The Unification
SpaceX and xAI are in advanced merger talks ahead of a planned IPO. Bloomberg reports Tesla may be absorbed too — creating a single Musk-controlled entity spanning rockets, satellites, autonomous vehicles, and frontier AI.
Apple reports Q1 revenue up 16% YoY to $143.76B, vs. $138.48B est., net income up 16% YoY to $42.1B, and EPS of $2.84, above $2.67 est.
Apple reported fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday that surpassed expectations, with revenue soaring 16% on an annual basis.
Apple Q1: iPhone up 23% YoY to $85.27B, vs. $78.65B est., Mac down 7% to $8.39B, iPad up 6% to $8.6B, and Wearables, Home, and Accessories down 2% to $11.49B
All-time records for total company revenue and EPS — iPhone and Services revenue reach new all-time highs
A look at Moltbook, a social network where OpenClaw assistants interact autonomously, as they discuss consciousness and identity, technical tips, and more
The hottest project in AI right now is Clawdbot, renamed to Moltbot, renamed to OpenClaw. It's an open source implementation …
Source: SpaceX and xAI are in talks to merge ahead of a planned IPO this year; under the proposed deal, shares of xAI would be exchanged for shares in SpaceX
Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are in discussions to merge ahead of a blockbuster public offering planned for later this year.
Sources: Apple lost at least four more AI researchers in recent weeks, two of whom went to Meta and one to DeepMind; a top Siri executive left for DeepMind
Apple Inc. has lost at least four more of its artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks in addition to a top Siri executive …
Apple acquires Q.ai, whose tech can analyze facial expressions and could enable non-verbal discussions with AI assistants; sources: the deal values Q.ai at ~$2B
iPhone-maker strikes deal for secretive group that creates technology that analyses facial expressions
OpenAI plans to retire several models from ChatGPT on February 13, including GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1, and o4-mini, saying only 0.1% of users still choose GPT-4o
OpenAI announced it will retire several models from its ChatGPT chatbot next month, including its GPT‑4o model that is beloved by some users.
Google launches Project Genie, which lets users create interactive worlds using Genie 3, Nano Banana Pro, and Gemini, for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US
It's what I had the most fun using Google's Project Genie for, at least right now. … This week, a new generative AI tool …
Apple expects Q2 revenue to grow 13% to 16% YoY, vs. 10% est.; it's currently constrained by iPhone processor supply and expects memory costs to rise after Q2
Apple (AAPL.O) on Thursday forecast higher-than-expected revenue growth of up to 16% for the March quarter …
Sources: OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an IPO in Q4 2026, and its executives have privately expressed concerns about Anthropic beating OpenAI to an IPO
Rivals are competing to be the first major generative AI startup to tap the public markets — OpenAI is laying the groundwork …
Anthropic details an experiment on whether AI coding tools shape developer skills: the biggest performance decline for developers occurred in debugging tasks
Read the paper — Research shows AI helps people do parts of their job faster. In an observational study of Claude.ai data, we found AI can speed up some tasks by 80%.
Shares of gaming companies plunge after Google released Project Genie, which lets users create interactive worlds; Unity closed down 24.2% and Take-Two 7.9%
Shares of videogame companies fell sharply in afternoon trading on Friday after Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) rolled …
Anthropic details how NASA engineers used Claude to plot out the route for Perseverance rover to navigate a ~400 meter path on the Martian surface
The first AI-planned drive on another planet. — EXPLORING NEW PLANETS means that you're always operating in the past.
Binance says it will convert $1B in stablecoin reserves held in its SAFU into bitcoin over the next 30 days, as BTC falls to its lowest level since November
Partner offers — Quick Take — Binance announced that it will turn its $1 billion SAFU fund into bitcoin over the next 30 days …
Darren Aronofsky's Primordial Soup debuts its short-form Revolutionary War series, made using Google DeepMind's AI tools and human voice actors
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky used AI to travel back in time 250 years ago to the American Revolution. But he tapped real-life human actors …
Sources: the Pentagon is clashing with Anthropic over safeguards limiting the use of its tech to target weapons autonomously and conduct domestic surveillance
The Pentagon and artificial-intelligence developer Anthropic are at odds over potentially eliminating safeguards that might allow …
Anthropic expands its agentic plugins, which let enterprise users automate department-specific workflows, from Claude Code to its new general-use tool Cowork
Earlier this month, Anthropic launched Cowork, a new agentic tool designed to take the benefits of its AI coding assistant Claude Code …
Sources: Microsoft is focusing on fixing the core issues of Windows 11 over the coming months after persistent bugs, ads, and bloatware eroded user trust
Engineers are now focusing on performance, reliability, and the overall Windows experience. … Windows is in a weird spot.
Gurman: internal development at Apple “runs on Anthropic at this point” and Apple wanted to rebuild Siri around Claude but Anthropic “wanted a ton of money”
Bloomberg's @markgurman says that even though Apple partnered with Google Gemini for Siri, they actually run their business on Anthropic. “Apple runs on Anthropic at this point. Anthropic is powering ...
Bluesky releases its first transparency report: users rose 60% in 2025 to 41.2M, including AT Protocol accounts; moderation reports from users grew 54% to 9.97M
Bluesky released its first transparency report this week documenting the actions taken by its Trust & Safety team and the results …
Sources: China has given DeepSeek approval to buy Nvidia's H200 AI chips but imposes regulatory conditions, which are still being finalized
China has given its top AI startup DeepSeek approval to buy Nvidia's (NVDA.O) H200 artificial intelligence chips with regulatory conditions …
The US government finalized forfeiture of $400M+ tied to Helix crypto mixer last week; Helix operator Larry Dean Harmon was sentenced to three years in 2024
The mixer processed hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin that prosecutors say were tied to illicit activity on the dark web.
Peter Steinberger rebrands his AI agent project to OpenClaw, its second name change after Anthropic forced a shift from Clawdbot to Moltbot
Moltbot, formerly Clawdbot, changes its name to OpenClaw — What began as a side project that quietly attracted more than 100,000 GitHub stars …
Poetiq, which leverages existing LLMs to create “expert agents” for specific tasks, and spent just $40K to achieve high ARC-AGI-2 scores, raised a $45.8M seed
Poetiq, a less-than-one-year-old A.I. startup just crushed the ARC A.G.I. benchmark, beating Anthropic and Google with only six people and $40,000.
Sources: SpaceX generated about $8B in EBITDA on $15B to $16B of revenue last year; Starlink accounted for about 50% to 80% of the total revenue
SpaceX generated about $8 billion in profit on $15 billion to $16 billion of revenue last year, two people familiar with the company's results said …
Sources: SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla, an idea some investors are pushing, while separately exploring a tie-up between SpaceX and xAI
SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla Inc., as well as an alternative combination with artificial intelligence firm xAI …
Filing: Chinese chip designer Montage plans to raise up to ~$902M in a Hong Kong IPO; Montage's Shanghai-listed shares rose 100%+ in 2025 to a ~$27B valuation
Chinese chip designer Montage Technology Co. is seeking to raise as much as HK$7 billion ($902 million) from its Hong Kong listing …
Waymo says a robotaxi struck a child at 6 mph near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, resulting in minor injuries; the NHTSA opens a probe
A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, according to the company.
Pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future has raised $125M+ in 2025, including from a16z and Greg Brockman, to try to shape the US midterms and federal AI regulation
Pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future has raised more than $125 million to try to shape the 2026 midterms and the future of federal AI regulation.
Filing: Chinese AI chipmaker Axera, which focuses on AI inference SoCs for on-device and edge computing, aims to raise up to ~$379.2M in a Hong Kong IPO
Sources: OnlyFans is in talks to sell a nearly 60% stake to Architect Capital in a deal that values the company at around $5.5B, including debt
Deal with Architect Capital would value the adult social-media platform at $3.5 billion — OnlyFans, the British online platform popular …
Apple's Q1 sales in greater China surged 38% to $25.5B; Tim Cook attributed the increase to users upgrading and switching from other platforms to iPhone 17
Mark Gurman /Bloomberg:
Oura CEO Tom Hale says the company has no plans to abandon its subscription model, even as rivals experiment with cheaper hardware and no recurring fees
Oura Health Oy, the popular smart ring maker, has no plans to abandon its subscription-based business model even as rivals experiment with cheaper hardware and no recurring fees.
Cloudflare says it mitigated a 31.4 Tbps DDoS attack from the Aisuru/Kimwolf botnet in December 2025, making it the largest attack ever disclosed publicly
The Aisuru/Kimwolf botnet launched a new massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that peaked at 31.4 Tbps and 200 million requests per second, setting a new record.
France blocks Eutelsat's ~€550M sale of its ground antenna business to EQT, calling it Europe's only Starlink competitor; France has a 29.6% stake in Eutelsat
Satellite operator says €550mn sale of ground-antenna business to private equity firm is off
Tesla plans to scrap its premium S and X models and convert its California factory into an Optimus manufacturing hub, as Elon Musk refocuses on robotics and AI
A San Francisco jury finds former Google engineer Linwei Ding guilty of stealing trade secrets related to AI chip technology to build a startup in China
A former Google engineer was convicted Thursday of economic espionage and trade secrets theft for taking hundreds of the company's confidential documents …
Checkbox, an AI startup that aims to automate legal intake, raised a $23M Series A led by Touring Capital; Checkbox has 100+ clients, including SAP and PepsiCo
Checkbox, an Australian-founded AI startup that wants to build an AI ‘front door’ for in-house legal teams, will use the cash to build out its automated workflows.
The Q.ai acquisition could be Apple's second-largest ever and marks founder Aviad Maizels' second exit to Apple, which bought his startup PrimeSense in 2013
Omer Kabir /CTech:
Sandisk reports Q2 revenue up 61% YoY to $3.03B, vs. $2.69B est., and net income up 672% to $803M, as AI drives demand upward; SNDK jumps 10%+
Data storage technology company posts second-quarter profit of $803 million, up from $104 million a year earlier
Hands-on with Google's Auto Browse for Chrome: it performs multistep tasks noticeably better than similar tools but struggles with complex tasks
Auto Browse can shop for clothes, plan a trip, and buy tickets for you. Or at least, that's the idea. — I'll admit it. I like clicking around.
Microsoft shares fell ~10% on Thursday following an earnings report that disappointed some investors, the stock's sharpest daily decline since March 2020
Microsoft shares slid about 10% on Thursday following an earnings report that disappointed some investors, prompting the stock's sharpest daily decline since March 2020.
The Netherlands' consumer protection regulator launches an investigation into Roblox under the DSA over potential risks to underage users in the EU
The Netherlands' consumer protection regulator ACM has launched an investigation into U.S. gaming platform Roblox (RBLX.N) …
Nothing CEO Carl Pei says the company's flagship Phone 4 won't launch in 2026: “We're not just going to churn out a new flagship every year for the sake of it”
Insurance tech company Ethos raised ~$200M in its Jan. 29 IPO, selling 10.5M shares at $19 each; it reached a $1.1B market cap, below its 2021 $2.7B valuation
Ethos Technologies, a San Francisco-based provider of software for selling life insurance, debuted on the Nasdaq on Thursday.
Google expands Gemini's hands-free conversational capabilities to walking and cycling modes in Google Maps, available on iOS and rolling out on Android
Costco will use Instacart's white-label e-commerce service to offer grocery delivery in Spain and France, extending their partnership beyond North America
Costco Wholesale Corp. will use Instacart's technology to power online grocery ordering in Spain and France, extending …
Sources: Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50B in OpenAI, which is seeking up to $100B in new capital, a round that could value it at as much as $830B
CEO Andy Jassy is leading the e-commerce giant's negotiations with the startup — Amazon.com is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI …
Sources: special agents with the US Commerce Department investigated claims by ex-Meta contractors that Meta staff had “unfettered” access to WhatsApp messages
US law enforcement has been investigating allegations by former Meta Platforms Inc. contractors that Meta personnel …
Perplexity signs a deal with Microsoft; sources say the $750M, three-year commitment will let Perplexity deploy AI models through Microsoft's Foundry service
AI startup Perplexity signed a $750 million deal with Microsoft Corp. to use its Azure cloud service, spreading its business beyond longtime cloud partner Amazon.com Inc.
Apple's iPhone 16 was the world's best-selling smartphone in 2025, followed by the 16 Pro Max and 16 Pro; Apple took 7 of the top 10 spots and Samsung took 3
Sources: Granola, which makes an AI-based note-taking app, aims to raise $100M+ led by Index Ventures at a $1B+ valuation, up from a $250M valuation in May 2025
The London-based AI startup aims to raise a new round of at least $100 million led by Index Ventures, making the popular note-taking app the latest AI unicorn.
Nvidia launches a native GeForce NOW app for Linux, starting with Debian-based Ubuntu, after releasing a Steam Deck app in 2025; in a hands-on, it works well
Apple reports Q1 revenue from Services up 14% YoY to $30B, in line with estimates, as Apple's installed base of active devices has surpassed 2.5B
Todd Spangler /Variety:
Appfigures: Sora's app downloads dropped 32% month-over-month in December and 45% in January to 1.2M; consumer spending on the app fell 32% MoM as of January
The US SEC clarifies its tokenized stock rules, saying they are subject to securities and derivatives rules and issuer approval is required for true ownership
Chinese media: China executed 11 members of the Ming mafia family that ran online scam centres in Myanmar; five Bai family members are also sentenced to death
Waymo says it hopes to launch its London robotaxi service as soon as September, after an April pilot; the UK government plans to change regulations in H2 2026
Social media app UpScrolled hits #1 on Apple's US app store following allegations that TikTok suppresses anti-ICE videos; its founder says it crossed 1M users
Q&A with Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis on AGI, next breakthroughs like continual learning, his vision for AI glasses, whether AI progress is slowing, more
The leader of Google's AI program weighs in on the cutting edge of AI research, Google's plans to put the technology in its products …
Google's experience in India has become a proving ground to scale AI in education, as the country accounts for the highest global usage of Gemini for learning
As AI races into classrooms worldwide, Google is finding that the toughest lessons on how the tech can actually scale are emerging …
Grubhub plans to remove delivery and service fees on restaurant orders over $50 starting Feb. 2; Grubhub's US market share fell to ~4% in 2025 from 10% in 2023
A coalition of music publishers, including UMG, filed a second lawsuit against Anthropic, seeking $3B over allegations of copyright infringement of 20k+ songs
Amazon reported hundreds of thousands of pieces of potential CSAM in AI training data to NCMEC in 2025; child safety officials say Amazon didn't give the source
OpenAI has hired 7+ employees from AI coding startup Cline, including Nik Pash, who left Cline after posting “imagine the smell” on X regarding an xAI hackathon
OpenAI has recently hired more than a half dozen employees from Cline, a startup that develops an open-source …