The Verge

BMW’s In‑Car Film Ads Spark Debate

BMW pushed a Spider-Man: Brand New Day banner and branded animation to compatible vehicle displays at start-up in certain models; tapping the banner plays an animated spot with music and ambient lighting. The activation—part of a partnership with Sony Pictures and Marvel that integrates BMW models into the film—was created with Jung von Matt Hamburg, agency UEG, director Hot Icarus and Parasol Island. It provoked criticism from German outlets (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Heise Online) and many owners online for appearing to reverse BMW’s late‑2023 pledge not to run advertising inside its cars. Observers note the novelty that the manufacturer, not a third party, is operating the screen, placing the stunt within wider automaker experiments with digital monetization, Uber’s ad business and future map/autonomy monetization.

SpaceX Doubles Revenue on AI Compute Deals, Starlink Growth

SpaceX’s first quarterly report as a public company (Q2 2026) showed revenue rose 92% year-over-year to $7.8 billion, driven by Starlink and growing AI compute hosting. Starlink revenue increased 66% to $4.3 billion and subscribers doubled to 12 million. The AI segment generated about $2.6 billion and accounted for roughly $2.0 billion of the revenue uplift. SpaceX narrowed its net loss to $541 million and lifted adjusted EBITDA 191% to $3.5 billion. Management disclosed $6.7 billion of cloud services revenue under contract beginning to ramp in October, said total cloud agreements total $14.1 billion, flagged continued heavy Starship investment, and expects integrating AI startup Cursor to help reach a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by year-end. The results follow an IPO that raised roughly $85-86 billion.

Samsung: RAM Shortage to Worsen Through 2027

Samsung warned on its Q2 earnings call that the global RAM shortage will likely intensify in 2027 and remain tight until at least 2028. The company, which produces roughly a third of the world’s memory chips, said frontier AI labs are sharing medium- to long-term demand forecasts to secure supply, enabling Samsung to prioritise customers that sign long-term contracts and plan multi-year capacity ramps. Higher memory demand has pushed chip prices up, lifting Samsung’s semiconductor sales while squeezing margins in its smartphone and TV units. The shortage has prompted device price increases from Samsung and Apple and may lead to higher GPU prices from Nvidia, as memory makers shift capacity toward AI data centers.