The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• Sources: Nous Research, the startup behind Hermes, an open-source agent and OpenClaw rival, is raising $75M+ at a $1.5B valuation led by Robot Ventures (TechCrunch) [60d]
• Sources: Trump admin and industry groups have discussed streamlining releases of US open models of equal or lesser capability than leading Chinese open models (Benjamin Guggenheim/Washington Post) [60d]
• Apple releases the first public betas of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and tvOS 27, marking the public debut of the new Siri AI (Will Shanklin/Engadget) [60d]
• Microsoft announces a Windows 11 search overhaul that prioritizes local results, removes promotional web content, and more, rolling out to Windows Insiders (Zac Bowden/Windows Central) [60d]
• Q&A with Xinzhou Wu, head of automotive at Nvidia, on Nvidia's chips and AI models for autonomous driving, lidar's usefulness for Level 4 autonomy, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge) [60d]
• Doc: DHS analysts twice dismissed signs of intruders inside the DHS' network, first detected in May, as harmless activity before confirming a breach in June (David DiMolfetta/Nextgov/FCW) [60d]
• A coalition of 12 states led by California files an antitrust lawsuit to block Paramount's WBD merger, alleging it lessens competition in three markets (Gene Maddaus/Variety) [60d]
• London-based Valarian, which allows companies to use US cloud providers for AI workloads but retain control of their data, raised a $50M Series A led by NEA (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune) [60d]
• Seattle-based Augmodo, whose AI-powered "Smartbadges" worn by employees track shelf inventory, raised $21M led by TQ Ventures at a $350M valuation (Kurt Schlosser/GeekWire) [60d]
• Gauntlet, which helps institutions and crypto companies allocate their digital assets, raised a $125M Series C from Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings (Ben Weiss/Fortune) [60d]
• Global smartphone shipments fell 11% YoY in Q2 to the lowest Q2 levels since 2013 amid the DRAM and NAND shortage; Samsung returns to #1 with a 24% market share (Shilpi Jain/Counterpoint Research) [60d]
• Apple's stock is up 15% since June 25, adding nearly $600B in market value and pushing shares back to record territory, as investors flee an AI stock selloff (Ryan Vlastelica/Bloomberg) [60d]
• Sources: US officials estimate unauthorized distillation costs US AI labs up to $6B/year; Silicon Valley told the Trump admin it could be an existential threat (Maggie Eastland/Bloomberg) [60d]
• Source: OpenAI still believes it is on track to unveil its first device in 2026 and release it in 2027; Apple's lawsuit may complicate hiring and supply chains (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [60d]
• Anthropic hires Tom Blomfield, a Monzo co-founder and one of the biggest names in UK tech, to join its compute team; he is taking a leave of absence from YC (Robert Scammell/Business Insider) [60d]
• Intel plans to invest €5B to expand chip manufacturing at its Leixlip facility in Ireland; in 2025, Intel canceled a planned €30B factory in Magdeburg, Germany (Financial Times) [60d]
• Nearly 200 economists, including 15 Nobel laureates and Anthropic's Jack Clark, sign a letter titled We Must Act Now, warning of rapid AI-led job displacement (Ben Casselman/New York Times) [60d]
• Samsung says it now aims to begin operations at its first chipmaking plant in South Korea's Yongin by 2029, bringing the timeline forward from 2030 or 2031 (Henry Siu/The Information) [60d]
• Meta says it will spend an extra $40B on its 4,000-acre data center campus in Louisiana, aiming for 5GW+ of computing power, pushing the total cost beyond $250B (Riley Griffin/Bloomberg) [60d]
• The EU blacklists Russian intelligence group members it says were responsible for spying on and hacking targets across the EU and Ukraine from as early as 2010 (Politico) [60d]
• China says President Xi will deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the three-day World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday, his first appearance (Bloomberg) [60d]
• SK Hynix's shares fall 15%+ in Seoul, posting its largest-ever fall, after a strong Nasdaq debut, as investors book profit amid US share valuation uncertainty (Lee Ying Shan/CNBC) [60d]
• Investigation: Western intelligence officials identify a Russian military intelligence unit in Tokyo that smuggles high-tech components for the war in Ukraine (New York Times) [60d]
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the bloc is set to propose a "social media start date for minors", with a proposal after a summer break (Barbara Moens/Financial Times) [60d]
• Sources: Shein is targeting a $40B+ valuation after winning Beijing's approval for a Hong Kong IPO, set for as early as Q3; Shein canceled its US IPO in 2024 (Wall Street Journal) [60d]
• How a Denmark-based research team is using quantum computers to accelerate AI protein discovery, showing a near-term commercial application for the quantum tech (Isabella Ward/Wired) [60d]
• A look back at the 2007 heist of a Verizon data center in London, highlighting the role of physical data security as cyber defenses grow more sophisticated (Nathaniel Rich/New York Times) [60d]
• Munich-based defense tech startup Helsing raised a $1.8B Series E from Dragoneer, Iconiq, and others at an $18B valuation; Germany made a €270M order this year (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg) [60d]
• Docs: Uber lobbied for a "phased transition" to AVs, giving it an edge over self-driving developers; Uber says AV industry proposals overlook drivers' rights (Aarian Marshall/Wired) [60d]
• Eating disorder therapists say patients are increasingly using AI chatbots for advice, while AI also appears to be directing more patients to helplines (Julie Jargon/Wall Street Journal) [60d]
• A look at ADI Predictstreet's troubled launch, marked by tiny trading volumes, withdrawal bugs, and other issues, as it tried to challenge Kalshi and Polymarket (Wall Street Journal) [60d]
• A Taiwanese minister says TSMC plans two more advanced chip packaging plants in Chiayi Science Park, with all four expected to generate $9.35B+ in annual output (Wen-Yee Lee/Reuters) [60d]
• Open weight AI models are facing an existential policy test in the US, with Anthropic leading a campaign against Chinese models over distillation concerns (Nathan Lambert/Interconnects AI) [60d]
• How museums are using AI chatbots to reach new audiences, as some museum staff worry AI-generated inaccuracies and bias could undermine them as trusted sources (Naomi Rea/Financial Times) [61d]
• A profile of Asha Sharma, an outsider elevated by Satya Nadella to lead Xbox, where she made sweeping job cuts and shed game studios within her first few months (Financial Times) [61d]
• Memo: Tang Jie, founder of Z.ai, the Chinese lab behind the GLM models, argues frontier AI capabilities should stay "as open and widely accessible as possible" (Bloomberg) [61d]