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Issue 255 · September 2, 2026 · 5 min read

The AI buildout hit $96 billion a quarter, and the money is still climbing

The companies selling computing power are still buying every AI chip they can get, and the spending now runs well ahead of the profits. This week's numbers show a buildout at record scale that credit analysts do not expect to turn cash positive until 2029.

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Inside this issue

The Big Story

Nvidia posted $96 billion in quarterly sales as Amazon tripled its chip order. What happened and why it matters to your business, in plain English.

The Research

3 new research findings, translated into plain terms:

  • AI models lose track of knock-on effects as a system grows
  • One in-house model took over half the traffic from 200-plus company apps
  • Fetching reference code at the right moment made AI coding more accurate

The Money

What SK hynix, Oklo, and Nscale did with their money this week, plus the five-day move in the AI stocks.

The Discourse

What METR, an independent group that tests AI systems for safety, Alex Albert, who works at Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI assistant, Ethan Mollick, a Wharton professor who studies AI at work, and Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor and longtime AI educator 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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