🧶 Bold, Broke, Booming

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🔦 Spotlight

🧵 Samsung lands $16.5B Tesla chip deal. Samsung just snagged a massive 10-year deal to make chips for Tesla, worth $16.5 billion. It's a lifeline for Samsung’s foundry division, which has been trailing far behind TSMC’s dominant 67.6% market share. The Tesla win not only boosts Samsung’s AI chip game, it also signals confidence in its next-gen 2-nanometer tech. Investors noticed too, shares jumped 3.5% on the news. (More)

🧵 Tesla faces sales ban in California. Tesla might get benched in its biggest U.S. market. California’s DMV wants a 30-day sales suspension, accusing Tesla of misleadingly hyping “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” as more, well, self-driving than they actually are. A ruling’s still pending, but it adds heat to Tesla’s 2025 sales slump, Musk’s political backlash, and mounting legal woes over driver-assist tech that sometimes thinks ghosts are in the road. (More)

🧵 Microsoft trims headcount, bets big on AI. Microsoft’s laying off thousands while throwing $80B at AI infrastructure this year. Earnings look solid, with Azure expected to keep climbing and Copilot adoption tripling. But Wall Street wants proof the AI capex isn’t overkill. Data center pullbacks raised eyebrows, though Nadella insists they’re still scaling hard. Layoffs could be a prelude to rising depreciation. Either way, the AI arms race isn’t slowing, and Microsoft’s grabbing Google’s talent to stay ahead. (More)

👀 Next Up

🧵 Cinven eyes $1.2B deal for Artefact. Private equity player Cinven is in exclusive talks to buy data and AI consultancy Artefact, reportedly valuing it near $1.2B. The French firm serves big names like Unilever and BNP Paribas and spans 25 countries. It was taken private by Ardian in 2021 and is now back on the market. (More)

🧵 Eni doubles down on green profits. Eni says its renewables and biofuels will match oil and gas profits by 2035, bucking the fossil-fueled retreat of Shell and BP. Its “satellite” strategy blends clean energy with cash-rich assets, attracting investors and keeping growth funded without costly M&A. Bold move, Descalzi. (More)

🧵 TikTok doubles down on search ads. TikTok’s quietly building a search ad empire, hiring big and pitching hard to brands. Adoption is rising, results are mixed, but the platform sees search as a major future revenue stream. Agencies say it’s chipping at Google’s turf, but for now, most budgets just shuffle within TikTok. (More)

🧵 Zhipu unveils biggest open-source AI yet. Chinese AI startup Zhipu (now Z.ai) is dropping GLM-4.5, its heftiest open-source model to date, aiming to challenge OpenAI on the global stage. It joins a wave of Chinese firms pushing free AI tools, while also eyeing a $300M IPO, possibly in Hong Kong. Game on. (More)

🧵 Trump, EU seal new tariff pact. Trump and the EU struck a deal: 15% tariffs on most European imports (better than the 30% threat), in exchange for $750B in U.S. energy buys and $600B in new EU investments. Steel's still taxed at 50%. Trump called it “the biggest deal ever.” Modesty optional. (More)

🎭 Backstage

🧵 UK clamps down on VPN usage. New age checks spur VPN surge in the UK, but regulators want to block tools that bypass them. Privacy could take a serious hit. (More)

🧵 China’s AI summit goes full robot. Boxing bots, shirt-folding droids, and egg-peelers stole the show in Shanghai. Flashy now, but China’s betting big they’ll run factories, and households, soon. (More)

🧵 AI-powered robots rebuild LA fire zones. Cosmic’s mobile “micro-factories” are rolling into wildfire-hit LA neighborhoods to rebuild homes faster, cheaper, and greener, offering free design help and a 1-for-10 giveaway model. (More)

🧵 AI boom revives San Francisco. Startups, talent, and $74.6B in VC cash are flooding back into SF, turning it into AI’s Hollywood. Rents are spiking, offices filling, and robots might be your next barista. (More)

🧵 India plans quantum hub in Amaravati. Andhra Pradesh’s Naidu is building “Quantum Valley” to rival Cyberabad, backed by IBM, Tata, and L&T. It’s part tech vision, part political power play. (More)

🧵 Buena raises $58M to AI-fy rentals. Berlin startup Buena just scored $58M to automate and acquire Germany’s chaotic property management scene. AI handles the grunt work, humans focus on real problems. (More)

🧵 Chopped cheese faces a price hike. Ground beef just hit $6.12/lb, and bodegas like Hajji’s are sweating. With imports down, cattle low, and demand high, NYC’s go-to sandwich might get pricier fast. (More)