Jul 28, 2025 5 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ A $500 Billion Pie

More Stories: ChatGPT Redrew the Map, Optimus Not Prime

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

The new tech menu: no links, cold robots, and a pie you’ll never get to taste.

Stargate: A $500 Billion Pie

👀 What’s the move: Trump’s “Project Stargate” promised a U.S.-wide AI backbone, but six months in, there’s no data-center backbone—just press releases, PowerPoints, and a pilot site in Ohio that barely qualifies as a closet. Meanwhile, OpenAI—fed up with waiting—quietly inked a separate cloud services deal with Oracle: a $30 billion-per-year agreement for roughly 4.5 GW of compute capacity, tied directly to the Stargate JV.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Stargate looked like a national AI infrastructure moonshot; it’s unraveling into political theater. OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle share ownership—but no one’s actually running the buildout. SoftBank draws up the roadmap, OpenAI builds deals to get compute now, and Oracle waits for payments. Environmental waivers and national-security fast lanes replaced real permitting, but nothing’s moved—except the side deal between OpenAI and Oracle.

⛵ Key takeaway: This isn’t a failed launch—they never planned to break ground in the first place.

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SEARCH

Google Still Rules, ChatGPT Redrew the Map

👀 What’s the move: AI search isn’t cute anymore—it’s carving up Google’s empire. In June alone, AI tools funneled over a billion visits to the web, up 357% YoY. News outlets saw a 770% jump, but don’t celebrate yet. This surge comes as Google’s own click-through rates nosedive when AI Overviews show up, dropping from 15% to 8%. Discovery is shifting, and Google’s monopoly is cracking.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This is the start of a new distribution war. AI models like ChatGPT are quietly seizing control of search intent, re-routing visibility, and deciding which headlines live or die. Publishers may be getting AI-driven traffic now, but the long game looks brutal—less attribution, more cannibalization, and no guarantees.

⛵ Key takeaway: AI isn’t breaking the internet—it’s rerouting it through fewer, hungrier mouths.

ROBOT

Tesla’s Robot Army Stalls Before It Starts

👀 What’s the move: With vehicle sales plunging 16%—the steepest drop in over a decade—Tesla tried to pivot attention to robots and robotaxis. But the Optimus project has hit a wall: hand production is lagging, the 5,000-unit goal for 2025 is slipping, and half-built robots are piling up in the factory. Key leadership has exited, and foundational tech remains unfinished. Musk’s vision of “millions of humanoid bots” is colliding with manufacturing reality.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Optimus isn’t just a hardware bet—it’s the centerpiece of Tesla’s post-auto growth story. Now that centerpiece is cracking. The tech stack isn’t ready, and the use case is under scrutiny: do factory jobs really require full humanoid dexterity, or is Tesla overengineering itself into a corner? If the company misses this next platform shift, it could lose the narrative—and the market—to faster, simpler challengers.

⛵ Key takeaway: Tesla’s trying to reboot its story with robots—problem is, the parts haven’t shown up yet.

STARTUP SPOT

🧠 Armada
“AI-scale compute, anywhere.”
Modular data-centers in containers (Leviathan, Triton, Galleon), edge-native compute powered by AEP software stack → Dispatchable in weeks, power-agnostic and ruggedized for defense, energy, and industrial deployments.
→ Founded in SF by Dan Wright (CEO), Pradeep Nair (CTO) & Jon Runyan in 2023–24; backed by Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Microsoft’s M12 and others. Just raised $131 M to scale Leviathan deployment across U.S. and allied power-rich edge sites.

🚗 Lyft
“Asset-light rides, AI calling the shots.”
Hyper-efficient ride-hail plus AV platform—reinforcement‑learning matching, AI-powered driver-scheduling tools, and cash‑efficient robotaxi/shuttle partnerships. Bookings +16% in Q1 2025; nearly $1B cash ops & $750M share buyback authorized; diversifying into media ad run‑rate via Lyft Media targeting $100M by Q4 ’25.
→ Founded 2012 by Logan Green & John Zimmer; CEO David Risher leading since 2023 (ex‑Microsoft/Amazon). Benteler‑built Holon Urban shuttles (Level 4, no steering wheel) roll out late 2026 with U.S. manufacturing & financing via Benteler Mobility.

🧠 OpenRouter
“One API to rule all LLMs.”
Unified platform routing prompts across 400+ models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, others based on price, performance & uptime. Simplifies model management, built-in fallback, leaderboard data & analytics for developers.
→ Co‑founded 2023 by Alex Atallah (OpenSea cofounder) + Louis Vichy; 15‑person fully remote team based in NYC; chosen by developers for multi‑model access. Raised $40 M seed + Series A from Andreessen Horowitz & Menlo in mid‑2025; valuation ~ $500 M; May usage hit $8 M in inference credits (5× from Oct).

BAY AREA MEMOS

Astronomer has hired Gwyneth Paltrow, ex-wife of Coldplay's Chris Martin, to help move on from a viral scandal involving former executives.
A former Tesla president reveals that Steve Jobs' advice led to a 'no slides' rule that now powers GM's EV success.
After being offered just 1% of his stock's value, a Windsurf engineer rejected Google's 'exploding offer' to join rival Cognition.
Samsung Electronics has signed a $16.5 billion deal to produce next-generation AI chips for Tesla through 2033.
Portable data center startup Armada raises $131 million to deploy AI computing power in remote locations.

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