▶ 84:28 · $CRCL · Circle USDC dominates 70% of real-world stablecoin transactions; building agentic labor market

episode briefing

Google DeepMind Reorgs, Rainforest Discoveries, Monkey Prices Surge, NYT Stock Drops

2026-08-05 · 13 company · 19 thematic

sentiment

6 bull1 bear6 neu

speakers

President of Shopify since 2017; led the company through pandemic e-commerce boom and recent AI/agentic commerce pivot; discussed Q2 results: $116B GMV, 30%+ growth across metrics.

john giamatteo

CEO of BlackBerry since 2023; leading the 42-year-old company's pivot from smartphones to embedded software (QNX OS in 275M+ vehicles) and secure communications for G10 governments; highlighted $950M backlog and industrial robotics growth.

jeremy allaire

Serial entrepreneur on his third company (fourth founding effort) and third IPO; has built Circle over 12+ years into a public company (~$20B market cap) issuing USDC, the largest regulated stablecoin; led the company through a near-bankruptcy moment in 2019 and the passage of the Genius Act establishing federal stablecoin law.

mackenzie burnett

CEO and co-founder of Ambrook, vertical ERP for SMBs in agriculture, trucking, construction; raised $30M Series B from Locky Groom; grew from 200 to 8,000 businesses in ~1 year; building AI CFO agents for 'finance teams of zero'.

john coogan

Co-host of TBPN, a live technology and business show focused on startups, venture capital and Silicon Valley.

quote

“Visa reported at the end of June 70% of real world stablecoin transactions happening with USDC... the agentic economy in some respects is about the transformation of cognitive work into agentic execution and then how all that gets orchestr…”

—jeremy allaire

now playing · $CRCL

$GOOGL···bearish· mediumjohn coogan

Google DeepMind reorg signals AI execution struggles; stock down 3.5%

Demis Hassabis stepping down as DeepMind CEO and Jeff Dean leaving after 27 years suggests Google is losing top AI talent and momentum; the hosts argue Google may shift to a capit…

$GOOGL···neutral· mediumjohn coogan

Google DeepMind reorg signals shift to infrastructure partner role

Google has every advantage in AI but consistently struggles to execute; the DeepMind reorg and Jeff Dean's departure suggest Google may pivot to an AWS/Azure-style infrastructure…

$MCFT···neutral· lowjohn coogan

Mastercraft adds CarPlay to pontoon boats; stock up 72% (18 cents)

Mastercraft Boat Holdings integrating Apple CarPlay and on-water navigation via Savvy Navy into Crest and Biz pontoons; stock moved 72% but only 18 cents absolute.

$REVOLUTneutral· lowjohn coogan

Revolut founder sued over $20M broker fee on $400M superyacht; valued at $115B

Revolut co-founder Nikolay Storonsky allegedly bypassed broker to buy $400M superyacht Nixie, avoiding $20M commission; company recently valued at $115B in secondary sale after ob…

$SHOP···bullish· high· posharley finkelstein

Shopify Q2 beats with 30%+ growth; agentic commerce emerging as structural advantage

Shopify delivered fifth straight quarter of 30%+ GMV growth; agentic commerce traffic and orders up 3x, catalog conversion 2x vs general AI scraping, disproportionately benefiting…

$BB···bullish· high· posjohn giamatteo

BlackBerry CEO Giamatteo: $950M QNX backlog, 275M cars powered, industrial automation fastest growing segment

BlackBerry's pivot to embedded software/QNX OS is compounding: $950M backlog over 5-7 years, powering 275M vehicles. Fastest growing pipeline is industrial automation (robotics, m…

$CRCL···bullish· high· posjeremy allaire

Circle USDC dominates 70% of real-world stablecoin transactions; building agentic labor market

USDC is 70% of real-world stablecoin transactions per Visa; Genius Act makes stablecoins part of official financial system; Circle building infrastructure for AI agents as cogniti…

$MECHANIZEneutral· lowjohn coogan

Google in talks to acquire RL environment startup Mechanize for $1.5B

Google reportedly negotiating $1.5B acquisition of Mechanize, an RL environment company that builds synthetic data environments for frontier labs, addressing Google DeepMind's per…

$SAFE-SUPERINTELLIGENCEneutral· lowjohn coogan

Ilya Sutskever's SSI rumored to release model in August; raised from Nvidia

Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence reportedly raising from Nvidia and may release a model in August; sole mission is superintelligence, so any release would imply significant…

$AMBROOKbullish· medium· posmackenzie burnett

Ambrook raises $30M Series B; 8K businesses on platform targeting 'messy middle' SMBs

Ambrook grew from 200 to 8,000 businesses in ~1 year; targets 25-30% of US small businesses too complex for QuickBooks but not ready for NetSuite; 50% of customers moving off pen-…

$SPCX···bullish· mediumjohn coogan

SpaceX internal $1T revenue target pulled forward from 2031 to 2030

SpaceX earnings call revealed internal projections for $1T revenue moved up one year to 2030, signaling accelerating Starlink/Starship trajectory.

$META···neutral· lowjohn coogan

Meta releases Muse Code coding agent powered by Muspark 1.2

Meta launched Muse Code beta, a terminal coding agent powered by coding-focused model Muspark 1.2, entering the AI coding agent competitive landscape.

$MSFT···bullish· mediumjohn coogan

Microsoft standardizes on OpenAI GPT-5.6 Soul as default internal model

Microsoft internal memo designates OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Soul as default model for internal use, ending 'token maxing' debate and cementing OpenAI as Microsoft's primary AI partner.

←