Google is acquiring Spirit Airlines' emails, calendar info, chats, documents, spreadsheets and other business data, according to a bankruptcy court filing.
It will use the data to improve its products and AI models.
Why it matters: Spirit Airlines ceased operations earlier this year after it failed to emerge from its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but attorneys are still handling the disposition of its assets.
China's economic weakness and its AI ambitions are putting competing demands on policymakers.
Reviving the economy means getting households to spend more, but competing with the U.S. in AI means turbocharging an already production-heavy economic model.
Why it matters: China's push to supercharge production even as domestic demand weakens leaves China's producers more reliant on foreign buyers and pressures industries abroad.
Lilian Weng last month stepped down as a cofounder of Thinking Machines, just a year after it raised $2 billion from venture capitalists at an $8 billion pre-money valuation.
Then she rejoined OpenAI, one of the 800-pound gorillas that Thinky is trying to unseat.
OpenAI announced a 20-year lease for a sprawling data center in central Ohio with financing partly guaranteed by Nvidia, saying it will create 35,000 construction jobs and 2,500 permanent operating positions.
Why it matters: The facility — which will be built and owned by SoftBank's SB Energy — illustrates the immensity of the computing and power needed to fuel the growth of the AI economy.
Stripe has agreed to acquire AI model marketplace OpenRouter for more than $8 billion in cash and stock, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Stripe's stubborn refusal to IPO hasn't dimmed its acquisition ambitions, despite its lack of a public currency, as this deal comes amidst ongoing efforts to buy PayPal.
Yields on U.S. government bonds — known as Treasurys — continue to climb, thanks to groaning federal deficits, bonkers corporate borrowing and uncertainty about monetary policy under Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh.
Why it matters: Virtually all borrowing costs — for mortgages, business loans, auto financing, etc. — are based in part on bond yields produced by trading in the Treasury market each day.
When the U.S. government has to pay higher interest rates to borrow — yields are effectively those interest rates — it raises the floor for almost everyone else too, increasing borrowing costs across the economy.
America is experiencing its biggest prescription drug price deflation in generations.
Why it matters: By one important measure, there is a striking reversal underway for one of health care's most stubbornly expensive necessities amid a major Washington push to lower drug costs.
Extreme heat is testing Italy's cheese banks, the vaults that hold Parmigiano Reggiano while it ages for years.
Why it matters: It's an 800-year-old industry that employs thousands and generates about $5 billion a year — and it actually has something in common with one of the biggest questions troubling the trillion-dollar AI buildout.
