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Good morning,

In the last decade Forbes 131 startups that would become unicorns were correctly predicted through the list of the next billion-dollar startups. Of the 225 alumni on the list, from DoorDash to Duolingo, we got it right more than half the time.

Not surprisingly, this year is all about AI. The list includes companies like Codeium, which develops an AI app that works like an autocomplete for code, and Scribe, which uses AI to simplify job training. But others are solve less glamorous problems: Promise is a startup that works with municipalities and utility companies to collect unpaid bills via SMS and interest-free tariffs.

Still, this year’s startups generated an average of $14 million in revenue last year, well below the $24 million average on the last list.

Let’s get to the headlines.

FIRST

After a turbulent start to the month, the market is now expecting the Federal Reserve to implement a standard interest rate cut of 25 basis points in September. This nullified earlier predictions of a deeper cut of 50 basis points due to recession fears. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the probability of a 50 basis point cut was 47.5 percent late Monday.

BUSINESS + FINANCE

Trump Media shares fell 5% on Monday, hitting their lowest price since April, after the company reported disappointing quarterly revenue of $836,900 and Return of former President Donald Trump to Xwhich raised doubts about the future of Truth Social. This collapse wiped out Trump’s net worth by $170 million, which according to Forbes estimates.

TECHNOLOGY + INNOVATION

Electric truck maker Nikola has had a difficult few years. Its founder was sentenced to prison and hundreds of electric semi-trailers were recalled to fix batteries that could catch fire. But with the release of the new first commercial hydrogen fuel cell truck in the USA“In our fleet it is referred to as the Bentley of trucks,” said Jim Gillis of IMC Trucking.

MONEY + POLITICS

Former President Donald Trump wants to sue the Justice Department for $100 million as part of the search in August 2022 It was conducted at his Mar-a-Lago estate after a judge dismissed charges against him for allegedly withholding White House documents. According to a copy of the statement, Forbes, Trump claimed the search, which found more than 11,000 White House documents, was carried out with the “clear intent of political persecution.”

During a Live chat on Elon Musk’s X-platform on Monday Trump signaled that he would be willing to offer Musk a role in his administration if he won the presidential election in November. Musk floated the idea of ​​establishing a “Government Efficiency Commission” to ensure that “taxpayers’ money… is spent wisely,” adding that he would “be happy to help with such a commission,” to which Trump responded enthusiastically.

The disadvantage of Super PACs in the past was that they had to operate independently of a candidate’s campaign, but New FEC guidelines open the door to more explicit coordination between the groups. This is a broader path forward for major donors who want to go beyond the boundaries of direct candidate giving.

Trends + Explanations

Payments of some federal student loan borrowers are currently on hold while a legal dispute is being resolved about the Biden administration’s recent student loan forgiveness Plan. Republicans sued the Biden administration over its Saving on a Valuable Education plan, an income-based repayment plan that lowers the percentage of monthly income borrowers must pay. More than 8 million borrowers were already enrolled in the SAVE plan as of July, according to the Biden administration.

A Chinese couple living in Texas have been accused of running a $10 million online pig slaughtering scam, according to documents obtained by Retrieved 2018-08-18. The pair are accused of wire fraud for allegedly creating a series of fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms that then is used to defraud victims by tricking people into investing their cryptocurrency through the fake exchanges.

DAILY COVER STORY

How a former Palantir executive developed a Google-like surveillance tool for the police

TOPLINE Founded and backed by former Palantir executives, Peregrine Technologies hopes to speed up local police departments’ access to surveillance data while curbing police misuse of their technology.

Co-founders Nick Noone and Ben Rudolph developed essentially a Google with superpowers for police data. Enter a name or address into the web-based app and Peregrine quickly searches court records, arrest reports, police interviews, transcripts of bodycam footage – any police record you can imagine – for a match. The program has made data stored in a number of older, slower systems accessible in a simple, fast app that can be operated through a web browser.

To date, Peregrine has signed 53 contracts with a variety of police and public safety agencies across the United States, from Atlanta to LA Sales tripled in 2023from 3 million to 10 million dollars. Nobody expects that value to triple again to 30 million dollars this year. Peregrine, which is valued at 360 million dollars after its last capital increase of 30 million dollars, landed in a place on Forbes’ Next billion dollar startup list for 2024.

Under-resourced local police departments can rarely afford the kind of technology that larger agencies use. High-tech monitoring centers, known in the industry as “real-time crime centers,” or RTCCs, require expensive hardware and software and are therefore the domain of large agencies. But Peregrine’s technology makes RTCCs much more affordable for smaller agencies.

But the lower costs of RTCCs has concerned data protection officers about indiscriminate surveillance.

To allay such concerns, Peregrine brought in Adam Klein, a former chairman of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (an agency tasked with ensuring that the NSA, FBI, CIA and DHS’s anti-terrorism programs were constitutional).

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT No one is satisfied with his technology being merely a boon to police surveillance efforts. He hopes Peregrine will ultimately help police departments and other government agencies address the societal issues that lead people to break the law. He also wants to make the toolkit available to other local agencies so they can examine urban data to understand why crimes happen in a particular place and at a particular time.

MORE America’s largest mall owner feeds AI surveillance feeds directly to police

FACTS + COMMENTS

The national average price of a gallon of gasoline fell to a two-month low on Monday due to falling demand, but analysts warned of conflict in the Middle East and the threat of a major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. could drive up oil and gas prices in the next few months:

$3.41: The average price of gasoline per gallon on Monday, the lowest since June 9

$3.69: The price per gallon in mid-April, a yearly high

8.97 million barrels: Daily gas demand in the week ending August 2 was below the 9.25 million barrels the previous week.

STRATEGY + SUCCESS

Your first day at a new job is like the first day of school – only now there is a paycheck on the line, so first impressions are even more important. Arrive on time, Ready to show that you are as reliable as your resume promisesand throw yourself into the new role with enthusiasm to build relationships with your new colleagues. Confidence is key, but flexibility is your secret weapon – you are here to make an impression and handle whatever comes your way.

VIDEO

QUIZ

As part of the White House initiative to curb junk fees and improve the quality of life of consumers, the Federal Trade Commission is working on new rules to simplify the subscription problem?

A. Upgrade to Premium Memberships

B. Registration for new services

C. Canceling unwanted subscriptions

D. Extension of annual contracts

Check your answer.

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Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff, with editorial contributions from Tavon Thomasson.