Part 3: Trending Thursday 49: AI Bets, Launches, and Moves

Transcript

SPEAKER_1: Let's start with the money. Cisco just called nine billion dollars in AI infrastructure orders, Foxconn's biggest revenue line is now AI servers, and Cerebras priced at fifty-six billion on a book that was twenty times oversubscribed. What does that tell you? SPEAKER_2: It tells you the money is not hedging anymore. It is betting. And the Cerebras deal is a real tell. There is still far more capital chasing AI exposure than there are clean, diversified AI businesses to actually invest in. That concentration risk is the signal. SPEAKER_1: Right, so the demand is outrunning the supply of quality targets. Let's move into product news. There's a Gallup survey out about data centers. What did it find? SPEAKER_2: Seventy percent of Americans now oppose data centers near their homes. That opposition is actually higher than for nuclear power plants. Nearly half strongly oppose local construction, and the reasons cited are water use, electricity consumption, and environmental concerns. SPEAKER_1: That's a striking number. Meanwhile, AI is quietly showing up in doctors' offices. Tell me about OpenEvidence. SPEAKER_2: OpenEvidence is an AI-powered medical search engine, and it now reaches roughly sixty-five percent of US physicians. That's about six hundred fifty thousand doctors in the US, plus one point two million internationally. And most patients have no idea their doctor is using it. SPEAKER_1: That's a huge quiet footprint. On the developer side, Anthropic made a move with Claude. What happened there? SPEAKER_2: Anthropic launched Agent SDK credits for paid plans. Depending on your tier, you get a monthly credit between twenty and two hundred dollars for the Agent SDK and third-party tools like OpenClaw, starting June fifteenth. Power users are calling it a twenty-five times cut in subsidized usage. SPEAKER_1: So heavy users are feeling that. What about Microsoft Edge? There's something new with Copilot there. SPEAKER_2: Edge now gathers context from every open tab. It can generate quizzes, offer podcast summaries, and the standalone Copilot Mode is actually gone now, because as they put it, everything is Copilot Mode now. SPEAKER_1: Everything is Copilot Mode. And Google has something coming at I/O next week? SPEAKER_2: Sources told The Verge that Google is announcing a new Gemini model that lands roughly in GPT-five-point-five's class. They're also prepping an AI agent called Gemini Spark for launch at the same event. SPEAKER_1: Big week for Google then. TikTok also made a pretty unexpected move into travel. SPEAKER_2: TikTok GO launched US travel booking. They partnered with Booking.com and Expedia so users can book hotels, attractions, and experiences directly inside the app. SPEAKER_1: And in legaltech, Clio hit a major milestone. SPEAKER_2: Clio hit five hundred million in ARR, and they credited AI tool demand as the main driver. This adds to their five billion dollar Series G valuation from November twenty twenty-five. SPEAKER_1: OpenAI also made a governance proposal this week. What are they pushing for? SPEAKER_2: OpenAI is backing a US-led global AI governance body modeled on the IAEA, and notably they want China included. The proposal landed the same week that Altman's personal conflicts became public record, which added a layer of context to the timing. SPEAKER_1: Interesting timing. There was also a big robotics funding round this week. SPEAKER_2: Mind Robotics raised four hundred million dollars at a three point four billion dollar valuation. It's a spinout led by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, backed by a Kleiner Perkins-led round, targeting AI-powered factory automation with Rivian as the anchor customer. SPEAKER_1: And the major carriers are teaming up on something too. SPEAKER_2: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are forming a satellite joint venture. They're pooling spectrum and satellite capacity to eliminate US wireless dead zones. Technical details are still being worked out. SPEAKER_1: Klarna had a strong quarter as well. SPEAKER_2: Very strong. Q one revenue hit one point zero one billion, up forty-four percent year over year. GMV was up thirty-three percent to thirty-three point seven billion. Active customers rose twenty percent to one hundred nineteen million. They reversed a ninety-nine million dollar loss from a year ago. SPEAKER_1: And Meta launched something new on the social side. SPEAKER_2: Instagram launched Instants. It's an ephemeral photo-sharing feature that lets users send disappearing photos to close friends. It's available both as an in-app feature and as a standalone iOS and Android app. SPEAKER_1: Now let's get into the personnel moves. Meta's layoffs are making headlines for a specific reason. SPEAKER_2: Wired spoke with sixteen current and former employees ahead of the ten percent cuts. The most common word used to describe the environment was miserable. And notably, anyone with options is actually hoping to be laid off just to get the severance. SPEAKER_1: That says a lot about the culture right now. LinkedIn also had cuts. SPEAKER_2: New CEO Dan Shapero, just three weeks into the job, announced roughly eight hundred seventy-five layoffs across engineering, product, and marketing. That's about five percent of the workforce. SPEAKER_1: And Cisco cut jobs even while posting record revenue. SPEAKER_2: CEO Chuck Robbins announced four thousand layoffs alongside fifteen point eight four billion dollars in record revenue. The savings are being redirected toward AI, security, and silicon. SPEAKER_1: Meta also made a notable diplomatic hire. SPEAKER_2: Dina Powell McCormick joined as Meta's new global emissary. She joined Trump's China delegation and met with King Charles III. It's the clearest signal yet of Meta's diplomatic ambitions under regulatory pressure. SPEAKER_1: And Jensen Huang's foundation made a significant donation to universities. SPEAKER_2: The Huang family foundation donated one hundred eight million dollars in compute to academic institutions. They purchased CoreWeave GPU time and donated it directly. Nvidia hardware is now in university labs training the next wave of AI researchers. SPEAKER_1: Now the parting thoughts. What are the two things founders are watching most closely right now? SPEAKER_2: First, the China situation. H200 clearances came through but no chips have shipped yet. If they start shipping, compute pricing moves. If they don't, the US AI supply chain stays insulated, at least for now. SPEAKER_2: Second, the Musk versus Altman ruling. A win for Musk doesn't just hurt OpenAI. It sets a precedent for how founder-led companies can be challenged on governance grounds at any stage. SPEAKER_1: And what was the biggest surprise of the week? SPEAKER_2: Not the AI safety findings, and not the IPO. It was Claude Mythos quietly becoming the most capable offensive cyber tool ever independently benchmarked, while a DC turf war over which agency even evaluates it plays out in the background. SPEAKER_1: What a week to close on. So to recap: capital is betting hard on AI with Cisco, Foxconn, and Cerebras leading the charge. Major product launches from Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, TikTok, and Instagram. Key layoffs at Meta, LinkedIn, and Cisco. And the two things to watch are the China chip situation and the Musk-Altman ruling, with Claude Mythos as the quiet story of the week.