Chris Campbell:

Bedrock Robotics Announces Autonomous Excavation Milestone

Bedrock Robotics LLC, which has developed autonomy for excavators, demonstrated the capabilities of its technology with partner Sundt Construction Inc. on the site preparation of a 130-acre manufacturing facility.

On this project alone, Bedrock’s systems have so far moved over 65,000 cubic yards by loading human-operated, articulating dump trucks using the same workflow employed in manual operations. This integration represents a leap forward in commercial autonomous construction.

Bedrock Robotics’ core technology is the Bedrock Operator, an AI controller trained to operate the excavator. The San Francisco company has also integrated it with excavator models ranging from 20-ton to 80-ton machines, across a number of the leading heavy equipment manufacturers.

The leadership team at Bedrock includes several alumni of autonomous vehicle developer Waymo. Co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman led autonomous trucking and core technologies for Waymo’s public robotaxi network. Other Bedrock co-founders include Kevin Peterson, Ajay Gummalla, and Matthieu Guilbert, all of whom were with Sofman at Waymo.

If Bedrock follows through on its vision, it will make construction safer, faster, and more precise, all while addressing critical skilled-labor shortages.

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Greg Guenthner:

Bitcoin Price Crash: Saylor’s Strategy Is in Big Trouble

The Bitcoin price crash is showing no signs of slowing down. A temporary surge to $92,763 — in part helped by Nvidia’s bullish earnings — quickly reversed itself, with the world’s biggest cryptocurrency now in danger of losing $80,000. BTC is now 33% off all-time highs set less than two months ago.

But there’s one company in particular that’s painfully exposed to a Bitcoin price crash: Michael Saylor’s Strategy. It now has almost 650,000 BTC in its war chest — 3% of total supply — after a debt-fueled spending binge.

Given the business intelligence firm started purchasing Bitcoin back in August 2020, when prices were a mere $11,000, the typical cost per coin hasn’t been too high. However, that’s been starting to change.

The latest figures show that Strategy has paid an average of $74,433 per BTC, which means it’s now perilously close to being in the red. If the Bitcoin price crash continues, a drop of just 11% from current levels will result in paper losses.

Meanwhile, Strategy’s market capitalization is now substantially less than the value of the Bitcoin it owns — and Wall Street investors have been dumping the stock in their droves.

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James Altucher:

Google Must Double AI Compute Every 6 Months To Meet Demand

Amin Vahdat, a vice president at Google Cloud, recently gave a presentation in which he told employees that the company must double its compute capacity every six months in order to meet demand for artificial intelligence services.

One slide said, “Now we must double every 6 months.... the next 1000x in 4-5 years.”

“The competition in AI infrastructure is the most critical and also the most expensive part of the AI race,” Vahdat said at the meeting.

The presentation was delivered a week after Alphabet reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and raised its capital expenditures forecast for the second time this year, to a range of $91 billion to $93 billion, followed by a “significant increase” in 2026. Hyperscaler peers Microsoft, Amazon and Meta also boosted their capex guidance, and the four companies now expect to collectively spend more than $380 billion this year.

Alongside Nvidia's blockbuster earnings report from earlier this week, Vahdat's comments are helping quell worries of an AI bubble.

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