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

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

⚔️ Amazon’s new TorchNeuron tool is its boldest challenge to NVIDIA yet.
⚠️ Untrustworthy frontier models turn AI agents into insider threats, Microsoft warns.
🤝 Anthropic & Nscale reportedly close to striking a second $45B compute deal.
🚀 Musk vows to give every American kid one of his SpaceX shares.
🔥 Social unrest is fueling fiery street protests from France to Albania.

TECHNOLOGY

• Amazon’s new TorchNeuron tool is its boldest challenge to NVIDIA yet (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Economic Times, Business Standard}}

  • The tool lets AI apps built with PyTorch run on Amazon’s Trainium chips with one configuration change.

  • Amazon says about 85% of AI apps use PyTorch, which NVIDIA spent years tuning CUDA to support.

  • AWS says Trainium users get its full cloud, an edge over neoclouds like CoreWeave that rely on NVIDIA.

• Untrustworthy frontier models turn AI agents into insider threats, Microsoft warns (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: The Verge, TechCrunch, TOI}}

  • Microsoft unveiled Guardian Agents on Monday, a new security feature built to monitor companies’ own AI agents.

  • The feature is part of Project Perception, Microsoft’s June response to hacking models like Anthropic’s Mythos.

  • The product was built to defend against outside attackers, but CEO Satya Nadella now warns deployed agents could go rogue.

• Hackers breach AI coding tool OpenCode, racking up users’ AI bills (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • Attackers hit an older system, affecting 1.4% of users on OpenCode Console, where some store their API keys.

  • OpenCode blamed a large-scale distillation attack, though skeptics argue it was a simple breach with unproven motives.

  • Developers reported spending alerts across OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google accounts, with a few totals topping $1k.

BUSINESS

• Anthropic & Nscale reportedly close to striking a second $45B compute deal (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!, Reuters}}

  • Bloomberg says the pact would follow a $45B agreement struck last month, though details could still change.

  • The deal would extend Anthropic’s compute spree, despite some investors fearing that spending far outpaces profits.

  • Both firms are eyeing IPOs, though Nscale reportedly faces investor pushback over its proposed $30B valuation.

• Musk vows to give every American kid one of his SpaceX shares (AP)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, WSJ, TechCrunch}}

  • At SpaceX’s current $146 share price, the 2027 gift would top $10B, roughly 1% of his net worth.

  • Details remain unclear, though Treasury-run Trump Accounts for children can accept stock donations from wealthy donors.

  • Musk’s pledge came hours after he urged Anthropic to give its 5% share donation directly to the public.

• Amazon backs 12 small nuclear reactors on a former Indiana coal site (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • AEP would operate the 960-megawatt plant, feeding the public grid while also serving Amazon’s data centers.

  • Amazon’s second X-energy deal is three times larger than the first, advancing their five-gigawatt goal for 2039.

  • The timeline hinges on X-energy’s first plant at Texas’s Seadrift site, where construction hasn’t even started.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Social unrest is fueling fiery street protests from France to Albania (AP)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, CNBC}}

  • Rising fuel costs, declining public services, and a housing crisis have driven weeks of protests across major cities.

  • The unrest comes as top EU economies near key elections and far-right parties gain ground in Germany.

  • Right-wing politicians have seized on the chaos, with Trump blaming migrants, though France’s protests appear broad-based.

• Alberta votes on leaving Canada, but separatism may outlive an expected defeat (BBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Japan Times}}

  • An Angus Reid poll shows 66% of Albertans plan to vote to stay in Canada.

  • Separatists say federal environmental policies hurt Alberta’s oil sector, and many would rather pressure Ottawa than secede.

  • The vote adds pressure on Prime Minister Mark Carney, who faces U.S. tariffs and Trump’s calls for a 51st state.

• Seoul vows firm punishment if North Korea follows through on border threats (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Japan Times}}

  • Pyongyang threatened to deploy more tactical strike weapons along the border and resume loudspeaker broadcasts toward the South.

  • Seoul’s Defense Ministry called its own broadcasts and warning shots near the demarcation line legitimate defensive measures.

  • Analysts warn of risks of military clashes, as the escalation undercuts President Lee Jae Myung’s early diplomatic gains.

FUTURISM

• Merz urges German businesses to embrace AI as NVIDIA unveils new investments (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Tech Buzz}}

  • NVIDIA will back Agile Robots, Avelios Medical, Mirelo, and Reflex Aerospace via a nearly $10B EU commitment.

  • Merz singled out small and midsize firms, encouraging them to put their data to work with AI.

  • NVIDIA is expanding industrial AI work with the German government, while Siemens widened its partnership on autonomous factories.

• Police seize robot after streamers use it to sexually harass a teen (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: CNN, Mashable}}

  • Cologne police say the robot allegedly touched a 16-year-old girl inappropriately during a livestream on Twitch.

  • The Unitree robot belongs to a teenage streamer who has filmed it bothering strangers, mostly women, for weeks.

  • Clips show the robot walking normally down a busy sidewalk before veering straight into one of the girls.

• Rivian’s CEO says autonomy will make radically new vehicle designs possible (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • Rivian is pushing hard on autonomous software for its EVs, even if it means delaying profitability.

  • Automakers made similar promises a decade ago, but concepts like Hyundai’s walking car never moved beyond prototypes.

  • This time, real robotaxis already operate in multiple cities, and EV components have gotten cheaper.

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CONTENT

• Will AI replace designers? Figma’s Dylan Field calls design the new code (All-In Podcast)

  • The Figma CEO revisits the company’s origins and the antitrust fight that blocked Adobe’s $20B acquisition bid.

  • He addresses fears of a SaaS apocalypse as frontier AI companies move into Figma’s territory.

  • Field argues taste and boldness win in the AI era, and explores human agency alongside AI’s promise.

• Seed investing now takes $1B as AI makes entry price matter less (20VC)

  • Bessemer partner Sameer Dholakia explains how the firm backed Anthropic at $15B despite it being its lowest-voted deal.

  • He weighs whether open models threaten frontier labs and recalls the OpenAI investment he passed on.

  • Dholakia makes the bull case for Legora at $1.8B and explains why capital has become an AI moat.

• Why Plaid’s ex-CTO shut down a $1M startup in the AI era (a16z)

  • Jean-Denis Greze’s tax startup was on track for $2.5M to $3M, but incumbents could automate tax prep first.

  • He pivoted to Town, an email and calendar AI assistant that Ben Horowitz said changed his life.

  • Greze also discusses rivaling OpenAI and Anthropic, his token suppliers, and how agents could reshape shopping.

EXTRAS

• AI is helping fed-up owners turn their smart TVs dumb again (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • Developers are sharing vibe-coded tools like dumbtv and cleanyourtv that remove ads, disable tracking, and speed up launchers.

  • Modern TVs track viewing via automatic content recognition, which uses screenshots, audio clips, and digital fingerprinting.

  • Widespread adoption could disrupt the smart TV ad industry, which profits from selling viewing data to advertisers.

• Apple’s new rules ban nudify apps posing as harmless ones during review (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: Mashable, TechCrunch}}

  • The rules also ban apps using AI to create offensive content and require stronger moderation of user posts.

  • Apple will remove apps that add features missing from the version submitted for App Store review.

  • Apple also strengthened legal language barring apps that promote human trafficking or child exploitation.

• Tenstorrent reaches $6.2B valuation as it scales chips for open-weight AI (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Tech Buzz}}

  • The $1.5B round, led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, more than doubles Tenstorrent’s late 2024 valuation.

  • The company passed on reported interest from Intel and Qualcomm after its Galaxy servers successfully ran DeepSeek models.

  • Tenstorrent joins a wave of NVIDIA challengers like Etched, which reportedly fielded offers at valuations above $40B.

AND MORE

• Alibaba backs a Chinese robovan maker in its $400M funding round.

• Mamdani says Washington abandoned AI oversight, urges New Yorkers to push back.

• Athyna: Hire vetted LATAM engineers and save up to 70% on salary costs.*

• Walmart’s Flipkart is quietly preparing a food delivery rival in India.

• Software upgrades consume nearly a third of corporate IT budgets, survey shows.

• Replika’s founder builds the AI assistant she pitched at Disrupt in 2016.

• Philadelphia police handcuff a 78-year-old woman for blocking a delivery robot.