Revolut is reportedly discussing a new incentive package for CEO Nik Storonsky tied to a future $500 billion valuation. With the company already valued at around $115 billion in a secondary transaction, we discuss how far Revolut can go and what could happen when it eventually enters the public markets.

Visa is spending $2.4 billion to acquire BioCatch as AI makes scams, account takeovers and digital fraud easier to scale. We look at what behavioral biometrics adds to Visa’s fraud stack and whether the technology will remain as useful as payments move toward AI agents.

Google is making major changes inside its AI business. Demis Hassabis is moving away from the day-to-day leadership of DeepMind and taking a broader role across Alphabet. We discuss why Google has struggled to dominate the AI conversation despite its research, infrastructure, distribution and talent.

Then there is the stablecoin race. Visa and Mastercard have joined Circle’s Arc while also participating in other stablecoin initiatives. Their strategy increasingly looks like being present across the infrastructure regardless of which network wins.

We also get into OpenAI’s legal fight with Apple over former employees and alleged trade secrets, OpenAI’s decision to publish private communications from the dispute, and the growing competition around AI hardware.

Finally, Klarna is expanding its US distribution through JPMorgan Payments, giving merchants access to its Buy Now, Pay Later product through JPMorgan’s commerce platform. We discuss what this partnership says about the relationship between fintech companies and the banks they were once expected to disrupt.

A $16B AI hedge fund lost two-thirds of its value in ~72 hours this week and got sold overnight. That's where this week's episode starts. Six stories:

1/ Situational Awareness — @leopoldasch's AI fund — fell 67% as chip and tech equities pulled back. Facing margin calls from @GoldmanSachs, @jpmorgan, @BankofAmerica and @Citi, he moved a $16B equity book to Ken Griffin's @Citadel at a steep discount in a single 24-hour negotiation. Outbid @JaneStreet and @Millennium. The fund is still +80% YTD. It's abandoning bank leverage entirely and keeps a $5B @AnthropicAI stake. The lesson isn't "young manager blew up." It's short-duration prime broker debt.

2/ @elonmusk launched X Money on @X. 6% yield on deposits ($1k min), 3% cashback, real-time transfers, a @Visa debit card. Not a bank — it runs on @CrossRiverBank rails. Nobody has explained who funds the 6%.

3/ @Meta raised full-year capex guidance to $72B, with $17B in the quarter. Multi-gigawatt clusters. $14.3B for 49% of @scale_AI, plus @alexandr_wang and researchers poached from @OpenAI and @GoogleDeepMind at up to $200M a package. He said he wouldn't rent the data centres out. He's renting them out.

4/ @circle bought @IBM's blockchain patent portfolio — ~1,000 patents, 680+ families. Goes from near-zero to America's largest holder. IBM backs Open USD, the rival standard. It just sold its patents to USDC.

5/ Visa cut ~7% of staff — roughly 2,600 roles, mostly tech and product — citing AI. Same quarter: revenue up 14%, beating estimates. Not cost-cutting. Reallocation. @Mastercard, @PayPal and @Block all cut this year too. Real displacement, or AI-washing a post-COVID correction?

6/ An early @stripe engineer bought a bank. Darragh Buckley's @increase acquired Twin City Bank in Longview, WA — $114.6M in assets, single branch — and rebranded it Increase Bank. His infra already processes ~$500B/yr for clients including @tryramp and @GustoHQ. @Klarna applied for a charter. @Wise got rejected. Buckley just bought one instead.

Stripe is reportedly bidding $10B for OpenRouter, 8x its valuation from two months ago. Alphabet beat Q2 estimates across the board and the stock still fell. And Revolut just hit a $115B valuation in a secondary sale, worth more than Barclays. Otabek and Sam break down what's actually driving these moves.

In this episode:

Stripe's reported $10B bid for OpenRouter, and what it says about the AI billing land grab

Alphabet's Q2 earnings beat, and why the stock fell anyway on the back of a raised capex outlook

Revolut's $115B valuation and what it means for the IPO timeline

Wise's US banking application rejected by the OCC, and its Genius Act plan B

Nvidia's Jensen Huang breaks his social media silence over open-weight AI models

The Clarity Act's stalled path through Congress