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The catalog/Background

Follow the Money

Who pays, who profits, and through what channels, with the total at stake.

2 credits·in-depth·about 2–4 min·12 domains

What it answers

The question Follow the Money is built for

Name the arrangement: a subsidy, a contract, a market, a scandal. It maps the money flows, names who profits and who pays, states what the money rewards, marks where the trail goes dark, and lists the signals to watch and the questions the record leaves open.

Who reaches for it

Investigative reporters, procurement reviewers, policy analysts and anyone who has learned to start with the money.

What comes back

10 sections, on every run

These are the headings the result renders, read from the same promise the form makes before you spend a credit. A section that depends on what the record holds is rendered when it can be and never promised here.

01

Who really profits

02

Total at stake

03

Brief

04

Money Flows

05

Who Profits

06

Who Pays

07

What the Money Rewards

08

Where the Trail Goes Dark

09

Watch Signals

10

Open Questions

What you give it

2 boxes, 1 required

Subject to follow the money on
required · up to 300 characters
Scope / framing
optional · up to 600 characters
Try it on: a subject you already hold an opinion about, so you can grade the result against what you know. Each one opens the form filled, in the General domain.
Who funds the Houthis?
What it will not do

The lines it holds

Every figure carries the issuer and the period it covers. It does not allege wrongdoing; a flow the record does not document is marked as dark, not filled in.

Every claim carries its grade

A claim the scan could not source is marked as such rather than dressed up. How the grades work →

Verified or grounded
Reported or attributed
Contested
Open question
Where it runs

Available in 12 domains

A domain may name it in its own words and price it on its own terms; each row is what that domain shows.

General2 creditsDefense2 creditsFinance2 creditsEnergy2 creditsHealth2 creditsPolicy2 creditsTechnology2 creditsClimate2 creditsLearning2 creditsSports2 creditsTravel2 creditsLifestyle2 credits
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Who Is Financially Exposed to OpenAI, and How

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OpenAI has lined up roughly $1.15 trillion in compute commitments through 2035, yet almost none of the default risk sits on its own balance sheet — Oracle, Nvidia, CoreWeave's lenders and SoftBank hold it.

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Roles that lean on it

7 role guides suggest it

Financial newsletter writerlead scanInvestigative reporterlead scanLobbyist / advocacy consultantData journalistFront office / roster strategy staffSports media rights / broadcast strategyTravel & hospitality investor / analyst
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Run Follow the Money on something you already know

The fastest way to judge the result is to pick a subject you know cold and read it against what you know. The scan names its credit cost before it runs.

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More in the catalog

Other research in background

ChronologyHow a situation developed, phase by phase, with the turning points marked.Key PlayersThe people and organizations that matter on an issue, and how they line up.How It WorksHow a system or process actually works: the inputs, the steps, the parts, and where it breaks.By the NumbersThe key figures on a subject, sourced and dated, with the ones to read carefully marked.Why It ChangedWhy a published number actually moved, after checking whether the counting changed first.The whole catalog →