Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
How Oregon can sharpen its competitive edge – Portland Business Journal
Oregon fell to 39th in CNBC’s 2025 list of Top States for Business, dropping 22 places from just eight years ago, based on the cost of doing business, cost of living, quality of life and technology and innovation (North Carolina was No. 1). Against this backdrop, we asked eight economic development leaders for their takes on what Portland, the region and state ought to be doing at this moment to promote prosperity.
AI Market Clarity – by Elad Gil
We have now entered an era where the first set of AI markets have solidified and a likely set of winners have emerged. This does not mean others won’t show up over time to compete in these markets or that current leaders won’t get acquired or eventually die (just as Stripe launched over a decade after PayPal and 4 or so years after Braintree, and Facebook launched a few years after Friendster and Myspace). We will also see a new set of markets crystalize in the coming few years and these markets today seem quite uncertain.
OpenAI’s new economic analysis | OpenAI
Today, OpenAI is releasing our first look(opens in a new window) at how our tools like ChatGPT have boosted productivity for workers across businesses and governments – and how that’s already creating value. The note is authored by OpenAI Chief Economist Ronnie Chatterji and the OpenAI Economic Research team.
HTML DAY 2025: Portland » Calagator: Portland’s Tech Calendar
Do you like HTML? HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE! The backbone of the web! If you couldn’t tell, we do too. On Saturday, August 2nd, 2025, we’ll be gathering in places around the world to write and celebrate HTML.
AI startups raised $104 billion in first half, exits different story
AI startups raised $104.3 billion in the U.S. in the first half of this year, nearly matching the $104.4 billion total for 2024, according to PitchBook. Almost two-thirds of all U.S. venture funding went to AI, up from 49% last year, PitchBook said.
Trump is set to unveil his AI roadmap: Here’s what to know | TechCrunch
The AI Action Plan should provide a roadmap of the Trump administration’s strategies, priorities, and concerns around AI — likely a technology that will come to define the 47th President’s term.
Gov. Tina Kotek delays ODOT layoffs and announces August special session – OPB
Gov. Tina Kotek will call lawmakers into a special session in late August to take another crack at finding millions — or billions — of dollars to pay for road funding in the state.
SMH — Chris Neumann
There are some moments that are shared by many founders, such as the first time you found yourself in the Sand Hill Road office of a world-famous VC, or the first time you met a “celebrity” founder that you’d always admired (bonus points if you eventually became peers or even friends). Then there are those moments that are a part of your personal journey, each one shared with only a handful of people.
Vibecoding a high performance system
I recently used agentic coding to build a system to crawl a billion web pages in around 24 hours.
Inside Nike’s shifting mindset around AI, web3 – Portland Business Journal
A few years ago, web3, NFTs and AI looked like they were going to be the future for most industries. But with opportunities dwindling in the space, industry leaders like Nike have largely stepped away from lofty tech projects.
More Portland startup news
