Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

🗣️ Amazon CEO wants to put ads in your Alexa+ conversations.
💰 Female-founded semiconductor AI startup SixSense raises $8.5M in Series A.
🤖 Big Tech breaks the bank for AI, but investors love it.
📈 Apple projects tariff costs will hit $1.1B in the next quarter.
⚖️ Trump escalates trade war with Canada following its Palestine stance.

TECHNOLOGY

• Amazon CEO wants to put ads in your Alexa+ conversations

  • Amazon plans to introduce AI-generated ads into Alexa+ conversations to enhance product discovery and drive revenue.

  • Alexa+ now reaches millions, offering agent-like voice features to rival AI assistants from Google and OpenAI.

  • Amazon may expand Alexa+ pricing tiers, including a possible ad-free option beyond Prime and $20 subscriptions.

• Epic wins Google lawsuit again, and Android may never be the same

  • Ninth Circuit Court upholds Epic's 2023 victory, declaring Google's app store an illegal monopoly.

  • Google must now crack open Android for third-party stores per a permanent injunction ruling.

  • Epic announces plans to launch its own app store within the Google Play Store.

• Female-founded semiconductor AI startup SixSense raises $8.5M in Series A

  • SixSense’s AI platform detects semiconductor defects in real time to boost manufacturing efficiency.

  • The company secured $8.5 million in Series A funding led by Peak XV’s Surge.

  • Founded by engineers in 2018 to turn raw production data into actionable factory insights.

BUSINESS

• Big Tech breaks the bank for AI, but investors love it

  • Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet report strong revenue growth driven by AI demand.

  • Despite current capacity shortages, companies are ramping up capital spending to meet soaring AI services demand.

  • AI is emerging as the primary growth engine with strong investor confidence despite massive infrastructure spending.

• Apple projects tariff costs will hit $1.1B in the next quarter

  • Apple expects $1.1 billion in tariff costs this quarter, up from $800 million last quarter.

  • Tariffs stem mainly from IEEPA and a U.S.-China agreement imposing duties up to 30%.

  • Despite rising costs, iPhone sales rose 13%, generating $44.5 billion in quarterly revenue.

• Trump escalates trade war with Canada following its Palestine stance

  • Trump threatens 35% tariffs on Canadian goods if no agreement is reached by the August 1 deadline.

  • Canada's support for Palestinian statehood makes the trade deal "very hard," according to Trump's statement.

  • Canada is the second-largest US trading partner, worth over $760 billion in bilateral trade annually.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Japanese retail traders pile bearish Nikkei bets, raising market doubts

  • Japanese retail investors increase bearish bets despite stocks soaring to new record highs recently.

  • Contrarian behavior among individual investors highlights doubts about the current rally's staying power.

  • Analysts trace bearish mindset to decades of equity underperformance from yen strength and deflation.

• India's Royal Enfield maker, hit by a rare earth shortage, secures an alternative

  • Eicher Motors faced a rare earth magnet shortage, disrupting Royal Enfield motorcycle production in Q1.

  • The company successfully switched to alternative materials after working on solutions for several months.

  • Eicher reported stronger-than-expected profits despite production disruptions from Chinese export restrictions.

• China factory activity unexpectedly shrinks in private poll, raising economic concerns

  • China's manufacturing PMI fell to 49.5 in July from 50.4 in June, unexpectedly.

  • Private survey shows contraction below the 50 threshold compared to economists’ forecasts of 50.2.

  • Manufacturing decline adds to worrying signs about China's economic momentum going forward.

CONTENT

• O'Driscoll and Lemkin discuss why Apple needs a management overhaul and Google's progress

  • Scale's Rory O'Driscoll and SaaS investor Jason Lemkin analyze major tech company strategies.

  • Discussion covers Apple's AI problems and whether the company needs significant management changes.

  • The conversation explores Microsoft versus Google versus Amazon competition in the AI infrastructure market dominance.

• Jonathan Swerdlin and Daniel Cahn explore how founders are reimagining healthcare

  • A16z's Bryan Kim interviews founders about using AI to transform healthcare and mental health.

  • Discussion covers building trust in consumer health products outside traditional medical system frameworks.

  • Conversation explores creating AI that supports rather than replaces doctors and therapists effectively.

• Chaz and Arnie Englander discuss building a billion-dollar company with ten people

  • Brothers started Model ML after building and selling two previous Y Combinator companies successfully.

  • Their AI-powered workspace for financial services is used by 10% of top investment banks.

  • Platform automates client presentations and research using AI agents that work like expert team members.

FUTURISM

• Robots emerge as new driver for China's tech rally with 75% jump

  • Chinese robotics stocks have surged 75% over the past year, quadrupling gains in the CSI 300 Index.

  • Dazzling robot performances at the Shanghai conference and $6,000 humanoid launch spark fresh investor enthusiasm.

  • The robotics sector attracts market attention as investors seek new catalysts beyond DeepSeek AI advances.

• OpenAI to build its first European data centre in Norway

  • OpenAI launches first European Stargate data center in Norway with Aker and Nscale partners.

  • The $1 billion facility will initially install 100,000 Nvidia processors with potential tenfold expansion.

  • The data center near Narvik will be fully powered by renewable hydropower energy sources.

• Ford to reveal more about its new low-cost electric vehicles

  • Ford will reveal details about upcoming low-cost electric vehicles at the Kentucky event on August 11.

  • CEO Jim Farley calls the announcement a ‘Model T moment’ despite the EV division losing $1.3 billion.

  • The first vehicle will be a mid-size pickup truck launching in 2027 from a Tesla executive-led skunkworks team.

EXTRAS

• Tesla Autopilot plaintiffs seek $345M in damages over fatal Florida crash

  • Plaintiffs request $345 million total, including $109 million in compensatory and $236 million punitive damages.

  • A fatal Autopilot crash occurred in Florida in 2019, leading to the current personal injury trial.

  • Tesla blames driver behavior, while plaintiffs claim Autopilot technology was flawed and deceptively marketed.

• Enterprises prefer Anthropic’s AI models over OpenAI’s and anyone else’s

  • Anthropic now leads the enterprise AI market with a 32% share, overtaking OpenAI's 25% share.

  • OpenAI's enterprise market share dropped dramatically from 50% two years ago to 25% today.

  • Anthropic dominates coding applications with 42% enterprise share, more than double OpenAI's 21% share.

• Figma IPO surge can't be the new norm on Wall Street

  • Jim Cramer warns that Figma's enormous first-day trading spike signals dangerous market froth conditions.

  • Design software company's shares more than tripled during market debut, finishing up 250 percent.

  • Cramer calls Figma solid but overvalued, hoping this enthusiasm won't become the market norm.

AND MORE

• July jobs report expected to show labor market slowing to crawl.

• Apple has sold 3B iPhones since the product was launched in 2007.

• Labubus is getting US consumers hooked on Pop Mart, driving business.

• Memo readers don’t just scroll—they act. They forward, they buy, they share. Let’s put your brand in that flow.*

• Southwest replaces chairman after less than one year in the job.

• Reddit revenue soars as it bets on AI and advertising growth.

• How wealthy yacht buyers plan to avoid the European tariffs completely.

• Guidde revolutionizes how you document and share processes with AI-powered how-to videos.*

• Uber Eats now lets merchants message customers about their orders directly.