Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Waymo says it has built an ASIC chip that will improve its robotaxis' reflexes and navigational skills and help it diversify away from companies like Nvidia  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo has built a custom chip that the company said will improve the performance of its robotaxis …

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Circana: US video game hardware spending fell 29% YoY in July to $282M, the lowest since COVID; unit shipments fell 39% as average console prices hit $542  —  Nintendo Co.'s Switch 2 sales in the US this July were less than half what they were the same month a year ago, leading an industrywide hardware decline, according to Circana.

Julia Hornstein / The Information:
Anthropic-backed enterprise AI venture Ode is acquiring four-year-old AI consultancy Casper for an undisclosed fee; Ode has 100+ staff after buying Fractional  —  A joint venture established by Anthropic and Wall Street firms such as Blackstone has made its first acquisition since its July launch …

Douglas Gillison / Reuters:
Study: 150+ Polymarket wallets may have traded on inside US military information, attracting copycat bets and making $8M overall, with a 97.2% average win rate  —  More than 150 wallets on Polymarket International may have traded on inside U.S. military information, attracting copycat bets …

Robert Purchese / Eurogamer.net:
GTA 6 leaker CyberLeek releases more footage, including a video of a character spelling “leek” with bullet holes in a wall, suggesting direct access to the game  —  A real plane.  —  Follow Grand Theft Auto VI  —  UPDATE 1PM BST: A previous version of this article erroneously suggested …

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Slack launches Slack Code, adding dedicated, project-specific code channels that let teams collaborate with AI coding agents “like teammates” across all plans  —  Slack Code provides a dedicated open space for teams to collaborate with AI agents.

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Source: Meta is spending hundreds of millions per year to use trillions of AI tokens weekly via Azure, quietly becoming one of Microsoft's largest AI customers  —  Meta Platforms Inc. has become one of Microsoft Corp.'s biggest AI customers, underscoring how demand for the emerging technology remains concentrated in the tech industry.

Hugo Lowell / Wired:
Sources: Trump officials expect Elon Musk to spend $100M to $200M in the November midterm elections, with a focus on voter turnout in key races, including Texas  —  Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk is expected to spend up to $200 million in the midterms.  It could be a big boost …

Christine Chen / Reuters:
Australia passes the News Bargaining Incentive, which will tax tech giants 2.5% on their Australian ad revenue unless they strike deals with local news media  —  Australia passed legislation on Thursday that will force tech giants to pay millions of dollars in levies if they fail …

Paul Kiernan / Wall Street Journal:
PitchBook: California-based startups have raised ~$366B in 2026 so far across 4,000+ companies, more than triple the total of all other 49 states combined  —  California-based companies have announced a record haul in startup funding, despite billionaire-tax fears

Yash Roy / Bloomberg:
Muon Space, which is building a spacecraft platform for orbital data centers and AI computing, raised a $250M Series C, with participation from Google  —  Satellite startup Muon Space Inc. closed a $250 million funding round, raising capital from Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Salesforce Ventures LLC …

Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
Stripe's OpenRouter acquisition, its largest yet, is a bet on a future where users turn to a mix of AI models and tokens are the central currency for businesses  —  The Stripe deal for OpenRouter, founded by an NFT entrepreneur, is a bet on a future where users turn to a mix of AI models

Luz Ding / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 9% YoY to ~$39.64B, meeting est., and net income down 75% to ~$1.54B due to heavy AI spending and weak domestic retail consumption  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s profit plunged more than 75% after the Chinese company ratcheted up quarterly capital spending …

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Binance launches Agent OS, a platform that lets AI agents analyze markets and execute trades on users' behalf; users set limits on AI agents' access and trades  —  Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange with more than 300 million registered users, on Thursday launched a platform …

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
South Korea media: SK Hynix and its union reach a tentative deal on a 6.3% wage hike and paying out 60% of profit-sharing bonuses in shares and 40% in cash  —  SK Hynix Inc. and its labor union have reached a tentative wage and collective bargaining agreement, featuring a 6.3% salary increase …