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February 18, 2026, 8:20 AM
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Abu Sultan / Reuters:
Microsoft says it is on pace to invest $50B by 2030 to help expand AI across the “Global South”, after unveiling $17.5B in AI investments in India in 2025  —  Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Wednesday said it is on pace to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to help expand AI to countries across the ‘Global South’.
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
At India's AI Summit, Sundar Pichai announces the America-India Connect Initiative to build new fiber optic lines between India, the US, and other countries  —  Alphabet Inc. unveiled several new initiatives to support its expansion in India, including new fiber-optic routes that will connect …
Dylan Butts / CNBC:
Nvidia says it is working with Peak XV and other VC firms in India to fund AI startups; over 4,000 Indian AI startups have joined its global startup program
Shruti Rajagopalan / Get Down and Shruti:
As the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi draws attention, a look at India's AI opportunities and the political economy gridlock that threatens its ambitions
Anthropic:
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6 with improvements in coding, computer use, instruction following, and more; it features a 1M token context window in beta  —  Claude Sonnet 4.6 is our most capable Sonnet model yet.  It's a full upgrade of the model's skills across coding, computer use …
More: Silicon Republic, The Decoder, Business Standard, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, Cyber Security News, XDA Developers, Help Net Security, Digit, iClarified, The Indian Express, Latent.Space, The Register, The Economic Times, Neowin, Moneycontrol, crypto.news, VentureBeat, The Deep View, Runtime, InfoWorld, Simon Willison's Weblog, Mashable, MacRumors, Android Headlines, Axios, The Verge, Forbes, TechRepublic, Claude, Claude, Tom's Guide, CNET, CNBC, ZDNET, The New Stack, SiliconANGLE, ITPro, and About Amazon
X: @clairevo, @zck, @levie, @andonlabs, @artificialanlys, @scaling01, @claudeai, @sleepinyourhat, @therundownai, @felixrieseberg, @alexalbert__, @claudeai, @kimmonismus, @alexalbert__, @scaling01, @scaling01, @scaling01, @aakashgupta, @jack_raines, @boringbiz_, @abcampbell, @bcherny, @chatgpt21, @blondesnmoney, @daniellefong, @dejavucoder, @trungtphan, @artificialanlys, @alexalbert__, @github, @alexfinn, @isidoremiller, @awscloud, @benbajarin, @davidondrej1, @mweinbach, @birdyword, @llmjunky, @inductionheads, @daniel_mac8, @chongdashu, @artificialanlys, @zapier, @juanpa, @lexnlin, @felixrieseberg, @gregkamradt, @scaling01, @alexpalcuie, @jkeatn, @cnbc, @wadefoster, @box, @chatgpt21, @thezachmueller, @arcprize, @kimmonismus, @andonlabs, @aibattle_, @openrouter, @adocomplete, @scaling01, @danshipper, @willccbb, @iruletheworldmo, @danshipper, @sean_t_strong, @claudeai, @andrewcurran_, @claudeai, @claudeai, and @lentils80
LinkedIn: Thomas Li, Artificial Analysis, Cal Rueb, and Claude
Bluesky: @timkellogg.me, @mergesort.me, and @pekka
Forums: Hacker News, r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, r/singularity, r/ClaudeAI, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums
Financial Times:
Meta commits to buy millions of Nvidia Blackwell and Rubin GPUs in a multiyear deal; a source says Meta's in-house AI chip strategy suffers technical challenges  —  Social media group will purchase millions of chips even as it tries to develop its own AI hardware
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google schedules I/O 2026 for May 19 to 20 in Mountain View, teasing the “latest AI breakthroughs and updates” in Gemini, Android, and more  —  Following the puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2026 is taking place May 19-20.  —  I/O 2026 will feature …
Nathan Bomey / Axios:
CFTC Chair Mike Selig says the commission will file friend-of-the-court briefs to defend its exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets amid state lawsuits
Rachel Swan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Tesla agrees to stop using the term “autopilot” to market its electric vehicles in California to avoid a 30-day suspension by the state's DMV  —  Tesla has stopped using the term “autopilot” to market its electric vehicles in California in order to avoid a 30-day suspension by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Joe Miller / Financial Times:
How US citizens, clergy, and elected officials in conservative communities like Missouri are leading a grassroots rebellion against the Trump-backed AI boom  —  Republicans fear backlash against White House agenda could undermine support in this year's midterm elections
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
A look at China's push to become a world leader in brain-computer interfaces, as Shanghai-based startup NeuroXess moves to human trials with Beijing's backing  —  Looser regulation and new investment are helping groups such as NeuroXess accelerate trials of ‘brain-computer interfaces’
Shona Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Saudi-backed AI company Humain invests $3B in xAI, becoming a “significant minority shareholder” in a deal that happened just prior to SpaceX's xAI acquisition  —  Saudi-backed artificial intelligence company Humain has invested $3 billion into Elon Musk's AI startup xAI, according to a statement on Wednesday.
More: HUMAIN
Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:
DG Matrix, which builds solid-state transformers to handle up to 2.4 MW and boost data center power efficiency, raised a $60M Series A led by Engine Ventures  —  Data centers face a conundrum: how to power increasingly dense server racks using equipment that relies on century-old technology.
Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Peter Thiel and Founders Fund have fully exited ETHZilla, down from a 7.5% stake in August 2025; ether is down 60% from its August 2025 peak  —  Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund have fully exited ETHZilla Corp., according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times:
Q&A with Synthesia founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli on growing the London-based enterprise AI video platform, hitting a $4B valuation, AI regulation, and more  —  The founder of the $4bn UK start-up talks about his mission to reinvent content creation and how Europe can compete in the global AI race
Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Stripe's stablecoin firm Bridge wins conditional approval from the US OCC to form a national trust bank, which would allow it to issue and manage stablecoins  —  What to know: … Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm owned by Stripe, said Tuesday it has received conditional approval …
The Information:
Benchmark hires Jack Altman, the founder of Alt Capital and Lattice, as its fifth general partner; three Alt Capital team members will join him at Benchmark  —  Benchmark on Tuesday said it had hired Jack Altman, the founder of early-stage firm Alt Capital and HR software company Lattice, as its fifth general partner.

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:
The AP says it plans dozens of US staff cuts as part of a broader restructuring away from hyper-local print coverage and toward video and national topics

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: three Gulf sovereign-wealth funds have agreed to commit a total of ~$24B to back Paramount's $81B WBD deal; Saudi Arabia's PIF agreed to provide ~$10B

Natalie Korach / Status:
Sources: journalists attending WHCD plan to wear 1A-themed accessories, in a RCFP-coordinated campaign to express solidarity amid Trump's press restrictions

More News

David Singleton / flurries of latent creativity:
Dreamer, founded by former Stripe CTO David Singleton, Hugo Barra, and others, launches in beta to let technical and non-technical users build agentic AI apps
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
YouTube fully restores its services after resolving a brief outage on February 17 starting at around 7:45pm ET due to a recommendations system issue
TechCrunch:
Emergent, which offers an AI-powered software development service, says it is generating annual run-rate revenue of $100M+, just eight months after launch

Earlier Picks

Elias Schisgall / Wall Street Journal:
Palo Alto Networks reports Q2 revenue up 15% YoY to $2.6B, above $2.58B est., and projects Q3 adjusted EPS below estimates; PANW drops 7%+
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple ramps up work on AI wearables with cameras and Siri, including smart glasses, AirPods, and a pendant that can be worn as a necklace or pinned
Bloomberg:
Palantir moves its HQ from Denver to Miami, as the city's leadership aims to turn it into the next Silicon Valley, with backing of billionaires like Ken Griffin
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