Good morning.

It’s Thursday, August 7 — everyone’s pretending it’s “vacation season,” but let’s be honest: you’re not in Mykonos, you’re still working from your couch.

At this point in the year, ambition is melting, plans are theoretical, and “maybe next week” is the official team motto.

Thanks for the love, the notes, the feedback — it fuels us more than cold brew and capitalism combined.

Now go. Read. Procrastinate with purpose.

Today’s stories:

• Gates Foundation pledges $2.5B to women’s health

• NASA plans tiny nuclear reactor for Moon base

• NYC’s Flatiron Building to get exterior lighting

• Apple posts best revenue growth since 2021

• India overtakes China in U.S. iPhone exports

• GPT-5 nears launch, still not world-ending

• Apple to spend $600B on U.S. production

• Female gorillas reunite with old friends

• U.S. tipping rates fall below 15%

  and more…

Stock futures held steady Wednesday night after Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100% tariff on imported semiconductors—unless companies are building in the U.S. Dow futures dipped 0.1% (–59 points), while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also slipped slightly.

The move came hours after Apple said it would pour another $100B into U.S. production and suppliers, on top of its $500B commitment from February. Apple shares surged 5% Wednesday, helping lift markets. The S&P 500 closed up 0.7%, the Nasdaq gained 1.2%, and the Dow edged higher by 81 points.

Trump emphasized companies that commit to U.S. manufacturing would be exempt: “There will be no charge,” he said from the Oval Office.

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Apple to Spend $100B Making iPhones 2% More American

Apple’s dropping another $100 billion on U.S. manufacturing — and President Trump is making sure you know about it. The White House says this new chunk of cash will go toward bringing more of Apple’s supply chain stateside, building critical components in America instead of overseas. This new spend pushes Apple’s total U.S. commitment to $600 billion, including projects in Houston and Michigan. Also known as: please don’t hit us with another tariff.

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Tim Cook reports: still rich, thanks for asking. Apple just dropped its quarterly earnings — and surprise, they’re still rich. Real rich. Revenue’s up 10%, the best it’s been since December 2021, thanks mostly to iPhone 16 sales (aka everyone panic-buying before tariffs kick in). iPhone sales jumped 13% to a casual $44.58B, while Mac sales actually grew the fastest — thanks to updated MacBook Airs, aka the laptop of choice for people who “totally work from cafes.” Services (like iCloud and the App Store) raked in $27.4B, also up 13%, because apparently we’re all still paying $0.99 a month to store screenshots of our exes.

India just outsold China on iPhones. India just leapfrogged China to become the top smartphone exporter to the U.S. — and it’s not even close. Thanks to Apple’s “we’d rather pay less in tariffs” strategy, nearly half (44%) of all smartphones shipped to the U.S. last quarter came from India. That’s up from just 13% a year ago. Casual 240% growth. No big deal. Meanwhile, China’s share plummeted from 61% to a sad 25%, dropping it to third place — behind Vietnam. 

Women’s health gets a $2.5B upgrade. The Gates Foundation just announced it’ll throw $2.5 billion at women’s health by 2030 — because apparently, someone finally noticed that half the population exists. From preeclampsia to menopause, these issues have been underfunded for, well, ever. Bill Gates called it what it is: ignored, sidelined, and wildly overdue for attention. This is one of the foundation’s first major moves since Gates said he’d give away his $200 billion fortune by 2045. So yeah, he’s getting a head start — and spending a third more than what the foundation put into women’s health over the last five years combined.

NASA to Build Tiny Nuclear Plant on the Moon

NASA wants to slap a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030. Because obviously, the Moon needs energy — and vibes. The plan is to build a teeny-tiny reactor that generates 100 kilowatts, just enough to keep a Moon fridge running and maybe toast some space bagels. It’s all part of the U.S. dream of setting up shop on the lunar surface before China or Russia pulls a “this is ours now” move. Problem is, NASA’s budget just got body-slammed, and some scientists are side-eyeing this whole thing as more of a geopolitical flex than a scientific necessity. Still, temporary NASA boss (and full-time hype man) Sean Duffy says the U.S. must “move quickly” to power future Moon bases, Mars colonies, and general galactic domination.

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Even gorillas don’t ghost their besties. Female mountain gorillas in Rwanda are out here serving peak girlhood — reuniting with old besties even after years apart. New research based on 20 years of data (yes, gorilla scientists are that patient) shows that when a female gorilla moves to a new group, she’ll actively seek out another female she used to vibe with. Even if it’s been literal years since they’ve seen each other. The researchers, trying not to get too emotional, said they can’t officially call it “friendship” (science ruins everything), but the bonds are clearly strong — like, text you after two years of silence and pick up right where we left off strong. So yes, gorillas have group chats too — they’re just silent, hairy, and mostly involve staring and grunting.

GPT-5 is coming. Your job might still be safe. OpenAI’s GPT-5 is almost here, and early testers say… it’s smart, but not that smart. The new model is supposed to be the next big thing after GPT-4 made ChatGPT a household name in 2022. But insiders say the upgrade feels more like a well-done sequel than a mind-blowing reboot. It’s good at coding, science, and math — but not kicking down any doors just yet. Turns out, scaling these models isn’t as easy as “just add more data.” OpenAI hit a wall: they’ve basically read the entire internet already, and there’s not much left to feed the beast. Even the company’s ex-chief scientist said last year, “Yeah, we’re kind of out of stuff.” (Not a direct quote, but close enough.) So yes, GPT-5 is coming. Just don’t expect it to rewrite reality… yet.

Former Zillow exec targets $1.3T market

The wealthiest companies tend to target the biggest markets. For example, NVIDIA skyrocketed nearly 200% higher in the last year with the $214B AI market’s tailwind.

That’s why investors are so excited about Pacaso.

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No wonder the same VCs behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay also invested in Pacaso. And for just $2.90/share, you can join them as an early-stage Pacaso investor today.

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Flatiron Building Finally Turns the Lights On

After 123 years of serving shadowy, soot-covered mystery, NYC’s iconic Flatiron Building is finally getting lit — literally. The city’s OG skyscraper is ditching the scaffolding and stepping into the spotlight with exterior lighting for the first time ever. When it reopens later this year as fancy luxury condos (because of course), the top five floors and restored lower levels will shine like a freshly Botoxed landmark. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the lighting design, courtesy of L’Observatoire International — a studio that clearly knows how to make old buildings look hot.

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Tipping drops below 15%. Tip fatigue is real — and your barista can feel it. According to Square, average tipping rates dropped below 15% in Q2 across restaurants, cafés, and bars. That’s right, 20% is no longer the gold standard. It's more like a nostalgic dream from 2021. People are tipping less, mostly because the economy feels like it’s one bad news cycle away from total collapse. Full-service restaurants got hit the hardest, while bars are still holding on — apparently booze equals better tips. Square analyzed nearly a billion transactions and confirmed what we all suspected: America’s tired, broke, and tired of being broke. Bad news for servers and bartenders, who are once again bearing the brunt of consumer vibes. Labor issues could resurface as workers take home less and restaurant owners brace for another round of staff shortages and “we’re hiring” signs taped to the register. At this rate, the only thing getting 20% is your anxiety level.

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