Thursday, July 23, 2026
Hoo-hoo, good morning! Today's edition has a spending number so big it needs its own currency, a robot strike, and a fine with a lot of zeros in it.
OpenAI Will Spend $750 Billion on AI, More Than an Entire Country's Economy
OpenAI now says it plans to spend $750 billion building AI infrastructure, things like data centers, computer chips, and power supplies, through 2030. That figure is roughly the same size as Sweden's entire yearly economic output. The company has been signing deal after deal this year to lock in computing power, betting that whoever controls the most 'compute' (the raw computer horsepower that runs AI models) will win the race. It is a staggering bet on future demand for AI tools, and it means OpenAI is committing money it has not yet earned, relying heavily on investors and partners to keep the cash flowing.
What this means for you: The AI tools you use every day are backed by promises of huge future spending, not guaranteed profits, so prices and features could shift fast if that bet does not pay off.
What this means for your business: If you rely on AI vendors for critical operations, watch their financial health closely. A company spending like this needs revenue to match, and any wobble could affect pricing, reliability, or which products survive.
Source: TechCrunch
Radar 01
AMD Puts Up to $5 Billion Into Anthropic to Fuel Its AI Chips
Chipmaker AMD says it will invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot. In return, Anthropic will use a huge amount of AMD's newest AI chips, enough computing power to run roughly 2 million homes' worth of electricity, through a system called Helios. This is AMD trying to catch up to rival Nvidia, which has dominated the market for chips that power AI. For Anthropic, it means more computing muscle and less dependence on a single chip supplier.
What this means for you: More competition among chipmakers could eventually mean cheaper, faster AI tools for everyone, since no single company controls the pipes.
What this means for your business: If your business depends on one AI provider, this deal is a reminder that the ground underneath them, chips and power, is shifting fast. Diversify your vendor relationships where you can.
Source: The Verge
Radar 02
EU Fines Google $1 Billion Over App Store and Search Rules
The European Union fined Google's parent company Alphabet about $1 billion (890 million euros) for breaking the bloc's Digital Markets Act, a law meant to stop big tech companies from unfairly favoring their own products. The violations involve how Google runs its search results and its app store. This adds to a growing pile of tension between European regulators and American tech giants, right as Google is also pouring money into AI.
What this means for you: Rules like this can change how search results and app stores look and work, especially if you are in Europe, potentially giving you more choices over time.
What this means for your business: If your business relies on Google's search visibility or app store rules to reach customers, expect more regulatory changes ahead. Build flexibility into your marketing and distribution plans now.
Source: Bloomberg Technology
Radar 03
Monday.com Cuts 630 Jobs to Go All In on AI
Monday.com, the workplace software company, is laying off about 630 people, roughly 20 percent of its staff, saying it wants a leaner team focused on its AI Work Platform. This is a real-world example of a company betting that fewer humans plus more AI tools can run the business just as well, or better. It is one of the clearest signs yet that AI adoption is starting to directly reshape headcount, not just workflows.
What this means for you: If you work at a software or tech company, this is a preview of a conversation your own employer may be having: can AI let us do more with fewer people?
What this means for your business: Before cutting staff for AI, make sure the tools are actually delivering the productivity gains you expect. Layoffs are easy to announce and hard to reverse if the AI does not live up to the hype.
Source: TechCrunch
Try This Today
Ask your finance or ops team one question this week: what would it cost us if our main AI vendor doubled their prices tomorrow? If nobody has a good answer, that is your sign to start diversifying.
Quick Hits
- Travis Kalanick's robotics company Atoms raised $1.7 billion led by venture firm a16z, with Uber also chipping in, betting on industrial AI to modernize factories and warehouses. [1]
- Elon Musk's xAI is now suing its own users after admitting its Grok chatbot has produced illegal child sexual abuse images, marking a stark shift from denial to legal action. [2]
- Substack launched a tool that estimates how much of a newsletter was written by AI, giving readers a transparency check as AI-assisted writing becomes more common. [3]
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