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# Chips Are the New Oil Wells, Robots, Rounds, and Runways, Edge Cases and Uncomfortable Signals
- URL: https://adjacent.media/scan/2026-06-30-am/
- Published: 2026-06-30T10:07:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-30T10:07:11.000Z
- Description: The last business day of H1 2026 closes with capital flowing hard into chips, robots, and AI infrastructure, as a few incumbents find that scale doesn’t automatically mean safety. The half-year ends with more construction announcements than product launches.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #scan-am, #scan

The last business day of H1 2026 closes with capital flowing hard into chips, robots, and AI infrastructure, as a few incumbents find that scale doesn't automatically mean safety. The half-year ends with more construction announcements than product launches.

> **$590B** — South Korea's committed investment to build a new chip complex anchored by Samsung and SK Hynix — the kind of number that makes every other semiconductor announcement look like a rounding error. *(Financial Times)*

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### Connected World

#### [South Korea Bets $590B on a New Chip Megacomplex](https://www.ft.com/content/86013b7e-41da-445a-981c-075a701dccf6?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Samsung and SK Hynix are co-anchoring a new national chip campus with four fabs and a packaging cluster — the most expensive industrial bet of the year, by a wide margin. *(Financial Times)*

#### [Memory Prices Set to Surge 40–50% in Q3](https://wccftech.com/jefferies-warns-memory-prices-surge-50-percent-q3-40-in-q4-2026-no-relief-until-2028/?ref=adjacent.media)

Jefferies sees no meaningful relief from Chinese producers until 2028, which is bad news for anyone buying servers, PCs, or most anything with RAM. *(Wccftech)*

#### [Why Wall Street Thinks Micron Is the Next Nvidia](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/28/why-wall-street-thinks-us-memory-maker-micron-is-the-next-nvidia/?ref=adjacent.media)

With HBM demand exploding and supply constrained, investors are hunting for the next AI infrastructure proxy — and Micron keeps coming up. *(TechCrunch)*

#### [Baidu's Chip Unit Eyes $50B Hong Kong IPO — With a Catch](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/baidus-chip-unit-asked-ipo-investors-buy-semiconductors?ref=adjacent.media)

Kunlunxin is asking IPO investors to also pre-commit to buying chips worth 3–7x their investment, which is either genius vertical alignment or a creative way to juice demand. *(The Information)*

#### [China's LineShine Supercomputer: A Deep Dive](https://www.nextplatform.com/hpc/2026/06/25/a-deep-dive-on-chinas-lineshine-all-cpu-exaflops-class-supercomputer/5262439?ref=adjacent.media)

LineShine pairs 304-core Arm CPUs with HBM to hit the Top500 without a GPU in sight — a meaningful proof point that China is building around, not just through, US export controls. *(The Next Platform)*

### Connected World

#### [Apptronik Raises \~$1B at \~$5B Valuation, Mercedes Is a Backer](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-06-25/apptronik-s-humanoid-robots-walk-but-ceo-jeff-cardenas-isn-t-bragging-yet?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MjQwMDMzOCwiZXhwIjoxNzgzMDA1MTM4LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSDZTMEhLR0lGUjMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCODE3M0JCRUY0QzI0MTlFQTBGNEJCRjJDOTFDODJCNCJ9.zlHngzbIQi43xBePRBuDh8m4CMHVLxn-k3-gIu29FFU&ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

The humanoid robot maker has Apollo units already running on Mercedes factory floors — the gap between demo and deployed is closing faster than most expected. *(Bloomberg)*

#### [Ex-Anthropic Researchers Raise $200M for Self-Improving AI](https://thenextweb.com/news/mirendil-200m-seed-ai-research?ref=adjacent.media)

Mirendil hit a $1B valuation on the pitch that it will sell AI systems capable of improving themselves, which is either the most important startup of 2026 or the most dangerous-sounding one. *(The Next Web)*

#### [Nvidia Backs a 360 MW AI Data Center in Indonesia](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-28/ai-startup-firmus-to-build-indonesia-data-center-with-nvidia?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Firmus is partnering with Nvidia on a DSX AI factory campus in Batam — Southeast Asia's infrastructure land grab is still accelerating. *(Bloomberg)*

#### [Momenta Files for Hong Kong IPO, Seeking Up to $751M](https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-momenta-seeks-up-751-million-hong-kong-ipo-boost-autonomous-driving-rd-2026-06-29/?ref=adjacent.media)

The Shanghai-based driver-assist firm counts Toyota, Mercedes, and Audi as customers in China. Its IPO will be a useful read on how investors value the non-Tesla autonomy stack. *(Reuters)*

### Connected World

#### [Axon CEO: AI Is the Future of Policing — Revenue Up 700%+ YoY](https://www.wsj.com/tech/the-taser-ceo-who-says-ai-is-the-future-of-policing-4311d23c?st=JRQZYz&ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Rick Smith has turned Taser's parent into a policing software company, and the growth rate suggests law enforcement agencies are buying in fast — the public debate has not kept pace. *(Wall Street Journal)*

#### [Disconnected Military Databases May Have Caused the Iranian School Strike](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-06-28/u-s-analysts-missed-remark-surfaced-in-iran-school-strike?ref=adjacent.media)

Sources say the February 28 incident may trace back to siloed intel systems, and the proposed fix — more AI — is giving some analysts pause for exactly the reasons you'd expect. *(Los Angeles Times)*

#### [Amazon's India Push Wipes $15B Off Eternal and Swiggy](https://thenextweb.com/news/amazons-rapid-delivery-push-wipes-15bn-off-indias-eternal-and-swiggy?ref=adjacent.media)

Investors decided Amazon's long-telegraphed entry into Indian quick commerce is now a real threat — both incumbents shed billions in market cap before Amazon has fully launched. *(The Next Web)*

#### [PuffPal Cannabis App Leaked \~1 Million Users' Passports](https://www.theverge.com/tech/947157/passports-data-breach-cannabis-club-systems-nefos-puffpal?view%5Ftoken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdjV0Y5TTBuM0ciLCJwIjoiL3RlY2gvOTQ3MTU3L3Bhc3Nwb3J0cy1kYXRhLWJyZWFjaC1jYW5uYWJpcy1jbHViLXN5c3RlbXMtbmVmb3MtcHVmZnBhbCIsImV4cCI6MTc4MzA5NDY0NiwiaWF0IjoxNzgyNjYyNjQ2fQ.7SjX6B8AAGhzsdrtD5asJWBwzQvTDUD31hWte7K1oec&ref=adjacent.media)

A Spanish cannabis club membership app left roughly 985,000 identity documents exposed — a niche product with a surprisingly large blast radius. *(The Verge)*