SpaceX revealed a smartphone prototype running a proprietary OS, OpenAI offered the US government a $42.6B equity stake, and cheap general-purpose robots are hitting the sub-$10,000 market.

• SpaceX showed investors a Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered handset prototype running a proprietary OS integrated with SpaceX's AI, potentially reducing Elon Musk's reliance on Apple and Google.
• OpenAI proposed giving the US government a 5% stake worth ~$42.6 billion as part of a broader plan where the government would hold equity in all leading US AI developers.
• Several startups are launching affordable general-purpose robots, including Nori Robotics ($1,400), BracketBot ($3,000), and Weave's Isaac 1 ($8,000), capable of household tasks.
• Biologists successfully built a synthetic cell from nonliving components that grew, replicated its DNA, and divided — the strongest demonstration yet of generating life-like behavior from scratch.
• Meta is developing a cloud infrastructure business to sell excess AI computing capacity and model access, similar to AWS Bedrock or CoreWeave.

OpenAI is in preliminary talks to give the US government a 5% stake as a way to share AI boom profits with the public.

• OpenAI has proposed handing the US government a 5% equity stake, framing it as a way to distribute AI upside to the public, per the Financial Times.
• AI infrastructure stocks are falling after Meta announced plans to sell excess AI computing capacity, raising fears of overcapacity in the sector.
• SAP is freezing hiring and cutting staff travel to fund a major AI push and fend off new competitors.
• JPMorgan is expanding its retail banking operations across Europe—into Spain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands—aiming to rival fintechs like Revolut.
• Apple is seeking to buy memory chips from Chinese suppliers CXTM and YMTC to ease a global memory shortage that has already forced price increases across its product lineup.

Meta is building a cloud computing business to monetize its $182.9 billion AI infrastructure investment, entering direct competition with AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

• Meta's new cloud unit, reportedly called Meta Compute, will sell AI compute capacity and model access, led by infrastructure head Santosh Janardhan alongside Daniel Gross and Dina Powell McCormick.
• Meta may follow CoreWeave's model by selling raw compute, while also offering access to AI models including its new closed-weight model Muse Spark.
• Meta has committed $182.9 billion to AI infrastructure, with major facilities in Louisiana and Ohio, the latter expected online this year.
• Cloudflare will begin blocking mixed-use AI crawlers by default on sites with ads starting September 15, pressuring AI companies to pay for publisher content.
• Australia is strengthening enforcement of its under-16 social media ban with new legislation after regulators flagged weak enforcement powers, with fines up to $49.5 million per violation.

Apple's Hide My Email feature has a bug potentially exposing real email addresses, while Microsoft launches a $2.5B AI deployment company and Bending Spoons surges 40% on its first day of trading after an $18B IPO.

• A researcher claims Apple's Hide My Email feature has a bug that could expose users' real email addresses, rendering the privacy feature effectively useless.
• Microsoft has launched its own AI deployment company with a $2.5 billion commitment, joining Amazon, OpenAI, and Anthropic in the space.
• Italian tech company Bending Spoons surged 40% on its first day of trading following an $18B IPO, having grown by acquiring and revamping brands like AOL, Eventbrite, Evernote, and Vimeo.
• Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures to launch a new VC firm with Morgan Beller, focused on AI infrastructure and energy rather than AI labs.
• WhatsApp's new username feature is raising impersonation concerns, with critics questioning whether Meta's safeguards are sufficient.