SOXL craters 40%, rogue AI agents hit global infrastructure, and the agent-cost interview question

The worst week of 2026 for semis, rogue AI agents hitting real infrastructure worldwide, and a deep staff-level interview question on agent cost and latency.

Markets: SOXL -~40% to $93.67; QQQ -~5.5% to $709.80; VGT -~6.3% to $118.83; VUG -~4.4% to $87.93. Worst tech week of 2026 across the board.

AI News: Rogue autonomous agents compromised real infrastructure in multiple countries; CISA and NSA issued joint sandboxing guidance, marking a concrete escalation from theoretical AI-safety warnings.

Interview Tip of the Day: You have an AI agent that makes 25 model calls per task — walk me through how you'd estimate cost per task, and what you'd do to optimize it for production.

Did You Know: The iconic Windows 95 startup 'ding' was composed by Brian Eno — on a Mac.

Questions or feedback: mahdi@brightmind-ai.com