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Tesla and #SpaceX 🚀 are deepening ties (https://www.theinformation.com/articles/elon-musk-building-terafab-team-inside-tesla?offer=rtsu-engagement-25%2Crtsu-featured-articles-pro&cio_link_id=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__f25baf539a1e92aac8bbdf5f7219971f4a85e2bde90ab7584453ee595c9b6265&utm_campaign=RTSU%3A+N55+Characters&utm_content=13999&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio&utm_term=9699)in a chip push as merger chatter swirls.

New Jersey lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill that would require driverless cars to have lidar — effectively banning Tesla vehicles. #Auto Future https://www.theverge.com/transportation/962309/new-jersey-robotaxi-bill-lidar-tesla?utm_source=snacks&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=snacks_20260709&utm_content=99ee62a9ee4f842c8df663c19004378a

All the talk of “SaaSpocalypses” starts with a core assumption: very soon, “vibecoding” will be able to replace the kinds of sophisticated software solutions on which enterprises once invested millions each year. But is any of this actually TRUE? Consulting firm Bain & Company is reportedly trying to find out. Financial Times reports that B&C are attempting to vibecode their own versions of products from hundreds of potential acquisition targets, to determine both the companies’ long-term value and how their offerings might evolve in the future. The project started with a small team of software engineers in 2023 but has now reportedly exploded, and involves a large number of the firm’s consultants and associates. According to FT, this has already moved out of the theoretical space, and Bain’s vibecoded alternatives are influencing acquisition and investment decisions in real-time. One private equity exec told the paper that they’ve slowed their deal making in light of Bain’s results, and are applying additional scrutiny to any and all SaaS ventures, while an other investor said that they dropped out of the bidding for an analytics company after seeing Bain’s vibecoded mock-up. But not everyone is convinced that the strategy is entirely sound. On X, Chamath Palihapitiya suggested that vibecoding a mock-up of a powerful piece of software doesn’t necessarily give Bain or its clients a deeper or more nuanced understanding of the underlying business or technology. He asks “Do you think vibing the UI of Google search would even scratch the surface of helping you understand the complexity that sits behind it?” Ultimately, Chamath dismisses the initiative as “busy work,” and another example of the already-outdated push for AI “tokenmaxxing.” https://www.ft.com/content/e5bac4d1-b1f8-43a4-bd54-b182d5357af0?_bhlid=1136a3aaa633ea45fdaa15eab9f79128d5ff2ad8

Advanced Micro Devices said Wednesday it would make an equity investment of “up to $5 billion” in Anthropic “in the future,” and the Claude AI maker would use AMD’s AI server chips starting next year. Anthropic has been steadily diversifying its AI server sources and is evaluating chips from other providers including startups and Microsoft, The Information has reported. AMD implied that Anthropic would agree to purchase a substantial number of its server chips, which would eventually consume up to 2 gigawatts of power, and their announcement also implied AMD would purchase access to Claude models to help it design better chips. AMD shares rose 2% and have already risen nearly 150% this year. AI developers OpenAI and Meta also have announced agreements to use AMD chips, though it isn’t clear how much they will end up using or when. AMD’s stock has surged as numerous cloud providers purchase its hardware to diversify from Nvidia’s. However, Nvidia is nearly seven times bigger than AMD in revenue and is growing its revenue about 30 percentage points faster than AMD (while also experiencing accelerating sales), underscoring the gap in performance. Besides Google’s DeepMind, Anthropic is one of the other major AI developers that doesn’t heavily rely on chips from AMD rival Nvidia; it has developed its models using chips from Google and Amazon, for instance. But even Anthropic has started paying billions of dollars a year for Nvidia chips as it races to get more computing capacity to meet customer demand. Anthropic’s private valuation is nearly $1 trillion, meaning the AMD investment would represent about 0.5% of Anthropic shares at the current price. Anthropic has filed to go public as soon as this fall. https://ir.amd.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1292/amd-and-anthropic-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deploy-up-to-2-gigawatts-of-amd-instinct-mi450-series-gpus

Smartphone shipments around the world fell 11% in the second quarter, Counterpoint Research reported on Monday, which it said was the lowest second quarter levels in 13 years. #Gadgets #Data is beautiful The research firm attributed the sales drop to rising prices for smartphones caused by higher memory chip costs, which in turn is a result of the AI data center boom squeezing supplies of memory. Manufacturers such as Samsung have raised some prices, while iPhone maker Apple has raised prices for some hardware devices except the iPhone. But Apple is expected to hike iPhone prices when it unveils its next generation in the fall. Despite the price increases, Samsung had the leading market share with 24%, Counterpoint estimated, while Apple’s share rose to 20%. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/samsung-increases-some-galaxy-prices-as-cost-pressures-mount/?utm_campaign=%5BREBRAND%5D%20%5BTI-AM%5D%20Th&utm_content=1095&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio&utm_term=124 https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/global-smartphone-shipments-second-quarter-hit-lowest-13-years-memory-chip-2026-07-13/

Alphabet bested expectations across the board in Q2, with revenue up 24% year over year, powered by major Google Cloud growth and steady gains in search ads. The stock still dropped roughly 8% following the report, however, as Alphabet posted negative free cash flow for the quarter, and raised its 2026 capex guidance well above prior estimates. Investors are increasingly treating AI infrastructure spending as a tax on earnings, rather than a growth narrative, and it seems even a strong report isn’t enough to offset these concerns. https://www.barrons.com/articles/alphabet-earnings-googl-stock-price-274aed13?_bhlid=8a7aaf670e40ada14dc429e65805a0c01036420a

Surprised many folks are against what Karp was saying - I think he’s spot on. Claude is a trojan horse. Frontier labs are trying to eat everything. The alpha is in owning the context imo Anthropic is on a jaw-dropping trajectory, poised to out-earn every public software company except Microsoft by year-end. With a run-rate already surpassing Salesforce and Adobe, this three-year-old startup is redefining what's possible in B2B. Dive in to see how Anthropic is reshaping the landscape and leaving giants in its wake. https://www.saastr.com/by-year-end-anthropic-will-out-earn-every-public-software-company-except-microsoft/?mkt_tok=NzIwLVJTVC0zMTkAAAGi26wMuHzGUKdRrdi2N5T8QHDJYGu5-CDM7WO5z3Zt5bGhUeSIHX7uhZzBCEdcR_puYvT7xMxJSkPKkD57mk_GPb3hzWt5aMSdQAZJJcIgXkSL

Roger Lee changed their vote · 2 weeks ago

a judge blocked the Ellisons’ Paramount Skydance from completing its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery for 14 days. Closing of the deal had appeared imminent: Paramount had received a spate of regulatory approvals from countries around the world. The U.S. government had already signed off on the deal, but a bunch of states went to court to block it. And Monday’s ruling, by the judge hearing the case, suggests the states have a decent chance of winning. That would be disastrous for Paramount. It’s already paying a high price for WBD—Netflix abandoned a previously arranged purchase of half of WBD rather than try to match Paramount’s offer. If the court case delays Paramount’s completion of the purchase after Sept. 30, Paramount has to pay a fee of $650 million for every quarter the closing is delayed. And if regulators kill the deal, Paramount will have to pay a $7 billion termination fee to WBD. That’s on top of the $2.8 billion it paid earlier this year to break up the WBD-Netflix deal. So you can imagine a scenario where the current deal falls apart and Paramount is out roughly $10 billion. Paramount shares fell 2% to $8.57 today. That’s well below the $12 to $16.02 price at which a group of investors is putting in new equity to help fund the WBD purchase. The Ellisons’ investment in Paramount is suddenly looking a lot less promising. https://www.wsj.com/business/media/judge-temporarily-blocks-paramount-warner-deal-a9c6af43?mod=hp_lead_pos3&utm_campaign=article_email&utm_content=article-17490&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sg

The recent memory chip selloff offers investors a new opportunity to jump into the sector. Samsung is the best bet (https://www.theinformation.com/articles/samsung-new-memory-chip-underdog-now?offer=rtsu-engagement-25%2Crtsu-featured-articles-pro&cio_link_id=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__78ca81c10356e79c74244627892e95b58455d370dcff128d8b5b345ed5d6e7a7&utm_campaign=RTSU%3A+Samsung+Is+the&utm_content=14230&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio&utm_term=9879).

Over to jolly old England, where UK autonomous vehicle interest Wayve has filed to sell shares on the London Stock Exchange’s new Private Securities Market. As the title implies, this is NOT the same as going public. The new venue allows for trading in private companies through a regulatory framework known as PISCES (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System). Basically, companies offer scheduled, occasional auction windows during which their shares can be traded. Investors go through an intermediary like a bank of broker, known as a Registered Auction Agent (RAA), that actually place trades on their behalf. Proceeds then go to pre-existing shareholders, not the companies themselves, as in any other secondary market. Wayve is an “Embodied AI” company which developed a self-learning “AI driver” and foundation model, serving as a “brain” for self-driving vehicles. They’ll become the first major company to participate in the LSE’s Private Securities process, holding their first “closed auction” on July 8. The company was most recently valued at $8.6 billion, and will allow staffers to sell up to $85 million on the secondary market. #Auto Future https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-01/wayve-files-for-share-sale-on-london-bourse-s-new-private-market

Nvidia on Wednesday released a new small, open-source model for “physical” AI that operates in the real world, including for robots. #Robotics Revolution 🦾🤖🦿 The model, Cosmos 3 Edge, is just 4 billion parameters and can run on a customer’s own computer rather than in a data center. It can act as both a so-called vision language model or a world model, both of which help robots navigate or understand their surroundings. (There’s heated debate in robotics over which type of model is best.) Nvidia also released new versions of its Jetson computer for powering robotics applications, though they are less powerful and have less memory than the prior version. Deepu Talla, Nvidia’s vice president of robotics and edge AI, said that, collectively, 2.5 million developers and 10,000 companies have used Nvidia’s Jetson hardware and Cosmos models. Nvidia’s non-data center revenue streams, which include hardware sales from Jetson, Nvidia’s new PC and gaming card sales made up 8% of its revenue last quarter. #Auto Future https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/ai/cosmos/