# Software Pricing Moves From Seats to Usage as AI Agents Reshape the Model - Weekly SaaS / Software Podcast Recap - Week of September 27, 2026 > A synthesis of what software and investing podcasts said about SaaS pricing, agentic AI, and cybersecurity for the week of September 20-27, 2026, framed around the question of who gets paid once AI agents do the work. Microsoft rebuilt Copilot around usage-based billing, Benioff listed six ways Salesforce will charge, and Oracle's force majeure notice put a spotlight on the debt behind the AI build-out. ## Weekly SaaS / Software Podcast Recap ### Week of September 27, 2026: Software Pricing Moves From Seats to Usage as AI Agents Reshape the Model --- On Tuesday, Marc Benioff sat down with Alex Heath and was asked about the "SaaSpocalypse", the six-month stretch when investors dumped software stocks on the theory that AI would make them obsolete. His answer was short: > "All the SaaSpocalypse nonsense. We just had the best second quarter that we've ever had." (Marc Benioff, [Sources with Alex Heath](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjxMzFIl-2B4gOOSh-2B-2BQAIEj2F0icG3bdfjy9J95dztYhvref0utBixWjCLd0WeOKNO-2BXYYt0gBxe7tVSIXaY0G3bBUk3JHqwVFJDRH0EMWaixw-3D-3Dezj-_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJxifyopL-2B693-2Fmj5yaJA-2BkLkO10j3XjZEDMX5QIMbPWv1sbCIZE9Z5QHBq8cQX6vseJzSmeKYOJ-2FnPFzmahLEOSnS2Bw4KBwz7bKMmII8cFVEre6X-2FrxI71GkztLlSbFAw-3D-3D)) Three days later, Microsoft rebuilt Copilot from scratch and started billing for part of it by usage. By then the two biggest AI labs had each cut their token prices by about half. And Oracle had quietly filed a legal notice that most people had never heard of, and that one guest called "the nuclear option." So the question on the podcasts this week was no longer "is software dead?" It was a more useful one: *who gets paid, and how, once AI agents do the work?* ## Top of mind - *The seat is breaking.* Microsoft, Salesforce, Stripe and a string of startup founders all described moving from charging per user to charging for what gets used. Nobody thinks the switch will be clean. - *Software is going "headless."* More and more work will begin inside Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot, which then call Salesforce or HubSpot in the background. The bull case is that the system of record survives. The bear case is that whoever owns the screen owns the customer. - *Cybersecurity has become the favorite software trade*, with the S&P cybersecurity index up 40%+ this year against about 11% for the S&P 500. Several guests think it has gone too far. - *Cheaper AI models are good news for software apps and bad news for the AI labs.* All-In argued that falling prices will push OpenAI and Anthropic into selling applications (cyber, legal, customer support), which puts them in direct competition with software companies. - *Coding is still where the money is.* "Coding is the mother lode," said Rory O'Driscoll on 20VC. Factory tripled its valuation to $5 billion. - *Oracle's "force majeure" notice* on a New Mexico data center put a spotlight on how much of the AI build-out is being paid for with borrowed money. --- ## 1. Dominant Themes ### Theme 1: Software pricing is moving from seats to meters For twenty years, most business software was sold "per seat": a fixed monthly fee for each person with a login. If AI agents do more of the work, companies need fewer logins, so a vendor that charges per seat can end up collecting less even while delivering more. The industry's answer is "consumption" or "usage-based" pricing, where you pay for the work the software actually does. It came up on nearly every software podcast this week. *Microsoft made the biggest move.* On Friday it launched a new Copilot app that combines chat, coding and always-on agents in one place. CNBC's Kate Rooney laid out the problem Microsoft is trying to fix: > "Right now, it's got about 450 million commercial Office 365 seats, but fewer than 7% of people are actually paying for that AI addition." ([Squawk on the Street](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiaM6RN6XwRrs2dQwoDfS5GeSJ2nEsIWR5PR-2FxNlpK-2FqLODw3qb8nzVb9eEc4F0IewrWMxjEfS-2BDlKRLpZttCs5Ds6juGP-2FHeT9QuPpWfYMzA-3D-3DaSwb_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJgg11ROpGOEbMQqUhos98wrsfZSvlKJkqXAQBy1QafCUoIRag6mgTw5DBR5abYsVWMIE26doEDxwscBY-2BuRmZitJpKDwQDv-2Fb9XZNARWHrZAEo2AQXOvZGk9hLvVkLZNw-3D-3D)) - The standard Copilot license still covers chat inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. The three new parts, *Cowork, Code and Autopilot*, are billed by usage, according to Microsoft's Jared Spataro as quoted on [Tech Brew Ride Home](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOj5stae-2F-2B3dBNFJ6wqRSHYHAZ4xfjO6TRJBh0HYhiKlUkNZvXiwhA0M-2F8d3P-2B9Z4qlDmDr0-2Bin3HzpGYOeq0hChRcIxQHJeyrGYnRn0Cf0cug-3D-3D1j0f_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ3ldCMV7u8fWiiYPJhGKsHLOg9KhAkhQ8xBCPwBN9pGtw9DBegA4c3hGaV2GJ4HFMAaV1T3jAlVwUhQWekHGmJU6Ykx9qisu-2BmATRQZEDJKgVTDeyfWzYIVSItTKU7eD4w-3D-3D). IT departments get a new "FinOps for AI" tool (a dashboard for tracking and capping AI spending) so agent costs don't run out of control. - Microsoft's EVP of Copilot, Jacob Andrea, said every Autopilot agent gets "its own identity, its own permissions, its own full audit," and shows up in the same admin console as employees. "You now don't just see people, you also see agents." *Marc Benioff said no single pricing model will win.* Asked whether outcome-based pricing actually works yet, he listed six ways Salesforce will charge: > "Named users is still a major aspect of our industry... So named users and also named agents... number three is usage... Number four might be consumption... Number five is going to be outcomes, transaction outcomes... And the final one is business outcomes. I saved you so much money. I want a percentage of that." His reasoning: "We're going to do more than $50 billion next year. We cannot be limited by one pricing model." ([Sources with Alex Heath](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjxMzFIl-2B4gOOSh-2B-2BQAIEj2F0icG3bdfjy9J95dztYhvref0utBixWjCLd0WeOKNO-2BXYYt0gBxe7tVSIXaY0G3bBUk3JHqwVFJDRH0EMWaixw-3D-3DDVop_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ7LG04CcjOxefauQReHJeh0EIr6LszvEU7Rq-2FNrzZITfs8smXHvc-2BWrfQfNrYG8pX7JgajCdjGVRWteGY2CqivpFr93P-2F0WxRWMyWXwIvOxHVTpWwZerHPKZnPEVkTxBTw-3D-3D)) *One startup founder tried both extremes, and each one failed.* Keith Peiris, CEO of the AI-native CRM Lightfield, explained on [Topline](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgA2-2F5A-2FG5iHJiTfoS6oEDWkQgWwVsIQDwtnF3srxIEnSNku-2B2xqdfDm8LgWTHEJToUxCSsVvGvzYefopkUvQElleKPiB-2B6iIEDfA9-2B0QFwUA-3D-3DO-sf_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ1D5l2tvRwMyafOZc2HAkRC102J8L9kIeVZXWMB3EFbQf6Mgaj1HtzOaxb2EDWl0-2BGaiEICiUNBmYkC55TeVnpZokUHdg-2FP3a9FqJZeoHkyQOJKV8JrhWUJt4YcEfBvGKA-3D-3D) what happened: - *Pure seats* were easy to get through procurement, but usage varied wildly. Some customers used 10% of the product and others used "100,000%". - *Pure consumption* scared customers off: "It's like going to a store where everything's really expensive... There's like a meter on every button that I pressed." - *Where he landed:* seats plus a platform fee for the core product (call recording, transcription, filling in fields). Usage pricing only for features with obvious payback, like pipeline generation. Then a third bucket he found most interesting: "most revenue leaders, CEOs, have an uncapped budget for business intelligence." Lightfield's average contract today is *$25–30k*. *Stripe's data points the same way.* Stripe's CRO of AI told the SaaStr audience that *2 in 3 companies on the Forbes AI 50 now use some form of usage-based pricing, up from under 50% last summer*, and most of them use a hybrid ([SaaStr 879](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiL0cWladTCLqQGv9xSoH4AwmtCDbZAV8qiTrl0CBFWxzY4tOvFgWJDN51V5hepTxLgim5VlEkgcaLF9ZMGz1na-2FmoaZ01E9XkJKKF7wmWm5Q-3D-3Dlw5K_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ0gqtFVQIBdiBNodgzrGmP8LZgCkIdN9mObU-2FmWY5Ysqoz5-2BODyva8-2B-2BZIoshiopImJ3jW5eRQNlwPbsI-2BS-2BXCwoxERSdZEtF6NsHnQXS9Gq-2BbAGa-2BbbZvtkt4O6sHnzDw-3D-3D)). Her example was Replit, which layered credits on top of flat subscriptions once AI coding took off and is "now targeting a $1 billion run rate." Her rules: - "Price in your customer's language. Developers think in tokens. Enterprises in seats." - Show customers what they're using before the bill arrives. Surprise invoices cause customers to leave. - "Sell credits, not cost." Two more Stripe numbers: AI companies reach *42 countries in year one and 120 by year three*, and *48% of revenue at top AI companies comes from outside their home market*, up from 33% three years ago. *Why the seat is breaking, in one example.* An insurance-software expert on [The Leadership in Insurance Podcast](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhaNJg5CZO6kULhV7dfjWzoKJfGx6AV9o-2BmwrmjgXKnoRuTlnavb-2Ba-2FcQCudbViKiFBZvylOWbdRvS4a0J7fno59khAYypvjnt1U1Lt91xTYw-3D-3D2o2j_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ1KDfMMn7u3OqG02iyQE-2Bll1O0c-2BfGiN3GTr45pmAHBNNHNaOdmbp1jSlx1njON-2BwMpplmu3coZFLr-2BRzC60MHNr-2Bp553evEQeCPsJke-2FCHZm2lryETY-2BNwS4x75GxcwqA-3D-3D) described it simply. A carrier has 50 underwriters using your software today. AI lets it cut to 35, "but the carrier still gets the same amount of value from the software." If you keep charging per seat, "you end up giving away the value that is being created as a discount." His prediction is pricing tied to outcomes, such as a fee per policy underwritten. ### Theme 2: "Headless" software and the fight over who owns the screen "Headless" means the software keeps its data and business rules but loses its own interface. People reach it through something else, usually an AI assistant. The standard plug that makes this possible is *MCP (Model Context Protocol)*, which lets assistants like Claude connect to other apps. Benioff says Salesforce has always worked this way: > "Salesforce has always been headless... All the apps are always decomposed into metadata... Now the metadata is just recomposed into Cowork or into Claude or into maybe ChatGPT." He also joked that nobody praised Salesforce when it launched its XML, SOAP or REST connections 20 years ago, "It's only that when we announced our MCP API or our CLI interface that all of a sudden everyone's like, oh, wow." Internally, he said, "our major operating unit leaders are running on Claudeforce." Other incumbents said much the same: - *HubSpot:* "Our posture on it is customer choice... we have an MCP with the big four LLMs... Claude, Copilot, Gemini." HubSpot also has its own built-in assistant, Breeze. (Angie O'Dowd, [THRIVE](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOi3PFlb7j8uX2Jf1pYAO6jJ5jIbn20kNflumsjYYVGW77bcUNUudur3Nb37qFxNFFy4-2BOLokLpNT8GKV5SF8EeJc7xHJ8EptMpGBy6jSPZG3w-3D-3DMrkQ_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ4CR8LyuQPxc6KpIFZCVdcWI5Z965Q-2BsEve26xBnpB4Yybw0OSnelqTTu9EIX4OYOVsRnzE0onWaGsrwwzE2s-2BdaoBPxP9cv-2FhwzWHXychLDodUiWTa3fnPAUJaoKVPTkg-3D-3D)) - *Toast:* VP of Product Maggie Crowley said the surprise was that *less* tech-savvy restaurant operators loved the AI assistant most, "because they didn't have to learn software." Asked whether Toast will open an MCP connection to Claude and how it would charge for one, she said: "I don't know that we have a perfect answer to that yet," and "that's probably as far as I can go on that before legal comes for me." ([The Product Podcast](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhZrtesx8EK7aa7yd7dqjh3GKil5K0kwllVN11spkS7YNUCB8eb4yOrTEPiOcW0gBNps3KrocJdJc-2BMcKOSuTiCmVp-2BmIBjoa6uP9SoJr7rRw-3D-3Dilfk_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ4k4XNR4maaBMIh0-2BIu-2BwLJkqieEvI1nPR4gVreq2aEAOnilasAQg6EdR9vuJ6KqzvIuLjIKKs9rQeMgt-2BvQO5iWGaATVR7AAxvKZtK-2B-2B0NV1EE9Rr7nTDvDaMCl5qYKzQ-3D-3D)) - *Informatica (now part of Salesforce):* On [Super Data Science](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjt9iPFTl94hHLyzJKCCMzsGWluzbr25y4nnoQI8Hb-2BObBJ5eREUbQLWbpjO3R-2Bcqz-2ByIM-2BlCW-2FgIbsdYxgBx3AvCppmGB-2BsZQKVCqIIIATWg-3D-3D0Flj_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ182lJmXWySEgknWMWOw8o-2BDycFzeIESN43YyogScZ7RJNxavD8cbP5NnUbobsuOMci5IR0xYFwuB-2F7Tm9zXPfcg0ARJt3YN6BaXM0B8PkUnMG4jt5LTkdseIyyrQNe4zg-3D-3D), an Informatica executive said *context accounts for 95% of how well an agent performs and raw intelligence only 5%*. Its Claire AI engine now writes *200 data-quality rules a day, versus 3–4 a week before*. The bear case came from Drew Cohen on [Chit Chat Stocks](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiXpC4E4iYg3Y8NskaFiRErEuE3jqcsIoFhe-2BbzdYV2xSrb2Hn937UWq-2B6oSGSZDL-2FHd8nPKQZStEP9Xz7pE0nQN7caGBgFPFFCeC-2BddKh4-2BQ-3D-3DW8oL_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJyQQl-2F71gDI-2FDm8eq2zvvQdhO0iHg46YlVA3iHtrVwaWHHq93oqkM9qz9DdzeqEHEm41khkdMH2HC86dhI45m-2B-2BHPUMYEsBTtTrtxa7k2JWjjr7DJ5vX1Wm3Iy2AGTYv7w-3D-3D). Over time, "more and more data maybe gets stored in the AI model. And it doesn't actually need to recruit out Salesforce." A lab like Anthropic "could say, hey, we're going to build out our own CRM, too." Meanwhile, "Salesforce is now not in a good position to launch any new features because it's kind of just this API." His own overall verdict is still that the risk is slow and small (more on that under Debates). ### Theme 3: Cybersecurity is software's favorite trade Almost every market show covered security stocks this week. The reason: widely reported "rogue agent" incidents (including an OpenAI agent that got into an Australian government website) have convinced investors that AI opens up whole new ways to be attacked. - *Tiernan Ray* (The Technology Letter) on [Schwab Network](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOi3VQn-2BWlVmQjButc-2FAj1aUVIQNZ2R-2Btjw8DLqUbXI9SNM8FIS675O2mcfJrl8zOcS1aI1lPS0g896jeYpudVRet00enIUrQ1PBQCTd6TM04w-3D-3DC1z2_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJyEacv5voTpg1UoH2DwnYngviWQ4sA9oyzWQPm4zl7hABoFFjcw5Wc8L-2Fmo1gAsy63S7aYBfdHAMstKM8uRBh3CnCegQg7kunwqejxSJoQO6Vk3d8renw1PgJaaPQYflUg-3D-3D): "Every CIO at a company who's being pressured to implement AI has now put cybersecurity at the top of their list of spending." He added that in "a field of software that has been moribund for years," Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, Okta and Zscaler "stand out for that kind of certitude." - *Josh Brown* on the [Halftime Report](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiROnUV9trRmTqIRc-2BIHeF72PK15xzRjtZcWhZLjPpre3Kj8u2sNsViHvxxkjQfHxDrgREu6kQjqfR3JbcjbIFy6A7qfL9NfQmHQwmRDT1MmQ-3D-3DGyVU_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJy7XQr9PyyCwmAaoqIbcdOe9Q18cVnBLra2q1GTCqKxGLqDlK48dRRWJ3Xa2FR476Ozc3TKpPcreUht5XJcReqyIB2rBP4BZfuYGGdqvD3HkYBhzznjrCPQxwSECAnbzvg-3D-3D): the group "has built a new fan base in the stock market because people now understand the AI thing is not going away... this is a new threat surface." - *Okta CEO Todd McKinnon* on [Squawk on the Street](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjK-2FHT430fTAGUmZtEQiCaNo2g75MiMpnQUzNO86igfJCenF2PnaHDLXb-2BqUfWov9WZ7PxzyYhMGv5QwmLk3RXSzJs0lQVqlU4ku8Hn75tE3Q-3D-3DLPVz_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJyMDwT-2FztW7aVqRp2z0YnwdmJ2BtnyPWwYY8VS1HqwoVzjaQYzxpDcP8yXq0ubPaXmt3YpT9pGUoPIfAN-2FFWxRgkr-2BM3RELfGklof8oSjFKHudi32We8mELD5dFv-2FXYyMg-3D-3D) put the security market at *about $220 billion a year* and said identity management (making sure the right person, or agent, gets into the right system) will be its biggest category. He also said securing AI agents "might be a bigger business than all of identity management." - *Shardul Shah* of Index Ventures, the early Wiz investor who saw it through its $32 billion sale to Google, noted on [Equity](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjmgvJ1-2BaxsuFxPXiqle-2Bk2FiE1G9Wmnl4RyGaWpYvEvRBxWh-2Bzurv-2BNPxuQ8TEk6-2Fuk7LJuVRFSE9YcvXjD5E83WJQXx3LHvMP8CpWqPXKLQ-3D-3DMqmN_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ08TvCyXqXXPTPbXTetcKwjzBOyXN0eK-2F-2BVlRReJIL-2FXJykINW-2BKmqCOcuNj4yR4gMHIg4-2B3cBtyI7pnNLFhiod7qKuNzvsTf1kjJPoeC1VJ4L1bjp5yU9iwhRNXG2ji1g-3D-3D) that public cyber companies now add up to "close to a trillion dollars of valuation." His view is that AI is "a new category of security," not just another cycle. The skeptics are covered under Debates below. They have a real case. ### Theme 4: AI is getting cheaper fast, and that changes who makes money In one week, Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 and OpenAI released GPT-6 Sol and Luna, both at sharply lower prices. On [Practical News](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgz-2FeecWjZGjL6KPKUFN4a52lDFMGtb3oTWG4wMBoTwDAX0DNQE7qPCw2wnap8b-2Fm7HiH6lo5T0J3O9wI1LyCAUpkLHGQ2Q2mtAGOhGtJjWIw-3D-3DUHpO_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ2vgNA5pZ5L4T9TCAGML8InGgtJlW9T-2Bgy2w2t0MXHFK63aPmwxO2Ey2pURcHk-2Bl25Adgr54FRmwd-2BrqYTOwEm-2F2hxGMkiWSob5IQt2SLXpojpK8GQm8uPMH0PnmBEDIlg-3D-3D), OpenAI's new models were described as 50% cheaper on the API, released about 90 minutes after Anthropic announced Opus 5.5 with a 40% cost cut. Meanwhile, free "open-weight" models (models anyone can download and run on their own machines) are closing the gap. On [All-In](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhbMgf7s6U3nio1uemwrRjodFuSZDqWfZgdLfC1jOAvzguHsouJeEswSHcmX-2BngF0VSgK1fxQFurkWOgdd8q48wmk1mpdXsBr10aUSdFDLIKA-3D-3DXlqU_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ9H0DgkDXtl-2Farz5RFTSixo1qgk-2B70SZCn-2FyGzmff2UfkEKW2XBHd8Ge3194MHXXFptQiH-2BHs1d1AAbchv-2FdhAZ5oS02uihYX9HC029wb3-2FSuLWpCjImgIww30Grnkla0A-3D-3D), Chamath Palihapitiya explained why this matters for software: > "These models are converging and clustering, which is to say that they're now within margin of error... There's still edge. And the edge is in the harness that you use to wrap the model." (A "harness" is the software wrapped around a model that lets it take actions: tools, memory, permissions.) His conclusion: "It'll force OpenAI and Ant to go up the stack, there is no choice... they will have to go and do cyber, they'll have to go and do law, they'll have to go and do customer support." In other words, the AI labs may soon compete directly with the software companies that are currently their customers. Two more signals: - *AT&T has moved 40% of its AI workloads to open-weight models and is aiming for 70%*, according to a guest on [The Enterprise AI Show](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjgMqr0j8-2BZWspDH-2FZqTKZSr3-2BSUOBuD8KIvax4scH039KOzj8SAMW2kwsiTB5b4YfyHCVhyxchRmy1Rz-2BeKQrIRQWWRdfTANrP3MtAhU2law-3D-3D8-pd_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ6gdgRq8KRfJWhP-2B5kO9cZ12I5QGV6y3Sb9-2FdUaBAovjb6MK83H1pF9GaK2p8hB3FerIYyIGTK99FKVPjduyVxj3dkG0-2FNdd6gslwrB-2BZwe2bFYL6uOH28c549JSWEYjvA-3D-3D). The point, he said, is not 100%: keep the expensive frontier models for the hardest work, and stop "summarizing a document" with them. - On [20VC](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiBE7YgbrZzuoWlbXpphJdgZzmz84OQfWqZlprYNHnXCrUcSBOo9YAu94Vne6nEkay-2B17QnxL69jK-2FiuJ8pTq7prf96kE8-2B0-2F0T1nk927Z0DA-3D-3Do-gY_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ3YK-2BK0VIKvnD-2FjJjmoNMTKF34-2BVgD8L8r6JxdGYOKqsLimVWf2X0dTqqpEiEkZVZ3BcpzfqypXzbTFUK60jen01qrNEFj6-2FBlHb92IBxoSd6ZyNNpuxgPHyGrkdAdKVzQ-3D-3D), Rory O'Driscoll did the math on Jev, a new fast, cheap "system one" model. Roughly *$100 billion* a year goes to AI model calls today. He thinks about 20% of that is simple work that doesn't need an expensive model. At one-fifth the price, that $20 billion shrinks to about $4 billion, "a little maiming of 10, 20% of their revenue" for the big labs. ### Theme 5: Coding is the mother lode, and "vibe coding" has limits > "Coding is the mother lode. Coding, it's everything, right? It's 10X everything else in terms of value being created from AI today." (Rory O'Driscoll, [20VC](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiBE7YgbrZzuoWlbXpphJdgZzmz84OQfWqZlprYNHnXCrUcSBOo9YAu94Vne6nEkay-2B17QnxL69jK-2FiuJ8pTq7prf96kE8-2B0-2F0T1nk927Z0DA-3D-3DPhTa_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ-2FOLzIdyBdNvn2H8BJT1Gxqaqsb3S-2B8KhV6dzhEuXxpcHzG-2B-2BPYoclsCBpx0xkIwDSg4IysoistVqUZMRsHXAN-2FNMx-2FMB0b5YC-2FGMB-2F2fGVX00oKaj95B9LN1KCFXknzsg-3D-3D)) O'Driscoll's argument is that big companies will want to buy their coding tools from someone who *isn't* also selling them the model, because of worries over data and model training. With Cursor "swooped off the table," he said, that leaves Factory and Cognition as the main vendors pitching big enterprises on becoming "a software factory." Jason Lemkin backed Factory at its new *$5 billion* valuation. The more practical takes came from operators: - *UiPath CEO Daniel Dines* ([20VC](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiv-2BqdQXO1fvgrF9boNrzkr2yMCGEuJpoFDcCiVZI0XfxSAgAd-2Ff6halucLOk8Ny1pOkhiJHbM139oQPwkrw03yy8xop7VpydBRI-2Bdsz1rsNA-3D-3DxKlv_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJybgk5wpZsn-2F8arHtnS22PFhTOlcO6k0zdeqT0m0hPgfhIxDsFMXJCSgzNyW7qVPWyVmeTr1bCuejkUUdzcvXChsPSEdgOYO6bPjVMFJv-2BMgphDjhIkBMe2qMq4e2lCEsw-3D-3D)) sees an imbalance. "Deploying AI agents is not getting easier today than it was two years ago... But deploying automation has become much easier. Because I can create these automations with AI." He calls coding agents the biggest leap "since the invention of ChatGPT." The pattern he sees in enterprises is AI writing ordinary software that behaves the same way every time and can be audited, rather than AI making live decisions. UiPath has about 4,000 employees and more than 1,000 engineers. - *Zapier CFO Ryan Roccon* ([CFO Thought Leader](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOj70QKzwK-2FKmySYN0-2BpMC60FqqCvLTHETkgN6eRfAgvENQdpNemGnfX6jMhqs0efEGdxorPwlO46pNWuE60Y-2F6e64AprxCMjAIqlDyjUfkhlg-3D-3Dx26j_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ8kAHT0GLncDdILPNaz2lFX1k6WFN6FemvkxVjV365MTmtox3yb8c3Zf2Ef1YZluzStiEeNLRGJWDGMD7NBlTWapOMOhTOyckV6Z4w2Hi2QCLJZO-2FJACeFUu24kEzvr-2Bng-3D-3D)) said Zapier audited the agents its users had built and found *about 9 out of 10 were running fixed, rules-based code*, with only a small part needing real judgment. Rebuilding them that way cut costs by about 75%. - *HubSpot's Angie O'Dowd:* vibe coding (building software by describing it to an AI in plain language) has "a time and a place," but you should not "vibe code your CRM" or anything that touches money. She added that vibe-coding platforms are themselves HubSpot customers. ### Theme 6: Oracle's force majeure notice and the debt behind AI "Force majeure" is a contract clause that excuses a party from its obligations when something outside its control gets in the way, such as a pandemic or a natural disaster. This week Oracle sent one to Blue Owl, the developer of *Project Jupiter*, a data center in New Mexico tied to the OpenAI/SoftBank Stargate project. The goal, as described on several podcasts, was to put off rent payments if the site doesn't come online on schedule in 2028. The trouble appears to be power supply and local opposition. - Emily, a former energy project-finance professional, on [Motley Fool Hidden Gems](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgFdxyroU5HPxB2f8aIIzIf-2B7ZtL1pnCM4RDKPTEKtdSQs7rps30N9lHtqR-2BQODjr0zM-2FZKdGl7Z-2Bs41S4GEkzKuI92RKg8lI3SJyoGGb6HZQ-3D-3D1cDl_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ9v-2BWkym-2Bnvn-2BM1XaMG0Rao4g0NTxczFgarBSxo9QokzEqKIKV-2BGosC88fqLjzJJqXV2bPXnlpL-2FE4fqeCfmz8vKu6WJzEBRCD7jbXnrJM46UnyC-2BCGL0DohdzP9eAT6Ig-3D-3D): force majeure is "kind of considered like the nuclear option... I don't think you invoke force majeure if nothing is going on behind the scenes." Host Travis pulled up Oracle's balance sheet: *about $37 billion of cash against about $125 billion of debt* as of the August 2026 quarter, and "the cost of that debt has exploded." - *Steve Eisman* ([The Real Eisman Playbook](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiSPtXIaHZK58nJuX01MO2-2BRv-2Fp1FkqVEfcNj59SgTCAFTpAczKpn0qwJh0Vo8l9LbNEX2gtWowtW-2BLIlHes0O-2Fvjizu7hur9rG1p4nLidFCg-3D-3DtONd_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJxhe-2F0EDidA3iiZoPHlC1POwzX5orEhOIE1O7O-2BBpXA9pL3j8hn4Q85dv1-2F37LUM7FCFeI1WqJu8-2BkRpcmBOJT-2BfSlQU-2BnYBR8FHdcfC4048mJCH6GGbDigcasNjwEk14Q-3D-3D)) pointed to S&P's downgrade of Oracle to *BBB-, "only one level above junk,"* and said the Jupiter debt "was already trading at stress levels at around 90 cents on the dollar." His read: "Oracle is becoming increasingly nervous about its lack of cash flow, its high debt levels, and its weak credit ratings." - On [Squawk on the Street](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOh6AWMuIREi3a98WSp09rLbB7BHjriCdIZRqHpSYcJ4h2Nu-2B0-2Be8pa01wrt4OBd9xmRj3OVMOC04bdXqarJSywFXB5m2u1sAWCZWp6ZOAtQRg-3D-3Dyxne_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ-2FXeohKxn4mTZNzDEIZs5xHYalEJ-2BLESQrjpUka2oFFNG8UfaDwmDF-2BDVvDbBRVEXl09-2B-2F-2FTvY6aX4iFn1BR7HCl4jUcIy-2BT9KP6Sn0-2FOWwFa2Xt45hRpxyYApcG4HBP0Q-3D-3D), the panel noted that Oracle's revenue is supposed to double over two fiscal years, "$60 billion, $70 billion in incremental revenue... only if these projects happen." Blue Owl reportedly told its lenders they would be repaid either way, which leaves Oracle holding the risk. ## 2. Key Debates ### "Is software dead?": Incumbents survive vs. slow disintermediation *Side A: No, and the evidence says so.* Drew Cohen's case on [Chit Chat Stocks](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiXpC4E4iYg3Y8NskaFiRErEuE3jqcsIoFhe-2BbzdYV2xSrb2Hn937UWq-2B6oSGSZDL-2FHd8nPKQZStEP9Xz7pE0nQN7caGBgFPFFCeC-2BddKh4-2BQ-3D-3DYQpM_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ1nPir670S-2FjS6v2q1G7Ab3hxhJjMeMaISsrjMG7tkld1l1jBgABlXbAI6oUdUngsBZEgj7hcJxfSb01W-2FT9GjULplfJ76zYtNpLiGECsRtbzP25SnaUXjWfBvo1dxWYWg-3D-3D) is the clearest version: > "If you're an enterprise, for instance, and you're on Salesforce or ServiceNow, I don't think there's any risk, literally no risk... that an existing company is going to say we're going to replace our Salesforce by vibe coding our own version." - The math doesn't work. Building in-house means paying a permanent internal team for bug fixes, security patches and new features. "How can it possibly be the case that an internal team of 10 people... is able to more efficiently create software and maintain it in-house than a company specializing just in that?" - His real-world example: Starbucks, which reportedly spends about $400 million a year on software, tried building its own inventory system, "and it ultimately didn't end up working." - A co-host added a historical point: it took Amazon 17 years to move its own systems off Oracle, even while it was selling a competing database. - Benioff piled on. Slack is "up and to the right in a way that we haven't really seen," and General Motors "just moved from Teams on to Slack." *Side B: The risk is real, just slow, and it starts at the bottom of the market.* Cohen himself names where he thinks the damage will show up first: "most at risk is consumer software apps. And then second to that, it's going to be very niche, like vertical specific kind of apps." Among larger names, he singles out *Atlassian*, because "the way people are going to be doing work is going to change a lot," moving toward "chat boxes with AI in them." - For small businesses, he expects young, AI-native owners won't pay for "something I know I could prompt Claude to do... in an hour." - A small data point from the field: Steven Pope of My Amazon Guy said his team is *canceling Gong* after two years, despite closing about *$1.7 million in monthly recurring revenue* with it, because it "no longer justifies its cost" ([My Amazon Guy](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjsIMIXMvRM3JNwzqmfSJZuuu3ZQVO804taDXgOK-2BjV7ZgAQsfU1M9UgH2IONMV95jpw8qZgh-2BxdXw7GKlBZQgNdfGxkDSibTbGYCrBybG59w-3D-3DXNFW_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ6DSWp-2F3USezMq97SrBa9iuocLARcmzOM5UxMNT-2Fc-2BpRspcBYhPQkQBbROlP2CmuumZ-2ByI-2FpYsLU-2F94PAjJzca8IO-2Fm2Q1w9ZGkIp4CxAPZarQEu7sQAM8y5KEUKqlDn6g-3D-3D)). *The dividing line:* do companies still run the work *inside* the vendor's software, or does an AI assistant do it by calling the vendor's API in the background? If the second, the vendor keeps the data but loses pricing power and its ability to sell new features. ### Seats vs. meters: Hybrid pricing works vs. meters create new risk *Side A: Hybrid pricing is the answer.* Stripe's numbers (2 in 3 of the Forbes AI 50), Replit's growth, and Lightfield's seats-plus-usage model all point to a workable middle ground. *Side B: The meter moves the risk onto the buyer.* Dave Sobel's [Business of Tech](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiGOQ2e3cSBeLBgiQLyLDlipR2Wl4Jbsmw5CpzMAv62oy8R8ZLZkrcT-2B675BfnGL-2FhRJDSM-2FAeDG04uaXNEu0aXREhgcZ6YBqj7wy1YjTKlHw-3D-3DUPfb_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJy4UwxQb60LyDMRIOtI-2BRlNXr8fW51-2Fmc0zkjUkSU43ZhJCCgBRXA4TGtHP34KPU13rvjlWPxtwFSIkXX2CN2RGmt4rDURlgsP5SUxgZjVGnods6wGfMd9SKn2ThKu4s9Q-3D-3D) episode made the sharpest counterpoint: - Citing BambooHR research (which he flagged as coming from a vendor), *42% of desk workers' AI time goes to fixing errors and rewriting prompts*, against 35% on productive work. That's roughly 20 working days a year per person. - "Under a seat license, all of that is free... Under consumption pricing, every one of those is billable. The unit of payment stops being the person and becomes the attempt." - Citing Accenture (also flagged as having a stake in the answer): *only $1 in every $5 of enterprise AI token spending shows up as a measurable financial result.* - Gartner projects consumption pricing will make up more than 35% of new legal-tech spending by 2028. *The dividing line:* usage pricing captures value when the AI works on the first try. When it takes four tries, the customer pays for all four, and that could push buyers back toward fixed prices or cheaper models. ### Cybersecurity: A spending priority vs. a crowded trade *Side A: Budgets are moving there, and the winners are clear.* This is Tiernan Ray and Josh Brown (see Theme 3). Brown called CrowdStrike "the best stock in the market," with "a classic stair-step pattern." *Side B: Priced for a payoff that hasn't shown up yet.* - *Anita Ramaswamy* (The Information) on [Marketplace Tech](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhnEaVfnFY3LvTCFJmbvK60a4pEL3t-2BVs0sZAqX8fqgN-2F9P8eNIZfzm5n50iKxltSYMCbrnFw8HKTajaUcyiVoBZDO-2FPDZ1Ej-2B-2FS6fa9g3gnw-3D-3DVmNz_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ35a7OFD72OYZBh2rvoSF7dzKN988xFsUtmW0w1t6Zd3RLUc0S1MKQzcV4TyEbjEisU1twfF2f0MC2dPGxeglDDgZx4EC1Ynzh5-2F9Xw0p0wZVkJaLPG3Y9-2BCMG4luPk9iw-3D-3D): investors are "piling and pouring money into these cybersecurity firms, often indiscriminately." Her example: Okta "is growing at around the same rate as... Salesforce. And yet Okta trades at a significantly higher valuation multiple." She also warned that "incident response and endpoint security" are already "being threatened by Anthropic and OpenAI's products." - *Chip Stock Investor* ([podcast](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgD6exKGYxKoyxsbt4udu3YOycaqDVa-2FmyK4PR1ozuWLXsWMz2lEo-2BR1hHLDjSDkRkMRGxzkbl-2B45-2BqbXtI2Gzhq-2BMDGoqKNrihGqjW2jp9Xg-3D-3DA8nh_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ8EcvVJlYwnTH5AiEb7BBvbs0UtpWVNxbClANWkSELs2MNW7GG9En72sAVSfbsYL5Tb4f18JLL6b9DWOxUsa5R4XOWJhjkcdf1Ffft2UaJ01HtfL7ls6FObiz1ut1SNPlQ-3D-3D)) *trimmed both Palo Alto and CrowdStrike*: "Valuations just look very high, very stretched. But it's not off the watch list." - *IBD's Ed Carson* ([Stock Market Today](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjiIRIaobNSezT4VcD-2FWYHnDkh5h00EXR1bmkWGr2fyvFl272CTIXt6IQdn14c7gTnrcCcKLYKE1rJIWoefZsxoEN5lMFTjr8higWIYYrWosg-3D-3Dm2XK_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJz0S5stP9Lj68xVpFK10X5spFjx4Jke0tM6VZlSg6C9hkwj1CKH9yBJNqFfW4Pf1ZOeQ50qXSFpQu42C20BiMluBdVQ736no46v5HARQXuplQvIX5nZWiC14wQw0ezQB1w-3D-3D)) on Palo Alto: "I am a little worried about the fundamentals. It's not the most amazing growth... the AI tailwind... We just haven't really seen it yet, but people are anticipating it." - Even Okta's CEO pushed back on the hype: "The scarier people make it sound, the more people want to buy security products... maybe dial back the cataclysmic headlines a bit." *A second fight within the first: platforms vs. point products.* Chip Stock Investor argues that "platform companies" selling many products (CrowdStrike's Falcon Flex, Palo Alto's "platformization," Fortinet) can offer discounts to win more modules and still grow. "Smaller point solution companies," naming Okta, Rubrik and Tenable, "are at a major disadvantage." McKinnon's reply, in effect, is that identity is becoming the platform. ### Anthropic: A premium product vs. a concentration problem *Side A: The best models will earn premium prices.* David Friedberg on [All-In](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhbMgf7s6U3nio1uemwrRjodFuSZDqWfZgdLfC1jOAvzguHsouJeEswSHcmX-2BngF0VSgK1fxQFurkWOgdd8q48wmk1mpdXsBr10aUSdFDLIKA-3D-3DdJlW_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ9frFeVaMt34Wq9wq0ERrkekxPbm3t5Zel8-2F7f0R7D2B0kecWnwvTibYBEkithMbB367ceFFcoujfr-2BEXH2KlW080hQBUpq6EIZDof05UR5E05QRavfPrz-2FAl0YaTaq12A-3D-3D): "Anthropic puts out the best models for life sciences today... They're better than other models." For "extremely high value, technical, engineering, math, life sciences" work, "you're going to pay a huge premium." *Side B: The rest of the market is heading to cheaper models.* Friedberg, again: "When it comes to writing code... we can use other products to write that code for us. And we do... I don't know why you would go to a higher-end model to write code when you can do it for free." Chamath highlighted "massive revenue concentration, which is a few folks consume all of the highest and most expensive tokens." Those big spenders will face pressure from their own finance teams to trade down. *The IPO sub-debate.* Anthropic pushed its roughly *$2 trillion* IPO from October to November. - Rory O'Driscoll on [20VC](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOiBE7YgbrZzuoWlbXpphJdgZzmz84OQfWqZlprYNHnXCrUcSBOo9YAu94Vne6nEkay-2B17QnxL69jK-2FiuJ8pTq7prf96kE8-2B0-2F0T1nk927Z0DA-3D-3Dh4tP_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJxtWxo-2BBCHKlMAVb98KX23oste6ZUKTgYljIMgfvwexuoo3N04TdXx1KdqflxwqYY1IGqglo-2FCrBOQ6CZf0fBxOxEZH-2BJgdDkOf3iaRH-2BDUh9UpaST9CNaEAyotI1r8EXg-3D-3D) sees it as bankers wanting a clean quarter: "They had an amazing Q2. They finally became bigger than OpenAI... Go out in November where it's clean." - Jason Calacanis noted that Polymarket odds of a 2026 Anthropic IPO fell from 96% to 76%. David Sacks said the founders own only about 2% each, and that investors are debating whether to give them super-voting shares (shares with extra votes that let founders keep control). - Chamath's price call: "Even if you think that they're on $100 billion run rate, what would otherwise in a very clean sheet IPO maybe would have been a $2 trillion market cap. Now, you know, you're at one or less." He was also candid about competing for talent: "I've tried to recruit against Ant. I can't... I have not won a single bake-off." ### Oracle: A contract technicality vs. a canary in the coal mine *Side A: A sensible legal move.* Jon Quast on [Motley Fool Hidden Gems](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhxMjO8AIU0RK45qtRKMFkxHAUY9RU2mzX1mu9ZIcaohUY9OhndlEaast7C-2FCrNx-2FPNC1oSVUfSOszEAUe4QMNm-2BnLm8BrB6EcUd6VKoCtLGw-3D-3DAC1p_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJxwy3f37yDe1IY7UkkG3DZYnwmmJiLgD4PrEOQSHbifmKyIGF4fg4q9vl0euaIIGroB2PzlM4Q6YxL9aHwU6Yhrxi7qjysFKecU0U5qTfqz4RJ6oxeBoL60CoCJlwmWphw-3D-3D): "It makes total sense to me that Oracle would make this move." Oracle just doesn't want to be "making payments before it is generating revenue." That "doesn't necessarily mean that the project is doomed." Lou Whiteman added that seeing how the clause plays out would at least settle long-running questions about who is liable when data centers get delayed. *Side B: A warning sign.* Eisman (see Theme 6). And Lou Whiteman again, on the Friday episode: "I can see this never coming up again. Or I can see this being the biggest story when we do a year in review." His co-host's reply: "Like the Bear Stearns moment." ### Startups vs. incumbents in the agent era - *Startups win on product.* Decagon CEO Jesse Jang on [Grit](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgsSER5uf5hW0bM-2Bx-2B3Su3wd49DbSJQLg-2BNWEAVvp3JNc99y3gFU3cXssCl1x-2FDoghHmGtjJVONOkAYIjcsaeeIyTH3134sCQOXLx0t6RDKpw-3D-3DPL-J_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJwYZYBtoAtWUE117kVmp-2Fe6msfcnzTmWLBnvrOhzifwO4J2atg10sAQwG2YO9V8E4NzwFtZJTvmqMhMk0QrGuCrr7jVhr5gPwFkpVhubPmGJtsnvKGg4R-2BJkMwoXiYtDsg-3D-3D): even against "big platforms like Salesforce and Google... we're winning a lot of these big deals. And so the only way we can do that is through product." Shardul Shah was blunter about older security vendors: they're "selling parachutes that are made of patches with kind of sketchy stitches." - *In some industries, the incumbent wins.* Michael Lee of Sequence Holdings, which just announced a *$7.7 billion* AI-driven take-private of the insurance broker Baldwin, told [No Priors](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgfntL9ko8ZxyIaUH3SBf3VT1qB77QHWyun6FBZ6yny9fG6lDq95GR1cqfQazQig9Ap65dSM-2FBAJHzLVQhRcJU7X75Spkj85kS3E-2BQ317fIxw-3D-3D-Feh_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ6iIJJ5eJe-2F837FyuMcSGe3jobR9eAxPdAbpLiRfA9iO2faixXd3uPVu3RdmC5bc9U9hNH0j3nTBgqRW2-2BRLEKWu7TdOGzsJVcPVhVUbQgf3kuqPA8Y7Yy-2BpYqpGHrMS-2FA-3D-3D) that incumbents with brand, scale or regulatory moats can become AI leaders. But not in coding: buying a coding-services business "feels like a terrible idea, which you will give money to Cognition or Anthropic." ## 3. Specific Names ### Public software companies **Microsoft ($MSFT): Bullish** - *Bull:* Oppenheimer's Brian Schwartz raised his price target to *$570 from $515* and said on [Closing Bell Overtime](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOjf8Jn7mHltaoSfJ1fP1nXTE96pt1twPm0bszpZC1C3qk1aKRZ-2FhQ7MEnU2DcVoMzh-2BsWAd6-2BXj5YOYvrvbIjJP7EWP29uCUgvVpTahkynBag-3D-3D6CGs_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ-2BF-2Fe6DuQxbpPVe8O0WUUOZJVn0etDl2CIOGrH31LWan8yCCWplPw2KrDN1WgsUc4vK9x4xMzZdo3YbiXKF-2BmJg55Pqv5cn9m2MIBJNl8A1Wm0rpY8BQVkJkkB-2BE91FQSQ-3D-3D) that the launch "transforms Copilot from simply being a point product, a chatbot, to now being an AI operating system." Investors "now see a clearer route for Microsoft to monetize on heavy AI use." Azure is "growing in the low 40s and it's guided to accelerate to the mid 40s." If it gets "closer to a 50 percent growth rate at a hundred billion dollar plus scale, that is going to drive a re-rating." - *Bear/context:* Fewer than 7% of 450 million commercial seats pay for AI today. The stock was up about 6% year to date versus about 15% for the Nasdaq (Squawk on the Street). Drew Cohen: Microsoft "seems pretty decently positioned with the caveat that I don't know exactly what happens to the office suite." **Salesforce ($CRM): Mixed** - *Bull:* Benioff says it had its "best second quarter that we've ever had," with "very low attrition, and also very high contract lengths," and will do "more than $50 billion next year." It recently bought *Fin*, which he called "the fastest way to customer agent success." He looks back on Slack (about $25 billion paid on about $900 million of revenue, "about 25 times revenue") as the right call, since it's now where AI agents live. He expects the Anthropic stake to make "not just billions, but maybe tens of billions of dollars." Tiernan Ray noted "a little bit of return to favor" after the Anthropic partnership. - *Bear:* Drew Cohen calls Salesforce "this amalgamation of, you know, 70 plus acquisitions" that is only now cleaning up its data. It's "not to say Salesforce is at trouble," but ServiceNow is better placed. **ServiceNow ($NOW): Bullish** - *Bull:* Drew Cohen's top pick for the agent era: "They seem like their developer stack is the cleanest. It's a unified platform." Its strength in IT service management and its map of every company device make it "a natural place to add AI agent monitoring": permissions, identity, audit trails. "Who deleted all of these files? It was this guy's AI agent." - *Bear:* Like Salesforce, it carries long-term risk that AI assistants bypass its interface. **Oracle ($ORCL): Bearish** - *Bear:* The force majeure notice, S&P's downgrade to BBB-, about $125 billion of debt against $37 billion of cash, and Jupiter debt at about 90 cents on the dollar (Eisman, Motley Fool). Rebel Capitalist's George Gammon called it a possible signal of "the top in the AI bubble." - *Bull/context:* On the September 10 earnings call, Oracle's co-CEO said Jupiter would not affect fiscal 2027 revenue or earnings guidance (as cited on [Rebel Capitalist News](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhbxWeUMnbtiNMFULanEPyVW1LmGW1WVroCxHVnwTdjyzJGEDVJeXKx1ba1aQ4-2BZB6FuuBbO3klOuTjQGCyTl1EdyEncq6-2B49tM6SkTe5Httg-3D-3DLogN_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ-2BUwCXhAVbEQMZaG-2BfNfsbptkr2VsqKST5QVMA31Hj3GfCh-2FG86pc1HRz3p0vVZC0Wx-2BjHeOhh2S5-2FRyJN-2BccHyN0lDR2g9kcVjtMAW5FogDctU-2BnkuI0QQ0zkXGEH7Nbw-3D-3D)). Squawk's sources said there's so much demand that "someone else will come in" if Oracle can't carry it. Separately, Oracle Health's Seema Verma described a new electronic health record system built for AI from the ground up, now live in outpatient clinics ([Becker's Healthcare Podcast](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgbOeEkOGU-2F-2BvlmvEw-2FdcDe5v4RytK6jgEXR61-2FdIK9HjRdT5xoVtXfTlUX3loVeTh9OFhG3dz05KVHvmbaTsxCrloeLWbvnYsjG-2FXjRnyuwA-3D-3DHMWh_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ1x8tdhNRJgvvOOg2vqEFA3bIgyKXTkkcWifII5yJgbzDdDJzmc0-2F-2FaQkkQcNP9suA68aBDDnTH4S8wOYK9cm0QmJYKZ-2Bl3NkgXCbP2MtTQur-2FeylzcmjW0lontzai2KSA-3D-3D)). **Atlassian ($TEAM): Mixed** - *Bull:* Tiernan Ray called earlier that Atlassian's earnings would be a turning point, and the stock rallied "30 some percent" afterward. - *Bear:* Drew Cohen singles it out as the larger company most at risk as work moves into AI chat boxes. Jira is "probably a little bit stickier." **HubSpot ($HUBS) and Workday ($WDAY): Bearish** - *Bear:* Tiernan Ray: HubSpot is "under pressure in the last two months... contending with longer budgeting cycles, longer approval process." HubSpot and Workday are "perfectly good companies that have not yet shown that they also will be these kinds of beneficiaries." - *Bull (HubSpot):* It already connects to all four major AI assistants, has launched custom agents, and counts vibe-coding platforms as customers (Angie O'Dowd). **Infrastructure software: Datadog ($DDOG), Snowflake ($SNOW), Twilio ($TWLO), Dynatrace ($DT), DigitalOcean ($DOCN), JFrog ($FROG), Backblaze ($BLZE), Innodata ($INOD): Bullish** - *Bull:* Tiernan Ray's list of companies "selling tools to build other software programs." He called Snowflake a "terrific company," and said the smaller ones "have the tailwinds and it's a good time for them for the foreseeable future." **MongoDB ($MDB): Watch** - *Context:* On [Screaming in the Cloud](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgNfnltvGDX1CHaNJvmxRiSpd8wHKZNj3Ls-2B3vdQpxkZWO4D2ajbf-2F1TvRKBp4drOPdkjn-2FEDGlQk2x672flzBoP9xZlLt7Vl8KEIaSiSCU2w-3D-3De7pr_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ8yx3na45MnGonaBOudDXGyfjwmf0fH4J3FKnUUI97pWXAMZuxy0FQ6Y0CmJW-2BVEl-2Bb-2Bed41Sn82C29NeG5fN0CLU-2FzASjKgpwCHIFfQYkPpMD-2BEswmjM2BzfShJSgQ0cQ-3D-3D), Microsoft's German Eichberger said the open-source *DocumentDB* project (now with the Linux Foundation, with Amazon as a participant) matches MongoDB's API "in the upper 90s" percent and ships *version 1.0 in mid-October 2026*. That is a free, Postgres-based alternative to MongoDB that Microsoft and AWS both support. My read: MongoDB holders should keep an eye on it. **Snowflake/Databricks ecosystem: Context** - Tiger Data's TimescaleDB is building a lakehouse product with two-way connections to Snowflake and Databricks. It claims ingestion of 1 million rows per second with steady query speeds, and cloud customers running 20,000–30,000 queries per second ([Software Engineering Daily](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOhVjfUBNeNK4hrzVQjhw7-2BKBXzfKWDX5DUmPo1wyhdBQfS8eJsCv1us6P1Kyd5HTuvRJ6j-2FltDAX1Zx98Y8W4eGJhvshlFEgitUVK4WxA-2Btfw-3D-3DffiL_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ-2Fvk5sYMAet6XdxrJwFJ5lIitIRLch9pfxe-2BXn6WvYBDRJ0wh79yILbWLXl45TT4-2BqvfBNwCMOhWkEjej45AwJ-2BdmFLdt5SKZj0oP6BNqdfpMfTh-2BJ-2BpVpji0WoBSePcRA-3D-3D)). **Akamai ($AKAM): Bullish** - *Bull:* Led S&P 500 premarket gainers on Friday after signing a *seven-year, $11.6 billion deal to supply computing to Anthropic, with an option for $9 billion more*. Guggenheim kept its buy rating and raised its target to $225 from $190 ([Squawk on the Street](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOh6AWMuIREi3a98WSp09rLbB7BHjriCdIZRqHpSYcJ4h2Nu-2B0-2Be8pa01wrt4OBd9xmRj3OVMOC04bdXqarJSywFXB5m2u1sAWCZWp6ZOAtQRg-3D-3DE_br_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ6u2hU7aLTSWhvwTobMu9mvkksWzDTI0SlvIMdJfDWOoev7BbC-2BvBLb1Taj5fTZ9G45a31asYGFcavUsJHUWigGyyAhZeRUzP4wlKsYV5ukSQd-2F4W000R16Xl0xhWrVAtA-3D-3D)). **Toast ($TOST): Context** - AI features are being built into a 14-year-old restaurant platform, and less tech-savvy operators are adopting fastest. It hasn't decided how to price access for outside AI assistants (Maggie Crowley). **UiPath ($PATH): Context** - Daniel Dines is betting on AI that *builds* reliable automations rather than AI that makes live decisions: "AI cannot replace a person... this Einstein doesn't yet exist." **Bending Spoons: Context** - Newly public owner of Vimeo, Eventbrite, Miro and Airtable, with a market cap of about $40 billion. CEO Luca Ferrari on [All-In](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOg5YfoBuKdRkaFuS-2BZTV1eI-2F7vfxg7UVklQWQbAtnGhurk-2FEy7UOCuCbvVJqyx0RrZWKOUQZc14S6z3N0mtgEc8UygVQNKVNOM-2FfJNzP6fnzQ-3D-3D0IjY_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJzFP-2FY9mongsqQK2gtEvqz64IWLxtOUuwAGtukSSXAnBWeFvyxGoCk-2BLnkXD07qFBhXv86t0UNrDWZtIt9kkQ5JTD3tiORSpY6YseW-2FtyOEM6SEEg4BDy-2FSMZ8DGml282w-3D-3D): very small, very talented teams are the main lever. Consolidating vendors adds only "one, two percentage points in EBITDA margins." Debt costs about *9% blended, fully hedged*, at about *2.5x leverage*, with historical unlevered returns "consistently above 25 percent." For owners of mature SaaS companies, this is the buyer to watch. ### Security **CrowdStrike ($CRWD): Mixed** - *Bull:* Josh Brown: "the best stock in the market," with a "classic stair-step pattern." Tiernan Ray lists it among the clearest winners. Falcon Flex discounts are drawing customers into more modules (Chip Stock Investor). - *Bear:* Chip Stock Investor trimmed on valuation. IBD asked whether breaking above its upper trading channel "is the time to be locking in some profits." Ramaswamy counts it among names being bought "indiscriminately." **Palo Alto Networks ($PANW): Mixed** - *Bull:* Up 5% on Wednesday, clearing a trend line (IBD). Its "platformization" strategy lets it grow through price pressure. - *Bear:* Josh Brown: "hit 400, and now we have this series of lower highs... I don't like this setup." IBD: "It's not the most amazing growth." Chip Stock Investor trimmed. **Okta ($OKTA): Mixed** - *Bull:* McKinnon's two-part pitch (identity becomes the biggest security category, and securing agents may be bigger still) plus a proposed industry standard, *AgentSSO*, "which allows any agent to connect to any system without sharing passwords." On the Halftime Report, a panelist noted a *$33 billion market cap*, an investor day on Wednesday, and talk of Okta as a possible takeover target: "They are ripe for someone to come in and buy them." - *Bear:* Ramaswamy on its valuation versus Salesforce. Chip Stock Investor calls it a "point solution" at a disadvantage. The panelist also noted the stock is still down over five years. **Fortinet ($FTNT): Bullish** - *Bull:* Josh Brown: "This one looks the best of all of them, technically... a breakout in progress." **Cloudflare ($NET): Bullish** - *Bull:* Josh Brown: "Look at this absolute wombat... Nobody even knows what this company does. It's perfect." **Zscaler ($ZS) and SentinelOne ($S): Bullish (early)** - *Bull:* Brown's two names "before they become the best stocks": Zscaler just crossed back above its 200-day average "for the first time all year with a golden cross forming" (a chart signal many traders read as bullish). SentinelOne is breaking above a $25 billion market cap. **Rubrik ($RBRK): Mixed** - Pointed to on the Halftime panel as a smaller-cap security name worth owning because it holds customers' data. Chip Stock Investor calls it a point solution "trying to build itself into a platform." ### Private companies **Anthropic: Mixed** - *Bull:* "The greatest business ramp in all time" (Chamath). Bigger than OpenAI as of Q2 (Rory O'Driscoll). Best-in-class for life sciences (Friedberg). Salesforce runs internally on "Claudeforce." - *Bear:* Customer concentration, pressure from open-source models on coding work, a delayed IPO, and questions about governance and super-voting shares (All-In). Chamath's estimate of where the IPO clears: "one or less" trillion. **OpenAI: Context** - Released GPT-6 Sol and Luna at about 50% lower API prices. Jason Calacanis cited a roughly *$1.2 trillion* valuation and an IPO pushed to 2027. On [Equity](http://url7324.matterfact.com/ls/click?upn=u001.idHmPrr2Geh7KYLAsTy7NkrIVb-2FgA4pmf2rMXQwGcOgW-2Bs206ohRco2P1NQ3y8mrQ0RTL-2FEJ-2Fhjpe56ZW-2Bs5-2FIl75qD4FpEOjpX7UYVTRg4Zn9jbaAtsE4jkmkYXisg90FHxzdN3JErg3EKiKEmMlw-3D-3DUUMq_7mLGwmUci-2BLaXswv9WX1yTgqn3Wad-2FotHhzHgSNAZbXmR0unIw6O3giOy0LM0dSAplBNmOu9uyy-2F3MS6bwEtJ49VA2yyFX2lH-2FBqfpuxZ7vhdqgNA6bRQT5-2FRv1E4F0xBVnvt0D9Z3pkotm6zSBwG0pGrCpLdHq4skGqjV-2FyKLIIQ3QJZSYT-2Fkf-2Fp-2Bz8TP3u9SCEYHvrnuefFdjnMSfZcA-3D-3D), the hosts said both OpenAI and Anthropic are leaning into enterprise because "they have to make money... on this scale that's essentially unprecedented." Josh Brown said OpenAI's own personal agent is coming in Q4. **Factory: Bullish** - Tripled its valuation to *$5 billion*. Lemkin and O'Driscoll both backed it as the enterprise "software factory." Lemkin's pitch: "whether it's my data for my drug or just my code, I don't want my code... polluted in Anthropic and OpenAI where they're going to train on it." **Cursor and Cognition: Context** - O'Driscoll: "Cursor has been swooped off the table." That leaves Cognition and Factory as the main independents selling to big enterprises. **Legora and Harvey (legal AI): Mixed** - *Bull:* Legora announced *$200 million in ARR* (annual recurring revenue), with its next round at *$11 billion*. - *Bear:* Lemkin cited an Information report that Harvey's gross margins were *minus 50%*, while cautioning "I don't know if that is true." If margins are "spiraling down rather than V-shape," he'd be "just enough [nervous] to not lead the next round." **Decagon: Bullish** - Grew from about 50 to *500 people* in roughly a year, now valued at *$4.5 billion*, and is winning customer-support deals against Salesforce and Google because customers "own the results and the process" (Jesse Jang). **Lightfield: Context** - AI-native CRM with $25–30k average contracts. Andreessen Horowitz led its round, betting that agent-driven work will make mid-market deals "look like a deal size for Salesforce with like, you know, 5,000 people" (Keith Peiris). **Zapier: Context** - Cash-flow positive every year for eight years. It is repositioning as "where AI built work goes to actually run," monitoring and controlling agents built in Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT (Ryan Roccon). **Crusoe: Context** - Raised *$3.9 billion* at a roughly *$30 billion* valuation. 20VC debated whether the data center trade is overheating. **Wiz: Context** - Now part of Google after the *$32 billion* deal. Shardul Shah sees AI security as the next category. Benioff noted that Salesforce was an investor. **Gong: Bearish (one customer's view)** - My Amazon Guy is canceling after two years. Pope credits Gong with useful findings (the best-converting call lasts about 42 minutes, and a 60–65% seller talk ratio works best) but says it no longer earns its cost. --- ## Get the full transcripts on Matterfact This briefing was produced with Matterfact, which indexes the complete, full-text transcripts of 120M+ podcast episodes alongside SEC filings, earnings calls, and financial datasets. 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