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Up until now, the politicization of AI models generally ran in one direction with US "frontier" LLM providers such as Anthropic and ChatGPT complaining consistently that Chinese open-sourced models were "distilling" (i.e. reverse-engineering) their products. And whether true or not, China has certainly been able to catch up dramatically to the US, with China's latest open-model, GLM 5.2, viewed as just barely behind the latest comparable US offerings, while the average gap between US and Chinese models has shrunk to almost nothing.

As complaints on both sides have become more vocal (amid occasional bans of the latest Anthropic model by the White House admin), last week we reported that for the first time, China's tech giant Alibaba banned employees from using Anthropic's Claude ?Code at work after the tool drew scrutiny for features that can help identify China-linked users, Reuters reported.

Fast forward to today when the Reuters reported that in the latest escalation, Beijing is preparing to fully flip the script on the US tech sector as Chinese authorities have held meetings with top tech firms over the past month about potentially restricting overseas access to China's most advanced AI models, including those yet to be released. 

The talks follow a number of steps by Beijing to keep homegrown ?AI within the country and underscore how China, like the US, is now treating cutting-edge artificial intelligence as a critical national asset that needs controls. Companies present at the talks included ?tech giants Alibaba and ByteDance as well as startup Z.ai, creator of the GLM-5.2 mode, said Reuters' sources. 

Since the emergence of DeepSeek's R1 model last year, Chinese AI models have made massive ?inroads globally thanks to their low costs and increasing capabilities. Any decision by Beijing to limit access to those products could ripple across AI markets as costs for many businesses would likely increase. It would be a boon to AI supplier stocks  which have plunged in recent days as a result of fears that US users of LLMs may gravitate to much cheaper, if just as capable, Chinese alternatives leading to huge revenue declines at US frontier companies. 

At the meetings, led by China's Ministry of Commerce, participants discussed putting limits on the most advanced AI models, both closed-source and more open versions, according to two of the sources.

Officials talked about making any leak or theft of proprietary AI technology an offense under China's stringent national security law. The officials also raised the possibility of implementing new measures to restrict who ?can fund domestic AI startups, the source added.

The scope of the ?potential restrictions is still being discussed, two sources said, adding that they may only apply to future models. It was not immediately clear when or even if they would come into force.

All three leading Chinese AI companies - Alibaba, ByteDance and Z.ai - have a range of AI models, some closed-source while others are open-weight, meaning users can download, run and customise the underlying systems. Alibaba's Qwen and ByteDance's Doubao are two of the most widely used AI models in China. Z.ai has recently set Silicon Valley abuzz as the capabilities of its ?GLM-5.2 ?model come close to leading U.S. offerings but at a fraction of the cost. 

Trump's administration has also been deeply concerned about national security ?implications of AI, in particular the potential for American AI products to be misused by military intelligence in China, Russia and other countries of concern. In June, it ordered that foreign nationals not have access to Anthropic's most advanced Fable and Mythos models, which prompted the company to disable the models for all users globally as nationality could not be verified in real time.

Export controls for Fable, which is designed for the general public, have since been lifted after new safeguards were put in place. But Mythos, designed for cybersecurity professionals, is still only available to some "trusted" U.S. organizations.

Some US AI experts have also said the US needs to regulate the use of Chinese AI models. According to two of the sources, Chinese authorities are deeply worried about the ?potential for Mythos to exploit software vulnerabilities and that Washington might deploy the model against Chinese interests.

That echoes ?concerns publicly voiced by state media and Zhou Hongyi, founder of cybersecurity firm 360, a major vendor to government ?and enterprise clients, who has said China needs to develop its own Mythos.

Amid the rising techno-nationalism, China has implemented numerous measures to protect homegrown AI this year. In April, the country's state planner ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of Chinese-founded AI startup Manus. In ?early June, authorities issued sweeping new rules, tightening control of overseas deals ?that involve Chinese investors, technology, data and national security.

China ?had also launched investigations this year into Manus and other local AI startups that had moved abroad, seeking to establish whether they have broken export control laws, according to two of the sources and a third person.

In its report, Reuters says that it was not able to learn how any potential new restrictions on overseas access to Chinese ?AI models might work. But some hints might be gleaned from a May ?roundtable of Chinese legal experts on regulations governing open-source AI.

According to a summary of the discussions published in an official Supreme People's Court journal, participants proposed a ?tiered system: basic open-source tools subject to a simple filing, more advanced technologies facing security reviews, and the most sensitive frontier models barred from public release or restricted ?to domestic use. 

If indeed China is about to start its own AI "firewall", the question is what happens then? Recall, in blowback to the short-lived tokenmaxxing idiocy, a growing number of American enterprises are quietly gravitating toward cheaper Chinese models.

But if China itself limits access to US clients, does this mean that the balance of power shifts back to US LLMs which will then become the only available AI vendors to US corporations. If so, is Beijing making a big mistake depriving its nascent AI ecosystem of US client revenues, and instead allowing US models - which recently found themselves on the defensive in response to much cheaper Chinese alternative - to take an even bigger lead for round 2? 

Graham Platner's Senate campaign was thrown into turmoil Monday after a woman publicly accused him of sexual assault in a detailed report published by Politico.

Jenny Racicot, a 41-year-old Maine woman, told reporters Jessica Piper and Adam Wren that Platner sexually assaulted her in late 2021, near the end of an on-and-off consensual relationship that began after the two matched on Bumble in 2019. Before publishing the allegations, Politico interviewed Racicot three times over two weeks, spoke with a man she dated after Platner, and reviewed therapist emails and years-old Facebook messages.

Racicot said she texted Platner that night, telling him not to come over. Then she heard footsteps on the stairs. Platner had let himself into her unlocked rural home, and by her account, he smelled of alcohol and hovered near blackout drunk. She said he climbed on top of her on the couch and kept grabbing her as she told him to stop, knocking over an antique sewing kit and scattering needles without pausing. When she tried to leave the room, he followed her into the bedroom and had sex with her against her will.

"I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me," she said. "I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, 'This is no longer my choice.'"

He fell asleep in her bed. She said she considered forcing him out but feared a blackout-drunk driver on rural Maine roads might kill someone. The next morning, when he tried to put his arm around her, she pushed him away and asked if he remembered the night before. He said he did not. She told him to leave and never contact her again.

Racicot waited several weeks, making sure she was sure she was not pregnant from the assault, before sending Platner an Instagram message stating the encounter was not consensual. That message no longer exists because Racicot deleted her old texts and social media exchanges with him and could not recover them for Politico. Nor did she file a police report, citing shock, confusion, and fear of retaliation. Her therapist heard the account at the time, and emails Racicot shared with the paper show that she sought help to corroborate it. A man Racicot began dating in 2022 also said she described the incident in pieces before sharing the full account in 2023, and his version matched hers.

Politico also reviewed Facebook messages from 2023 in which Racicot warned an acquaintance against getting involved with Platner, telling her that he does not listen when he is drunk. A friend she confided in last summer recalled her describing him as very drunk and unwilling to accept no as an answer.

Platner's campaign called the allegations a coordinated hit by outside political operatives and noted the story landed about a week before Maine's ballot deadline, echoing the timing of allegations that surfaced before the primary. The problem is that Racicot's politics align with Platner's, and her hesitation to come forward stemmed from a conflict between supporting his platform and disapproving of him as a person; she wanted voters to have a full picture of who he is.

The New York Times contacted her in spring 2026, and she shared the assault claim off the record; the resulting article described his behavior in general terms while coverage centered on accuser Lyndsey Fifield, whose Republican ties gave Platner's allies an angle to deflect the accusations, which ultimately did not impact his campaign. His candidacy had already survived offensive online comments and earlier claims he mistreated women, which he denied while attributing past behavior to mental health struggles and alcohol abuse. Prior to the New York Times story, Platner had assured Senate Democrats that no more scandals would come out about him.

June 10 pic.twitter.com/oXp7ztcHRA

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 6, 2026

Despite the damning allegations in the New York Times story, Platner raised more than $200,000 after the story came out, his best fundraising day since Gov. Janet Mills exited the race. After seeing Fifield's account get minimized because of her politics, Racicot was convinced she had to come forward.

In a video statement posted on social media, Platner denied the allegations but said he was taking time off to reflect on the path forward.

"I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me," Platner said. "Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false." He thanked supporters for building "the largest volunteer base in the history of Maine politics" before arriving at the sentence that counts. "So regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins," he said. He closed with a vow that "you never turned your back on me, and I will not turn my back on you now," and the sign-off, "As Maine goes, so goes the nation."

pic.twitter.com/9itIt4Mw25

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026

Maine law gives Democrats until July 14 for Platner to drop out of the race and still legally replace him with another candidate.

Dramatic video from inside the former Pfizer headquarters tower in Midtown Manhattan shows large I-beams buckling, and officials are warning of a possible collapse.

The 33-story high-rise at 235 East 42nd Street is undergoing a major office-to-residential conversion, one of the largest projects of its kind in the New York City metro area.

WATCH: New York City's biggest office-to-residential conversion just hit an unexpected obstacle.
Buckling columns and falling bricks forced an evacuation at the former Pfizer headquarters. pic.twitter.com/anXDOmBSfw

— The Real Deal (@trdny) July 7, 2026

Local media outlet Pix 11 cited the FDNY, which said floors 21 through 26 have caved in, and major cracks and sagging floors were seen throughout the tower.

Video shows two columns buckled inside a Midtown building under construction. Dozens were evacuated and multiple streets were closed at the height of rush hour. See the full story : https://t.co/lgH632z6TN pic.twitter.com/7eYIZtJNPI

— PIX11 News (@PIX11News) July 7, 2026

A union member working on the site told local media that workers allegedly failed to add sufficient steel support columns to handle the additional load from a new structure being built atop the original building.

"What happened here is that this building was renovated. They were going to add another 16 stories to it. But at that point you need to add more steel. And obviously they did not add the right amount of steel - so the north side of the building is crumbling. The I-beams are bending like cigarettes," the union member said

NOW: "The North Side of that Building is CRUMBLING" -
Construction Worker speaks about the former Pfizer HQ building, which is in danger of COLLAPSE in Manhattan.

Licensing @FreedomNTV desk@freedomnews.tv pic.twitter.com/FNvDJpF5A1

— Oliya Scootercaster ?? (@ScooterCasterNY) July 7, 2026

The New York Times reported that the building is being converted by Metro Loft into a residential tower with more than 1,600 apartments. Architects have described it as the largest project of its kind in NYC history, and it is scheduled to be completed in 2027.

The former Pfizer tower is part of a larger push to convert underused Midtown office space into residential units as NYC seeks to ease its housing shortage.

With yields blowing out today as they followed the sharp increase in oil prices after Iran struck no less than 3 ships crossing the Hormuz Strait (with a Trump response sure to follow), we doubt there was much focus on today's 3Y auction. Which is unfortunate because despite the selloff in the secondary market, the auction itself was quite solid. 

The sale of $58BN in 3 Year paper, the week's first coupon auction, priced at a high yield of 4.179%, down modestly from 4.192% in June which was the highest since Feb 2025. It also stopped through the When Issued 4.185% by 0.6bps, and followed two tailing auctions.

The bid to cover was 2.600, down from 2.645 and below the recent average of 2.645 although as shown in the chart below, the BTC for the tenor appears to have flatlined between 2.5 and 2.7 over the past 6 years. 

The internals were stronger, with Indirects awarded 67.5% of the auction, up from 63.71% last month and the highest since April (also well above the recent average of 62.5%). And with Directs taking 7.7%, down notably from 15.3% a month ago, Dealers were left with 24.75% of the auction, the highest since February. 

Overall, this was a very strong 3Y auction which curiously comes in a very ugly day for the bond complex, which seemingly oblivious of the strong primary demand, has pushed 10Y yields to a session high of 4.523%, the highest since June 10, and rising fast. 

A flurry of Wall Street analysts is turning incredibly bullish on SpaceX, with 12-month price targets ranging from Raymond James' $800 to Arete Research's $401 and Morgan Stanley's $300.

The average price target across 34 analysts tracked by Bloomberg now sits at around $236, implying massive upside from current levels of about $150 and reinforcing the view that analysts are beginning to value SpaceX less as a rocket company and more as a foundational AI, satellite broadband, and next-generation infrastructure company.

Raymond James is the most bullish among analysts covering SpaceX, initiating coverage with a "Strong Buy" rating and a Street-high 12-month price target of $800, about 500% above its IPO price.

"Just as railroads, electric grids, and the Internet reshaped prior economic eras, we believe SpaceX is building the foundational platform for the next generation of industrial capacity," Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale wrote in a note to clients.

JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth told clients Tuesday that his team initiated coverage on SpaceX with an "Overweight" rating and a $225 12-month price target.

"SpaceX's ambitions are bigger than any company's we've seen - to make life multi-planetary, leverage the Sun to build out AI in space, & build bases on the Moon and cities on other planets," Anmuth wrote in the note.

He continued:

In our view, no other company is as well positioned to go after the combined anticipated TAM of $28T+. Launch is the key enabler & differentiator, with ~670 orbital launches, a 99%+ success rate, & 80%+ of all mass to orbit since 2023. Starship should deliver a 10x cost improvement & ~4x higher payload vs. Falcon 9 and enable the company to pursue entirely new markets. Connectivity drives current financials via Starlink, the largest LEO constellation (9,600+ satellites, 12M+ active customers, 164 markets), where we project broadband subscribers growing from 9M in 2025 to 95M+ in 2030. Importantly, AI is expected to be the long-term driver, as SpaceX is modeled to ramp terrestrial compute ~8x to 8GW by the end of 2028 & pursue orbital compute towards ~75GW by the end of 2031. We believe significant upside potential remains as the company quite literally builds out the next frontier.

Edison Yu at Deutsche Bank told clients earlier today that SpaceX "represents in our view the apex of civilizational ambition, oftentimes expressed in steel and fire, bending the arc of history to make humans multiplanetary by building foundational infrastructure across transportation, connectivity, and AI."

"In short, across nearly every category, we struggle to find competitors that can challenge SpaceX's moat and therefore initiate coverage with a Buy rating and $255 price target," Yu said.

SpaceX shares fell 5.5% on Tuesday morning to $151 and now trades down 31% from the June 16 intraday high of $218. Shares have been basing around the $150 level since June 24.

Another major bull on the stock is Morgan Stanley, which has a $300 12-month price target, with analysts at the bank stating that the company stands to gain from AI demand.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan raised Tesla's 12-month price target on the view of a SpaceX-Tesla merger on the horizon.

Narayan continued:

Our view: In this report, we raise our Tesla PT to $500 by incorporating a 25-30% premium to current trading levels, (and a 15% premium to the stock's intrinsic value), owing to a potential SpaceX acquisition scenario based on unconfirmed media reports. We also sharpen our pencils on our Tesla intrinsic valuation. We believe our robotaxi work in particular is unique in both in its approach and detail.

Meanwhile, Morningstar analysts remain the most bearish on SpaceX, with a "Sell" rating and a 12-month price target of $62.

Professional subscribers can read the full SpaceX coverage from leading desks here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

We suggest starting with: 

1. Deutsche Bank: Apex of Civilizational Ambition

2. Needham: Launch King Secures Its Rule in Orbital Infrastructure; Initiate Buy

3. RBC Capital Markets: Space, the final frontier, repriced; initiating at Outperform with a $225 price target

4. Morgan Stanley: AI's Final Frontier; Initiate at Overweight, PT $300

5. JPMorgan: The Next Frontier; Initiating Coverage with an Overweight Rating & $225 PT

Index inclusion could provide support for SpaceX around the $150 level. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts estimated that inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 and FTSE Russell could generate at least $5.4 billion in demand from index-tracking funds.

Inflation as measured by the CPI may have peaked, but Americans’ expectations for inflation over the near and medium term rose notably in June according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey released Tuesday, with strong increases anticipated for medical care costs and rent,

Consumers now see inflation at 3.7% over the next year, up from 3.5% in May, the highest since September 2023. Expectations for inflation in three years increased to 3.3%, the highest since June 2022, up from 3.1%, while estimates for inflation in five years remained steady at 3%. 

After months of facing higher energy costs, consumers said they see gas prices rising at the lowest rate since mid-2022. Their outlook for food prices also improved slightly in June, though households expect higher bills for medical care and rent. As shown below, median year-ahead commodity price change expectations increased by 0.5% point for the cost of medical care to 9.4%, and by 0.9 percentage point for rent to 8.3%. Median year-ahead price change expectations decreased by 0.8 percentage point for food to 5.0%, by 2.3 percentage points for the cost of college education to 5.7%, and by 3.5 percentage points for gas to 1.5%. The June reading for gas is the lowest since August 2022.

Energy prices have declined in recent weeks, following an interim peace deal between the US and Iran. Earlier on Tuesday, New York Fed President John Williams said he now sees a positive near-term outlook for inflation, which rose 4.2% in May from a year earlier.  

Despite the jump in near-term inflation expectations, sentiment improved when it comes to jobs: the mean perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next twelve months decreased by 1.0% to 14.1%, and the mean perceived probability of finding a job if one’s current job was lost increased by 1.2% to 44.9%.

The data also pointed to an improvement in consumers’ finances. The share of households saying their financial situation was better than last year increased in June, a smaller share of households reporting a worse financial situation and a larger share reporting a better financial situation, and expectations for future finances also improved.

.... however, expectations for future credit availability deteriorated slightly, with a larger share of respondents expecting that it will be harder to obtain credit in the year ahead.

The mean perceived probability that U.S. stock prices will be higher 12 months from now increased by 2.9 percentage points to 40.9%, the highest level of the series since April 2021.

Some more details from the report:

Labor Market

• Median one-year-ahead earnings growth expectations increased by 0.1 percentage point to 2.8% in June. This is the highest reading since March 2025.
• Mean unemployment expectations—or the mean probability that the U.S. unemployment rate will be higher one year from now—decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 41.7%, remaining above the 12-month trailing average of 41.3%.
• The mean perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next 12 months decreased by 1.0 percentage point to 14.1%, falling below the 12-month trailing average of 14.5%. The mean probability of leaving one’s job voluntarily in the next 12 months (or the expected quit rate), declined by 3.5 percentage points to 17.3%, falling below the 12-month trailing average of 18.6%.
• The mean perceived probability of finding a job if one’s current job was lost increased by 1.2 percentage points to 44.9%, though it remains below the 12-month trailing average of 46.3%. The increase was driven by respondents with household incomes under $50,000.

Household Finance

• The median expected growth in household income increased by 0.2 percentage point to 3.0% in June. The series has been moving in a narrow range between 2.8% and 3.0% since June 2025.
• Median one-year-ahead nominal household spending growth expectations remained unchanged at 5.0%.
• Perceptions of credit access compared to a year ago improved, with the net share of households reporting it is harder to get credit decreasing. Expectations for future credit availability deteriorated slightly, with a larger share of respondents expecting it will be harder to obtain credit and a smaller share expecting it will be easier to obtain credit in the year ahead.
• The average perceived probability of missing a minimum debt payment over the next three months decreased by 1.8 percentage points to 10.8%, the lowest reading since April 2023. The decline was broad-based across age and education groups.
• The median expectation regarding a year-ahead change in taxes at current income level remained unchanged at 3.1%.
• Median year-ahead expected growth in government debt decreased by 0.4 percentage point to 9.5%, remaining above the 12-month trailing average of 8.7%.
• The mean perceived probability that the average interest rate on saving accounts will be higher in 12 months increased by 2.0 percentage points to 26.6%.
• Perceptions about households’ current financial situations compared to a year ago improved, with a smaller share of households reporting a worse financial situation and a larger share of households reporting a better financial situation. Year-ahead expectations about households’ financial situation also improved, with a smaller share of households expecting a worse financial situation and a larger share of households expecting a better financial situation in one year from now.

The report comes as some investors see the Fed raising rates later this year to address elevated inflation, although others such as Morgan Stanley are pretty steadfast the Fed will not hike. Fed officials have kept interest rates steady in 2026, though economic projections released last month showed nine officials see the need for at least one rate increase by year end.

The Democratic Socialists of America are quickly gaining power within the Democratic Party, winning a string of high-profile House primary races in recent weeks.

After wins in New York and Colorado, DSA organizers are shifting resources toward Michigan and Wisconsin, where Abdul El-Sayed is running in a highly contested Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, and DSA-backed Francesca Hong is seeking the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor.

?? Francesca Hong, leading Democratic Socialist in the Wisconsin governor’s race:

“Police exist to uphold white supremacy.” pic.twitter.com/B7cscyzGFI

— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 6, 2026

Politico noted that DSA is planning to deploy prominent socialists, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and far-left streamer Hasan Piker, to help energize supporters ahead of the August primaries.

Democrats are now facing a massive internal power struggle after years of allowing socialists and Marxists into their DEI kingdom.

The far-left is hijacking the party and transforming it into something nearly unrecognizable from the old Democratic Party.

The rhetoric now is mostly openly anti-American, hostile to capitalism, supportive of abolishing jails, pushing racism, disdainful of the Constitution, and increasingly dependent on voter blocs shaped by years of mass-migration policies.

What was once a center-left party built around labor, civil rights, and working-class citizens is now being pulled into a radical left revolutionary movement, apparently influenced by foreign subversion operations that seek the destruction of the U.S., hence the anti-American rhetoric.

These DSA and allied activists are using primary wins, urban power centers, and left-wing NGO infrastructure to push Democrats further left ahead of the next election cycle.

X user Canary Mission has published a video showcasing the new faces of the Democratic Party: DSA members who describe exactly what the intention of the socialist movement is - destroying America from deep within.

Frank, Aaron, Hank and Sam are Communist insurgents, radicalized marxist revolutionaries hiding behind personal ideologies to justfy their 1A expressions of the right to promote the insurrection of the Constitutional Republic of the United States of America pic.twitter.com/XLzzjisOqd

— AnimalFarm1945 (Moshe) (@Farm1945A) July 6, 2026

The wake-up call for the general public was when socialist NYC Mayor Zohan Mamrdani bashed America on George Washington's desk one day before America's 250th anniversary.

Zohran Mamdani’s Independence Day speech is just him attacking America the entire time pic.twitter.com/wWak7OjCNw

— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 3, 2026

And, of course, Hasan Piker, the unofficial DSA spokesperson, has called for his followers "to kill capitalists. Let the streets soak in their fucking red capitalist blood."

Hasan Piker calls on his followers to kill capitalists:

“Yeah kill them! KiII those motherfuckers and murder those motherfuckers in the streets. Let the streets soak in their fucking red capitalist blood, dude.”

Democrats are campaigning with him. pic.twitter.com/YiZxGgRkgc

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 9, 2026

Related:

• Billionaire Governor Pritzker Embraces Socialist Candidates As The Future Of The Democrat Party

If you want to understand why the Democratic Party has become so radical and revolutionary, here are some possible answers:

• Feds Nab Alleged Member Of "Sprawling" Cuban Communist Subversion Network Linked To Hasan Piker's Havana Trip
• DOJ Grand Jury Probes Neville Roy Singham's Marxist NGO Empire: Report
• "No Longer Tolerate Radical Marxists": Rubio Sanctions Revolutionary Cuban Influence Network Tied To U.S. Left-Wing NGOs
• Is There A "Cuba Connection" Behind The Radicalization Of America's Nonprofit Left

The left-wing has absolutely no guardrails:

• Former Sen. Warren Staffer Attends Ayatollah's Funeral, Calls Him "Greatest Leader Of Our Lifetime"

And this has culminated into...

• Troubling Pattern Of Left-Wing Revolutionaries Targeting "Capitalists" Raises Alarm Over Youth Radicalization

In response, the Trump administration has been testing the waters with anti-communist messaging. It is likely that this messaging will only grow louder, as citizens on both sides of the political aisle can agree that communism is bad.

Tonight on the ZH homepage, Erik Townsend of Macro Voices will host a special livestream with the founders (CEO and CTO) of nuclear energy company Aalo Atomics: Matt Loszak and Yasir Arafat.

This will be part of an ongoing series diving into the emerging nuclear energy technologies, to feature heads of the cutting edge startups and some technical and philisophical debates about where the industry needs to head in order to solve the world's energy needs.

The following is from Erik Townsend's Substack (full post) which gives a look into the significance of the milstone achieved:

Full disclosure: I am an early investor in Aalo Atomics and have a direct financial interest in the company’s success. Nothing here is investment advice. Early-stage private investments are speculative, illiquid, and can go to zero. Do your own diligence.

At the stroke of midnight on July 4th, 2026, the United States of America began its 250th year. Nineteen minutes later, at 12:19 a.m. Mountain Time, a small nuclear reactor sitting on a two-acre plot at the edge of the Idaho National Laboratory reached criticality — the moment a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. Aalo Atomics had just made history.

This post explains why that was historic. But it also makes a bolder claim, so let me put it up front where you can argue with it:

The criticality demonstration that just made headlines is the least important thing Aalo will do. The event that will actually change the course of history is scheduled for the second half of 2027 — and almost nobody is paying attention to it yet.

Bottom line up front:

• Four American companies brought first-of-a-kind advanced reactors to criticality in a single month — more genuine reactor firsts than the previous half-century produced. Give them all credit.

• Of the four, I contend Aalo’s was the most commercially important, for two reasons almost no one is discussing: it was the only one built at full commercial scale, and it uses the one fuel form that doesn’t depend on a non-existent supply chain.

• The 2026 criticality was a physics demonstration. The 2027 demonstration — the first Aalo-X reactor actually making electricity that powers something substantial — is the starting gun for what I call the Nuclear Henry Ford Moment.

• Aalo has a SAFE round closing this month and a Series C now being shopped. I expect the Series C valuation — which some will likely complain is too high — is going to look, in hindsight, like the bargain of the century. I’ll show you why using a company you’ve heard of.

Above: “Fission Accomplished”—The crowd in Idaho Falls, ID erupts in cheers and applause as the successful criticality event is announced just after midnight on the morning of July 4th.

More nuclear history was made in one month than in the prior half-century

Here is a fact that should stop you cold. On June 4th, 2026, when Antares Nuclear’s Mark-0 reactor went critical at INL, it became — by the count of INL’s own laboratory director — the first genuinely new reactor design to reach criticality at the lab in more than half a century. It was also, per the DOE, the 53rd reactor ever built at that site since 1951.

Think about what that means. The Idaho desert is where America built the first of a kind (FOAK) reactors that created the first nuclear age — 52 of them in the 22-year period from 1951 to 1973. Then that pace of first-of-a-kind innovation effectively stopped. Not slowed. Stopped. FOAKreactor design introductions at INL went into a 53-year hiatus from 1973 to 2026. Then four new reactor designs went critical in just 31 days, culminating with Aalo’s Critical Test Reactor on the nation’s 250th birthday.

The conclusion is inescapable: The dawn of the second nuclear age is upon us.

What restarted it was a deadline. In May 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” which directed the DOE to stand up a Reactor Pilot Program and get at least three new test reactors to criticality by July 4th, 2026. When that goal was announced, most of the industry called it a fantasy. The conventional wisdom is that a new reactor takes at least a decade. The order gave them roughly just twelve months.

They didn’t just hit the target. They beat it. Four companies reached criticality:

• Antares Nuclear — the Mark-0, a 500-kilowatt sodium heat-pipe microreactor, critical at INL on June 4th.

• Valar Atomics — the Ward 250, a 100-kilowatt helium-cooled, TRISO-fueled high-temperature gas reactor, critical in Emery County, Utah on June 18th.

• Deployable Energy — the Unity Nuclear Battery, a roughly 1-megawatt shipping-container reactor whose founder famously drove the core to Idaho in the bed of a Ford F-150, critical on June 30th.

• Aalo Atomics — the Critical Test Reactor went critical at INL in the wee hours of July 4th, the very deadline itself.

The DOE was entitled to its victory lap: for the first time in history, a single country brought four distinct advanced-reactor designs to criticality inside one month’s time. That’s never happened before in world history.

For over fifty years the pace of American reactor innovation was zero. Then, on a presidential dare, four companies did the impossible in four weeks. That is the real headline — and it deserves to be spread far and wide.

So let me be clear before I get selective: every one of these teams did something extraordinary.... but “we made a reactor go critical” and “we’re about to change the economics of civilization” are very different claims, and in my humble opinion, the market is currently failing to distinguish between them.

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Tune in tonight at the ZH homepage, X account, and YouTube page at 7pm ET to watch the Aalo energy deep dive live, and see why Erik is betting big on their prospects to change the entire industry.