Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 24 — and if your digital life hasn’t been hacked yet, congratulations on being someone no one cares to impersonate. In case you missed it, there’s been another glorious round of password leaks involving Google, Meta, and probably that one weird app you used once in 2016. Consider this your reminder to change your passwords, stop reusing your dog’s name, and avoid clicking links that promise “free gift cards” or “urgent documents.”

Meanwhile, NYC is serving full inferno. Sidewalks are lava, the subway is a sauna. May your AC be cold, your iced coffee colder, and your forehead shine be minimal.

Thanks for showing up — we see you, sweaty and secure. Let’s get into it.

Today’s stories:

• Streaming finally beats cable and broadcast combined

• Tesla’s robotaxis launch, with humans still watching

• Fed pauses again. Economy snoozes. Tariffs loom

• Telegram CEO to split billions among 100+ kids

• Meta launches AI sunglasses. Still not cool

• Two shots yearly now prevent HIV infection

• Apple eyes Perplexity to make Siri smarter

• Pan Am relaunches as $60K retro trip

• Musk’s xAI sets fire to cash

  and more…

Stocks rebounded Monday while oil prices slid, as investors exhaled on signs that Middle East tensions might not spiral further.

The Dow jumped 375 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P 500 snapped a three-day losing streak with a 1% gain. The Nasdaq also climbed nearly 1%. Oil, meanwhile, plunged — with Brent down 7% to $71.48 and WTI closing at $68.51 — as markets dialed down their worst-case scenarios.

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Apple Thinks About Buying Perplexity

Apple execs are holding “internal talks” about buying Perplexity AI, which is tech-world code for: no offer, no deal, just rich people pacing in expensive offices. They want the usual — talent, tech, a search engine that doesn’t scream 2012, and something to make Siri look less like a confused intern. A full buyout is on the table, but so is a partnership. So is doing nothing and waiting for ChatGPT to lap them again. Bloomberg says Apple’s had “several meetings” with Perplexity. But as always, the company is moving with the speed and decisiveness of a beige wall. They’re still deep in a billion-dollar deal with Google, making money off default search placements while quietly shopping around in case regulators cut the cord.

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The Fed is still waiting for something to happen. Jerome Powell is back on Capitol Hill this week to explain, again, why the Fed is still dragging its feet on rate cuts. Inflation ticked up slightly in May — just enough to be annoying, but not enough to panic. The Fed left rates unchanged last week and wants more time to “watch things,” especially the White House’s trade chaos and incoming tariffs. Economists expect the Fed’s preferred inflation measure to rise a baby 0.1% for the third month in a row — the calmest stretch since the COVID panic era. Tariffs could raise prices eventually, but for now, the economy looks sleepy and rates are stuck. Powell will talk. Congress will pretend to listen. Nothing major will happen until the Fed’s next meeting on July 30.

Telegram founder plans to leave $13.9B to over 100 kids. Pavel Durov, the billionaire behind Telegram, just revealed his inheritance plan: divide his $13.9 billion fortune among the more than 100 kids he’s fathered — most of them through sperm donations. He’s got six kids officially, but the clinic says over 100 babies happened across 12 countries. Durov says they’ll all get equal rights to the money — just not for 30 years. Until then, he wants them to “build themselves up,” like normal people. Normal people with a billionaire dad and a pending inheritance that could buy Luxembourg. Also, he’s facing criminal charges in France, but no biggie — just another day in the life of a self-exiled tech bro with a god complex and a fertility record that reads like a world tour.

xAI is burning $1 billion a month. Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI is reportedly setting fire to over $1 billion every month, with annual spending expected to hit $13 billion. That’s not a typo. That’s just what happens when your business model is vibes, hype, and GPU addiction. Despite barely staying ahead of its own expenses, xAI is deep in fundraising mode. It’s wrapping up a $4.3 billion equity round, lining up another $6.4 billion next year, and still pushing for $5 billion in debt — mostly to build data centers big enough to fuel the dream. Musk says xAI will change the world. Right now, it’s just changing investor bank balances and melting through cash like it’s performance art. Even with backing from top VCs, the company is, in Bloomberg’s words, “barely keeping pace.”

Two Shots a Year to Prevent HIV Just Got FDA Approval

The FDA just approved lenacapavir, a twice-a-year injection that stops HIV before it starts. Clinical trials showed near-total protection with only two shots a year. The drug, made by Gilead Sciences, was already used to treat HIV — now it’s cleared to prevent it. The CEO called it a “milestone,” and for once, the pharma PR machine might be right. Even Science named it “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2024, and they don’t hand that out for fun.

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Tesla’s robotaxis hit Austin. Tesla’s long-hyped robotaxis have officially launched in Austin — sort of. Ten cars, a handful of hand-picked fanboys, and a human “Safety Monitor” riding shotgun with one hand suspiciously near a mystery handle. The rides are invite-only and geo-fenced, running 6 a.m. to midnight. The cars aren’t actually driverless — they just look like it while a real person babysits from the passenger seat. Riders are mostly Tesla stans livestreaming the experience on X, while Waymos drive by in the background like it’s a quiet flex. Trips cost $4.20, you can press a “start ride” button, import your playlists, adjust the A/C, and pretend you're in the future while an actual human makes sure you don’t end up in a ditch.

Meta launches $399 AI glasses. Meta just dropped a new pair of AI-powered sunglasses called Oakley Meta HSTN — built for “athletes and fans alike,” which basically means sweaty influencers with Bluetooth. The $399 glasses record video, blast podcasts near your face, and let you whisper “Hey Meta” to ask questions like you’re talking to your eyewear therapist. In the promo, J.R. Smith plays golf while asking his glasses about wind speeds. The future is here and it’s... deeply uncool. This is Meta’s latest collab with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, following its Ray-Ban AI glasses no one really asked for. This time they’re banking on Kylian Mbappé and Patrick Mahomes to make face gadgets look cool. Good luck with that.

Pan Am Rises From the Dead

Pan Am is returning to the skies, but forget the crowded terminals and pretzels. This time, it’s a 12-day luxury nostalgia trip on a private jet (casue nothing says “golden age of air travel” like $60,000 for a retro-branded seat and some catered shrimp). Set to take off June 2025, this officially licensed reanimation of Pan Am’s ghost is all about vibes. A Boeing 757-200 with only 50 lie-flat seats will retrace the airline’s old Southern Route — New York to Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Ireland. There will be no economy class. There will be “buddy seats” for “socializing,” and there will definitely be branded glassware. It's not an airline comeback. It's a flying museum for people who miss the idea of Pan Am but prefer Wi-Fi and a welcome cocktail.

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Streaming finally crushes cable and broadcast combined. It finally happened. In May, streaming officially overtook cable and broadcast TV combined for total screen time. According to Nielsen, streaming grabbed 44.8% of TV usage, just edging past cable (24.1%) and broadcast (20.1%) which together hit 44.2%. YouTube and Netflix alone ate up 20% of all viewing, basically carrying the entire internet on their backs while traditional TV gasps for air somewhere between reruns and local news. Four years ago, streaming was just 26%. Now it’s king. Cable is toast. Broadcast is nostalgia. And your smart TV is basically a giant tablet.

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TikTok of the day: watch here

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