876.5M in fiscal year 2025 (Alanna Okun/Bloomberg) [30d]