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

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

🌎 Amazon's planned data center could become America's biggest climate polluter.
🎬 X replaces revenue-sharing program with new Original Content Rewards system.
💰 Berkshire's new CEO Greg Abel spends big from the company's massive.
🤖 Chesky says Airbnb will spend more on AI as stock surges 15%.
⚔️ Taiwan simulates repelling Chinese assault & throttles mobile internet in war games.

TECHNOLOGY

• Amazon's planned Texas data center plant could become America's biggest climate polluter (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: NY Times, The Independent, Mashable}}

  • Amazon's Pecos County, Texas data center will run on an on-site natural gas plant.

  • The plant is permitted to release 33M tons of carbon dioxide annually, more than any other U.S. plant.

  • Amazon's emissions rose 16% last year, straining its pledge to eliminate carbon emissions by 2040.

• X replaces 'misaligned' revenue sharing program with new Original Content Rewards system (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Mashable, Tech in Asia}}

  • X is winding down its Revenue Sharing program and replacing it with Original Content Rewards.

  • Existing participants earn through September 7, then can apply for the new program starting September 8.

  • Applicants need 500 verified followers, 500k Home Timeline impressions, a Premium subscription, and genuinely original content.

• OpenAI slows Astra model development after internal review flags critical cybersecurity risks (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Axios, The Guardian, TOI}}

  • OpenAI suspended work on parts of its upcoming Astra model after an internal review.

  • The model hit OpenAI's critical cybersecurity threshold, meaning it could independently execute attacks on protected systems.

  • Labs rarely disclose such decisions publicly, and OpenAI says Astra wasn't involved in exploiting Hugging Face.

BUSINESS

• Berkshire's new CEO Greg Abel spends big from the company's massive cash pile (AP)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, Fortune, ABC}}

  • Greg Abel invested $10B in Alphabet, Google's parent, and repurchased roughly $4.5B of Berkshire shares.

  • Cash holdings shrank to $365.5B from nearly $400B at the end of March.

  • Berkshire added over $21B in stocks, though Geico's underwriting profits fell 45% in the quarter.

• Chesky says Airbnb will spend more on AI as stock surges 15% (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: NY Post, TechCrunch}}

  • CEO Brian Chesky says Airbnb is ready to spend a lot more on AI tokens.

  • AI gains are measurable, driving more bookings, streamlining host workflows, and reducing customer service costs.

  • Airbnb beat Q2 earnings expectations, raised full-year guidance, and saw its stock surge 15%.

• OpenAI acquires presentation startup NextSlide as team moves to work on ChatGPT (Tech in Asia)
  ^{_{More: TNW, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • NextSlide is joining OpenAI, with the startup's team now working directly on ChatGPT.

  • The startup's product turned prompts, notes, documents, or research into polished, editable presentations.

  • Financial terms were undisclosed, and founder Ahmed Beshry says the deal closed earlier this year.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Taiwan simulates repelling Chinese assault & throttles mobile internet in war games (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Straits Times, AOL, TOI}}

  • Taiwan's military simulated repelling a Chinese air landing assault on the strategically vital Penghu Islands.

  • The military will throttle mobile internet for the first time during the 10-day Han Kuang exercise.

  • Drills rehearse scenarios should China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan, ever seize the island by force.

• Shein scales back Vietnam warehouse experiment as China supply chain regains focus (AOL)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Business Times}}

  • Shein is sharply scaling back Vietnam operations a year after leasing a 15-hectare logistics hub.

  • The end of the U.S. de minimis loophole weakened Vietnam's value as an export base.

  • IPO-bound Shein has pledged over $1.5B toward a Guangdong supply chain as U.S. demand cools.

• North Korean hacking group builds local AI tools to automate cyberattacks (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Straits Times, Japan Times}}

  • Genians says the North Korean-linked group Kimsuky built tools to run AI models locally.

  • The setup allows operators to process stolen documents without sending sensitive information to external AI services.

  • Kimsuky is moving beyond phishing lures toward integrating AI into malware development and attack automation.

FUTURISM

• SpaceX will power Texas Terafab chip plant with natural gas, not solar (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • SpaceX will build natural gas plants and large battery arrays to power its Terafab semiconductor factory.

  • Solar is absent from the plans despite Tesla, a solar developer, partnering on the project.

  • SpaceX plans to buy $2.8B in gas turbines over three years, echoing xAI's Memphis approach.

• Adversarial patterns can stop surveillance cameras from detecting people, vehicles & plates (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Tech Buzz, PCMag}}

  • Bill Swearingen ran 31M tests to generate patterns that block cameras from detecting covered objects.

  • His noRecognition project scrambles detection algorithms, so license plate readers and cameras never trigger identification alerts.

  • Cameras still record footage, but patterns hide people and vehicles from automated tracking across the U.S.

• Cloudflare launches Kitesurf, a cloud-hosted browser built specifically for AI agents (Tech in Asia)
  ^{_{More: TNW, TechCrunch}}

  • Cloudflare launched Kitesurf, a cloud-hosted browser designed for AI agents rather than human users.

  • Agent browsers prioritize context windows, token costs, and scalability over themes, tabs, and extensions.

  • Built in 12 weeks on Cloudflare's Workers platform, Kitesurf is free during its beta period.

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CONTENT

• Cursor's talent head Adam Ward on building elite AI engineering teams (Lenny's Podcast)

  • Cursor talent head Adam Ward has spent over 20 years building high-talent-density teams.

  • He argues the traditional recruiting funnel, his 'funnel of doom,' consistently produces mediocre hires.

  • His playbook covers scoping, mapping, relentless pursuit, and the rise of forward-deployed engineers.

• David Frankel on the AI boom's coming roadkill & who ultimately wins (20VC)

  • Founder Collective's David Frankel backed Uber, Coupang, Suno, PillPack, Airtable, Whoop, and Shield AI.

  • He argues large seed funds break venture economics and defends staying deliberately small and boutique.

  • Conversation covers founder quality in the AI era, ARR benchmarks, and the overlooked promise of physical AI.

• Truffle Security & Socket unpack the growing reality of AI-powered cyberattacks (a16z)

  • Security leaders warn AI models now exploit software vulnerabilities rather than simply discovering them.

  • Discussion spans AI-powered hacking, supply chain attacks, leaked credentials, zero-days, and package manager security.

  • Episode argues 2026 will be the year the software supply chain faces its reckoning.

EXTRAS

• Computer maker Framework notifies all customers after upstream Metabase breach exposed data (CNET)
  ^{_{More: Engadget, TechCrunch, PCMag}}

  • Framework informed all customers that hackers had stolen names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses.

  • The company blamed an upstream cyberattack at Metabase, a business intelligence provider, for the breach.

  • Metabase said hackers exploited an unknown zero-day flaw to access customer databases on its cloud servers.

• Cyclospora outbreak fears drive consumers away from salads & prepackaged greens (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Forbes}}

  • Salad chain traffic has declined as shoppers avoid greens amid ongoing cyclospora outbreaks across the U.S.

  • Dollar sales of prepackaged salads have also plummeted, according to data from NielsenIQ.

  • The FDA blames iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms' central Mexico facility for sickening over 10k people.

• American Airlines ends free coach-to-business upgrades for elites on long domestic flights (Business Insider)
  ^{_{More: CNBC}}

  • American Airlines will stop offering free coach-to-business upgrades for elite flyers on its longest domestic routes.

  • Elites can still upgrade free to business if they bought or paid for premium economy.

  • The move reflects airlines giving away fewer top seats to capitalize on strong demand for premium travel.

AND MORE

• What Unitree is & why China's humanoid-robot makers are rushing to list.

• Jill Lepore warns Silicon Valley misreads science fiction & weakens U.S. democracy.

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

• Kindle Scribe Colorsoft delivers plenty of fun but falls short of essential.

• U.K.'s Burnham vows crackdown on misleading retail discounts & subscription traps.

• A notorious former red-light district has become a leading global AI hub.

• Mercedes AMG drivers file class action over alleged burn hazard in logo.