Netflix's binge model is backfiring

PLUS: Blue Origin reportedly eyes $130B

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Netflix built an empire on binge-watching — now the binge model might be turning against it.

The streamer’s flagship shows are losing up to 70% of their audiences between seasons, and with YouTube stealing the daily-viewing crown, even Netflix is rethinking its signature move. The fix it’s testing? Go shorter.

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Netflix’s binge model is losing its grip

  • Blue Origin raising $10B at $130B valuation

  • Meta stakes $13B on Canadian data center

  • Scientists keep donor eyes alive after death

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NETFLIX

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: Netflix’s flagship shows are losing 30-70% of their audiences between seasons, per Bloomberg — a sign that the binge model that made the streamer dominant may now be its liability.

The details:

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender opened its 2nd season with 8.7M views in 4 days versus 21.2M for season 1; Beef dropped 70%, and The Night Agent lost 50%.

  • Long gaps could play a part: Beef and One Piece both took three years to return, giving audiences ample time to move on.

  • In a new move, Netflix is adding short-form videos from publishers including BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, and Hearst, launching August 3 in the U.S.

  • Meanwhile, YouTube overtook Netflix in daily viewing time for the first time in 2025, and app ReelShort raked in ~$1.2B in consumer spending, up 119%.

Why it matters: Binge-dropping made Netflix king, but the format shows its age in a feed-scrolling world where a three-year wait between seasons is an eternity. The streamer is reportedly studying the trend — a sign even Netflix suspects its signature move needs a rework.

BLUE ORIGIN

Image source: Blue Origin

The Rundown: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is reportedly raising $10B in its first-ever outside funding round, valuing the rocket maker at $130B — a deal that lands just weeks after rival SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO.

The details:

  • Hedge fund Coatue Management is set to contribute $4B, with Bezos adding $2B of his own, with the remaining $4B coming from institutional investors.

  • Since its founding in 2000, Blue Origin has been financed almost entirely by Bezos personally, largely through sales of his Amazon stock.

  • The raise comes just after Blue Origin’s rocket exploded on a launchpad, with the company still rebuilding the pad and investigating the root cause.

  • At $130B, Blue Origin would rank among the most valuable pure-play space companies, topping Lockheed Martin’s roughly $122B market cap.

Why it matters: The raise signals that building a SpaceX rival requires institutional-scale capital, not just Bezos’ checkbook. But outside money also brings outside pressure: at a reported $130B valuation, it will need to show investors it can turn big NASA contracts into reliable launches, not delays and pad rebuilds.

META

Image source: Meta

The Rundown: Meta said it’s breaking ground on its first Canadian data center — a 1-gigawatt, AI-optimized facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta, backed by more than CAD $13B (~$10B USD).

The details:

  • The site is Meta’s 33rd data center globally and its largest outside the U.S., according to VP of data center development Gary Demasi.

  • The facility will draw the equivalent of 750K homes’ worth of power, running on new natural gas generation Meta is funding and connecting to Alberta’s grid.

  • Meta says the project will support over 3K construction workers at peak and more than 300 permanent operational jobs.

  • The site will reportedly use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling, meaning no operational water use for cooling.

Why it matters: Meta’s Alberta site will be its largest data center outside the U.S., with the province pitching cheap energy and light-touch regulation as the next AI frontier. But running it on gas-fired power shows how AI’s appetite keeps colliding with Big Tech’s climate promises.

BIOTECH

Image source: Images 2.0. / The Rundown

The Rundown: A Barcelona-led team built a fluid-pumping box that keeps freshly removed eyeballs viable — and light-responsive — for hours after death, potentially clearing one of the biggest hurdles to whole-eye transplants, MIT Tech Review reports.

The details:

  • The device pumps oxygen-rich fluid through the eye’s artery inside a chamber that holds temperature and pressure steady, with a window for live imaging.

  • Untreated pig eyes degenerated within 24 hours even when chilled; perfused eyes stayed “significantly more viable,” some responding to light for 10+ hours.

  • Light sensitivity, lost the instant an eye leaves the body, returned after about 15 minutes of perfusion.

  • In humans, the team perfused one eye from each of six donors; the treated retinas held up better than their untreated pairs.

Why it matters: The first whole-eye transplant, an NYU Langone procedure in 2023, produced a viable eye but no vision — one of several hurdles being the speed at which donor eyes degrade after death. A device that keeps retinas viable and light-sensitive for hours could help move eye transplants toward a real clinical option.

QUICK HITS

Apple just signed a $30B-plus multiyear deal with Broadcom to design and build more than 15B custom wireless connectivity chips on U.S. soil.

Elon Musk announced that X will send users a DM via X Chat whenever a post they’ve liked, replied to, or reposted receives a Community Notes correction.

New York will become the first U.S. state to ban smart glasses across all its courthouses, covering all 1,240 state, county, city, and town courts starting July 20.

Sonos cut several of its most senior design and product leaders — many with a decade-plus at the company — in its recent 3% layoffs.

Slate Auto is partnering with Crayola to offer five vehicle wraps in signature crayon colors for its $24,950 bare-bones electric truck.

Explorers used an ROV and the Alvin submersible to capture the first images of Ernest Shackleton’s last ship, Quest, 1,280 feet down in the Labrador Sea.

SpaceX is deploying Starlink satellites at a record-setting pace in 2026, already more than 100 ahead of last year’s record cadence in the first half of the year.

X added a built-in video editor to its iOS app to push creators toward original content over stolen reposts, which product chief Nikita Bier says plague even top accounts.

Block agreed to pay $45M to settle claims from 46 states that Cash App failed to protect users from fraud.

Google set its Made by Google event for Aug. 12 in NYC, where it’s expected to unveil the Pixel 11 lineup.

COMMUNITY

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Rowan, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

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