AI 30 January 2026 - 5 February 2026

Littelfuse Shares Rise as AI Data-Center Story Hits
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Littelfuse Shares Rise as AI Data-Center Story Hits

Littelfuse Inc. shares jumped Tuesday, closing at a new 52-week high as the AI data-center product debut landed. The stock, which trades on the Nasdaq, finished at around $487.90, up 5.3%. It hit $489.60 during the day. Investors have pushed the shares higher since its first-quarter earnings. Littelfuse is making its pitch now as it wants to prove its circuit-protection products belong in new higher-power data center projects, not just in industrial or automotive use. Regular U.S. trading opens later Wednesday; Nasdaq’s standard hours run 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, with pre-market trading from 4 a.m. ET.
June 3, 2026
TSMC’s $17bn Japan bet: 3nm AI chips slated for Kumamoto plant
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TSMC’s $17bn Japan bet: 3nm AI chips slated for Kumamoto plant

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s CEO C.C. Wei announced Thursday that the company will start mass-producing advanced 3-nanometre chips in Kumamoto, southern Japan. Local reports estimate the investment at around $17 billion. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/tsmc-plans-3-nanometre-chip-production-japan-with-17-billion-investment-yomiuri-2026-02-04/ The shift is crucial today as AI hardware demand pushes the global supply chain toward a handful of companies capable of producing advanced chips at scale. TSMC, the largest contract chipmaker, plays a central role supplying AI processors, making its capacity plans a major focus for governments and large buyers alike.
February 5, 2026
UK turns to Microsoft for deepfake detection as Grok probes widen
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UK turns to Microsoft for deepfake detection as Grok probes widen

London, 5 February 2026, 13:22 GMT Britain announced on Thursday that it will collaborate with Microsoft, academics, and technical experts to develop a system aimed at detecting deepfake content online. The move is part of efforts to establish standards for handling harmful AI-generated material. Technology minister Liz Kendall warned, “Deepfakes are being weaponised by criminals to defraud the public, exploit women and girls, and undermine trust in what we see and hear.”
February 5, 2026
China’s OpenClaw alarm: Beijing flags hack risks as the viral AI agent spreads
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China’s OpenClaw alarm: Beijing flags hack risks as the viral AI agent spreads

Beijing, Feb 5, 2026, 21:25 China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning Thursday about the fast-growing OpenClaw open-source AI agent, highlighting serious security risks if it’s misconfigured. Poor setups could expose users to cyberattacks and data breaches. The ministry stopped short of banning OpenClaw but urged organizations to review their public network exposure and strengthen identity authentication and access controls. Since its November launch, OpenClaw’s popularity has surged, prompting Chinese cloud giants like Alibaba’s Alicloud, Tencent Cloud, and Baidu to offer remote hosting services instead of running it locally.
February 5, 2026
ChatGPT outage hits thousands as OpenAI rolls out fixes and logs more glitches
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ChatGPT outage hits thousands as OpenAI rolls out fixes and logs more glitches

ChatGPT was back online Tuesday following a short outage that triggered thousands of complaints from U.S. users, according to outage tracker Downdetector. OpenAI confirmed it pinpointed the issue and implemented fixes to resolve it. https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-down-thousands-users-us-downdetector-shows-2026-02-03/ The disruption hits hard since ChatGPT is now a daily staple for workers, students, and developers. Even brief outages can halt customer support, coding projects, and routine writing tasks.
February 4, 2026
Netflix warns Germany could get subtitles-only as voice actors boycott AI contract clause
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Netflix warns Germany could get subtitles-only as voice actors boycott AI contract clause

German voice actors have launched a grassroots boycott of Netflix over a new contract clause that would allow their recordings to be used to train artificial intelligence systems. Anna-Sophia Lumpe, who chairs the Verband Deutscher Sprecher, said Netflix warned it could show some titles in Germany “with German subtitles” if the boycott persists, adding “our efforts and the efforts of the voice actors are generating a response”. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the letter and said the company is taking the concerns seriously; the VDS, which represents around 600 members, said the contracts introduced at the start of the year do not spell out whether actors would be paid for AI training, even as demand for dubbing has grown with international
February 3, 2026
Western Digital adds a $4B buyback as AI servers squeeze memory supply
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Western Digital adds a $4B buyback as AI servers squeeze memory supply

San Jose, California, Feb 3, 2026, 11:22 Western Digital announced Tuesday that its board has greenlit an extra $4 billion for share buybacks, driven by soaring demand for its memory chips in AI servers. The stock has jumped 57% so far this year, following a more than threefold gain in 2025. With around $484 million left from a previous $2 billion buyback plan, the move comes amid a global chip shortage that's boosting prices and extending lead times. Just last week, the company projected fiscal third-quarter revenue and profits above analyst forecasts, fueled by strong demand for hard drives and flash storage from AI server customers.
February 3, 2026
Anthropic AI legal plug-in batters Relx, Wolters Kluwer as software and ad stocks slide
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Anthropic AI legal plug-in batters Relx, Wolters Kluwer as software and ad stocks slide

A selloff in European software, data and advertising shares deepened on Tuesday after Anthropic rolled out a legal plug-in — an add-on — for its Claude chatbot, reviving fears that fast-improving AI could eat into businesses once seen as winners from the technology. The slide also dragged several U.S. software names lower in early trading. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/ai-concerns-pummel-european-software-stocks-2026-02-03/ Investors have leaned on these companies for years because they sell information, tools or services that help clients make decisions, and that looks like a natural fit with AI. The new shift is that generative AI — systems that can draft text or code from a prompt — is starting to do more of the work directly.
February 3, 2026
OpenAI eyes faster ChatGPT chips as it weighs Nvidia alternatives and $100B talks drag
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OpenAI eyes faster ChatGPT chips as it weighs Nvidia alternatives and $100B talks drag

San Francisco, 09:12 PST, February 3, 2026 OpenAI is exploring alternatives to some of Nvidia’s newest AI chips as it pushes for faster performance in products like ChatGPT, according to eight sources familiar with the situation. This move could complicate ongoing discussions about a significant Nvidia investment in the startup. https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-is-unsatisfied-with-some-nvidia-chips-looking-alternatives-sources-say-2026-02-02/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
February 3, 2026
Siemens Energy’s $1 billion U.S. bet: new Mississippi switchgear plant taps AI power boom
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Siemens Energy’s $1 billion U.S. bet: new Mississippi switchgear plant taps AI power boom

Siemens Energy is set to pump $1 billion into expanding its U.S. production of power-grid and gas-turbine parts, responding to a surge in demand from AI-focused data centres. The investment includes a new power-grid equipment plant in Mississippi, which CEO Christian Bruch described as the company’s largest globally, with completion targeted for 2028. While Big Tech continues to pour hundreds of billions into data centres, the sector faces equipment shortages and permitting delays, driving a flurry of power-related deals. The investment comes as utilities and policymakers race to model data-centre energy demands. According to a Congressional Research Service report, data centres consumed roughly 176 terawatt-hours in 2023—about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity use—with some forecasts suggesting that could climb to
February 3, 2026
Firefox adds an AI kill switch — Mozilla lets you block every generative AI feature
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Firefox adds an AI kill switch — Mozilla lets you block every generative AI feature

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2026, 01:29 Mozilla revealed plans to add a single switch in Firefox that blocks all its built-in generative AI features, plus new options to turn individual AI tools on or off. “AI is changing the web, and people want very different things from it,” Firefox product chief Ajit Varma wrote in a company blog post. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-controls/
February 3, 2026
Snowflake’s $200 million OpenAI deal plugs GPT-5.2 into Cortex AI as enterprise agents move closer to data
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Snowflake’s $200 million OpenAI deal plugs GPT-5.2 into Cortex AI as enterprise agents move closer to data

Snowflake said on Monday it has struck a $200 million partnership with OpenAI to bring the ChatGPT maker’s models into Snowflake’s data cloud products, including Cortex AI and Snowflake Intelligence. The deal lands as cloud data platforms — where companies store a lot of their most sensitive information — become a battleground for generative AI. Snowflake said customers are moving from basic chatbots to AI agents, software that can take steps across systems, and they want that automation tied to governed data, meaning access is controlled and auditable. Rival Databricks has been building its own agent tools and recently raised $4 billion at a $134 billion valuation, Reuters reported.
February 2, 2026
Indonesia lifts Grok ban — but sets strict terms for Elon Musk’s chatbot
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Indonesia lifts Grok ban — but sets strict terms for Elon Musk’s chatbot

Jakarta, 00:17 WIB, February 3, 2026 Indonesia has lifted its ban on Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot, allowing the service to restart after sexualised images appeared on the app, a government statement confirmed. The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs said access will return but under strict oversight and specific conditions, following a written commitment from X Corp. to improve compliance with Indonesian rules. Indonesia had suspended Grok three weeks ago over concerns about AI-generated pornographic content, marking the first time the tool was blocked by any country.
February 2, 2026
Alibaba’s $431 million Lunar New Year giveaway blitz escalates China’s chatbot subsidy race
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Alibaba’s $431 million Lunar New Year giveaway blitz escalates China’s chatbot subsidy race

Beijing, February 2, 2026, 21:21 Alibaba said on Monday it will spend 3 billion yuan to lure users to its Qwen AI app during the Lunar New Year holiday, a sum that tops rival budgets announced by Tencent and Baidu. The incentives start on Feb. 6. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/alibaba-spend-431-million-lunar-new-year-ai-push-chatbot-war-heats-up-2026-02-02/
February 2, 2026
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, mobbed in Taiwan, tells TSMC he needs “a lot of wafers” for AI chips
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Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, mobbed in Taiwan, tells TSMC he needs “a lot of wafers” for AI chips

TAIPEI, Feb 1, 2026, 21:27 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged Taiwan’s leading chip and server makers to ramp up output to keep pace with soaring AI demand after hosting a dinner with top execs in Taipei. “TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot of wafers,” Huang told reporters, referencing the silicon discs used to make chips.
February 1, 2026
Google’s NotebookLM adds Video Overviews on Android and iOS — turning your sources into AI videos
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Google’s NotebookLM adds Video Overviews on Android and iOS — turning your sources into AI videos

Google is starting to roll out Video Overviews to NotebookLM’s Android and iOS apps, adding a feature that turns a user’s source material into AI-generated, narrated slide videos, Android Central and gHacks reported. The move matters because the fight over where people do “research” has shifted to the phone. If NotebookLM lives in a pocket, Google gets more chances to make it a daily habit, not a tool you open once a week.
February 1, 2026
Starlink’s privacy policy now lets customer data train AI — and it’s on by default
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Starlink’s privacy policy now lets customer data train AI — and it’s on by default

SpaceX’s Starlink has revised its privacy policy to permit the use of customer data for training machine learning and AI models, unless users choose to opt out. The update also gives Starlink the ability to share this data with service providers and “third-party collaborators.” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/musks-starlink-updates-privacy-policy-230853500.html This change comes as SpaceX considers an initial public offering—their first public share sale—later this year and negotiates a merger with Elon Musk’s AI firm xAI, raising questions about the data Starlink gathers and its potential uses.
January 31, 2026
Nvidia’s $100 billion OpenAI deal goes cold as talks shift to a smaller stake
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Nvidia’s $100 billion OpenAI deal goes cold as talks shift to a smaller stake

Mexico City, 07:11, January 31, 2026 Nvidia’s plan to pour up to $100 billion into OpenAI has hit a snag, according to The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Some folks inside the chip giant have raised doubts. “We have been OpenAI’s preferred partner for the last 10 years. We look forward to continuing to work together,” an Nvidia spokesperson said. OpenAI didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment.
January 31, 2026
Pentagon vs Anthropic: AI guardrails dispute stalls $200 million military talks as Microsoft lands $750 million Perplexity deal
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Pentagon vs Anthropic: AI guardrails dispute stalls $200 million military talks as Microsoft lands $750 million Perplexity deal

The Pentagon is clashing with San Francisco-based AI developer Anthropic over built-in safeguards—AI “guardrails” designed to restrict the U.S. government’s use of its technology in autonomous weapons targeting and domestic surveillance, sources told Reuters. Negotiations around a contract potentially worth $200 million have stalled, the sources added. Pentagon officials might still need Anthropic’s engineers to modify models that were trained specifically to avoid harmful actions. The standoff comes as Washington pushes to integrate advanced AI into military and intelligence operations, relying on commercial systems instead of developing them entirely in-house. Silicon Valley wants both the revenue and influence but is also fighting to maintain control over how its technology is deployed.
January 30, 2026
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