🧶 The Future Is Expensive

Happy Saturday, it’s August 02, 2025.

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🔦 Spotlight

🧵The $1 Trillion Battery Boom Begins. A decade ago, grid batteries were fantasy. Now they’re the future. As wind and solar tax credits sunset, battery incentives live on and suddenly everyone’s racing to plug the AI-powered energy gap. U.S. demand’s surging, lithium prices are falling, and investors smell a trillion-dollar storage supercycle. Batteries aren’t just supporting renewables anymore, they’re driving them. And as D.C. politics complicate solar’s economics, the grid’s new MVP is clear: it’s charge time. (More)

🧵OpenAI Bags $8.3B, Flexes Hard. While Big Tech burns billions on AI hardware, OpenAI just raised $8.3 billion, early, oversubscribed, and at a jaw-dropping $300B valuation. Dragoneer led with a $2.8B check (that’s not a typo), as PE titans like Blackstone and TPG joined to juice adoption across industries. Revenue’s surging, ChatGPT’s got 5M paying biz users, and a Microsoft-endorsed IPO could be next. Silicon Valley’s hottest ticket just got even hotter. (More)

🧵Big Tech’s $344B Year of FOMO. Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google, and Apple are throwing a collective $344 billion at AI infrastructure in 2025. Microsoft and Meta are seeing real returns. Amazon? Not so much. With cloud demand booming and OpenAI forcing everyone’s hand, Capex is the new arms race. Miss the build window now, and you’re not just behind, you’re obsolete. Wall Street’s watching, but the AI clock’s already ticking. (More)

👀 Next Up

🧵Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi’ Is a Bit Human. Tesla’s Bay Area Robotaxi service is live, but it’s more “ride-hail with fancy autopilot” than true robo. Unlike Austin’s no-driver setup, California laws require someone behind the wheel. That hasn’t stopped Elon from hyping it. Meanwhile, Waymo’s gunning for Dallas. The race for robo-ride dominance is on, just with training wheels. (More)

🧵U.S. Sanctions Reroute Russian Oil Ships. At least two tankers carrying Russian oil to India have abruptly changed course due to fresh U.S. sanctions targeting Iran-linked entities. One’s now bound for China, another for Egypt. India’s still importing, but pressure’s rising as sanctioned ships complicate logistics. The oil may keep flowing, but it’s getting harder to hide it. (More)

🧵Anthropic Boots OpenAI Off Claude. Anthropic just pulled the plug on OpenAI’s Claude API access, accusing it of using the tool to train competing models, a big no-no per the fine print. OpenAI says it was standard benchmarking. Anthropic isn’t buying it. It’s the latest round in AI’s Cold War, where access is power and trust is optional. (More)

🧵Tesla Hit With $200M Autopilot Verdict. A Florida jury found Tesla partly liable for a fatal 2019 crash involving its Autopilot software, ordering $243 million in damages. It’s a rare courtroom loss for Tesla, accused of overselling its tech’s safety. The driver trusted Autopilot too much. The jury didn’t. Tesla plans to appeal, naturally. (More)

🧵Google’s Got 14 Days to Open Android. After losing to Epic (again), Google was told to stop forcing Play Billing, quit anti-steering tricks, and ease up on exclusivity deals, within two weeks. Then it snagged a last-minute stay, delaying the reckoning. But come 2026, rival app stores could hit Android for real. Google’s monopoly? Cracks are definitely forming. (More)

🎭 Backstage

🧵Exxon and Chevron Split the Permian. Exxon’s going full throttle in West Texas, aiming to boost Permian output 50% by 2030. Chevron? Just chilling on a cash plateau. (More)

🧵Trump: Powell Is a ‘Stubborn MORON’. Trump raged over rate hikes, urging the Fed board to oust Powell if he won’t cut. Inflation fears still dominate. (More)

🧵Public Broadcasting Defunded, CPB Shuts Down. After losing $500M in federal support, CPB will wind down by Sept. 30. Rural stations, once its lifeline, may not survive the ideological hit. (More)

🧵Pfizer, BioNTech Lose U.K. Vaccine Appeal. A London court upheld Moderna’s patent claim against Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID shot. Damages loom, appeals coming, and the global mRNA feud grinds on. (More)

🧵BlackSuit Ransomware Gang Taken Offline. German and U.S. officials shut down servers used by BlackSuit, seizing data from the prolific hacking crew behind global cyberattacks. Chaos may follow. (More)

🧵Amazon Mulls Ads in Alexa+. Alexa+ is in early access, but Amazon’s already eyeing ads to cover costs. Critics warn: intrusive pitchmen could kill the vibe. (More)

🧵Zuckerberg’s Wallet Just Hit Warp Speed. Meta’s blowout earnings added $26.8B to Zuck’s fortune in a day, pushing him to $271B. AI glasses, “superintelligence,” and record-high shares did the trick. (More)