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Today’s Menu

• Former xAI insider allegedly steals cutting-edge secrets before $7M payday and OpenAI defection

• Corporate Bitcoin hunger creates supply apocalypse as businesses buy 4x faster than mining

Markets

TODAY IN AI

Former xAI insider allegedly steals cutting-edge secrets before $7M payday and OpenAI defection

The AI talent wars just reached peak insanity with xAI dropping a nuclear lawsuit on former engineer Xuechen Li, accusing him of pulling off one of the most brazen corporate espionage schemes in tech history. Li allegedly stole "cutting-edge AI tech with features superior to those offered by ChatGPT" just days before cashing out $7 million in xAI stock and bolting to join OpenAI—talk about adding insult to injury.

The timeline is absolutely damning: Li accepted his OpenAI position in July with a mid-August start date, then allegedly went full corporate spy mode by downloading confidential trade secrets to personal devices while preparing his escape plan. During an August 14th meeting, xAI claims Li actually admitted to stealing the data while simultaneously trying to cover his tracks by deleting logs and renaming files like some kind of amateur hacker.

Li was one of xAI's first 20 engineers and worked directly on developing the Grok language model, meaning he had access to the crown jewels of Musk's AI empire. Now xAI wants an injunction to block him from working at OpenAI or any competitor while seeking monetary damages that could make his $7 million payday look like pocket change.

This case perfectly captures how out of control the AI talent wars have become, with engineers literally carrying billions in intellectual property in their heads and on their laptops. The fact that this involves a direct xAI-to-OpenAI defection will almost certainly deepen the already toxic relationship between Musk and his former company, potentially triggering even more aggressive legal warfare in Silicon Valley.

TODAY IN CRYPTO

Corporate Bitcoin hunger creates supply apocalypse as businesses buy 4x faster than mining

Bitcoin's supply situation has gone from tight to absolutely catastrophic, with businesses now devouring BTC at nearly four times the rate miners can produce it. River's latest data reveals companies are buying a staggering 1,755 BTC per day in 2025, while ETFs add another 1,430 BTC daily and governments chip in 39 BTC—creating total daily demand of roughly 3,200 BTC against just 450 mined.

Corporate treasuries grabbed 159,107 BTC in Q2 alone, pushing business holdings to 1.3 million BTC, with Michael Saylor's Strategy still reigning supreme at 632,457 BTC. Author Adam Livingston nailed it when he said Saylor is "synthetically halving Bitcoin" through his relentless buying spree, fundamentally altering the supply dynamics without touching the protocol.

The most fascinating part is how Strategy executes these massive purchases without moving markets. Treasury officer Shirish Jajodia revealed they're "buying Bitcoin around the clock—almost every day, every hour, every second we are in the market," routing purchases over-the-counter to avoid jolting prices despite buying $1 billion over just a couple of days.

The market isn't feeling the full impact yet because these purchases happen away from exchanges, but exchange reserves keep draining while institutional demand accelerates. History shows that when structural supply crunches meet constrained inventory, the resolution is always the same: less Bitcoin available, more buyers competing, and prices that eventually go completely vertical.

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Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Damon James