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subtl daily briefing

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Good morning, founders and builders. The AI industry just got a reality check as every frontier model failed a new benchmark designed to test genuine intelligence, while Meta and YouTube lost landmark social media addiction trials that could reshape Big Tech liability. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions continue disrupting global markets as the Iran conflict pushes oil prices toward stagflation levels.

In today's briefing

  • 1.AI Models Fail Intelligence Test
  • 2.Big Tech Loses Addiction Trials
  • 3.Iran War Disrupts Global Markets
  • 4.AI Agent Security Challenges
  • ⚡Quick hits on other news
Latest Developments
Finance

🛢️Iran Conflict Pushes Global Markets Toward Stagflation

The Rundown: The ongoing Iran war has driven oil prices up $1.00 per gallon with the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed, while economic data shows GDP growth slowing to 1% as inflation accelerates back to 4%.

The details:

  • ●WTI crude surged 37% to $91.84 while Bitcoin and equities trade in inverse correlation to oil prices
  • ●S&P Global PMI data indicates U.S. economic growth has slowed to just 1% annualized pace
  • ●Bitcoin miners are operating at $19,000 per coin losses as energy costs surge, accelerating pivots to AI and HPC
  • ●Iran rejected a U.S. 15-point ceasefire proposal, countering with demands including reparations and sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz
Why it matters: The combination of slowing growth and rising inflation creates a challenging environment for startups, particularly those with high energy costs like crypto miners and data centers. Founders should prepare for potential capital market tightening and consider how energy price volatility might affect their business models and fundraising timelines.

📰 Source: Milk Road Macro

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Everything else in the news today

Apple has full access to Google's Gemini model in its own data centers and can distill it into smaller on-device AI models→
Reflection AI is raising $2.5B at a $25B valuation with JPMorgan eyeing participation after generating $8B in revenue→
Harvey raised $200M at an $11B valuation with ARR nearly doubling from $100M to $190M in five months→
Granola raised $125M at a $1.5B valuation for AI-powered meeting assistance→
Mastercard agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8B→
Circle stock dropped 16% after draft Clarity Act would ban stablecoin yield on USDC balances→
Bhutan has sold down its Bitcoin holdings from 13,000 BTC to 4,453 BTC, with outflows exceeding $150M→
Apple Maps is introducing ads in the US and Canada this summer as paid search listings→
Figma launched beta AI canvas agents that can create and modify design assets using existing design system components→
Google's TurboQuant algorithm reduces LLM memory usage by 6x while delivering 8x performance gains→
Cisco launched Duo Agentic Identity to monitor autonomous AI agent activity across enterprise workloads→
Study shows over 80% of top-ranking pages use AI assistance for content creation→
MLB exclusively aired Opening Night on Netflix as part of strategic shift toward new media platforms→
SaaStr deployed 30+ AI agents and found only 1 of 5 vendors succeeded by offering Forward Deployed Engineer support before contract signing→
Sanders and AOC proposed banning all new data center construction until AI regulation passes→