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

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

🧠 Alibaba unveils new AI chip it calls China's most powerful.
🛒 Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent from making purchases on its site.
🎬 Paramount secures WB Discovery deal after settling state & union lawsuits.
💰 Oura's $2.2B IPO mainly pays out existing shareholders, not the company.
🪖 U.S. plans to open two new military bases in Greenland, sources say.

TECHNOLOGY

• Alibaba unveils new AI chip it calls China's most powerful (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, Business Standard, Yahoo!}}

  • The Zhenwu V900 accelerator triples prior performance and can cluster up to 500k units for training.

  • Alibaba plans to spend more than $53B over three years and target 20 gigawatts of capacity by 2032.

  • Alibaba plans a model with 5T to 10T parameters, contrasting with U.S. calls for slower AI progress.

• Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent from making purchases on its site (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: TOI, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Amazon told Muse users that the AI agent violates its Conditions of Use by accessing unauthorized data.

  • The block reflects rivalry between Amazon's own AI models and Meta's competing agentic shopping ambitions.

  • Amazon may also worry about liability, since Muse's hallucination rate remains far from zero.

• OpenAI forms math advisory group as its AI solves over 100 problems (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, OpenAI}}

  • The group is hosted at the Institute for Advanced Study and aims to represent mathematicians' interests.

  • 25 Fields Medal winners signed a letter warning that AI labs threaten mathematicians' intellectual contributions.

  • Members can offer unsolicited advice and speak publicly, but they cannot slow OpenAI's pace of mathematical research.

BUSINESS

• Paramount secures Warner Bros. Discovery deal after settling state & union lawsuits (LA Times)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Al Jazeera}}

  • Paramount agreed to five-year U.S. theatrical release quotas and a CNN editorial oversight committee.

  • California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the settlement a strong antitrust outcome despite opposing the merger.

  • The Writers Guild also settled but warned the merger will still harm Hollywood jobs and production.

• Oura's $2.2B IPO mainly pays out existing shareholders, not the company (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Existing shareholders are offering 36.5M of the deal's 50M total shares, nearly two-thirds.

  • Forerunner Ventures, an early investor, plans to sell its 9.3% stake for about $1.2B.

  • Oura plans to spend $526.4M of its proceeds on employee tax obligations, leaving little else.

• India's National Stock Exchange IPO draws investors at a valuation above Nasdaq (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters}}

  • The National Stock Exchange's $2.3B IPO attracted total bids exceeding $10B from investors.

  • The offer was 5.7 times oversubscribed on Monday, driven by strong demand from institutional and high-net-worth investors.

  • NSE now trades at a higher price-to-earnings multiple than U.S. exchanges such as Nasdaq and the Intercontinental Exchange.

MARKETS

WORLD

• U.S. plans to open two new military bases in Greenland, sources say (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, CNA}}

  • The bases are located at Narsarsuaq, a former Cold War site, and Mestersvig, a Danish outpost.

  • Denmark, Greenland, and the U.S. are expected to sign the agreement Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly.

  • The agreement's text remains undisclosed, with details still being finalized before Tuesday's signing, sources said.

• Houthis advance on Yemen's highlands after Trump reportedly halts planned airstrikes (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Japan Times, CNA}}

  • Yemen's Saudi-backed president asked Trump by phone for U.S. military help, four sources said.

  • Houthi fighters claimed they struck Riyadh over the weekend for the first time since escalation began.

  • Saudi airstrikes have failed to dislodge Houthi fighters advancing through Yemen's mountainous interior.

• China ousts two top generals from Communist Party over corruption allegations (AP)
  ^{_{More: ABC, Reuters}}

  • Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli held top posts on China's Central Military Commission and Joint Staff Department.

  • State media accused both generals of disloyalty, dishonesty, and accepting enormous bribes for promotions.

  • Their cases go to military prosecutors, part of Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-corruption crackdown on army leadership.

FUTURISM

• Google bets its new $899 Googlebook will lure laptop buyers to Gemini (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Googlebook is now available for preorder, running Android OS with a desktop Chrome browser and ChromeOS elements.

  • The laptop features an AI-powered cursor, vibe-coded widgets, and Rambler, a dictation tool that cleans up rambling text.

  • Google envisions the cursor as a Gemini conduit, letting users highlight text or flag suspicious emails instantly.

• Meta's Muse app is outpacing ChatGPT's early mobile launch, new data shows (AOL)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Apptopia reported that Muse logged 1.8M iOS downloads in the U.S. and Canada, compared with ChatGPT's 1.3M.

  • Muse also has more daily active users than ChatGPT had at a similar early stage, Apptopia noted.

  • Muse has climbed to No. 1 on the U.S. App Store, reaching 2.8M downloads worldwide.

• New video captures what's billed as the first human-robot MMA fight (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: Economic Times}}

  • Robot-fighting company REK had one of its androids spar with TikTok influencer Frankie LaPenna.

  • An announcer called it the first time a human has faced off against a six-foot-tall robot.

  • Humanoid robots have already sparred each other, danced, and outrun elite human sprinters in recent stunts.

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CONTENT

• Daniel Dines on Europe's AI lag & why work processes matter most (20VC)

  • UiPath reached a $44B market cap in 2021 and now generates $1.72B in annual revenue.

  • Dines raised $2B before UiPath's IPO, backed by Sequoia, Accel, CapitalG, Coatue, and Kleiner Perkins.

  • The conversation explores whether AI can replace enterprise workers and why every company needs a 'map of work'.

• Grant Lafontaine built Whatnot's marketplace without buyers or outside sellers first (My First Million)

  • Whatnot grew from 30 sales worth $2.3M in year one to $163M by year two.

  • By year three, Whatnot's sales reached $1B, according to founder Grant Lafontaine's account.

  • Lafontaine discusses early growth tactics, leaving Facebook, and being "disagreeable but likable" as a founder.

• Tania de Jong explains how Australia legalized medical psychedelics first worldwide (Tim Ferriss)

  • Tania de Jong co-founded Mind Medicine Australia and helped legalize MDMA and psilocybin prescriptions in 2023.

  • She discusses building a grassroots movement, recruiting scientific allies, and turning regulatory rejection into approval.

  • The conversation covers integration therapy, scaling patient access, and gathering real-world evidence post-legalization.

EXTRAS

• Zelenskiy to meet Trump at U.N. seeking energy truce with Russia (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: The Independent}}

  • Zelenskiy hopes to secure an energy truce with Russia before winter strikes on heating infrastructure begin.

  • Trump has voiced concern over Ukrainian drone strikes damaging Russian oil refineries amid high gas prices.

  • A prior energy truce collapsed within a day after Russia hit Kyiv fuel stations and Ukraine struck back.

• X will now notify users when governments force it to limit posts (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Gadget Review}}

  • The update expands X's 'Under the Hood' tool, which already showed applied account and post labels.

  • Previously, government-driven downranking information was hidden, fueling frequent accusations that X unfairly had banned users.

  • Users who post 10 times monthly can download their stats as a JSON file.

• Charles Spencer's new book on Diana sparks strong royal backlash (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: AP, Straits Times}}

  • Spencer's new book, published Tuesday, revisits his sister Diana's unhappy marriage to King Charles.

  • Spencer claims King Charles appeared "giddily elated" shortly after Diana's death in 1997.

  • Buckingham Palace pushed back strongly, saying grief can "cloud reason" and affect judgment.

AND MORE

• Google fined $463M for breaching the EU's rule on location data.

• Apple's former store designer doubts Silicon Valley's bet on AI shopping.

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

• Bill Gates urges smart AI use as foundation builds inclusive language data.

• Samsung invests up to $100M in Kairos Power's nuclear reactor for Google.

• Bessent says all Iranian airlines will shut down starting Wednesday

• A former accountant built Tabby, an AI tool that replaces accountants.

• Jamie Dimon predicts hyperscaler AI spending could reach $1T next year.