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Capitalist Insider: 10k AI bots just solved a 90-year $1M math mystery in 88 hours
Anthropic researcher quits: labs are gambling with our lives
Bessent’s Operation Outcast sweep cuts Iran off from the sky
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‘I’m the house now’: Bessent sizes the long-bond rescue
Treasury is due Wednesday around 11 a.m. ET to size a long-dated bond buyback after Secretary Scott Bessent told currency traders, “I am the house now,” and dared them to bet against him.
Street eyes larger start: The Aug. 19 plan set a $4 billion floor, double the prior cap, for 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year notes. Wrightson ICAP sees $5 billion to $6 billion as the likely start.
Yen buys protect Treasurys: Bessent said yen intervention gives Treasury asymmetric insight into the Bank of Japan. The U.S. bought yen for the first time in 3 decades so Japan would not sell Treasurys.
Debt pile still climbing: Japan holds $1.1 trillion of Treasurys. U.S. debt has passed $40 trillion, the deficit is headed past $2 trillion, and the 10-year yield is up about 10 basis points.
Funds target cheaper yen: Hedge funds bought options targeting dollar-yen below 150 by year-end, some to 140. Stanley Druckenmiller called the buyback expansion a price-management mistake.
Capitalist Insider: 10k AI bots just solved a 90-year $1M math mystery in 88 hours
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Anthropic researcher quits: labs are gambling with our lives
An Anthropic researcher quit with a warning that AI builders think the technology could “kill us all by the end of the decade,” a jolt as Anthropic and OpenAI prepare IPOs.
Current researcher cites odds: A current Anthropic researcher replied on X, putting that scenario above a 10% chance. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Warning hits IPO timing: Barron’s said the warning is not a good look ahead of Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs, as an AI backlash forms at a delicate time for both labs.
Know-it-all lesson lands: Adam Clark wrote that no one likes a digital know-it-all, a painful lesson for the two AI startups just as they plan to go public.
Apple offers contrast trade: Barron’s framed Apple as a recent anti-AI trade that still leans on tried products, with a foldable iPhone expected to be unveiled today.
Odds surge on Tesla merging with SpaceX before 2028
The odds of Tesla merging with SpaceX before 2028 have surged according to the latest data from Kalshi.
Elon’s Mega Corp: Elon Musk, fresh off the back of the SpaceX IPO has been rumored to be debating the move.
A Pattern Emerging: Prior to the SpaceX IPO several of Musk’s ventures were brought in under the SpaceX umbrella. This included the satellite internet division Starlink and the xAI division which runs the AI model Grok.
Do you think Tesla will be acquired by SpaceX?
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Bessent’s Operation Outcast sweep cuts Iran off from the sky
The Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned 36 aviation-linked targets, including 27 Iranian carriers, under Operation Economic Outcast, accusing Tehran of using commercial fleets to move weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo.
Bessent issues cutoff warning: Scott Bessent said Treasury followed through on promised consequences for Iran’s financial lifelines and warned counterparties of the newly sanctioned airlines they risk being cut from the global financial system.
IRGC uses commercial fleets: Officials said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses ostensibly private carriers such as Mahan Air to procure and transport weapons and to ferry personnel for the regime.
Front companies targeted too: Treasury also targeted covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and transshipment routes used to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft, including UAE-based ECT Aviation Support and Turkey-based Sky Phoenix.
Aging Mahan jets persist: Turkey’s S Sistem was cited for moving UAV components and industrial equipment for Mahan Air. Mahan, first sanctioned in 2011, still flies about 3 dozen aging Boeings and Airbuses.
AI giants just borrowed $500 billion as cash flow went red
Hyperscaler capital spending is expected to near $1 trillion this year and top that in 2027, as most of those firms turn free-cash-flow negative and fund data centers with a wave of debt.
On and off books: ZeroHedge said the AI buildout has produced a deluge of debt issuance both on and off balance sheet to fund those obligations.
Off-sheet pile jumps: A linked ZeroHedge analysis put off-balance-sheet AI debt at $3.1 trillion, up $1.3 trillion in 3 months.
Returns look capped now: The site said an onslaught of Chinese open-weight models guarantees that returns on the AI trade will never meet investor bogeys.
Debt competes with Treasurys: JPMorgan’s Michael Cembalest, cited in the piece, echoed the warning that hyperscaler debt is now competing with demand for U.S. Treasurys.
AGI is here, Huang says. 400K GPUs incoming
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said “AGI has arrived” after OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Astra, as Barron’s argued Qualcomm’s decade-long Amazon chip pact still leaves Nvidia firmly on top.
Huang cites Astra scale: Huang wrote on X that Astra was trained on about 100K+ Nvidia Grace Blackwell NVLink72 systems, with 400K more GPUs coming online next.
Competing AGI tests differ: OpenAI defines AGI as highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work. Huang’s bar is top-tier scores on professional certifications and tests.
Amazon deal size lags: Qualcomm’s Amazon deal is for up to $60 billion over a decade. Qualcomm kept a $15 billion fiscal 2029 data-center goal; Nvidia booked $89 billion in data-center revenue last quarter.
Inference not training fight: Qualcomm issued a purchase-tied warrant and is targeting inference. Nvidia gave up no equity for Amazon’s extra 2 million chips over 2 years.
Google drops $15B on Finland and locks the power
Google said Wednesday it will invest at least 13 billion euros ($15.1 billion) in Finnish AI infrastructure through 2028, its largest single European outlay, and signed a 22-year Fortum power deal.
Four Finnish sites named: The WSJ said the money funds data centers and other infrastructure in 2027 and 2028 across Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala, plus clean energy, nature, and community funds.
Fortum power deal lifts: Google signed a 22-year life-extension power purchase agreement with Fortum. The utility’s stock jumped 11%. Google will also study new business models for potential nuclear reactors at Loviisa.
Porat frames Finland roots: Ruth Porat called it Google’s largest single European investment, after more than 15 years in Finland, pairing infrastructure with new energy capacity, grid work, and affordability efforts.
Texas of Europe talk: Lawyer Matti Lajunen said Finland is being called the Texas of Europe. CNBC noted Pure DC, Arcem, Nebius, and TikTok projects, and Google’s $40 billion Texas plan through 2027.
Meta just gave an AI the keys to your inbox
Meta on Tuesday rolled out Muse, a personal AI agent that can autonomously send emails, book travel, sell a car, and lower a bill, running each agent on its own virtual machine.
OpenClaw-style access model: Muse is modeled on the open-source agent OpenClaw and can tap email, calendar, payments, health, shopping, and smart-home apps the user chooses and can revoke.
Works after app closes: Each agent runs on a cloud virtual machine so it can keep working in the background, opening browsers, filling forms, and negotiating, then pause for approval before sending or buying.
Remembers one mention only: Meta said Muse can recall preferences mentioned once, such as turning an Instagram recipe reel into a grocery list and a dinner-party menu that accounts for friends’ diets.
Delayed for safety bar: VP Vishal Shah said Meta held the April launch to clear safety, security, and privacy bars. A later Confidential VM will encrypt data so only the user holds the keys.
OpenAI adds Samsung as Nvidia’s next problem
OpenAI said Wednesday it is deepening semiconductor and enterprise AI work with Samsung Electronics, citing joint next-generation chip research as ChatGPT Enterprise use in South Korea jumped about 28-fold.
Seoul chip briefing lands: Harrison Kim, general manager of OpenAI Korea, said joint production and research on next-generation chips is where the firms have made the most progress, without giving further detail.
Giant ChatGPT deployment cited: Kim called Samsung one of the largest-scale ChatGPT deployments worldwide, with employees in South Korea and overseas using it across research, marketing, and sales.
Memory demand keeps rising: Kim said more advanced AI hardware will keep lifting memory demand. Samsung and SK Hynix last year signed letters of intent to supply memory for OpenAI’s Stargate project.
Jalapeno and HBM4E ship: OpenAI unveiled Jalapeno in June with Broadcom for inference, to be made at TSMC. Samsung is shipping HBM4E samples first, used in Nvidia Rubin and Google Ironwood chips.
My take on Druckenmiller is he is pissed because he is short bonds on a levered basis, and if Bessent is successful, that directly costs Druck.
The Genie is already out of the bottle. AI like so many other new technologies - no matter how good the intentions were are quickly corrupted. These technologies seem to have been a gift to the corrupt. Add to that lenient judges who fail to uphold our laws and the future looks very grim.