The Republican Party is divided on data centers, with the Texas governor saying they are "digging their own grave" while the White House says rejecting them is a mistake. In the same week, an unnamed AI model took the second spot in OpenAI's rankings.
1 | Texas Governor Defends Data Center Pause Order, Trump Says Rejecting Them Was a "Mistake" on the Same Weekend
Abbott issued an order at the beginning of this month to pause new data center project approvals and conduct an audit of the power grid and water resources first. On Sunday, he defended this order on the ABC "This Week" show, stating that data center companies are "basically digging their own grave" because they did not first have good relations with the local community. He also mentioned that less than ten percent of the companies that received inquiries from the state government responded.
On the same weekend, Trump said in Michael Cohen's interview that rejecting data centers "was a mistake" and that this industry "may be even bigger than oil." The divide is not only between the two parties. Sanders wrote to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta on August 10 to request a pause in cutting-edge development. Axios then asked nearly 20 potential Democratic candidates for the 2028 election the same question, with only Ram Emanuel giving a direct response, stating that a pause could happen, and then what?
A year ago, data centers were an industry policy that both parties were willing to support. Now, a red state governor is calling for an audit, blue camp candidates are collectively avoiding the issue, and the White House is speaking for it. AI infrastructure has shifted from an industry issue to a ballot problem.
(Source: Axios / ABC / Fox 4 / Newsweek / The Hill)
2 | The Netherlands Fines Uber €825 Million, AI-driven Firings Now Come with a Price Tag
The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Uber €825 million, the second-largest GDPR fine in history. The main accusation was not a data breach but that Uber's automated system deactivated driver accounts from 2018 to 2022 without human review, leading to income disruptions. 171 French drivers reported their experiences to the French Human Rights League, which then filed a complaint on their behalf, with Uber's European headquarters in Amsterdam, ultimately falling under Dutch jurisdiction.
Uber strongly disagrees with the decision, will appeal, and argues that most deactivations were temporary, with permanent deactivations all being human-reviewed. The Dutch regulator found that there were indeed permanent deactivations without human review. This fine amounts to 70% of all GDPR fines in the entire European Economic Area in 2025. The top spot is still held by Meta, which was fined €12 billion by the Irish regulator in 2023 for cross-border data transfers.
The significance of this case lies not in the amount but in the fact that it is the first time a price has been set for "algorithms making hiring decisions for you." When AI systems not only recommend content but directly decide who can work, the boundaries of GDPR extend from data protection to labor rights.
(Source: TechCrunch / Dutch Data Protection Authority / PPC Land / Quartz)
3｜An Unnamed AI Model Quietly Takes Second Spot on OpenCode, Traces Point to MindSpec
On August 20, a model named Ox Alpha made a "stealth" appearance on OpenRouter and OpenCode. No company name, no technical documentation, 1 million tokens of context, all free. Three days later, it climbed to the second spot on OpenCode by recent usage, processing around 12 billion tokens, with 180,000 unique users and 3.56 million sessions.
There are three pieces of evidence. A one-time API request formatting error exposed a Java class path that pointed to MindSpec's API route. Error code 1214 matches precisely with MindSpec's in-house hosted GLM, but not on third-party hosted GLMs. A tokenizer with 30 features all align with the GLM-5.3. Bloomberg reported on August 14 that MindSpec is preparing a new model to rival Anthropic and OpenAI's programming capabilities.
By not disclosing the brand, building reputation through performance first, and unveiling only after gaining enough traction, this approach is entirely opposite to traditional product launches with media PR. If confirmed to be MindSpec in the end, this would mark the first time a Chinese AI company has tested overseas market response anonymously.
(Source: TechCrunch / Bloomberg / Explainx.ai / CellCog)
4｜Benson Announces Economic Measures Against Iran on Monday, Iranian Security Chief Responds with "Act of War"
Secretary of the Treasury Benson held a press conference on Monday to announce a round of economic measures against Iran aimed at severing Iran's final foreign exchange channels, including transshipment trade nodes via Iraq and the UAE. Republican Senator Baralso directly referred to this day as the "D-Day" for Iran's economy.
Iran's Head of the Supreme National Security Council, Leisai, responded, stating that any country supporting these new sanctions constitutes an "act of war," and if Trump is serious, Iran will respond in a "earth-shattering manner." President Pezeshkian defended the memorandum of understanding from June domestically, stating it was the best way to move away from the "neither war nor peace" situation, emphasizing that there is not a single surrender clause in the agreement.
The "Economic D-Day" is not about the size of Iran's economy but about who within Iran has the power to decide the war and peace direction. The only argument in the hands of the moderates is that negotiation can still yield something, but once the foreign exchange channels are cut, this argument falls apart. Benson chose the timing quite accurately.
（Source: CNBC / Fortune / The Hill / CNN / NPR）
5｜Stablecoin Card Spending Exceeds $1 Billion in a Single Month, with 70% of Transactions for Groceries and Rideshares
Cryptocurrency card spending reached $1.04 billion in July, with over 10 million transactions tracked, compared to $306 million in the same month last year. Seventy percent of the spending was funded by US dollar-pegged stablecoins, with USDC accounting for 50.8% and USDT for 20.3% (up from 7% for USDT a year ago). The average transaction amount was $86, up from $59 last year, and the most common use cases were groceries, ride-hailing, food delivery, and subscriptions.
On the other end of the spectrum, Visa reported as of June this year that there are over 160 stablecoin-linked card programs globally either live or in development. A report from StraitsX in Singapore revealed that from March 2025 to February 2026, transaction volumes in low-income markets increased sixfold, while high-income markets saw a 1.5x increase. a16z predicts that the next wave of heavy stablecoin users will not be humans but AI agents.
The dollar's digital network effect is being propelled by two forces simultaneously. Consumers demand a card to swipe, while machines require programmable money. Both demands point to the same underlying infrastructure.
（Source: CoinDesk / Visa / StraitsX / a16z）
Also Worth Noting ↓
Burry Exits Alibaba, Swaps to JD.com. He mentioned on his personal Substack that Alibaba would need to drop another 50% for him to be interested again, citing Alibaba's HK$80 billion AI funding and rights issue as the trigger, stating that he does not endorse diluting shares. Scion had deregistered with the SEC in November last year and no longer files a 13F. (Source: Fortune / Investing.com)
Mossad Chief Cohen Meets with Syrian FM Mekdad to Ease Tensions after Israeli Airstrikes. Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur airport in Idlib Province on August 18, citing the prevention of Turkish drone and air defense radar deployments. Syria denies allowing Turkish troops to stay permanently. US envoy Jeffrey Feltman criticized the unnecessary escalation, stating that no deployments warranted the airstrike. (Source: Axios / Jerusalem Post / Arab News)
The $120 Million Bitcoin Mining Farm in Uruguay Associated with Tether had Ceased Operations Long Ago, with Reuters unearthing details this week. The controversy stemmed from a disagreement with the state-owned utility company UTE over the electricity supply agreement. While Tether believed the contract allowed for scalable electricity, UTE insisted on a hard cap. The mining farm was disconnected in July 2025 and settled the debt in December. (Source: Reuters)
UK FinTech funding plunges to the lowest level since 2016. Bloomberg says it's the lowest in at least a decade, while Tracxn calibrates it at £1.1 billion in the first half of the year, a 26% year-on-year drop. The UK remains Europe's largest FinTech market, capturing over a third of Europe's transaction volume in the first half of the year. (Source: Bloomberg / Tracxn / Innovate Finance)
The FCC revoked the certification of the HoverAir Versa, just three days after it was granted. This 230-gram drone was deemed to have a key part that is foreign-made, leading the complete drone, when integrated with the flight kit, to fall under the foreign drone ban. The FCC stated that the certification was issued in error and has issued guidance to all certifying bodies to enhance drone scrutiny. (Source: Tom's Hardware / DroneXL / PetaPixel)
DeepSeek has canceled weekend peak pricing and will now charge at off-peak rates throughout the weekend. The peak-off-peak delta was introduced on August 16 with the launch of the V4 series, with off-peak rates set at half of peak rates. The peak pricing window remains in place on weekdays. (Source: Bloomberg / DeepSeek API Documentation)
Russian oil's share in India's imports rose to 50.83% in July, a historical high of around 2.47 million barrels per day. Indian refineries had cut Russian oil purchases in January to avoid US tariffs, which pushed them back due to disruptions in Middle Eastern supply. The US Senate has already passed a bill this month to impose 100% tariffs on Russian oil buyers, but the House of Representatives has not voted yet. (Source: Reuters)
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