Good morning. As a native of the Northeast U.S., I’ve got few personal connections to the state of Texas, save for my appreciation of migas and my enduring distaste for a certain Dallas football team.
But last week’s fatal floods in Texas Hill Country should leave anyone—American or otherwise—feeling grief.
It should also raise the following question: If life-saving technology is available, should using it be a legal requirement? At what cost?
In the case of the floods, it’s a more sophisticated public alert system, but the question could just as well mean self-driving cars (collisions), wearables (heart conditions), or even something as common as air conditioning (heat stroke).
I don’t have all the answers; I’m no policymaker. But I’m certainly thinking about the issue as heavy rains continue to batter Central Texas. Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. Want to help? Resources include the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, TEXSAR, Texas Firewalkers, and Mercy Chefs.
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Fortune Tech? Drop a line here.
OpenAI’s $3 billion deal with AI coding startup Windsurf collapses
Google has struck a licensing deal with coding startup Windsurf, upending OpenAI’s $3 billion offer to acquire the startup after the clock on the deal’s exclusivity period expired.
The deal means that Windsurf will continue to operate as an independent startup while key members of the team join Google, a source familiar with the matter told Fortune.
“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson told Fortune.
The news represents a setback for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and comes as the generative AI startup has suffered talent raids from rivals like Meta.
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that the exclusivity period for the $3 billion acquisition deal with Windsurf, entered into in May, had expired, leaving Windsurf free to pursue other options.
AI coding startups, which use generative AI to assist programmers in writing code, have become one of the hottest categories in tech. Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, built on OpenAI’s technology, has gained widespread adoption; VC-backed startup Cursor recently raised $900 million at a $9 billion valuation.
Windsurf was founded in 2021 by MIT classmates and initially called Codeium. The startup changed its name to Windsurf in April and is backed by Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Greenoaks, and Kleiner Perkins. —Allie Garfinkle
SpaceX will reportedly invest $2 billion in xAI
SpaceX has reportedly agreed to invest $2 billion in xAI.
That’s a substantial chunk of the artificial intelligence company’s $5 billion equity fundraise that Morgan Stanley announced last month.
Observers of Elon Musk (and readers of this newsletter) shouldn’t be surprised by the news, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, since the erstwhile DOGElord owns both companies.
He also has a habit of pulling his interests together. Earlier this year, he merged the social media service X with xAI in a bid to amplify use of its Grok AI chatbot.
The Journal notes that it’s SpaceX’s first known investment in xAI, but it’s not the first time the companies have been engaged with one another. SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service uses Grok for customer support.
Musk has also previously tapped SpaceX to support his other interests. He has borrowed money from the company to support a nascent Tesla and shared its assets with his Boring Co. tunneling venture.
Expect that kind of thing to continue. SpaceX, which is privately held, reportedly has billions of cash on hand, though rockets and rovers aren’t cheap. Then again, neither are AI data centers. —AN
Netflix's grip on the most-watched shows has weakened
The latest Nielsen data is out for who’s watching what television shows and there are plenty of interesting tidbits to pore over.
First: Netflix’s share of the most-watched shows has dropped from a towering 80% in 2021 to about half today.
Where did those eyeballs go? Well, the competition. Amazon, Apple, HBO, Hulu, and even Paramount (!) have managed a Top 10 showing this year, a credit to both their creative staffs as well as their post-pandemic streaming investment.
Missing in action: Disney, whose Andor was popular but not hugely, and Peacock.
Top shows for the year to date include Squid Game (No. 1), Reacher (No. 2), The Night Agent (No. 3), Severance (No. 5), and The Pitt (No. 7).
But that’s not all. Another observed trend is that, in the words of Bloomberg, “free, advertising-supported services YouTube, the Roku Channel, and Tubi are stealing viewers from broadcast and cable.”
How big is YouTube? 12.5% of TV viewing—more than Disney, Amazon, HBO, Peacock, and Paramount combined.
And what about Hulu? The Disney-owned service is now king of reruns, and that list is topped by none other than Bluey. Wackadoo! —AN
More tech
—Why has Southeast Asia become a cybercrime hub? Mobile-first market, AI to overcome linguistic diversity, and a nation whose name rhymes with “fourth tortilla.”
—Meta acquires PlayAI. The Silicon Valley voice startup promises “AI voices as real as humans.”
—What happened at X? Elon Musk and outgoing CEO Linda Yaccarino “failed to gel;” Musk also wouldn’t cede control.
—Bitcoin reaches $120,000 for the first time. All eyes on U.S. inflation data, which could slow the surge.
—OpenAI punts (again) on deadline. Its open-weight AI model was first due in June, then “later this summer,” and now “we are not yet sure.”
—Samsung acquires Xealth. The Seattle digital health startup, spun out of the Providence health system, gives the wearables maker a substantial portfolio of healthcare providers.
—Moonshot’s Kimi 2: The latest Chinese contender for AI model supremacy.
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