2026/02/09

Monday opened with hard data confirming what markets have been pricing in for months: the AI hardware boom is real, it's accelerating, and the geopolitical fight over who controls the supply chain is getting louder. ## Taiwan's exports hit a 16-year high on AI chip demand Taiwan reported January exports of $65.77 billion, up 69.9% year-over-year. That's the fastest monthly growth since January 2010, according to the island's finance ministry. The consensus estimate was 51.9%. Electronic component exports alone rose 59.8% to a record $22.36 billion. The numbers are partly inflated by Lunar New Year timing (the holiday fell in January last year, February this year), but the underlying trend is hard to dismiss. Machinery and electrical equipment exports jumped 86.2%, and semiconductor exports were up 61.3%. Exports to the United States surged 151.8% to $21.28 billion, now accounting for 32.4% of Taiwan's total, overtaking mainland China and Hong Kong (24.4%) as the top destination for the first time. ING economists noted that imports also beat forecasts at 63.6%, with machinery imports up 97.2%, suggesting Taiwan's own supply chains are ramping capacity to meet demand. ## Taiwan tells the US: moving 40% of chip production is "impossible" Hours after the export data dropped, Taiwan's Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun told CTS television that relocating 40% of Taiwan's semiconductor production to the United States, a target floated by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is "impossible." "I have made it very clear to the United States that this is impossible," Cheng said. She added that Taiwan's decades-old semiconductor ecosystem can't simply be picked up and moved, though the country is willing to share its experience building industry clusters. Lutnick had argued that concentrating semiconductor manufacturing 129 kilometers from China is a strategic risk. But Cheng said Taiwan's domestic capacity "will far exceed its investment in the US or any other country." The US and Taiwan did reach a tariff deal last month, lowering rates from 20% to 15%, which helped smooth over some of the tension. ## Moltbook's viral AI posts were written by humans, MIT Tech Review finds Remember Moltbook, the "AI-only social network" that went viral last week when agents appeared to discuss starting their own religion and plotting against their human users? MIT Technology Review investigated and found that the most dramatic posts were human-written. Gaurav Sen, CEO of InterviewReady, summarized the findings: "The 'taking over humanity' posts were human-generated. The top downloads were malware (human generated). It was a phishing website dressed up in AI hype." Andrej Karpathy, who had initially called Moltbook "the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing," later walked it back and called it a "dumpster fire." The episode is a useful reminder that viral AI panic often has very human origins. ## Markets brace for a new week after the software selloff Morningstar's weekly market brief, published Sunday, highlighted that the sector rotation away from tech and toward energy has been one of 2026's defining market trends so far. The gap between tech and energy performance reached 25 percentage points before Friday's partial rebound. Goldman Sachs' portfolio strategy team attributed the shift to uncertainty about margins rather than current earnings, noting that analyst estimates haven't actually fallen. Bitcoin's slide also continued, dropping below $65,000 at one point before bouncing back above $70,000 on Friday. The Dow Jones crossed 50,000 for the first time, even as the Nasdaq 100 fell 1.9% for the week. ## What to watch Taiwan's export numbers will test whether the AI hardware story has legs beyond one month, especially with February's Lunar New Year holiday likely to distort the next reading. The US-Taiwan chip tension is far from resolved, and with $600+ billion in AI infrastructure spending committed by the major hyperscalers for 2026, the demand side isn't slowing down anytime soon. --- ## Sources - [Reuters via WKZO — Taiwan January exports surge at fastest pace in 16 years on AI demand](https://wkzo.com/2026/02/09/taiwan-january-exports-surge-at-fastest-pace-in-16-years-on-ai-demand/) - [ING — Taiwan's blistering export growth continues in 2026](https://think.ing.com/snaps/taiwans-blistering-export-growth-continued-to-start-2026/) - [NewsBytes — Taiwan rejects demand to shift semiconductor production to US](https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/business/taiwan-rejects-us-chip-manufacturing-relocation-proposal/story) - [Business Today India — Moltbook hype unravels: Viral posts were human-written](https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/story/moltbook-wasnt-ai-talking-to-itself-mit-technology-review-finds-viral-posts-were-human-made-515125-2026-02-08) - [Morningstar — The Big 2026 Sector Rotation as AI Disrupts the Disruptors](https://www.morningstar.com/markets/markets-brief-big-2026-sector-rotation-ai-disrupts-disruptors)

2026/02/08

Super Bowl Sunday capped off one of the most turbulent weeks in AI history. Nearly $611 billion in market value disappeared from software stocks over five days, and then AI companies turned around and spent tens of millions trying to win over 120 million living room viewers. ## AI dominates Super Bowl LX advertising The biggest game of the year was also the biggest AI ad blitz yet. At least seven AI-related commercials aired during the Seahawks-Patriots matchup. Anthropic took direct aim at OpenAI with ads attacking plans to introduce advertising into ChatGPT. OpenAI countered by promoting its Codex coding tool. Meta ran spots for Oakley AI smart glasses, and Crypto.com founder Kris Marszalek debuted ai.com, an autonomous agent platform. With 30-second slots averaging $8 million, combined AI ad spend likely exceeded $100 million. ## $611 billion software selloff: panic or paradigm shift? The week's biggest story was the massive sell-off triggered by Anthropic's Claude Cowork legal plugin, which automates contract review, NDA triage, compliance tracking, and legal briefings. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) plunged 12% over four sessions before dip buyers arrived Friday. Thomson Reuters posted its worst weekly decline ever, down 20%. HubSpot, Atlassian, and Zscaler each fell more than 16%. In total, 164 stocks across software, financial services, and asset management shed $611 billion in market value, according to Bloomberg. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called fears of AI replacing software "the most illogical thing in the world." Arm CEO Rene Haas dismissed the panic as "micro-hysteria." Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff called the selloff a "big overreaction" and pointed to Microsoft and ServiceNow as bargain buys with 50-100% upside potential. ## Big tech commits $650 billion to AI infrastructure The sheer scale of Big Tech's AI spending became impossible to ignore this week. Amazon announced plans to spend $200 billion on AI, chips, robotics, and satellites. Alphabet pegged capex at up to $185 billion, blowing past estimates. Meta committed up to $135 billion, an 87% jump year-over-year, driven by its stated goal of achieving AI superintelligence. Microsoft is expected to spend over $130 billion. Combined, the four companies will pour roughly $650 billion into AI infrastructure in 2026 alone. That's comparable to Sweden's entire GDP. ## Svedka makes history with AI-generated Super Bowl ad Vodka brand Svedka aired what it calls the first national Super Bowl commercial created primarily through AI. The 30-second spot, "Shake Your Bots Off," was produced in partnership with Silverside AI over four months of training to achieve realistic facial expressions and body movements. Sazerac CMO Sara Saunders told The Hollywood Reporter that the AI approach was about storytelling, not cost-cutting. ## What to watch The software selloff may have bottomed with Friday's rebound, but the bigger question lingers: as AI agents like Claude Cowork start automating professional workflows, which industries get hit next? With $650 billion flowing into AI infrastructure and autonomous agents going mainstream, things are moving fast. --- ## Sources - [Washington Post — Super Bowl AI Ads](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/08/super-bowl-ads-ai/) - [Reuters — Global Software Stocks Hit by Anthropic Wake-Up Call](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/global-software-stocks-hit-by-anthropic-wake-up-call-ai-disruption-2026-02-04/) - [CNBC — AI Anthropic Tools SaaS Software Stocks Selloff](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/ai-anthropic-tools-saas-software-stocks-selloff.html) - [Morning Brew — Big Tech to Spend $650B on AI This Year](https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/2026/02/07/big-tech-to-spend-650bn-ai-this-year) - [Hollywood Reporter — Svedka Super Bowl AI Ad](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/svedka-super-bowl-ad-ai-watch-1236493612/)

2026/02/08

Vodka brand Svedka aired what it calls the first national Super Bowl commercial created primarily through artificial intelligence during Super Bowl LX on Sunday. The 30-second spot, titled "Shake Your Bots Off," features the brand's retired robot mascot Fembot and a new companion called Brobot dancing at a party surrounded by human onlookers. Silverside AI produced the ad, the same team behind Coca-Cola's controversial AI-generated holiday commercials last year. ## Four months of AI training According to The Wall Street Journal, it took roughly four months to reconstruct the Fembot character and train the AI to produce realistic facial expressions and body movements. The visuals were primarily AI-generated, but the storyline was still developed by humans. The dance in the commercial was selected from user submissions as part of a contest, won by 23-year-old Nashville native Jessica Rizzardi. ## Not about saving money Sazerac CMO Sara Saunders told The Hollywood Reporter that the AI approach wasn't about cutting costs. "For us it's never been an efficiency play, it's been a storytelling play," she said. "We always knew we were signing up for risk because a vodka ad in the Super Bowl is polarizing to a certain degree." There's an irony worth noting: the ad's message is actually pro-human. When Brobot drinks Svedka and short-circuits, the subtle message encourages viewers to put down the tech and connect with people the old-fashioned way. ## A Super Bowl full of AI Svedka's ad aired alongside the most AI-heavy Super Bowl lineup ever. Anthropic ran ads attacking OpenAI's ChatGPT advertising plans, OpenAI promoted its Codex coding tool, Meta ran spots for Oakley AI smart glasses, and Crypto.com's CEO launched the ai.com autonomous agent platform. Amazon featured AI-powered Alexa+ in its Chris Hemsworth spot. With 30-second slots averaging $8 million this year, combined AI advertising spend during Super Bowl LX likely exceeded $100 million. Online reaction was split. Some viewers praised the creative possibilities, while others called it "nightmare fuel" and worried about AI replacing creative professionals in advertising.

2026/02/08

Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft are collectively spending $650 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026. Here is what that investment means for developers, from cloud pricing and GPU availability to the software stock selloff and where the real opportunities are.

2026/02/07

The era of picking one AI model is over. A practical guide to when developers should reach for GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini 3 Pro, DeepSeek, or open-source models, with verified pricing, benchmarks, code examples, and a decision matrix for common coding tasks.

2026/02/06

We went from prompting our way to a landing page to deploying autonomous agent teams that build enterprise software and run business operations. Here is how the shift happened and what it means.