The Brutalist Report

Fortune

• OpenAI’s first hardware device debuted at $230. Now, it’s on eBay for $1,850 [31d]
• Sam Altman thinks the singularity is already here, but an expert says OpenAI’s Hugging Face breach doesn’t prove it [31d]
• LeBron James took a pay cut to maybe live in New York and commute to Philly by chopper, risking double taxation as NYC also tries to ban helicopters [31d]
• A Nobel economist challenged Elon Musk to donate his entire $1T fortune by 2036. Musk’s reply: ‘I am actually going to do something along these lines’ [31d]
• Netanyahu blasts NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani for ‘fomenting hate’ over ‘bogus’ Gaza war crimes charges [31d]
• U.S.—Canada bridge opens to traffic in Detroit amid Trump tariffs strain [31d]
• Bank of America, Chipotle, Dell, and Uber are chipping in on Trump Accounts for their workers’ kids—but most companies are sitting it out [31d]
• Palantir spent $17.2 million flying its CEO Alex Karp around in 2025. It’s part of a private-jet boom sweeping the C-suite [31d]
• Elon Musk’s vision of a post-money future got mocked. Vinod Khosla warns it could become a dystopia instead [31d]
• LeBron James joins California’s billionaire exodus, but he may not escape the wealth tax [31d]
• About half of Gen Z owe their friends more than $1,000, while nearly another half goes into debt to cover group expenses they expect to be repaid [31d]
• What Magic: The Gathering’s record year reveals about America’s stalled adulthood economy [31d]
• A VC says he declined to join the Trump family’s crypto venture after cofounder Steve Witkoff couldn’t pronounce ‘memecoin’ [31d]
• Cracker Barrel CEO steps down nearly a year after logo change inflamed Trump country [31d]
• A trove of users’ seemingly private conversations with Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot showed up in Google search results [31d]
• The Strait of Hormuz isn’t fertilizer’s first starring role — and 1856 law still defines U.S. overseas territory [31d]
• The new Air Force One controversy is really about a 90-year power struggle over presidential travel [31d]
• The war between competing AI models could end up more like Apple vs. Android than VHS vs. Betamax [31d]
• Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights—and taking us back to the 19th century? [31d]
• Trip.com struck with $765 million penalty from China over monopoly allegations [31d]
• Oprah Winfrey says ‘life starts at 44’—and research proves she’s right: the average founder starts their business after 40 [31d]
• Rising temperatures are putting students at risk of heat-related illnesses, and schools are scrambling to adapt [31d]
• Sit back and watch the birds—your health will thank you, data shows [31d]
• U.S. to reopen border to Mexican cattle imports after screwworm ban [31d]
• U.N. chief urges global support for Syria during first Damascus visit since Assad’s fall [31d]
• Canadian intern at NATO’s military headquarters arrested on espionage charges [31d]
• U.S. and Iran edge toward talks as Hormuz shipping hits three-week low, regional officials say [31d]
• Fuel prices stemming from a war in Iran is reshaping daily life for people in the U.S. and Chile to Turkey and Nepal [31d]
• ‘Kryptonite to November voters’: Trump’s Michigan visit puts the GOP’s dilemma on display [31d]
• A Chinese chip maker’s shares surged 466% in their first day of trading as AI boom worm turns [31d]
• Canada’s awkward tariff summer: Gordie Howe Bridge opens for traffic a week after Michigan and White House officials got uninvited [31d]
• ‘It looked like the apocalypse’: France’s summer of deadly heat turns into a wildfire that is making its own lightning [31d]
• Capital One’s MLB partnership is turning fan experiences into long-term customer value [31d]
• Hybrid work has a $9 million problem. The fix depends on who you ask [31d]
• In the Age of Big Players, $100,000 buys you a head start on Trump’s mood [31d]
• Netanyahu accuses Mamdani of ‘fomenting hate,’ saying ‘he’s supposed to the mayor of all New Yorkers’ — waving off ICC war crimes charges [31d]
• Europe has an electrification target. Here’s how it can become a competitive advantage [31d]
• Highbrow box-office king Christopher Nolan seals biggest second weekend ever with $87 million haul for ‘The Odyssey’ [31d]
• Bank-run blockchains are back in style—but history suggests they will be a bust [31d]
• Meet the American techies who don’t care where ‘good enough’ AI models come from, even China [31d]
• Small businesses immediately sue Trump over new tariff regime [31d]
• After Trump launched war on Iran, hiked inflation through tariffs, Johnson labels election ‘common sense vs. communism’ [31d]
• The midterms may come down to just 20 House races, including ‘the swingiest swing state’: Pennsylvania [31d]
• Trump can’t stop shooting himself in the foot, as the stage looks set once again for Warsh to hold—if not hike—interest rates [31d]
• Apple’s next CEO helped build its hardware empire. Now he has to find its next breakthrough [31d]
• Europe’s employers face a new challenge—keeping workers safe during heatwaves [31d]
• How an ex-AWS scientist plans to take on OpenAI and Meta in voice AI models [31d]
• Current price of oil as of July 27, 2026 [31d]
• Stocks rise globally on hopes of peace talks with Iran—but the Fed may deliver a shock on Wednesday [31d]
• StubHub CEO Eric Baker is under scrutiny for enabling mass scalpers on his ticket reselling platform [32d]
• One-third of Seattle’s downtown is empty: Here’s how America’s boomtown turned into one of the toughest places to find a job [32d]
• Greenhouse CEO says job seekers are paying $20 to apply for every job on the hiring platform and spamming bosses—he calls it the AI doom loop [32d]
• Amazon and Microsoft are spending $400 billion on AI—and investors are low on patience [32d]
• New York City women are making up to $30,000 per month by renting out their closets to strangers [32d]
• China is using the steel playbook on AI — and America’s tech billionaires are standing in the blast zone [32d]
• Money usually wins elections. Billionaires have already poured $433 million into the 2026 midterms—and 80% of it is going to Republicans [32d]
• McKinsey: Global households got $40 trillion richer in 2025 as the paper wealth economy swelled to $1.8 quadrillion [32d]
• AI and the ‘skinny hamburger, fat bun’ problem — why the future of work needs to look more like a pizza [32d]
• Kospi index and U.S. stock futures jump as new Hormuz talks send oil prices plunging amid Iran war pause while Wall Street awaits Fed meeting [32d]