Tech, AI & Markets — Monday, August 24, 2026

SOXL cratered over 10% as pre-Nvidia-earnings jitters and AI spending scrutiny hammered leveraged semiconductor bets ahead of the Aug. 26 print. • Hugging Face is exploring a sale at a $13B+ valuation — a deal that could reshape who controls the open-source AI ecosystem and developer infrastructure. • A mysterious frontier-grade model called 'Ox Alpha' appeared online for free from an unknown builder, sparking speculation about stealth lab releases or a well-funded new entrant. • Thomson Reuters is ditching Anthropic's Claude to build in-house legal AI on a Chinese open-source model, a concrete sign of enterprise revolt against frontier AI pricing. • LinkedIn's AI content 'slop button' crossed one million uses in just weeks, quantifying the scale of user backlash against AI-generated filler on social platforms.