Tech Brew Ride Home - Nvidia On The March

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Nvidia committed $5B to Ilya Sutskever's SSI and weighed a $250B backstop for OpenAI's Ohio megaproject. CXMT soared 466% in its debut, Amazon filed for 5,105 satellites, Apple delayed AI glasses, and Peacock landed on YouTube Premium. Sources: Nvidia has committed to invest $5B in Ilya Sutskever's SSI; the startup has previously raised about $3B in funding and was valued at $32B last year (Bloomberg) Sources: Nvidia is in talks to guarantee ~$250B in financing for a 10 GW SoftBank data center project in southern Ohio that OpenAI is in advanced talks to lease; the site could cost $500B+ (WSJ) CXMT's stock closed up 466% in its Shanghai debut, giving the Hefei-based memory chipmaker a ~$487B market cap, making it the most valuable China-listed company (CNBC) Amazon files an FCC application to deploy a constellation of up to 5,105 satellites starting in 2028 to provide direct-to-device voice and data connectivity (Reuters) Sources: Apple may have delayed AI glasses launch partly over privacy concerns that Meta's glasses created for the category, as it works to address the issues (Bloomberg) NBCU and YouTube reach a multiyear deal to include all Peacock content in YouTube Premium subscriptions in the US starting in early 2027 (CNBC) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, mid-sized business. We see your big ambitions, but how do you achieve the wins you want when your technology is holding you back? SAP Grow is built to grow with your business, no matter its size, with AI embedded at its core, working across every system, all ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow. AI Cloud, ERP for any size business. Welcome to the tech rewrite home for Monday, July 27, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. NNVIDIA committed $5 billion to Ilius Soskever's SSI and weighed a $250 billion backstop for OpenAI's Ohio Mega Project.

CXMT soared 466% in its debut. Amazon filed for 5,000 satellites. Apple delayed their AI glasses. And Peacock landed on YouTube Premium. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Lots of moves from Nvidia recently. sources say that Nvidia has committed to invest $5 billion in Ilius Susgever's Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, the startup that had previously raised about $3 billion in funding and was valued

at about $32 billion last year, quoting Bloomberg. Susgever, a researcher who was instrumental in developing Open AIs technology, co-founded Safe Superintelligence with a focus on developing AI systems more responsibly. The startup has said, it doesn't intend to sell AI products in the near future. Safe Superintelligence has previously raised about $3 billion in funding from investors and was valued at $32 billion last year. Its investors include Andresen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global, end quote. And quoting the journal. The company's research is focused on overlooked aspects of how the human brain functions, Saskerva said in a statement.

Born in the former Soviet Union and raised in Israel, Soskevr was a math prodigy who made his name as a graduate student in Canada, studying under the Nobel Prize-winning AII. researcher Jeffrey Hinton. He co-wrote a paper with Hinton in 2012 on computer vision that kicked off the modern AI race by showing that scaling deep neural networks with huge amounts of data and computing power produce measurable gains in intelligence. Suskever then joined Google, but left it to become one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015. There, his insights helped lead to the creation of chat GPT, and he became famous for his conviction that scaling up the amount of data and computing power used to train AI models would lead to the company's stated goal of creating artificial general intelligence or AGI. He later had a painful rupture with the company's chief

executive Sam Altman voting to fire him before himself, leaving the company months after Altman's reinstatement. Since then, in rare public statements, Suskever has publicly doubted whether simply scaling up current paradigms is sufficient, end quote. So, NVIDIA making a big bet on Ilya, but sources also tell the journal that NVIDIA is in talks to provide a $250 billion backstop for OpenAI as part of a 10-gagawatt data center project that SoftBanks Energy subsidiary is building in Ohio. That's one hell of a backstop. Quote, the guarantees from Nvidia would help the chat GPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project that SoftBanks subsidiary is developing in Southern Ohio, people are familiar with the matter said. In total, the project,

could cost more than $500 billion, including the chips that would go inside the data centers. It would be the largest data center project announced to date. The power for the project is controlled by the U.S. government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik is involved in deciding who will get the power, some of the people said. NVIDIA's backing would allow the data center developer, which is owned by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son's investment firm SoftBank to raise debt at more favorable terms than it could if OpenAI had no financial backer since OpenAI has no investment-grade credit rating as an unprofitable private company. The AI company has been in advance talks to lease the site for several

weeks, people familiar with the matter said. Open AI is among the companies that has shown the most interest in the site, while Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google have also spoken to Lutnik about it in recent weeks. One of the people said, AI companies are desperate to secure chips and power needed to run their models, making mega-projects that have government support or guaranteed power increasingly attractive. Under the arrangement, Nvidia would guarantee a series of financing vehicles intended to make lenders feel more confident that the funding behind the project is secure, the people said. Terms haven't been finalized and the deal could fall apart. The $250 billion guarantee would cover the data center lease and debt needed to fund its build-out,

but not the Nvidia chips that would go inside it. NVIDIA which has invested $30 billion in OpenAI is also discussing a deal to finance the chip purchase for OpenAI, which could total $350 billion. People familiar with those discussions said, such circular funding arrangements have caused concerns that the industry is vulnerable if investors' sentiment shifts or growth slows for AI companies. The campus would require roughly 10 gigawatts of electricity or enough to power several million homes and take many years to complete. The first phase of the project is expected to be finished in 2028 with around 800 megawatts of power, according to the people familiar with this deal. Lutnik and the Trump administration also have a lot riding on the Ohio project. As part of its commitment to invest in the U.S. in return for lower tariffs,

Japan agreed to invest $33 billion in a natural gas power project on federal land in Ohio that would be operated by SB Energy, which is effectively controlled by Saan. SB Energy has received an investment from OpenAI and SoftBank itself is one of the largest investors in OpenAI in March Lutnik, Sahn, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright broke ground on the data center complex by using federal land in Ohio, the government and its partners hope to avoid the permitting headaches and local opposition that are snarling data centers across the country. The project is on a decommissioned uranium enrichment site about 50 miles south of Columbus. It will still take time to finalize the financing and acquire all the equipment. The U.S. government will provide a fee to

SB Energy for operating the power plant, one of the people said. Japan and the U.S. will split the power sales until Japan recoups its $33 billion, after which the American government will get 90% of the revenue, end quote. What if I told you there is a new most valuable tech company in China and that I had never heard of it until today? A company called CXMT saw its stock close up 466% in its Shanghai stock market debut, giving the wait for it, memory chipmaker, around a $487 billion market cap, making it the most valuable China-listed company. Quoting CNBC, based on sales figures for the fourth quarter of 2025, CXMT held a 7.67% share of the global DRAM market in 2025, according to its IPO prospectus.

DRAM chips are used and electronic devices ranging from smartphones to servers. The global DRAM market is dominated by Samsung, SKHenix, and Micron. I have no doubt the company is going to grow to be a global leader. It's maybe just a question of time that it can be not only a challenger, it can be a global champion in this particular sector, said Theodore Scho, CEO at Yee, Capital on CNBC's Squakbox Asia. The listing comes at a time when CXMT has seen increased a 10. following reports earlier this month that Apple has begun testing the Chinese chipmakers

DRAM for devices sold in China. CXMT swung to an operating profit of 35.43 billion yuan in the first quarter from a loss of 2.83 billion yuan a year earlier, as it saw continued growth in global computing power demand and capacity allocation by major manufacturers. A 470% performance on day one isn't that rare. What's very prominent in this particular case is a company of this size performing so well, Sho said. In the past, such performance was primarily driven by smaller-cap companies, he said, adding that CXMT, the relatively limited free float on day one, combined with the built-up market sentiment, were key factors driving the surge. Morningstar said in a note Friday that, as AI is increasingly becoming an issue of national security for China,

CXMT will likely be a key beneficiary. The research firm added that while CXMT's technology still lags global memory leaders, domestic internet giants spearheading AI development will likely drive robust adoption of its chips as Beijing pushes for semiconductor self-sufficiency. CXMT, founded in 2016, by Chairman Zhu Yingming, plans to boost its technological capabilities and core competitiveness, primarily memory wafer mass production and R&D projects by employing the IPO proceeds according to a Google translation of the information in the prospectus, end quote. When critical company knowledge isn't documented, there's a major ripple effect. Work becomes inconsistent.

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And don't forget this part, send at least $5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash app is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash Apps bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Inc. brand. For additional information, See the Bitcoin Disclosures at Cash.app slash legal slash podcast. Amazon has filed an FCC application to deploy a constellation of up to 5,105 satellites starting in 2028 to provide direct-to-device, voice, and data connectivity, according Reuters. The move will expand Amazon's satellite ambitions beyond broadband internet and will intensify competition in the direct-to-device market with SpaceX, Space Mobile, and Link Global,

which are also developing satellite-to-phone services. A growing shortage of rocket launch capacity has, however, become one of the biggest constraints to deploying a wave of next-generation satellite constellations. Amazon Leo has announced partnerships with Vodafone, DirectTV, Herotel, and Australia's national broadband network. Amazon Leo is deploying its first-generation broadband satellite system and has about 390 satellites in orbit. It plans to begin rolling out fixed service across initial bands later this year. In March, FCC chair Brendan Carr dismissed criticism from Amazon of Elon Musk's SpaceX plan to launch a constellation of to one million satellites. I think Amazon should focus on getting Amazon's house in order with their own launches and their own satellite constellation,

rather than worrying about other people that are actually out there launching satellites at the pace and cadence that SpaceX is, Carr said, end quote. Mark German says that Apple may delay the launch of its AI glasses partially over privacy concerns raised by meta's smart glasses, which of course created this category, as Apple works to address the issues around privacy, which of course it always claims to be laser-focused on. Quoting Bloomberg, Apple is currently aiming to unveil its first smart glasses at next June's Worldwide Developers Conference ahead of a consumer release by the end of 2027.

The timing suggests Apple wants developers to begin building applications for this new form factor, but the announcement will also mark the beginning of a different challenge, allaying the growing privacy concerns of artificial intelligence-powered glasses equipped with cameras. The glasses, codenamed N50, had originally been targeted for introduction later this year, with a launch following in early 2027. One reason for the delay is that Apple's engineering and marketing teams have been working to refine not only the product, but also the company's privacy message. That's meant developing features and policies that can address the concerns swirling around competing products from META, the team's developing glasses within Apple's Vision

Hardware Group and elsewhere in the company see privacy as priority number one, I'm told. Meta deserves credit for creating the first commercially successful smart glasses category, but its long-running reputation for not protecting privacy, fair or not, has become baggage for the market. The result is that some consumers remain uneasy around people wearing camera-equipped glasses, unsure whether they're being recorded during conversations at work, restaurants, or other public places. In most cases, those fears are probably unfounded. But years of headlines about meta's privacy practices, viral social media posts, and broader skepticism toward always-available

cameras that have left many people wary of the category mean that Apple is wary too. That mistrust on the side of consumers has already translated into restrictions in various settings around the world. Courthrooms in New York and parts of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, have prohibited smart glasses while Royal Caribbean Cruises has barred them from casinos, restrooms, and children's areas. They're also banned at some schools, gyms, hospitals, and entertainment venues. Of course, the meta-glasses have a light to indicate when it's taking pictures or video, and the company has added protections that disable recording if the light appears to have been tampered with. Samsung is also including similar safeguards in the

glasses it's developing with Alphabet's Google and Warby Parker as well. Samsung calls the privacy situation in industry shared problems, saying intentional bad uses need to be covered and protected against. Apple is planning to adopt comparable protections, but it arguably has more at stake than anyone else. The company has spent more than a decade making privacy one of its defining product messages, simply entering the same category as meta, risks undermining that reputation, regardless of how Apple's approach differs. When Apple announces its product, the company will emphasize areas where it can distinguish itself, beyond just banging its privacy drum and stressing that it should be trusted. That will probably include favoring on-device processing and

eschewing features such as facial recognition. Apple also is likely to avoid something akin to meta's proposed super-sensing mode, which can continuously analyze a wearer's surroundings and will steer clear of using customer recordings to train AI models. Even with those safeguards, though, Apple knows it won't eliminate abuse entirely. The company's air tags launched in 2021, provide a lesson here. Though they were designed to help customers locate belongings, air tags quickly became associated with stalking. Likewise, camera-equipped glasses will inevitably be misused by some people, and Apple will likely need to spend years updating software, refining policies, and working with regulators and law enforcement to combat problems just as it did

with air tags. One solution to the privacy problem would be to self-smart glasses that eliminate the camera entirely. Such a product could still offer hands-free access to AI features, audio, and phone calls, retaining much of the device's usefulness. Meta has strongly indicated that it's planning this option in the near future, and Apple has, I'm told, prototyped a similar concept during development of its own glasses. Another option that Apple executives have debated, including the full camera system, but not allowing it to record photos or video at all. In this scenario, the cameras would be exclusively for seeing the world around the user

and feeding that data into AI tools, such as ones that identify objects and places. This would be similar to what Apple is already planning for camera-equipped AirPods and would build on the visual intelligence features in the iPhone. But all of that would undercut why smart glasses are compelling in the first place. Consumers would miss out on effortless first-person video of their children, vacations, and sporting events an experience that has made meta's offering so popular. Another factor, Apple's AI, isn't good enough to be the main feature of an entirely new product, making this diluted direction unlikely. quote.

Finally, today, if you subscribe to YouTube Premium, you're getting a new streaming service for free, quoting CNBC. NBC Universal's Peacock is officially landing on YouTube. All of the streaming services content, including NBC Sports's portfolio, and the NFL and NBA, Universal Films like The Minions franchise, and original Peacock and Bravo content like The Real Housewives franchise and Love Island USA will. be included in YouTube premium subscriptions in the U.S. starting early next year. Google's YouTube premium is the subscription version of the streaming platform that offers videos without ads and the ability to download most videos depending on the subscription tier.

The service offers a variety of plans beginning at $8.99 per month. Peacock Premium currently costs $10.99 per month, and quote, sounds like a deal. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.