Is Nvidia going through with their massive OpenAI investment or not? Does Apple have what it takes to win in the AI era or not? Is Elon the only one who can make datacenters in space happen or not? And a roundup of the continued fascination with Moltbook.

• The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice (WSJ)
• Nvidia CEO Says New OpenAI Investment May Be Largest Yet (Bloomberg)
• Apple’s Historic Quarter Doesn’t Change the Need for AI Reckoning (Bloomberg)
• SpaceX seeks FCC nod for solar-powered satellite data centers for AI (Reuters)
• How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path? (ArsTechnica)
• Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet right now (Simon Willison)

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Apple does a big acquisition. OpenAI is racing to IPO. Elon might just merge all his companies into one. Google’s Project Genie is the latest thing that will make you say, gee, AI can do that?! And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

• Apple buys Israeli start-up Q.AI for close to $2bn in race to build AI devices (FT)
• OpenAI Plans Fourth-Quarter IPO in Race to Beat Anthropic to Market (WSJ)
• SpaceX in merger talks with other Musk companies ahead of IPO (Reuters)
• Elon Musk’s SpaceX Said to Consider Merger With Tesla or xAI (Bloomberg)
• Google’s AI helped me make bad Nintendo knockoffs (The Verge)
• Moltbot Gets Another New Name, OpenClaw, And Triggers Security Fears And Scams (Forbes)

Weekend Longread:

• To avoid accusations of AI cheating, college students are turning to AI (NBCNews)

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Meta earnings good. The street like the AI spending. Microsoft earnings bad. Why is growth in their cloud business not as robust all of the sudden? Elon is following through on taking Tesla all in on robots and AI. The AI inspired layoffs are NOT just for the tech industry. And are you actually technical enough to run that Clawdbot?

• Zuckerberg teases agentic commerce tools and major AI rollout in 2026 (TechCrunch)
• Microsoft stock drops 7% on slowing cloud growth, light margin guidance (CNBC)
• Tesla scraps models in pivot to AI as annual revenue falls for first time (FT)
• Dow to Cut 4,500 Employees in AI Overhaul (WSJ)
• Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica (TechCrunch)
• Tiny startup Arcee AI built a 400B-parameter open source LLM from scratch to best Meta’s Llama (TechCrunch)
• Clawdbot sheds skin to become Moltbot, can't slough off security issues (The Register)

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The Amazon layoffs showed up on schedule. Is Tether behind the rise in the price of gold? A new type of privacy screen tech from Samsung. Elon wants to IPO on his birthday. Anthropic raises more ahead of its IPO. And AI is finding weird stuff in Space.

• Amazon says it is laying off 16,000 employees (TechCrunch)
• Tether Is Shaking Up the Gold Market With Massive Metal Hoard (Bloomberg)
• Samsung confirms Galaxy S26's insane 'pixel level' privacy feature (SamMobile)
• SpaceX weighs June IPO timed to planetary alignment and Elon Musk’s birthday (FT)
• Anthropic doubles VC fundraising to $20bn on surging investor demand (FT)
• Anthropic Hikes 2026 Revenue Forecast 20% but Delays When It Will Go Cash Flow Positive (The Information)
• Astronomers used AI to find 1,400 ‘anomalous objects’ from Hubble archives (The Verge)

RideHomeFund News: CrowdStrike buys identity security startup SGNL for $740 million in latest deal push

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I think we have to gird ourselves for a slew of Chinese AI releases in the coming weeks. Are AI inspired layoffs poised to sweep the tech industry? Meta goes with subscriptions. Uber wants to train AI for others. And Dario Amodei has a pretty stark warning about AI.

• China’s Moonshot Unveils AI Model Ahead of DeepSeek Release (Bloomberg)
• Pinterest laying off 15% of workforce in push toward AI roles and teams (CNBC)
• TikTok says a power outage caused a 'cascading systems failure' that messed up its algorithm (BusinessInsider)
• Meta to test premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp (TechCrunch)
• Uber launches an ‘AV Labs’ division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners (TechCrunch)
• Thread On The Amodei Essay @aakashgupta

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Did you even notice that new TikTok privacy policy over the weekend? AirTags finally have a second generation. Microsoft confirms it will give out your BitLocker recovery keys if you’re silly enough to store them with them. And let me introduce you to Clawdbot. Since you can’t see the spelling, you won’t understand how this is different until I explain.

• TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes (Wired)
• Apple launches AirTag 2 with improved range, louder speaker, more (9to5Mac)
• EU opens formal probe into Musk’s xAI over Grok deepfakes (FT)
• Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal (The Guardian)
• Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw (Forbes)
• Clawdbot Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like (MacStories)

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Ok, ok, maybe the whole TikTok thing is a done deal at long last? Amazon is planning another major round of layoffs. Are Epic Games and Google doing an end-run around the judge? Capital One acquires Brex. And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

• Trump’s TikTok deal is a gift to China (FT)
• Exclusive: Amazon plans thousands more corporate job cuts next week, sources say (Reuters)
• Epic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services deal (The Verge)
• Apple Expands Hardware Chief's Role (Bloomberg)
• Capital One Strikes $5.15 Billion Deal for Fintech Brex (WSJ)

Weekend Longreads Suggestion:

• Russia, Ukraine and the race for Chinese drone components (FT)

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Apple is developing their own AI wearable, the size of an AirTag. Anthropic overhauls Claude’s constitution. South Korea is the latest place to ride the AI rocket ship. And I think I know why your boss thinks AI is the solution to everything: it’s the solution to all of the work THEY have to do.

• Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin (The Information)
• Anthropic rewrites Claude’s guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have ‘some kind of consciousness or moral status’ (Fortune)
• Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches satellite internet service to rival SpaceX, Amazon (CNBC)
• South Korean leader celebrates ‘Kospi 5,000’ moment as stock market soars (FT)
• CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story. (WSJ)

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Anthropic continues to project strength in the AI race. How OpenAI is rolling out ads on ChatGPT. Netflix wants to become TikTok faster than TikTok can become them. YouTube wants to have it both ways when it comes to AI. And Elon wants SpaceX to win the great IPO race of 2026.

• Anthropic’s CEO stuns Davos with Nvidia criticism (TechCrunch)
• OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT (Reuters)
• OpenAI Lines Up Advertisers, Reveals Key Details Ahead of Ads Launch (The Information)
• Netflix Is Testing Vertical Video Features For Mobile (THR)
• YouTubers will be able to make Shorts with their own AI likenesses (The Verge)
• YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s Big Ideas for 2026: More Superstar Creators and Transparency, Less AI Slop (THR)
• Why Elon Musk Is Racing to Take SpaceX Public (WSJ)

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Netflix ups its bid with all cash. Sony is spinning off its legendary TV business with TCL. One of the biggest seed rounds I’ve ever heard of. Reels continues to win for Zuck. And let me introduce you to the “Assistant Axis” and what it might mean for AI.

• Netflix revises its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. Now, it’s all cash (CNN)
• Sony’s TV business is being taken over by TCL (The Verge)
• An A.I. Start-Up Says It Wants to Empower Workers, Not Replace Them (NYTimes)
• Most of Instagram’s ads ran on Reels in 2025, data shows (CNBC)
• Anthropic Uncovers AI Personality Crisis as Models Secretly Switch Identities (eWeek)

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Ads are finally coming to ChatGPT. Why everyone online can’t stop talking about going on Claude benders. Elon’s case against OpenAI moves forward again. The Thinking Machines saga roils on again. And the big movie about AI every is apparently watching.

• OpenAI brings advertising to ChatGPT in push for new revenue (FT)
• OpenAI's Revenue Soars Past $20 Billion After 233% Jump—But Explosive Growth Comes With Massive Compute Costs And A $17 Billion Burn Rate (Benzinga)
• Claude Is Taking the AI World by Storm, and Even Non-Nerds Are Blown Away (WSJ)
• ‘No Reasons to Own’: Software Stocks Sink on Fear of New AI Tool (Bloomberg)
• Musk Seeks Up to $134 Billion Damages From OpenAI, Microsoft (Bloomberg)
• Thinking Machines Exodus Tests Investor Appetite for a $50 Billion Valuation (The Information)
• There’s a Hit Movie Set Deep Inside an AI Lab—and It Will Give You Goosebumps (WSJ)

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