Figma vs Stripe

Figma invests in the UK with expanded London office

With our new London office, we’re getting closer to our customers and community.

Groq Founder: Poor Leadership Cost Company Years

Jonathan Ross, founder of AI chip maker Groq, admitted in a podcast that his management failures initially cost the company three to four years. A former Google engineer, Ross founded Groq in 2016 to develop Language Processing Units (LPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs. He acknowledged being 'a terrible leader' at the start, citing mistakes in hiring employees who were not self-sufficient and giving them too much responsibility, leading to stagnation. He learned to focus on people management and became more selective in hiring. In December 2025, Nvidia signed a $20 billion licensing and talent deal with Groq, after which Ross and other key engineers moved to Nvidia, where Ross now serves as chief architect for software. Groq continues as an independent company led by Adam Winter. Similar leadership challenges were shared by Figma CEO Dylan Field and Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn.

• Jonathan Ross founded Groq in 2016 to develop AI inference chips (LPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs.
• Ross admitted that his poor leadership set back Groq by three to four years.
• In December 2025, Nvidia signed a $20 billion license and talent deal with Groq.

Pragmatic Engineer Podcast: Design Engineering with Maggie Appleton

In this episode of the Pragmatic Engineer Podcast, host Gergely Orosz interviews Maggie Appleton, a staff research engineer at GitHub Next. Appleton discusses her unique career path from cultural anthropology to design engineering, her work illustrating React tutorials for Egghead, and her insights on how AI is transforming design processes. She shares practical advice on using notebooks and jigs for prototyping, the importance of understanding engineering constraints, and introduces the concept of 'capability gaslighting' where AI models overpromise and underdeliver. The conversation explores new artifacts for human-AI collaboration and encourages engineers to use AI agents as patient tutors for learning design principles.

• Maggie Appleton is a staff research engineer at GitHub Next.
• She was the first designer hired by AI startup Elicit.
• She spent four years as an illustrator and art director at developer education company Egghead.

OUSD is now the default stablecoin on Stripe

Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin built for global money movement, is now available across Stripe. Businesses can use OUSD to manage funds, make payments, and offer new financial services.

OpenRouter's Journey from Seed to Stripe: AI's Neutral Distribution Layer

In this podcast episode, OpenRouter co-founder and CEO Alex Atallah and AMP's Anjney Midha discuss the company's evolution from an early bet on multi-model AI to a critical infrastructure layer serving over 10 million developers and processing 10+ trillion tokens daily. They highlight the challenges of convincing VCs that OpenRouter was more than a 'wrapper', the strategic focus on being a neutral distribution layer, and the importance of community building, especially through Discord. The conversation covers the Mistral price war, the development of model fusion, and the rise of agentic fraud as a key threat. Finally, they explain why Stripe acquired OpenRouter, emphasizing the strategic fit around fraud prevention and the vision of securing the emerging token economy.

• OpenRouter serves over 10 million developers and processes over 10 trillion tokens per day.
• OpenRouter was acquired by Stripe; the exact deal amount was not disclosed.
• OpenRouter grew to 10+ trillion tokens per day, with 9% weekly growth in token volume.

Meta Expands Muse AI Agent with Avatars, Mac Control, and Commerce

At its Connect event, Meta unveiled major updates to its personal AI agent, Muse, including a new real-time avatar feature, macOS integration, and a dedicated email address. The company also announced partnerships with Stripe, Shopify, PayPal, and retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Sephora to enable agentic shopping. Meta aims to make Muse a central platform for everyday tasks, leveraging its Muse Spark multimodal model. CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized a long-term vision of Muse as a 'personal superintelligence,' with monetization expected through transaction fees. The announcement also highlighted the opening of its connector platform to developers, which has already received over 1,500 applications.

• Meta announced Muse Realtime Avatar, a new AI model for real-time video chat with a digital avatar of the agent.
• Muse will be integrated with Meta's smart glasses, allowing voice-activated interactions.
• Muse will come to macOS, enabling the agent to operate any app on a user's desktop.