el producto #444 🚀
Perplexity and OpenAI browsers, AWS AI Agents marketplace, Apple redesigns its redesign, Grok 4, MCPs vs APIs, A guide to AI evals, New Gemini features & more
Hi friends 👋
Happy weekend, and welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$4T: Nvidia has reached a market capitalization of $4 trillion, matching the GDPs of countries like India and Japan
$6.5B: OpenAI successfully acquired Jony Ive's AI hardware company now called “io Products, Inc.” for a whopping $6.5B in stock, surviving (or, sidestepping??) the trademark case against them
$3.5B: Meta has bought a 3% stake in its smart glasses partner—the parent company behind Ray-Ban and Oakley, EssilorLuxottica—for around $3.5B. The deal reflects Meta’s laser-focus on developing AI hardware— specifically AI-powered eyewear
$1B: Mistral, the French AI startup is in talks to raise $1B shortly after a $1.19B raise
$1B: Revolut, the leading UK neobank seeks $1B at a $65B valuation. Revenue is up 72% to $4B on 52M customers, despite regulatory challenges and intense competition
$820M: iCapital, a fintech platform for alternative investments, has raised +$820M, taking its valuation to over $7.5B. The NY-based startup plans to use its new capital toward strategic acquisitions, geographic expansion, and investment in tech
$250M: Bilt raised $250M at a $10.75B valuation to expand its housing and neighborhood commerce platform
$100M: Harmonic, the AI startup tackling math problems that stump current models, secured $100M
$113k: Bitcoin soared to $113,000 in a record-breaking rally thanks to institutional investors and pro-crypto administration policies; the cryptocurrency is up 50% from April lows
53%: AI startups secured 53% of global venture capital in H1 2025, with 64% in the U.S., as major players focus heavily on AI investments
📰 What’s going on
Perplexity’s new AI browser, Comet, has finally launched. It’s currently available for Max users of Perplexity, and like other AI browsers, Comet is able to reference tabs for tasks like online Shopping or content comparison, summarize YouTube videos, and even perform actions on your behalf. It supports agentic actions and voice, but the current overall experience is a little clunkier and less responsive than competitors like Dia, especially when opening new tabs or loading pages. Given that this is still a very early version of the browser, these issues will likely get ironed out over the coming weeks
OpenAI is also planning to launch an AI web browser to rival Google Chrome, Perplexity and Dia
Google Workspace is getting some new Gemini-enabled features. Its custom built AI agents known as “Gems” will now appear in the sidebar of products like Google Docs. Some of the example gems include an OKR writer and a C-Suite persona that can pressure test content from a certain person’s perspective. You can also now use Gemini to perform actions like creating folders and files in Google Drive using natural language
YouTube bans AI video monetization. From July 15th, YouTube content creators will not be able to monetize videos that have been heavily created with AI, as YouTube is updating its policies to stop creators from generating revenue from “inauthentic content”
Apple has made some major changes to its Liquid Glass design system in the latest beta update of iOS26. Gone is the glass in Apple Music, and in its place is a more traditional UI that users can actually read
Amazon Web Services is reportedly launching an AI agent marketplace at the AWS Summit in New York next week (July 15th), and has already secured Anthropic as one of its main AI agent partners. The agent marketplace will enable partnering AI start-ups to offer their AI agents to AWS customers and will allow AWS customers to browse, compare, and install AI agents that fit their needs, from one single platform. Like any online marketplace, AWS partners—including Anthropic—will charge customers (on a usage-based or subscription-based plan) for access to their AI agents, and Amazon will take a small cut. This could be huge for Anthropic, as it would put their agentic AI models in front of the customers of the world's most popular cloud platform and also encourage them to build their own agents via their open-source API
Microsoft and Replit have announced a new partnership that will allow Microsoft users to create production-ready vibe-coded apps, deployed into production using Azure. One of the biggest criticisms of vibe-coded apps is their security vulnerabilities, and this partnership should help to rectify some of those concerns. The release says that 500k business users are already building apps using Replit- from internal tools to customer-facing applications
xAI’s Grok 4 was just released, and is now officially “the smartest model in the world”. It introduced far more than just the expected performance gains, revealing a new architectural approach: multi-agent reasoning. The system deploys parallel agents on a task, lets them debate internally, and refines outputs through consensus—more akin to a panel of researchers than a single system. The Grok 4 Heavy variant scored 88.9% on GPQA, and a perfect 100% on the AIME mathematics exam, outperforming OpenAI o3 and Claude 4 Opus by wide margins
Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles “next week, at the latest,” according to Elon Musk. Musk has been teasing this Tesla/Grok integration for months, claiming that Grok would become an AI assistant that would enable drivers to “chat” with their cars and ask Grok to perform certain tasks. Musk also says Tesla’s robotaxis will head to San Francisco “probably” in a month or two after the self-driving cars debuted in Austin
Ramp introduced AI agents that automated finance operations by enforcing expense policies, eliminating unauthorized spending, and preventing fraud
Zoom AI Companion now connects to 16 third-party apps like Asana and ServiceNow to complete your tasks and join meetings across platforms like Google Meet without you being there
Blok, a company that is coming out of stealth, is working on AI personas that simulate users for testing, aiming to replace live experiments by “giving teams the ability to predict user behavior before a single line of code is written“
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance built a new version of the app, internally called M2, which The Information says will launch on Sept. 5th for US users
📚 Good reads
MCPs: lessons from the API era. This article dives into how Model Context Protocols (MCPs) are reshaping AI integration by drawing parallels with the API era's rise (and fall?). MCPs are here to stay, and this piece will help you get up to speed on the topic
LLM visualizer - get familiar with the fundamentals of LLMs using this interactive visualizer
PM’s guide to AI evals: step-by-step. Aakash Gupta breaks down the PM's crucial role in AI evaluations, focusing on building trust, engaging directly with AI tools, and linking evaluations to tangible business impact. A practical playbook for PMs to lead effective AI assessments. Aakash visuals are always top
5 ways to improve your Figma Make prompts: Julios Patto explains how to enhance your AI-driven design game with Figma Make by crafting clear, scenario-based prompts. Use polite language, treat it as a brainstorming partner, and break complex tasks into focused steps for better UX outcomes. Iterate and refine your approach to maintain creativity while leveraging AI’s strengths. And give a try to Figma Make if you haven’t yet!
AI in retail ecommerce. CB Insights shares an extensive report diving into how the top 20 global retailers are prepping for an AI-driven future, scoring their execution and innovation in adopting AI tools
Why smart people doubt their own abilities. Anne Laure LeCunff dives into why high achievers often question their competence, touching on patterns like perfectionism and impostor syndrome. Includes practical strategies to build intellectual confidence, emphasizing self-acceptance, just-in-time learning, and celebrating small wins
That’s a wrap for this week! 🌟
I’d love to hear your thoughts—what stood out to you, and how are you thinking about integrating these insights into your Product strategy? Reply to the email or drop a comment on Substack to share your take. And if you found this valuable, forward it to a fellow PM, Product enthusiast, startup founder or entrepreneur who’d enjoy the read
More next week! 👋
Angel