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🕶️ From memes to Wall Street: Solana wants $20T

🕶️ From memes to Wall Street: Solana wants $20T

GPT-5’s glow-up, Elon’s $500M headache and Solana’s Wall Street ambitions — the tech soap opera keeps getting juicier.

Lucila Sarquis
August 22, 2025

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Altman says query costs are down 95%, yet customers aren’t buying the “bargain” pitch. Cursor’s CEO ditches Claude for GPT-5’s 2x boost, while Google rolls out AI Mode in 180 countries. Meanwhile, Elon’s X stares down a $500M settlement as Solana trades memes for a $20T Wall Street shot

Video special: This guy HACKED Wall Street and walked free…

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Seven bullets of updates

🤖 Altman claims AI cost per query is down 95%, but customers still aren't convinced it's a bargain yet .
⚖️ Elon Musk’s X eyes a $500M settlement to close its messy severance lawsuit saga.
🧠 AI models can boost accuracy by forgetting up to 90% of outdated data and focusing on selective memory retention.
🚗 Ex-Tesla engineers say AI can shrink car repair diagnostics from 45 minutes to just 45 seconds with new tech.
⚡ Cursor's CEO drops Claude for OpenAI's GPT-5, leveraging its 2x performance boost during launch.
🌍 Google unleashes AI Mode in 180 countries, boosting new agentic features in English expansion.
📈 Solana wants to trade memes and crypto drama for a shot at Wall Street’s $20T market with big institutional bets.

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Bard might write your performance review

Photo by Eric Krull on Unsplash

Google isn’t grading anybody’s AI homework—yet—but management is still nudging teams to lean harder on large language models for coding productivity. For now, the only review is over how many hours everyone’s bots can save.

While managers aren’t docking paychecks for skipping GenAI, the writing is on the wall (possibly written by Bard itself): in big tech, “AI-optional” is already morphing into “AI-unavoidable.” If this policy sticks, expect every review cycle to become a test in robot-assisted creativity, dragging even AI-wary engineers along for the ride. Early adopters—startups included—have one more hint to bake automation into workflows before it’s mandatory.

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This guy HACKED Wall Street and walked free

In 2018, a single click on a compromised file gave Russian hackers a window into Wall Street—and they used it to steal $100 million. This is the wild true story of how a PowerShell backdoor on a filing agent’s laptop gave a Russian cybercrime ring early access to earnings reports from companies like Roku and Skechers—allowing them to trade on insider info for years without getting caught. Until one of them went skiing.

🕶️ More videos here 🕶️

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Former Zillow exec targets $1.3T market

The wealthiest companies tend to target the biggest markets. For example, NVIDIA skyrocketed nearly 200% higher in the last year with the $214B AI market’s tailwind.

That’s why investors are so excited about Pacaso.

Created by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso brings co-ownership to a $1.3 trillion real estate market. And by handing keys to 2,000+ happy homeowners, they’ve made $110M+ in gross profit to date. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

No wonder the same VCs behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay also invested in Pacaso. And for just $2.90/share, you can join them as an early-stage Pacaso investor today.

Invest for $2.90/Share

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at}_{invest.pacaso.com}_{. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}

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These companies just raised money

💸 a16z raises fresh capital for startup investments , boosting its $3B fund for emerging market brilliance.
🔋 Group14 lands $463M to power next-gen EV batteries with silicon anodes.
🤖 Nvidia backs Nuro with $203M, fueling the autonomous delivery race.
☢️ General Fusion secures $22M lifeline to keep its fusion energy dreams alive.
🔐 German startup RedMimicry raises seed funding to enhance cyberattack emulation efforts with its $830k boost.

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The startup plot twist: profitability is back in style

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Raising big rounds used to be the Silicon Valley dream, but SecurityPal CEO Pukar Hamal learned the hard way that venture cash comes with strings. After a $21M Series A in 2021, SecurityPal nearly burned through its runway when the VC market cooled. Instead of doubling down on the fundraising treadmill, Hamal slammed the brakes—cutting costs, laying off staff, and steering the company toward profitability over hypergrowth. The AI-powered security startup, used by Airtable, Figma, Grammarly, and others, now plays the long game.

Hamal’s takeaway? VC money isn’t free—it rents your autonomy. More funding means bigger expectations, faster hires, and a “growth at any cost” mindset that can backfire fast. SecurityPal chose durable growth instead: slower sales, stickier customers, and healthier margins. Hamal isn’t swearing off future rounds, but he’s rewriting the script—proving that startups don’t have to ride the endless VC rollercoaster to win.