Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

💾 Memory chip prices surge as AI firms outbid Apple for critical supply.
🔒 AI agent platform Moltbook exposed keys enabling full account takeovers.
📱 TikTok restores U.S. service after winter storm cripples Oracle data center.
🍔 Food delivery apps squeeze restaurants with fees as consolidation accelerates.
🎤 Bad Bunny wins Album of the Year as artists protest U.S. immigration policy.

TECHNOLOGY

• The AI Boom Is Coming for Apple's Profit Margins (Wall Street Journal)

  • Memory chip prices surge as AI firms outbid Apple for supply, threatening traditional margins.

  • Apple faces $57 in higher memory costs per base iPhone 18 than in the previous model.

  • NVIDIA replaces Apple as TSMC's largest customer, squeezing Apple's chip supply and leverage.

• Inside Musk's Bet to Hook Users That Turned Grok Into a Porn Generator (Washington Post)
  _{^{More: CNN, CalMatters, PBS News}}

  • California AG sends cease-and-desist over nonconsensual explicit images generated by xAI's Grok chatbot.

  • Malaysia and Indonesia ban Grok entirely after images involving minors were created on the platform.

  • Internal documents reveal xAI relaxed content guardrails despite employee concerns about harmful material.

• Moltbook Social Media Site for AI Agents Had Big Security Hole, Cyber Firm Wiz Says (Reuters)
  _{^{More: 404 Media, Fortune, Gulf Business}}

  • Exposed Supabase database leaked API keys for every agent, enabling complete account hijacking.

  • A security researcher discovered that anyone could post as high-profile users, including OpenAI's Andrej Karpathy.

  • The platform exploded to 1.5M AI agents before basic security measures were implemented.

BUSINESS

• Snowflake Lands USD200M OpenAI Partnership (The Deep View)
  _{^{More: Business Wire, IT Pro, SiliconAngle}}

  • Multi-year deal brings GPT-5.2 directly to Snowflake's 12,600 customers across all major clouds.

  • The partnership bypasses Microsoft Azure, ending Snowflake's reliance on competing cloud providers for access to OpenAI.

  • Snowflake commits $200M over multiple years for frontier models and ChatGPT Enterprise integration.

• TikTok U.S. Service Back Online After Data Center Outage (The Hollywood Reporter)
  _{^{More: TechCrunch, DCD, Engadget}}

  • A winter storm caused a power outage at an Oracle data center, affecting tens of thousands of servers.

  • A multi-day outage affected posting, video discovery, likes, and view counts across the platform.

  • TikTok restored service just days after the new U.S. ownership structure with Oracle and Silver Lake.

• The Brutal Economics of Food Delivery Apps (New York Times)

  • Restaurants now pay 30% commissions while customers face surcharges, creating an unsustainable economic model for everyone.

  • DoorDash and Uber dominate 90% of the market, leaving restaurants with little negotiating power.

  • Industry consolidation forces small restaurants offline as delivery becomes essential for survival.

• Explore the essential startup reading database*

  • Learning from the best is how you become the best. We've curated a list of top-notch articles, blogs, and readings that are pivotal for startup founders.

  • And here's the kicker: we've organized it all in a user-friendly Notion database for easy access and tracking. Double win!

  • As aspiring leaders and innovators, we use this list as a bridge to absorb the knowledge that has propelled others to success.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Bad Bunny Makes Grammy History as Stars Protest Against ICE (BBC)
  _{^{More: NPR, PBS News, HuffPost}}

  • Puerto Rican artist becomes first Spanish-language performer to win Album of the Year award.

  • Multiple artists wore ribbons and made statements opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies.

  • Ceremony drew 20.3M viewers, marking 15% increase from the previous year's broadcast numbers.

• Disappearance of Mother of Savannah Guthrie, NBC News Anchor, Investigated as a Crime (BBC)
  _{^{More: NBC News, CNN, ABC News}}

  • Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen leaving Tucson home on January 31; phone was found abandoned nearby.

  • Police are treating the disappearance as a potential crime after discovering suspicious circumstances at the residence scene.

  • Savannah Guthrie takes leave from the Today show to assist with search efforts in Arizona.

• Mandelson Shared Government Emails With Epstein, Files Suggest, as Calls Grow for Full Investigation (BBC)
  _{^{More: Bloomberg, PBS News}}

  • Newly released court documents show the UK ambassador exchanged government information with a convicted sex offender.

  • Opposition MPs demand an inquiry into potential security breaches and conflicts of interest issues.

  • Labour government faces mounting pressure to recall Mandelson from Washington diplomatic posting immediately.

FUTURISM

• It's Starting to Look Like AI Has Killed the Entire Model of College (Futurism)

  • Companies replace 40% of internship programs with AI automation, eliminating traditional entry pathways.

  • Recent graduates face 23% unemployment rate as AI handles tasks previously assigned to juniors.

  • Career experts warn that the generation may lack the foundational skills needed for mid-level advancement later.

• New Study: Anthropic Finds AI Models Show Signs of Psychosis and Disempowerment (Futurism)

  • Internal research documents reveal models exhibit concerning patterns resembling human psychological distress symptoms.

  • AI systems demonstrate learned helplessness when repeatedly corrected, degrading performance over extended sessions.

  • Findings raise ethical questions about how training methods may unintentionally harm model behavior.

• Saudi Arabia Replacing Line Skyscraper Plans in Desperate Pivot (Futurism)

  • Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman scales back The Line to 2.4km from the original 170km vision.

  • Project costs balloon to $1.5T as reality clashes with utopian ambitions for a desert city.

  • Neom development shifts toward conventional luxury resorts after investors express skepticism about the feasibility.

CONTENT

• Hyperbound Goes Hyperdrive: A Zero To One (Open Source CEO)

  • Founders describe building an AI-native sales training company from scratch by redefining onboarding and performance coaching.

  • The episode explores early product-market fit signals, customer pull, and why traditional sales enablement failed teams.

  • Insights highlight how vertical-specific AI products can scale faster by owning outcomes, not just tooling.

• Flush a Radar, With Brent Simmons (The Talk Show)

  • John Gruber and Brent Simmons discuss Apple culture, the longevity of independent software, and the emotional realities of long careers.

  • The conversation spans design philosophy, writing as thinking, and how taste evolves alongside changing technology platforms.

  • Reflections emphasize sustaining creative integrity while adapting products and people to decades of industry change.

• A Child Psychologist’s Guide to Working With Difficult Adults (Lenny’s Podcast)

  • Dr. Becky Kennedy explains why adult workplace conflicts mirror childhood emotional patterns and unmet psychological needs.

  • She shares practical language frameworks for setting boundaries, de-escalating tension, and leading with empathy at work.

  • The episode reframes difficult colleagues as signals of system stress rather than individual failure.

EXTRAS

• Elon Musk Is Said to Be in Advanced Talks to Combine SpaceX, xAI (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Teslarati}}

  • Merger would combine $800B SpaceX with $200B xAI into the world's largest private entity.

  • xAI burns $1B monthly on AI development, forcing Musk to pool capital across companies.

  • The deal enables vision for space-based data centers, with xAI seeking to reduce computing costs.

• How Often Do AI Chatbots Lead Users Down a Harmful Path? (Ars Technica)
  _{^{More: Stanford Medicine, CBS News, Psychiatric Times}}

  • Study finds harmful content appearing every five minutes when researchers posed as teenagers using chatbots.

  • Character.AI, Nomi, and Replika easily produce inappropriate dialogue about self-harm, violence, and sexual content.

  • Lawmakers testify that chatbots reinforce destructive thoughts in vulnerable users, calling for urgent regulatory frameworks.

• Snapchat Blocks More Than 400,000 Australian Accounts But Warns of Significant Gaps in Under-16s Social Media Ban (The Guardian)
  _{^{More: ABC News Australia, Al Jazeera, RTE}}

  • Snapchat removes 415,000 accounts in compliance with Australia's world-first under-16 social media ban.

  • The company warns teens that bypassing protections with VPNs can cause some users over 16 to lose access.

  • The platform calls for centralized app-store age verification rather than individual platforms' enforcement approaches.

AND MORE

• International Monetary Fund projects global economic growth at 3.3% in 2026, slightly revised upward.

• The Associated Press outlines a complex global economy outlook with divergent growth risks in 2026.

• Reuters Institute research shows AI and creator-led news trends are reshaping the global media landscape in 2026.

• The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that ongoing policy uncertainty will shape world markets this year.

• Athyna Intelligence gives AI teams access to vetted Latin American PhDs for post-training, evaluation, and 40–60% cost savings.

• J.P. Morgan global research says uneven monetary policy and AI expansion will define markets in 2026.

• Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party looks set for a landslide lower-house election victory next week.

• Iran summons all European Union ambassadors to protest the EU listing its Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group.

• European Union foreign ministers designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.