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I’ve got everything for you today. OpenAI closed its round. Anthropic draws a line with the Pentagon and Sam Altman supports it. A huge AI inspired layoff round, maybe. Netflix walks away from the deal, and, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. OpenAI announces $110 billion funding round with backing from Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank (CNBC) Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines in Pentagon fight (Axios) Employees at Google and OpenAI support Anthropic’s Pentagon stand in open letter (TechCrunch) Block shares soar as much as 24% as company slashes workforce by nearly half (CNBC) Netflix ditches deal for Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount’s offer is deemed superior (CNBC) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Looming Taiwan Chip Disaster That Silicon Valley Has Long Ignored (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nano Banana 2 is here already. Nvidia tries to assure everybody there IS no bubble. Marc Benioff tries to assure everybody there IS not SaaS-pocalypse. Did Google just do exactly what Apple has been unable to do? And how do you put an old AI model out to pasture? You give it a Substack. Google’s Nano Banana 2 brings advanced AI image tools to free users (The Verge) Nvidia Shares Slide After Sales Forecast Underwhelms Investors (Bloomberg) Salesforce chief dismisses ‘SaaS-pocalypse’ fears of AI overtaking business software (FT) New York sues video game developer Valve, says its 'loot boxes' are gambling (Reuters) Google and Samsung just launched the AI features Apple couldn’t with Siri (The Verge) Cloudflare experiment ports most of Next.js API 'in one week' with AI (The Register) Anthropic gives its retired Claude AI a Substack (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Galaxy S26 lineup is here. Remote control for Claude is here. But is Anthropic about to wash its hands when it comes to working with the Pentagon? Could Stripe buy PayPal. Oh, and speaking of AI and war, you might not want to hear how often AI chose thermonuclear war when it was asked to play a wargame. I tried the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and need the Privacy Display feature on my iPhone ASAP (ZDNet) Gemini is getting its first agentic capabilities (The Verge) Exclusive: Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards (Axios) Anthropic digs in heels in dispute with Pentagon, source says (Axios) Anthropic just released a mobile version of Claude Code called Remote Control (VentureBeat) Payments Processor Stripe Expresses Interest in PayPal (Bloomberg) AI Models Deployed Nuclear Weapons in 95% of War Game Simulations, Study Finds (Implicator.ai) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That AI essay I shared with you yesterday sure got Wall Street’s attention. Anthropic says Chinese models are training off of Claude. A significant new breakthrough in chip production technology. And as fun as that tri-fold phone might be, you probably want to wait for later iterations of the form factor. Software Stocks Are Having Another Ugly Day (WSJ) Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude (WSJ) Meta and AMD Agree to AI Chips Deal Worth More Than $100 Billion (WSJ) Exclusive: ASML unveils EUV light source advance that could yield 50% more chips by 2030 (Reuters) Putting Samsung’s $2,899 TriFold To the Test as a Phone, Tablet and Laptop (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Altman has a lot of stuff to say about AI and let’s just say comms needs to have a quiet word with him. SaaS may or may not be dead, but is the replacement vertical AI? And a big thought experiment. If the AI bulls are right and AI transforms the economy, what might that look like? Sam Altman Says Companies Are ‘AI Washing’ Layoffs (Gizmodo) People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much. (NYTimes) Sam Altman would like to remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too (TechCrunch) Half the AI Agent Market Is One Category. The Rest Is Wide Open. (Garry's List) Google Restricts AI Ultra Subscribers Over OpenClaw OAuth, Days After Anthropic Ban (Implicator.ai) THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS (Citrini Research) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When your AI bot breaks your operations, even when you’re AWS. More on OpenAI’s hardware plans. Hey, remember Perplexity? What’s up with them? Is Uber roadkill in the self-driving car horserace? And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Amazon service was taken down by AI coding bot (FT) Ex-Googlers Charged With Stealing Phone Processor Secrets (Bloomberg) OpenAI Plans to Price Smart Speaker at $200 to $300, as AI Device Team Takes Shape (The Information) Microsoft has a new plan to prove what’s real and what’s AI online (MIT Technology Review) Perplexity’s Retreat From Ads Signals a Bigger Strategic Shift (Wired) Uber, Latest Victim of Disruption Panic, Still Has Role in Robotaxis (WSJ) Weekend Longreads Suggestion: Who needs a laptop when you have a folding phone? (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gemini is getting with the increased cadence of AI releases. Honestly, can we even keep up at this point? A dispatch from the social media trial as Zuck takes the stand. At long last, Amazon dethrones Walmart. Apple seems poised to unleash a slew of AI wearables. And the new storage system to preserve data, Canticle for Leibowitz-style. Google announces Gemini 3.1 Pro for ‘complex problem-solving’ (9to5Google) Mark Zuckerberg said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss ‘wellbeing of teens and kids’ (CNBC) Amazon Dethrones Walmart as World’s Biggest Company by Sales (Bloomberg) Apple Ramps Up Work on Glasses, Pendant, and Camera AirPods for AI Era (Bloomberg) Microsoft’s Glass Chip Holds Terabytes of Data for 10,000 Years (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New pixel phone. A bunch of new AI models including Gemini’s entry into the music AI space. Everybody is trying to make AI fetch happen in India. And Matthew Ball’s state of the gaming industry report doesn’t paint as gloomy a picture as our own headlines might have suggested this year. The Pixel 10A is a little too much like last year’s phone (The Verge) Anthropic releases Sonnet 4.6 (TechCrunch) Google’s AI music maker is coming to the Gemini app (The Verge) Adani bets $100 billion on data centres to power India’s AI ambitions (Reuters) Nvidia secures multibillion-dollar Meta deal as it battles chip rivals (FT) Global game content sales rose 5.3% to $195.6bn in 2025 (GamesIndustry.biz) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big regulatory guns are out for Grok. Memory chip shortage now hit the Steam Deck. Manus is already coming to your favorite messaging app. Turns out Buy Now Pay Later really works for vacations. And another lengthy AI essay, this time detailing what it’s doing, and has the potential to do to SaaS companies. EU privacy watchdog opens probe into Elon Musk’s X over sexualised AI images (FT) Valve’s Steam Deck OLED will be ‘intermittently’ out of stock because of the RAM crisis (The Verge) Raspberry Pi soars 40% as CEO buys stock, AI chatter builds (Reuters) Meta-owned Manus launches AI agents on Telegram (SiliconRepublic) Airbnb expands its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” globally (TechCrunch) 10 Years Building Vertical Software: My Perspective on the Selloff (@nicbstme) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenClaw’s creator is joining OpenAI, but the OpenClaw project lives on. The AI-caused memory shortage might delay the next Playstation. Is the Pentagon about to cut ties with Anthropic? And Vitalik Buterin is growing concerned with the prediction markets. OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI (The Verge) Peter Steinberger Chose OpenAI. The Code Was Never the Point. (Implicator.AI) Rampant AI Demand for Memory Is Fueling a Growing Chip Crisis (Bloomberg) ByteDance to curb AI video app after Disney legal threat (BBC) Exclusive: Pentagon threatens to cut off Anthropic in AI safeguards dispute (Axios) The hidden infrastructure crisis in mortgage and real estate finance that only tokenization can solve (Crypto.news) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Anthropic raises the second largest financing round of all time. Other AI players are beginning to show hockey stick revenue growth. Meta wants to add facial recognition to its glasses. Ring pulls back from some recognition partnerships for its camera. And, of course, your Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Anthropic closes $30 billion funding round as cash keeps flowing into top AI startups (CNBC) Enterprise AI startup Cohere tops revenue target as momentum builds to IPO: Investor memo (CNBC) Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses (NYTimes) Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The AI Gold Rush Is Breaking a Silicon Valley Taboo: Cashing Out Before the IPO (WSJ) The New Fabio Is Claude (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aaannddd…. Right on time here come the Chinese AI models. Elon Musk kicks off a major reorg of xAI. Google is warning of AI distillation attacks. New Waymo cars hit the road. And another interesting AI essay to read to you. Chinese AI startup Zhipu releases new flagship model GLM-5 (Reuters) Musk announces xAI re-org following co-founder departures, SpaceX merger (CNBC) Elon Musk Wants to Build an A.I. Satellite Factory on the Moon (NYTimes) Google says attackers used 100,000+ prompts to try to clone AI chatbot Gemini (NBCNews) Waymo begins deploying next-gen Ojai robotaxis to extend its U.S. lead (CNBC) The AI Vampire (Steve Yegge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forget the ChatGPT moment, is this the “Covid Moment” for AI, the moment when everything has changed its just that not everyone knows it yet? More weird musical chairs at the AI companies. TikTok but for around the block. And do we finally have a universal translator but for phone calls? ⁠Something Big Is Happening⁠ (Matt Shumer) ⁠OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination⁠ (WSJ) ⁠TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the US leveraging users’ precise location⁠ (TechCrunch) ⁠T-Mobile will live translate regular phone calls without an app⁠ (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, have you hit the ads in ChatGPT yet, cause they’re there. Spotify comes out of nowhere with killer good earnings. The coming tidal wave of Chinese AI launches. The coming deluge of social media trials. And does AI usage reduce the amount of work you do, or actually compound it? OpenAI begins testing ads in ChatGPT (Mashable) Spotify Shares Surge After Adding Record Number of New Users (Bloomberg) Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance Offer AI Red Packets to Lure Users (Bloomberg) New Mexico lawsuit accuses Meta of failing to protect children from sexual exploitation online (AP) AI Doesn't Reduce Work, It Intensifies It (HBR) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Altman assures staff that OpenAI has a good week, but is Anthropic definitively growing faster at this point? Is the CapEx spend about to eat ALL of Silicon Valley’s free cashflow while Apple sits out the party? And the Crypto.com guy runs the same playbook but now with Ai.com. Sam Altman touts ChatGPT’s reaccelerating growth to employees as OpenAI closes in on $100 billion funding (CNBC) How Capex Ramp Up Will Squeeze Google, Amazon, Meta (The Information) Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter (Sherwood) A New AI Video Model From ByteDance is Making Waves (PetaPixel) Claude Code is the Inflection Point (SemiAnalysis) Crypto.com CEO unveils new AI agents to millions during Super Bowl (CoinTelegraph) From Svedka to Anthropic, brands make bold plays with AI in Super Bowl ads (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claude Opus 4.6 arrives to crown Anthropic’s very good week, at least, for them it was good. You thought tech was spending big to build out for AI, but this week we’ve seen how big. Crypto seems to have really hit a sharp bear market. And in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, tv piracy is back, baby! Anthropic Releases New Model That’s Adept at Financial Research (Bloomberg) Anthropic debuts new model with hopes to corner the market beyond coding (The Verge) Big Tech to Spend $650 Billion This Year as AI Race Intensifies (Bloomberg) Europe Accuses TikTok of ‘Addictive Design’ and Pushes for Change (NYTimes) Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 as Market Faces a ‘Crisis of Faith’ (Bloomberg) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Inside Elon Musk’s $1.25 Trillion AI and Space Megamerger (WSJ) Everyone is stealing TV (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alphabet earnings. Claude goes to the Superbowl. Why AI brand loyalty isn’t even remotely a thing yet. And is the whole Marc Andreessen theory of software eating the world in the process of being eaten by AI? Wall Street is worried about that very scenario. Google set to double AI spending to $185bn after strong earnings (FT) OpenAI Frontier is a single platform to control your AI agents (The Verge) Anthropic says ‘Claude will remain ad-free,’ unlike ChatGPT (The Verge) Microsoft’s Pivotal AI Product Is Running Into Big Problems (WSJ) New Data: OpenAI’s Lead Is Contracting as AI Competition Intensifies (Big Technology) Threat of New AI Tools Wipes $300 Billion Off Software and Data Stocks (WSJ) AI Won’t Kill the Software Business, Just Its Growth Story (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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As SpaceX acquires xAI, all of Elon’s companies under one umbrella is pretty much an inevitability isn’t it? What is with this weird game of chicken that Nvidia and OpenAI and now Oracle are all engaging in all of the sudden. And self-driving cars are about to be ubiquitous, indication number 37. Musk’s SpaceX Combines With xAI at $1.25 Trillion Valuation (Bloomberg) SpaceX acquires xAI, plans to launch a massive satellite constellation to power it (ArsTechnica) OpenAI's Codex just got its own Mac app - and anyone can try it for free now (ZDNet) Exclusive: OpenAI is unsatisfied with some Nvidia chips and looking for alternatives, sources say (Reuters) Waymo Raises $16 Billion From Alphabet and Others to Expand (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices