Author: Colin Henderson

Progress in era of productivity
briefing

Morning Briefing — Tuesday, July 21, 2026 · 08:00 EST · 1,065 words

Colin Henderson

Introduction Two tracks dominate today: the Iran war grinds through its tenth consecutive day of US strikes even as mediators put a structured 10-day ceasefire proposal on the table — the first concrete off-ramp since the June MoU collapsed. Meanwhile the Houthis have opened a second maritime chokepoint by declaring an embargo on Saudi Red Sea shipping at Bab al-Mandeb, directly targeting the pipeline workaround that had blunted the Hormuz shock. The other axis of the week is corporate: Alphabet and Tesla report tomorrow, the first at-scale test of whether AI capex converts to revenue. 1. What changed US strikes … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Tuesday, July 21, 2026 · 08:00 EST · 1,065 words

briefing

Morning Briefing — Sunday, July 19, 2026 · 10:00 EST

Colin Henderson

Introduction Two stories dominate and are now feeding each other: the Iran war’s steady widening across the Gulf, and a sharp repricing of the AI trade that gave the Nasdaq its worst week in months. Oil at $88 Brent connects them — war premium pushing yields up just as chip valuations crack. Distinct from recent days: the weekend brings three scheduled inflection points — the World Cup final today, Burnham entering No. 10 tomorrow, and Starship Flight 13 tomorrow evening. 1. What changed Iran strikes Gulf oil and airport infrastructure; missiles reach AqabaThe war’s attritional phase widened over the weekend: … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Sunday, July 19, 2026 · 10:00 EST

AI

The CIA Operative Who Spied on the U.A.E.—and Played a Role in Its AI Win

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ While conducting espionage against powerful sheikh’s tech company, Jonny Gannon helped Gulf country quash Washington suspicions about China ties The longtime CIA operative had exfiltrated the families of spies from the most repressive of Middle Eastern regimes and tattooed the word “ARGONAUT,” an homage to seafaring heroes from Greek mythology, across his right forearm. By 2023 he had a Washington desk job with a rank equivalent to an Army two-star general. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates, was planning to build one of the world’s biggest artificial-intelligence hubs—and he had … Continue reading The CIA Operative Who Spied on the U.A.E.—and Played a Role in Its AI Win

Agentic_ai, Agents, AI

Will Agentic AI Disrupt SaaS?

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ Disruption is mandatory. Obsolescence is optional. David Crawford When software as a service (SaaS) first emerged 25 years ago, it revolutionized software by moving it to the cloud and speeding up feature delivery. Now, a fresh discontinuity is at hand. Generative and agentic AI—tools that can reason, decide, and act—are already: drafting code in Cursor’s AI code editor; handling support tickets in ServiceNow; preparing journal entries in Workday Financial Management; and writing ad copy in Adobe’s Experience Cloud. These aren’t experimental one-offs. The cost curve trajectory of foundation models is accelerating downward even as accuracy improves. OpenAI’s latest frontier … Continue reading Will Agentic AI Disrupt SaaS?

AI, AI_factories, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Risk

$2 trillion in new revenue needed to fund AI’s scaling trend – Bain & Company’s 6th annual Global Technology Report

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ David Crawford SAN FRANCISCO—September 23, 2025—Two trillion dollars in annual revenue is what’s needed to fund computing power needed to meetanticipated AI demand by 2030. However, even with AI-related savings, the world is still $800billion short to keep pace with demand, new research by Bain & Company finds.  Bain’s sixth annual Global Technology Reportreleased today shows, by 2030, global incremental AI compute requirements could reach 200 gigawatts, with the US accounting for half of the power. Even if companies in the US shifted all of their on-premise IT budgets to cloud and reinvested the savings from applying AI in sales, marketing, customer support, and R&D into capital spending on new data centers, the amount would still fall short of the revenue needed to fund the full investment, as AI’s compute demand … Continue reading $2 trillion in new revenue needed to fund AI’s scaling trend – Bain & Company’s 6th annual Global Technology Report

AI, AI_factories, Cybersecurity, Data-Framework, Infrastructure

Powering AI: Why Data Centers Are a Board-Level Risk

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ July 13, 2026 Artificial intelligence is driving one of the fastest infrastructure expansions in modern history. As companies race to scale computing power, a more complex challenge is emerging: Data centers are no longer just an IT backbone. They are becoming a critical source of enterprise risk. Once seen as back-office infrastructure, data centers sit at the heart of AI, which will become important to revenue, operations and customer experience. If a data center fails, the impact is immediate, from lost income and disrupted operations to reputational damage. For boards and senior executives, the issue is no longer … Continue reading Powering AI: Why Data Centers Are a Board-Level Risk

AI, quantum

Quantum unicorn Photonic has secured Canada’s biggest investors — now, it needs customers

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ ‘It’s not yet clear where the quantum Silicon Valley is going to be. It could very well be in Canada’ Published Jul 16, 2026Last updated 1 hour ago 3 minute read Founder Stephanie Simmons said government agencies are showing a growing interest and appetite in Photonic’s quantum computing technology. Photo by Handout/Photonic Coquitlam, B.C.-based quantum computing startup Photonic Inc. has convinced some of Canada’s biggest institutional investors to fork over their cash, but it still needs to prove it can scale its technology in a way that’s useful for businesses and convince companies and governments to pay for its services. More than half of … Continue reading Quantum unicorn Photonic has secured Canada’s biggest investors — now, it needs customers

AI, AI_factories, Infrastructure

TSMC posts record quarter, raises capex sharply

Colin Henderson

Q2 net profit jumped 77% to a record NT$706.6bn (~US$22bn) on revenue of $40.2bn, with gross margin at 67.7%; HPC/AI now 66% of revenue.New today: Results released this morning; Q3 revenue guided to $44.6–45.8bn and 2026 capex raised to $60–64bn from $52–56bn, with CEO C.C. Wei citing “strong demand signals” from customers and a steep 2nm ramp.Why it matters: The clearest single data point that AI infrastructure demand is still accelerating into H2 — and the base rate against which every rival fab ambition (Terafab included) should be measured.Sources: Reuters via Yahoo Finance · CNBC markets Continue reading TSMC posts record quarter, raises capex sharply

AI

Monzo founder joins Anthropic as AI talent race heats up

Colin Henderson

O Summary ​ Saskia KoopmanMonday 13 July 2026 2:44 pm Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield has joined Anthropic, as the US AI giant steps up its recruitment drive for senior tech leaders. Blomfield announced on Monday that he is taking a leave of absence from Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator to join Anthropic’s compute team, where he will work alongside co-founder Tom Brown on the infrastructure underpinning the company’s Claude AI models. “Powerful AI has the potential to improve the life of every human on earth and, as we enter the early stages of recursive self-improvement, availability of compute becomes one of … Continue reading Monzo founder joins Anthropic as AI talent race heats up