Amazon AI Data Procurement Chain Emerges | Rewire News Morning Brief

An investigation into the tracking of rare book flows points to a shift: AI competition is extending from model capabilities to corpus acquisition and infrastructure financing.

1｜404 Media Tracks Rare Book Flows, Amazon AI Data Procurement Chain Revealed

404 Media reported that a rare second-hand book with a built-in tracker was eventually shipped to Amazon's VGT3 facility in Las Vegas. The media outlet stated that the books were disbound and scanned into digital text for AI training purposes. TechCrunch followed up, mentioning that Amazon acquires books in bulk through commercial channels. Amazon responded, stating that the related purchases aim to enhance products and services used by customers, without specifying the corresponding model or product.

This case presents a supply chain that transforms physical publications into machine-readable corpora. In contrast to public web scraping and copyright licensing, such procurement covers book acquisition, dismantling, digitization, and usage disclosure. The existing investigation, based on a single tracking sample, is not sufficient to infer Amazon's training data structure but has brought to the forefront issues of the source, rights, and transparency of physical corpora.

(Source: 404 Media / TechCrunch / Amazon)

2｜NVIDIA Provides up to $105 Billion Credit Support for OpenAI's Ohio Project

NVIDIA will provide up to $105 billion in credit and lease support for OpenAI's data center in Pike County, Ohio. The project, constructed and operated by SB Energy under Softbank, has an initial capacity of 4.25 IT-GW, with OpenAI having an additional 3.75 IT-GW option. The computational power under a 20-year lease is expected to come online in phases starting from 2028, and NVIDIA is also investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy.

This is not GPU sales or cash already paid but a credit endorsement for a long-term infrastructure contract. Chipmakers are starting to secure computing power, construction, and electricity for customers. If the project fails to deliver, the risk falls back on the supplier's balance sheet. The computational power competition now sees an additional layer of financing capability.

(Source: NVIDIA / SEC / CNBC)

3｜US-Iran Memorandum Expires, Toll at Hormuz Comes First

The 60-day memorandum between the US and Iran expired on August 17. Trump stated he would not seek an extension and threatened to bomb Oman if it "blocks the way." He also claimed to have informal contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Iran denies that both sides are in direct talks. CNBC cited Kpler data, indicating that only 3 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, with a five-day average of 12 ships, compared to approximately 130 ships per day before the conflict.

The variable of the situation is no longer just about who is willing to renew the interim agreement. Oman, originally a channel to reopen the strait negotiations, is now also being pushed to the brink. The US and Iran each maintain their own negotiation narratives, but the flow of traffic in the waterway is already reflecting the actual cost of the conflict. For the energy market, the timeline for resuming passage is a more tradable risk indicator than diplomatic rhetoric. (Continuation of yesterday's report)

(Source: CNBC / Kpler / Reuters)

4｜Anthropic's $650 Billion Revenue Run Rate Shifts IPO Expectations Toward Cash Flow Concerns

TechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, reported that Anthropic's year-end annualized revenue run rate at the end of July exceeded $650 billion, up from $470 billion in May and $90 billion at the end of last year. The run rate extrapolated based on recent revenue does not equate to confirmed full-year revenue. TechCrunch, citing the FT, stated that both companies have secretly filed for IPO, with Anthropic aiming to go public as early as this fall, with investors reportedly hoping for a valuation exceeding $2 trillion.

The market reassessment is not about quarterly profits. The narrative of model companies is shifting towards reasoning for more demand. The $650 billion revenue run rate provides income projections for the idea that "larger models need more capital." The IPO price still depends on whether revenue can cover computing power, services, and customer acquisition costs. While the run rate is impressive, the quality of cash flow will still be tested in the public market.

(Source: TechCrunch / Bloomberg / FT)

5｜Coldcard Vulnerability Exposed, Self-Custody Risks Extend Beyond Online and Offline

TRM Labs stated that in a firmware build error in March 2021, Coinkite's Coldcard hardware wallet reduced the wallet seed randomness from the expected 128 bits to a minimum of 40 bits in some devices. Attackers could brute-force the wallet without needing physical access to the device. As of August 5, TRM estimated that from July 30, four rounds of theft had transferred approximately 1,816 BTC from over 5,200 addresses, worth around $116 million. The statistics are still preliminary, and TRM has not yet attributed the theft.

"Offline" is not an independent security attribute; it simply shifts the attack surface from the network interface to firmware and key generation. New firmware versions can prevent new wallets from generating weak seeds, but they cannot fix old seeds. For affected users, a patch does not guarantee the security of existing assets; migrating to a new seed is the boundary for resolution.

(Source: TRM Labs / Galaxy Research)

Also Good to Know ↓

Groq raises $3.5 billion at a $35 billion valuation, continuing its shift from a chip company to the "new cloud." TechCrunch reports that Nvidia is set to participate in this funding round. Groq has transitioned from being a challenger with its custom inference chip to an operator of Nvidia-run data centers, valuing the company lower than its $6.9 billion valuation in September 2025. The challenger's move into cloud services also signifies a deeper integration into the former rival's supply chain. (Source: TechCrunch / Groq)

Higgsfield completes a $400 million Series B funding round, raising its valuation to $5.4 billion. Reuters reports that the AI video and image generation company saw its valuation quadruple in just six months. The growing demand for generated content in marketing and media is pushing funding scales from the application layer to infrastructure levels. (Source: Reuters / Higgsfield)

Voice input company Wispr secures $280 million in Series B funding at a $20 billion valuation. The company states that the funding will be used to expand from transcription to scenarios like meeting minutes and introduce new speech understanding models. The competition in the AI application layer is shifting from singular functionalities to capturing entry points in user workflows. (Source: TechCrunch / Wispr)

Apple issues a new wave of spyware threat notifications to users in 110 countries. The alert indicates that devices may be targeted by spyware-for-hire but does not confirm actual intrusions. Apple has been pushing the alerts to iPhone lockscreens, making security warnings a more direct defense entry point. (Source: Apple / TechCrunch)

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia