Tue. 07/16 – A VC VP Pick

SpaceX has agreed to block access to X, in Brazil, on Starlink. Looks like YubiKeys are hackable. Who is the mystery platform looking to expand AI datacenters at an historic scale? And the Catch 22 that Intel is in. They need CHIPS Act money, but can their troubles mean the CHIPS Act money shouldn’t be spent on them?Sponsors:Ramp.com/techmemeLumen.me/rideLinks:Starlink backtracks, complies with order blocking X in Brazil, says regulator (Reuters)No X in Brazil? No problem, Brazilians say. (Washington Post)Microsoft to announce ‘next phase of Copilot’ on September 16th (The Verge)YubiKeys are vulnerable to cloning attacks thanks to newly discovered side channel (ArsTechnica)Nvidia Gets DOJ Subpoena in Escalating Antitrust Probe (Bloomberg)Two AI Developers Are Plotting $125 Billion Supercomputers (The Information)Exclusive: Intel manufacturing business suffers setback as Broadcom tests disappoint (Reuters)Intel’s Money Woes Throw Biden Team’s Chip Strategy Into Turmoil (Bloomberg)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We missed a pretty big story this weekend. X getting banned in Brazil. I’ll try to catch you up on all the contours of this. Canva’s raising prices and it’s pissing people off because, I mean, they are REALLY raising prices. And the two pretty big success stories in crypto this year that we haven’t spoken about yet.Sponsors:DataTribe.com/challengeHims.com/rideLinks:Brazil’s Most Powerful Judge Is in the Spotlight—Again (Americas Quarterly)How Brazil’s Experiment Fighting Fake News Led to a Ban on X (NYTimes)Canva says its AI features are worth the 300 percent price increase (The Verge)HP to Pursue $4 Billion Damages After Mike Lynch Yacht Death (Bloomberg)Pump.fun surpasses $100 million in revenue as Polymarket outshines NFTs in August (The Block)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

At this point it would be quicker to name the big tech company that’s NOT investing in OpenAI’s latest round. Amazon’s new Alexa service is just going to be Anthropic’s Claude in drag disguise I guess. I’m starting to get really worried about Intel y’all. And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions.Links:OpenAI Funding Round Tempts Nvidia as Big Tech Leans on ChatGPT (Bloomberg)Apple, Nvidia Are in Talks to Invest in OpenAI (WSJ)Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa revamp (Reuters)ChatGPT’s weekly users have doubled in less than a year (The Verge)Intel Weighs Options Including Foundry Split to Stem Losses (Bloomberg)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:Sunk cost (the Open Sea story) (The Verge)The secret inside One Million Checkboxes (eieio.games)I Watched Footage of Jerry Lewis’s Unreleased 1972 Holocaust Film (The New Republic)End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell (AnandTech)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nvidia’s earnings were huge but because they didn’t manage to beat the biggest expectations out there, it’s kind of a miss? Pavel Durov has been formally charged by France. Does TikTok fall outside of Section 230 protection? And it seems like the effort by the car companies to wean themselves off of smartphone tech is… not going great.Links:Nvidia’s CEO Says New Chip Will Have ‘Lots and Lots’ of Supply (Bloomberg)Telegram CEO Charged in France for Crimes Committed on His App (Bloomberg)TikTok must face lawsuit over 10-year-old girl's death, US court rules (Reuters)OpenAI in Talks for Funding Round Valuing It Above $100 Billion (WSJ)Top Movie Piracy Ring Taken Down, Major Studios’ Enforcement Group Claims (The Hollywood Reporter)GM's 'Google Built-In' Is Glitchy, Requires A Subscription To Use Google Maps (Jalopnik)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I explain why everyone has been posting strawberries in AI circles. It’s cause of a potential new breakthrough at OpenAI. Cerebras launches the first new AI chip competition to Nvidia. China has reportedly burrowed into US ISPs. And continuing interesting details pouring out of that Pavel Durov situation.Sponsors:Timeline.com/rideLinks:OpenAI Shows ‘Strawberry’ AI to the Feds and Uses It to Develop ‘Orion’ (The Information)OpenAI Races to Launch ‘Strawberry’ Reasoning AI to Boost Chatbot Business (The Information)Cerebras Systems throws down gauntlet to Nvidia with launch of ‘world’s fastest’ AI inference service (SiliconAngle)Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy (Washington Post)Google Meet’s automatic AI note-taking is here (The Verge)Instagram adds what photos have always needed: words (The Verge)Telegram Founder Was Wooed and Targeted by Governments (WSJ)Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms? (NYTimes)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As more details come out about the arrest of the founder of Telegram, a deeper look at Pavel Durov himself. We have the date of the iPhone event. We have a new record gaming number from Steam. And are Apple’s experiment with big budget Hollywood movies losing them bucket loads of money?Sponsors:DataTribe.com/challengeThorne.fit/ridehomeLinks:Telegram Founder’s Arrest Part of Broad Investigation, French Prosecutors Say (NYTimes)Macron loves Telegram. French judges hate it. (Politico)How Telegram’s Founder Went From Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg to Wanted Man (NYTimes)Steam surpasses 37 million concurrent users for the first time ever thanks to Black Myth: Wukong (PC Gamer)Anthropic publishes the ‘system prompts’ that make Claude tick (TechCrunch)Apple Rethinks Its Movie Strategy After a String of Misses (NYTimes)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

French authorities have arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Chinese tech companies are spending like crazy on AI too, btw. What are the smart glasses and VR gear Meta is poised to give us next month? And Nvidia might make you rich, but it still seems like a bear of a place to work at.Sponsors:Lumen.me/rideLinks:Telegram CEO Held Over Alleged Child Protection Failures on App (Bloomberg)Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France (Reuters)Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app? (Matthew Green)China’s tech giants splash out on AI despite US restrictions (Financial Times)Apple Explores Robotics in Search of Life Beyond the iPhone (Bloomberg)Nvidia Rally Mints Millionaires Too Busy to Bask in New Wealth (Bloomberg)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Breaking down the Crowdstrike outage with Overmind.techSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Microsoft deprecating a feature that it launched back in 1985. There’s a pretty big loophole that is still letting China use H100 chips. The weird saga evolving over at Bolt. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.Links:Microsoft finally officially confirms it's killing Windows Control Panel sometime soon (Neowin)Exclusive: Chinese entities turn to Amazon cloud and its rivals to access high-end US chips, AI (Reuters)AI-powered coding pulls in almost $1bn of funding to claim ‘killer app’ status (Financial Times)Bolt investors baffled by massive new deal proposal (Axios)Ryan Breslow’s ‘Lead Investor’ Blindsided By $450 Million Bolt Fundraise: ‘We Were Never In This Deal’ (Forbes)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:New Breed of EV Promises 700 Miles per Charge (Just Add Gas) (Bloomberg)Popping the Bubble of Noise-Cancelling Headphones (The New Yorker)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As Mike Lynch’s body is recovered off Sicily, a deeper look at what was a roller coaster of a life. More cross posting for Meta’s apps. We have a date for the re-release of Recall. Interesting executive shuffle at Apple. And more data showing the degree to which free streaming is upending the Streaming Wars.Sponsors:QualiaLife.com/rideLinks:Bodies of Mike Lynch and four yacht guests pulled from Bayesian wreck (Financial Times)Mike Lynch’s journey from tech founder to long legal battle (Financial Times)Meta lets you cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads. Here’s how to do it. (TechCrunch)Microsoft’s Recall AI feature won’t be available for Windows testers until October (The Verge)Neuralink Says Second Brain Device Implant ‘Went Well’ (Bloomberg)Apple’s App Store Head to Leave in Reorganization Amid Global Scrutiny (Bloomberg)Report: “FAST correcting issues that VoD created” (Advanced Television)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.