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

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

📰 Seattle Times & Newsday are the latest to sue OpenAI & Microsoft.
🏔️ Mount Shasta hikers rescued after relying on Gemini for trip planning.
🪙 Bitcoin-based Liquid Network says $320M withdrawn in federation wallet hack.
💰 AI infrastructure company Nscale seeks $3.5B in financing ahead of IPO.
⚔️ Iran sets up economic war headquarters & warns of painful retaliation.

TECHNOLOGY

• Seattle Times & Newsday become the latest publications to sue OpenAI & Microsoft (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, The Verge, Mashable}}

  • The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming AI could leave journalism "broken beyond repair."

  • The lawsuit called AI "a snake eating its own tail" that consumes journalism to produce commercial imitations.

  • This follows The New York Times' 2023 lawsuit against OpenAI, despite Microsoft and OpenAI funding projects for The Seattle Times.

• Mount Shasta hikers rescued after relying on Google Gemini for trip planning (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, LA Times, FOX}}

  • Three hikers were rescued from Mount Shasta after using Gemini to plan a hike that went badly wrong.

  • The group reached the summit at seven p.m., far past the noon turnaround time hikers are advised to follow.

  • The sheriff's office said Gemini told hikers to pack far less food and water than they actually needed.

• Huawei & Xiaomi to launch new flagship phones before foldable iPhone debut (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Business Standard, Straits Times, CNBC}}

  • Huawei will unveil the Mate XT 2, its ultra-premium trifold device with two folding mechanisms, on September 7.

  • The Mate XT 2 will be the first phone to feature Huawei's new LogicFolding chip design philosophy.

  • Xiaomi's 18 Fold launches the same evening, running on domestic CXMT memory and Xiaomi's self-developed Xring O3 processor.

BUSINESS

• Bitcoin-based Liquid Network says $320M withdrawn in federation wallet hack (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: AOL, Business Times}}

  • Liquid Network said about $320M was withdrawn from its federation wallet by what it called purported white-hat hackers.

  • Roughly 4k of the 4.2k bitcoin held in the Liquid Federation wallet were taken in the incident.

  • The network halted new transactions, noting funds moved via SideSwap, though the key used was not compromised.

• AI infrastructure company Nscale seeks $3.5B in financing ahead of IPO (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Business Times, TechCrunch, Tech in Asia}}

  • Nscale, a British AI infrastructure firm, may go public this month and is seeking $3.5B in additional financing.

  • The company is reportedly selling $1.5B in convertible notes while seeking another $2B in financing from NVIDIA.

  • Nscale raised $1.1 B in its Series B in March, and the firm recently signed a $45B deal with Anthropic.

• Authors dispute publisher claims on payouts from Anthropic's $1.5B copyright settlement (NY Times)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch}}

  • Authors received emails this week revealing that others were claiming shares of their Anthropic copyright settlement payments.

  • The settlement pays $3k per pirated title, split 50-50 with publishers only for in-print books.

  • Writers report publishers claiming reverted-rights titles or full payments, which observers attribute to poor recordkeeping.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Iran sets up economic war headquarters & warns of painful retaliation (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: TOI, Straits Times}}

  • Iran's Economy Ministry established an Economic War Headquarters to address problems caused by crippling U.S. sanctions.

  • Parliament speaker Qalibaf warned that further attacks would draw a faster, heavier and more painful response.

  • U.S. forces struck three Iranian vessels after the IRGC fired ballistic missiles at two Navy ships.

• China enlists tobacco giant to help recapitalize state banks & insurers (SCMP)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, Nikkei, Crypto Briefing}}

  • State lenders and insurers will receive a combined 360B yuan ($53.6B) from institutions led by the Finance Ministry.

  • China's tobacco giant is also contributing, marking the first time Beijing has extended recapitalization to insurers.

  • The move follows deteriorating solvency at insurers, though the package was smaller than markets had anticipated.

• Nepal marks national day of mourning after floods kill more than 1.3k (AP)
  ^{_{More: Euronews, Seattle Times}}

  • Nepal held a day of mourning Monday for victims of the August 26 floods, with flags lowered nationwide.

  • More than 1.3k people died in Nepal and Tibet, with roughly 5k still missing, including foreign nationals.

  • Monday marked the 13th day of Hindu mourning rites, with some families holding symbolic funerals without bodies.

FUTURISM

• Travis Kalanick's Atoms may be steering toward robotaxis after $1.7B raise (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Financial Times, PYMNTS, TNW}}

  • Atoms raised $1.7B in an Andreessen Horowitz-led round this summer, with Kalanick staying vague about plans.

  • The Financial Times reports that Atoms is planning hiring sprees and acquisitions to become a major player in autonomous vehicles.

  • Atoms has reportedly discussed its robotaxi technology with Uber, which already invested $100M in the startup.

• CD sales rebound sharply in 2026 amid renewed interest in retro tech (Tom's Hardware)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Inc., Reuters}}

  • CDs generated $171.1M in revenue during the first half of 2026, up 58.6% from the same period in 2025.

  • Unit sales rose 45.7% to 17.5M, reversing a decline that saw CD revenue drop 7.8% in 2025.

  • The rebound reflects growing Gen Z interest in simpler tech, like dumbphones, landlines, digital cameras, and physical media.

• Google's Gemini Spark can now manage & edit your Photos library (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • Google's personal agent Gemini Spark can now execute tasks inside Google Photos, including editing images and curating albums.

  • Users can also create shared albums, run workflows, and turn concert flyer photos into calendar appointments automatically.

  • The features roll out over the coming weeks to eligible Gemini AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S.

• Hunting for AI roles eats hours across careers pages, internal referrals, group chats, and a dozen overlapping boards*

  • The Athyna AI Job Board does the watching for you and matches openings to your profile in the background.

  • When a role hits a 75% matching index or higher, we notify you with details and a direct apply link.

CONTENT

• Anish Acharya shares why company building now means creating a series of loops (Lenny's Podcast)

  • Anish Acharya, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, argues that company building now revolves around creating loops.

  • He says the biggest consumer opportunity lies in products that simply make users happier.

  • Acharya also contends that moats are discovered rather than designed, with distribution growing more important.

• Speechify's Cliff Weitzman explains why startups should build their own data centers (20VC)

  • Cliff Weitzman co-founded Speechify, an AI text-to-speech platform used by more than 60M people worldwide.

  • He argues that owning compute, rather than renting GPUs, can become a real competitive advantage.

  • Weitzman also says AI has reshaped software engineering, forcing companies to overhaul their talent-hiring processes.

• Dr. Mark Hyman unpacks Function Health, GLP-1s & unreliable lab ranges (This Week in Startups)

  • Function Health analyzes biomarker data at scale, with Hyman citing 100M results showing widespread illness across America.

  • He argues insulin testing offers earlier warning than blood sugar, yet most doctors skip it.

  • The conversation also covers 'normal' lab ranges, GLP-1s, psychedelics, and AI's expanding role in diagnosis.

EXTRAS

• Judge blocks startup from using Twitter name, but allows use of 'tweet' (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • A Delaware court sided with X, barring startup Operation Bluebird from using the "Twitter" trademark for its rival network.

  • The court ruled X had likely abandoned the word 'tweet' and its bird logo, freeing up both names for use.

  • Operation Bluebird rebranded as Tweet.app, though its founders' legal backgrounds suggest they may be after X's trademarks.

• U.S. & China prepare for first dedicated AI safety talks in September (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Japan Times}}

  • U.S. and China plan to discuss AI safety risks in mid-September, according to two briefed sources.

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead the U.S. side in the first bilateral AI talks of Trump's second term.

  • Washington wants joint monitoring of AI-driven cyberattacks, while Beijing sees the dialogue as key to the September 24 summit.

• Volcanic eruption disrupts hundreds of flights at Jakarta's main international airport (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: SCMP, AP, BBC}}

  • Indonesia's Mount Anak Krakatau erupted continuously for roughly 25 hours before ending early Sunday morning.

  • Authorities suspended operations at Soekarno-Hatta several times on Sunday as ash spread across the region.

  • Singapore Airlines and Scoot canceled flights, with 167 cancellations recorded at Soekarno-Hatta by Sunday morning.

AND MORE

• Documentarian Alex Gibney unpacks how Elon Musk built his power & influence.

• A closer look at the retro tech quietly making a comeback.

• Roko’s Basilisk skips the buzzwords and cuts straight to what moves markets, products, and careers.*

• Phil Schiller reportedly exited the App Store over concerns about future plans.

• Blackouts drive Sudanese residents toward solar power, though high costs exclude many.

• No young children allowed & other new details about Tesla's Cybercab.

• In praise of the remote control, the tiny box ruling our screens.