They’ll tell you it’s about steel.
They’ll headline it with tariffs.
But look closer—
this isn’t about trade.
It’s about tech.
And more specifically—who controls the future of thought.

Tariffs are noise.
The real war is being fought over AI benchmarks, chip access, and model dominance.
The U.S. and China aren’t just competing over goods.
They’re racing to shape the mind of the next generation—
through code, data, and compute.

AI is no longer just a tool.
It’s the front line.
And while most people are busy scrolling,
the map is being drawn.

This isn’t just economic strategy.
It’s information warfare—coded in plain sight.

Let’s get into it.

🍎 Apple is executing a complete strategy reset after its Vision Pro headset missed targets by a massive margin. SiliconANGLE, 5 min read

• Only 420,000 units sold vs 700,000+ expected
• Production reportedly halted since January 2025
• Two new models planned: lighter consumer version and Mac-tethered enterprise model

📱 Google's $499 Pixel 9a delivers flagship features at half price through brilliant cost-cutting strategies. Ars Technica, 4 min read

• Uses same Tensor G4 chip as premium models
• Recycled plastic cuts costs 30% and carbon 45%
• Mid-range phone segment growing 34% since 2020

🚀 Space tech funding remains resilient at $6 billion despite market turbulence as investors pivot to defense-related applications. Crunchbase News, 7 min read

• $260M for Stoke Space's reusable rockets
• $170M for satellite-leasing company Loft Orbital
• AI-space hybrids gaining significant traction

💰 Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road creates the first-ever bridge between crypto and traditional finance markets. SiliconANGLE, 5 min read

• Hidden Road clears $3 trillion in annual transactions
• 300+ institutional customers gain blockchain access
• RLUSD stablecoin will serve as cross-market collateral

❄️ Snowflake deliberately sacrifices short-term profits for aggressive market expansion with its massive war chest. Seeking Alpha, 3 min read

• Q4 revenue up 28% to $943 million
• $5.3B cash vs $2.3B debt provides flexibility
• New "Iceberg" tech targets mid-market expansion

🧠 New sophisticated AI benchmarks reveal alarming performance gaps between leading models on real-world problem-solving tasks. VentureBeat, 6 min read

• Anthropic: 75% on complex reasoning
• Google: only 49% on same tasks
• Microsoft: just 38% performance
• OpenAI scored mere 26.6% on expert reasoning

🎨 OpenAI's anime-style image creation feature has sparked unprecedented growth for ChatGPT in just three weeks. SiliconANGLE, 4 min read

• Users potentially jumped from 500M to 1B
• Japanese anime styles dominating despite copyright concerns
• Future systems may include automatic artist payments

🔩 President Trump has closed exemptions for 10 countries, restoring full 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The White House, 5 min read

• Previously boosted U.S. steel capacity from 70% to 80%
• Generated $10B+ in new mill construction
• Economists warn of potential retaliatory measures

⚖️ Trump has engineered an unprecedented 3-0 Republican majority at the FTC by firing two Democratic commissioners. Ars Technica, 6 min read

• First complete partisan control in recent history
• Likely fewer blocked mergers and big tech scrutiny
• State AGs expected to fill federal enforcement gaps

Prompt:
"Based on recent $6B space tech funding trends, generate 5 niche B2B SaaS product ideas targeting defense-related applications or AI-space hybrids with estimated market sizes and top 3 customer pain points for each."

Prompt:
"Create a decision matrix for selecting between Claude, GPT-4, Gemini and Llama models based on the recent benchmark data. Include task types, cost considerations, and specific use cases where each excels or fails."

Prompt:
"Analyze 5 U.S. steel manufacturers that will benefit from the 25% tariffs. Include capacity utilization rates, debt-to-equity ratios, projected earnings growth for 2025-2026, and their exposure to potential retaliatory measures from affected countries."