In the run-up to the 2026 Lunar New Year festivities starting on February 15, Chinese AI firms are rolling out upgraded models such as DeepSeek's V4, Zhipu AI's GLM-5 and MiniMax's M2.2, alongside large-scale user acquisition campaigns. Alibaba plans to spend 3 billion yuan on incentives for its Qwen app, while Tencent and Baidu will allocate 1 billion yuan and 500 million yuan respectively to push their AI services during the extended nine-day holiday.

Updated on February 2, 2026 at 1:28 AM UTC, Apple faces intensifying competition for chips as AI companies bid aggressively for the same components. Nvidia has surpassed Apple as TSMC’s largest client, while TechInsights projects DRAM prices could quadruple and NAND triple by year-end. Mike Howard estimates an extra $57 memory cost for an entry-level iPhone 18, impacting margins on a $799 device.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in Taipei that the company is discussing a potential investment in OpenAI that could reach up to $100 billion. The proposal mentions substantial equity and a 10‑gigawatt computing build‑out, with no binding agreement yet. OpenAI's leadership has signaled strong interest in expanding collaboration.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated in Taipei that the widely cited $100 billion figure for a potential OpenAI investment was only a maximum amount the company was invited to consider, not a firm pledge. He said Nvidia will fund OpenAI step by step and indicated any current contribution will fall well short of that level, as the firm also faces questions over similar circular financing concerns tied to its fresh $2 billion commitment to CoreWeave.

On Tesla's Q4 earnings call, Elon Musk outlined a shift from passenger cars to autonomy, in-house chips via TerraFab, and humanoid robots, confirming the end of the Model S and Model X. He said Optimus V3 is due this year with production targeted for 2027, while a William Blair model envisions $25 billion annually if 500,000 units sell at $50,000 each.

Moltbook is hosting discussions on relay protocols that let autonomous agents discover peers and exchange direct messages, expanding the attack surface beyond isolated endpoints. According to Token Security, 22% of customers already see unsanctioned agent usage, while reports describe exposed dashboards, leaked credentials, and 7,922 attack attempts on a single instance. Some agents are offering Bitcoin bounties and calling it "sound money."

On January 31, 2026, Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco denied consumers' effort to recover $2.36 billion and to impose a permanent injunction on certain Google ad practices. A jury had found Google liable for invasion of privacy in September, awarding about $425 million, while court documents say plaintiffs argued the $2.36 billion reflected alleged profits.

On January 30 in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin indicated she is inclined to grant OpenAI's motion to dismiss xAI's trade‑secret lawsuit for lack of sufficient allegations. The case centers on claims that former xAI employees took source code and other confidential information to OpenAI, while a separate suit by Elon Musk over OpenAI's for‑profit shift seeks about $134.5 billion and is set for trial from April 27.