Entrepreneur, cofounder @cupolaxs, https://xitter.cf/t.co/JYKK8cliVh, https://xitter.cf/t.co/9WYqNqVdqh, Builder in the Intelligence Economy. Writing articles on tech, critical thinking & society
Amsterdam
Joined March 2009
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Mijn @TEDxHaarlemNL talk: ‘breaking bubbles: a startup approach to polarization’. Enjoy.
youtu.be/Qf3UzwwgDaY?si=frYQ…
Ruben Nieuwenhuis retweeted
Elon just said that most neoclouds will eventually die.
And we might already be seeing it play out.
Even if AI is the biggest tech revolution of our lifetime, that doesn't mean every company building AI infrastructure will survive.
Some will thrive. Many will struggle. Most will be liquidated.
And we've seen this before during the internet boom.
The internet changed the world, but plenty of companies that built the infrastructure went bankrupt along the way.
This time won't be different.
Pretty much.
As of the past few weeks, debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn’t have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers.
SpaceX closed $40B of debt for GPUs, but we’re investment grade and have Starlink & launch revenue.
That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation. Some will make it through, but not many.
Bij ons te gast in de Koepel!
Wij strijden niet alleen voor de bevrijding van Iran van het Islamitische regime. Om Nederland te beschermen strijden wij tegen het Islamisme.
Want wat in Iran gebeurde kan ook hier gebeuren wanneer het Islamisme niet wordt gestopt.
Lees hoe vrijheid kan sterven in het boek van de dappere Keyvan Shabazi . 🙏🏻
Ruben Nieuwenhuis retweeted
Islam, radicaal-links en criminaliteit: wat de rellen in Frankrijk vertellen over de toekomst van Europa
Zolang de middenpartijen de immigratie niet willen inperken en de Europese basiswaarden weigeren te verdedigen, zal de maatschappelijke onrust toenemen. Immigratie destabiliseert de democratie. Het bestrijden van ongecontroleerde immigratie én het opkomen voor de westerse waarden zijn essentieel om democratieën weerbaar te houden.
ewmagazine.nl/buitenland/ach… via @ewmagazinenl
“Is dit beleid of is erover nagedacht?” Jan schaefer
Schuld van Amsterdam stijgt komende jaren mogelijk boven de tien miljard, hoe erg is dat? at5.nl/artikelen/240607/schu…
Public spending
David Friedberg reveals France's public spending is 57% of GDP: greater than that of communist countries
"This chart is a measure of public spending as a percent of GDP; Rand Group Research published it. And you can see the comparison of France's public spending as a percent of GDP, to the peak public spending as a percent of GDP of major communist nations, Soviet Union during, communist Romania, Venezuela under Chavez, and then communist China."
"It certainly been a socialist state, right? That's my point. I think this is such a precious lesson for the West to look at. We all think that there's some political problem with Macron or whoever it was."
"The more the government spends, the worse the conditions get for its people, not the opposite. And then the people riot and revolt and say that the government's not spending enough and the government needs to be doing more."
"Take a guess where the US is today. Federal government spending is $7.4 trillion, state and local government spending is $4.6 trillion. You add those two together, it's $12 trillion out of a $33 trillion GDP. US public spending is roughly 36% of GDP. France today is the same as the US, it's about 120% debt to GDP."
"France today is operating its national government spending deficit is 5.4% of GDP. The US is actually 6.2% of GDP. France is I think probably the first to go because they're only growing their economy at half a percent while the US is growing 2.3%."
"So we're still kind of hanging on because we have some degree of economic growth that's allowing us to kind of hold things together."
"But I would argue that we are facing the same sort of fiscal cliff that leads to this extraordinary social unrest as France, all the economic measures are aligned, we're at the same rate, we're at the same set of problems."
Lale ziet patronen, en doet een beroep op bestuurders om daar wél iets mee te doen. Juist nu.
'Ik word er moedeloos van dat het gaat om 'Wij eisen de nacht op' en extra lampjes en camera's'
De vermoedelijke moordenaar van Hajar komt uit Somalië. Meer dan 50% van de moordenaars van vrouwen heeft een migratieachtergrond. Waar blijven maatregelen die de veiligheid van vrouwen echt vooropstellen? 'Vrouwen betalen telkens de prijs voor beleid dat tekortschiet,' vindt onze opiniemaker @lale_gul89 . #nieuwsvandedag
Ruben Nieuwenhuis retweeted
Dankzij AI moet het hele internet de komende tijd door een bijzonder zure appel heen. De afgelopen 48 uur waren vrees ik slechts een amuse. Het voordeel is dat AI soms al jaren openstaande gaten in veel gebruikte software ook loeisnel weet te dichten. Dat dan weer wel.
This is the most serious 48 hours in cybersecurity history.
"Black October" they're calling it
It seems every *hour* there's a new incident, that in a typical year, would be one of the biggest incidents of the *entire year*
SUMMARY OF THE LAST 48 HOURS:
YEAR-LEVEL INCIDENTS (In a typical year, these would be among the biggest incidents of the year):
1. PHP2Shell: a hole in the software behind ~70% of websites. Governments took sites offline.
2. eMudhra: the master keys that prove websites are real were cracked. One was the number 4.
3. California: data on every public school student since 2023 stolen, including disability status
4. Railway: hackers stole customers' secret keys from a hosting platform used by millions of developers
5. Zeabur: 321,810 accounts breached. The company is shutting down.
6. LiteLLM: an AI tool downloaded 3.4 million times a day was poisoned with a password stealer
7. GitLab: a 10-out-of-10 severity hole in every version since 2014
8. Cairn: criminals used an AI hacking tool to break into 100+ companies
9. Ahold Delhaize: hackers knocked the owner of Food Lion and Stop & Shop offline
10. Onamae: malware planted on up to 26,739 customer servers in Japan
MONTH-LEVEL INCIDENTS (In a typical month, these would be among the biggest incidents):
11. Signal: a bug could leave your mic and camera on after you hang up
12. NGINX: 3 critical holes in software running ~1/3 of websites
13. HTTP/3: a single connection can crash 7 of the 10 web server types tested
14. Plex: hackers breaking into home media servers
15. SafePay ransomware: FBI warns it has hit 600+ critical infrastructure organizations
16. Palo Alto: ransomware gangs breaking in through company firewalls
17. Bullhorn: platform used by 10,000+ companies knocked offline
18. Medi-Cal: 970,000 patients' data stolen
19. WordPress: hackers stole a plugin maker's keys and used them to plant backdoors on websites
20. AOMEI: backup software's update server handed out a backdoor
21. Meta Muse: Meta's AI agent exposed users' personal and business secrets
22. Tor: 333 relays hijacked to steal logins
23. TiDB Cloud: database company's cloud breached
Also serious:
24. State Bank of India: India's biggest bank confirms a data breach
25. OVHcloud: hackers slipped a password stealer into a cloud company's official tool
26. Siemens: a software hole being used to spread malware
27. North Korea: state hackers launch a new attack campaign on South Korea
Eens, urgentie mbt rationeel en strategisch klimaatbeleid. Ik zou willen toevoegen dat wij via innovatie een strategische rol kunnen spelen in vermindering uitstoot en klimaat adaptie (o.a. Cradle, CuspAI, Ocean cleanup). Weer focus op exporteerbare oplossingen ipv reductie-mindset. Benodigd: bouwers attitude, toegang tot voldoende/betaalbare energie én rekenkracht (noodzakelijk in de intelligentie economie).
Tien jaar Parijsakkoord, tien jaar industriële productie voor de G20 landen + Nederland.
De grafiek laat zien wie bouwde en wie afbouwde.
Rood: landen die onder Parijs geen absolute reductieplicht hebben, of het akkoord hebben verlaten.
Groen: landen met een volle reductieverplichting.
De top van de lijst:
China +74%
Turkije +48%
India +42%
Rusland ≈+30%
Zuid-Korea +22%
De onderkant:
Frankrijk -1%
VK -2%
Italië -2%
Japan -8%
Duitsland -12%
Nederland komt uit op +4%, onder het EU-gemiddelde van +7%.
China hoeft volgens zijn eigen doel pas "vóór 2030" een piek te bereiken en mag tot die tijd groeien. India stuurt op CO₂ per euro bbp, niet op absolute uitstoot, en wil pas in 2070 klimaatneutraal zijn. Turkije en Mexico vallen formeel onder ontwikkelingsland.
Ondertussen legt Europa zichzelf harde, juridisch afdwingbare doelen op, met ETS-prijzen, CBAM-bureaucratie en een energierekening waar geen Aziatische concurrent mee te maken heeft.
Duitsland sloot zijn kerncentrales, was noodgedwongen te stoppen met Russisch gas en betaalt nu de prijs.
De les is niet dat industrie onmogelijk is in Europa.
De les is dat betaalbare, betrouwbare energie het fundament is, en dat wij dat fundament zelf onder onze industrie vandaan hebben getrokken.
Een ton CO2 die niet meer in ons land wordt uitgestoten, maar wel in India, VS of China, is geen klimaatwinst. Het is banenverlies met een groen deugetiket.
Ik roep Nederlandse bestuurders rationeel en strategisch naar ons klimaatbeleid te kijken, want we gaan de bietenbrug op.
Bron: OECD (2015=100, versie okt. 2026), China: NBS.
‘Support user-directed agents’
There’s a world of difference between user-authorized agents (Muse, Instinct, Grokbot, etc.) and true unauthorized/rogue agents that could constitute cyberattacks.
Most of the activity described in the Axios story appears to be the former: customers sharing credentials with agents so they can take actions on their behalf. This may violate bank terms requiring humans to log in themselves, but these are in no way cyberattacks.
The direction banks should go is to support user-directed agents. For example, Amex is an authorized connection in Muse, making it easy for users to grant, limit, and revoke access.
Read-only permission levels are a sensible interim step. Several banks already support or are moving toward them. Full write access (with user credentials) is a different risk category and should be approached carefully.
Frightening the public by blurring the line between user-authorized agentic behavior and cyberattacks is irresponsible.
Ruben Nieuwenhuis retweeted
As I have predicted here several times this year, the legacy financial system is not prepared for attacks by AI agents. I didn’t expect it would start so soon already. This could get very ugly.
SCOOP: Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents inside customer accounts, including some attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources told Axios.
The findings have alarmed banking executives, who are racing to restrict access to their systems as AI moves at a velocity faster than financial institutions can respond, multiple industry and bank executives told Axios.
Several banks are now preparing for worst-case and even “day after” scenarios, including how to rapidly secure or restore customer accounts if things go wrong, the people said.
Several bank executives told Axios they're struggling to distinguish between human users and AI agents. One executive said banks also struggle to determine whether agents are authorized by customers or potentially operating without their permission, more akin to rogue agent behavior.
Read my latest for Axios here: axios.com/2026/10/22/ai-agen…
Mental models
BREAKING NIUS: Für mich ist es einer der unglaublichste Auftritte von Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz in dessen Amtszeit. Seit 17 Monaten erzählt Merz, er wolle Deutschland deregulieren, unnötige und schädliche Bürokratie beseitigen. Dann hat dieser Bundeskanzler die Möglichkeit, auf der Weltbühne, vor milliardenschweren Investoren dem Nvidia-Chef Jensen Huang eine Frage zu stellen. Und was fragt der Bundeskanzler? Er will wissen, wie man Künstliche Intelligenz am besten REGULIEREN kann. Als Huang antwortet, nunja, erstmal müsse die KI-Industrie in Deutschland aufblühen, bevor man sie regulieren könne, legt Merz nach. Er erklärt Huang, aus seiner Sicht sei entweder eine europäische oder gar eine globale Regulierung notwendig, um die "Schädlichkeit" von KI zu begrenzen.
Tough love
🇩🇪 Jensen Huang has some tough love for Germany: stop overthinking and get to work.
“Nothing pains me more, frankly, than to see one of the most technologically advanced countries to be left so far behind in technology.
And I think the reason for that is this: maybe it’s the European way to overthink everything.”
The Nvidia boss says Germany has no shortage of talent, it just needs to actually use it.
The country that built the car and the printing press now needs productivity advice from Silicon Valley. How times change.
Writer: Julie
Ruben Nieuwenhuis retweeted
Bij @pauwendewit legt Halsema met veel woorden uit waarom ze op 7 oktober niet kon ingrijpen. Maar de wezenlijke vraag blijft onbeantwoord. Handel je als burgemeester uitsluitend naar de letter van de wet, of ook naar de geest ervan? En welke bestuurlijke ruimte benut je dan?
Ook Nederland zou het eenvoudig moeten maken om vermogen rechtstreeks over te dragen aan de volgende generatie.
Richt een speciaal daarvoor bestemde naamloze vennootschap (NV) op die als fonds fungeert.
Iedereen die vermogen rechtstreeks wil overdragen aan de volgende generatie, kan bezittingen, zoals geld, aandelen of vastgoed, inbrengen in dit fonds.
Nederlandse jongeren onder de 18 jaar krijgen aandelen in het fonds toegewezen. Volledig transparant is wat het fonds bezit, waar het vermogen vandaan komt en hoeveel het waard is.
Een van de grootste problemen met vermogensbelastingen is dat geld dat naar de overheid vloeit, mogelijk inefficiënt wordt besteed en ruimte creëert voor verdere schuldenopbouw.
Een rechtstreekse vermogensoverdracht tussen burgers is daarentegen een investering in een nieuwe generatie financieel zelfstandige volwassenen, die daardoor minder afhankelijk kunnen worden van de overheid.
Het is een initiatief dat voor veel vermogende Nederlanders aantrekkelijk zou kunnen zijn.
Via @DanielPriestley
This is tremendous news for America's children. An entire generation will grow up as SpaceX owners. Well done @elonmusk! 🇺🇸
Ruben Nieuwenhuis retweeted
⚡️Musk is attempting something far more consequential than a $10.7 billion giveaway.
He’s creating a generation of Americans with a direct financial interest in the success of one of the country’s most strategically important companies.
The genius of the structure is the distribution. One share per child creates millions of individual ownership relationships while leaving concentrated corporate control largely intact. A $146 gift has limited immediate economic significance. Its potential power comes from what happens afterward.
Every SpaceX milestone becomes personal. Every increase in valuation raises the value of an asset held by American families. And every political battle involving SpaceX now has the potential to become a debate over the financial interests of those families.
Musk is attempting to convert corporate success into a form of distributed political legitimacy.
But the mechanism goes deeper.
SpaceX already operates in sectors central to American strategic power: launch infrastructure, satellite communications, and defense. Its relationship with Washington will become increasingly consequential as space infrastructure expands.
By distributing ownership across American children, Musk would begin aligning three constituencies that historically had different interests: shareholders, the federal government, and ordinary households.
That alignment becomes especially powerful if SpaceX continues appreciating over decades. Children who receive their first share could eventually become adults whose earliest investment was tied to America’s space infrastructure.
Musk is trying to turn SpaceX from a company Americans depend on into a company Americans feel they own.
And the deeper consequence is the precedent.
Private control of critical national infrastructure becomes easier to defend when millions of citizens have been given a financial stake in its success.
If executed, this would be an unusually ambitious attempt to transform concentrated corporate wealth into mass ownership without surrendering the underlying concentration of power.
BREAKING: Elon Musk says he will donate one share of SpaceX stock, $SPCX, to every American child in 2027.
There are currently ~73 million children in the US and SpaceX is trading at $146/share.
This makes Elon Musk’s donation worth $10.7 billion based on current share price.