💰Trump administration to receive $10B fee from TikTok U.S. deal

Investors taking control of TikTok’s U.S. business agreed to pay the U.S. government about $10B as part of the deal that shifted the platform’s American operations away from ByteDance.

Backers of the new U.S. entity include Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi investor MGX. Around $2.5B was paid to the Treasury when the deal closed in January, with additional payments planned until the total reaches $10B.

The new TikTok U.S. company is valued at about $14B and will still share profits with ByteDance, which licensed its algorithm and keeps nearly a 20% stake.

Such a fee for brokering a corporate transaction is highly unusual for a government.

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Ⓜ️ Meta considers layoffs that could affect up to 20% of staff

Meta is reportedly considering workforce cuts that could affect up to 20% of employees as the company ramps spending on AI infrastructure and hiring.

Meta had about 79,000 employees as of December 31. The report came from Reuters, while a company spokesperson described the claims as speculative.

Large tech firms have recently announced layoffs as AI investments rise and companies restructure their operations.

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🤖 OpenAI explores $10B AI venture with major private equity firms

OpenAI is in advanced talks with private equity firms including TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Brookfield to create a joint venture focused on enterprise AI adoption.

The proposed venture could be valued at about $10B pre-money. The PE firms are expected to commit roughly $4B in exchange for equity stakes.

The plan is to distribute OpenAI’s enterprise tools across the firms’ portfolio companies and other corporate clients.

The move would give investors influence over how OpenAI technology is deployed inside their networks.

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🎂 Claude turns 3 as Anthropic nears $10B ARR

Claude recently turned 3, and Anthropic’s revenue has grown rapidly over that period.

In 2023, the first year after launch, Claude reportedly generated about $100M.

In 2024 revenue reached $1B.

By the end of 2025, Anthropic’s annualized revenue is estimated at around $9–10B.

That is one of the fastest revenue ramps in AI so far.

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👨‍🔧 Nvidia GTC 2026: OpenClaw, space data centers and AI factories

Jensen Huang outlined Nvidia’s next steps at GTC 2026, focusing on software, infrastructure, and new computing models.

OpenClaw was positioned as a new type of computer system, with NemoClaw introduced as an enterprise layer adding logging, encryption, and sandboxing.

Nvidia also announced Vera Rubin Space-1, a module for orbital data centers built on the Rubin architecture, targeting up to 25x higher inference performance than H100.

The company described a shift from data centers to “AI factories” producing tokens at scale. Nvidia is building Dynamo OS to manage these systems and DSX to simulate infrastructure through digital twins.

Nvidia is moving from chips to full-stack control of AI infrastructure.

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😏 xAI hires Wall Street pros to train Grok on finance

Elon Musk’s xAI is recruiting bankers, traders, and credit specialists to train its chatbot Grok on financial markets and investment workflows.

Job listings target senior roles in equity capital markets, IPOs, underwriting, and crypto trading. The goal is to improve Grok’s ability to handle real-world financial analysis and decision-making.

The push comes as AI companies compete for enterprise users in finance. OpenAI and Anthropic have already launched products for analysts and business teams.

xAI is expanding training beyond data from X to improve Grok’s performance in finance.

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💳 Mastercard to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8B in stablecoin push

Mastercard agreed to acquire London-based stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK for up to $1.8B, including $300M tied to performance targets. It is the company’s largest crypto deal.

BVNK, founded in 2021 and valued around $750M, operates across 130+ countries and supports transactions on major blockchain networks.

The acquisition gives Mastercard the ability to connect traditional payment rails with systems built on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

The deal positions Mastercard deeper inside digital currency infrastructure as adoption grows.

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🦑 Kraken pauses IPO plans despite $20B valuation

Crypto exchange Kraken has put its IPO on hold after filing confidentially with the SEC in November. The company may revisit the listing when market conditions improve.

Kraken was valued at $20B during an $800M raise, but weaker crypto prices and lower trading volumes have made public markets less attractive.

The pause comes after a strong 2025, when crypto IPOs raised $14.6B, but 2026 listings are facing a tougher environment.

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📉 Dell cuts 11,000 jobs while scaling AI server business

Dell reduced its workforce by about 10% in fiscal 2026, cutting roughly 11,000 employees. The company reported around 97,000 staff as of January 31, down from 108,000 a year earlier.

Severance costs reached $569M in 2026, compared to $693M the previous year.

At the same time, Dell expects revenue from AI-optimized servers to double by fiscal 2027 and increased its dividend by 20%, adding $10B to its buyback program.

Companies are freezing legacy IT projects and redirecting budgets into AI ahead of proven results.

The shift is driven by competition, as firms move early to avoid falling behind rivals already scaling AI.

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💻 Emergent CEO calls vibe coding a “bitcoin $1” moment

Emergent CEO Mukund Jha says the vibe-coding industry is still at an early stage, estimating it has reached only about 1% of its potential.

The company hit $100M ARR just 8 months after launch, doubling from $50M in a single month. The broader trend is driven by non-technical users building software with AI.

Jha points to a shift from 20M developers to a much larger base of knowledge workers creating tools themselves.

AI coding tools are expanding the software market beyond traditional developers.

✔️@venture