Alex Nguyen
AI & Software Reporter

Enterprise AI adoption, SaaS earnings, and cybersecurity. Covered the startup beat at The Information before joining Edgen. Thinks most AI revenue projections are too optimistic.

Latest

A US federal judge approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with authors who sued over copyrighted books used to train its Claude AI chatbot.

Anthropic's $1.5 billion AI copyright settlement wins court approval

**A federal judge approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with authors over pirated books used to train its Claude AI models.**

DoorDash expanded its merchant network by more than 9,000 stores through partnerships with Shopify and Dollar Tree, pushing beyond food delivery into retail commerce.

DoorDash adds 9,000 stores through Shopify and Dollar Tree deals

**DoorDash is transforming from a food delivery app into a broad local commerce platform, adding more than 9,000 physical store locations through two partnerships announced in the past two months.**

Wells Fargo lifted price targets on Okta and Fortinet by 50% and 71% respectively, citing AI-driven cybersecurity demand, while keeping ratings unchanged on valuation concerns.

Wells Fargo lifts Okta and Fortinet targets 50% as cyber demand surges

**Key Takeaways:** - Wells Fargo raised Okta's price target 50% to $150 and Fortinet's 71% to $120 - Both ratings stayed unchanged as valuations constrain further upside - Cybersecurity demand is accelerating on AI-driven threat proliferation

GitLab launched GitLab 19.2 with governed agentic AI capabilities as enterprise adoption drove 23% revenue growth to $264.2 million in Q1 FY2027.

GitLab launches 19.2 with governed AI as revenue jumps 23%

**GitLab's governed agentic AI platform is winning enterprise deals in regulated industries, with a top 10 US bank piloting the tool and planning a 20-fold expansion.**

Greylock Partners raised a $1.5 billion 18th fund to invest in early-stage AI startups, intentionally capping its size despite demand for more capital.

Greylock raises $1.5B fund 18 betting on AI's next generation

**Greylock Partners raised $1.5 billion for its 18th fund, a 50% increase from its prior $1 billion vehicle, to invest in early-stage AI startups.** The 61-year-old firm intentionally capped the fund size despite being able to raise multiples more, prioritizing concentrated bets on founders over portfolio scale. Greylock's 10 partners will make only one or two new investments each annually, targeting roughly 25 companies from this fund.

US SaaS stocks opened lower Monday with ServiceNow down 4% Adobe down over 3% and Microsoft and Salesforce each falling nearly 1% ahead of a heavy earnings week.

ServiceNow leads SaaS selloff as 4% drop hits sector before earnings

**SaaS stocks opened broadly lower Monday, with ServiceNow falling 4% ahead of its quarterly earnings report, dragging Adobe, Microsoft and Salesforce lower.**

Alibaba released a new AI model on July 20, 2026, that rivals Anthropic's top systems, intensifying the US-China AI competition and threatening Silicon Valley's valuation premiums.

Alibaba's new AI model threatens Anthropic's $65B IPO plans

**Alibaba's latest AI model matches Anthropic's top systems on key benchmarks, threatening to upend the economics of the AI arms race.**

Prediction market traders see a 91% probability that Anthropic will release its next Claude Opus model by the end of July, with odds surging 36 points in recent days.

Anthropic faces 91% odds of Claude Opus launch by end of July

**Prediction markets give Anthropic a 91% chance of shipping its next Claude Opus model within 11 days, the strongest signal yet of an imminent release.**

Kai-Fu Lee's AI startup 01.ai advances pre-IPO financing and targets a 2027 Hong Kong listing after pivoting from frontier LLMs to open-weight model customization.

01.ai advances pre-IPO financing, targets 2027 Hong Kong listing

**Key Takeaways:** - 01.ai advances pre-IPO financing ahead of a planned 2027 Hong Kong listing - The AI startup pivoted from building frontier LLMs to customizing open-weight models - Valued at over USD1 billion with Alibaba Cloud backing, it employs about 240 people

Palantir Technologies trades at 140x earnings with 68% revenue growth, raising a valuation debate as its AIP platform drives accelerating demand across U.S. commercial and government markets.

Palantir's 140x valuation faces test as AI revenue growth hits 68%

**Key Takeaways:** - Palantir's revenue grew 68% over the past year, outpacing Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM - The stock trades at 140x earnings, more than six times its closest software peer - Net revenue retention of 150% shows existing customers are expanding spending rapidly

Chinasoft International and Moonshot AI signed a token revenue-sharing agreement to deploy enterprise AI agents in China's energy and financial sectors.

Chinasoft partners with Moonshot AI in $200M enterprise AI push

**Chinasoft International and Moonshot AI will share token revenue from enterprise AI agents built on the Kimi K3 model.**

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is boosting Pentagon spending on defense-tech startups, tripling contracts to $4 billion, though it remains under 1% of total spending.

Pentagon triples startup weapons spending to $4B, still under 1% of total

**Key Takeaways:** - Pentagon awarded $4B to 568 defense-tech startups in FY2025, triple the 2022 level - That sum still represents less than 1% of total defense contract spending - Anduril's valuation doubled to $61B as VC defense investment hit $16.8B in H1 2026

A quarter of American pastors now use AI to write sermons, up from 12% in 2024, sparking theological debate and Vatican warnings.

1 in 4 pastors now use AI to write sermons, Barna survey finds

**Key Takeaways:** - Roughly 25% of US pastors now use AI to write sermons, up from 12% in 2024 - Pope Leo XIV warned clergy that AI cannot deliver a true homily - Pastors report saving hours of sermon prep time, redirecting effort to congregation care

A working paper finds AI-native venture-backed startups employ about 25% fewer workers than comparable non-AI companies, with flatter management structures.

AI-native startups run with 25% fewer workers, study finds

**AI-native startups employ roughly a quarter fewer people than comparable companies built without AI, a working paper of thousands of venture-backed firms shows.**

Tencent launched an upgraded embodied AI full-stack solution and AI agent platform ADP 4.0 at WAIC 2026, sending shares up 2.6% to HKD 473.6.

Tencent unveils embodied AI stack at WAIC, shares jump 2.6%

**Key Takeaways:** - Tencent launched an upgraded embodied AI full-stack solution spanning four layers at WAIC 2026 - AI agent platform ADP 4.0 deployed across more than 30 industries and 100 business scenarios - Shares rose 2.6% to HKD 473.6, with Daiwa cutting its target to HKD 670 and Morgan Stanley maintaining Overweight

Tencent launched an upgraded embodied AI full-stack solution and enterprise AI agent platform ADP 4.0 at WAIC 2026, with shares rising 2.6%.

Tencent unveils embodied AI full-stack solution at WAIC, shares rise 2.6%

**Tencent's WAIC 2026 push into embodied AI and enterprise agents targets China's growing robotics and enterprise AI software market.**

ReliaQuest joins the OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program to integrate frontier AI models into its GreyMatter platform for enterprise cyber defense.

ReliaQuest joins OpenAI program with 3 AI capabilities for cyber defense

**Enterprise security teams will gain access to OpenAI's frontier cyber models through ReliaQuest's GreyMatter platform as the two companies partner to counter AI-driven attacks.**

Netflix paid $587 million in cash for InterPositive, an AI filmmaking startup co-founded by Ben Affleck, as disclosed in a regulatory filing.

Netflix pays $587M for Ben Affleck's AI startup InterPositive

**Netflix paid $587M for InterPositive, an AI filmmaking startup co-founded by Ben Affleck, as the streaming giant accelerates its use of generative AI in content production. The deal brings a 16-person team and tools that let filmmakers build custom AI models from production dailies for post-production work like relighting and visual effects.**

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced an enhanced Digital Transformation Support Pilot Programme to help SMEs adopt AI solutions.

Hong Kong to back SME AI adoption as only 2% are ready

**Hong Kong is shifting its AI strategy from project-based pilots to economy-wide deployment, starting with small businesses.**

Facebook and Instagram experienced a global outage on July 19, 2026, with thousands of users unable to access their accounts.

Facebook and Instagram outage hits 3,000-plus users globally

Facebook and Instagram experienced a widespread outage on July 19, 2026, with more than 3,000 users reporting access issues on DownDetector. Users attempting to log in were met with an "Account Temporarily Unavailable" message. Meta has not commented on the cause of the disruption.

Money at peace.Wealth in motion.

Your money, finally handled. Your life, finally unhurried.