Good morning. It wasn’t so way back that folks have been scorching on Reddit and its CEO, Steve Huffman, for re-finding the web stalwart’s footing in an age of AI.
This 12 months, although, the AI appears to be successful—at the least within the eyes of traders. Reddit shares are down 30% 12 months so far as the corporate mulls renewing a $60 million-a-year licensing cope with Google…versus going to battle towards the tech big’s AI coaching bots. (Turns out these “AI Overviews” may be “Ad Revenue Destroyers.” Whodathunk?)
Stay tuned—although if anybody can pull it off, it would simply be the world’s sixth largest website.
Today’s tech information follows. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. Lessons from the OpenAI-Hugging Face snafu? Glad you asked.
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White House accuses Moonshot K3 of distilling Anthropic Fable
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
A high Trump administration official has accused one among China’s most promising AI startups of stealing from one of the crucial helpful AI firms within the U.S.
Michael Kratsios, the president’s science and expertise advisor, mentioned Moonshot and its formidable new K3 AI mannequin, launched final week, distilled Anthropic’s new Fable mannequin, launched final month as a part of its flagship Mythos collection.
(AI distillation entails the coaching of a smaller, extra environment friendly AI mannequin to copy the habits of a bigger, extra advanced AI mannequin. It’s not copying, per se, however it may be a purposeful technique to fast-follow an innovator.)
What’s extra, Kratsios added, Moonshot did so utilizing Thailand-based Nvidia GB300 AI methods—“G” as in Grace CPU, “B” as in Blackwell GPU—that are expressly prohibited from being offered to Chinese firms beneath present U.S. export controls.
“They developed a sophisticated internal platform to conduct large scale distillation against U.S. models, allowing them to quickly switch between multiple methods of access to avoid detection,” the official wrote in a social media publish, including: “Large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary U.S. technology and undermining American research is unacceptable.”
In his own social media post, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned he was contemplating blacklisting and sanctioning Moonshot.
In a remark made to Reuters, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington known as the accusations “entirely unfounded.”
For months, the U.S. authorities has been on excessive alert for what it believes are widespread efforts by Chinese tech firms to steal American mental property. In February, Anthropic accused three Chinese AI firms of creating tens of thousands of user accounts to reap information from its Claude mannequin for the aim of coaching their very own AI fashions. That similar month, Anthropic’s rival OpenAI accused Hangzhou-based DeepSeek of similar behavior. —AN
Anthropic and SpaceX handed Google the largest revenue quarter in firm historical past
Alphabet made history Wednesday with a quarterly revenue that stretched into 12 figures for the primary time within the search big’s historical past—and maybe for the primary time in any firm’s historical past.
Google’s dad or mum firm grew its bottom line by 298% year-over-year within the second quarter, totaling an astounding $112.1 billion in web earnings.
That’s extra revenue in three months than 459 of the Fortune 500 firms generate in high line income in a full 12 months.
What provides? Alphabet’s Q2 income elevated by a really spectacular 24%, to $119.8 billion, with the Google Cloud enterprise reaching an 82% progress clip—outcomes CEO Sundar Pichai known as proof that the corporate’s “full stack approach to AI is delivering real, measurable value.”
Well, that—plus $99 billion in extra (or “other”) earnings that’s circuitously produced by Alphabet’s day-to-day enterprise operations resembling search promoting and YouTube subscriptions.
So the place did these record-shattering income come from? “Unrealized and realized” good points on the fairness securities in its funding portfolio. And most of that $99 billion determine comes from Alphabet’s investments in Anthropic and SpaceX.
It’s unclear how a lot every of the person investments contributed to the $99 billion acquire, however each firms noticed their valuations soar in Q2. (Anthropic is now price $965 billion; SpaceX’s present market cap is $1.52 trillion.)
Still, shares of Alphabet fell 3% in after-hours buying and selling on Wednesday, as traders fretted concerning the firm’s rising capital expenditures (as much as $205 billion in 2026 spending) and fierce competitors going through its Gemini household of AI fashions. —Eva Roytburg
Samsung unveils Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra
Well of us, the new new factor in smartphones isn’t lasers, or air high quality sensors, and even graphene batteries.
Clutch your Razrs, millennials: It’s a foldable show.
Ahead of the long-rumored Apple iPhone Fold (or no matter it finally ends up being known as), Samsung has taken the wraps off its newest and best, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra.
If you possibly can imagine it, Samsung put out a folding smartphone way back in 2019. What’s modified after seven years of tinkering moreover the same old cellular upgrades? A titanium-based show for thinner sturdiness (it’s 4.1mm thick whereas open), a 5,000 mAh battery (a claimed 27 hours of video playback!), and extra Gemini AI integration than you possibly can shake a Qualcomm chip at.
Samsung payments the Fold8 Ultra as a “maximum productivity” gadget constructed for “heavier multitasking,” “content creation,” and “AI-powered workflows.” At $2,100, it actually comes with a most, AI-powered price ticket.
Will it’s standard? Samsung hasn’t shared gross sales figures for its foldable gadget household, however trade analysts imagine the Fold8’s predecessor was one of many firm’s most profitable merchandise. In quick order, the folding format has advanced from a novelty to a scorching class—and the Fold8, with thousands and thousands of items reportedly on faucet, is positioned to capitalize on the pattern. —AN
More tech
—AMD and Anthropic ink a multibillion-dollar server deal. The AI agency will purchase as much as 2GW of AMD chips; the chipmaker will make investments as much as $5 billion in Anthropic.
—IBM shares sink 2%, bringing its YTD decline to 29%. A miss on Q2 income, a drop in infrastructure gross sales, and a 42% decline in mainframe income.
—Samsung’s working on smart glasses with Gentle Monster, Google, and Warby Parker.
—OpenAI will spend $30 billion on a brand new, 3.2 gigawatt information middle within the U.S. state of Georgia.
—WhatsApp gets an Android Auto and CarPlay update. Hear and reply to messages, make calls, and so forth.
—ServiceNow shares jump 4% because it boosts its full-year subscription income estimate.
—SEC will pay $150,000 in legal fees to settle a Coinbase lawsuit concerning the company’s dealing with of information requests in the course of the Biden administration.
—Travis Kalanick’s robotics startup, Atoms, raises $1.7 billion…and Uber is an fairness companion!