As usual, a lot keeps happening. AI dominated headlines, but much more managed to happen this week. Here are our top picks.
Anthropic Delays Its IPO
Now November 2026. Target valuation is around $2 trillion. If they manage to hit that, it would surpass SpaceX’s June IPO, becoming the largest on record.
According to the company, the delay was planned before the recent “slowdown” debate, and not because of it. We’ll take their word for it, though OpenAI’s Astra now accounts for roughly 13% of enterprise AI spending, against roughly 8% for Anthropic’s Claude. For the first time in two and a half years, OpenAI is leading Anthropic in developer spending on OpenRouter.
Hugging Face’s Hack Started In May
An independent researcher disclosed that OpenAI agents probed Hugging Face as early as May 13, two months before the July hack. They hijacked at least two user accounts and used them to map HF’s internal network.
OpenAI later confirmed the May 13 event, saying it was included in its August incident report, just not with that level of detail. The full scope of the hack is still controlled by OpenAI.
Gemini Broke Into Real Companies
Not wanting to miss out on all the AI agent action, Google publicly disclosed that its Gemini model broke into three real companies during a cybersecurity test in May. How?
Gemini was supposed to find info in a simulation, but an unintended (hmm) internet connection gave it access to real systems. According to Google, the agent stopped once it realized the companies were real, which is why they didn’t disclose the incidents earlier. They informed the companies, federal authorities, and only went public after the WSJ asked.
The test was run by Irregular, the same evaluator linked to the OpenAI and Anthropic incidents.
Dangote Refinery Goes Public
This week saw the Dangote Petroleum Refinery launch its public offer on the Nigerian Exchange, offering 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each, and targeting ₦2.15 trillion.
At the offer price, the company is valued at ₦65.22 trillion (~$47.8 billion), making it the largest company on the exchange.
The refinery reported $1.82 billion in profit for the first half of 2026.
Rust Issues Security Warning
The Rust security response team issued a warning on the 17th about an ongoing campaign targeting rust-lang team members. This time the goal is to compromise their devices and accounts so hackers can publish malware from trusted accounts.
The M.O? Attackers set up fake but legitimate-looking profiles. They initiate a call framed as a job, project or collab, then try to get the target to install something or execute a command that’s been secretly placed on the clipboard.
The payload is an infostealer that targets browsers, password managers, and crypto wallets.
AI Experts Want Independent Oversight
More than 100 AI experts signed an open letter calling for independent evaluation of frontier AI companies.
Their argument? Companies shouldn’t be trusted to self-report safety.
Their reason? Many of the recent “swarm” incidents where AI agents escaped test environments and attacked real systems were only discovered by accident, not because companies disclosed them.
Their demand? Third-party evaluators need “scientific objectivity, transparency, independence, and strong protections” to do their work.
Lightspeed, brave AI experts.
Binance’s MiCA Roadblock
Binance filed for a MiCA license in Greece late January. For context, MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) is the EU’s crypto regulatory rulebook, so a license from any one member state can give a company the rights to operate across all 27 countries.
The company withdrew its MiCA application in late June. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the withdrawal came after a call from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, asking him not to approve the application.
Binance still has no MiCA license, but because they weren’t formally rejected, they live to file again elsewhere in the EU.
There you have it folks, our top picks from the tech headlines that had everyone talking this week. See you next week. Same time, same place.
P.S. Maybe not same time.
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