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Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao is holding preliminary investor meetings following a confidential IPO filing. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/13/anthropic-cfo-early-ipo-meetings-valuation.html?_bhlid=16f499025f35443b8679726542e72f631cfa42f4

Maybe, just maybe, big tech firms need to do a better job of explaining their AI investment strategies. Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 7% on Thursday after the company disclosed a further increase in capital expenditures this year—money it will spend on new AI chips, servers and data centers. The drop all but wiped out the gains the stock had enjoyed so far this year. Sure, the entire stock market sold off, presumably as a result of rising oil prices and the intensification of the Iran war. But Alphabet was among the worst hit, along with Tesla, which also reported sharply higher capex on Wednesday and whose shares fell 15% on Thursday. It’s tough to consider Tesla’s stock valuation on any kind of rational basis, given that it trades based more on its connection to Elon Musk than reality. But Alphabet is a different animal. There’s little doubt Google is among the best positioned of big tech companies in terms of its ability to take advantage of AI advances, given its strength in chips, AI models and consumer apps that should benefit from AI. But even for Alphabet, you have to wonder how much more money the company will have to spend to reach the promised land. Alphabet’s projected capex for this year—now as much as $205 billion—is more than double what it spent in 2025, which in turn was nearly three times what it was spending two years before that. Next year, Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said on Wednesday, capex will “increase significantly” again! Dan Flax, an analyst at Neuberger Berman, said today that Alphabet’s capex “will likely be well over $300 billion.” For context, analysts expect the company to generate $259 billion in cash from operations next year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. That suggests Alphabet could burn $40 billion in cash next year, which is quite a turnabout for a company that before this spending surge routinely generated $60 billion to $70 billion in free cash flow. And when will this end? Alphabet executives are vague about it. CEO Sundar Pichai keeps talking about the industry being in the “early innings” of the AI transition, which implies the heavy spending could go on for a while. Ashkenazi said on Wednesday that “our goal is to invest as long as we see an attractive return on that investment.” In other words, trust us. That may not be enough anymore.

We’re seeing increasing threats from AI-enabled cyber offense — not basic stuff like stealing your dad’s Gmail password, but important stuff like sensitive information from governments. And the US government is responding with a policy idea more common in places like Russia and China: partnering with private enterprise to get to the attackers first. The concept hearkens back to sixteenth-century privateering, when governments would give ships “letters of marque” that allowed them to capture enemy vessels. But this time, instead of the roar of the high seas, privateers will be accompanied by the hum of their data centers’ water cooling systems. Like privateering, this endeavor could generate all sorts of problems: putting private citizens at risk of retaliation (https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/13/in-a-first-us-will-allow-some-private-firms-to-carry-out-cyberattacks/?ref=platformer.news) from foreign governments, the autonomous AI counterattackers getting out of control, etcetera.  But AI-enabled cyberattacks are an increasingly urgent issue for the US government. Given that private companies currently have the best AI resources available — and with AI now essential in modern hacking — some privateering may be necessary.

Palantir just posted the quarter that breaks whatever mental model you still had about how B2B companies behave at scale. It already had re-accelerated at a rate we’ve never seen before. And then it just … did it again. https://cloud.substack.com/p/5-interesting-learnings-from-palantir-2c6?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=10969&post_id=209803655&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6hfx4&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

In software land, it’s getting harder and harder to call out a singular vibe shift when the vibes keep shifting  every 24 hours.    On Thursday, when news broke that Silver Lake was in talks to acquire Workday, the human resource software company’s stock shot up 19%. Such a deal would be a big vote of confidence in a prominent software firm and, combined with a 55% appreciation in Workday’s shares since late June, a possible sign that the AI-driven SaaSpocalypse is ebbing.  But on Friday, the buzz seemed to have worn off. Workday’s shares sank almost 4%. The stocks of other software companies, which similarly spiked on Thursday following the Silverlake-Workday reports, also widely dropped.    Prepare for more mood swings in the coming weeks.  The next big data point comes in two weeks when Salesforce reports results. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expect revenue to rise more than 10% to $11 billion. But as with past quarters, most of the attention will be on growth from its AI products. Software stock analysts have been bracing for more pain. Karl Keirstead, head of AI and software equity research at UBS, says the executives of many blue chip companies he speaks with are “absolutely articulating a view that, given the performance improvements in these AI models and the ability to custom-build alternatives, they would like their spending with software company X, Y, Z to be down 30% over the next three years.” “I‘m in the camp that it’s going to be a rocky ride for the next 12 months,” he said in mid July. A takeover offer for Workday—whose shares are still down 7% this year—would show there’s a path for out-of-favor software companies. Generally, a company like WorkDay would be catnip for PE firms: While its stock has suffered, it throws off plenty of cash. (WorkDay generated $2.8 billion in free cash flow for its year ended in January.) These institutions have held off on acquisitions because they’re wrestling with private portfolios of software companies that are as under threat of AI as their publicly held peers. A WorkDay acquisition would also set a valuation multiple for other potential software buyouts. Notably, the Reuters report on Silverlake’s acquisition interest did not include an actual purchase price, leaving that multiple unknown. Still, shares are 13% higher than before the report emerged—indicating investors are betting this SaaS story has a happy ending. https://www.theinformation.com/titv/qtanb?utm_campaign=article_email&utm_content=article-17628&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sg&rc=gzsl71

Nvidia released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, an open mixture-of-experts model that it claims delivers substantially faster output. It comes alongside a router that assigns #Artificial Intelligence agents the best model for each task. #(Cool) Dev https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-nemotron-3-5-lightning-delivers-fast-accurate-specialized-task-execution-for-long-running-agents/?_bhlid=06f1d3de8f734378330d8c6bb8d40390b2b499ad

TSMC is developing an advanced chip-packaging technology similar to what Intel offers, a sign that the Taiwanese giant is worried about Intel. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/tsmc-develops-ai-chip-packaging-tech-counter-intel?offer=rtsu-engagement-25%2Crtsu-featured-articles-pro&utm_campaign=RTSU%3A+TSMC+Develops&utm_content=14355&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio&utm_term=9983

CH Michael Hu changed their vote · 4 days ago

Uber and Pony.ai will deploy 2,000 robotaxis across Europe, expanding beyond Zagreb into four additional cities. #Auto Future https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/14/uber-and-pony-ai-plan-to-bring-2000-robotaxis-to-europe/?_bhlid=085a955586c4ade392916bddc8e073ff7cf9bc79

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).

Apple expects choppy waters ahead for the quarter that ends in September, the company said on its June quarter earnings call. Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh warned that supply constraints for advanced chip manufacturing will “increase significantly.” #Gadgets The company experienced such constraints during the June quarter for Macs, and to a lesser extent iPhones and iPads, due largely to a limited supply of its processing chips. Nvidia chips for artificial intelligence have been soaking up more and more of the chip making capacity of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Apple’s primary chip manufacturing partner. For the June quarter, Apple reported sales of $109.4 billion, up 16.4% from the prior year, and a net income of $29.8 billion, advancing 27% annually. The iPhone grew nearly 22% to $54.3 billion in sales. The company said it expects revenue to increase between 9% and 11% in the September quarter from the year earlier period, while it expects iPhone growth to slow to the mid-teens as supply constraints grow. Apple fell more than 7% in after-hours trading following the guidance announcement. While many stocks are getting hit hard this week over concerns with heavy AI spending, Apple has stood apart from the pack by limiting its capital expenditures on AI. The company’s stock was up 23% so far this year prior to its earnings announcement, outperforming most of its tech peers. On the call, CEO Tim Cook noted that he will soon hand off the top job at the company to John Ternus, its current hardware leader, who will replace Cook in September. “This will be my final earnings call, and John will lead these calls going forward,” Cook said. “The transition is going seamlessly, and I am beyond excited for John to step into his new role and lead Apple into its next era.” https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/07/apple-reports-third-quarter-results/?utm_campaign=%5BREBRAND%5D+%5BTI-AM%5D+Th&utm_content=1095&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio&utm_term=124

Online fashion retailer Shein received Chinese regulatory approval to list in Hong Kong, capping off the e-commerce platform’s tumultuous two-year quest to float its shares. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement on Friday that it had approved Shein’s application to sell not more than 341.6 million shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The approval is valid for 12 months. If Shein doesn’t list in 12 months, it must submit an updated application. Before the bid to list in Hong Kong, China-founded Shein first sought to go public in New York in 2024,  then London. Both attempts failed amid mounting controversies over the company’s labor practices, allegations of copyright infringement and other thorny issues. https://www.reuters.com/world/shein-wins-china-approval-ipo-hong-kong-2026-07-10/