📋 Quick Takeaways

• Unprecedented AI safety exodus: High-profile departures hit OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI within days — researchers warn companies are “moving too fast”
• OpenAI fires VP who opposed ChatGPT “adult mode”; researcher Zoë Hitzig quits over advertising in NYT op-ed
• Half of xAI’s 12 co-founders have now left Elon Musk’s AI company amid Grok deepfake controversy and reorganization
• VCs break taboo: Sequoia and Altimeter invest in both OpenAI and Anthropic simultaneously as $20B+ rounds close
• DeepSeek V4 expected mid-February with 1T parameters, reportedly outperforming Claude and GPT on coding benchmarks
• Trump administration plans chip tariff exemptions for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft tied to TSMC’s $165B US investment
• Microsoft explores superconducting power cables to solve AI data center energy bottleneck
• MiniMax M2.5 launches claiming parity with Claude Opus 4.6 in coding and agentic tasks

🛡️ AI Safety & Talent Exodus

Wave of AI Safety Departures Rocks the Industry

An extraordinary cluster of high-profile resignations and firings has swept across the AI industry within a matter of days, raising urgent questions about the tension between rapid commercialization and responsible AI development.

📋 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

• Anthropic aired savage Super Bowl ads attacking OpenAI’s new ChatGPT advertising — the “AI Bowl” featured 15 AI-related commercials out of 66 total spots
• ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 goes viral globally with cinema-grade AI video generation, multi-shot storytelling, and native audio sync in 8+ languages
• China unleashes 5 frontier AI models in one week before Lunar New Year: Qwen 3.5, GLM-5, Doubao 2.0, MiniMax M2.2, and Seedance 2.0
• Anthropic dominates prediction markets at 68% for best AI model by end of February after Claude Opus 4.6 launch; OpenAI collapses to 6%
• TSMC January revenue surges 37% to $12.7B on relentless AI chip demand, beating full-year growth forecasts
• OpenAI prepares confidential IPO filing for February, targeting $550–600B valuation for Q2-Q3 2026 debut
• $340M+ in AI startup funding including Harvey AI ($200M), Neural Concept ($100M), and multiple agent-focused rounds

🏈 Super Bowl AI Wars: Anthropic vs. OpenAI

Anthropic Launches Savage Super Bowl Ad Campaign Against ChatGPT Ads

The biggest story of Super Bowl LX wasn’t just football — it was the escalating war between AI giants. Anthropic spent millions on a multi-spot Super Bowl advertising blitz directly targeting OpenAI’s decision to introduce ads into ChatGPT.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Anthropic attacks OpenAI at Super Bowl LX with “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude” campaign, sparking an unprecedented public feud between the two AI leaders
• Super Bowl LX becomes biggest AI advertising showcase ever, with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon, Meta, and startups spending ~$8M per 30-second spot
• AI.com sells for $70 million — the most expensive domain sale in history — launching as a consumer AI agent platform during the Big Game
• OpenAI debuts Codex ad featuring its coding agent, positioning ChatGPT as the “builder’s tool” without acknowledging Anthropic’s attacks
• New York lawmakers propose a 3-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, the strongest such bill in the country
• Fake OpenAI hardware video goes viral — Alexander Skarsgård ad debunked as OpenAI confirms its Jony Ive device is still in development

⚔️ AI Industry Rivalry

Anthropic vs OpenAI: Super Bowl Ad War Escalates Into Full Public Feud

The Biggest AI Rivalry Goes Mainstream: What started as a Super Bowl advertising campaign erupted into the most public conflict yet between the two leading AI startups. Anthropic aired a 60-second pregame ad and a 30-second in-game spot, both centered on the tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Big Tech’s combined $650 billion AI infrastructure spending for 2026 is unprecedented — Amazon leads with $200B, Alphabet at $175-185B, Microsoft ~$150B, and Meta $115-135B
• Amazon stock drops ~10% after announcing $200B capex, over $50B above analyst expectations, sparking AI ROI fears
• OpenClaw AI agent platform faces catastrophic security crisis — 400+ malicious packages, one-click RCE exploits, and 42,665 exposed instances discovered
• Cerebras raises $1B at $23B valuation, tripling in 4 months, with $10B OpenAI deal and Q2 2026 IPO planned
• New York lawmakers propose 3-year data center moratorium as 230+ environmental groups call for national ban
• Anthropic’s first Super Bowl ads mock OpenAI’s ad plans, triggering public CEO feud ahead of Super Bowl LX
• Software sector plunges 20% YTD as AI agent capabilities threaten traditional SaaS business models

🏗️ AI Infrastructure & Big Tech Spending

1. Big Tech Commits Record $650 Billion to AI Infrastructure in 2026

Unprecedented Capital Deployment: Four of the largest U.S. technology companies have collectively forecast capital expenditures reaching approximately $650 billion in 2026 — a spending spree without parallel in modern corporate history, driven almost entirely by the race for AI dominance.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Big Tech commits a staggering $650 billion in combined 2026 AI capex — the largest corporate infrastructure buildout in modern history
• Amazon shocks Wall Street with a $200B AI infrastructure plan ($50B above estimates), sending shares down 10%
• Dow Jones crosses 50,000 for the first time ever, surging 1,206 points in a single session fueled by AI chipmaker rallies
• NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang declares the $660B AI capex buildout “sustainable” for 7–8 years, lifting NVDA shares 8%
• OpenAI and Anthropic release rival flagship coding models within 15 minutes of each other in dramatic AI arms race escalation
• Claude Opus 4.6 discovers 500+ zero-day vulnerabilities in open-source code during pre-release testing
• Goldman Sachs reveals 6-month Anthropic partnership to automate banking operations with AI agents
• $1 trillion wiped from software stocks as AI disruption fears reach fever pitch

💰 Big Tech AI Infrastructure & Market Shockwaves

Amazon Announces $200 Billion AI Infrastructure Spend — Stock Plunges 10%

Amazon revealed plans to invest $200 billion in AI and cloud infrastructure in 2026, smashing analyst expectations of approximately $150 billion by more than $50 billion. The announcement, made during Amazon’s Q4 2025 earnings report on February 5, sent shares tumbling as much as 10% on February 6, erasing roughly $240 billion in market capitalization.

📋 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.

📋 Quick Takeaways

• Cerebras Systems raises $1 billion at $23 billion valuation, nearly tripling in 4 months with AMD as strategic investor
• ElevenLabs secures $500 million Series D at $11 billion valuation, plans expansion beyond voice into multimodal AI agents
• NVIDIA and Dassault Systèmes announce strategic partnership to build industrial AI platform with “World Models”
• Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan announces aggressive move into data center GPUs, hiring chief architect to challenge NVIDIA
• Bedrock Robotics raises $270 million at $1.75B valuation for autonomous construction equipment
• DOJ and 35 states appeal Google search antitrust ruling, seeking Chrome divestiture and end to Apple default deal

🔥 AI Chip Infrastructure & Funding

1. Cerebras Systems Raises $1 Billion at $23 Billion Valuation

Landmark Investment: NVIDIA-rival Cerebras Systems announced the closing of a $1 billion Series H financing round, nearly tripling its valuation from $8.1 billion just four months prior.

📋 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.