Zhongji Innolight Plunges In Hong Kong Debut As Global AI Trade Loses Steam

A key component supplier to global AI infrastructure faces tepid sentiment as investors increasingly question whether massive spending is justified.

Blue Owl’s Stack seeks a $5.9bn loan, feeding the AI data-centre debt boom
Blue Owl’s Stack seeks a $5.9bn loan, feeding the AI data-centre debt boom

Stack Infrastructure, the data-centre arm of the private-credit giant Blue Owl, is seeking a loan of about $5.9 billion, Bloomberg reported. The deal, if it closes, would rank among the larger single financings in a market that has become the engine ro…

Live-shopping app Whatnot is in talks to nearly double its valuation to $20bn
Live-shopping app Whatnot is in talks to nearly double its valuation to $20bn

The startup, which sells everything from sneakers to sports cards over livestream, is raising again barely a year after an $11.5bn round, as live commerce catches on in the West. Whatnot, the livestream-shopping platform where hosts sell sneakers, trad…

Atlassian puts its engineers on an AI budget as the cost of ‘tokenmaxxing’ bites
Atlassian puts its engineers on an AI budget as the cost of ‘tokenmaxxing’ bites

The software maker cut thousands of jobs in the name of AI. Now it is handing the engineers who remain capped ‘AI wallets,’ a sign the industry’s token spending has become a line item to manage. Atlassian has started giving its engineers a fixed monthl…

Crafting A Viable ‘AI Kill Switch’ Law Presents Lawmakers With Enormous Technical And Legal Challenges

Recent AI issues have caused Congress to consider a federally mandated AI kill switch. I review the legal and technical challenges. An AI Insider analysis and scoop.

Mark Zuckerberg is planning a big push into personal AI agents
Mark Zuckerberg is planning a big push into personal AI agents

Meta is all-in on AI, and sometime soon, the company is going to make a big push into personal AI agents that can do things on your behalf. On Wednesday’s Q2 2026 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg previewed a high-level vision of how the company is thinking about personal agents and what it will do […]

Qualcomm is raising phone chip prices starting September 1st
Qualcomm is raising phone chip prices starting September 1st

RAMageddon won’t be the only reason your next phone costs more – Qualcomm is about to raise prices on all its processors, as well. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on Wednesday that “prices are going to go up” on the company’s products starting on September 1st, CNBC reports. The price hikes were rumored last week […]

Microsoft’s AI spending became cloud revenue. Meta’s became a cash-flow hole.
Microsoft’s AI spending became cloud revenue. Meta’s became a cash-flow hole.

Two of the biggest AI spenders reported on the same day. Microsoft’s spending showed up as cloud revenue. Meta’s showed up as a hole in its cash flow. Meta’s revenue rose 28% to $60.8bn, beating forecasts, CNBC reported. But profit fell 14% to $15.8bn,…

Microsoft’s Azure just crossed $100bn a year, and the AI bet mostly paid off
Microsoft’s Azure just crossed $100bn a year, and the AI bet mostly paid off

Microsoft went into its earnings facing one question: is the vast AI spending working? The numbers said yes, mostly. Revenue rose 18% to $90bn for the quarter to 30 June, and net income climbed 31% to $35.8bn, the company reported. Microsoft Cloud brou…

OpenAI is giving 100,000 scientists free AI. Here’s how it can afford to.
OpenAI is giving 100,000 scientists free AI. Here’s how it can afford to.

OpenAI made two announcements this week that look unrelated. One is generous. The other explains how it can afford to be. The generous one: OpenAI is giving 100,000 academic researchers free access to its frontier models through 2027, Axios reported. T…