Princeton Pushes the Boundaries of Free Tuition

Today’s topics

• Canva Creates a New Wave of Millionaires

• Bill Gates Launches $1M Alzheimer’s AI Prize

• SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Hits 30th Flight Milestone

• Pig Lungs Get a Human Trial Run

• Collapse of a Critical Atlantic Current Now ‘No Longer Low Likelihood’

• New Milestone: 29 Minutes Underwater Without Air

  and more…

Canva Creates a New Wave of Millionaires

Canva’s $42B price tag just minted a wave of millionaires. The Aussie design powerhouse opened up a share sale for staff, giving past and present employees the chance to cash out up to $3M each. With $3.3B in annualized revenue from 27M paying users, demand for shares is sky-high and already oversubscribed. Investors are lining up, employees are counting zeros, and founders Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins are toasting success while dubbing their team “Canvanauts.” Many see this as a dress rehearsal for an IPO. Until then, Canva’s handing out millionaire status as casually as it ships templates.

Dr Pepper and Peet’s Tie the Knot (Briefly)

Keurig Dr Pepper is shelling out $18B to acquire JDE Peet’s—the parent of Peet’s Coffee and a lineup of hard-to-pronounce European brews. The twist? They’ll merge first, then split into two businesses. One will be a $16B coffee powerhouse, the other a $11B soda-and-energy drink machine featuring Dr Pepper and 7Up. CEO Tim Cofer is pitching it as the birth of a “global coffee giant,” which basically means Starbucks’ lawyers just perked up. Post-deal, Cofer will steer the soda ship from Texas, while his CFO takes charge of the coffee empire from Massachusetts and Amsterdam. Think of it as a $18B marriage with a prenup already signed.

Princeton Hands Out Free Tuition (Sort Of)

Princeton is expanding aid to cover tuition for families earning up to $250K, with those under $150K getting tuition and expenses wiped out. The university is boosting financial aid spending to $327M for 2025–26, keeping pace with Harvard, Penn, and MIT’s own “free tuition” moves. The catch? Students still need to cover room, board, and fees. Despite complaints about budget strains and fewer international students, the Ivies remain stacked with cash—and applications.

Your career will thank you.

Over 4 million professionals start their day with Morning Brew—because business news doesn’t have to be boring.

Each daily email breaks down the biggest stories in business, tech, and finance with clarity, wit, and relevance—so you're not just informed, you're actually interested.

Whether you’re leading meetings or just trying to keep up, Morning Brew helps you talk the talk without digging through social media or jargon-packed articles. And odds are, it’s already sitting in your coworker’s inbox—so you’ll have plenty to chat about.

It’s 100% free and takes less than 15 seconds to sign up, so try it today and see how Morning Brew is transforming business media for the better.

Check it out

Bill Gates Launches $1M Alzheimer’s AI Prize

The Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative, backed by Bill Gates and partners, has unveiled the Alzheimer’s Insights AI Prize — a $1M global contest to accelerate dementia research. The challenge: design an agentic AI tool capable of planning, reasoning, and acting independently to sift massive datasets, speed drug discovery, identify biomarkers, and improve clinical trials. The winning solution will be made freely available on the AD Workbench for researchers worldwide. With Alzheimer’s cases projected to reach 152M by 2050, organizers hope AI can crunch billions of data points faster than humans and turn raw research into real breakthroughs. Applications opened August 19, 2025.

Anthropic Puts Claude Inside Chrome

Anthropic has launched “Claude for Chrome,” a browser extension now in research preview for 1,000 subscribers on its $100–$200 Max plan, with a waitlist open. The tool adds a sidebar chat that can follow your browsing activity — and, with permission, even take actions in your browser. It’s the latest move in the battle for AI-powered browsers: Perplexity rolled out Comet, OpenAI is rumored to be building its own, and Google is weaving Gemini deeper into Chrome. Anthropic just pulled up a chair to the fight.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Hits 30th Flight Milestone

SpaceX has broken its own record: booster B1067 flew and landed for the 30th time during the Starlink 10-11 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center at sunset. The Falcon 9 deployed 28 more Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, then returned to land on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas—marking another leap for rocket reusability and cost-efficient spaceflight. Read more

NASA–ISRO NISAR Deploys Earth’s Largest Radar Antenna in Space

In a joint effort, NASA and ISRO have successfully deployed the NISAR satellite’s massive 39-foot gold-plated synthetic-aperture radar reflector—currently the largest of its kind in orbit. Launched just 17 days prior, NISAR will soon begin monitoring Earth's surface changes—from seismic shifts to ecological impacts—with unprecedented resolution.Read more

Pig Lungs Get a Human Trial Run

China carried out the first pig-to-human lung transplant, using a brain-dead patient as a low-risk test case. The transplanted lung functioned briefly before failing and being removed after nine days. While pig hearts and kidneys have already been tested in humans, lungs are especially challenging, with high rejection rates even between human donors. Still, researchers say the experiment marks a step forward in xenotransplantation.

Collapse of a Critical Atlantic Current Now ‘No Longer Low Likelihood’

A new study warns that the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)—a key ocean current that regulates the climate—is no longer a distant or unlikely threat. Researchers describe the findings as “shocking,” emphasizing the urgent need for rapid cuts in carbon emissions to prevent potentially catastrophic consequences. Read more

Vital Ocean Buoy Network in California Facing Collapse Over Funding Cuts

UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is sounding the alarm: a crucial network of ocean buoys—27 off California’s coast—may go dark due to a nearly 70% federal funding cut. These buoys provide essential real-time data for weather forecasting, emergency response, coastal safety, and long-term climate monitoring. Agencies like the National Weather Service and U.S. Coast Guard rely on this infrastructure. Scripps and its partners are now scrambling for alternative funding to keep the system alive. Read more

Tom Brady Cleared for Production Meetings in Dual Role

The NFL has lifted the media restrictions preventing Tom Brady, currently a lead analyst at Fox Sports and part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, from attending team production meetings. While he remains barred from practice sessions to avoid conflicts of interest, Brady’s reentry into the loop signals a smoother path for his broadcasting and ownership responsibilities to align. Read more

New Milestone: 29 Minutes Underwater Without Air

Croatian freediver Vitomir Maričić has smashed the breath-holding world record with a staggering 29 minutes and 3 seconds underwater — nearly five minutes longer than the previous mark, and about 28 minutes longer than most of us could manage on a rough morning. The feat was “oxygen-assisted,” with Maričić inhaling pure O₂ for ten minutes before slipping into a hotel pool. He described the first 20 minutes as a mental game, followed by a physical battle as his diaphragm fought back. The record puts humans ahead of dolphins and close to seals, though whales still reign supreme — Cuvier’s beaked whales can dive for three hours. Maričić says he took on the challenge to spotlight ocean conservation. Turns out, holding your breath can still make a statement.

Take a look at these fantastic newsletters we recommend!

✨🙌✨ We are here to serve you the best

We are glad you taking time to read this.

See you in the next one!

Kind regards,

Team Readiance

P.S. Enjoyed the newsletter? Feel free to pass it along to your friends, family, and colleagues here. Your thoughts and feedback matter a lot.