- Below is the latest edition of w3w, my free newsletter about emerging technology, including AI, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more . If you would like to receive it in your inbox every Sunday, please subscribe here.
- I used several AI apps to assist production of this edition of w3w. Final edit 100% by me. For fuller detail, see the newsletter's commit history on GitHub.
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The bar is admittedly pretty high right now for shocking news stories about the Trump administration. So all is definitely forgiven if you missed a tech-related one that broke Thursday.
In a post to his Truth Social network, President Trump abruptly called for the resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Trump described Tan as "highly conflicted," but didn't offer any further details.
The president seemed to be referencing a dispute brewing over in the Senate, where Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton has raised questions about Tan's ties to Chinese tech firms.
If national security is the real rub here, though, we should keep in mind that Tan's early record as CEO of the grandaddy of Silicon Valley chipmakers contains some loud signals in Tan's favor.
In the Wall Street Journal's coverage of Trump's accusations, reporter Lauren Thomas described an episode shortly after Tan assumed Intel's top job in March. Citing people familiar with the matter, she reports:
Tan and Intel board chairman Frank Yeary disagreed about whether Intel should remain in the business of making chips for itself and its clients or exit manufacturing, the people said.
The segment that includes Intel’s chip factories, which last year supplied around a third of Intel’s revenue, has been a money loser. But some view it as politically important because it helps secure the U.S.’s semiconductor supply chain.
Yeary, a former investment banker, had drawn up a plan for Intel to exit from the foundry business entirely earlier this year when acting as interim executive chair. Yeary’s proposal involved spinning out the business and having other companies such as Nvidia and Amazon take stakes in it, the people said. Yeary also explored brokering a sale of the business to Taiwan’s TSMC, the people said, but that effort went nowhere.
Tan, on the other hand, has argued that Intel’s foundry business is integral to its success and needed to ensure the U.S. doesn’t become reliant on foreign semiconductor companies such as TSMC and Samsung, the people said. (While TSMC and Samsung have committed to building more plants in the U.S., critics say their research and development efforts are still centralized elsewhere.)
Call me nuts, but it strikes me that the guy arguing to keep chip plants in the U.S., precisely so that we don't become entirely reliant on overseas suppliers, might actually be on America's side.
It also might be a bad look for an administration that's always yammering about the importance of domestic manufacturing to persecute such a man.
Even worse to do so based on old information or vague suspicions or whatever else Trump happens to be ranting about on social media first thing in the morning.
Five Things: Aug. 3-9, 2025
The week's top headlines about emerging technologies and trends reshaping the web:
- OpenAI released GPT-5, a highly anticipated update to the language model that powers its popular ChatGPT app. CEO Sam Altman described the latest version as a "significant step along our path" to a creating more human-like artificial general intelligence. But OpenAI's promotion of GPT-5 has focused so far on its usability improvements, not computational breakthroughs. (Associated Press)
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its five-year-long case accusing Ripple Labs of offering an unregistered security through its XRP token. Previous court rulings in the case remain in place, including one levying a $125 million fine against Ripple. But the SEC will pursue no further penalties, and Ripple will drop its appeals. The case has long been closely watched throughout the crypto industry for potential precedents that might apply broadly to market participants. (Reuters)
- Ether's price hit $4,000 on Friday for the first time in 2025. The token's rally has been fueled in part by hopes for a boom in stablecoin issuance on the Ethereum blockchain now that the America has clarified its rules for that category. (Yahoo Finance)
- Coinbase said it will launch a decentralized exchange, allowing users to trade millions of additional digital assets directly with each other on-chain. The move comes as the company aims to position itself as an "everything exchange" and follows a decline in spot trading volumes and revenue for the second quarter. (The Block)
- An Ivy-covered milestone: According to regulatory filings, Harvard University's endowment owned $117 million worth of shares in BlackRock's exchange-traded bitcoin fund as of June 30. That narrowly surpassed Harvard's stock holdings in Google parent Alphabet, which stood at $114 million. (The Block)
Market Snapshot
A quick look at some major indicators as of Friday's market close on Wall Street:
| Indicator | Close | Weekly | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | $116,460.38 | +2.8% | +24.1% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 23,611.27 | +3.7% | +12.4% |
| Gold | $3,458.20/oz | +3.3% | +31.5% |
| USD Index | 98.26 | -0.4% | -9.4% |
| 10-yr U.S. Treasury Yield |
4.2850% | +0.0650 | -0.2880 |
Looking Ahead
- A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that AI company Anthropic's use of copyrighted books to train its chatbot Claude constitutes "fair use" under U.S. copyright law. But the company still faces trial over how it acquired those books. The case represents a high-profile test for creators who want to be compensated for their works' use in training AI models. (Associated Press)
- Cointelegraph’s Savannah Fortis recently spoke with two executives on her podcast about their work building corporate crypto treasuries. If you're looking for a good 20-minute overview of that trend, including examples of specific implementations, I would definitely recommend checking out the episode.
- Pollster Patrick Ruffini says Apple's upcoming iOS 26 update could significantly set back public opinion research in the U.S. by segregating texts from unknown senders. The change would make it harder for pollsters to reach voters with questions about their views on specific political issues and candidates, Ruffini says. (Washington Post)
Odds & Ends
- A spokesman for the group behind Green Dildo Coin, an obscure meme token, took credit for recent incidents in which sex toys were thrown onto the court during WNBA games. The group claims it's trying to attract publicity to raise awareness about protections (or lack thereof) for small crypto investors. Exactly WTF that issue has to do with the WNBA is unclear, however. (Reuters)
- A group of Native American teens completed what is believed to be the first full descent of the Pacific Coast's Klamath River. The U.S. government recently finished removing four decades-old dams from the waterway, which tribal elders regard as sacred. (Washington Post)
That's it for now. Thanks for reading the newsletter today! If you want to know more about w3w's history and (ahem) the author, that info is available here.
If you need to reach me directly, please email peter[at]w3w[dot]media.
Best wishes for a healthy and productive week ahead. 😊