📋 Quick Takeaways

• OpenAI officially begins testing ads in ChatGPT for Free and Go tier users in the U.S., marking a historic monetization shift for consumer AI
• Anthropic fires back with anti-ad manifesto and strikes AI partnership with Man Group, escalating the OpenAI rivalry to new heights
• $2 trillion wiped off software stocks in a week, yet AI bull market holds as hyperscaler capex guidance surges 24% YoY to $660B for 2026
• Alphabet raises $20 billion in its largest-ever bond sale — including a 100-year bond — to fund AI infrastructure buildout
• Firmus Technologies secures $10 billion Blackstone-led loan for Australian AI data centers, one of the largest private credit deals ever
• Melius Research downgrades Microsoft, saying CEO Nadella has “lost the AI narrative” with Copilot underperformance
• ChatGPT returns to 10%+ monthly growth, with OpenAI teasing an updated chat model shipping this week

💰 AI Monetization & Platform Strategy

OpenAI Officially Launches Ads in ChatGPT — A Watershed Moment for Consumer AI

Historic Shift: On February 10, OpenAI officially began testing advertisements inside ChatGPT, fundamentally changing the economics of consumer AI. The rollout targets logged-in adult users on the Free and Go subscription tiers in the United States.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• AI-driven selloff erases ~$1 trillion from software stocks in seven days as investors fear AI will displace enterprise software business models
• Anthropic launches Claude Opus 4.6 with 1M token context window, agent teams, and state-of-the-art benchmarks — outperforming GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3 Pro
• Alphabet reveals $175B–$185B AI capex plan for 2026 — nearly double its 2025 spend — while reporting record Q4 revenue of $113.8B
• Amazon announces $200B in 2026 AI spending, sending shares plunging ~10% after hours despite AWS growth reacceleration
• OpenAI launches “Frontier”, an enterprise AI agent orchestration platform positioned as a “Semantic Operating System”
• $405M+ in AI startup funding announced on February 5 alone, including Goodfire ($150M) and Fundamental ($255M)
• Waymo closes $16B round at $126B valuation, planning expansion to 20+ new cities including Tokyo and London

📉 AI Market Shockwave

AI-Triggered Software Stock Rout Wipes ~$1 Trillion in Seven Days

The AI industry’s most disruptive week of 2026 saw nearly $1 trillion erased from software stocks as investors rapidly repriced the sector’s future in an AI-dominated world. The S&P 500 fell 1.2% and the Nasdaq shed 1.5% on February 5 alone, extending a brutal multi-day selloff.