The safest money in the world just bet big on AI.
Old money bets on AI, YouTube boosts creators, Gen Z changes the channel.
This week was a mix of health experiments and systems building.
On the health side, I tried a new peptide and a new shampoo that burned my scalp.
On the work side, I set up a new content flywheel for one of my other projects.
I’m looking for someone who’d enjoy running that system for a couple hours a week while learning a bit about what it takes to operate across multiple businesses.
If that’s you, reply to this email or send me a DM on Substack.
Now it’s time for us to discuss how the safest money in the world is suddenly chasing AI, what happens when students trust chatbots more than schools, and where creators are quietly stacking new income streams.
Let's get into what moved this week across money, AI, and the future of work.
The world’s largest and most conservative investors are cancelling previous commitments and reallocating hundreds of millions into AI.
Cohere raised $500M this week with notable investments from pension plans like PSP Investments and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) to scale enterprise AI infrastructure.
Darwinbox raised $40M from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to fuel North American market expansion of its AI-powered HR platform.
Why it matters: pension-backed capital commitments will pull more talent into AI while draining talent from legacy sectors like energy, insurance, and industrial. This only widens the innovation gap. And because pension funds are heavily exposed to AI, governments will face pressure to regulate in ways that protect AI markets rather than constrain them. AI is the new oil.
Next, we review how Google’s AI summaries are impacting web traffic. This was a topic I covered [here] back in May, when I flagged that most businesses need to rethink their SEO playbooks because they’re operating on unstable ground.
Publishers are reporting steep drops in Google Search traffic because of the AI “Overview” boxes that provide answer summaries up front. Referral traffic dropped by 10% and 25% YoY, despite their rankings holding steady.
Google claims external studies “inaccurately report” big declines, but provides no evidence to support this.
Why it matters: we’ll continue to see accelerated paywall adoption across publishers. This also drives up the premium on email lists, owned communities, and paid subscriptions. Power also shifts from Google’s algorithm to its AI model training data. Whoever is deemed “trusted” by Gemini or Perplexity becomes the new gatekeeper for search visibility. And for now, that’s a more opaque system than SEO ever was. I have some more thoughts on this which I’ll cover in a Rich Future deep dive soon.
According to Everspring’s 2025 AI Search Trends Report, about 50% of students now use AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity during their college search process.
Despite high AI tool usage, only 13% fact-check by visiting official sites.
Why it matters: if students normalize “taking AI at face value,” we’re raising a generation where information literacy skills will decline over time, given that AI hallucinates up to 30% (depending on task and model) and we now have the top AI experts acknowledging that hallucinations are structural and therefore, unavoidable.
The opportunity for builders and investors is in trust infrastructure for AI Search, paired with platforms that enable peer validation loops.
Creators continue to see new monetization opportunities.
This week, YouTube launched Partnership Ads on iOS Shorts, which is a co-branded format where both the brand and creator are featured, and viewers can directly subscribe to the creator’s channel from the ad itself.
This means creator visibility grows beyond sponsorships into paid discovery and YouTube distribution, where the platform attracted over 47 billion site visits in July.
Why it matters: creators now have more incentive to prioritize Shorts and YouTube deals over TikTok or Instagram, since the platform itself rewards with both long-form audience growth and long-term monetization potential, not just one-off payouts.
The summer of brain rot?
Summer 2025 was defined by its lack of defining trends. No breakout album like we had last year with Charli XCX’s Brat, no blockbuster movie like Barbie in 2023. There’s really been no universal cultural moment. Some are calling it “the summer of brain rot” which I think is gross. What I’m seeing is cultural fragmentation and growing fatigue with algorithm-driven content.
Gen Z is actively seeking offline experiences and niche communities over mainstream culture participation. As I’ve been saying for the past two years, the future is decentralized.
What’s Emerging: micro-communities are becoming premium. Substack threads, Discords, IRL gatherings are the new “watercoolers.” Advertisers must spread budget across more micro-influencers and niche media (à la YouTube partnership ads above) instead of anchoring to one monoculture hit.
And with mainstream feeds overrun by AI “slop,” intentional discovery through communities, human curators, and peer-to-peer sharing will increasingly reshape the discovery rails of culture.
It’s part of why I’m so bullish on creators building on Substack (which I wrote about here and here). I also have my eyes on one other platform which I’ll save for a future brief.
Zooming out, here are a few more Rich Future™ signals to add to your radar this week.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says less than 1% of users have an unhealthy relationship with ChatGPT… with 700M weekly active users that comes out to 7 million people! Or less!
BigBear.ai reported earnings this week, with revenue decrease of 18% YoY, underscoring some volatility in AI software.
Taylor Swift announced her next album (The Life of a Showgirl) on her boyfriend’s podcast. Another nod to how distribution power is shifting toward niche media channels.
Living up to its name, crypto exchange Bullish went public on Wednesday at $37, closing up 84% from its IPO price. Investors like Cathie Woods purchased $177M.
Bitcoin makes another ATH this week, crossing $124,000 on Thursday. It’s now 1.7% of the global money supply.
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