Field Notes · 7 Aug 2026
Best explained
The next enterprise AI adoption wave will shift from flat seat licensing to ROI-weighted token budgets, allocating compute to the projects and people with the highest demonstrable return.
By the numbers
vLLM is running on half a million GPUs at any given moment, reflecting its scale as open-source AI infrastructure.
New today — Evidence added
Since Bitcoin peaked last October, cumulative ETF outflows hit $10.4B peak, with $9.3B (nearly 90%) concentrated in the final two-month stretch.
Michael BatnickvLLM is currently running on half a million GPUs at any moment.
Simon MoNew today — Sharp calls
StarCloud's deployable radiator achieves 10x lower mass per watt of dissipation than the ISS radiator.
Philip JohnstonA VC firm has codified a rule to sell 20% of its position when doing so would return 0.5x DPI to LPs.
Jason CalacanisNew today — Useful context
Consensus long-term expected nominal return for US equities is roughly 6%, versus 30-year Treasuries at roughly 5%, implying an equity risk premium of only 1%.
Victor HaghaniTool watch
MiniMax M2.7 and Kimi K3 signal a shift in open-weight licensing toward usage-based restrictions, moving away from permissive Apache-style terms.
Worth quoting
“I would say something like 70% chance that this goes horribly wrong like human extinction.”Dario Amodei
“From Bitcoin's code perspective, it didn't bend the knee. The institutions bent the knee to bring Bitcoin into it.”Dan Held
“Every good AI is good in the same way. Every rogue AI is rogue in its own way.”David Dalrymple
“If we just talk specifically about 300 million ARR, most of that's like almost 70% are agencies.”Alex Mashrabov
“We're spending half a trillion dollars more than we're taking in.”Rory O'Driscoll
“We were the fastest robot from zero to launch in three years and we've only spent about 15 million total.”Nick Damiano