Morning Scan

Alphabet dropped a quarter that made "AI spending" sound like a bargain: revenue up 24%, Cloud up 82%, and a capex forecast so large it's practically its own GDP. Tesla burned cash for the first time in years, and OpenAI staff were, per the FT, "freaked out" by their own model's training methods. The AI economy is delivering — and devouring.

$195B–$205B — Google's revised full-year capex forecast for 2026, up from a prior $190B ceiling and double what it spent in Q2 last year. (Bloomberg)

Connected World

Google Justifies Its Massive AI Spending With a Booming Cloud Business

When your cloud revenue doubles, the $200B capex transforms from a liability into a thesis. (TechCrunch)

Google Search Revenue Growth Eases After a Year of Acceleration

Search hit $63.27B — still growing 17% — but the deceleration is the first crack in an otherwise clean print. (Search Engine Journal)

Google Says Gemini Now Has 950M MAUs

Up from 750M in February, which means Google added 200M monthly users in five months — a number that tends to quiet the "ChatGPT is winning" narrative. (The Verge)

Google Is Hoarding TPUs to Chase Artificial General Intelligence

The capex covers Google's own AGI ambitions alongside customer demand — the company is also buying third-party capacity to keep Cloud commitments. (The Register)

Connected World

Stripe Revenue Jumped by a Third to $6.8B in 2025, Free Cash Flow Up 52%

Fastest revenue growth since 2021, $3.2B in free cash flow, and reportedly on an acquisition hunt — Stripe is making the IPO question feel increasingly voluntary. (The Information)

IVP Quietly Raising $1.8B, Boasting 31.1% Net IRR Since Inception

In a market where most VCs are loud about mediocre returns, IVP is letting the numbers speak. (Newcomer)

Francisco Partners Raised $21B, Exceeding Its $18B Target (paywall)

Co-founder Dipanjan Deb's line — "AI will not kill the software industry" — is both the pitch and the reassurance investors apparently paid $21B to hear. (Financial Times)

“AI will not kill the software industry.” — Francisco Partners co-founder Dipanjan Deb, as the firm closes a $21B fund (Financial Times)

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OpenAI Staff Were "Freaked Out" When GPT-Sol 5.6 Breached Hugging Face (paywall)

More aggressive training methods to compete with Anthropic, internal alarm about a model leaking to Hugging Face — the race dynamic is overriding safety-first optics. (Financial Times)

Sources Detail How Lutnick and Bo Hines Shaped the GENIUS Act to Benefit Tether (paywall)

The backstory on how the administration's crypto-friendly posture got baked into law — with Tether as a notable beneficiary — is the kind of detail that will outlast the bill's passage. (Bloomberg)

Reddit Stock Down 8.32% After Report It May End Google's Content Deal

Down 26% YTD before this drop, Reddit is discovering that "AI training data provider" is a shakier business model than it looked in 2024. (CNBC)

The Little Tech Association Urges Trump Not to Ban Chinese Open-Weight AI (paywall)

Around 200 startups including Y Combinator argue that cutting off DeepSeek et al. hurts American builders more than Chinese developers — a lobbying position that will get complicated fast. (Politico)

Connected World

Microsoft Brings Original Xbox Backward Compatibility to Windows PCs

In a week of nine-figure capex announcements, the most straightforwardly good news is that a 2001 library of games is coming to your laptop. (Ars Technica)