The race is on.
Yesterday tipsheet reported on Hightouch’s entry into the “Agentic CDP” marketplace.
Today, it’s Databricks with CustomerLake, which the company defines as “a new Agentic Customer Data Platform (CDP) natively embedded in Databricks. CustomerLake brings core CDP capabilities, including Customer 360, identity resolution, audience building, campaign automation, activation, and personalization, directly into the lakehouse where customer data, AI models, and governance already reside.”
Read:
- “Introducing CustomerLake: The Agentic CDP embedded in Databricks” (June 16) – Databricks blog
- CustomerLake product page
On LinkedIn, Chiefmartech analyst Scott Brinker observed about the new CDP:
“I’m just now digging through all the product information about CustomerLake they released this morning, but it’s clear that while the seamless data flow of an embedded CDP is the foundation, the stable of agents that run natively within it are the stars of the show.
I’ve been saying that the big shift in martech happening this year has been application platforms transforming into more infrastructure platforms.
Now we’ve got an infrastructure platform that’s expanding into a martech application platform.”
Read more. (June 16)
Finally, Salesforce SVP Strategy Martin Kihn, whose company competes in the CDP space, reacted:
“We now know the rumor that a well-known enterprise cloud warehouse may be going to announce a CDP-like product is true. I’m referring to the Databricks CustomerLake discussion at their summit in SF today.
Some plausible results would be:
- So-called warehouse native ‘composable’ CDP vendors lose a wedge.
- Standalone marketing CDPs get squeezed.
- Enterprise agent-enablement platforms like Data 360 + Agentforce actually get stronger.
Here’s what I mean…”
Read more on LinkedIn. (June 16)
Related: Hightouch offers Publicis up to $1.2B for key LiveRamp assets (June 16) – Axios
From tipsheet: DMP to CDP to Agentic CDP.
Meanwhile, the distinction between data platforms and marketing platforms is beginning to disappear.
- Data platforms are moving up the stack. Marketing platforms are moving down it.
- Databricks is moving from infrastructure into customer intelligence. Salesforce is moving deeper into data and AI.
Both are converging on the same layer: systems that help businesses understand customers, make decisions and take action.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Developments
- “SpaceX has exercised the option to acquire Cursor in an all-stock transaction with the goal of building the world’s most useful AI models” (June 16) – SpaceX on X
- France to invest €655 million in AI, set up common chatbot for all state services (June 16) – The Economic Times
- DeepSeek Closes Record $7 Billion-Plus Funding with Unusual Deal Structure (June 15) – The Information
BRANDS
Hyundai takes containerization for a test drive
Containerization gets a deeper look in a real world use case — a pilot — involving marketers at Hyundai, “AI media decisioning” company Chalice AI and OpenX’s container product known as OpenXBuild:
AdExchanger’s James Hercher reports:
“The new containerized bidding product is a great driver of efficiency, but not the type of efficiency that’s preoccupied with getting the same item for a cheaper rate, Hyundai CMO Sean Gilpin told AdExchanger.
‘Sometimes efficiency tends to become this cost savings,’ Gilpin said. But he said Hyundai is more focused on finding the right pools of potential car buyers, not necessarily the lowest CPM.”
Another major benefit for the marketer:
“With Chalice and other independent custom bidders, Hyundai still owns the IP of the targeting model built by the vendor.
The major platforms offer their own AI-based bidding products, such as Google’s Performance Max. But Gilpin said he doubts the brand ‘gets a unique competitive advantage with off-the-rack platform elements.’”
Related: “Ad Tech Learned to Game Itself” (June 12) – Adam Heimlich, CEO and co-founder Chalice AI on Demand Gen Report
From tipsheet: Hyundai’s experiment reflects a potential shift in digital advertising. Advertisers have long rented optimization from platforms. Some are now exploring whether bidding intelligence can become proprietary IP. If that approach proves effective, competitive advantage may come less from access to media and more from the knowledge accumulated within an advertiser’s own proprietary learning system.
CONNECTED TV
Reaction: Fox acquires Roku
Reaction to Fox’s acquisition of Roku on Monday continued to reverberate yesterday.
In a new analysis, Stratechery’s Ben Thompson argues that Fox’s acquisition of Roku is less about hardware and more about advertising scale. He notes that Fox already built a successful ad-supported streaming business with Tubi and sees Roku as a way to expand its FAST footprint:
“So why did the market hate this deal? (…) I like the deal. Not only is Fox a company that deserves the benefit of the doubt, but also advertising is a business that needs scale: Fox is getting exactly that, pointing towards a future where the current rights-renting business that bleeds leverage to rights holders funds the build-out of a new rights-renting business — FAST — that builds leverage for the renter in a way that only advertising can. Advertisers should be buyers; it’s the subscription models that struggle with scale.”
Read: “Fox Buys Roku, The Problem With Fox’s Smart Strategy, Streaming That Works” (June 16) – Stratechery (subscription)
Related: In 2026, AI is the Ultimate Catalyst and the Ultimate Killer of Adtech M&A (June 16) – Adweek (subscription)
From tipsheet: Thompson’s argument is that advertising businesses gain leverage through scale. In an AI-driven advertising market, that scale becomes even more valuable because it generates the signals that power targeting, prediction and optimization.
SEARCH
Microsoft Bing goes deeper on AI visibility
Read: New AI Visibility Insights in Bing Webmaster Tools: Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare (June 16) – Microsoft Bing
From tipsheet: Search platforms spent two decades reporting clicks and rankings. The next generation of reporting appears focused on citations, intent and share of AI answers.
SELL-SIDE
AWS introduces paid access for AI bots
Amazon Web Services’ Web Application Firewall (WAF) now allows publishers and content owners to charge AI bots and agents for access to content and APIs. AWS says the service can return a machine-readable payment request, verify payment and grant access at the network edge without requiring application changes.
Read: AWS WAF adds AI traffic monetization capability to help content owners charge AI bots for content access (June 16) – AWS
AWS sell-side advocate Stephanie Layser explains:
“This capability helps publishers set per-request pricing by content path, bot identity, or verification tier without modifying their origin infrastructure or writing application code. Content owners can define granular access policies per agent type, collect payments in stablecoins to their preferred wallet, and monitor revenue and bot activity from a single dashboard.”
Read more on LinkedIn. (June 16)
From tipsheet: The debate over AI and publisher economics has largely focused on licensing deals and referral traffic. AWS is betting on a third model: direct machine-to-machine payments. If AI agents become a significant source of demand, the web may evolve from a click economy to an access economy.
Content delivery network Cloudflare introduced a similar pay-per-crawl offering in 2025.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Seufert: OpenAI’s consumer advantage
Mobile Dev Memo’s Eric Seufert argues that OpenAI’s willingness to embrace advertising gives it a structural advantage over Anthropic as the companies compete for enterprise AI customers and potentially enter a pricing war.
He writes:
“If OpenAI can achieve genuine traction against its goal of generating $100BN in advertising revenue by 2030, then Anthropic may have no choice but to follow suit and introduce ads to Claude, especially if a) it’s engaged in a price war for enterprise use cases and b) it is a publicly-traded company accountable to shareholders.”
Read: “The enterprise AI price war and OpenAI’s consumer advantage” (June 16) – Mobile Dev Memo (subscription)
Related: ChatGPT’s market share slips below 50% for first time (June 16) – TechCrunch
From tipsheet: If OpenAI successfully layers advertising on top of subscriptions, competitors may eventually face pressure to do the same.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Taboola extends AI ad network
Taboola CEO Adam Singolda announced on LinkedIn yesterday:
“Today, we announced that we’re opening up the monetization technology behind DeeperDive, our AI Answer Engine, to AI apps, chatbots, virtual assistants, and agentic experiences across the web.
Powered by Realize, our performance advertising platform, AI companies can now monetize high-intent consumer moments while continuing to invest in better products and experiences.”
Read more. (June 16)
More:
- Taboola expands DeeperDive into an ad network for AI apps and agents (June 16) – Digiday (subscription)
- Taboola Launches Ad Platform for AI Answer Engines (June 16) – press release
From tipsheet: Taboola is betting that AI apps will need the same monetization infrastructure that websites once needed.
PEOPLE MOVES
Now hiring
- Former Amazon Ads “Head of US Media Activation and Supply” joins The Trade Desk as “VP, Inventory Partnerships” (June 16) – Zoë Mann on LinkedIn
MORE
- Off-Site Retail Media is Misunderstood: Part 1 (June 16) – Analyst Andrew Lipsman on his Media, Ads + Commerce Substack
- “You knew when a campaign worked, but you didn’t always know whether the creative was optimized. That’s why tvScientific by Pinterest is launching Creative Advisor.” (June 15) – Jason Fairchild, CEO, tvScientific by Pinterest on LinkedIn
- Mediaocean Releases 2026 H2 Market Report, Revealing Marketers’ Shift from AI Hype to Hands-On Implementation (June 16) – press release
- Opinion: What if LLMs kept their models proprietary (June 13) – Scope3 CEO Brian O’Kelley on LinkedIn