Morning Skim

AI

AI coding startup Cognition is in talks to raise at a $40 billion valuation

Devin maker Cognition is reportedly in early talks to raise at a $40 billion valuation, up from $26 billion just three months ago, on the back of a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate. Its customers include Mercedes-Benz, NASA, and Goldman Sachs.

Why it matters: It shows investors still racing to bankroll AI coding agents even as valuations balloon far ahead of revenue.

Dive deeper → TechCrunch

Amazon will train its AI on Twitch streamers' content unless they opt out

Amazon is automatically enrolling every Twitch creator into a program that uses their streams to train generative AI, requiring them to dig into channel settings to turn it off. Twitch's product chief said an opt-in version would draw no takers: 'If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in.'

Why it matters: It hands a platform's entire library of creator video to AI training by default, and the backlash shows how contested that consent has become.

Dive deeper → TechCrunch

Tech

737 malicious Chrome VPN extensions caught routing traffic through attacker proxies

Security firm Socket found 737 fake VPN and proxy extensions across more than 40 Chrome Web Store developer accounts, with about 75,500 installs, that funneled users' browsing through attacker-controlled SOCKS5 proxies. 274 of them impersonated 66 real brands like NordVPN and Proton VPN, and most were still live.

Why it matters: Anyone who installed one handed an attacker a full view of their browsing, and hundreds of the extensions remained in the store.

Dive deeper → The Hacker News

A maximum-severity SAP Commerce Cloud bug lets unauthenticated attackers run code

SAP patched CVE-2026-58231, a CVSS 10.0 flaw in Commerce Cloud's Data Hub Adapter that lets an unauthenticated attacker abuse a default authentication client and crafted input to execute arbitrary code. Researchers at Onapsis urged customers to deploy the fix or restrict access with an IP filter.

Why it matters: A no-login path to code execution on e-commerce infrastructure is about as bad as enterprise bugs get, even before any exploitation appears.

Dive deeper → The Hacker News

Business

Meta says it removed 756,000 Australian teen accounts as the under-16 ban bites

Meta says it took down 756,000 accounts believed to belong to Australians under 16, split as 462,000 on Instagram and 294,000 on Facebook, since the country's under-16 social media ban took effect in December. Australia recently doubled the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million, about $70 million.

Why it matters: It is the first hard number on how the world's toughest teen social media ban is playing out, even as most under-16s reportedly stayed online.

Dive deeper → Investing.com

IBM ties up with OpenAI to sell enterprise AI, and its stock ticks up

IBM will fold OpenAI models including GPT-5.6, Codex, and ChatGPT Work into its consulting platform and stand up a dedicated OpenAI practice staffed with thousands of certified consultants and engineers, joining OpenAI's top Elite partner tier. Shares rose about 1.4% premarket, with no financial terms disclosed.

Why it matters: It is another sign the big consultancies are racing to package OpenAI's models for cautious enterprise buyers.

Dive deeper → Investing.com

Science

Scientists turned 1,200 Starlink satellites into a scanner for the upper atmosphere

Kyoto University researchers applied medical-style tomography to about 1,200 Starlink satellites at 482 kilometers, using their orbital drag to map the density of the thermosphere, the layer holding over 99% of the upper atmosphere. They call it the first tomographic analysis of its kind, and it matched data from ESA's SWARM satellites.

Why it matters: Better maps of atmospheric density sharpen collision forecasts as low Earth orbit grows dangerously crowded.

Dive deeper → ScienceDaily

Ozempic-style drugs may work through a hidden 'craving center' in the brain

Researchers point to the lateral septum, a brain region rich in GLP-1 receptors, as a control point where drugs like Ozempic weaken the link between wanting a reward and chasing it. In mice, activating GLP-1 there cut both food and alcohol intake, echoing reduced drinking reported in human users.

Why it matters: It hints these blockbuster weight-loss drugs could become treatments for alcohol and other addictions.

Dive deeper → ScienceDaily

World

Japan calls Putin's first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands 'absolutely unacceptable'

Vladimir Putin made his first-ever trip to the Kuril Islands on August 13, touring a fish plant, hospital, and school on Iturup, one of four islands the Soviet Union seized in 1945 and Japan still claims. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit 'absolutely unacceptable' and said it offends the Japanese people.

Why it matters: It hardens an 80-year territorial dispute that has kept Tokyo and Moscow from ever signing a WWII peace treaty.

Dive deeper → Al Jazeera

England's driest July since 1836 forces farmers to rush the wheat harvest

Nearly three-quarters of English land is now in drought after the driest July since 1836, with some areas getting barely a tenth of normal rain, pushing farmers to bring in more than half the winter wheat before August. One grower reported a roughly 40% drop in yield across a third straight poor harvest.

Why it matters: It is the second straight drought year for a major food producer, a warning of how climate stress is squeezing harvests and food prices.

Dive deeper → Al Jazeera

Culture

Godflesh announce their final album, Decay

Industrial metal pioneers Godflesh will release their 10th and final album, Decay, on September 25 via Relapse Records, led by the single 'Living/Ending.' Founder Justin Broadrick said recovery from major abdominal surgery, a hernia he blames on 'year upon year of shouting in Godflesh,' made carrying on impossible.

Why it matters: It closes the book on one of the most influential acts in industrial music and metal.

Dive deeper → Consequence

Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train' joins Spotify's Billions Club

Ozzy Osbourne's 1980 solo debut single 'Crazy Train,' co-written with Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley, has passed 1 billion Spotify streams. The Blizzard of Ozz track later became the lounge-style theme for MTV's 'The Osbournes.'

Why it matters: It is a fresh streaming milestone for the song that defined Ozzy's solo career.