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Anthropic projects at least $80 billion in cloud spending through 2029 and expects revenue‑share payouts to cloud providers to rise steeply, making AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure significant beneficiaries of its commercial roll‑out. The forecast highlights the capital intensity of large models and signals that cloud infrastructure — not just algorithms — will determine who captures AI’s economic value.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that the company will unveil multiple unprecedented chips at GTC 2026, positioning the firm to push the next wave of AI infrastructure innovation. The reveal matters for cloud providers, chip rivals and national tech strategies because advances will affect performance, supply chains and geopolitical access to high‑end compute.

Chinese construction crews maintained major Belt-and-Road projects through the Lunar New Year, combining round‑the‑clock work with cultural outreach to local partners. The narrative underscores both immediate economic gains from new roads, railways and power grids and Beijing’s broader strategy to cement influence through visible, people‑centred infrastructure delivery.

The Geneva nuclear talks ended without agreement as US military deployments and Iranian naval drills hardened positions on both sides. Fundamental disagreements over Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes, Israeli security demands, and the timing of sanctions relief mean the risk of escalation remains high unless negotiators find a politically credible compromise.

NATO launched Steadfast Dagger‑2026, a large amphibious exercise on Germany’s Baltic coast involving about 10,000 troops from 13 countries, aimed at practising rapid reinforcement of the alliance’s eastern flank. The United States did not directly participate, highlighting growing European responsibility for regional deterrence and testing allied logistics and interoperability.

China’s 10,000‑ton destroyer Lhasa has adopted a ship‑wide anti‑unmanned warfare deployment, integrating sensors, electronic and kinetic defenses to counter drone swarms. The move signals a wider PLA Navy effort to harden surface ships against proliferating low‑cost unmanned threats that complicate maritime operations.

A family reunion at a remote border post in the Greater Khingan Range illustrates the human cost and symbolic power of China’s frontier defence. After a 40-hour journey, a soldier who has served 19 years met his wife and daughters at Triangular Mountain, a site steeped in local military memory and used by state media to underscore the virtue of sacrifice.

Google has added Lyria 3, a music generation model, to its Gemini app enabling 30‑second songs from text or images and integrating with YouTube Shorts. The move raises competitive pressures on streaming platforms, offers new tools for creators, and revives questions about copyright, attribution and monetization of AI‑generated music.

Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University published DeepRare in Nature, an AI system that diagnoses rare diseases with a traceable reasoning process. It achieved 57.18% first‑pass accuracy using only clinical symptoms and exceeds 70% when genetic data are included, promising improved triage in hospitals without routine genetic testing.

South Korea says three civilians launched drones into North Korean airspace on four occasions between September 2025 and January 2026, prompting investigations into the operators, a drone manufacturer and intelligence personnel. Seoul plans to tighten laws, strengthen local security networks, and explore restoring the 9·19 military agreement to reduce the risk of escalation.

U.S. officials say Iran will return to indirect talks in Geneva within two weeks with a detailed written proposal aimed at closing outstanding gaps. Participants described the latest round as progressive but incomplete; the next submission could determine whether incremental diplomacy can yield a verifiable, phased agreement or merely postpone future confrontation.

Chinese authorities released footage showing a Philippine Coast Guard vessel discarding an unidentified object near the Spratly Islands on Feb. 16, a small incident that nevertheless amplifies tensions in the contested South China Sea. The episode highlights how filmed encounters and the deployment of equipment at sea serve as instruments of strategic signaling between Manila and Beijing.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected U.S. objections to Iran’s missile programme and warned that American aircraft carriers can be made vulnerable by weapons Tehran possesses or is developing. His remarks reflect Tehran’s emphasis on asymmetric deterrence and raise the political and operational stakes for U.S. naval presence in the Gulf.

Tencent announced that Yuanbao has exceeded 50 million daily active users and 114 million monthly active users, reporting a strong engagement ratio. While the figures signal notable audience scale, their commercial significance hinges on monetisation, user composition, and regulatory constraints.

Uber will invest over $100 million to build DC fast-charging hubs for autonomous electric vehicles at its operations bases and along key city routes. The move is intended to reduce vehicle downtime and support a future scale-up of electric, autonomous ride-hailing, but it faces logistical, regulatory and grid-infrastructure challenges.

A Galgotias University professor presented a Chinese‑made quadruped robot as an in‑house development at India’s AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, prompting social‑media exposure and the university’s removal from the event. The episode highlights tensions over claims of indigenous technology, event vetting failures, and the political optics of India’s bid to project technological self‑reliance.

Taichu (Wuxi) Electronics has completed deep adaptation of GLM‑5.0, Alibaba’s Qwen3.5 and DeepSeek‑OCR‑2 to its in‑house T100 accelerator, enabling these open models to run efficiently on domestic hardware. The work advances China’s effort to build a full AI software‑hardware stack and reduce reliance on foreign GPUs, though performance parity with global leaders remains an open question.

A northern border garrison in China became the site of a 40-hour family reunion when a soldier who has served 19 years welcomed his wife and children for the Lunar New Year. The story symbolises the personal costs of long deployments, the logistical demands of frontier posts, and the way state media uses such vignettes to frame the PLA as both dutiful and domestically rooted.

Google has launched the Pixel 10A at $499, consolidating its strategy of using lower‑cost Pixel models to broaden consumer reach. The device underscores Google’s focus on software differentiation and on‑device AI as the primary lever in a fiercely competitive midrange smartphone market.

Over Lunar New Year’s Eve the Philippines staged a high-profile maritime exercise near the Spratly Islands that China treated as a provocation, prompting a measured but forceful Chinese deployment and documentation of the incident. Washington and Tokyo remained conspicuously restrained, reflecting a cautious approach to balancing alliance reassurance with the risks of direct confrontation with Beijing.