🤝 AMD and Meta strike $100 billion AI deal that includes 10% stock deal

AMD and Meta have announced another multi-year AI chip deal, believed to be worth over $100 billion. The new partnership will see AMD provide up to 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct computing power to power Meta's AI ambitions. The deal includes a colossal performance-based share incentive that could see Meta awarded with up to 160 million AMD shares, roughly 10% of the company's total stock.

This agreement expands on the companies’ existing strategic partnership and aligns roadmaps across silicon, systems and software to deliver AI platforms purpose-built for Meta’s workloads. AMD will provide Meta with AMD Helios rack-scale architecture, with the first gigawatt deployment expected to begin in the second half of 2026. The solution will be powered by custom AMD Instinct GPUs built on the company's MI450 architecture. The deployment will also use AMD's EPYC CPUs (Venice), and its ROCm software.

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⚡🤝 Microsoft achieves global milestone to extend internet access with Starlink

Today, 2.2 billion people around the world remain unconnected. Microsoft is collaborating with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service on a global connectivity effort. The new collaboration with Starlink designed to bring Microsoft’s experience with governments, local operators, and community partners together.

“Through our collaboration with Starlink, Microsoft is combining low-Earth orbit satellite connectivity with community-based deployment models and local ecosystem partnerships,” Microsoft’s chief sustainability officer, Melanie Nakagawa, wrote in a blog post.

With more than 9,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, Starlink will extend digital infrastructure to rural, agricultural, and hard-to-reach communities. In alliance with Starlink and an internet service provider in Kenya, Microsoft is working to connect 450 community hubs in the country.

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💎 US scientists develop diamond cooling layer that cuts device heat by 41°F

Researchers at Rice University have developed a bottom-up method for growing patterned diamond surfaces to cool electronics. The technique enables diamonds to be integrated directly into devices, reducing operating temperatures by 23°C (41°F). Diamond is the undisputed champion of heat management.

The researchers are shifting toward “bottom-up” approaches to grow diamonds in precise, functional forms that can be integrated into electronics. This process uses microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. It uses photolithography, which is the same tech used to print tiny patterns on microchips. The researchers create a “stencil” on the chip’s surface. They then dust this stencil with nanodiamond “seeds.” When placed in a high-energy reactor, carbon atoms rain down, latch onto those seeds, and grow into a solid, heat-conducting layer exactly where it’s needed.

The research team successfully scaled their process for 2-inch wafers. It could help extend device lifespans, improve performance, and increase energy efficiency in technologies such as 5G, radar, and AI data centers.

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🇺🇸 Trump hails ‘golden age’ in State of the Union

U.S. President Donald Trump boasted in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that he had ushered in "the golden age of America". Tonight’s State of the Union address, nearly 108 minutes, is the longest on record. Trump spent the first hour of his televised speech focused on the economy, saying he had slowed inflation, driven the stock market to record heights, signed sweeping tax cuts and lowered drug prices.

"Our nation is back - bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before," said Trump. 💪

Here are some takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union:

🔥 401(k)’s for everybody. The Trump administration will give American workers access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker, matching the contribution with up to $1,000 each year.

🔥 U.S. President reiterates his call to bar private equity from gobbling up homes. Trump is driving home his ask for Congress to codify limits on how many homes large corporations can own.

🔥 Trump said the economy is “roaring like never before.” Inflation is plummeting. In 12 months, the Trump administration has driven core inflation to the lowest level in more than 5 years, and in the last 3 months of 2025, it was down to 1.7%.

🔥 Trump pointed to housing costs as further evidence of improvement. Mortgage rates are the lowest in 4 years, and falling fast - and the annual cost of the typical new mortgage is down almost $5,000 dollars.

🔥 Trump highlighted investment figures. In 12 months, he secured commitments for more than $18 trillion dollars pouring in from all over the globe.

🔥 Trump reiterated his long-standing support for tariffs, suggesting they could eventually reduce reliance on income taxes.

🔥 Trump calls for a ban on congressional stock trading. In January, a House panel approved a bill along party lines that would ban lawmakers from buying new stocks.

🔥 Trump said he has secured a pledge from technology companies that they will provide their own power for AI data centers. Prices of electricity will go down for the community.

🔥 Trump is touting parts of his health care plan. That includes ending tax credits for insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act and instead increasing access to health savings accounts.

🔥 On immigration and election policy, Trump urged lawmakers to pass new restrictions. He called for legislation preventing states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and advocated barring illegal aliens from voting in federal elections. He also pressed for voter ID requirements and tighter limits on mail-in ballots.

🔥 Trump says he will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

🔥 The Trump administration had brokered the end of 8 conflicts, including hostilities between Israel and Iran as well as the war in Gaza.

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🤖 China claims to develop world’s smallest and most energy-efficient transistor

Researchers at Peking University in China have developed the world’s smallest and most energy-efficient transistors, which could power the AI chips of the future. Called ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs), these chips mimic the workings of the human brain, making them powerful yet efficient.

The researchers used advanced processing techniques to scale down the gate electrode to just one nanometer. In addition to lower energy consumption (0.6 V), the transistor also delivers high-speed operation with a response time as low as 1.6 nanoseconds.

Peking University has patented the process and design for these chips. Not only will this development to build energy-efficient data centers and high-performance chips, but it will also open the possibility of building node chips at the sub-1 nm scale.

#BRICS

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🇩🇪🇨🇳 Germany's Merz hails China ties as he seeks reset with Beijing

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz won a pledge by China to import more high-quality goods from Germany on Wednesday, as he visited Beijing aiming to reset relations. Also Merz noted that Germany wants investments from China.

"The more turbulent and intertwined the world becomes, the more China and Germany need to strengthen strategic communication and enhance strategic mutual trust," - said Xi. 🤝

Li told Merz that China wished to cooperate in areas like automobiles and chemicals as well as emerging fields including AI and biomedicine.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇷🇺 Russian President Putin says BRICS is "ready to develop joint educational investment programs in biotech for the sake of all humanity."

'Equal access to future technologies, rather than privileges for the chosen few, are the prerequisite for the fair development of civilization,' - said Putin.

#BRICS

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🇺🇸 Trump administration to use Pentagon AI to set mineral reference prices

The Trump administration plans to use a Pentagon-developed AI program to set reference prices for critical minerals, including gallium and germanium, as part of a broader effort to build a global metals trading bloc.

The program in question is DARPA's Open Price Exploration for National Security (OPEN), launched in 2023 to calculate what a metal should cost once labor, processing, and other inputs. The administration intends to use OPEN's pricing model as the backbone for the reference price system that Vice President JD Vance proposed. Also Vance noted that member nations adopt reference prices for critical minerals "at each stage of production," enforced by adjustable tariffs.

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🚀 SpaceX's cellular Starlink aims for speeds that reach 150Mbps per user

SpaceX this week offered more details on its plan to deliver 5G connectivity with its next-generation cellular Starlink service for mobile phones. SpaceX has been offering the service through T-Mobile’s T-Satellite, allowing users in cellular dead zones to remain connected.

“We are aiming at peak speeds of 150Mbps per user,” SpaceX satellite policy lead Udrivolf Pica said at the International Telecommunication Union's Space Connect conference. “So something incredible if you think about the link budgets from space to the mobile phone.”

If SpaceX can hit its speed goal, the upgraded cellular Starlink service promises to deliver speeds close to those of traditional cell carriers' 5G networks on Earth. The median download speeds for T-Mobile’s 5G network currently reach 309Mbps while AT&T’s 5G network comes in at 172Mbps.

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🇻🇪🇨🇺 US says it will allow resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba

The U.S. Treasury Department said it would authorize companies seeking licenses to resell Venezuelan oil to Cuba, a move that could help ease the island's acute fuel scarcity. Venezuela had been for more than 25 years the main supplier of crude and fuel to its political ally Cuba through a bilateral pact mostly based on barter of products and services.

Large trading houses including Vitol and Trafigura handle the lion's share of Venezuela's oil exports, with millions of barrels exported to the U.S., Europe and India, and millions of additional barrels stored at Caribbean terminals for resale. U.S. President Donald Trump has said Venezuela's allies that were taking its oil as part of swaps, debt repayments and other agreements must now pay fair market prices for cargoes. These allies include China and Cuba.

The U.S. Treasury's guidance also makes clear that potential transactions must "support the Cuban people, including the private sector," including exports for commercial and humanitarian use in Cuba. 🤝

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⚡️🇨🇺 Cuba shoots four dead in clash with speedboat from Florida

Cuban forces killed 4 people who opened fire from a speedboat with Florida tags. The details of the incident remain unclear. The vessel approached within one nautical mile off the coast of Villa Clara, Cuba’s Interior Ministry said in a statement. When security forces approached to identify the passengers, the occupants started shooting at border patrol, injuring the commander of the military vessel. 6 others on the speedboat were wounded and are being provided with medical care. 🕊

Presumably It was a US civilian vessel attempting to get relatives out of Cuba. The vessel is a 24-foot Pro-Line fishing boat built in 1981 with an outboard engine. Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez said in a statement posted to X that the incident was a “massacre” and demanded an investigation to determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or “legal residents.”

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🇮🇳 India may finally get Apple Pay by mid-2026

Apple Inc. is in discussions with key Indian banks and global card networks in preparation to start Apple Pay in the world’s most populous country. The iPhone maker is in talks with ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd., as it aims to introduce its payment service in India around the middle of 2026. Apple is also discussing the plan with payment networks Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc.

Apple Pay in India is expected to support India’s state-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI), alongside card based payments. UPI, which allows Indian customers to instantly transfer money and pay bills, dominates India’s digital payments space.

#BRICS

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✈️ ZIPAIR launches Asia's first commercial flight with Starlink inflight Wi-Fi

First Starlink-equipped ZIPAIR Tokyo Inc. flight ZG045 took off from Tokyo (Narita) to South Korea (Incheon) on February 25, 2026. Starlink installation began in early February and will be completed across ZIPAIR's Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet by spring 2026, making ZIPAIR the first airline in Asia to operate a fully Starlink-enabled fleet across its entire route network.

The flight marked a major milestone for inflight connectivity in Asia, introducing high-speed, low-latency internet access for all passengers, free of charge on ZIPAIR. On Starlink-equipped aircraft, passengers in every seat can connect using their personal devices, with performance comparable to on-the-ground broadband.

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💻 Quantum discovery could enable efficient battery-free, energy-harvesting devices

The team, led by Professor Dongchen Qi from the QUT School of Chemistry and Physics and Professor Xiao Renshaw Wang from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, set out to investigate the mechanism governing the nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE).

Unlike the classical Hall effect, discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879, the NLHE allows for alternating electrical signals to be converted into usable direct current without requiring traditional diodes or large components. The team studied a high-quality topological material with unusual electronic properties. They discovered that the NLHE remained stable up to room temperature.

The new discovery could pave the way for smaller and more efficient energy-harvesting devices. Impressively, according to the researchers, it could one day enable electrical devices that operate without batteries and draw energy from their surroundings.

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🇮🇴 OpenAI to make London its biggest research hub outside US

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said that it would make London its largest research hub outside the U.S., citing Britain's technology ecosystem as an ideal environment to invest in and develop new AI systems.

Mark Chen, OpenAI's research chief, said the country's mix of talent, leading universities and globally respected scientific institutions gives it leverage in a sector governments worldwide view as strategically important. Technology minister Liz Kendall said OpenAI's expansion in London was a "huge vote of confidence."

The company, whose European headquarters are in Dublin, opened its first international office in London in 2023. It currently has over 30 employees in its London team. OpenAI did not set out specific details on the plan, such as the size of any investment or the number of jobs it would involve. 🧐

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⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇷 US delegation leaves Iran talks venue in Geneva

The US delegation just left the venue of talks with Iran in Geneva. Oman says US-Iran talks make progress, technical talks to resume next week in Vienna.

“We have finished the day after significant progress in the negotiation between the United States and Iran. We will resume soon after consultation in the respective capitals," - Oman’s foreign minister Badr Albusaidi said on X.

US negotiators insisted on “limiting” Iran’s enrichment of uranium and maintaining long-term verification of its nuclear program during talks. In return, Iran presented “detailed proposals” aimed at addressing US concerns about its nuclear activities as well as “ideas” responding to Washington’s demands.

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🇺🇸 Trump EPA to shift at least half of waived biofuel obligations to big refiners

The Trump administration has settled on a plan that would require big oil refineries to make up for at least half of the biofuel blending volumes obligations waived in recent years under the Small Refinery Exemption program.

Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), oil refineries have to blend billions of gallons of ethanol and other biofuels into their fuel or buy credits, called RINs, from those that do. But small refineries can have those obligations waived if they demonstrate economic hardship. Biofuel groups have pushed the administration to fully reallocate the exempted gallons, saying it is crucial to support biofuel producers and the farmers growing their feedstocks.

The EPA also sent its proposed 2026 and 2027 biofuel blending quotas to the White House, with a final rule expected before the end of March, an EPA administrator told attendees at an ethanol conference in Florida.

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🇺🇸🇰🇵 White House: the US is open to dialogue with North Korea without preconditions

The United States remains open to dialogue with North Korea without preconditions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week there was no reason to not have a good relationship with the U.S.

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⚡️🇺🇸 Pentagon Anthropic feud has sales and AI warfare at stake as Friday deadline looms

An explosive feud between the Pentagon and top AI lab Anthropic is set to come to a head today over concerns about how the military could use AI at war. Friday deadline set for whether Anthropic, Pentagon can reach deal. 🤔 The Pentagon wants any lawful use to be allowed and has threatened Anthropic’s business if the startup does not scrap additional guardrails.

“It’s a shot across the bow about the future of AI and its use on the battlefield,” Chris Miller, the former acting secretary of defense, told Reuters. He added that the outcome will “be an acid test for those companies that claim to want to use AI humanely.”

The months-long spat has divided some industry leaders, military officials and lawmakers over whether AI should be wielded without constraints when its creator Anthropic said the technology was not yet reliable for fully autonomous weapons.

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🇯🇵 Rapidus secures $1.7 billion from Japan’s government and private investors for 2nm chip production

Japan's state-backed chipmaker Rapidus has announced that it has closed a ¥250 billion ($1.6 billion) funding round from the Japanese government and 30 private-sector companies, including Sony, Toyota, SoftBank, Canon, Fujitsu, Denso, Kioxia, and Seiko Epson, as the company works toward 2nm mass production at its IIM-1 foundry in Chitose, Hokkaido, by fiscal year 2027.

Under the arrangement, the government will initially hold roughly 10% of Rapidus's voting shares and the majority of its stake in non-voting stock. CEO Atsuyoshi Koike said that Rapidus is in active discussions with more than 60 companies looking to design chips for AI, robotics, and edge computing.

Rapidus plans to start mass production at an initial rate of 6,000 12-inch wafers per month, scaling to approximately 25,000 within the first year. Total investment needed to reach that point is estimated at around ¥4 trillion; roughly ¥1.7 trillion has been committed from all sources to date.

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⚡️ OpenAI actively pursuing classified deal with Pentagon to deploy its AI models in military environments

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman told staff that the company was working on a potential deal that could help resolve the standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon over battlefield AI use. CEO Sam Altman confirmed the negotiations in an internal note to staff.

“We are going to see if there is a deal with the DoW that allows our models to be deployed in classified environments and that fits with our principles,” Altman wrote.

The proposed contract would cover any use except those which are unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployments, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons.

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