Good Morning! GoPro, which was on the verge of bankruptcy earlier this year, surged 40% after announcing a pivot into data centers. And banks are pushing back on law firm fees, arguing that associates billing $800/hour for long hours isn't sustainable in the age of AI.

Dyson announced a $500 AI toothbrush with a tooth selfie camera for people who won't floss. Times Square stabbing victim was identified as Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old VP in Bank of America's Business Selection and Conflicts department. And "Rich Dad Poor Dad" author Robert Kiyosaki is $1.2 billion in debt. And the

Plus: Bobby Jain's hedge fund returned 34% gross over two years before pivoting to run Millennium's money exclusively, Ares bought four student housing communities for $435 million, Mamdani signed a law for year-round outdoor dining in NYC, and why the PayPal takeover fell apart.

Mosaic continues to ship upgrades to their modeling platform. See their new accretion/dilution model here.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

a16z’s $1.1 Billion Bet on Scarcity

Fifteen years after Marc Andreessen famously declared that “software is eating the world,” his venture firm is raising $1.1 billion to invest in the stuff software desperately needs to keep eating.

Andreessen Horowitz launched its first dedicated hardware-infrastructure fund called the Machine Age. The fund is targeting really anything that sits inside or feeds a data center, be it AI chips, memory, networking equipment, storage, or even robotics. 

And while a16z has backed hardware companies before, including SpaceX and Anduril, software was always its bread-and-butter. But AI changed the equation, and now the bottleneck is increasingly not applications; it’s having enough chips, memory, networking gear, and electricity to run all of them.

General partner Martin Casado put it plainly: every part of the hardware supply chain is capacity constrained, from chips to memory down to power. The first years of the AI boom created enormous demand for compute. Investors are now racing to finance the supply. PitchBook data shows semiconductor and autonomous-machine startups raised ~$100 billion over the past year alone.

The exits have started to prove hardware can deliver venture-scale outcomes. Cerebras completed a blockbuster IPO in May, and Groq licensed its technology to Nvidia in a $20 billion deal late last year. More telling is that founders are flooding back into areas venture capital spent the software era treating as too capital-intensive. a16z says founder activity is what convinced it to carve out a standalone fund.

In a way this is a return to Silicon Valley's roots. Before venture capital became synonymous with SaaS and consumer apps, the industry was built around semiconductors, and the earliest VCs were chip veterans underwriting companies that needed factories and enormous upfront capital. AI is making that style of investing relevant again, just with bigger checks.

And $1.1 billion is still relatively small inside a16z. The firm manages more than $100 billion and raised another $15 billion across its strategies earlier this year. Machine Age is essentially a new sleeve built around one assumption: if AI demand keeps growing, somebody is going to make a fortune fixing all the physical bottlenecks standing in its way.

Takeaway: It might seem like a16z is rediscovering hardware, but the reality is probably a little bit closer to the firm making a bet on where the profits from AI move next. Silicon Valley has found out that while models and apps can be copied quickly, it’s a lot harder to copy fabs, chips, memory, power and data-center infrastructure. If AI demand keeps compounding, the companies controlling those bottlenecks may end up with more pricing power than the software sitting on top of them.

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HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Bobby Jain's hedge fund made $1.8 billion as Millennium cash rolls in (BB)

• GoPro to be acquired for $285M, will remain a public company (TechCrunch)

• Wall Street banks tell Big Law to cut fees as AI speeds up legal work (NY Post)

• Dyson launches $499 toothbrush with built-in camera, AI technology (Fox Business)

• 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' self-help author Robert Kiyosaki is $1.2 billion in debt: report (NY Post)

• Bank of America vice president killed in Times Square stabbing (BB)

• a16z brings growth fund to $8.5B days after launching new $1.1B fund (TechCrunch)

• Ares venture buys US student housing properties for $435 million (BB)

• Man becomes overnight millionaire after finding Bitcoin lost for 12 years (Yahoo Finance)

• Shein's private backers endured 73% valuation drop on IPO (BB)

• Mamdani signs law for year-round outdoor dining in NYC in social media-ready restaurant setting (NY Post)

• Nestle inks $1 billion deal to sell health supplements brands to private equity firm (WSJ)

• UK takeovers race past $100 billion after summer deals surge (BB)

• Australian benchmark bond yield jumps to level last seen in 2011 (BB)

• Moynihan protégé gets shot at fixing 'dead money' bank Truist (BB)

• Ares raises $3.8 billion for Japan-focused logistics fund (BB)

• SEC presses investment firms to prove they have access to shares in hot startups (WSJ)

• Salesforce backs HR software firm HiBob at $3.2 billion value (BB)

• AfterQuery becomes YC's fastest unicorn at $3.2 billion (Forbes)

• Why the PayPal takeover fell apart (Axios)

• Wall Street banks push Big Law to cut fees because of AI (FT)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks fell as the 10-year Treasury yield rose to a year-to-date high near 4.8% and the 30-year climbed to just below 5.3%.

• WTI crude rose over 5% to just above $90 after two tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. struck Iranian targets.

• Health care, utilities, and energy outperformed while industrials, materials, and consumer discretionary lagged.

Economic Data

• Japan's 10-year government bond yield hit 3% for the first time since 1996, with yields also elevated in Germany, the UK, and France.

• July JOLTS job openings came in just under 7.3 million, slightly below consensus.

• The August ISM Manufacturing PMI eased to 54.6 from 55.6, its eighth straight month of expansion.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) GoPro ($GPRO) +40% after the action camera maker announced a definitive merger with Starman Optical to expand into AI data center.

• (+) Fervo Energy ($FRVO) +28% because the geothermal power developer signed a 396-megawatt power agreement with Google.

• (–) Micron ($MU) -3% after reports of a potential labor strike at its Taoyuan and Taichung facilities in Taiwan.

Prediction Markets

• Watch Wednesday: Will Patek release a steel Nautilus reference in 2026.

• Trade on real-world events with Kalshi. Use code OWS to get a $10 bonus when you trade $10.

Private Dealmaking

• Veritas Capital agreed to buy Bodycote, a British heat treatment firm, for around $2.4 billion

• Polymarket raised around $300 million

• HiBob, an HR and benefits software startup, raised $160 million

• Scan.com, a medical imaging network, raised $90 million

• HubX, a Turkish mobile app builder, raised $50 million

• Light, an enabler of embedded electricity products for businesses, raised $46 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Vibe

Description:
Adam Grant explores why some people seem to effortlessly create meaningful connections while others struggle to build relationships in an increasingly disconnected world. Drawing on psychology, behavioral science, and real-world examples, Grant examines the small behaviors that make people feel understood, valued, and included. He argues that connection isn't simply a matter of personality or luck, it is a skill that can be deliberately developed, with significant effects on happiness, collaboration, leadership, and success.

Book Length: 288 pages
Release Date: October 6, 2026

Ideal For:
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DAILY VISUAL

First-time homebuyers Hit a Two-decade Low

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Assumed Agreement

In a room full of people who each privately doubt a plan, the plan often proceeds anyway, because everyone assumes everyone else must be comfortable with it, given that nobody has said otherwise. This differs from groupthink. Nobody in the room has actually changed their private opinion. They have simply concluded, wrongly, that they are the only one who disagrees.

The silence compounds itself. Each person who stays quiet gets read by the others as another vote of confidence, making the next person even less likely to break it, until an entire meeting has nodded through a decision that a majority privately doubted.

The fix is uncomfortably simple. Ask directly, one person at a time, rather than for objections to the room as a whole. Silence is not agreement. It is very often just a group each waiting for someone braver to go first.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• The neuroscience of affirmation

• Why career-cushioning is booming

• How to rebuild your broken attention span

• The best organizers for small spaces

• How to build muscle fast

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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