Hey there weekday warriors,
Here’s what’s on tap today… Anthropic is fighting with the Dept of War, OpenClaw sells out to the man, and how have we not talked about January CPI yet?
Enjoy the next 3 minutes and 32 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.
Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,
Claude Covert Ops
Anthropic let the intrusive thoughts win.
Tensions are building between avid Signal app user Pete Hegseth and Anthropic.
Turns out after several months of negotiations, SecDef is over all of Dario Amodei’s questions about silly things like, “Will our AI be used to mass surveil Americans or fire weapons?”
And if you’re wondering if the DoD/DoW is just as reliant on AI as the rest of us…
Over the weekend, new reports detailed how Anthropic’s Claude was used in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President (and Nike athlete dictator) Nicolas Maduro. And somewhere, Seal Team 6 is out there telling recruits how back in their day, killing Bin Laden was analog…
Now, Pistol Pete is considering labeling Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” which would essentially blacklist any Pentagon vendor from doing business with Claude & Co.
That’s a label typically reserved for foreign entities posing a national security risk…
Someone should’ve shown Dario this helpful chart before he started asking all these questions:
Anthropic’s current Pentagon contract is valued right around $200M.
OpenAI, Gemini, and xAI have entered the chat…
Wall Street Just Named the Most Crowded Trades of 2026
AI stocks. Metals. Crypto.
Surprise, surprise; gold crashed 16%. Silver plunged 34%. Bitcoin dropped to 1 year lows.
All supposedly "uncorrelated" assets moving in lockstep largely because of overleveraged margin.
JPM strategists warn that the same leverage is still a risk.
Those markets may be recovering now, but cascading liquidations could trigger quickly across several asset classes simultaneously.
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+ Peter Steinberger just brutally frame mogged @sama like an ASU frat leader… (yes, my brain is rotting.)
The inventor of OpenClaw (remember that terrifying thing where people put robots on Mac Minis with absolutely zero guardrails?) just went full corporate sellout. On Sunday, Sam Altman announced that Petey would be “joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents.”
No terms were disclosed, but it is presumably a fat stack. Friendly reminder that OpenClaw, originally Clawdbot, faced run-ins with Anthropic initially over its name choice.
+ “I’ve won, but at what cost?” - J-Poww simultaneously knowing he is doing his job by helping bring down inflation while realizing what he has to do next…
January CPI came out on Friday, and the higher for longer stans might want to take a seat…
Prices dropped (that is not a typo) 0.3% from December and rose just 2.4% vs. last year. That’s slightly better than analysts’ expectations of 2.5% (because math). Meanwhile, the core variety of CPI was up 2.5% vs. January of last year, its lowest level annual increase since April of 2021.
TBD what the Fed is thinking. PCE hits this Friday.
+ Svedka: drops possibly the worst Super Bowl ad of all time
Amazon Ring: “Hold my beer.”
On Friday, someone got fired Amazon $AMZN ( ▲ 1.6% ) Ring admitted defeat. The doorbell makers had to cancel their partnership with tech company Flock Safety (think: the creeps powering the Search Party concept).
After everyone went all “1984” in response (all the heat Flock has been taking over its ties with ICE probably didn’t help either), Ring backed off the deal.
Your next vacation is already paid for. You just haven’t claimed it yet.
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Spoiler: TWC might be compensated if you click on the links above. Hint, hint.
> Anthropic got an 11% user boost from its OpenAI-bashing Super Bowl ad, data shows (CNBC) // No one tell Ring.
> Apple takes on YouTube and Spotify with new video podcasting push (CNBC) // Oh, you mean that thing that Spotify $SPOT ( ▼ 0.46% ) has been doing for years?
> Cryptocurrency use explodes in human trafficking networks, online scams (NY Post) // Nobody could have seen this coming…
> ByteDance says it will add safeguards to Seedance 2.0 following Hollywood backlash (CNBC) // Hollywood is so over.
> Steak ‘n Shake will either take over the world or die right alongside Strategy, and there is no in between…
On Friday, I asked, “Valentine's this weekend... (you're welcome for reminding you) What's the move on Valentine's Day? Give specifics.”
37.2% of you said, “Staying in for a date (cooking food, Netflix & chill).” How romantic…
Here’s what some of you guys had to say (and my response in italics)…
Staying in for a date (cooking food, Netflix & chill): “No proper chick can resist my Mac’n’cheese (velveeta of course), served with Natty light poured over ice in a plastic champagne flute, followed by a binge watch of Breaking Bad. That’s why I am the King of P*ssy.” Oh, look, we found the virgin.
Ignoring Valentine’s Day entirely: “Being all alone is not what I want, but it's what I get.” See you in the gym, brother.
Other (write-in): “3 kids under 3. no such thing as "time" for any of those.” You already had your fun… at least 3x.
Going out for a date (dinner, movie, etc): “She told me yesterday it's that time of the month, so I'll prob just cancel the dinner reservations.”
Other (write-in): “Taking a leisurely solo bubble bath followed slapping the oyster.” Um… yeah, ok, nice.
Here’s today’s question(s)…
Boy, you guys really don't like Valentine's day... Are there any holidays you like? Mardi Gras today. Which of the festivities must be partaken in?
Friendly reminder: US markets were closed for President’s Day yesterday.
+ US stocks “lost steam heading into the close on Friday to post weekly losses as Wall Street digested a cooler-than-expected inflation reading for a steer on the path of interest rates.” (Yahoo! Finance)
+ The 10-year yield “slipped on Friday after January’s delayed consumer inflation report came in lighter than expected.” (CNBC)
+ Oil “prices edged up on Monday as investors weighed the market implications of upcoming U.S.-Iran talks aimed at de-escalating tensions against a backdrop of expected OPEC+ supply increases.” (Reuters)
+ The “smart” money (prediction markets) thinks that there’s a 48% chance that Greta Thunberg gets arrested by June 30. (Polymarket)
⏪ Yesterday…
+ US markets were closed for the holiday
⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…
+ Medtronic, Energy Transfer, and HIVE Blockchain report before the open
+ Palo Alto, Cadence Design, Nano Nuclear Energy, Quantum Corp., and Devon Energy report after hours
+ 13F filings from hedge funds and investment managers start to roll in
+ The January Retail Sales report drops
Oh, and one more thing…
What did you think about today's newsletter?
Sent from my Amazon Fire Phone. Please excuse any mistakes and typos.
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