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Good morning from a wet and gloomy London. It’s been a real pleasure writing to you each day, but I’m delighted to say your usual host, Dan DeFrancesco, returns from parental leave next week.

Not to worry, this isn’t quite goodbye. I’ll be back in your inbox on Labor Day, and I’ll continue working behind the scenes on this newsletter.

Oh, and do keep in touch — whether it’s feedback, questions, or recommendations for a decent pint in London. I’m at your service.

Now, on to today’s big story: BI’s Jyoti Mann exclusively reports on Meta’s race against time to launch one of its latest products.

What’s on deck:

Markets: The brands Morgan Stanley’s summer interns are splurging on.

Tech: Here’s who stands to benefit — and who might suffer — from the AI software shakeout.

Business: Dollar General is racing to grow its one hour delivery service.

But first, the clock is ticking.

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The big story

Crunch time for the crack team

Meta is in a race against time. And there’s not long left on the clock. Meta’s Superintelligence Labs is under pressure to release one of its first projects by year-end, according to insiders who spoke with BI.

This team has been one to watch. Assembled with urgency, Mark Zuckerberg spared no expense, cherry-picking the very best talent. In June, Meta spent a staggering $14 billion to acquire nearly half of Scale AI — then promptly put its 28-year-old cofounder in charge of the Superintelligence push.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Meta has reportedly dangled compensation packages worth hundreds of millions to lure elite researchers from companies like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

But that strategy has rubbed some Meta employees the wrong way. As one former Meta researcher said, watching outsiders walk in with 10 to 50 times the compensation made some longtime staff feel like failures.

Unsurprisingly, tensions are flaring.

Some workers are threatening to jump ship to rivals. Others say they will quit on the spot to try to force Meta into negotiations.

And so, less than two months after its launch, the cracks are beginning to show in Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. At least eight employees have already left — including some who’d barely unpacked. Two OpenAI engineers reportedly lasted less than a month.

We’ve seen the superstar hires. We’ve seen the eye-watering price tags. What we haven’t seen? Results.

When Meta rolled out its Llama 4 AI models in April, the crowd went mild. Developers felt it underdelivered in key areas like coding, reasoning, and following instructions.

Now, BI’s Jyoti Mann exclusively reports that the team is scrambling to fix the bugs, revive the product, and ship the next-gen release: Llama 4.X.

3 things in markets

1. Wall Street remains bullish on Nvidia even after a lukewarm reaction to earnings. Despite beating second-quarter revenue and earnings, the vibes were tepid at best. Shares immediately slid 4% in the after-market before slightly recovering. Wall Street is shrugging that off, though, with five banks raising their price targets on the stock.
2. How summer interns ball out at Morgan Stanley. Tesla or Mercedes? Longchamp or Coach? These are the questions some of Morgan Stanley’s interns have asked themselves this summer, according to a survey of more than 500 of them. Here are the brands they’re spending their money on.
3. Who’s running the $1 billion spin-out from Viking Global. Former Viking CIO Ning Jin is filling out his leadership team at Avantyr Capital with investors from Coatue, KKR, Blackstone, and more, regulatory filings reveal. See who’s on the roster.

3 things in tech

1. Winners and losers in the AI software shakeout. Generative AI is upending software companies’ business models, and incumbency isn’t enough to ensure that a company will thrive in the post-AI era. RBC shared potential winners, such as Microsoft and Intuit, and losers of the new era.
2. Checking in on the Trump-Zuck relationship. Though Trump once threatened to jail Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO wants more than just amnesty from the president — he needs his help, BI’s Peter Kafka writes. Zuck’s appeals to Trump have worked in some cases, but not all of them: Federal antitrust suits against Meta and other Big Tech companies are still on.
3. Career advice from a 23-year-old with a $400,000 Meta AI job. Manoj Tumu is a machine learning engineer who joined Meta after working at Amazon for nine months. He has some tips for those looking to break into Big Tech. Rule number one: Don’t underestimate the behavioral interview.

3 things in business

1. Dollar General is coming for Amazon’s grocery bag. With plans to reduce delivery times to less than one hour, Dollar General’s CEO said in a recent earnings call that customers are using its fast delivery service to buy fresh groceries. This option is particularly appealing to rural customers — and poses a direct challenge to Amazon and Walmart.
2. Inside Amazon’s plan to be the #1 demand-side platform. The retail giant has long been vying to overtake Google and The Trade Desk in DSP — a piece of adtech software that allows advertisers to automate ad buys and target online audiences. Amazon’s strategy appears to be working: When The Trade Desk’s stock cratered earlier this month, analysts blamed the retail giant.
3. Small businesses are suffering from a US mail change. Postal carriers in at least 25 countries have suspended US-bound parcel deliveries ahead of the end of America’s $800 duty-free exemption. Small businesses reliant on US orders told BI the fallout has been devastating.

In other news

What’s happening today

• US global “de minimis” tariff exemption for low-cost goods ends.

Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Meghan Morris, bureau chief, in Singapore. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York (on parental leave).