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Issue 254 · August 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Nvidia reports today, and $916 billion of AI spending rides on the answer

Nvidia reports its quarterly results today, the clearest read yet on whether the AI buildout keeps accelerating, with US cloud giants expected to spend roughly $916 billion on capital projects over the next twelve months. The money is real and so is the strain, because those same buyers are watching their spare cash disappear into it.

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Inside this issue

The Big Story

Nvidia reports earnings today, with about $91 billion in quarterly sales on the line. What happened and why it matters to your business, in plain English.

The Research

3 new research findings, translated into plain terms:

  • A free software wrapper took an AI helper from 30% to 95.5% on a hard test
  • Coding AI finished a full software overhaul only 5.4% of the time
  • When AI helpers read each other's full answers, they stop disagreeing

The Money

What Micron (MU) and Alibaba (BABA) did with their money this week, plus the five-day move in the AI stocks.

The Discourse

What Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, Dean W. Ball, a technology policy writer, Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and longtime AI skeptic, and Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor and prominent AI entrepreneur said on X this week, and where the consensus is forming.

The Rules

3 government moves on AI worth knowing: federal, state, and global.

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