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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

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Morning Briefing — Saturday, July 11, 2026 · 10:00 AM EST · 1150 words

Colin Henderson

⸻ Introduction Today’s environment is dominated by the aftermath of the US–Iran ceasefire collapse: strikes have paused, but the week’s escalation has moved to the diplomatic track, with Oman talks convening today and Mojtaba Khamenei issuing his first post-funeral message — a vow of revenge. Risk is clustered almost entirely around Hormuz and the terms on which the strait reopens. Distinct from prior days: the shooting has stopped, the signalling war has intensified, and markets have largely shrugged. ⸻ 1. What changed Oman talks convene as US demands Iran declare Hormuz openAfter a week of traded strikes (~90 US targets … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Saturday, July 11, 2026 · 10:00 AM EST · 1150 words

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Morning Briefing — Friday, July 10, 2026 · 8:30 AM EST · ~1,250 words

Colin Henderson

Introduction The dominant theme today is the simultaneous collapse and continuation of the US–Iran ceasefire: two consecutive nights of large-scale US strikes and Iranian retaliation against Gulf states, yet technical talks quietly persisting and third-party mediation (Pakistan, Qatar) active behind the scenes. Khamenei’s burial in Mashhad closes the funeral cycle while the new supreme leader remains invisible. Secondary clustering is around Western institutional churn — Burnham’s effectively uncontested path to Downing Street, and NATO absorbing Trump’s Spain trade cutoff and a formalized US drawdown from Europe. 1. What changed US–Iran ceasefire in tatters; strikes and talks run in parallelThe US … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Friday, July 10, 2026 · 8:30 AM EST · ~1,250 words

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Morning Briefing — Thursday, 9 July 2026 · AM EST · ~1,250 words

Colin Henderson

⸻ Introduction The ceasefire that held the Gulf together since mid-June is functionally dead. Trump declared it “over” at the NATO summit, the US has struck roughly 90 Iranian targets in 48 hours, and the IRGC has answered against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain — all while Khamenei is buried in Mashhad today. Risk is clustered tightly: the Hormuz escalation, the Ankara summit’s aftershocks for the alliance, and a UK leadership contest formally opening today make this one of the densest news days of the year. Oil and Treasury yields are carrying the market signal. ⸻ 1. What changed … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Thursday, 9 July 2026 · AM EST · ~1,250 words

Agents, AI, AI_regulation, banking, regulationLeave a comment

Capable systems doing consequential work below the threshold of human attention”

Colin Henderson

Source: Fable (Claude) analysis of a discussion and my own research I like this definition. “That’s the same structural question the agentic AI governance work circles — capable systems doing consequential work below the threshold of human attention” It’s worth keeping. The phrase captures why agentic AI governance is harder than model governance: the risk isn’t capability, it’s unattended capability. Regulators know how to audit a decision; they don’t yet know how to audit ten thousand small decisions nobody watched. Banking is the cleanest test case. Payment routing, fraud scoring, reconciliation, treasury sweeps — all already run below the threshold … Continue reading Capable systems doing consequential work below the threshold of human attention”

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Vendor economics shifting from capex sale to recurring share

Colin Henderson

Nvidia moves to revenue-sharing with AI clouds — Nvidia will take a cut of some customers’ cloud revenues rather than selling hardware outright, while Meta plans a cloud business selling excess compute. Vendor economics shifting from capex sale to recurring share — directly relevant to the GaaS thesis. Semiconductor Engineering Korea’s $1.3T chip gamble — Samsung and SK Hynix outlined roughly $1.3 trillion in decade-long Korean fab and AI data centre investment, tied into a single state industrial plan. The largest sovereign concentration bet of the AI cycle. Semiconductor Engineering Continue reading Vendor economics shifting from capex sale to recurring share

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Morning Briefing — Wednesday, July 8, 2026 · 9:45 AM EST · ~1,180 words

Colin Henderson

⸻ Introduction The dominant story is the effective collapse of the US–Iran ceasefire, announced by Trump from the floor of the NATO summit in Ankara — an unusual compounding of two risk clusters into one venue. Markets have repriced accordingly: oil up sharply, equities down, gold unwinding its war premium just as the war premium returns. What makes today distinct is the convergence: Hormuz escalation, an alliance summit strained by US withdrawal signals, and Khamenei’s funeral procession all running simultaneously. ⸻ 1. What changed Trump declares Iran ceasefire “over”; US hits 80+ targets after Hormuz ship attacksIran struck three merchant … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Wednesday, July 8, 2026 · 9:45 AM EST · ~1,180 words

Geopolitics, South America, USLeave a comment

Why the two Americas diverged

Colin Henderson

A combination of blood, faith, character and luck drove development in North and South America at a staggeringly different pace, resulting in today’s bifurcated hemisphere.ANTHONY DEPALMAJULY 3, 2026 On the same September morning that terrorists slammed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the foreign ministers of 34 North, Central and South American nations had gathered in Lima, Peru, to sign the Inter-American Democratic Charter. The Charter was considered a critical step towards forming a Free Trade Area of the Americas that would usher in unprecedented economic progress for the entire region and narrow the yawning development … Continue reading Why the two Americas diverged

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Are SpaceX and Tesla Hurtling Toward a Merger?

Colin Henderson

Summarize #tesla #spacex #musk There’s growing speculation that Elon Musk will combine his two biggest companies. By Sana Pashankar, Carmen Arroyo, Dana Hull, Kara Carlson, Liana Baker, and Jordan Fitzgerald July 6, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT Elon Musk and the Tesla fleet on the SpaceX Starship.Photo Illustration: Joel Arbaje/Bloomberg A decade ago, Elon Musk saw little reason for SpaceX and Tesla Inc. to merge, saying that the ties between the two companies were “really quite tenuous.” Fast forward to 2026 and the question seems to be when, rather than if, a combination will happen. Longtime SpaceX and Tesla investors … Continue reading Are SpaceX and Tesla Hurtling Toward a Merger?