The next level
isn't a solo climb.
A private room of founders, operators and builders leveling up their business — and every other part of life — together. You already ship. This is the room that gets you to the next level.
Free for the first 50 founding members — 18 seats left, no card required.
People are already building here.
32 builders are in. Activity below is live — posts, replies, joins from the last few days. Founding cohort is free for the first 50; 18 spots left, then $39/month.
— Community · live
What's happening right now
Join the community →Show recent activity Hidden by default for member privacy
Explore what we build in public
AI news, articles, videos and book reviews — the free brief that pairs with the room. No account needed.
Meta's Custom AI Chip Hits Production in
What is Meta's custom AI chip and when does it go into production?
Meta's custom AI chip, called MTIA, is going into production in September 2025. According to Reuters reporting on the chip's timeline, the chip is expected to double Meta's computing capacity by 2026.
MTIA is Meta's in-house silicon designed to handle AI workloads. By building its own chip, Meta reduces its dependence on third-party cloud GPU providers.
Why does Meta's chip matter for CoreWeave?
CoreWeave is a cloud computing company that rents GPU capacity to AI companies — including Meta. Meta is one of CoreWeave's largest customers.
When news broke about the MTIA chip's production timeline, CoreWeave's stock dropped. Investors worried that Meta would need less outside compute if its own chip could handle more workloads internally.
The Street's coverage of CoreWeave flagged the direct link between Meta's chip ambitions and the pressure on CoreWeave's business model.

Meta's Custom AI Chip Hits Production in
Meta's in-house MTIA chip goes into production this September. The move could double Meta's compute capacity by 2026 — and it's rattling cloud GPU provider CoreWeave.

NHTSA Reviews Zoox Petition for 2,500
Amazon-owned Zoox wants to put 2,500 steering-wheel-free robotaxis on U.S. roads. NHTSA opened a public comment period on March 10, 2026.

Big Tech Carbon Emissions Spike 25% on AI Boom
Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all reported sharp emissions increases in 2025 sustainability reports, with AI data center buildouts pushing each company further from its climate targets.

Nvidia Nemotron 3 Ultra: 10x Cheaper Than Closed
Nvidia's open Nemotron 3 Ultra model hit business-task parity with top closed AI on LangChain's Deep Agents benchmark while cutting inference costs by 10x, sending NVDA up 4%.

DJI EV50 Hits 8,861m on Everest in Science
DJI's EV50 fixed-wing eVTOL completed 32 sorties on Everest for Peking University — while the FlyCart 100 navigated a nine-day permit ban in Nepal.

Waymo Launches Driverless Rides in 4 New Cities
Waymo is going driverless in four new cities. At the same time, NHTSA is calling out a "clear pattern" of autonomous vehicles blocking emergency responders.

Anthropic Restores Claude Fable 5 After Export
Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 went dark for 18 days after a US government export control order. Here's what happened and what changed before the models came back.

GitHub Copilot Workflow Jailbreak: 816/816
Researchers at the Alan Turing Institute found that GitHub Copilot refused just 8 of 816 harmful prompts in direct chat — but completed all 816 when the same requests were spread across a developer workflow.

OpenAI & Google Sold AI to Pentagon-Blacklisted
OpenAI and Google sold AI access to Singapore-based arms of Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent — three firms the Pentagon flags as linked to China's military.

Amazon CTO: Companies Shifting to Cheaper AI
Amazon CTO Werner Vogels told Fortune that companies are shifting to cheaper open-source AI models as runaway token bills force a rethink of how frontier models get deployed.

GPT-5.6 Sol Is 54% More Token Efficient: Altman
OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna models go broad on July 9, 2026. Sam Altman says Sol is 54% more token efficient on agentic coding and "as good or better" than rivals.

AI Needs $3T Revenue to Justify 2026 Buildout
Sequoia partner David Cahn's updated math puts the AI revenue gap at $3 trillion. Apollo's chief economist warns a miss could tip the broader economy into recession.
Live on YouTube
Replays of the latest streams — building in public, unedited.
Identity Change Is the Hardest Code to Ship
Every career pivot follows the same 4-phase pattern: rejection, reluctant acceptance, anger, and — if you hold the line — celebration.
How I Think About Building Software in Summer 2026
On Day 327 of building in public, Charles Botensten lays out a grounded framework for shipping software in summer 2026 — start with your own town, stay small, and ignore the hype.
Why Summer 2026 Is the Window I Refuse to Miss on AI
Charles Botensten makes the case that summer 2026 is the narrowest window for individual builders to own their own AI-powered software before mass adoption closes the gap.
Why People Resist AI (it's a Standards Problem)
Most AI resistance isn't about energy use or job loss — it's a mirror held up to a society that has quietly lowered its standards for labor, reasoning, and work.
Authentic Beats Perfect in the AI Tsunami
The AI content flood is making authentic, imperfect creators the scarcest — and most valuable — signal in the feed.
How I'm Rebuilding YouTube Trust After 3 Niche Pivots
After 3 niche pivots and 17 years as a broker owner, I'm starting from scratch on YouTube trust — and brainstorming my way to a real content funnel.
The Way by St. Josemaría Escrivá: Holiness in the Ordinary
I picked up The Way expecting another discipline book. Instead I got a 20th-century saint telling me holiness isn't a different job — it's the one I already have.
Definitive Guide to Catholic Fasting & Abstinence: What Stuck With Me
Matthew Plese's history of Catholic fasting shocked me into changing my Sundays. Here's what the early Church actually did, and why the version we practice today is a shell of it.
Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI: The 1968 Warning We Ignored
A 1968 encyclical predicted hookup culture, fatherlessness, and the objectification of women decades before any of it happened. Here's what I pulled from it.
Winning by Timothy Grover: The 4 Rules That Changed How I Operate
Tim Grover's Winning reorganized how I train, work, and spend my time — no balance, all selfish focus. Here's what actually stuck four years later.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: 4 Ideas That Changed How I Operate
I was oblivious to Naval until his Joe Rogan appearance flipped something in me. Here are the four ideas from this book that actually changed how I make money, spend money, and treat my body.
Boundaries by Henry Cloud: Why Saying No Is a Discipline
I picked this up because everything today pushes boundaryless living. Here are the four ideas from Henry Cloud's Boundaries that changed how I run my schedule, my business, and my relationships.
Today's Poll
History →Botensten · Venture Studio
Ideas, built fast.
The studio behind BPI, iCharles, Todd & the AI council — idea to clickable prototype in ~5 minutes.
Explore BotenstenMost read by crawlers
What the AI & search bots fetch most.
Newsletter
Join the iCharles community
Building in public — AI, real estate, triathlon, faith. One dispatch when something ships.





