Elon Musk’s “Smartest AI on Earth” Goes Live,

WHAT’S INSIDE

• Tech In The News: Top news in tech, markets, finance and policy

• Companies to watch: Some of the top companies to watch this week

• Feature: Elon Musk’s “Smartest AI on Earth” Goes Live, GPT-4.5 soon!

• Buzzy Tools: Latest Buzzy tech, AI and financial tools

• Deep Tech: The latest in deep tech, biotech, futurism and more

• Space Tech: Latest news in the space race and aerospace tech

• Crypto: Blockchain and crypto policy and startups or protocols to watch

TECH IN THE NEWS

Market Watch — A Trump-Musk Fox interview on Feb 19 a day prior to Thursday’s FOMC meeting is expected to cover politics, tariffs, immigration and potentially digital assets, all of which could shift markets.

Middle East Nukes — Israel and US align on countering Iran's nuclear program, while Gaza and Ukraine peace talks take place in Saudi Arabia.

Intel Split? — Broadcom and TSMC eye parts of Intel, with interest in chip-design and manufacturing respectively, though US regulators may block foreign control.

Trump Tech Summit — President Trump will attend a Saudi-sovereign wealth fund hosted meeting of tech executives at a summit in Miami this week.

Chinese Tech Recovery — Chinese stocks surged ahead of earnings, boosted by DeepSeek's AI success and improved market sentiment as Xi meets with key tech execs after years of regulatory pressure.

FAA Overhaul — A SpaceX team will help modernize FAA air traffic control as the agency faces criticism over recent safety failings and staffing shortages.

COMPANIES TO WATCH

[Open Deal] xAI — Elon Musk’s AI startup is reportedly in discussions to raise $10B at $75B from a syndicate including previous investors Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Valor Equity.

Figure AI — Seeks $1.5B funding at $39.5B valuation, targeting 100K humanoid robots in 4 years. Ended OpenAI partnership, secured BMW as customer amid growing competition in robotics.

Pinkfish — The deterministic AI agents platform emerged from stealth with $7.6M pre-seed and over 100 users. The round was led by Norwest with Storm Ventures and angel investors joining.

Groq — The innovative AI chip startup agreed on a $1.5B investment from Saudi Arabia in one of largest single-country commitments to specialized AI chips.

Mercury Technologies — The San Fran startup providing online banking services tailored for startups and small businesses, is reportedly in talks with Sequoia to lead a round valuing it at $3B+.

Island — The Coatue, Sequoia, Insight-backed Dallas unicorn runs an enterprise browser customized for control over security, data, and IT. It just raised a round at a $4.5B valuation (4x up on 2023).

HOTTEST THING IN TECH
Grok 3 “Smartest AI on Earth” Goes Live

Last night Elon Musk’s xAI launched Grok 3, in a live demo event to 100,000 live viewers. The model is trained on the 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPU Colossus supercomputer with over 10x the GPU-hours of Grok 2. Musk promises unmatched reasoning and speed, calling it the “smartest AI on Earth,” and initial reports suggest that Grok 3 is significantly faster and more capable than previous versions. xAI also launched two beta reasoning models and is nearing a deal with Dell to acquire $5B+ worth of AI-optimised servers equipped with NVIDIA’s GB200 semiconductors.

xAI adjusted its training approach to improve Grok 3’s capabilities, incorporating:

• Self-correction mechanisms to reduce AI “hallucinations”

• Synthetic dataset training for broader and more adaptive knowledge

• Reinforcement learning for improved problem-solving

A striking feature of the demo was the model’s creativity. It was shown conceptualising a new video game, blending elements of Tetris and Puyo Puyo in a novel way, showcasing potential in scientific and tech fields as well as in entertainment, art, and other creative domains. Access is limited to X subscribers, and a new subscription tier, “Super Grok,” will offer early and extensive access to advanced features, including voice interaction.

What this means: If Grok 3 lives up to the hype, expect faster AI-driven decision-making across industries. If xAI can integrate this intelligence into Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter/X, it could challenge OpenAI’s dominance and chip into its market share.

OpenAI's Roadmap to GPT-4.5, GPT-5 and AGI

Sam Altman recently outlined OpenAI's plans to streamline its AI offerings with the upcoming releases of GPT-4.5 and GPT-5. 4.5 or "Orion" will reportedly be the final model without chain-of-thought reasoning. Following this, GPT-5 aims to unify all its existing technologies, including the o3 model, into a comprehensive system capable of handling a wide range of tasks. This integration seeks to simplify user experience by eliminating the need for multiple model selections, providing a more cohesive and efficient AI interaction.

Altman also just tweeted about AGI in attempt to steal some of Grok’s thunder: “trying GPT-4.5 has been much more of a "feel the AGI" moment among high-taste testers than i expected!”  OpenAI recently dropped a paper that reveals the blueprint for creating the best AI coder in the world. But the kicker is, this strategy is also seen by many as the clearest path to AGI. 

Anthropic and Google

Anthropic is also gearing up to launch Claude 4.0, a model anticipated to enhance deep reasoning and dynamic response times. Insiders suggest 4.0 will offer significant improvements in logical deduction and context-aware analysis, potentially surpassing competitors in complex problem-solving tasks. 

Google, meanwhile, has introduced Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, its flagship AI model boasting a context window of 2M tokens for processing extensive text efficiently. This  makes it particularly advantageous for professionals. Gemini also rolled out a “memory” feature last week so it can now consider past chats, pick up where you left off, or summarize previous topics, making it far more intuitive.

Where To Next?

With ChatGPT signaling plans to move away from the constant cycle of new models and model updates with GPT-5, is this the last great battle of the AI model updates. A cynic might say that it's also a signal OpenAI is admitting it no longer has the edge it has enjoyed over rivals thanks to its early mover advantage. Meanwhile Elon Musk recently said "this might be the last time that an AI is better than Grok" in praise of Grok 3's advanced capabilities. If it lives up to his claims we could be on the verge of an epochal transfer of power in the sector. Regardless of the packaging, the battle to provide great UX and useful tools will no doubt continue.

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BUZZY TOOLS 
Buzzy Tech Tools To Watch & Use

Google Gemini — New memory feature for personalized chat history + summaries.

GPT-4o — Update makes it more human-like, better writing, follows style guides.

Perplexity — Deep Research tool, fast citations, web/mobile, Freemium + unlimited.

Mistral Saba — Arabic language and culture-focused AI model, regional premises.

Mr. President — A digital political sim game for $25, could you be the president?

DEEP TECH
The Latest Technology & Trends To Watch

Solar Windows — “Largest” clear pv window, UV/IR semiconductors.

Green Oil Ship — China debuts world 1st oil vessel with carbon capture.

AI Flight Safety — ML success in preventing turbulence drops in air.

NanoCas — Mini CRISPR system enables single-vector gene editing across tissues.

Quantum Sensors — Uses light pulses as atomic mirrors for precision measuring.

Neutral Atom Tech — QuEra raises $230M for laser-based qubit computing.

SPACE_RACE

—EU Space_ISOS4I mission for 2030; focus satellite servicing, debris removal

—Blue Origin_Cuts 1,400 jobs (10%) to boost New Glenn rocket production

—K2 Space_Satellite startup raises $110M Series B from Lightspeed, Altimeter

—Ursa Major_Draper liquid rocket engine for next-gen Iron Dome missiles

—Interstellar Objects_1M+ large objects from Alpha Centauri in Oort Cloud

CRYPTO WATCH

Bitcoin Reserve — Crypto Task Force may prioritize efforts to create a national Bitcoin Reserve, broker Bernstein said in a research report.

Argentina Crypto Drama — President Milei faces a fraud hearing and impeachment calls after promoting the $LIBRA cryptocurrency which crashed.

FTX Payouts — The fraudulent crypto exchange begins its first creditor payouts, with creditors under ≤$50K receiving full repayment plus 9% annual interest.

Trump-Musk Interview — Set for Feb 19 on Fox News, expected to discuss crypto policy and regulation ahead of FOMC meeting, potentially impacting market volatility.

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