Democratic Party Primary
AI Revenue Hits 25 Billion — But the Margins Tell a Different Story
Quarterly AI revenue sector-wide nearly doubled to 25 billion dollars, surpassing depreciation charges for the second consecutive quarter — the milestone financial analysts had been waiting for. Yet margins remain razor-thin, explaining why big tech stocks are sliding even as top-line numbers improve. The economics of AI currently resemble a capital-intensive infrastructure build where revenue is just barely covering costs while companies bet on future margin expansion.
OpenAI published research showing its Codex agentic coding platform now handles 99.8 percent of the company's internal AI work, with non-developer adoption growing 189 times since August 2025 — a figure suggesting category expansion rather than simple user growth. DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup that made waves with its lean, high-efficiency model, abandoned that approach entirely after closing its first outside funding round at 7.4 billion dollars, announcing plans to double its 170-person team. The company that demonstrated frontier AI could be built with minimal resources is now spending like everyone else.
Anthropic accused Alibaba of stealing AI capabilities — an allegation landing at the exact moment White House talks with Chinese counterparts are intensifying, creating diplomatic awkwardness. On the regulatory front, a House bill would require AI firms to report dangerous incidents to the Department of Commerce, establishing a mandatory incident-reporting framework analogous to those in aviation and nuclear industries. Tech giants also launched a 500-million-dollar nonprofit dedicated to retraining workers for the AI economy.
Ford's experience offered a cautionary data point. The automaker had bet that AI-based quality inspection could replace experienced engineers in manufacturing, discovered it could not, and rehired 350 veteran engineers. The episode illustrates where AI tools currently succeed — and where tacit human expertise still outperforms them. The FDA, separately, granted breakthrough device status to two generative AI radiology tools, accelerating their path toward clinical deployment. Anthropic's Claude chatbot saw its paying user base grow 75 percent since January, according to credit card transaction data, intensifying the competitive dynamics between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek even as the overall market expands.
The Democratic Fracture: Primaries, Pride Parades, and the Carville Alarm
The Democratic Party's internal tensions crystallized across several simultaneous fronts last week. In New York's congressional primaries, three candidates backed by mayoral primary winner Zohran Mamdani — a Democratic Socialist — won congressional races. Among them, community organizer Darializa Avila-Chevalier defeated five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the 13th District. James Carville, architect of the 1992 Clinton campaign, went on television and called for a formal 'schism' — his specific word — arguing the Democratic Party needs to explicitly split from its socialist wing before the midterms. Where the Clinton-era strategy was to absorb and moderate the left, Carville is now arguing that absorption no longer works.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries congratulated the DSA-backed nominees despite reported chants of 'you're next' directed at other incumbents — a response that centrists have read as insufficient pushback. Jeffries is in a nearly impossible position: he needs every Democratic seat available to have any chance at recapturing the House, making it politically costly to alienate the progressive wing even as its primary campaign targets sitting members.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was booed at New York City Pride — a remarkable moment for a politician who has represented New York for decades. The booing reportedly reflected frustration with his handling of the Iran war authorization debate and his perceived insufficiency in opposing the Trump administration. A new poll released this weekend also showed former Vice President Kamala Harris's 2028 Democratic primary lead narrowing, suggesting that the progressive energy fueling congressional primary upsets is beginning to register in presidential preference numbers as well.
Tuesday's Colorado gubernatorial primary between Phil Weiser and Michael Bennet — headlining a ballot that also includes Senate and attorney general contests — provides the next data point. A DSA-backed challenger is reportedly leading in Denver's mayoral primary as well. Colorado's status as a purple-leaning swing state means results there will help distinguish whether the progressive surge is a national movement or a phenomenon specific to high-density urban districts. Separately, President Trump called Washington DC's Democratic mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George a 'communist' and vowed to block her agenda, a threat that carries real weight given the federal government's unique budgetary authority over the District.