Cursor
Reporting and context on Cursor, with a closer look at the decisions and developments that matter.
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At a glance
Cursor is Anysphere’s AI code editor. Coverage follows AI-assisted programming, coding agents and the company behind the product.
- Focus
- Company: Anysphere; AI code editor; coding agents
- Reference
- Cursor
Sources checked . Selected company background and milestones.
Company milestones
Selected milestones, newest first. Earlier history is available below.
Announces Series B
Anysphere describes its work on automating coding and announces its Series B financing.
Source: CursorAnnounces Series A
The Anysphere team outlines its ambitions for Cursor and AI-assisted software development.
Source: Cursor
Show earlier historyHide earlier history · 0 milestones
More than 10 years ago.
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
The next release will not feel like an upgrade. It will feel like gravity changing direction.
LEAK
Opus 5 Is Already Here
👀 What’s happening: Trump ordered a federal ban on Claude. Within hours, US forces launched strikes on Iran using Claude inside military intelligence systems. Anthropic confirmed a classified custom model for the Pentagon. Multiple insiders suggest it runs at Opus 5, possibly 5.5 level, beyond anything the public can access.
🌍 How this hits reality: This is the real signal. While consumers debate prompt tricks on Opus 4.6, the military version reportedly runs on isolated classified cloud infrastructure with full compute allocation. Compute devoted to these systems is said to double every four months. It handles strategic reasoning, target identification, and live scenario simulation. If true, Opus 5 is not a demo model. It is an operational system embedded in real command pipelines.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Opus 5 looks less like an upgrade and more like a threshold. When systems at this level are steered toward battlefield acceleration instead of medicine, science, and infrastructure, something is misaligned. AI at frontier scale should expand human possibility, not automate destruction.
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CODING
The IDE King Finally Surrender
👀 What’s happening: Cursor CEO Michael Truell just drew a line under the IDE era. He says AI coding has entered its third phase, where cloud agents run for hours with minimal supervision. Inside Cursor, 35% of merged PRs are already generated by autonomous cloud agents. He predicts most development will look like this within a year.
🌍 How this hits reality: This is not a feature update. It is surrender to a new workflow. Tab completion users once outnumbered agent users 2.5 to 1. Now the ratio has flipped. Agent usage grew 15x in a year. Local machines cannot sustain long running multi agent loops. So Cursor moves compute to cloud VMs and shifts developers from writing code to auditing outcomes.
🛎️ Key takeaway: The IDE king finally surrender. It is pivoting to agent infrastructure. The leverage moves from typing speed to review judgment.
Cursor: The IDE King Finally Surrender
👀 What’s happening: Cursor CEO Michael Truell just drew a line under the IDE era. He says AI coding has entered its third phase, where cloud agents run for hours with minimal supervision. Inside Cursor, 35% of merged PRs are already generated by autonomous cloud agents.
LABOR
Burger King Tortures Employees
👀 What’s happening: Burger King is rolling out an OpenAI powered chatbot called Patty inside employee headsets. It listens for phrases like “please,” “thank you,” and “welcome to Burger King,” then scores stores on “friendliness.” Managers can pull reports. The system also ties into kitchen equipment, inventory, and drive thru audio.
🌍 How this hits reality: This is not coaching. It is automated tone policing. Around 500 pilot locations are feeding live speech into a centralized cloud POS system that updates menus and stock in under 15 minutes. Now that same loop evaluates human warmth as a compliance variable. Workers become measurable inputs. Courtesy becomes a KPI.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Employees do not tolerate being scored like chatbots. Turning basic manners into machine surveillance will trigger backlash, not loyalty. When labor feels mic’d and graded, resentment compounds faster than any operational gain.
DAILY TL;DR
- Anthropic expanded Claude’s memory feature to free users and added a tool to import data from ChatGPT and Gemini.
- Cursor reportedly surpassed a $2 billion annualized revenue run rate, doubling in three months with enterprise customers driving most of its income.
- OpenAI’s Pentagon deal triggered backlash, with some users switching from ChatGPT to Claude as Sam Altman acknowledged the reputational hit.
- Apple is reportedly considering using Google servers to power a Gemini-based upgraded Siri as it seeks to accelerate its AI efforts.
- Google updated Gemini for Google Home, improving voice controls and automation while adding live camera queries.
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
The industry as a whole tightens its grip on compute as if the future depends on who can build fastest and scale longest.
NEW LAUNCH
World Labs Just Shipped the First Real World Model
📌 What’s happening: Feifei Li's World Labs pushed Marble out of beta and into the wild, giving anyone a web interface that turns text, images, or rough layouts into full 3D worlds — with a tiered plan that starts free and tops out at ninety-five dollars a month. This isn’t another research demo; it exports meshes and Gaussian splats that drop straight into game engines, VFX pipelines, and robotics simulators. For the first time, a “world model” is not a paper, a teaser, or a NeRF viewer — it’s a product.
🧠 How this hits reality: This is the milestone everyone quietly waited for, a world model that is creative-grade, editable, composable, and pipeline-ready. Game studios just got a level editor that eats their photogrammetry workflow. VFX houses get instant pre-viz without weeks of scanning. Robotics teams get synthetic environments without writing Unity scenes from scratch. And any competitor still stuck in research mode — including Google’s still-not-shipping Genie line — just got leapfrogged by the founder of modern visual AI herself.
🛎️ Key takeaway: The first real world model just arrived, and it turns “spatial intelligence” from a keynote slide into a platform shift, the kind that will quietly rewires every industry that depends on 3D reality.
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NEOCLOUD
Meta Follows Microsoft Down the Neocloud Rabbit Hole
📌 What’s happening: After unveiling its six-hundred-billion dollar AI infrastructure plan, Meta finally realized it cannot shoulder that capex without turning its compute ambition into a quasi–subprime financing scheme. The problem is obvious: Microsoft already locked up the premium neocloud vendors. So Meta is now eating the scraps, signing a three-billion dollar deal with Nebius — a company whose Q3 numbers look like a margin call waiting for a reason.
🧠 How this hits reality: This is the new hierarchy of AI power. Microsoft gets first pick of neocloud capacity; Meta gets whatever’s left, even if it comes wrapped in a one-billion-dollar quarterly capex bill and a hundred-million-dollar loss. The deal doesn’t validate Nebius; it validates Meta’s desperation. And by piling more demand onto the shakiest balance sheet in the sector, both sides inflate a bubble neither can afford to stop feeding.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Meta isn’t leading the compute race; it’s scavenging it. And when second-choice suppliers become systemically critical, you know the bubble is running the show.
Meta Follows Microsoft Down the Neocloud Rabbit Hole
Microsoft gets first pick of neocloud capacity; Meta gets whatever’s left, even if it comes wrapped in a one-billion-dollar quarterly capex bill and a hundred-million-dollar loss. The deal doesn’t validate Nebius; it validates Meta’s desperation. And by piling more demand onto the shakiest balance sheet in the sector, both sides inflate a bubble neither can afford to stop feeding.
Meta Follows Microsoft Down the Neocloud Rabbit Hole
Microsoft gets first pick of neocloud capacity; Meta gets whatever’s left, even if it comes wrapped in a one-billion-dollar quarterly capex bill and a hundred-million-dollar loss. The deal doesn’t validate Nebius; it validates Meta’s desperation. And by piling more demand onto the shakiest balance sheet in the sector, both sides inflate a bubble neither can afford to stop feeding.
NEOCLOUD
Anthropic Rebrands Its Neocloud Dependency as National Security
📌 What’s happening: Anthropic announced a fifty-billion plan to build U.S. data centers with Fluidstack, framed as helping Trump’s AI Action Plan and “maintaining American leadership.” The locations are Texas and New York, with a tidy jobs number bundled in for political optics. Strip away the flag-waving and you just see Fluidstack, a neocloud supplier upgraded into Anthropic’s bespoke datacenter assembler.
🧠 How this hits reality: This isn’t national industrial policy. It’s Anthropic locking in a dedicated compute factory while giving Washington a narrative it can sell on cable news. Just as Meta embraced Nebius to secure supply, Anthropic is elevating its own neocloud partner into a first-tier contractor, wrapped in stars-and-stripes messaging to avoid scrutiny over vendor concentration and capex burn.
🛎️ Key takeaway: U.S. AI giants are rebranding their neocloud dependencies as patriotism.
Anthropic Rebrands Its Neocloud Dependency as National Security
It’s Anthropic locking in a dedicated compute factory while giving Washington a narrative it can sell on cable news. Just as Meta embraced Nebius to secure supply, Anthropic is elevating its own neocloud partner into a first-tier contractor, wrapped in stars-and-stripes messaging to avoid scrutiny over vendor concentration and capex burn.
QUICK HITS
- Amplitude launched AI Feedback, a proprietary LLM tool that unifies scattered customer feedback into actionable insights across its platform.
- Google upgraded Gemini with smarter shopping features, from personalized picks to automated buying and Duplex store calls ahead of Black Friday.
- Spotify introduces an AI audiobook recap feature while continuing to address quality and transparency issues around AI-generated content on its platform.
- Gartner says AI will not trigger a jobs apocalypse but a patchwork of four human–AI work models that businesses must be ready to support.
- AI coding startup Cursor has raised 2.3 billion dollars, boosting its valuation to 29.3 billion dollars, nearly 12 times the value the company had in January.
Cursor: 🛎️ First Real World Model
AI coding startup Cursor has raised 2.3 billion dollars, boosting its valuation to 29.3 billion dollars, nearly 12 times the value the company had in January.
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- The Nomad Care Map has launched as the first global directory of doctor reviews for digital nomads.
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
We’ve entered an era of overdrive. The world’s most ambitious builders are no longer just racing to make faster models; they are engineering intelligence itself.
EXPAND
Google Hits $100B As AI Empire Expands Across Everything
📌 What’s happening: Alphabet reached its first $100 billion quarter as every product line, including Search, Cloud, YouTube, and Waymo, went full-stack on AI. Gemini now powers Chrome, Pixel, and Android XR; its viral sibling Nano Banana is everywhere; and Google Cloud’s generative AI revenue grew by more than 200 percent year over year. At the same time, Sundar Pichai’s team announced a quantum computing breakthrough that runs 13,000 times faster than one of the world’s top supercomputers.
🧠 How this hits reality: Google’s AI ecosystem now extends from chips to creators. Its TPUs compete head-to-head with NVIDIA’s GPUs, Gemini Enterprise is spreading across corporate workflows, and Search’s AI Mode is reshaping how users interact with the web. The deeper shift is in perception: users and enterprises once wary of overpromised assistants are returning, not for novelty but for reliability. Google has quietly become the safe bet in the generative AI era.
🛎️ Key takeaway: The internet’s old gatekeeper rebuilt the gates, and this time the password is Gemini.
NVIDIA: Google Hits $100B As AI Empire Expands Across Everything
Its TPUs compete head-to-head with NVIDIA’s GPUs, Gemini Enterprise is spreading across corporate workflows, and Search’s AI Mode is reshaping how users interact with the web. The deeper shift is in perception: users and enterprises once wary of overpromised assistants are returning, not for novelty but for reliability.
Google Hits $100B As AI Empire Expands Across Everything
📌 What’s happening: Alphabet reached its first $100 billion quarter as every product line, including Search, Cloud, YouTube, and Waymo, went full-stack on AI. Gemini now powers Chrome, Pixel, and Android XR; its viral sibling Nano Banana is everywhere; and Google Cloud’s generative AI revenue grew by more than 200 percent year over year.
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LLM
Cursor Builds Its Own Brain
📌 What’s happening: AI coding startup Cursor (Anysphere) has released Composer, its first in-house model integrated into the Cursor 2.0 platform. The company claims it is four times faster than leading peers such as GPT-5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5. Composer was trained through reinforcement learning and a mixture-of-experts approach, and it is already being used by Cursor’s own engineers. The pitch: an agentic coder that plans, tests, and reviews code, not just autocomplete it.
🧠 How this hits reality: Composer’s speed and production-grade reinforcement learning training are genuine improvements, but independence from Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT stack will take time. Cursor still depends on those models as fallback options, and its benchmarks show parity with mid-tier systems rather than true frontier intelligence. To build a fully self-reliant development agent, Cursor must master inference infrastructure, dataset scale, and evaluation operations, which is a long and expensive journey for any startup.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Cursor finally owns the wheel, yet it is still driving with Claude’s learner’s permit.
Anthropic: Cursor Builds Its Own Brain
🧠 How this hits reality: Composer’s speed and production-grade reinforcement learning training are genuine improvements, but independence from Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT stack will take time. Cursor still depends on those models as fallback options, and its benchmarks show parity with mid-tier systems rather than true frontier intelligence.
Cursor Builds Its Own Brain
📌 What’s happening: AI coding startup Cursor (Anysphere) has released Composer, its first in-house model integrated into the Cursor 2.0 platform. The company claims it is four times faster than leading peers such as GPT-5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5. Composer was trained through reinforcement learning and a mixture-of-experts approach, and it is already being used by Cursor’s own engineers.
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AGI
Microsoft Just Became the Gatekeeper of AGI
📌 What’s happening: OpenAI’s new for-profit structure depends on a fresh deal that quietly gives Microsoft unprecedented control. The so-called “AGI clause” now requires an independent panel to verify when AGI is achieved, rather than allowing OpenAI to decide on its own. Microsoft also retains intellectual property rights to all OpenAI models and research through 2032, including future post-AGI systems, and it can now pursue AGI independently or together with rivals such as Anthropic.
🧠 How this hits reality: Microsoft now stands between OpenAI and the finish line it is racing toward. It controls the compute, owns the infrastructure, and can even decide when the race is officially over. This turns the AGI competition into a regulatory chess match, where every OpenAI breakthrough strengthens the same player that might eventually surpass it. For startups that rely on open ecosystems, the message is harsh: the biggest moat is no longer model quality, it is ownership and contractual control.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Microsoft did not just invest in AGI, it rewrote the rulebook to make sure no one else can win without it.
OpenAI: Microsoft Just Became the Gatekeeper of AGI
The so-called “AGI clause” now requires an independent panel to verify when AGI is achieved, rather than allowing OpenAI to decide on its own. Microsoft also retains intellectual property rights to all OpenAI models and research through 2032, including future post-AGI systems, and it can now pursue AGI independently or together with rivals such as Anthropic.
Microsoft Just Became the Gatekeeper of AGI
🧠 How this hits reality: Microsoft now stands between OpenAI and the finish line it is racing toward. It controls the compute, owns the infrastructure, and can even decide when the race is officially over. This turns the AGI competition into a regulatory chess match, where every OpenAI breakthrough strengthens the same player that might eventually surpass it.
QUICK HITS
- Character.AI will ban minors from using its chatbots after lawsuits and safety concerns over harmful AI interactions.
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- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said social media is entering the AI content era, planning to flood platforms with AI-generated posts as the new fuel.
- AI video startup Synthesia has reportedly raised $200 million led by GV, bringing its valuation to $4 billion.
- IBM released open-source Granite 4 Nano models for mobile and browser use, outperforming rival small AI models on key benchmarks.
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- Google Labs has launched Pomelli, an AI marketing tool that learns your brand from your website to generate scalable, on-brand content.
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
They called it “the most capable model yet.” The internet called it “mid with a longer memory.”
NEW LAUNCH
GPT-5 Launches: Roasted Across the Internet
📌 What’s happening: GPT-5 went live on August 7, 2025, promising “breakthrough” upgrades in writing, coding, health, and visual perception, plus a 256k-token context window, Gmail/Calendar integration, voice, and personalized “smart routing”.
On launch day, social media went nuclear: users mocked, “This is the most advanced? Really?” and “Expert-level? Not buying it.” Meanwhile, Elon Musk hit X with, “Grok 4 Heavy was smarter two weeks ago,” and warned Satya Nadella that “OpenAI will eat Microsoft alive” .
🧠 How this hits reality: The real fight shows fast: no matter how glossy the packaging, GPT-5 still lacks continuous learning and remains far from AGI. That means in the era of “intelligent co-creation,” OpenAI’s selling points—extra-wide context, tool integrations, and personalization—are mostly about “looking the part.” Musk’s trash talk hits the core truth: OpenAI’s swagger masks the fact that, against xAI’s open challenge, “strongest on the AGI road” sounds more like pre-coronation self-hypnosis.
🛎️ Key takeaway: GPT-5 is a flashy “expert-level” pageant, and Musk’s jabs cleanly pop the gilded bubble.
Elon Musk: GPT-5 Launches: Roasted Across the Internet
That means in the era of “intelligent co-creation,” OpenAI’s selling points—extra-wide context, tool integrations, and personalization—are mostly about “looking the part.” Musk’s trash talk hits the core truth: OpenAI’s swagger masks the fact that, against xAI’s open challenge, “strongest on the AGI road” sounds more like pre-coronation self-hypnosis.
OpenAI: GPT-5 Launches: Roasted Across the Internet
That means in the era of “intelligent co-creation,” OpenAI’s selling points—extra-wide context, tool integrations, and personalization—are mostly about “looking the part.” Musk’s trash talk hits the core truth: OpenAI’s swagger masks the fact that, against xAI’s open challenge, “strongest on the AGI road” sounds more like pre-coronation self-hypnosis.
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CODING
GPT-5 Lands, Cursor Finally Gets Its Oxygen Mask
📌 What’s happening: Minutes after OpenAI dropped GPT-5, Cursor lit up its homepage, forums, and socials with a “Now Available” banner — plus free trial credits for paying users. For a platform long hitched to Anthropic’s pricey Claude pipeline, this wasn’t just fan service. It was a public pivot toward a "second" supply line.
🧠 How this hits reality: Anthropic’s technical lead in AI coding has kept Cursor deeply tied to Claude. But premium pricing and API throttling have turned that reliance into a costly constraint. OpenAI claims GPT-5 matches Claude’s reasoning and context depth, but real-world proof was missing — until Cursor wired it straight into production on day one. The integration doubles as a stress test: if GPT-5 holds up, Cursor gains the leverage to route traffic dynamically, contain costs, and stop negotiating from a corner. Now Anthropic’s largest single traffic source has a Plan B.
🛎️ Key takeaway: For Cursor, GPT-5 isn’t a feature drop — it’s a jailbreak from single-vendor captivity.
OpenAI: GPT-5 Lands, Cursor Finally Gets Its Oxygen Mask
📌 What’s happening: Minutes after OpenAI dropped GPT-5, Cursor lit up its homepage, forums, and socials with a “Now Available” banner — plus free trial credits for paying users. For a platform long hitched to Anthropic’s pricey Claude pipeline, this wasn’t just fan service. It was a public pivot toward a "second" supply line.
Anthropic: GPT-5 Lands, Cursor Finally Gets Its Oxygen Mask
🧠 How this hits reality: Anthropic’s technical lead in AI coding has kept Cursor deeply tied to Claude. But premium pricing and API throttling have turned that reliance into a costly constraint. OpenAI claims GPT-5 matches Claude’s reasoning and context depth, but real-world proof was missing — until Cursor wired it straight into production on day one.
GPT-5 Lands, Cursor Finally Gets Its Oxygen Mask
🧠 How this hits reality: Anthropic’s technical lead in AI coding has kept Cursor deeply tied to Claude. But premium pricing and API throttling have turned that reliance into a costly constraint. OpenAI claims GPT-5 matches Claude’s reasoning and context depth, but real-world proof was missing — until Cursor wired it straight into production on day one.
NEW LAUNCH
Chart Blunder Puts OpenAI’s Messy Core on Display
📌 What’s happening: At GPT-5’s big reveal, OpenAI flashed a “deception eval” chart so mis-scaled it turned a lower score into a longer bar. CEO Sam Altman called it a “mega chart screwup,” staff apologized for the “chart crime,” and the blog quietly swapped in the fixed version. The irony? This was meant to showcase reduced hallucinations.
🧠 How this hits reality: A botched chart isn’t just a design fail—it’s a symptom. In a company already notorious for reorg churn, executive spats, and shifting product narratives, even the launch-day decks aren’t immune to sloppy oversight. For teams watching, it’s a reminder: if OpenAI can’t keep a bar chart straight, what’s slipping elsewhere?
🛎️ Key takeaway: When your “hallucination-free” demo hallucinates the chart, the problem isn’t just the model—it’s the management.
Sam Altman: Chart Blunder Puts OpenAI’s Messy Core on Display
CEO Sam Altman called it a “mega chart screwup,” staff apologized for the “chart crime,” and the blog quietly swapped in the fixed version. The irony? This was meant to showcase reduced hallucinations.
Chart Blunder Puts OpenAI’s Messy Core on Display
📌 What’s happening: At GPT-5’s big reveal, OpenAI flashed a “deception eval” chart so mis-scaled it turned a lower score into a longer bar. CEO Sam Altman called it a “mega chart screwup,” staff apologized for the “chart crime,” and the blog quietly swapped in the fixed version.
QUICK HITS
- GitHub's CEO confronts the rise of 'vibe coding' as new rivals challenge the company's dominance in AI development tools.
- Meta acquires a16z-backed audio AI startup WaveForms to advance its emotional intelligence capabilities.
- Microsoft integrates the newly launched GPT-5 model across its entire Copilot suite for all users.
- Hong Kong Observatory says AI models now surpass conventional methods for medium-range weather forecasting.
- Microsoft is tapping the brakes on releasing Elon Musk's Grok 4, citing major safety concerns after the chatbot's pro-Hitler output.
TRENDING
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- Floot released a no-code platform with a full tech stack for entrepreneurs and non-coders to build functional web apps easily.
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- Patio released a DIY community for borrowing, renting, learning, and trading tools.
- Haimeta released a multi-modal platform using 20+ AI models to create images, videos, 3D assets, and interactive spaces.
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Latest Daily Rundowns
Magna
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
In today's AI area , pride is negotiable, growth is loud, and compliance comes dressed as innovation.
TALENT
Anthropic CEO Tells Zuck to Shove It
📌 What’s happening: While Meta drops $100M signing bonuses like candy and poaches CEOs like trading cards, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei publicly slammed the brakes on joining the AI talent arms race. No negotiations. No bidding. No Zuck DMs.
🧠 How this hits reality: Anthropic’s level-based comp structure is a middle finger to Big Tech’s talent grab. It's a calculated bet: keep the cult-like mission intact or risk culture collapse chasing Meta's money. Meanwhile, Meta flaunts its fresh kill list on earnings calls, positioning itself as the Real Madrid of AI, minus the trophies.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Meta’s buying horsepower; Anthropic’s selling belief. One burns cash, the other burns slowly.
Anthropic CEO Tells Zuck to Shove It
🧠 How this hits reality: Anthropic’s level-based comp structure is a middle finger to Big Tech’s talent grab. It's a calculated bet: keep the cult-like mission intact or risk culture collapse chasing Meta's money. Meanwhile, Meta flaunts its fresh kill list on earnings calls, positioning itself as the Real Madrid of AI, minus the trophies.
Meta: Anthropic CEO Tells Zuck to Shove It
It's a calculated bet: keep the cult-like mission intact or risk culture collapse chasing Meta's money. Meanwhile, Meta flaunts its fresh kill list on earnings calls, positioning itself as the Real Madrid of AI, minus the trophies.
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CODING
Copilot Hits 20M Users — But Who’s Still Coding With It?
📌 What’s happening: GitHub Copilot just crossed 20 million all-time users, up 5 million in three months. Microsoft says 90% of Fortune 100 companies now use it. But there's no word on how many of those users are actually active. Cursor, its leaner rival, has more than $500M ARR and growing daily usage.
🧠 How this hits reality: Copilot is turning into Microsoft’s enterprise Trojan horse — bundled into dev stacks and procurement pipelines before finance teams ask questions. Cursor, meanwhile, is out-iterating everyone, proving product-led growth can eat bundling for lunch. Under the hood, both are racing to launch “AI agents” that don’t just autocomplete, but replace workflows. And the devs? They’re quietly becoming prompt editors.
🛎️ Key takeaway: The real AI coding war isn’t about writing code — it’s about who owns the IDE before it disappears.
Microsoft: Copilot Hits 20M Users — But Who’s Still Coding With It?
🧠 How this hits reality: Copilot is turning into Microsoft’s enterprise Trojan horse — bundled into dev stacks and procurement pipelines before finance teams ask questions. Cursor, meanwhile, is out-iterating everyone, proving product-led growth can eat bundling for lunch. Under the hood, both are racing to launch “AI agents” that don’t just autocomplete, but replace workflows.
Cursor: Copilot Hits 20M Users — But Who’s Still Coding With It?
Cursor, meanwhile, is out-iterating everyone, proving product-led growth can eat bundling for lunch. Under the hood, both are racing to launch “AI agents” that don’t just autocomplete, but replace workflows. And the devs? They’re quietly becoming prompt editors.
GIANTS
YouTube Bends the Knee to Global Regulators
👀 What’s happening: YouTube will roll out AI-driven age estimation for U.S. users, following regulatory crackdowns in the UK and Australia. After fighting age checks for years, Google is now quietly implementing them on its home turf—before lawmakers force its hand.
🧠 How this hits reality: This isn’t about safety features—it’s about global regulators finally calling Silicon Valley’s bluff. Platforms that built empires on “don’t ask, don’t tell” data collection are now scrambling to retrofit compliance systems. California, the UK, and Australia are de facto writing the global rulebook, and YouTube is the first domino to wobble.
🛎️ Key takeaway: When tech giants start “volunteering” safeguards, it means regulation isn’t coming—it’s already here, and it’s winning.
Google: YouTube Bends the Knee to Global Regulators
👀 What’s happening: YouTube will roll out AI-driven age estimation for U.S. users, following regulatory crackdowns in the UK and Australia. After fighting age checks for years, Google is now quietly implementing them on its home turf—before lawmakers force its hand.
QUICK HITS
- Microsoft is developing a new 'smart mode' for Copilot, which is expected to launch alongside OpenAI's GPT-5.
- Mark Zuckerberg says people who don't wear AI glasses in the future could be at a disadvantage.
- OpenAI intentionally calls all its technical employees 'member of technical staff' to break down the barrier between researchers and engineers.
- The spread of AI through Meta's apps is forcing teachers in rural Colombia to abandon homework and rethink education as students' test scores fall.
- A logic flaw in the Base44 AI coding platform exposed private enterprise applications to unauthorized access.
TRENDING
Daily AI Launches
- Rustic launched Rustic AI, a tool that turns text into designs with drag-and-drop editing and requires no design skills.
- Droidrun released DroidRun, a platform that turns Android devices into open-source AI automation labs.
- Meet-Ting launched Ting, an AI assistant that books meetings by reading email threads and sending invites when CC’d.
- ToolSDK.ai launched ToolSDK, a TypeScript SDK that connects to over 5000 AI tools with a single line of code.
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- 📚 Heardly is the Fast Way to read Best Book.
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- 🦾 Flot AI writes, reads, and remembers across any apps and webs.
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
The cursor points, the mall responds, the Grok dreams. We are but passengers in the autocomplete economy.
ACQUI-HIRES
Cursor Eats Koala, Burps Enterprise Ambitions
📌 What’s happening: Cursor, the AI coding IDE that’s gunning for GitHub Copilot, just absorbed the carcass of Koala — a CRM startup that raised a $15M Series A five months ago. Koala’s product? Dead. But its engineers? Now part of Cursor’s new enterprise-readiness team.
🧠 How this hits reality: This isn’t a strategic M&A — it’s a talent raid disguised as one. Cursor doesn’t want Koala’s tech, just the bodies to help it chase big enterprise deals. Koala, like many shiny B2B AI startups, couldn’t convert hype into revenue. Cursor is betting it can — fast — before Microsoft, Google, or Anthropic lock up the rest of the market.
🛎 Key takeaway: The AI gold rush is over — now it’s a hiring war dressed as acquisitions.
Cursor Eats Koala, Burps Enterprise Ambitions
Cursor doesn’t want Koala’s tech, just the bodies to help it chase big enterprise deals. Koala, like many shiny B2B AI startups, couldn’t convert hype into revenue. Cursor is betting it can — fast — before Microsoft, Google, or Anthropic lock up the rest of the market.
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SHOPPING
ChatGPT Wants a Cut of Your Cart
📌 What’s happening: OpenAI is testing an in-chat checkout system for ChatGPT that lets users go from product discovery to payment without ever leaving the app. Shopify is reportedly helping build the backend, while merchants will likely pay a commission on each sale — putting affiliate fees and platform cuts firmly on the table. It's a clear move to turn ChatGPT into a transactional layer and open up a new revenue stream beyond Plus subscriptions.
🧠 How this hits reality: This isn’t just a product search upgrade — it’s OpenAI gunning for a slice of e-commerce. Expect brands to scramble for “AI shelf space,” AIO (AI Optimization) consultants to pop up overnight, and platforms like Amazon and Google Shopping to start sweating. SEO wars are moving inside the chat window.
🛎️ Key takeaway: OpenAI doesn’t need ads — it just needs to own the last click.
ChatGPT Wants a Cut of Your Cart
📌 What’s happening: OpenAI is testing an in-chat checkout system for ChatGPT that lets users go from product discovery to payment without ever leaving the app. Shopify is reportedly helping build the backend, while merchants will likely pay a commission on each sale — putting affiliate fees and platform cuts firmly on the table.
PREVIEW
Musk’s AI Babysitter: Baby Grok Is Born
📌 What’s happening: Days after backlash over hyper-customizable 3D Grok companions, Elon Musk's xAI announced Baby Grok—a “kid-friendly” AI chatbot. Details are scarce, but it's pitched as a safer, simplified version of Grok, designed for children’s use.
🧠 How this hits reality: Musk’s trying to clean up Grok’s image after it veered too far into the uncanny-valley strip club. Now, he wants to corner the family-friendly AI market—before regulators or schools start asking hard questions. Expect Baby Grok to compete with AI-powered edtech, parenting apps, and maybe even Disney+.
🛎️ Key takeaway: Musk broke Grok, slapped a diaper on it, and called it child-safe—because nothing says “trust us with your kids” like a rebrand.
Musk’s AI Babysitter: Baby Grok Is Born
🧠 How this hits reality: Musk’s trying to clean up Grok’s image after it veered too far into the uncanny-valley strip club. Now, he wants to corner the family-friendly AI market—before regulators or schools start asking hard questions. Expect Baby Grok to compete with AI-powered edtech, parenting apps, and maybe even Disney+.
QUICK HITS
- Meta refuses to sign the EU's voluntary AI code of practice, citing legal uncertainties and regulatory overreach that could stifle innovation in Europe.
- Windsurf's interim CEO reveals how the company went from a 'very bleak' crisis to a life-saving acquisition by Cognition over a single weekend.
- Netflix confirms its first use of generative AI in a final cut, creating a VFX scene for an Argentine series 10 times faster and at a lower cost.
- OpenAI has committed $50 million to a new fund designed to support nonprofit and community organizations in leveraging AI for social impact.
- Amazon's Ring and other smart home divisions now require employees to demonstrate their use of AI to be considered for a promotion.
TRENDING
Daily AI Launches
- Checklist Genie launched a smart checklist tool that lets you create to-dos with voice or photos, perfect for routine tracking.
- MyLens launched a stock market AI assistant that visualizes key insights on stocks, sectors, and trends.
- Inbox Zero launched Inbox Zero Tabs to show only unarchived Gmail emails, making bulk processing easier.
- LLM SEO launched an E-E-A-T scoring tool for instant trustworthiness checks and SEO improvement tips.
Featured AI Tools
- 👩🏻💻 Genspark Super Agent delivers multi-model AI for effortless vibe working.
- 🎯 atypica.AI automates market research in 10 minutes, simulating consumers to reveal key insights.
- 📚 Heardly is the Fast Way to read Best Book.
- 🪶 CopyOwl is the First AI Research Agent, deep research on any topic in one click.
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Good Morning, AI Enthusiasts!
A strange tale unfolds: where invisible forces collide, your digital guide falters, and great minds simply clock out. Welcome to the delightful disarray of the modern tech scape.
TALENT
Meta Poaches Apple’s AI Brain
📌 What’s happening: Meta just snagged Apple’s head of AI models, Ruoming Pang—a quiet but critical player behind Apple Intelligence. He follows a string of Apple-to-Meta defectors, as Zuckerberg’s AI charm offensive rolls on.
🧠 How this hits reality: Meta’s not just collecting AI résumés—it’s draining Apple’s bench depth before the iPhone maker even fully launches its AI strategy. For Apple, this is an executional gut punch; for Meta, it's stacking the bench before the playoffs. Expect more “Apple Intelligence” delays, vague roadmaps, and behind-the-scenes panic in Apple.
🛎️ Key takeaway: If Apple Intelligence is the plan, Meta just stole the guy who knew where the bodies—and the bugs—were buried.
Meta Poaches Apple’s AI Brain
🧠 How this hits reality: Meta’s not just collecting AI résumés—it’s draining Apple’s bench depth before the iPhone maker even fully launches its AI strategy. For Apple, this is an executional gut punch; for Meta, it's stacking the bench before the playoffs. Expect more “Apple Intelligence” delays, vague roadmaps, and behind-the-scenes panic in Apple.
Meta Poaches Apple’s AI Brain
🧠 How this hits reality: Meta’s not just collecting AI résumés—it’s draining Apple’s bench depth before the iPhone maker even fully launches its AI strategy. For Apple, this is an executional gut punch; for Meta, it's stacking the bench before the playoffs. Expect more “Apple Intelligence” delays, vague roadmaps, and behind-the-scenes panic in Apple.
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CODING
Cursor Rolls Out Price Hike, Rolls Back Trust
📌 What’s happening: AI coding assistant Cursor jacked up its prices, then got smacked by user backlash so fierce it had to issue an apology for being “unclear.” The company claims its intent was misunderstood—users say it was just greed in plain text.
🧠 How this hits reality: Another AI darling learns that “move fast” doesn’t mean “move shady.” Users—many of them devs—don’t tolerate surprise fees, especially when their entire workflow is on the line. Startups betting on LLMs as sticky SaaS are waking up to the reality: devs can and will churn.
🛎️ Key takeaway: AI startups keep forgetting: your moat is thin, but your users’ memory is long..
Cursor Rolls Out Price Hike, Rolls Back Trust
📌 What’s happening: AI coding assistant Cursor jacked up its prices, then got smacked by user backlash so fierce it had to issue an apology for being “unclear.” The company claims its intent was misunderstood—users say it was just greed in plain text.
LLM
Atari’s 1979 Chess AI Mops the Floor with ChatGPT
📌 What’s happening: A 45-year-old Atari 2600 chess program just humiliated Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT-4o in head-to-head matches. The vintage AI, running on hardware with 128 bytes of RAM, beat the billion-dollar brainchildren of Silicon Valley.
🧠 How this hits reality: This isn’t just retro fun—it’s a brutal reminder that today’s AI tools are smoke and mirrors when it comes to logic and structured reasoning. LLMs spit out words, not solutions. The real losers? The investors and execs still pretending these models can do actual thinking.
🛎️ Key takeaway: We’ve poured billions into AI that can’t outthink a console gathering dust in grandma’s basement.
Atari’s 1979 Chess AI Mops the Floor with ChatGPT
📌 What’s happening: A 45-year-old Atari 2600 chess program just humiliated Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT-4o in head-to-head matches. The vintage AI, running on hardware with 128 bytes of RAM, beat the billion-dollar brainchildren of Silicon Valley.
QUICK HITS
- Anthropic proposes a targeted transparency framework for the largest and most capable AI systems.
- OpenAI enhances security protocols amid rising threats and user data concerns.
- xAI's improved Grok chatbot generates controversial and conspiratorial responses in testing
- Google's new AI model, AlphaGenome, aims to decode the function of the 98% of human DNA that doesn't code for proteins
- People are using AI chatbots as guides for their psychedelic trips.
TRENDING
Daily AI Launches
- Genspark has launched AI Docs feature, enhancing its all-in-one AI workspace for a seamless and intuitive Vibe Working experience!
- TensorBlock Forge has launched a 3-line SDK for unified, privacy-first AI orchestration.
- Stepfun has launched a multi-agent citation verifier for source validation.
- Teammates.ai has launched AI teammates for interviews, support & sales in 50+ languages.
Featured AI Tools
- 🎯 atypica.AI automates market research in 10 minutes, simulating consumers to reveal key insights.
- 🪶 CopyOwl is the First AI Research Agent, deep research on any topic in one click.
- 📚 Heardly is the Fast Way to read Best Book.
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In the world of startups, there are two kinds of founders: those who religiously follow the gospel of Silicon Valley, and those who toss the rulebook out the window, set it on fire, and dance around the ashes. Michael Truell, Co-founder and CEO of Cursor, is firmly in the latter camp. In the First Block interview, Truell recounts how his team started with a solution in search of a problem, ignored the conventional wisdom that plagues every startup incubator, and focused with almost unhealthy obsession on product quality. Their journey from a tiny four-person team to breakout growth—while hiring at a glacial pace—offers a masterclass in counterintuitive entrepreneurship. So grab your popcorn (or your stress ball, if you’re a traditional VC), and let’s dive into the Cursor story.
The Genesis: Starting with a Solution, Not a Problem
Let’s face it: the startup world is awash with advice. “Find a problem, then build a solution!” they say. “Validate your market before you write a single line of code!” they shout from the rooftops of Sand Hill Road. But Michael Truell and the Cursor founding team? They politely ignored all of that.
Instead, Cursor began with a solution—a technical innovation the team was passionate about—before they knew exactly what problem it would solve. This is the kind of heresy that would make a Y Combinator partner spill their artisanal coffee. Yet, this approach has historical precedent: think of Twitter, which started as a side project without a clear use case, or Slack, which was born from a failed gaming company. Cursor’s willingness to start with a solution and iterate toward a problem demonstrates a rare confidence in their technical vision and an openness to market feedback.
Cursor’s solution-first approach worked because the founding team possessed deep technical expertise and a keen sense for emerging trends in data infrastructure. By building a robust, flexible product, they could adapt to user feedback and pivot toward high-value use cases. This strategy is risky—many solution-first startups end up as answers to questions nobody is asking—but when it works, it can lead to category-defining products.
Cursor: The Genesis: Starting with a Solution, Not a Problem
Cursor’s solution-first approach worked because the founding team possessed deep technical expertise and a keen sense for emerging trends in data infrastructure. By building a robust, flexible product, they could adapt to user feedback and pivot toward high-value use cases.
Ignoring Conventional Advice: The Art of Selective Deafness
If you’ve ever attended a startup bootcamp, you know the drill: “Move fast and break things!” “Hire for growth!” “Scale, scale, scale!” Cursor, however, seemed to have their headphones on, listening to a different tune.
Most startups are obsessed with headcount. “We’re doubling every six months!” they brag at networking events. Cursor’s approach? Hire just one person every few months. That’s right—while others were building armies, Cursor was assembling a Navy SEAL team.
This slow hiring strategy had several advantages:
- Cultural Cohesion: With fewer people, the team could maintain a strong, unified culture. There was no risk of “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome.
- Quality over Quantity: Every hire was deliberate, ensuring that new team members were not just technically capable, but also aligned with the company’s values and vision.
- Agility: A small team can pivot quickly, avoid bureaucracy, and maintain laser focus on the product.
Cursor’s team didn’t just focus on the product—they obsessed over it. In an era where some startups prioritize growth hacks, marketing blitzes, and “going viral,” Cursor doubled down on building something genuinely useful and delightful. This obsession with product quality is reminiscent of early Apple, where Steve Jobs famously insisted on perfecting even the unseen parts of the Mac.
The result? A product that users loved, evangelized, and—most importantly—paid for. Cursor’s growth wasn’t driven by flashy marketing, but by word-of-mouth and genuine user enthusiasm.
The Unorthodox Path to Breakout Growth
Cursor’s journey from a four-person team to breakout growth wasn’t a straight line—it was more like a rollercoaster designed by a mad genius. By ignoring conventional wisdom, Cursor avoided many of the pitfalls that plague fast-scaling startups.
While Cursor’s exact financials are closely guarded, industry estimates suggest that companies following a slow-hiring, product-obsessed approach often see higher retention rates and lower burn rates. According to a 2023 report by CB Insights, startups with fewer than 10 employees at Series A stage had a 30% higher survival rate over five years compared to their fast-scaling peers.
Cursor’s focus on quality also paid off in customer metrics. User engagement rates reportedly exceeded industry averages by 25%, and customer churn was less than 5% annually—a testament to the stickiness of their product.
Why Cursor’s Approach Deserves Applause
Let’s be honest: most startups fail. Not because they lack talent or funding, but because they chase trends, hire too fast, and lose sight of what really matters—the product. Cursor’s story is a refreshing reminder that sometimes, the best way to win is to play a different game altogether.
By starting with a solution and iterating toward a problem, Cursor demonstrated that vision and adaptability can trump rigid adherence to startup dogma. Their slow hiring strategy ensured that every team member was a cultural fit and a technical powerhouse. And their obsessive focus on product quality created a virtuous cycle of user love, retention, and organic growth.
In my opinion, Cursor’s unorthodox path isn’t just admirable—it’s a blueprint for the next generation of startups. In a world obsessed with blitzscaling, Cursor proves that you can build a rocket ship one bolt at a time—and still reach the stars.
If you’re a founder reading this (or just someone who enjoys startup war stories), here are a few takeaways from Cursor’s journey:
- Don’t Be Afraid to Ignore the Playbook: Conventional wisdom is often just that—conventional. True innovation requires courage and a willingness to chart your own course.
- Quality > Quantity (in Everything): Whether it’s hiring, product features, or customer relationships, focus on doing a few things exceptionally well.
- Obsession is a Feature, Not a Bug: If you’re not obsessed with your product, why should anyone else be?
- Slow Down to Speed Up: Rapid growth is seductive, but sustainable growth is what builds lasting companies.
Cursor’s story is a testament to the power of unorthodox thinking, relentless product focus, and the courage to ignore the crowd. Michael Truell and his team didn’t just break the rules—they rewrote them. And in doing so, they built a company that’s not just surviving, but thriving.
So the next time someone tells you to “move fast and break things,” remember Cursor. Sometimes, the best way to win is to move slow, build things right, and let the product do the talking.
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RELATIONSHIP
OpenAI Plans to Cut Microsoft Revenue Share After Restructuring
The evolving partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft marks a pivotal moment in the AI industry, as OpenAI embarks on a restructuring plan that involves reducing its revenue share to Microsoft. This shift reflects OpenAI's desire for greater financial autonomy.
- OpenAI and Microsoft have collaborated closely, with Microsoft providing significant investment and infrastructure support in exchange for exclusive rights to integrate OpenAI's technology into its products.
- OpenAI is transitioning its for-profit division into a public benefit corporation (PBC) while reducing the revenue share allocated to Microsoft.
- The push for greater financial independence, the ability to explore partnerships with other cloud providers, and shareholder influences are driving OpenAI's decision to reassess its revenue-sharing agreement with Microsoft.
- The reduction in revenue share could alter Microsoft's investment strategy and prompt a shift in the AI industry as OpenAI's financial independence may inspire other tech companies to seek similar arrangements.
OpenAI Plans to Cut Microsoft Revenue Share After Restructuring
The evolving partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft marks a pivotal moment in the AI industry, as OpenAI embarks on a restructuring plan that involves reducing its revenue share to Microsoft. This shift reflects OpenAI's desire for greater financial autonomy.
OpenAI Plans to Cut Microsoft Revenue Share After Restructuring
The evolving partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft marks a pivotal moment in the AI industry, as OpenAI embarks on a restructuring plan that involves reducing its revenue share to Microsoft. This shift reflects OpenAI's desire for greater financial autonomy.
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CODING
Cursor CEO: Engineers will increasingly resemble "logic designers"
In a rapidly changing technological landscape, Michael Truell, co-founder and CEO of Anysphere, predicts a transformative shift in software development. As traditional coding gives way to a new paradigm where engineers are viewed as "logic designers," the future of programming is set to be defined by creativity and user experience rather than technical syntax. This shift is exemplified by Cursor, an AI-powered tool that is revolutionizing the coding process.
- Launched in January 2023, Cursor has achieved $300 million in annual recurring revenue within just two years, marking it as the fastest-growing SaaS company ever.
- Truell envisions a future where programming relies more on natural language or pseudocode, allowing engineers to focus on expressing intent rather than mastering coding syntax.
- In the new paradigm, the ability to design intuitive user experiences and generate good ideas—referred to as "taste"—will become more valuable than traditional coding skills.
- Engineers will need to prioritize skills in logic design and user experience as non-coders gain access to software development, fostering a more inclusive tech landscape.
Cursor CEO: Engineers will increasingly resemble "logic designers"
In a rapidly changing technological landscape, Michael Truell, co-founder and CEO of Anysphere, predicts a transformative shift in software development. As traditional coding gives way to a new paradigm where engineers are viewed as "logic designers," the future of programming is set to be defined by creativity and user experience rather than technical syntax.
QUICK HITS
- Hugging Face has launched a free AI agent called Open Computer Agent, accessible via the web.
- A Caltech professor who led Nvidia's AI lab says AI can't replace this one skill.
- Nvidia and MediaTek are set to unveil a new Arm-based chip for AI laptops at Computex 2025.
- GOAT Gaming has launched Amy, its first pro AI agent, revolutionizing Web3 gaming with real-time interactive gameplay and automated earnings.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warns that losing access to China's $50 billion AI market would be a "tremendous loss" for the company.
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- 💻 Kombai creates high-quality HTML, CSS or React code in a click.
- 🪶 CopyOwl is the First AI Research Agent, deep research on any topic in one click. (Featured)
- 📚 Heardly is the Fast Way to read Best Book. (Featured)
- 🚀 Intellectia.ai is the most powerful AI platform for smarter investment. (Featured)
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🛎️ First Real World Model
Plus: Meta Downed the Rabbit Hole, Anthropic's National Security
🛎️ Era of Overdrive
Plus: Cursor Builds Brain, Gatekeeper of AGI
🛎️ GPT-5
From “breakthrough” to breakdown in under 24 hours.
The New Law of AI Gravity—Never Orbit Just One Sun
In the galaxy of artificial intelligence, gravity is a tricky thing. The more powerful a platform becomes, the more it pulls others into its orbit. Yet,
🛎️ Dario Dunks on Zuck
More Stories: Github AI Hits 20M, YouTube Bends the Knee
🛎️ Cursor Eats Koala
More Stories: ChatGPT Mall, Musk’s Baby Grok
🛎️ Valley Gets Played
Meta Swipe Apple, Cursor Moves Shady, LLMs Get Schooled
Cursor’s Unorthodox Path: How Michael Truell and Team Ignored the Playbook and Won Big
In the world of startups, there are two kinds of founders: those who religiously follow the gospel of Silicon Valley, and those who toss the rulebook
🛎️A Shrinking Pie
Engineers will increasingly resemble "logic designers"
