FROM THE DESK OF
Clark Valberg
MANAGING PARTNER
For years, AI has felt like Siri waiting for a command. Thinking Machines is making it feel closer to a colleague who catches the pause before the point.
Thinking Machines introduced its viral interaction model this week, built to process audio, video, and text in the same live stream. It can interrupt, backchannel, react to visual cues, and respond in roughly 0.4 seconds by replacing traditional turn-taking with micro-turns. The technical shift sounds small until you notice what it changes: AI starts participating in the texture of conversation, where timing carries as much meaning as language.
For anyone who works through calls, screenshares, sales demos, tutoring sessions, design reviews, or medical intake, this matters because most useful context rarely arrives as a clean prompt. It shows up as hesitation, a half-finished thought, a cursor hovering over the wrong file, or a tone change before a question is asked. Thinking Machines is betting that the next interface layer will understand when to appear, not only what to say.
"The next leap in AI may come from systems that learn the human rhythm of work: when to listen, when to wait, and when to enter the room."
/ THE DEEP DIVE
Google and SpaceX in Talks to Build Data Centers in Orbit
Google is in negotiations with SpaceX to launch AI data centers into space under a project called Suncatcher, with prototype satellites planned for 2027. The move follows Anthropic's deal last week to use SpaceX's Memphis computing facility, with both companies exploring orbital data center development together. SpaceX is making orbital compute a centerpiece of its upcoming IPO, arguing space will be the cheapest place to run AI within a few years.
SOURCE: WALLSTREET JOURNAL
BUSINESS IMPACT:
Cloud Computing:
Viable orbital data centers would reshape who controls AI infrastructure, undermining the land, power, and permitting advantages today's dominant cloud providers spent billions building.
Energy & Real Estate:
Data centers in space bypass the grid constraints and community opposition already slowing construction on the ground across the U.S.
Space Economy:
Two major AI companies pursuing orbital compute in a single week points to a surge in demand for rocket launches, satellite manufacturing, and space logistics.
/ INDUSTRY WATCH
MANUFACTURING
Tutor Intelligence Opens 100-Robot "Data Factory" Generating 10,000 Hours of Training Data Per Week
Remote human operators teach the robots picking, kitting, and packaging tasks in real time at a 35,000-square-foot facility. Every session feeds an AI model that gets sharper with each repetition.
SRC: THE ROBOT REPORT
REAL ESTATE
ATTOM Launches AI-Ready Property Data Framework Covering 160 Million U.S. Properties
ATTOM Intelligence structures property, ownership, mortgage, and risk data so it can plug directly into AI tools and automated workflows. Delivery runs through APIs, cloud platforms, and a new AI-native access layer built for real-time applications.
SRC: PR NEWSWIRE
AGRICULTURE
ITC's AI "Crop Doctor" Reaches 2.5 Million Farmers, Boosting Incomes ~25%
Farmers photograph a plant, get an instant diagnosis, and receive treatment steps in their local language across 70 crops. Pilots show 10-15% less fertilizer use, 15-20% higher yields, and roughly 25% income gains.
SRC: DAILY PIONEER
TECH
Meta Building "Hatch," a Consumer AI Agent, and an Instagram Bot That Shops for You
Hatch is being tested internally as an AI that handles real tasks across Meta's apps. A separate shopping agent, will let users tap items in Reels and buy without leaving Instagram. Meta hiked its AI spending forecast to $135 billion this year to fund the push.
SRC: FINIMIZE
HEALTHCARE
Japan Opens a Fully Unmanned Lab Where Robots Run Medical Experiments With Zero Staff on Site
The Robotics Innovation Center at the Institute of Science Tokyo operates 10 robots that handle cell cultivation, reagent dosing, and temperature-controlled procedures around the clock. The center's director says the setup can accelerate research tenfold to a hundredfold, with plans to scale to 2,000 robots by 2040.
BANKING & FINANCE
AWS Launches Payment Rails That Let AI Agents Spend Money Without Human Approval
AgentCore Payments, built with Coinbase and Stripe, allows autonomous agents to buy APIs, data feeds, and digital services using stablecoin micropayments in real time. The system handles the full transaction within the agent's workflow.
SRC: AI BUSINESS
RETAIL
Diesel and Jil Sander Launch AI Virtual Try-On With Google Cloud
OTB Group's sales advisors can now generate realistic 360-degree previews showing customers how garments look on them before visiting a store. The tool, built on Google's Gemini platform, will expand to Marni and Maison Margiela next, then across all OTB brands globally.
SRC: PR NEWSWIRE
MEDIA
Google Rolls Out AI That Automatically Shifts Ad Spend to Match Real-Time Consumer Demand
New demand-led pacing for Search and Shopping campaigns lets Google's AI increase budgets on high-opportunity days and pull back on slow ones, all within monthly caps. Smart Bidding Exploration, which already delivered 27% more unique converting users in Search, is expanding to Performance Max and Shopping.
SRC: PYMNTS
/ NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
$2.1B
Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs Bags $2.1B Series B for AI Drug Design
Thrive Capital led what analysts call the second-largest biotech round ever for the DeepMind spinout, which uses AlphaFold-powered models to design drugs for Novartis, Lilly, and J&J.
VIA FIERCE BIOTECH
$2B
China's Moonshot AI Raises $2B at $20B Valuation
The Beijing lab hit $200M+ in ARR by April, with Kimi K2.6 now the second most-used model on OpenRouter.
VIA TECHCRUNCH
$790M
Nscale Secures $790M to Expand Norway's Largest AI Data Center
The debt financing from ABN AMRO, DNB, and others will expand the Narvik campus, where Microsoft has signed on to rent Nvidia AI chips.
VIA AI BUSINESS
$275M
Robinhood Co-Founder's Cowboy Space Raises $275M at $2B for Orbital Data Centers
The Index Ventures-led Series B funds rockets whose upper stages double as solar-powered, 1-megawatt AI data centers once in orbit.
VIA TECHCRUNCH
$222M
Circle Raises $222M in Arc Token Presale at $3B Valuation
The USDC issuer is building its own blockchain for institutional finance, with a16z leading at $75M alongside BlackRock, Apollo, and Standard Chartered.
VIA PYMNTS
/ EMERGING TOOLS
01
All-in-one AI platform that generates images, 3D assets, videos, and audio — so creative teams produce every asset they need from a single tool.
02
AI tool that scans your brand and generates on-brand ads, videos, and copy ready for Meta and TikTok — in about 90 seconds.
03
AI tool that connects to your data and instantly turns it into polished charts, dashboards, and shareable reports — no analyst required.
04
AI document tool that automatically reads, tags, and organizes your contracts, invoices, and files — then lets you search or ask questions to find answers instantly.
05
AI platform that assembles a boardroom of specialized advisors to debate your toughest decisions and deliver a consensus recommendation — on demand.
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