Brought to you by:
Top stories today:
- White House now says $100K H-1B fee not annual
- Elonās xAI unveils Grok 4 Fast, cheaper alternative to Grok 4
- TikTok deal to be signed in ācoming daysā: White House
- Neuralink plans Oct. speech trial
- Trump said to link Tylenol to autism risk, announcement eyed Mon.
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing todayās newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. White House now says $100K H-1B fee not annual, says it applies only to new visas
India and China have received the most H-1B visas so far:
The 1-time fee applies only to the petition, White House Press Secy. Karoline Leavitt posted on X.
H-1B visa holders currently outside of the U.S. āwill NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter,ā she said.
āH-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would,ā Leavitt wrote.
Will 1st apply in the next upcoming lottery cycle, she said.
Amazon, TCS, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple are among the heaviest H-1B visa users
Indiaās $280B IT sector is facing upheaval from H-1B visa curbs.
European and Indian stocks dipped after the visa crackdown announced.
Fraudsters arenāt operating aloneātheyāre using AI, automation, and stolen credentials. Yet many fraud teams are still relying on siloed systems and rule-based tools that only catch a fraction of whatās happening. In Plaidās new whitepaper with Javelin, youāll get expert insights into:
Combining identity, device, behavior, and transaction data to detect threats in real time
Using shared intelligence to see the full picture of an attack
Reducing fraud and friction, without compromising either
Learn how top teams are shifting from fragmented defenses to connected, real-time strategies.
Download the report now.
*Sponsored.
3. Elonās xAI unveils Grok 4 Fast, cheaper alternative to Grok 4
Grok 4 Fast is in line with Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude 4.1 Opus on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index:
Based on a unified architecture with āreasoningā and ānon-reasoningā support.
Available to all users through the Grok chatbot in Fast and Auto modes.
Can be accessed for free through OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway (for a limited time).
Grok 4 Fast is the smartest AI for its price category
Grok 4 Fast costs $0.20/$0.50 per 1M tokens vs. Grok 4ās $3/$15 and Gemini 2.5 Proās $1.25/$10.
The new model has surpassed Grok 3 Mini and OpenAIās GPT-5 Mini across benchmarks shared by xAI
4. TikTok deal to be signed in ācoming days,ā includes U.S. algorithm control: White House
