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

In today’s edition we are tackling the following:

💧 Apple says more former employees may have leaked trade secrets to OpenAI.
🏛️ White House will exempt Chinese open-weight AI models from U.S. safety testing.
🖥️ Anthropic reportedly strikes $10B compute deal with AI cloud startup Volta.
🛒 Walmart closes its $1.4B purchase of streaming TV ad platform Vibe.co.
💥 Russian missiles & drones hit Kyiv region overnight, killing at least 15.

TECHNOLOGY

• Apple says more former employees may have leaked trade secrets to OpenAI (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: WSJ, PCMag, TechCrunch}}

  • Apple is seeking an injunction to block OpenAI from developing devices built on its technology.

  • A new filing says 11 additional former Apple employees may be involved as witnesses or participants.

  • Apple wants expedited discovery from OpenAI, two accused employees, and Jony Ive's device startup io.

• White House will exempt Chinese open-weight AI models from U.S. safety testing (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Straits Times, SCMP, TechCrunch}}

  • The White House told U.S. AI firms that Chinese open-weight models will skip government safety testing.

  • Officials delivered the decision at a closed-door meeting on August 4 with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

  • The unreleased framework stems from Trump's June executive order creating voluntary reviews of cutting-edge models.

• Android apps may leak precise user location to advertisers without developers knowing (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Tech Buzz}}

  • Some Android apps share users' precise location with advertisers and data brokers without developers realizing it.

  • Third-party SDKs embedded in apps inherit granted permissions and collect location data unless developers switch it off.

  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation urges app makers to disable unnecessary data collection wherever they can.

BUSINESS

• Anthropic reportedly strikes $10B compute deal with AI cloud startup Volta (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Tech in Asia, Economic Times, TechCrunch}}

  • Bloomberg reports Volta will supply Anthropic with cloud compute over six years for $10B.

  • Crypto miner Bitdeer will help build the Norway data center, delivering 133 megawatts of capacity.

  • The facility will run on NVIDIA's Vera Rubin systems; Volta joined the chipmaker's cloud partner program.

• Musk overshadowed his own executives throughout SpaceX's first public earnings call (ABC)
  ^{_{More: Business Insider, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Musk floated sweeping claims on SpaceX's debut earnings call while executives worked to ground them.

  • The pattern mirrors Tesla, where Musk talks futuristic themes and colleagues handle the actual car business.

  • He predicted Starlink would deliver most of the world's internet within 10 years, citing V3 satellites.

• Walmart closes its $1.4B purchase of streaming TV ad platform Vibe.co (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Walmart, PYMNTS}}

  • Walmart finished buying Vibe.co on Tuesday, folding it into its Walmart Connect advertising platform.

  • The Wall Street Journal reported Walmart paid $1.4B for the deal, announced back in June.

  • Vibe.co lets small and medium brands run streaming TV campaigns across multiple publishers.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Russian missiles & drones hit Kyiv region overnight, killing at least 15 (BBC)
  ^{_{More: Euronews, AP, Reuters}}

  • Overnight strikes on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed at least 15 people and wounded 42.

  • 14 of the deaths occurred outside the capital, with fires in Brovary, Bucha, and Fastiv districts.

  • Ukraine's limited Patriot interceptor stockpile makes stopping such large ballistic missile volleys increasingly difficult.

• Fuego volcano keeps spewing ash & mud as Guatemala shelters 1.7k evacuees (AP)
  ^{_{More: ABC, BBC}}

  • About 1.7k people remain in Guatemalan shelters after Fuego volcano erupted Monday, disaster agency CONRED said.

  • Red alerts cover three regions where ashfall affects roughly 29k people and schools stay closed.

  • Officials called the next 72 hours critical as rain could worsen mudflows reaching seven kilometers.

• India moves closer to reinstating merchant fees on UPI digital payments (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: TOI, Crypto Briefing}}

  • Payment law changes introduced in parliament Tuesday would permit merchant fees on UPI transactions again.

  • Sources say the government is weighing 0.3% to 0.5% fees on payments above 2k rupees.

  • UPI processed 23.6B transactions worth 29.9T rupees ($313.5B) in July, official data shows.

FUTURISM

• Runware bets on portable data centers with its new Sonic Inference Pod (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Crypto Briefing, Tech Buzz}}

  • Runware launched Sonic Inference Pod, a transportable modular data center built for AI inference workloads.

  • The company says adding pods scales capacity faster and cheaper than expanding fixed data centers.

  • Pods use closed-loop cooling instead of water and can be built within days, not years.

• Waymo drops the waitlist, making its Dallas robotaxi service open to everyone (CNET)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Morningstar}}

  • Waymo scrapped its Dallas waitlist, letting any resident or visitor hail a robotaxi immediately.

  • Rides to Dallas Love Field Airport remain unavailable while Waymo continues testing its vehicles there.

  • Avis Budget Group manages Waymo's electric Jaguar I-Pace fleet, handling depot charging and maintenance.

• A TV Time co-founder builds Bingers to replace the shuttered TV-tracking app (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: 9to5Mac, Yahoo!}}

  • Antonio Pinto, a TV Time co-founder, built Bingers to track shows and movies after the shutdown.

  • Owner Whip Media closed TV Time to focus on AI, despite 26.4M lifetime installs.

  • More than 28k users signed a petition urging Whip Media to save the app, unsuccessfully.

• Explore the essential startup reading database*

  • Learning from the best is how you become the best. We've curated a list of top-notch articles, blogs, and readings that are pivotal for startup founders.

  • And here's the kicker: we've organized it all in a user-friendly Notion database for easy access and tracking. Double win!

  • As aspiring leaders and innovators, this list serves as a bridge to absorbing the knowledge that has propelled others to success.

CONTENT

• Gavin Baker explains why markets are mispricing AI after July's selloff (Invest Like The Best)

  • Baker calls July 2026's AI and semiconductor selloff "2022 packed into a single month."

  • He argues public market panic clashes with strong fundamentals, including rising hyperscaler cash flows and GPU prices.

  • The conversation covers memory supply agreements, NVIDIA's strategy, SpaceX data centers, and AI compute regulation.

• Waymo's Dmitri Dolgov says the demo is only 1% of the work (Y Combinator)

  • Waymo's first demo took 18 months, but building a real product took 15 years.

  • The Waymo Driver now runs 500k weekly trips across 15 cities and 4M autonomous miles.

  • Dolgov cited 17 times fewer serious-injury crashes and shared seven lessons at Startup School 2026.

• Dr. Max Krummel explains immune function & the habits that strengthen it (Andrew Huberman)

  • UCSF immunologist Max Krummel explains how sleep, emotions, and memories shape immune system function.

  • The conversation covers thymus function, its role in autoimmunity, and its potential against cancer.

  • They also discuss how immunization type and timing affect health across all ages and conditions.

EXTRAS

• Texas will require audits for all new data center projects, says governor (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Axios, USA Today, NBC}}

  • Governor Greg Abbott said all new Texas data centers must be audited by PUCT and ERCOT.

  • ERCOT's connection queue more than doubled this year to 474 gigawatts, roughly 90% from data centers.

  • That queue exceeds five times ERCOT's peak demand, though many proposals never actually get built.

• GM & SAIC extend their China joint venture through 2047 amid tensions (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Bloomberg, WSJ}}

  • General Motors and SAIC Motor extended their Chinese joint venture by 20 years, through 2047.

  • The venture will sell Buick and Cadillac in China and export China-built Chevrolets to non-U.S. markets.

  • The deal lands as Chinese automakers surge and buyers move away from legacy Western brands.

• A razor-thin Michigan Senate primary tests where U.S. Democrats are heading (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: WSJ, Politico}}

  • Progressive Abdul El-Sayed holds a narrowing lead over Representative Haley Stevens in Michigan's Senate primary.

  • Stevens gained ground as votes were counted in Detroit, Flint, and other heavily Black communities.

  • The result could shape Democratic strategy heading into 2028, with Stevens backed by Black Caucus groups.

AND MORE

• EON wants to move internet traffic from undersea cables to space lasers.

• Lawyers say the Justice Department knew the Reflecting Pool case was flawed.

• Hire vetted LATAM engineers in as little as five days, and save up to 70% on salary costs.*

• Spotify tops 300M subscribers for the first time, reaching 777M monthly users.

• Europe's heatwave has not deterred Asian travelers from booking holidays.

• Wrinkles is an app that surfaces hidden stories about nearby places.

• A 'Baby iPhone' & supplier leak explain China's recent supply chain moves.

• Hackers stole more than $130M by exploiting an offline hardware wallet bug.