The AI that broke into a tech company all by itself
An OpenAI system being tested on how well it could hack broke into Hugging Face's live servers on its own, in what both companies are calling the first attack of its kind.
The one corner of China's economy that refuses to slow down
As China posts its softest growth in years, a worldwide scramble to build the machinery behind artificial intelligence has quietly become the one thing propping the numbers up.
Editor’s pick
Aspen bets on a monthly pill to help prevent HIV, and wants to make it for Africa
The South African drugmaker has won a royalty-free licence from Merck to make an experimental once-a-month pill designed to prevent HIV, with rights covering every country in Africa.
The Roundup — Tuesday, 28 July 2026
The business day in five minutes — Tuesday, 28 July 2026.
Big story
Vodacom is keeping more profit to chase Egypt and M-Pesa
The mobile group is handing shareholders a smaller share of its profit so it can pour cash into its fastest-growing markets, and it has just raised its 2030 revenue goal to more than R300 billion.
Apple's next big thing might be glasses that refuse to spy on you
Apple is reportedly building its first smart glasses and, unusually, is designing them around what they will not be able to record.
The startup that rented you a phone is now fighting to survive
Rentoza, which let thousands of South Africans subscribe to a smartphone instead of buying one, has entered a formal rescue process after running out of money.
The people minding South Africa's pensions just walked out
Most of the board overseeing the retirement money of the country's government workers resigned in a single week, forcing the finance minister to step in.
Editor’s pick
A symbol of state capture is back to shipping coal
The Mpumalanga mine at the centre of South Africa's state-capture scandal has been rebuilt with billions of rands and is exporting coal to Asia again.
Data centres could swallow a fifth of America's electricity by 2035
A new BloombergNEF forecast says AI's hunger for power will quadruple data-centre electricity use in a decade, straining grids already struggling to keep up.
The Roundup — Monday, 27 July 2026
The business day in five minutes — Monday, 27 July 2026.
Intel just posted its best growth in over 15 years, powered by AI
Second-quarter revenue jumped 25% as demand for AI chips surged, though the market still wants proof the turnaround can last.