[Thread] In an AMA, Sam Altman says DOD blacklisting Anthropic sets an "extremely scary precedent", OpenAI rushed its deal to "de-escalate things", and more (Sam Altman/@sama)

Sam Altman / @sama:
[Thread] In an AMA, Sam Altman says DOD blacklisting Anthropic sets an “extremely scary precedent”, OpenAI rushed its deal to “de-escalate things”, and more  —  I'd like to answer questions about our work with the DoW and our thinking over the past few days. Please AMA.

The Pentagon's fight with Anthropic sparks fears in Silicon Valley and the Capitol of a fundamental shift in the balance of power between DC and the AI industry (Brendan Bordelon/Politico)

Brendan Bordelon / Politico:
The Pentagon's fight with Anthropic sparks fears in Silicon Valley and the Capitol of a fundamental shift in the balance of power between DC and the AI industry  —  Trump was silent on another threat that Hegseth had delivered to Anthropic earlier this week, when he suggested DOD would invoke …

How India's outsourcing industry, which employs 6M+ people and is worth nearly $300B, is racing to adapt as AI promises to automate white-collar work (New York Times)

New York Times:
How India's outsourcing industry, which employs 6M+ people and is worth nearly $300B, is racing to adapt as AI promises to automate white-collar work  —  Artificial intelligence promises to automate the white-collar work that made India a tech powerhouse.  The country is racing to adapt before it's too late.

AI's deflationary impact on India's IT industry, which has never seen a decline in software exports in 24 years, will likely take years to fully materialize (Manish Singh/India Dispatch)

Manish Singh / India Dispatch:
AI's deflationary impact on India's IT industry, which has never seen a decline in software exports in 24 years, will likely take years to fully materialize  —  The cost of electricity does not run an enterprise.  —  A post written as a fictional memo from June 2028 by short-seller Citrini …

South Korea approves Google's request to export detailed geographic data overseas, reversing a longstanding policy that made Google Maps largely nonfunctional (John Yoon/New York Times)

John Yoon / New York Times:
South Korea approves Google's request to export detailed geographic data overseas, reversing a longstanding policy that made Google Maps largely nonfunctional  —  South Korea approved Google's request to export detailed map data, reversing a longstanding restriction that made the tool largely nonfunctional.

Plaid allowed employees to sell some of their shares at an $8B valuation, up 31% from the $6.1B valuation in April 2025 and 40% below its $13.4B peak in 2021 (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)

Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
Plaid allowed employees to sell some of their shares at an $8B valuation, up 31% from the $6.1B valuation in April 2025 and 40% below its $13.4B peak in 2021  —  Plaid, a company that connects financial applications to users' bank accounts, enabling payments and data verification …

OpenAI says ChatGPT refused to assist a user associated with Chinese law enforcement in planning an online campaign to discredit Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi (Vlad Savov/Bloomberg)

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
OpenAI says ChatGPT refused to assist a user associated with Chinese law enforcement in planning an online campaign to discredit Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi  —  OpenAI said its ChatGPT AI service refused to assist an individual associated with Chinese law enforcement in planning an online campaign …

A top US export control official says Nvidia has yet to sell any H200 chips to China, two months after President Trump's decision to allow AI chip shipments (Maggie Eastland/Bloomberg)

Maggie Eastland / Bloomberg:
A top US export control official says Nvidia has yet to sell any H200 chips to China, two months after President Trump's decision to allow AI chip shipments  —  Nvidia Corp. has yet to sell any of its H200 chips to China two months after President Donald Trump's decision to allow shipments …

Sources: SAP investors and partners raise doubts about the company's AI products; VW tested SAP's flagship AI assitant Joule and did not find it mature enough (Christina Kyriasoglou/Bloomberg)

Christina Kyriasoglou / Bloomberg:
Sources: SAP investors and partners raise doubts about the company's AI products; VW tested SAP's flagship AI assitant Joule and did not find it mature enough  —  SAP SE's investors and partners are raising doubts about a suite of artificial intelligence products that Europe's …

Discord says it "ran a limited test of Persona in the UK" to verify user ages and "that test has since concluded", distancing itself from Persona amid backlash (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Discord says it “ran a limited test of Persona in the UK” to verify user ages and “that test has since concluded”, distancing itself from Persona amid backlash  —  The messaging platform says its ‘limited test’ of Persona in the UK has come to an end.

Data center developers are seeking credit ratings even while facilities are under construction to unlock new capital; S&P, Moody's, and others expand coverage (Michelle Chan/Financial Times)

Michelle Chan / Financial Times:
Data center developers are seeking credit ratings even while facilities are under construction to unlock new capital; S&P, Moody's, and others expand coverage  —  Agencies are rushing to rate the debt of projects still under construction  —  Data centre developers are seeking credit ratings …

How Buddy Rizer, an official in Virginia's Loudoun County, helped build the world's largest data center market, with ~200 buildings spanning ~49M square feet (David Uberti/Wall Street Journal)

David Uberti / Wall Street Journal:
How Buddy Rizer, an official in Virginia's Loudoun County, helped build the world's largest data center market, with ~200 buildings spanning ~49M square feet  —  Virginia's Loudoun County is a giant data-center market thanks in part to a radio DJ-turned county executive director for economic development

South Korean trade data: chip exports rose 134% YoY, while computer peripherals rose 129% in the first 20 days of February, extending gains driven by AI demand (Heesu Lee/Bloomberg)

Heesu Lee / Bloomberg:
South Korean trade data: chip exports rose 134% YoY, while computer peripherals rose 129% in the first 20 days of February, extending gains driven by AI demand  —  South Korea's exports extended their growth momentum in early February, driven by resilient semiconductor demand even as trade uncertainty persists over US tariff policy.

Turkey launches a review of how social media platforms handle children's data as it prepares new rules that include identity verification and age restrictions (Turkish Minute)

Turkish Minute:
Turkey launches a review of how social media platforms handle children's data as it prepares new rules that include identity verification and age restrictions  —  Turkey's data protection watchdog has opened a review of how six major social media platforms process children's personal data …

Tim Cook's increased mentions of Visual Intelligence hint it will be a major part of Apple's new wearables; sources: Apple considers a deep red iPhone 18 Pro (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Tim Cook's increased mentions of Visual Intelligence hint it will be a major part of Apple's new wearables; sources: Apple considers a deep red iPhone 18 Pro  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook is signaling that Visual Intelligence will be the defining feature of the company's push into wearable AI devices.