For three years the AI race was scored in capability. This week the centre of gravity moved to money and power: Google misses its flagship for a third time, Alphabet lifts capex to $205B, China opens a governance bloc, and Tesla starts building the Optimus lines.

AI's binding constraint was never silicon. It is consent. Some 69% of Americans want half the industry's stock in a public fund, only 26% view AI favourably, and in Beijing the law just switched off millions of AI companions. The week the public answered back.

The week the AI story became a question of trust: OpenAI ships GPT-5.6 after a twelve-day government gate, the Fed adds AI to its inflation risks, and Microsoft, Allianz and Amazon redraw white-collar work.

US layoffs cooled in June, yet Challenger names AI as the top cited cause for a fourth straight month. The same week, Claude Sonnet 5 made agentic AI cheaper, California signed a landmark Anthropic deal, and Colorado's high-risk AI law took effect.

Oracle's 10-K is the first big SEC filing to pin workforce cuts on AI: 21,000 jobs gone with $1.8B in severance. OpenAI and Broadcom unveil the Jalapeño inference chip with ~50% claimed savings. Anthropic monetises Fable 5 and lures Nobel laureate Jumper.

Commerce halts Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5; restored 18 June with nationality-based controls. G7 Évian: AI CEOs pitch a US-led coalition. EU picks Italian-led EUROPA consortium for a 24-language frontier model. PwC: 62% AI wage premium. Accenture -20% on AI guidance.