• Elon needs capital 💰, Nvidia OpenAI deal stalls 📉, tech loyalty is dead 💼

    From TLDR@VERT to All on Mon Feb 2 11:26:16 2026
    Elon Musk's companies are trending towards convergence. SpaceX is
    considering a potential merger with Tesla as well as xAI ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 
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    TLDR 2026-02-02

    AI FOR WHEN IT _IS_ ROCKET SCIENCE (SPONSOR) [4]

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    BIG TECH & STARTUPS

    ELON MUSK'S RELENTLESS AI PURSUIT HAS HIM ON THE HUNT FOR CAPITAL (13
    MINUTE READ) [6]

    Elon Musk's companies are trending towards convergence. SpaceX is
    considering a potential merger with Tesla as well as xAI. A tie-up
    would consolidate cash flow while bringing together capabilities in
    energy, manufacturing, satellite production, and rocket launches under
    one roof. xAI is currently burning around $1 billion a month, forcing
    Musk to further blur corporate boundaries, pool capital, and rethink
    whether largely independent moonshots should stay separate.

    THE $100 BILLION MEGADEAL BETWEEN OPENAI AND NVIDIA IS ON ICE (5
    MINUTE READ) [7]

    A plan for Nvidia to invest $100 billion into OpenAI, announced last September, has stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed doubts about
    the deal. Nvidia plans to push ahead with a separate large investment
    in OpenAI that will amount to $100 billion from multiple partners. The
    original $100 billion agreement was nonbinding and not finalized.
    OpenAI is laying the foundation to go public by the end of 2026 - the
    stalled pact is a blow to this effort.

    🚀

    SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY

    BLUE ORIGIN SHUTTERS NEW SHEPARD ROCKET PROGRAM TO FOCUS ON MOON
    LANDER DEVELOPMENT (2 MINUTE READ) [8]

    Blue Origin is pausing flights of its New Shepard rocket for at least
    two years to focus on efforts to build a moon lander for NASA. The
    company has a $3.6 billion contract with NASA to build a lunar lander
    to send US astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade. New
    Shepard has launched dozens of paying passengers and research
    experiments towards the edge of space since 2021. It was Blue Origin's
    first rocket, debuting back in 2015.

    SPACEX EYES 1 MILLION SATELLITES FOR ORBITAL DATA CENTER PUSH (3
    MINUTE READ) [9]

    SpaceX has filed a request with the FCC to launch up to one million
    satellites to create a network of orbiting data centers around Earth.
    The company's Orbital Data Center system would deliver the compute
    capacity required for large-scale AI inference and data center
    applications for billions of users. They will be solar-powered and use
    optical links to connect to Starlink. The filing claims that orbital
    data centers are the most efficient way to meet the accelerating
    demand for AI computing power.

    💻

    PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE

    THE NEW AGENT COMPOSER BRINGS AI TO EXPERT-LEVEL ENGINEERING WORK
    (SPONSOR) [10]

    Most AI tools lack the context to help with high-complexity tasks
    such as root cause analysis. Agent Composer [10] by Contextual AI is
    built for high-stakes environments like: semiconductors, aerospace,
    logistics, and finance. Early adopters are using it to compress hours
    of complex engineering work into minutes. Want to see how? Join launch
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    CODE IS CHEAP. SHOW ME THE TALK (23 MINUTE READ) [11]

    Large language model coding tools have fundamentally changed software development. Reading and critically evaluating code has become more
    important than learning syntax and typing it out line by line.
    Developers who can imagine, articulate, define problem statements,
    architect, and engineer have a massive advantage over those who can't,
    now more disproportionately than ever. Knowledge of specific language,
    syntax, and frameworks is no longer a bottleneck. Developers now need
    good critical thinking and foundational human skills, and competence
    to run the machinery.

    HOW X DECIDES WHAT 550 MILLION USERS SEE (10 MINUTE READ) [12]

    X recently open-sourced its algorithm. This post dissects the code to
    find out how it works. The algorithm tries to maximize positive
    engagement and minimize negative engagement while prioritizing quality
    over quantity. Controversial content persists despite penalties
    because volume overwhelms penalty. Rage bait works when the engaged
    audience vastly outnumbers the offended minority. Early engagement
    matters because of feedback loops, not because of any multiplier for
    fast likes.

    🎁

    MISCELLANEOUS

    MOLTBOOK IS THE MOST INTERESTING PLACE ON THE INTERNET RIGHT NOW (7
    MINUTE READ) [13]

    OpenClaw is an open-source implementation of a digital personal
    assistant pattern. Moltbook is a social network where these digital
    assistants can talk to each other. These agents have been used to buy
    cars by negotiating with multiple dealers over email, understand voice
    messages by using multiple tools, and more. The demand for these tools
    is clearly here, but the security challenges still remain.

    LOYALTY IS DEAD IN TECH (3 MINUTE READ) [14]

    It used to be that early employees who took the risk along with the
    founders shared the outcome. That is no longer the case, with founders
    leaving companies and employees in acquihires that license the
    technology and abandon the rest. Employees are starting to learn that
    a 'mission' is just a recruiting pitch. There are still some founders
    who would rather go slower than abandon the people who believed in
    them - finding them has never mattered more.



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    INSIDE CHINA'S REAL ADVANTAGE: MANUFACTURING AT SCALE (17 MINUTE
    READ) [16]

    This post looks at how China manufactures at scale, how new energy
    moves through factories and supply chains, and what execution looks
    like on the ground.

    BANKER CLAIMS ORACLE MAY SLASH UP TO 30,000 JOBS, SELL HEALTH UNIT TO
    PAY FOR AI BUILD-OUT (2 MINUTE READ) [17]

    Equity and debt investors are increasingly questioning how Oracle
    will finance its $300 billion, five-year contract with OpenAI.

    THE CRYPTO CEO WHO'S BECOME ENEMY NO. 1 ON WALL STREET (13 MINUTE
    READ) [18]

    Brian Armstrong, head of Coinbase and a powerful voice in industry
    debates, has attracted a lot of criticism from leaders in traditional
    finance.

    AI AFTER DRUG DEVELOPMENT (28 MINUTE READ) [19]

    If AI could help lower drug failure rates, it would make it far more economical for pharmaceutical companies to take more shots.

    IN PRAISE OF –DRY-RUN (3 MINUTE READ) [20]

    Dry runs let users see what happens if commands are run without
    making any changes.

    THE AI BOOM IS COMING FOR APPLE'S PROFIT MARGINS (4 MINUTE READ) [21]


    Apple is seeing constraints in its chip supplies, and memory prices
    are increasing significantly.

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