The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• Microsoft announces a Windows 11 search overhaul that prioritizes local results, removes promotional web content, and more, rolling out to Windows Insiders (Zac Bowden/Windows Central) [3h]
• Q&A with Xinzhou Wu, head of automotive at Nvidia, on Nvidia's chips and AI models for autonomous driving, lidar's usefulness for Level 4 autonomy, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge) [4h]
• Doc: DHS analysts twice dismissed signs of intruders inside the DHS' network, first detected in May, as harmless activity before confirming a breach in June (David DiMolfetta/Nextgov/FCW) [5h]
• A coalition of 12 states led by California files an antitrust lawsuit to block Paramount's WBD merger, alleging it lessens competition in three markets (Gene Maddaus/Variety) [6h]
• London-based Valarian, which allows companies to use US cloud providers for AI workloads but retain control of their data, raised a $50M Series A led by NEA (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune) [6h]
• Seattle-based Augmodo, whose AI-powered "Smartbadges" worn by employees track shelf inventory, raised $21M led by TQ Ventures at a $350M valuation (Kurt Schlosser/GeekWire) [6h]
• Gauntlet, which helps institutions and crypto companies allocate their digital assets, raised a $125M Series C from Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings (Ben Weiss/Fortune) [7h]
• Global smartphone shipments fell 11% YoY in Q2 to the lowest Q2 levels since 2013 amid the DRAM and NAND shortage; Samsung returns to #1 with a 24% market share (Shilpi Jain/Counterpoint Research) [7h]
• Apple's stock is up 15% since June 25, adding nearly $600B in market value and pushing shares back to record territory, as investors flee an AI stock selloff (Ryan Vlastelica/Bloomberg) [8h]
• Sources: US officials estimate unauthorized distillation costs US AI labs up to $6B/year; Silicon Valley told the Trump admin it could be an existential threat (Maggie Eastland/Bloomberg) [9h]
• Source: OpenAI still believes it is on track to unveil its first device in 2026 and release it in 2027; Apple's lawsuit may complicate hiring and supply chains (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [9h]
• Anthropic hires Tom Blomfield, a Monzo co-founder and one of the biggest names in UK tech, to join its compute team; he is taking a leave of absence from YC (Robert Scammell/Business Insider) [9h]
• Intel plans to invest €5B to expand chip manufacturing at its Leixlip facility in Ireland; in 2025, Intel canceled a planned €30B factory in Magdeburg, Germany (Financial Times) [10h]
• Nearly 200 economists, including 15 Nobel laureates and Anthropic's Jack Clark, sign a letter titled We Must Act Now, warning of rapid AI-led job displacement (Ben Casselman/New York Times) [10h]
• Samsung says it now aims to begin operations at its first chipmaking plant in South Korea's Yongin by 2029, bringing the timeline forward from 2030 or 2031 (Henry Siu/The Information) [11h]
• Meta says it will spend an extra $40B on its 4,000-acre data center campus in Louisiana, aiming for 5GW+ of computing power, pushing the total cost beyond $250B (Riley Griffin/Bloomberg) [11h]
• The EU blacklists Russian intelligence group members it says were responsible for spying on and hacking targets across the EU and Ukraine from as early as 2010 (Politico) [11h]
• China says President Xi will deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the three-day World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday, his first appearance (Bloomberg) [11h]
• SK Hynix's shares fall 15%+ in Seoul, posting its largest-ever fall, after a strong Nasdaq debut, as investors book profit amid US share valuation uncertainty (Lee Ying Shan/CNBC) [11h]
• Investigation: Western intelligence officials identify a Russian military intelligence unit in Tokyo that smuggles high-tech components for the war in Ukraine (New York Times) [12h]
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the bloc is set to propose a "social media start date for minors", with a proposal after a summer break (Barbara Moens/Financial Times) [12h]
• Sources: Shein is targeting a $40B+ valuation after winning Beijing's approval for a Hong Kong IPO, set for as early as Q3; Shein canceled its US IPO in 2024 (Wall Street Journal) [12h]
• How a Denmark-based research team is using quantum computers to accelerate AI protein discovery, showing a near-term commercial application for the quantum tech (Isabella Ward/Wired) [12h]
• A look back at the 2007 heist of a Verizon data center in London, highlighting the role of physical data security as cyber defenses grow more sophisticated (Nathaniel Rich/New York Times) [13h]
• Munich-based defense tech startup Helsing raised a $1.8B Series E from Dragoneer, Iconiq, and others at an $18B valuation; Germany made a €270M order this year (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg) [13h]
• Docs: Uber lobbied for a "phased transition" to AVs, giving it an edge over self-driving developers; Uber says AV industry proposals overlook drivers' rights (Aarian Marshall/Wired) [14h]
• Eating disorder therapists say patients are increasingly using AI chatbots for advice, while AI also appears to be directing more patients to helplines (Julie Jargon/Wall Street Journal) [14h]
• A look at ADI Predictstreet's troubled launch, marked by tiny trading volumes, withdrawal bugs, and other issues, as it tried to challenge Kalshi and Polymarket (Wall Street Journal) [16h]
• A Taiwanese minister says TSMC plans two more advanced chip packaging plants in Chiayi Science Park, with all four expected to generate $9.35B+ in annual output (Wen-Yee Lee/Reuters) [17h]
• Open weight AI models are facing an existential policy test in the US, with Anthropic leading a campaign against Chinese models over distillation concerns (Nathan Lambert/Interconnects AI) [18h]
• How museums are using AI chatbots to reach new audiences, as some museum staff worry AI-generated inaccuracies and bias could undermine them as trusted sources (Naomi Rea/Financial Times) [19h]
• A profile of Asha Sharma, an outsider elevated by Satya Nadella to lead Xbox, where she made sweeping job cuts and shed game studios within her first few months (Financial Times) [21h]
• Memo: Tang Jie, founder of Z.ai, the Chinese lab behind the GLM models, argues frontier AI capabilities should stay "as open and widely accessible as possible" (Bloomberg) [22h]
• Sources: Cursor is building a general-purpose AI agent codenamed Sand, aimed at non-developers, that handles emails, texts, and documents to rival Claude Cowork (Grace Kay/The Information) [23h]