Wednesday, August 12, 2026 · Past editions

The Amped Journal

A daily briefing brought to you by Amped Ventures

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xAI Launches Grok Build Coding Agent After Rocky Data-Leak Fix

The CLI tool reads and edits codebases from the terminal; xAI open-sourced it after user files leaked to its servers.

xAI has launched Grok Build, its first AI coding agent, giving developers a terminal tool that can read and edit codebases, run shell commands, search the web and manage long-running tasks - interactively, headlessly for CI, or embedded in editors via the Agent Client Protocol. It launched in early beta for SuperGrok Heavy subscribers before shipping a V1.0 release this week.

The rollout hit turbulence when users discovered Grok Build was uploading entire local directories - including SSH keys, password databases and personal photos - to xAI's Google Cloud servers without clear warning. Elon Musk pledged to fully delete the uploaded data, xAI disabled the upload feature, and the company published Grok Build's full source code on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license to rebuild trust.

Musk posted a demo this week calling the tool "extremely powerful" and said xAI is already working on making it usable by non-technical users - V1.0 is aimed at developers comfortable with the command line. It's xAI's most direct challenge yet to Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex in the fast-growing coding-agent market.

Elon Musk · 241.3M followers · 2K engagement · post · also: Elon Musk

SpaceX Stock Reclaims IPO Price After Record Quarter, Moon Pivot

Revenue nearly doubled to $7.8B as Musk lays out a $1 trillion target and moon satellite factories.

SpaceX shares closed above their $135 IPO price this week for the first time since mid-July, capping a volatile stretch since the company's debut earnings report. Revenue nearly doubled year over year to $7.8 billion in the second quarter, though SpaceX posted a $541 million net loss as it poured money into Starlink, spacecraft development and AI.

On the earnings call, Musk laid out a plan to reach profitability that includes building robotic satellite factories on the moon, and said the company is shifting its long-term focus from Mars toward a "self-growing city" on the moon. He's targeting $1 trillion in annual revenue within the next decade by merging space, satellite connectivity and AI into one business - SpaceX folded xAI into a new "SpaceXAI" division earlier this year.

Musk posted a fresh "SpaceX company update" this week reinforcing the pitch. Separately, the next Starship test flight - which will attempt to deploy Starlink V3 satellites and the program's first launch-tower catch of the upper stage - is now tentatively slated for late August.

Elon Musk · 241.3M followers · 7K engagement · post

Milwaukee's Crowley Upsets Democratic Socialist Hong in WI Primary

Crowley, backed by outgoing Gov. Tony Evers, will face Trump-endorsed Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated state Rep. Francesca Hong, a Democratic Socialists of America member, in Wisconsin's Democratic primary for governor on August 11. Hong had led in polls for months before the come-from-behind result.

Crowley had dropped out of the race about a month earlier before re-entering with the backing of outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. He now advances to face Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November for the seat Evers is vacating.

Libs of TikTok · 4.8M followers · 6K engagement · post

Progressive Flanagan Wins Minnesota's Democratic Senate Primary

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, backed by Bernie Sanders, faces Republican Michele Tafoya in November.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan defeated U.S. Rep. Angie Craig on August 11 to win the Democratic primary for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, running on a progressive platform with endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She would be the first Native American woman elected to the Senate.

Flanagan advances to face Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter turned conservative commentator, in November for the seat retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith is vacating.

Libs of TikTok · 4.8M followers · 1K engagement · post

Developing / On Watch

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Ongoing stories worth tracking over the next few days.

AI & Frontier Models

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ChatGPT Desktop App Reaches Linux in Preview

OpenAI ships .deb and .rpm installers for Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora, covering x64 and ARM64.

OpenAI released a preview of its ChatGPT desktop app for Linux, covering Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and 26.04 LTS, Debian 13, and Fedora 43 and 44. The app brings ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex to Linux machines with installers for both x64 and ARM64 architectures.

OpenAI · 5.1M followers · 13K engagement · post

Researchers Extract Hidden Chain-of-Thought Data From AI Models

A team led by Alexander Panfilov decoded over 315,000 reasoning blocks, some containing credentials and personal data.

A research team led by Alexander Panfilov exploited encryption flaws to extract chain-of-thought reasoning traces from frontier AI models, finding the data is portable across sessions, users and even weaker sibling models. The group decoded more than 315,000 reasoning blocks from public sources, uncovering personally identifiable information, credentials and hazardous content that never appeared in the models' final outputs. The research builds on a May 2026 report by cryptographer Matthew Green and proposes fixes such as stronger encryption or server-side reasoning.

X News · post

Software, Tech & Apple

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Vercel's AI SDK Hits 80.5M Monthly Downloads

CEO Guillermo Rauch says the open, provider-agnostic toolkit is growing faster than any AI lab's own SDK.

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch said the company's open-source AI SDK is now downloaded roughly 80.5 million times every 30 days, growing faster than the software development kits released by the major AI labs themselves. Rauch credited its open, provider-agnostic design - it works across model providers rather than locking developers into one lab's stack.

Guillermo Rauch · 769K followers · 437 engagement · post

Indie Hacker Pieter Levels Says He'll Ditch Claude for Grok

He says Claude is 'getting extremely preachy' and refusing requests more often; his sites already run on xAI's backend.

Pieter Levels, the prolific indie hacker known for Nomad List and Photo AI, said Claude has become "extremely preachy" and is "flat out refusing" him more regularly, and that he's ready to switch to Grok for coding once it's good enough. His sites already run on xAI's infrastructure. The comments land the same week xAI shipped Grok Build, its first dedicated coding agent.

@levelsio · 930K followers · 2K engagement · post

Founder's Trick: Feed Bank CSVs to Claude Code for a Spend Dashboard

Pieter Levels says exporting all accounts and dumping them into an AI coding agent surfaces real spending patterns fast.

Levels suggested a practical use for coding agents: export all personal and business bank and brokerage accounts as CSV files, then have Claude Code build a simple dashboard to visualize spending across accounts - something he says is hard to track by hand once money is spread across multiple institutions.

@levelsio · 930K followers · 1K engagement · post

Local - Wilmington & Wrightsville Beach

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Seabird Chef to Open Sister Restaurant Little Bird Downtown

Dean Neff's new spot next door adds private event space and daytime dining, opening winter 2027.

Chef Dean Neff, who owns Seabird and Zora's Market & Kitchen with his wife Lydia Clopton, announced plans to open Little Bird, a sister restaurant and bar, next door at 9 South Front St. in downtown Wilmington. Housed in a renovated building with a restored historic facade, Little Bird adds roughly 2,200 square feet to Seabird's 2,600, with 55 to 60 additional seats across a dining room and a 25-seat bar room. Combined, the two restaurants will be able to host events for up to 150 guests. It's targeting a winter 2027 opening.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

Nine Wilmington-Area Firms Make Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing List

Military Cutoff Road insurance agency Steel City Financial Services topped the group at No. 53 with nearly 5,000% growth.

Nine Wilmington-area companies landed on Inc. Magazine's 2026 list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies, ranked by revenue growth from 2022 to 2025. Steel City Financial Services, a Military Cutoff Road health insurance agency founded in 2017, led the local group at No. 53 nationally, posting nearly 5,000% three-year growth, $25 million to $50 million in revenue, and 500% employee growth. Wilmington-based Vantaca, a community association management software company, also made the list.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

Amazon Starts Hiring for New Wilmington-Area Facilities

The robotics fulfillment center and a nearby delivery station are set to open by the holidays.

Amazon began hiring this summer for its Wilmington-area robotics fulfillment center, expected to create more than 1,000 full-time jobs, and plans to start hiring soon for a nearby delivery station projected to add more than 100 positions. Both facilities remain on track to open in time for the holiday season, according to an Amazon spokesperson, with the Cape Fear Council of Governments' Workforce Development Board helping connect applicants to open roles.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

Raleigh's Vontier Acquires Wilmington Fleet-Software Firm EKOS

The industrial tech company had already used EKOS's fuel and EV fleet-management platform before buying it outright.

Vontier Corp., a Raleigh-based industrial technology company, has acquired Wilmington-based EKOS, a cloud-based fleet, fuel and electric vehicle management software firm founded in 2004. Vontier, parent of fueling-tech firm Gilbarco Veeder-Root, had already used EKOS as its preferred fuel management software and said the deal will deepen fleet connectivity across its product line.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

Victaulic Seeks to Triple Brunswick County Plant Footprint

The pipe-joining manufacturer wants to add 230,000 square feet at its Leland Innovation Park facility.

Victaulic, a Pennsylvania-based maker of mechanical pipe joining and fire protection products, is seeking approval to add 230,000 square feet to its 108,135-square-foot Brunswick County facility at Leland Innovation Park, more than tripling its footprint to over 338,000 square feet. The expansion goes before the Brunswick County Planning Board this week; county staff has recommended approval.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

Port of Wilmington Adds Fumigation Capability for Chilean Grapes

A Maersk-led pilot shifts treatment of imported grapes to Wilmington to cut delays at congested East Coast ports.

The Port of Wilmington added new fumigation capabilities to support a pilot program, led by shipping giant Maersk with produce supplier Oppy, aimed at easing bottlenecks in transporting and treating grapes imported from Chile. Federal rules require the grapes to be fumigated for pests before entering the U.S., a step traditionally done at busier East Coast ports that caused delays and hurt fruit quality; the pilot shifted that treatment to Wilmington instead.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

Med Spa, Wellness Studio Sign On at Center Point Development

Self Skin Studio and SWTHZ join the growing retail lineup at the Eastwood-Military Cutoff project.

Center Point, the mixed-use development under construction along Eastwood and Military Cutoff roads, announced two new retail leases: Self Skin Studio, a Wilmington med spa founded by Trish Holmes specializing in injectables and skin treatments, and SWTHZ, a wellness concept offering infrared saunas, cold plunges and vitamin C showers.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal · read

From Your Feed

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Top posts from accounts you follow that didn't make the brief above.

UPDATE: Fire Commissioner candidate Gary Brotz calls on Jason Carty to RESIGN as fire director after he was charged with voter fraud for allegedly forging signatures so his wife could qualify for the Democrat primary ballot JASON CARTY MUST RESIGN https://t.co/heKgE3og6n

Libs of TikTok · 4.8M followers · 961 engagement · post

BREAKING: 5 of the USBs from Milwaukee are missing the election results per @AlexanderShur WHAT IS GOING ON

Libs of TikTok · 4.8M followers · 4K engagement · post

Everyone else is talking about building ASI to like monopolize b2b saas and Elon is talking about building a kardashev II sentient sun https://t.co/ZtLAvAGz6y

Arthur MacWaters · 89K followers · 789 engagement · post

repost of @cb_doge: ELON MUSK ON BUILDING A “STAR MIND” POWERED BY THE SUN “We’ve already built the most powerful AI training clusters in the wor…

Elon Musk · 241.3M followers · post

Grok Bot just killed 1,000 startups. Each Bot gets its own computer. It learns your workflows, uses your apps, and works while you sleep. Grok just became your 24/7 AI employee. https://t.co/QSxmWzqI0I

Min Choi · 382K followers · 571 engagement · post

Shipped from a Chinese taxi ✅ 🖼️ Embedable <iframe /> with live data 📸 Shareable screenshots Thanks for the idea, Sivaram! https://t.co/3oum57ge9A

Marc Lou · 371K followers · 114 engagement · post

repost of @jeffreyhuber: meeting more and more people who are daily driving grok

Elon Musk · 241.3M followers · post

repost of @KettlebellDan: Grok Bot is a workhorse All the repetitive tasks I found myself wasting my time doing I just have Grok Bot do for me n…

Elon Musk · 241.3M followers · post

This edition cost $2.23 - $1.66 in X reads + $0.57 in Claude curation.

Coverage manifest · CHECK COVERAGE

Window since 2026-08-11 08:30 UTC · 242 posts reviewed · 21/50 sources ok · est. cost $1.655

Source pulls: 21 ok, 29 errors, 0 unsupported (of 50)

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