🚨Skild AI hits $14B valuation after raising $1.4B for general-purpose robotic software, signaling investors believe AI-powered automation will be the next platform shift that reshapes physical labor economics—and whoever controls the software layer controls the entire robotics stack.

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Here's what's happening right now that ClickFunnels and GoHighLevel don't want you to know: their entire business model is being dismantled by AI-powered code editors and $5/month hosting.

Marketers are discovering they can build faster, more custom, better-performing landing pages in 20 minutes using Claude, Cursor, or Lovable—then host them on Cloudflare, Vercel, or Railway for pennies—instead of paying $297/month for clunky drag-and-drop builders that load like it's 2012.

This isn't just about saving money. It's about building landing pages that actually load in under a second, convert better because they're perfectly customized to your offer, and don't force your brand into a template that screams "I used ClickFunnels."

The landing page builder industrial complex is about to have a very bad year.

The $3,564/Year Problem

Let's talk about what landing page builders actually cost:

ClickFunnels: $297/month ($3,564/year) for the "professional" plan that gives you the features you actually need.

GoHighLevel: $297/month ($3,564/year) for the agency plan. Sure, there's a cheaper tier, but you hit the limits fast.

Leadpages: $99/month ($1,188/year) for the pro plan.

Unbounce: $145/month ($1,740/year) for the "optimize" plan.

That's thousands of dollars per year for tools that give you:

- Pre-built templates everyone recognizes

- Slow load times (3-5 seconds is typical)

- Limited customization unless you know CSS

- Bloated code because they're built to work for everyone

- Vendor lock-in—your pages live on their infrastructure

- Page limits, visitor limits, and upsells for everything

Now compare that to the new stack:

Claude Pro or Cursor: $20/month

Cloudflare Pages: Free (or $20/month for pro features you probably don't need)

Vercel: Free for most use cases ($20/month for pro)

Railway: $5/month for hobby projects

You're looking at $20-45/month total versus $297/month. That's an 85-93% cost reduction. But the money is actually the least interesting part of this story.

What Actually Changed

Three things converged in 2024-2025 that made this possible:

1. AI Code Editors Got Scary Good

Claude (via Claude.ai artifacts or API), Cursor (VS Code fork with AI built in), and Lovable (formerly GPT Engineer) can now generate production-ready landing page code from natural language prompts.

Not "kinda works if you're a developer" code. Actual, clean, performant HTML/CSS/JavaScript that loads fast, looks professional, and converts.

The workflow looks like this:

1. Open Claude or Cursor

2. Type: "Build me a landing page for [your offer] with [your copy]. Make it conversion-optimized with a hero section, social proof, features, pricing, and CTA. Use Tailwind CSS and make it mobile-responsive."

3. Wait 30 seconds

4. Get a complete, working landing page

No drag-and-drop. No fighting with template constraints. No "this element can only go in this zone" nonsense. Just describe what you want and get code that does exactly that.

2. Modern Hosting Became Stupidly Simple

Deploying code used to require:

- Buying a server

- Configuring Apache or Nginx

- Managing SSL certificates

- Worrying about security patches

- Scaling infrastructure

Now? You connect a GitHub repo to Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, or Railway, and they:

- Deploy automatically on every code change

- Handle SSL certificates automatically

- Scale automatically from 0 to millions of visitors

- Serve your site from a global CDN (so it's fast everywhere)

- Give you preview URLs for every change

The entire deployment process takes 2 minutes. And these platforms are optimized for speed in ways that landing page builders simply aren't.

3. The Performance Gap Became Impossible to Ignore

Google's Core Web Vitals made page speed a ranking factor. Users expect instant load times. Every 100ms of delay costs you conversions.

Landing page builders load slowly because they're built on platforms that serve everyone. They load:

- Heavy JavaScript frameworks

- Tracking scripts for features you don't use

- CSS for every possible template option

- Bloated HTML with unnecessary divs and classes

A typical ClickFunnels page loads in 3-5 seconds. A custom page hosted on Cloudflare? 0.3-0.8 seconds.

That's not a 10% improvement. That's 5-10x faster. And speed directly impacts conversion rates. Studies show a 1-second delay can reduce conversions by 7%. Over time, that difference costs you real money.

How Marketers Are Actually Building These

The workflow is simpler than you think. You don't need to be a developer. You need to be able to describe what you want and copy-paste code.

Option 1: The Claude Artifacts Method

1. Open Claude.ai (or use Claude API in Cursor)

2. Paste your landing page copy and describe the layout

3. Claude generates the HTML/CSS/JavaScript in an artifact

4. Click "Download" to get the files

5. Upload to Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, or Railway

6. Done. Your page is live on a custom domain with HTTPS.

Example prompt:

```

Build a landing page for my AI productivity course. Use this copy:

Headline: "10x Your Output in 30 Days Using AI Tools"

Subheadline: "Learn the exact prompts, workflows, and strategies that top performers use to automate 80% of their work."

Include:

- Hero section with headline, subheadline, and CTA button

- Social proof with 3 testimonials

- Features section highlighting 5 key benefits

- Pricing: $497 one-time payment

- FAQ section with 5 common questions

- Footer with links and contact info

Design: Clean, modern, professional. Use a blue and white color scheme. Make it mobile-responsive. Optimize for conversion with clear hierarchy and strong CTAs.

Use Tailwind CSS for styling. Make page load fast.

```

Claude spits out a complete, working landing page in 30 seconds. You get clean HTML, optimized CSS, and optional JavaScript for interactions. The code is production-ready.

Option 2: The Cursor Power User Method

Cursor is VS Code with AI deeply integrated. It can write code, edit existing code, and even debug issues—all from natural language.

1. Open Cursor (free or $20/month for Pro)

2. Create a new project

3. Use Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K) to open the AI composer

4. Describe your landing page

5. Cursor generates files, suggests improvements, and can iterate based on feedback

6. Push to GitHub and connect to Vercel or Cloudflare

7. Automatic deployment on every commit

Cursor is better for:

- Multi-page funnels (not just single landing pages)

- Complex interactions or animations

- A/B testing different versions

- Integrating with APIs (Stripe, email providers, CRMs)

Option 3: The Lovable No-Code-to-Code Method

Lovable (formerly GPT Engineer) sits between pure code and landing page builders. You describe what you want in plain English, it generates the code, and you can deploy with one click.

It's designed for non-developers who want the benefits of custom code without writing it themselves. The interface is more visual than Claude or Cursor, but you still get actual code you can host anywhere.

Why This Stack Is Better

It's not just cheaper. It's fundamentally better in ways that directly impact your business:

1. Unlimited Customization

Landing page builders give you templates. AI code editors give you anything you can describe.

Want a unique pricing table? Custom animations? A layout that matches your brand exactly? An interactive calculator? A quiz funnel? Just describe it. No fighting with template constraints or paying for custom development.

One marketer described building a landing page with a custom product configurator that let users see pricing change in real-time based on their selections. In ClickFunnels, that would require expensive custom code. With Claude and Cursor, it was a 10-minute prompt.

2. Speed That Actually Converts

A custom landing page on Cloudflare loads in under 1 second. That's not just better user experience—it's more conversions.

Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales. Walmart found that for every 1 second improvement in page load time, conversions increased by 2%.

When your landing page loads 5x faster than your competitor's ClickFunnels page, you're not just providing a better experience—you're capturing sales they're losing to impatience.

3. No Vendor Lock-In

Your pages are just HTML/CSS/JavaScript files. You can host them anywhere. If Cloudflare raises prices, move to Vercel. If Vercel changes terms, move to Railway or Netlify or your own server.

With ClickFunnels, your pages live on their infrastructure. If they raise prices or shut down or change features, you're stuck. Your URLs, your SEO, your ads—all tied to their platform.

Custom code means you own your pages completely.

4. Version Control and Collaboration

Your landing pages live in GitHub (or GitLab, or Bitbucket). That means:

- Every change is tracked

- You can roll back to any previous version

- Multiple people can work on the same page

- You can create branches to test new designs without affecting the live page

- Deploy previews let you see changes before they go live

Landing page builders have limited version history and collaboration features. Code repositories give you enterprise-level control.

5. A/B Testing Without Limits

Most landing page builders charge extra for A/B testing or limit the number of variants you can test. With custom code, you can:

- Run unlimited variants

- Test at the code level (not just swapping elements)

- Use free tools like Google Optimize or open-source alternatives

- Get more granular data because you control the tracking

The Learning Curve Reality

The obvious objection: "I'm not a developer. I can't code."

You don't need to. You need to be able to:

1. Describe what you want

2. Copy and paste code

3. Follow deployment instructions (which are increasingly just "connect GitHub to Cloudflare")

That's it. You're not writing code from scratch. You're directing AI to write code for you, then deploying it to platforms designed to make deployment trivial.

Is there a learning curve? Yes. About 2-4 hours to get comfortable with the workflow. Compare that to the time you've spent fighting with ClickFunnels' editor or Googling "how to change font size in Unbounce."

The harder part isn't the technical side—it's unlearning the mental model of drag-and-drop builders. You're trading visual editing for prompt-based generation. It feels weird at first. Then you realize you can build in 20 minutes what would take 2 hours in a builder.

Real-World Use Cases

E-commerce brand: Built 12 product landing pages using Claude and hosted them on Cloudflare. Load time dropped from 4.2 seconds (Shopify landing page app) to 0.6 seconds. Conversion rate increased 18%. Saved $200/month in app fees.

B2B SaaS: Replaced Unbounce with custom pages built in Cursor and hosted on Vercel. Now generates landing pages for every marketing campaign in under an hour instead of a day. Conversion rates improved 12% due to better page speed and customization.

Course creator: Built an entire funnel (landing page, sales page, order form, thank you page) using Lovable. Integrated Stripe for payments and ConvertKit for email. Hosted on Railway for $5/month. Previously paid $297/month for ClickFunnels.

Agency: Uses Claude to generate client landing pages, then customizes in Cursor. Delivers faster, charges the same, and pockets the difference. Clients love that pages load instantly and they're not locked into a builder subscription.

The Tools Breakdown

For Code Generation:

Claude (via Artifacts or API): Best for single-page generation. Fast, clean code. Great for marketers who just need simple landing pages. Free tier available, Pro is $20/month.

Cursor: Best for complex projects, multi-page funnels, or when you need more control. It's a full code editor with AI built in. $20/month for Pro (free tier exists but limited).

Lovable: Best for non-technical users who want a visual interface but custom code output. More guided than Claude or Cursor. Pricing varies.

For Hosting:

Cloudflare Pages: Best for static landing pages. Free tier is generous. Fastest global CDN. Integrates with Cloudflare Workers for serverless functions if needed.

Vercel: Best for Next.js or React-based pages. Excellent developer experience. Great analytics. Free for personal projects, $20/month for teams.

Railway: Best for full-stack apps (if your landing page needs a backend). Simple pricing at $5/month for hobby use. Scales up easily.

All three handle:

- Automatic HTTPS

- Custom domains

- Git integration

- Instant deployments

- Global CDN

- Preview deployments

What This Means for the Industry

Landing page builders aren't going away tomorrow. They still serve non-technical users who want visual editing and don't care about cost or performance. But the market is splitting:

Bottom tier: Free tools like Carrd or Google Sites for simple pages.

Middle tier: AI-generated custom code for marketers who want performance, customization, and ownership without paying enterprise prices.

Top tier: Expensive page builders for enterprises who need compliance, managed infrastructure, and support contracts.

The middle tier—where most marketers live—is moving to custom code. The economics are too compelling. The performance gap is too large. The customization is too valuable.

ClickFunnels and GoHighLevel will keep charging $300/month. But they're increasingly competing against tools that cost $20/month and produce better results.

What's Next?

This is just the beginning. The trend is accelerating:

- AI code editors are getting better every month

- Hosting platforms are adding more features (A/B testing, analytics, form handling)

- More marketers are learning these workflows and sharing them

- Templates and starter kits are emerging (prompt libraries for common landing page types)

Within 12 months, "build landing pages with AI and host on Cloudflare" will be as common as "use ClickFunnels" was in 2019. The early adopters are building advantages right now—faster iteration, lower costs, better performance, complete ownership.

The question isn't whether this shift will happen. It's whether you'll be early or late to it.

BTW: The irony is that most landing page builders are now adding "AI features" to stay competitive—usually just AI copywriting or image generation. Meanwhile, the actual revolution is happening outside their platforms entirely. They're adding AI to their products while AI is making their products obsolete.

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The Recap: Type One Energy, backed by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures, raised $87M ahead of a planned $250M Series B to develop stellarator fusion reactors specifically designed to power AI data centers. The funding round demonstrates that solving AI's energy crisis has become the next critical infrastructure battleground, with billionaire capital flowing toward companies that can deliver dedicated power sources for compute-intensive AI workloads. Type One's stellarator design—a complex fusion reactor configuration—promises continuous power generation without the intermittency problems of renewables, positioning fusion as the ultimate solution to AI's insatiable energy demands.

Unpacked:

Bottom line: Type One Energy's $87M raise backed by Bill Gates reveals that AI's energy crisis has graduated from theoretical concern to immediate investment priority for the world's most strategic capital allocators. As AI companies commit hundreds of billions to infrastructure, the realization is setting in that computational advantage will ultimately be constrained by whoever secures dedicated power sources. Fusion specifically designed for data centers represents the holy grail: continuous, dense, site-flexible power generation that eliminates grid dependency and geographic constraints.

Skild AI hits $14B valuation after raising $1.4B for general-purpose robotic software, as investors bet AI-powered automation will be the next platform shift that reshapes physical labor economics and whoever controls the software layer controls the robotics stack.

Gemini launches proactive responses pulling from Gmail, Photos, and YouTube as Google weaponizes its data advantage to create an AI assistant competitors cannot replicate, cementing moat at the inference layer through platform integration.

Tesla shifts Full Self-Driving to subscription-only model in a desperate pivot that commoditizes the feature while potentially invalidating Musk's $1T pay package, revealing fractures in Tesla's autonomous vehicle strategy.

New York legalizes robotaxis statewide except NYC as fragmented policy creates regulatory arbitrage opportunities for companies willing to navigate jurisdictional complexity, demonstrating political power determines deployment geography.

Microsoft announces massive data center expansion while promising to absorb electricity costs, revealing only trillion-dollar companies can afford the energy arbitrage required to dominate AI as infrastructure becomes winner-take-most.

Consumer watchdog challenges Google's Universal Commerce Protocol as dispute exposes how AI agents operating for consumers will become Trojan horses for vendor preference manipulation, reshaping e-commerce economics and trust dynamics.

Ring pivots from device maker to intelligent assistant as Amazon's smart home strategy shifts from hardware sales to ambient data capture and proactive decision-making on behalf of users without explicit commands.

Google connects Gemini to Gmail, Search, and YouTube history to create platform moat at inference layer that smaller competitors cannot match, weaponizing data advantage through deep integration across user activity.

Bandcamp bans AI-generated music becoming the first major platform to reject AI content as contrarian positioning move that commoditizes artist trust when AI devalues creative labor, signaling platforms will compete on authenticity over volume.

Best of AI™ Team

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