📋 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

• 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.