Morning Scan

Earnings season keeps confirming the same story: everyone with a balance sheet big enough is pouring it into AI infrastructure, and the market is starting to squint at the bill. SpaceX's first quarterly report as a public company is the loudest version of that today — huge growth, huger spend, and a stock that dropped anyway. Apple's legal and App Store headaches multiply, and the robotaxi land-grab keeps expanding.

7x — SpaceX's capex jumped nearly sevenfold year-over-year, to $18.4B, as it poured $15.8B into its AI segment alone. (NYT / WSJ)

Connected World

SpaceX, in First Earnings After IPO, Reports Soaring AI Spending (paywall)

Revenue's up across the board, but investors fixated on the spending line — SPCX dropped 7%+ after hours despite the growth. (NYT)

Google Earnings, The Frontier Case, Amazon Earnings

Ben Thompson reads Google's quarter as confirmation of the "Anthropic hedge," with Andy Jassy doing the talking for why Amazon's capex math works too. (Stratechery)

Microsoft Earnings, Microsoft vs. Meta, The Efficiency Payoff

Microsoft's pitch this quarter was strategy and discipline over brute-force spend — a contrast in a season otherwise defined by capex bragging rights. (Stratechery)

AMD's results spotlight risks of putting all your AI eggs in too few baskets

New Helios racks and Venice Epycs look like a real dent in Nvidia's dominance — assuming the bubble doesn't deflate first. (The Register)

Nvidia doesn't mess around: A week after open AI industry group formed, it's already showing progress

120+ companies deep into the Open Secure AI Alliance already, with proposals out on defending against AI attacks — fast for an industry group. (TechCrunch)

Connected World

OpenAI Responds to Apple's Lawsuit and Motion for Preliminary Injunction: 'Apple Is Getting This Wrong'

A public blog post instead of a court filing — an unusual way to fight an injunction, and a sign this dispute is as much PR as legal strategy. (Daring Fireball)

Telegram CEO Says Extortionist Manipulated Apple Into App Store Removal

Durov's claim — that someone planted CSAM specifically to trigger an Apple takedown — is a nasty new twist on weaponizing platform trust-and-safety systems. (MacRumors)

Everything Apple Is Expected to Announce in September

Five new devices on deck, business as usual — a reminder that the hardware event lands right in the middle of all this legal noise. (MacRumors)

“Durov says the extortionist planted 'illegal porn in a public chat' to manipulate Apple into 'overreacting.'” — The Verge

Connected World

Uber and Wayve say Wayve received London private hire vehicle licenses for supervised robotaxis (paywall)

London becomes the next robotaxi battleground, with Waymo also eyeing a 2026 entry — the global rollout race is no longer just a US story. (Bloomberg)

Waymo opens up robotaxi service in Dallas to everyone

No more waitlist — another city where Waymo's scaling from pilot to product. (TechCrunch)