🧶 Racing Toward Superintelligence

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🔦 Spotlight

🧵 JPMorgan, Coinbase link up for crypto. America's biggest bank and its favorite crypto exchange are teaming up to directly connect Chase accounts to Coinbase wallets by 2026. That means skipping middlemen like Plaid, and possibly sparking a turf war over who owns your data. Bonus: Chase cardholders can soon buy crypto and fund wallets with points. It’s a power play just as regulators rethink who controls your financial info. (More)

🧵 Revolut eyes shortcut to US banking. Tired of UK regulatory red tape, Revolut is flirting with the idea of buying a small US bank to fast-track its American license. That move would let it sidestep the long charter application process and start lending Stateside. The fintech, now valued near $65B, is also plotting global expansion, despite still being stuck in “mobilization limbo” back home. Bureaucracy is the new Brexit, apparently. (More)

🧵 Google’s AlphaEarth AI maps the planet. DeepMind just launched AlphaEarth Foundations, an AI model that stitches satellite data into one mega-map of Earth, down to 10x10 meter squares. It crunches petabytes into compact digital summaries, 16 times smaller than usual, helping scientists track everything from crops to coastlines with better speed and accuracy. It’s like giving Earth a real-time health check, but with less paperwork and more satellites. (More)

👀 Next Up

🧵 Surge AI nears $25B valuation. Data-labeling upstart Surge AI is raising $1B in its first funding round, eyeing a $25B valuation, just shy of rival Scale AI. Surge’s been bootstrapped, profitable, and pulled in $1.2B last year, making it a hot alternative as clients sour on Scale after its Meta entanglement. (More)

🧵 Ramp rockets to $22.5B valuation. Just weeks after raising $200M, Ramp snagged another $500M at a $22.5B valuation. The AI-powered expense startup now boasts 40K+ customers and $700M in annualized revenue. Its bots now chase receipts and close books, all while cash flow turns positive. Fintech, meet your new overachiever. (More)

🧵 Microsoft reveals Azure’s $75B haul. For the first time ever, Microsoft spilled the beans: Azure made $75B in FY2025, up 34%. That’s second only to Amazon’s $112B AWS. Fueled by AI demand and OpenAI’s heavy lifting, Azure is now a true heavyweight in cloud, finally with numbers to back it up. (More)

🧵 OpenAI brings Stargate to Norway. OpenAI’s first European AI data center is landing in Norway via a $2B joint venture with Nscale and Aker. Slated to power 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by 2026, the Stargate-branded site pushes Europe closer to its “sovereign AI” dreams. Clean energy included, fragmentation not excluded. (More)

🧵 AI surge lifts TSMC 60 spots. TSMC rocketed up Fortune’s Global 500 to No. 126, thanks to a $90B revenue year and $36B in profit. AI demand now fuels 60% of sales, and global expansion is full throttle. CEO C.C. Wei? Just casually meeting presidents and building the world’s most strategic chip empire. (More)

🎭 Backstage

🧵 Zuckerberg rethinks open-source AI stance. Meta may stop open-sourcing top AI models as it chases “personal superintelligence.” Open? Closed? Depends on the risks, and the market edge. (More)

🧵 Trump, South Korea strike tariff deal. Trump drops tariffs to 15% as South Korea agrees to $350B in U.S. investments and $100B in energy buys. Details still murky. (More)

🧵 Ex-Microsoft vets launch Legion. Cybersecurity startup Legion emerges from stealth with $38M to tackle browser-based threats using AI, 90% faster than rivals, it claims. (More)

🧵 Dalio says go 15% gold & Bitcoin. Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio warns of a looming “economic heart attack” from U.S. debt and urges diversifying with crypto and gold over bonds. (More)

🧵 Zillow hit with $1B photo lawsuit. CoStar sues Zillow, claiming it stole 47,000+ property photos, watermarks and all, to juice rental listings. The fight for listing dominance is going full-contact. (More)

🧵 Douyin merges shopping and delivery. Douyin is merging its Supermarket and Hourly Delivery units to take on China’s instant commerce giants. Faster deliveries, fewer complaints, that’s the plan. (More)

🧵 Google signs EU AI Code of Practice. Google joins Europe’s AI rulebook it once opposed, aiming to shape how it's enforced. Voluntary today, but key to dodging future EU penalties. (More)