Three stories about how AI companies stopped competing on capability and started competing on leverage — and what the squeeze means for every business leader writing checks right now.

Stories covered:

• Musk's Grok Toll Booth — Elon Musk is requiring every bank advising the SpaceX IPO to purchase Grok enterprise subscriptions. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and others have committed tens of millions — not because Grok won a bake-off, but because the alternative is losing $500M+ in advisory fees.
• GPU Prices Surge 48% — Nvidia Blackwell GPU rentals now cost $4.08/hour, up from $2.75 eight weeks ago. Half of 2026 data center builds are delayed by 5-year lead times on high-voltage electrical transformers.
• OpenAI Kills Sora — OpenAI is disconti ...