Meta is building a cloud business to sell access to its AI computing power and models, putting it head to head with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, per Bloomberg. Shares jumped as much as 11% on the report, and JPMorgan estimates a single gigawatt of cloud capacity could throw off $20 billion in annual revenue. For builders, that's another deep-pocketed vendor fighting for your compute spend, which tends to push prices down. (CNBC)

OpenAI is in talks to voluntarily hand the US government about 5% of its equity, worth roughly $42 billion at its ~$852 billion valuation, through a new "Public Wealth Fund" modeled on Alaska's oil-dividend fund, the FT reports. Altman has floated the idea to Trump, Treasury, and Commerce, and wants Google, Anthropic, xAI, and Meta to follow. If it holds, it could reset how the entire AI industry gets regulated. (Yahoo Finance)

US employers added only 57,000 jobs in June, well short of the 115,000 expected, and prior months were revised down by 74,000, per the BLS. Unemployment ticked down to 4.2%, but mostly because people left the workforce. The upside: a cooling labor market took a September rate hike off the table, and stock futures rose on the news. (CNBC)

TwelveLabs raised a $100 million Series B co-led by NEA and NAVER, with Amazon and Red Bull Ventures joining. Rather than generating video, its models index and reason over existing footage, up to two hours at a stretch, turning dormant archives into something you can actually search and query. Headcount tripled to 178 in a year as enterprises push video AI into production. (GlobeNewswire)

Kraken Robotics closed its ~$615 million acquisition of Covelya Group, rolling up subsea specialists Sonardyne, EIVA, and Chelsea Technologies into one dual-use underwater robotics company. Kraken raised full-year revenue guidance to $290–320 million on the deal. Physical AI and defense money keep flowing into the hard, unglamorous corners of robotics. (BNN Bloomberg)

Two hundred and fifty years ago this weekend, a handful of founders signed a document that bet everything on an idea. This July 4, Washington DC is marking the semiquincentennial with the largest birthday party in the country's history, and the numbers are genuinely staggering.

The centerpiece is a fireworks show built to break a world record: more than 850,000 pyrotechnic effects launched from 10 locations across the National Mall and West Potomac Park, including eight barges floating on the Potomac. Military flyovers run hourly from 1:15 p.m. until sunset, and the main show lights up at 10:30 p.m. for a full 40 minutes.

The party started early. The Great American State Fair has anchored the National Mall since June 25 and runs through July 11. Festivities kick off tonight (July 3) with "A Capitol Fourth: 250th Weekend Celebration" on the West Lawn of the US Capitol, broadcast live on PBS with Patti LaBelle, Kool & The Gang, and Chicago backed by the National Symphony Orchestra.

Hotel demand for the July 4 weekend is up 48% over last year, so if you're heading to DC, book fast and plan around crowds and road closures near the Mall. Can't make it to Washington? Nearly every major city, from Nashville to San Diego, is running its own 250th programming. Full DC schedule at dc250.us.

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