Uber for Academics: Mercor to $2B ARR in Under 3 Years | Vouchers for Compute à la Peak...

Original author：Doppelgänger Tech Talk Podcast

Original source：https://www.youtube.com/embed/RfnIk-AjFWs

Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees. Are the big AI labs handing out compute vouchers to startups to keep them away from Chinese open source models? Reinforcement learning marketplace Mercor hits 2 billion ARR in under three years. According to NYT calculations, the Trump coin cost small investors 3.8 billion, while the Trump family took out over 2 billion. Threads overtakes X at 500 million monthly active users. The BBC reveals that Instagram has allowed ads for CSAM material in India. XAI will be renamed SpaceX AI. SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell donates SpaceX shares to Trump accounts. A DeepMind developer ports Command & Conquer to the iPad via Claude Code in 40 minutes. Finally: AI use is driving a new record for German startups, with 20 new companies per day in the first half of the year. Support our podcast and discover the offers of our advertising partners at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠doppelgaenger.io/werbung⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (https://www.doppelgaenger.io/werbung/) . Thank you! Philipp Glöckler and Philipp Klöckner are talking today about: (00:00:00) Intro (00:06:58) Microsoft Xbox layoffs (00:08:14) AI giants give away compute (00:13:36) Tencent Hy3 (00:15:51) Mercor on 2 billion ARR (00:19:38) Trump coin: 3.8 billion loss (00:22:09) Threads overtaken (00:48:08) AI start-up record in Germany Shownotes Microsoft lays off 9,000 employees, especially at Xbox - theverge.com (https://www.theverge.com/news/961528/microsoft-layoffs-july-2026-sales-xbox) AI giants give away compute to startups - wsj.com (https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-giants-are-handing-out-tons-of-free-computing-power-to-grab-startup-share-c00a5c5c) Tencent Hy3 under Apache license, half the size of GLM 5.2 - venturebeat.com (https://venturebeat.com/ai/tencents-apache-licensed-hy3-takes-on-glm-5-2-at-half-the-size-and-wins-everywhere-except-coding) Mercor cracks 2 billion in sales after less than three years - theinformation.com (https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/exclusive-mercor-hit-2-billion-gross-annualized-revenue) Trump Coin: 3.8 billion loss among small investors - nytimes.com (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/us/politics/trump-coin-crypto-investors-loss.html) Threads overtaken by X 500M MAU - nytimes.com (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/technology/threads-meta-twitter-x.html) BBC: Instagram promotes child abuse material in India - bbc.com (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgm4e0316zo) WaPo: Musk's bromance with anonymous @xfreeze account - washingtonpost.com (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/05/13/elon-musk-engages-with-anonymous-x-acount-xfreeze-more-than-any-other/) XAI rebrands to SpaceX AI - businessinsider.com Gwynne Shotwell donates shares to Trump accounts iPad ported - the-decoder.com (https://the-decoder.com/claude-code-and-fable-5-ported-the-2003-pc-game-command-conquer-to-native-ios-in-a-few-hours/) AI drives German startups' founding record - zeit.de (https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2026-07/start-up-gruendungen-deutschland-rekord-ki-startup-verband-gxe) 📧 Subscribe now to the Doppelgänger newsletter at Doppelgaenger.io/news⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (https://doppelgaenger.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=EztfdHHF15) and receive the relevant news of the week every Monday 📧 👋 Latest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Advertising partner of the Doppelgänger Tech Talk Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (https://www.doppelgaenger.io/werbung/), our sheet and the disclaimer 👋