The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• Sources: Anthropic has signed a $35B cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda; Nvidia will hold the lease on and supply chips to a Texas data center built by Hut 8 (Anissa Gardizy/Wall Street Journal) [10d]
• Florida says it is revoking permits for Flock cameras and similar license-plate readers on state roads and no longer intends to issue such permits (Ryan Gillespie/Orlando Sentinel) [10d]
• Filing: Apple claims a former iPhone engineer used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his work at OpenAI, evidence is being destroyed, and more (Chance Miller/9to5Mac) [10d]
• Sources: AI sales and marketing startup Clay is raising a round led by Wellington at a $7B pre-money valuation, up from $5B via an employee tender in January (Lucinda Shen/Axios) [10d]
• The Pentagon launches ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government on its GenAI.mil platform, giving its 3M personnel access to AI tools "tailored to warfighter needs" (Kirsten Korosec/TechCrunch) [10d]
• Amazon says the FTC's complaint over Sponsored Ads cites no evidence of consumer price increases or advertiser harm, and misunderstands how advertisers operate (About Amazon) [10d]
• Sources: Polymarket will raise $1B led by 1789 Capital at a $21B post-money valuation; Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 and adviser to Polymarket (Amanda L. Gordon/Bloomberg) [10d]
• The FTC and 22 state AGs sue Amazon, alleging it "secretly and systematically overcharged" advertisers more than $20B since 2019 by using "hidden surcharges" (Annie Palmer/CNBC) [10d]
• On his last day as CEO, Tim Cook pens an emotional memo reflecting on his time at Apple and says he takes "enormous comfort" in handing the helm to John Ternus (Chance Miller/9to5Mac) [10d]
• Sources: the FTC and 20+ state AGs plan to sue Amazon for allegedly making tens of billions over seven years by manipulating ad prices on its retail platform (Dave Michaels/Wall Street Journal) [10d]
• Sony launches Live TV on PS5 in the US, letting users stream 100+ free, ad-supported TV channels with content from Amazon MGM Studios, Crunchyroll, and more (Kris Holt/Engadget) [10d]
• Trump says communities that reject data centers will end up "backwards and poor" and that "China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement" (Cheyanne M. Daniels/Politico) [10d]
• Reframe, which uses AI and industrial robot arms to make modular homes in a factory, raised a $40M Series A extension round led by Energy Impact Partners (Rocket Drew/The Information) [10d]
• Sources: Hyperliquid is in talks to enter the US market through Kraken parent Payward, weeks after Trump said he was working to bring the platform onshore (Bloomberg) [10d]
• Gurman: Apple is moving App Store to services unit run by Eddy Cue, who previously oversaw it until 2015; Cue is taking on a more influential role under Ternus (Chance Miller/9to5Mac) [10d]
• The Trump administration launches Project Watershed 250, a six-month cybersecurity pilot to protect Texas water systems from cyberattacks (Fox News) [10d]
• Sources: Phil Schiller stepped down from his role leading the App Store and product events; he will remain at Apple to work on unspecified initiatives (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [10d]
• a16z says its fifth growth fund has closed additional capital, bringing its total to $8.5B (Andreessen Horowitz) [10d]
• The UK unveils a £100M Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme for domestic AI startups focused on public services, amid growing opposition to Palantir contracts (Jim Pickard/Financial Times) [10d]
• MapQuest becomes the top free iPhone app on the App Store in Canada and fourth on the US App Store after refusing to change Lake Ontario to Lake America (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors) [10d]
• Sources: South Korea's dismissal of a US congressional report saying it discriminated against US-based Coupang is causing strains between the two countries (Justin Papp/CNBC) [10d]
• Together AI, which serves open models, announces a deal to use compute from Humain in Saudi Arabia, where it can bypass US backlash over data centers (Niko Gallogly/New York Times) [10d]
• Former NY GOP Rep. George Santos receives Kalshi's first lifetime ban after the CFTC alleged he made $17K by betting on his appearance at the State of the Union (Brian Schwartz/Wall Street Journal) [10d]
• Interior Secretary says President Trump "reached out to Apple directly" about changing Lake Ontario to Lake America and the company may soon alter its maps (Reuters) [10d]
• Sources: CXMT has begun producing HBM3E memory chips in small quantities and plans to expand production in 2027, a major advance for China's chip industry (The Information) [10d]
• Instagram says it will reduce the reach of accounts featuring AI-generated personas if they don't use a new "AI-generated profile" label (Karissa Bell/Engadget) [10d]
• OpenAI says its advertising business has hit $1B in annualized revenue run rate, touting its "diversified business model" ahead of an expected IPO (Ashley Capoot/CNBC) [10d]
• Nvidia plans to invest $3.5B into MediaTek through convertible bonds; MediaTek forecasts AI chip revenue of about $2B this year (Bloomberg) [10d]
• Filing: Tencent-backed AI chipmaker Enflame prices its Shanghai IPO at ~$21 per share, aiming to sell 43M shares and raise ~$911M (Bloomberg) [10d]
• A Chinese court froze up to $300M of assets held by Dutch chipmaker Nexperia, giving its Chinese parent company Wingtech leverage in its bid to regain control (Eduardo Baptista/Reuters) [10d]
• Huawei reports H1 2026 revenue up 10% YoY to ~$69.57B, with net income down 36% to $3.54B; it is now the top smartphone brand in China with a 20%+ market share (Bloomberg) [10d]
• Z.ai reports H1 2026 revenue up 400% to ~$142M, below its $200M projection; Z.ai's market value surged 800% since its January listing, peaking at $137B (Bloomberg) [10d]
• The Hugging Face and Mythos 5 incidents show AI agents can self-organize, raising questions about how much agency they should have and when to seek human input (Ethan Mollick/One Useful Thing) [11d]
• The EU designates ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox as very large online platforms after each hit 45M monthly users in the bloc, opening them up to more DSA scrutiny (Gian Volpicelli/Bloomberg) [11d]
• Sources: Google approached Disney, Universal, and other studios to license characters and films for its AI tools, but legal and union concerns stalled deals (Wendy Lee/Los Angeles Times) [11d]
• Bank of England Governor warns that advanced AI could destabilize the highly interconnected global financial system via cyber disruption across jurisdictions (Simon Goodley/The Guardian) [11d]
• A look at Pangram, the AI detector at the center of disputed accusations against writers, including a pulled novel and a Commonwealth Prize-winning short story (Elaine Moore/Financial Times) [11d]
• Big Tech reported Q2 "other income" rose significantly to $160B+, driven by investments in AI companies, raising concerns of paper gains overstating the AI boom (Financial Times) [11d]
• Sources: OpenAI starts letting some major customers pay only when its AI completes tasks, as Salesforce and other AI providers test outcome-based pricing (The Information) [11d]
• OpenClaw releases OpenClaw 2.0, its largest update to date built by 933 contributors, with a simplified installation process, a rebuilt browser app, and more (Hannes Rudolph/OpenClaw Blog) [11d]
• IPO documents: SoftBank's SB Energy plans to file for an IPO as soon as this week, aiming to raise $5B to $7B, and has awarded OpenAI warrants worth ~$5.5B (Anissa Gardizy/Wall Street Journal) [11d]
• Shein raised $1.7B in its Hong Kong IPO, giving it a $26B market cap, far below its ~$100B valuation in 2022, as growth slows amid tariffs and competition (Charlotte Yang/Bloomberg) [11d]
• Taiwanese authorities raided the office of PCB maker Unimicron, an Nvidia and Intel supplier, alleging it illegally labeled China-made parts as made in Taiwan (Cheng Ting-Fang/Nikkei Asia) [11d]
• Google updates Maps to show Lake America for US users, Lake Ontario for Canadian users, and both for the rest of the world, citing the US GNIS' name change (Associated Press) [11d]
• The US-led AI boom is offsetting the global growth squeeze from the energy crunch; ING says the boom accounts for about a third of recent US economic growth (Jason Douglas/Wall Street Journal) [11d]
• Chip design startup Agentrys has raised a $19.1M seed round led by Etna Labs and a $5.4M pre-seed led by MediaTek (Chris Metinko/Axios) [11d]