Monday, August 17, 2026
In today’s digest, a train line back in business, NYC boosts small businesses, and a new report on business AI spending. 🤖
But first: Tech:NYC is hiring! We’re looking for a Director of Policy to play a central role in developing and advancing Tech:NYC’s policy agenda, with a focus on research, analysis, and the production of materials that position the organization as a thought leader and trusted resource on technology policy.
Learn more and apply here.
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Congestion pricing may be changing traffic, but so far it hasn’t changed much about the air quality (in a good way). A new city Health Department report found pollution levels stayed roughly stable or improved slightly across NYC during the program’s first year. 🚘 (Gothamist)
Importantly, the city found no increase in pollution near major highway corridors outside the tolling zone, despite fears that drivers avoiding the toll would push dirtier air into places like the Bronx.
One of NYC’s busiest train tunnels is officially back in business. Amtrak has reopened East River Tunnel Line 2 after a year-long overhaul to repair damage dating all the way back to Superstorm Sandy. 🚆 (ABC New York)
The 116-year-old tunnel carries more than 450 Amtrak, LIRR, and NJ Transit trains daily, and crews stripped it down to its concrete shell before rebuilding key systems.
One down, one to go: Work on Sandy-damaged Line 1 is expected to begin this fall and continue through the end of 2027.
NYC is giving its commercial corridors an $8.4 million boost. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced nearly 90 grants for community groups to spruce up commercial corridors and support more than 20,000 small businesses across all five boroughs. 🏦 (NYC Mayor’s Office)
The money will fund everything from street cleaning and lighting to public art, improved street signage, marketing campaigns, and efforts to expand Business Improvement Districts.
Brooklyn gets the biggest share, with more than $2.7 million across 32 grants, followed by roughly $1.5 million each for the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens.
In other reading:
The best restaurants in the Hamptons, mapped (Eater)
They’re young, they’re bros, and they’re in City Hall (New York Times)
Knicks owner moves one step closer to Rangers spinoff (Crain’s New York Business)
Together with The Atlantic 🤝
This September 17-19, The Atlantic Festival returns to New York City’s Perelman Performing Arts Center, where leaders, innovators, journalists, and curious minds will come together for three days of conversations that examine the forces shaping our world.
Expect rigorous conversation and deep connections — to not only meet each other, but to meet the moment together. Prepare to meet great minds who don’t think alike.
Register here and get $100 off your one-day or two-day pass with code TECHNYC.
Businesses Are Spending More on AI, but They’re Getting Pickier
The latest AI Index from Tech:NYC member Ramp offers an interesting snapshot of how businesses are actually spending on AI. Adoption and spending are still climbing, but companies are increasingly weighing performance against price and experimenting with more options. ⚖️
Let’s take a closer look.
AI adoption is still growing: 43.5% of U.S. businesses in Ramp’s data paid for Anthropic subscriptions or tokens in July, up 1.1 percentage points from June. 📈
OpenAI reached 39.7%, while xAI had its fastest growth in a year, reaching 4%.
Overall business adoption of AI products also continued to climb, according to Ramp’s data.
Businesses are spending more, too: AI spending per employee has risen sharply across the board, from the biggest AI spenders to the median company. 💸
In July, the top 1% of businesses spent a median $7,400 per employee per month on AI, while the top 10% spent $650 and the median business spent $11.95.
🌐 Businesses increasingly want their choice of AI models: Among companies already spending on AI, 6.1% used model-serving or inference platforms in July, up from 4.5% in January.
These platforms let businesses access a wider range of models, including open-source options.
Ramp says newer AI buyers still gravitate toward major American model companies, while more advanced users are increasingly adding open-source models to the mix.
And companies are moving in to provide that choice: Stripe has reportedly agreed to acquire OpenRouter for more than $7 billion, highlighting the growing value of tools that make it easier to shop across AI models.
OpenRouter, which recently demo’d at our monthly NYC AI Demo series, offers access to more than 400 models through one platform, allowing businesses to pick the model that best fits a particular task and budget.
⚠️ Yes, and: Better models don’t necessarily mean businesses will pay more.
Anthropic’s new Fable 5 model accounted for just 6% of the company’s business token usage and 11.4% of spending on its models during its first month.
Ramp points to price as a potential explanation: Fable 5 costs roughly $10 per 1 million tokens, about twice as much as OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol, suggesting businesses may have a ceiling on what they’ll pay for additional performance.
The main takeaway: Businesses are becoming more sophisticated buyers of AI.
Spending is rising, but so are the options, putting more pressure on AI companies to prove that better performance is actually worth paying for.
In other reading:
An analysis of 1,000 meetings shows how the best leaders shape conversations (HBR)
Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work (TechCrunch)
The DIY MBA: How four dropouts built companies without a degree (Wall Street Journal)
Flagler Health, an NYC-based AI platform for musculoskeletal care, raised $50 million in a Series B fundraising round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from SignalFire and Alumni Ventures.
Silicon Data, an NYC-based provider of data and benchmarks for AI-computing infrastructure, raised $30.5 million in Series A funding. Valor Atreides AI Fund led the round and was joined by CME Group, DRW, Samsung, and VanEck.
Featured event:
⭐ September 17-19: The Atlantic Festival returns to New York for three days of newsmaking conversations, exclusive screenings, book talks, and performances you won’t find anywhere else. Register here and get $100 off your one-day or two-day pass with code TECHNYC.
Other great events:
August 19: Startup Pitch & Networking in NYC Manhattan, where startups can pitch live and receive focused feedback from angels and VC partners. Register here.
August 19: Personalization Without the BS: What’s Actually Lifting Revenue, where you’ll see how the brands that actually move CR, AOV, and LTV with personalization are doing something fundamentally different. Register here.
August 19: Pitch and Run – Central Park, an opportunity for founders to connect with Angels and VCs without the pressure of a pitch meeting and to allow founders and startup employees to connect. Register here.
August 20: NYC Ultimate Networking Event – Entrepreneurs & Founders Social, bringing together people actively building and scaling real businesses. Register here.
August 21: Tech Pickleball NYC, a growing community of over 2000 members who come together on Friday mornings for coffee, bagels, pickleball, and good vibes. Register here.
August 24: NYC Tech Poker, a series of friendly no rake small-stakes poker games for the tech community. Register here.
September 10: StrictlyVC, delivering an insider perspective on New York City’s bustling VC scene and wider trends in the community. Register here.
September 15: Private Dinner: Navigating International Business, an evening at Raines Law Room bringing together a select group of senior retail and brand leaders for an open conversation around the future of international commerce. Register here.
September 16: Primary’s NYC Tech Summit, an annual gathering for builders, backers, and operators shaping the future. Apply to attend here.
September 17: Regal Rise, bringing together customer experience leaders to share real-world strategies, case studies, and practical insights for successfully implementing AI agents and Voice AI technology across customer touchpoints. Register here.
September 20: Fostering State and City Level Support for Climate Innovation, bringing together leading advanced energy incubators and government to share best practices and lessons learned. Register here.
September 22: Beyond the Pilot: Securing Corporate Adoption, a Climate Scaling Summits hosted by LACI at BATWork with the theme of accelerating commercialization of clean energy innovation in New York. Register here.
October 13-15: EdTech Week, where the brightest minds and the boldest innovators gather in a technological playground dedicated to transforming education. Register before August 31 for early bird tickets here.
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