Nvidia To Fire Jensen On Wednesday?!

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO amid the spy scandal, with CFO Colette Kress stepping in as interim. Trump pitched Tim Cook as his successor, the board reportedly eyed Apple’s Johny Srouji, and Google launched its Gemini 4 Hydrogen model. Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO, president, and board member; CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO as the board considers candidates; NVDA drops 5%+ (Nvidia) Trump called Jensen Huang on Tuesday and urged him to keep fighting for his job, viewing the spy scandal mainly through the lens of adultery and Nvidia as too big to fail (NYT) Inside Jensen Huang’s final hours as Nvidia CEO: broken, saying “whatever” and “I don’t care” after weeks of denials, with a congressional testimony expected in the coming weeks (Bloomberg) Trump says Tim Cook is the “only one man” to replace Jensen Huang as Nvidia CEO, adding “A Legend replaces a Legend!” and Huang “has done a fantastic job” (9to5Mac) Nvidia’s difficult search for Huang’s successor: Apple’s Johny Srouji, Arm’s Rene Haas, AMD’s Lisa Su, AWS’s Matt Garman, Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra, Google’s Amin Vahdat, and son-in-law Nico Caprez all in the mix (Bloomberg) Google launches Gemini 4 Hydrogen, calling it a major upgrade over Gemini 3.8 Flash, at $1.50/1M input and $7.50/1M output tokens across its 1M context window (Google) Gemini 4 Hydrogen replaces 3.8 Flash across Google’s products, running 2.5x faster in high mode, cutting “fabricated claims” 5x, and scoring 54 on the Artificial Analysis index vs. 50 for Argon (Ars Technica) Longreads Forward-deployed engineers, the role Palantir made famous, are drawing $586,000 to $1.45 million a year as companies start hiring them in-house (WSJ) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'll explain on the show... AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthropic kicked off its IPO roadshow, with bankers already eyeing a higher price, and launched Claude Sheets, Meetings and Whiteboards to take on Microsoft and Google. Nvidia hired Wachtell to probe Jensen Huang; Ring unveiled security robots, and Reddit launched Reviews. Anthropic launches its IPO roadshow, saying the company and shareholders plan to sell 825M Class A shares at $70 to $78 each, listing on the Nasdaq under ANT (Anthropic) Anthropic plans to push ahead with its IPO later this month despite AI market volatility, aiming to start trading Thursday or Friday next week, with some investors now pushing for a lower valuation (WSJ) Anthropic’s bankers are weighing raising the IPO price above the $70-$78 range after heavy investor demand, which could lift the valuation to $1.5tn or more and the raise past $100bn (FT) Anthropic unveils office tools, including a video call assistant, a data dashboard, and spreadsheet service Claude Sheets, competing with Microsoft and Google (Bloomberg) Anthropic unveils Claude Meetings, Sheets, and Whiteboards, plus interactive connectors that embed apps like HubSpot, Adobe, and Atlassian inside Claude, with Claude Data now generally available (The Verge) Nvidia hires former acting US attorney Joon H. Kim and his law firm Wachtell Lipton to conduct a probe into Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy (The New York Times) Jensen Huang and Alice Huang’s relationship dates back to at least 2023, facilitating $7.5B+ in Nvidia chip shipments via Chinese companies since then (The Information) Amazon’s Ring unveils the $249 Ring Drone Cam and the $999 Ring Rover Cam, both using its AI Pilot to navigate interior spaces, under new subbrand Ring Robotics (ZDNet) Ring launches a home security drone that flies room to room and a roving enterprise security robot, both run by its AI Pilot system (TechCrunch) Reddit launches Reddit Reviews, a built-in hub using AI to turn subreddit comments into product pages with pros, cons, and sentiment, starting with 10K items (The Verge) AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump said the FBI was looking into Jensen Huang’s affair, and Nvidia’s stock sank 4.3%. Uber launched in-app parking in 15 cities. Anthropic released Mythos and Fable 5.2, which it says formalized Fermat’s Last Theorem and solved black hole problems. rump says the FBI is “looking into” Jensen Huang’s affair, and the Nvidia CEO told him that he “had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy” (AP) A Commerce Department probe into Megaspeed for allegedly smuggling Nvidia chips to China was handed to the DOJ after Nvidia’s general counsel emailed investigators and invoked the name of a top Commerce official (NYT) Sources: Jensen Huang has used Heller, a crisis PR firm known for handling sex scandals, since at least October 2025, well before his affair became public (Wired) Huang’s fate now rests with a weak, long-tenured Nvidia board with no successor in sight and a CEO with 50+ direct reports, raising a governance crisis (Semafor) Uber launches Uber Parking, an in-app parking reservation tool powered by its SpotHero acquisition, in 15 US cities, including Chicago, NYC, and San Francisco (The Verge) Anthropic releases Mythos 5.2 and Fable 5.2, saying they are “best for the most ambitious, open-ended technical work”, with outputs up to 30% faster than 5.1 (Anthropic) Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 post new benchmark highs while API prices drop 20% to $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output; Mythos stays reserved for vetted Project Glasswing users (VentureBeat) Anthropic says during prerelease testing Mythos 5.2 and Fable 5.2 formalized the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem and solved two open black hole physics problems (The Verge) About 1,000 Fable 5.2 agents turned the Fermat proof into a computer-verifiable one in 30 hours and coded a working OS in eight days, though the black hole papers haven’t been peer reviewed (Gizmodo) AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jensen Huang’s scandal blew up: Nvidia’s board opened a probe after he admitted an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, Rubio’s memo surfaced, and shell firms got H200 approvals. Also, I covered Apple’s John Ternus pushing Siri toward agents. Sources: US officials believe Jensen Huang had a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, who they allege was recruited to spy for China’s top spy agency, MSS (Financial Times) Nvidia’s board launched a probe into whether Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign spy plot, after he admitted to the board he’d been intimate with an executive US intelligence determined to be a Chinese spy; Huang apologized and will keep leading Nvidia during the inquiry (The New York Times) Jensen Huang’s scandal poses a rare crisis in US corporate history, given the national security stakes, his centrality to Nvidia, and its role in the AI race (Semafor) Sources: John Ternus wants more urgency in Apple’s AI efforts, pushing Craig Federighi to move beyond Siri AI tweaks to agentic and other advanced capabilities (Bloomberg) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Search: Startup Bios in your podcast app and subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investors grew skeptical Anthropic’s IPO could land a $1.5T valuation after a brutal chip selloff. Thinking Machines unveiled Inkling 2 Small, Tesla announced it would wind down the Cybertruck, and Anthropic launched Personal Finance in Claude. Plus, Microsoft’s buyouts. Sources: major investors are increasingly skeptical Anthropic’s IPO can proceed at a $1.5T valuation after a market selloff; one says it could be closer to $1T (WSJ) The Nasdaq 100 fell 6% on Thursday, losing a record $2.3T in value, as the Philadelphia chip index fell 12% and vol control funds were expected to sell about $135B of US equity futures (Bloomberg) Thinking Machines Lab debuts Inkling 2 Small, a MoE model with 594B total and 17B active parameters, and plans to release weights next week after safety testing (Thinking Machines) Inkling 2 Small scored 31 on Artificial Analysis’ Intelligence Index, an 18-point jump, but used roughly four times as many output tokens per task; Thinking Machines is reportedly nearing a $5B round led by Accel (TechStrong.ai) Elon Musk says Tesla plans to wind down production of the Cybertruck at its Texas Gigafactory around mid-2027 “to make room for increased Cybercab production” (Financial Times) Anthropic launches Personal Finance in Claude, letting users connect bank and credit card accounts via Plaid with read-only access to analyze spending trends (ZDNet) Longreads How employees at Microsoft, long known for its stability in the tech industry, are grappling with its decision to offer buyouts to 60,000 people as AI spending grows (The New York Times) AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenAI pledged to rethink data center deals, dropping NDAs, after the blue wave rattled AI. Motorola launched a $1,599 flagship, OpenAI released GPT-6 Cyber, and Apple’s touchscreen MacBook Pro reviews said the screen’s gorgeous, but you don’t have to touch it. OpenAI pledges to change how it handles data center deals, including avoiding NDAs and lowering power usage during peak times, after Democrats’ midterm wins (Bloomberg) AI’s biggest names watched Figaro at the San Francisco Opera on election night as results turned against the data center build-out; OpenAI leaders weighed resetting next year’s capacity expectations, CoreWeave fell nearly 10%, and Brad Gerstner says 25% to 35% of next year’s US build-out could be at risk (WSJ) Motorola launches the $1,599+ Signature 27, featuring a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset, a 6.8-inch Tandem OLED display, and seven years of OS updates (9to5Google) Motorola’s Signature 27 is its first all-out slab flagship, matching the Galaxy S26 Ultra at $1,599 with 512GB and 12GB of RAM and adding GrapheneOS support, but it lacks built-in Qi2 magnets and $1,600 is a steep hill to climb (The Verge) OpenAI launches GPT-6 Cyber, which it says outperforms GPT-6 Astra on cyber benchmarks, is better at finding vulnerabilities, and is less likely to go rogue (The Verge) MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display review: gorgeous screen, touch is useful, strong performance and speakers, and a Dynamic Island, but pricey and no Face ID (Tom’s Hardware) The Verge gives the PROLED MacBook Pro a 9 out of 10: touch is nearly unusable as a touch-first experience, with no onscreen keyboard and no Apple Pencil support, so it’s a laptop that happens to have a touchscreen, but it’s the one to get if you’re coming from an M1-era Mac (The Verge) The PROLED display is the best you can buy, but touch adds little and there’s no Apple Pencil support; the $400-cheaper M5 Max MacBook Pro performs identically, and the OLED premium may become the only option with the M6 Max (PetaPixel) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democrats swept Texas, Georgia and Ohio governorships on data center moratorium pledges, putting AI buildout billions at risk. Apple opened Siri AI to every developer, Google said it would turn K-12 AI off by default, and Revolut cut coding costs 90%. Democratic gubernatorial wins from Texas and Georgia to Ohio and Pennsylvania are set to expose 50% of AI data center proposals to more scrutiny and pushback (Bloomberg) Democratic gubernatorial candidates who pledged to halt data center development swept Texas, Georgia and Ohio, threatening billions in planned AI investment and rebuking Trump’s endorsement of the AI building spree (Financial Times) The Texas results could be awkward for Elon Musk, who reportedly gave nearly $450 million to Republican midterm candidates and has bet big on the state with SpaceX, Tesla and the planned Terafab chip complex (The Information) Apple opens Siri AI to all developers, letting any app on iOS 27.3 beta and other 27.3 OS betas bring its content and actions into Siri AI by using App Intents (Apple Developer) Apple’s new “app skills” let any app build Siri AI integrations for the first time, and teach Siri to coordinate complicated multi-step actions, testable now in the iOS 27.3 betas (9to5Mac) Google says AI tools for K-12 students will be off by default in 2027; schools that block AI entirely will lose Search, as “Search and AI are deeply integrated” (The New York Times) Revolut says it cut AI coding inference costs by ~90% in less than a year by making self-hosted GLM models its default over commercial tools like Claude Code (The Register) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple beat estimates in John Ternus’s first earnings call, but memory costs loomed. Investors told Anthropic to price its IPO near $1.5T. Google banned a TV box maker for preloading malware. Binance detailed its $6.3B hack. Anthropic said RSI might be imminent. Apple reports Q4 revenue up 12% YoY to $114.48B, above $113.39B est., China revenue up 21% to $17.5B, below $18.9B est., in John Ternus’ first earnings report (Business Wire) Apple guided Q1 sales up 7–10% YoY, above the 6% Wall Street expected, but shares slipped ~3% after-hours on a 45–46% margin forecast and Ternus calling memory pricing “unprecedented” (FT) Opinion: Ternus’s tight-lipped first earnings call missed a chance to talk up the iPhone Duo, Apple’s AI-agent moat, and capex at just 6.5% of Meta’s (Bloomberg) Sources: institutional investors told Anthropic that its IPO valuation should be ~$1.5T to $1.6T, below the $2T range, citing factors like a tech stock selloff (WSJ) Google severs ties with and bans Android TV box maker Videostrong after finding it intentionally preloaded malware to open a backdoor to control the XCPE botnet (9to5Google) Binance says North Korean hackers stole $6.3B through a months-long scheme with fake LinkedIn job interviews and an ad campaign to deliver malicious software (Fortune) S-1: Anthropic says it may “imminently meet” its RSI threshold and may not identify “a significant acceleration” in its development until after it has occurred (TechCrunch) Anthropic’s internal data shows Claude went from leading 1% of its AI R&D work in March to 26% by August; co-founder Jack Clark now thinks RSI arrives in 2027, not 2028 (WSJ) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices