📋 Quick Takeaways

• OpenAI officially retires GPT-4o and several legacy models from ChatGPT on February 13, amid 13 consolidated lawsuits over mental health harms
• GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark launches on Cerebras chips — OpenAI’s first production model not running on Nvidia, delivering 1,000+ tokens/sec at 15x faster speeds
• MiniMax M2.5 from China achieves near-frontier performance on SWE-Bench at 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-5
• Zhipu AI’s GLM-5 reaches Intelligence Index score of 50, trained on Huawei Ascend chips — a milestone for non-Nvidia AI training
• Baker McKenzie cuts up to 1,000 jobs citing AI, in the largest AI-driven layoff in the legal industry
• Google warns that nation-state hackers from Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia are using Gemini for cyberattacks
• Waymo deploys 6th-generation Ojai robotaxis, plans expansion to 20+ cities including Tokyo and London
• Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad drives 11% user growth and Apple App Store top-10 ranking, beating OpenAI, Google, and Meta
• Samsung begins shipping HBM4 samples, the next-gen memory critical for AI accelerator performance
• Autonomous vehicles forecast to operate or test in 39 global markets by end of 2026

🤖 AI Model Releases & Retirements

OpenAI Officially Retires GPT-4o and Legacy Models from ChatGPT

On February 13, OpenAI officially pulled the plug on GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and o4-mini from ChatGPT, alongside the previously announced retirement of GPT-5 Instant and Thinking. All conversations now default to GPT-5.2. API access remains unchanged for the time being.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Anthropic closes record $30B Series G at $380B valuation — the second-largest private tech round ever — with annualized revenue hitting $14B and Claude Code surpassing $2.5B run-rate
• ByteDance officially launches Seedance 2.0, a multimodal AI video model that goes viral on Chinese social media, drawing “DeepSeek moment” comparisons and an Elon Musk reaction
• Anthropic donates $20M to pro-AI-regulation PAC, escalating a political spending war with OpenAI-backed groups ahead of the 2026 midterm elections
• Waymo begins deploying 6th-generation Ojai robotaxis with 42% fewer sensors, targeting 1M weekly rides and expansion to 10+ new U.S. cities plus London
• Singapore unveils sweeping AI-centric national budget with 400% tax deductions, a National AI Council, and free public AI tools
• Meta begins construction on a ~$10B data center in Indiana with 1GW power capacity
• Goldman Sachs raises Nvidia estimates ahead of Feb 25 earnings, forecasting a $2B revenue beat as hyperscaler capex tops $600B
• AGIBOT launches $530K global robotics competition at ICRA 2026, reinforcing embodied AI as a major frontier

💰 AI Funding & Corporate Strategy

Anthropic Closes $30B Series G at $380B Valuation — Second-Largest Private Tech Round in History

Anthropic announced on Thursday the close of a $30 billion Series G funding round, valuing the company at $380 billion post-money — more than double its $183 billion valuation from September 2025. The round is the second-largest private tech financing ever, trailing only OpenAI’s $40B+ raise last year.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• SpaceX acquires xAI in largest merger in history, creating $1.25 trillion combined entity with plans for orbital AI data centers
• Waymo raises record $16 billion at $126B valuation, plans expansion to 20+ cities including London and Tokyo
• AMD reports record Q4 revenue of $10.3B but forecasts cautious Q1 2026 amid China AI chip restrictions
• Siemens Energy commits $1 billion to U.S. manufacturing for AI data center power infrastructure
• Alphabet reports Q4 earnings with focus on Google Cloud AI growth and $116B 2026 capex plans
• OpenAI confirms GPT-4o retirement on February 13 as GPT-5.2 dominates with 99.9% usage share

🚀 Historic Mergers & Acquisitions

SpaceX Acquires xAI in $1.25 Trillion Mega-Merger — Largest Deal in History

Historic Transaction: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has officially acquired his AI startup xAI, creating the world’s most valuable private company valued at $1.25 trillion and marking the largest corporate merger ever recorded.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Snowflake and OpenAI announce $200M multi-year partnership bringing GPT-5.2 directly to enterprise data platforms
• Oracle reportedly considering 20,000-30,000 layoffs to fund $156B AI data center expansion amid banking pullback
• OpenAI confirms GPT-4o retirement on February 13, 2026, as usage shifts to GPT-5.2 with only 0.1% still using legacy model
• Sam Altman pushes back on NVIDIA chip dissatisfaction reports, calling them “insanity”
• Anthropic partners with Williams F1 racing team as “official thinking partner” in unprecedented AI-sports deal
• Google launches Project Genie to AI Ultra subscribers, enabling real-time interactive world generation
• Waymo targets September 2026 for London robotaxi launch, marking first European commercial operation

💼 Enterprise AI Partnerships

Snowflake and OpenAI Forge $200 Million Enterprise AI Partnership

Major Enterprise Deal: Snowflake announced on February 2 a multi-year $200 million partnership with OpenAI to integrate frontier AI models directly into its data platform, marking a significant shift in enterprise AI strategy.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• China approves Nvidia H200 chip sales to ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent for 400,000+ units, marking major shift in US-China tech relations
• SoftBank in talks to invest $30 billion more in OpenAI, potentially pushing valuation to $830 billion
• ASML reports record Q4 orders of $15.8 billion, more than doubling analyst expectations amid AI chip demand surge
• Amazon announces 16,000 layoffs, the largest workforce reduction in company history combined with October cuts
• Waabi raises $1 billion and partners with Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis
• $700M+ in major AI startup funding across autonomous vehicles, enterprise AI, and cloud infrastructure

🌏 Geopolitics & Semiconductor Trade

China Approves Nvidia H200 Chip Sales to ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent

Major Breakthrough: China granted approval for its three largest tech companies to purchase more than 400,000 Nvidia H200 AI chips, marking a significant shift in Beijing’s approach to balancing AI advancement against domestic chip industry development.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang declares AI development requires “trillions of dollars” in infrastructure spending at Davos 2026
• Trump administration commits to nuclear power expansion with 300 GW target by 2030 to fuel AI data centers
• ChatGPT market share plummets from 86.6% to 64.6% while Google Gemini surges to 22% in one year
• Waymo launches Miami robotaxi service, expanding to 6th US city with plans for 20+ cities in 2026
• Congress advances AI Overwatch Act requiring approval for AI chip exports to China
• DeepSeek prepares V4 model with enhanced coding capabilities ahead of Lunar New Year release
• Physical AI emerges as dominant 2026 theme with 5-6x market potential versus agentic AI

🏛️ Davos 2026: AI Infrastructure Takes Center Stage

Jensen Huang: AI Requires “Trillions of Dollars” in Infrastructure Investment

Major Declaration: At the World Economic Forum in Davos, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang delivered a stark message to global leaders: artificial intelligence development will require “trillions of dollars” of spending on what he called “the largest infrastructure build-out in history.”

📋 Quick Takeaways

• xAI closes historic $20 billion Series E with strategic investments from NVIDIA, Cisco, Fidelity, and Qatar Investment Authority at ~$230B valuation
• NVIDIA unveils Vera Rubin AI platform featuring six co-designed chips optimized for agentic AI and trillion-parameter models
• NVIDIA releases Alpamayo open-source models for Level 4 autonomous driving, partnering with Mercedes-Benz for Q1 2026 US launch
• Google DeepMind integrates Gemini into Boston Dynamics Atlas in landmark robotics collaboration
• Mobileye acquires Mentee Robotics for $900M betting on humanoid robots as next AI frontier
• Hyundai announces $26B US investment over four years for robotics and autonomous driving ecosystem
• AMD reveals Ryzen AI 400 Series with 60 TOPS NPU and Helios rack systems challenging NVIDIA

💰 Major AI Funding

xAI Raises Record $20 Billion in Series E Funding

Historic Round: Elon Musk’s xAI announced on January 6 the completion of a $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding its initial $15 billion target and representing one of the largest single funding rounds in tech history.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• NVIDIA unveils Vera Rubin platform — first extreme-codesigned six-chip AI system promising 10x reduction in inference token cost
• “ChatGPT moment for physical AI” declared by Jensen Huang as NVIDIA releases robotics foundation models for Boston Dynamics, Caterpillar, and LG
• NVIDIA launches Alpamayo — world’s first open-source reasoning AI for autonomous driving, shipping in Mercedes-Benz CLA this year
• AMD counters with Helios — “world’s best AI rack” featuring 72 MI455X GPUs to directly challenge NVIDIA’s dominance
• Intel debuts Core Ultra Series 3 — first consumer chips built on 18A process technology, pre-orders start January 6
• World Labs demonstrates Marble — Dr. Fei-Fei Li showcases 3D world model creating physics-accurate virtual environments

🚀 NVIDIA Vera Rubin: Next-Generation AI Computing Platform

NVIDIA Unveils Vera Rubin — The Most Powerful AI Platform Ever Built

Landmark Announcement: At CES 2026 in Las Vegas on January 5, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang unveiled Vera Rubin, the company’s first extreme-codesigned AI platform featuring six integrated chips designed to revolutionize AI training and inference.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• China drafts landmark regulations for “human-like” AI, requiring labels and addiction prevention measures.
• Nvidia halts testing of Intel’s 18A node, dealing a major blow to Intel’s foundry comeback strategy.
• IREN confirms $9.7 billion AI cloud deal with Microsoft, pivoting from crypto to high-performance computing.
• Peking University unveils analog AI chip claiming 1,000x efficiency gains over traditional GPUs.
• Waymo begins testing Google Gemini models to enable verbal conversations in robotaxis.
• Andrew Ng predicts AI won’t replace humans anytime soon, despite warning of a short-term valuation bubble.
• Teachers flock to “Diffit”, an AI tool for differentiating curriculum, signaling mass classroom adoption.

⚖️ AI Regulation & Policy

China Issues Draft Rules to Regulate Human-Like AI Interactions

Regulatory Milestone: The Cyberspace Administration of China released draft regulations on December 27 targeting AI services that simulate human personalities or engage in emotional interactions.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Tesla begins fully autonomous Robotaxi testing in Austin without human safety monitors inside vehicles
• iRobot files Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to be acquired by Chinese manufacturer after Amazon deal collapse
• OpenAI eliminates 6-month vesting cliff for new hires amid intensifying AI talent war
• Global tech rout hits Asia markets as AI bubble fears resurface, Broadcom plunges 15%
• Apple releases urgent security patches for actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities
• German state completes Microsoft exodus to open-source software, saving millions
• Apple smart glasses to use Watch chips instead of iPhone processors for battery optimization
• SpaceX launches dual Starlink missions within 24 hours across multiple launch sites
• Deloitte report reveals 93% tech, 7% people imbalance in corporate AI investments
• MIT declares 2025 “Great AI Hype Correction” year despite continued technological progress

🚗 Autonomous Vehicles & Robotics

Tesla Begins Fully Unmanned Robotaxi Testing in Austin

Major Milestone: Elon Musk confirmed on December 14 that Tesla has commenced testing its Robotaxi fleet without any human safety monitors inside the vehicles in Austin, Texas, marking a significant advancement toward commercial autonomous transportation deployment.