TBPN — YouTubers Win the Box Office, Salesforce on a Tear, Bernie Sanders: A.I. is a Public Resource | Adam Iscoe, Danial Jameel, Mike Schroepfer, Nico Ferreyra, Sue Khim, Bernie Su

- YouTubers proved box‑office viability in 2026 as “Backrooms” (3.2 M subs) earned $115 M worldwide on a $10 M budget and Markiplier’s “Iron Lung” (38.7 M subs) turned a $3 M self‑funded production into $51 M global gross, showing creator‑driven IP can deliver blockbuster ROI. - Ben Thompson noted the decade‑long shift from “gatekeepers” to merit‑based discovery, arguing that YouTube’s algorithmic merit filter now forces creators to prove audience appeal before Hollywood backs them, making the creator‑to‑studio pipeline a true talent audition. - Salesforce reported FY27 Q1 record revenue of $11.13 B (+13% YoY) and $6.7 B operating cash flow, with Agent Force surpassing $1 B ARR and a 34% margin boost, underscoring its AI‑driven CRM surge and aggressive hiring of sales talent despite flat engineering headcount. - Bernie Sanders introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, proposing a one‑time 50% equity tax on AI labs to give the U.S. government board seats and dividend rights, aiming to turn AI’s collective‑knowledge profits into a public asset. - Anthropic confidentially filed an S‑1, joining SpaceX and OpenAI in a race to IPO, while Mark Benioff’s $2 B French investment signals confidence in AI‑centric growth despite broader SaaS market turbulence. - NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang unveiled the RTX Spark ARM‑based superchip for local AI workloads, announced the Vera Rubin CPU in production, and released an open‑weight flagship model and a humanoid‑robot model, positioning NVIDIA as the hardware backbone for edge AI and enterprise agents. - Despite AI hype, ADP data showed no net job loss; hiring of AI implementation experts and data‑center expansion are inflating wages and boosting May non‑farm payrolls well above the consensus 95 k, illustrating Jevan’s paradox of cheaper tech driving more employment. Watch on YouTube