The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• Sources: Anthropic is in talks to bring on Nvidia as an anchor investor in its IPO, seeking up to $100B at a ~$2T valuation; Nvidia may invest up to $10B (Reuters) [56d]
• Sources: Jeff Dean is raising funds again for Discovery Loop, seeking a valuation of ~$50B; Discovery Loop was raising $1B at a ~$10B valuation a few weeks ago (Ben Bergman/Business Insider) [56d]
• Researchers: OpenAI agents attacked Ruby package manager RubyGems in May; OpenAI says its agents used RubyGems to access the internet to do "benign tasks" (Robert McMillan/Wall Street Journal) [56d]
• Sources: US Senate negotiators are debating a bill to impose a "duty of care" for AI companies and let the government block the release of models deemed unsafe (Courtney Rozen/Reuters) [56d]
• Citrini Research founder James van Geelen has sold the firm to SemiAnalysis for an undisclosed sum; sources: van Geelen plans to launch a new fund (Bloomberg) [56d]
• FOIA docs: the CFTC launched at least three previously unreported investigations into Polymarket trading, including about Google's 2025 Year in Search Ranking (Kate Knibbs/Wired) [56d]
• LinkedIn profiles show Google appears to have completed its talent deal, reportedly for $1.5B+, with AI coding startup Mechanize (Business Insider) [56d]
• A group of 25 Fields Medal recipients says AI companies' push to solve mathematical problems as a benchmark is detrimental to the science of mathematics (Terence Tao/What's new) [56d]
• The UK's Office for National Statistics cites AI as a major driver of the country's summer growth spurt, with GDP growing 0.4% in July, above expectations (Tom Rees/Bloomberg) [56d]
• Sources: Cohere is in advanced talks to raise between $2B and $3B, including financing from the Canadian government and existing backers, at a $20B valuation (Globe and Mail) [56d]
• Sources: some lawmakers urge Speaker Johnson to cancel the fall House recess until Congress passes AI safeguards, after Anthropic researcher warnings (Andrew Solender/Axios) [56d]
• Sources: in an internal Slack message Matt Mullenweg claims he is back in control of Automattic; on X, he says this may have been fifth coup attempt against him (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch) [56d]
• Internal note: Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer, saying it is "time for me to move on and try new things" (Tom Warren/The Verge) [56d]
• Roblox announces new features, including game-creation tools, ability to make games available as standalone apps across platforms, and Roblox Wallet and Card (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [56d]
• Meta says it is making changes to prompts suggested by Meta AI after a viral video showed it posing invasive personal questions about a woman's young daughters (Maggie Harrison Dupré/Futurism) [56d]
• Meta says it is making changes to prompts suggested by Meta AI after a viral video showed it posing invasive personal questions about a woman's young daughters (Emma Roth/The Verge) [56d]
• GSA says OpenAI is replacing its $1-per-year pilot for US agencies with a usage-based deal providing a 50% discount from October 1, with access to GPT-6 Astra (Maggie Eastland/Bloomberg) [56d]
• Ex-Biden officials deny Marc Andreessen's claims that they discussed secret plans to ban AI startups at a May 2024 White House meeting, pushing him toward Trump (Politico) [56d]
• Threat intelligence report: Anthropic says it disrupted a Yemen-based guided weapons engineering cell using Claude to develop guidance software for missiles (Bloomberg) [56d]
• A US court sentences Ukrainian Oleksii Lytvynenko to four years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the Conti ransomware attacks (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer) [56d]