Faseeh Mangi / Bloomberg:
A profile of Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib, who has used crypto diplomacy to help Pakistan win over President Trump  —  Pakistan's new role as mediator between the US and Iran followed a long courtship of World Liberty Financial, Trump's crypto venture.

Emily Mullin / Wired:
An interview with Galen Buckwalter, a BCI recipient in a Caltech brain implant study, on his recent ability to use the implant to produce musical tones  —  Galen Buckwalter says brain-computer interfaces will have to be enjoyable to use if the technology is going to be successful.

Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg:
Analysis: 50% of Asia's 10 most volatile stocks are recent AI IPOs, such as Chinese companies Moore Threads and MiniMax, driven by thin institutional ownership  —  Chinese artificial-intelligence firms have emerged as one of the most volatile pockets of Asia's equity markets …

OpenAI:
OpenAI says it is generating $2B in monthly revenue, with enterprise accounting for 40%+ of it, and is on track to reach parity with consumer by the end of 2026  —  Today, we closed our latest funding round with $122 billion in committed capital at a post money valuation of $852 billion.

Zeyi Yang / Wired:
A suspected Baidu system failure caused a number of robotaxis to stop across Wuhan, trapping passengers and reportedly causing traffic disruptions and crashes  —  A suspected system failure froze Baidu's robotaxis across Wuhan, trapping passengers and reportedly causing traffic disruptions and crashes.