NerdNews

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reported record fourth-quarter earnings and expects AI chip demand to continue for years. CEO C.C. Wei expressed optimism about AI demand, citing conversations with cloud providers that verified the demand is real. TSMC plans to spend between $52 billion and $56 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, up from $40.9 billion in 2025.

Elon Musk announced that Tesla is reviving its Dojo3 project, but this time it will focus on 'space-based AI compute'. The project was previously abandoned, but Musk says it will be used to power AI computing in space. Tesla is rebuilding its team and recruiting engineers to work on the project.

X has open sourced its algorithm, providing insight into how it determines what posts to recommend to users. The algorithm considers engagement history, recent in-network posts, and machine-learning-based analysis of out-of-network posts. This move comes as X faces a transparency fine and controversies surrounding its chatbot, Grok.

China's Cyberspace Administration requires AI companies to register, creating a detailed map of the country's AI ecosystem. The registry includes companies like Squirrel AI, AI Kanshe, and Zhongtan Puhui Cloud Technology, which are developing innovative AI solutions. China's AI industry is booming, with many companies expanding globally.

China is at the forefront of humanoid robot development, with companies like Unitree leading the charge. These robots are expected to have a significant impact on the workforce and economy, with predictions of 10 million humanoids being shipped annually by 2035. Chinese companies are leveraging their tightly integrated manufacturing and supply chains to produce high-quality, low-cost robots, making them a major player in the global robotics market.

Ethernovia, a company that makes Ethernet-based processors for autonomous vehicles, has raised $90 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Maverick Silicon, an AI-focused fund. Ethernovia's technology helps collect data from sensors and move it to a central computer, enabling 'physical AI' applications.

Elon Musk's xAI company released Grok, a chatbot that can generate images and answer questions. However, the chatbot has been generating nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes of adults and minors, leading to widespread criticism and calls for regulation. The company has implemented some safeguards, but experts say it's not enough, and the issue highlights the need for better regulation of AI-generated content.

Google's DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis, confirmed that Gemini won't have ads, while ChatGPT is testing ads in the US for free and $8/month Go users. Paid tiers like Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise won’t have ads on ChatGPT.

OpenAI has rolled out an age prediction model on ChatGPT to detect users' ages and apply safety restrictions. The model analyzes conversation topics and usage patterns to predict age. If incorrectly flagged as a minor, users can verify their age through a live selfie or government ID. This feature aims to prevent minors from accessing adult or potentially harmful content.

OpenAI has begun deploying an age prediction model to determine whether ChatGPT users are old enough to view sensitive content. The model uses behavioral and account-level signals to predict age and will activate additional safety settings for users under 18.

BioticsAI, the winner of TechCrunch Disrupt's Battlefield competition in 2023, has received FDA clearance for its AI-powered fetal ultrasound product. The technology uses computer vision AI to support fetal ultrasound quality assessment and anatomical completeness. The company plans to scale its product across health systems nationwide and add more features for fetal medicine and reproductive health.

Humans&, a startup founded by Anthropic, xAI, and Google alums, has raised $480 million in seed funding at a $4.48 billion valuation. The company aims to use software to help people collaborate with each other, using AI to train models at scale and improve human interaction with AI.

Check Point Research discovered VoidLink, a Linux malware that targets cloud environments, and found it was generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence. The malware has 37 plugins and can scan for and detect various cloud platforms, including AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. It is considered more advanced than typical Linux malware and was likely developed by a single individual using an AI model.

Anthropic has fixed three bugs in its official Git MCP server that could be chained to remotely execute malicious code or overwrite files via prompt injection. The vulnerabilities, found by Cyata, include a path validation bypass flaw, an unrestricted git_init issue, and an argument injection in git_diff. These flaws can be exploited when combined with the Filesystem MCP server, allowing attackers to achieve code execution.

OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar claims the company's future is bright despite current financial concerns. She argues that increased spending on compute will lead to faster customer adoption and monetization. The company's revenue grew 10x from 2023 to 2025, but it still needs to find a viable business model to become profitable. The global economy may depend on OpenAI's success, with AI accounting for 40% of US GDP growth in 2025.

Elon Musk has made part of the X algorithm open source, describing it as 'dumb' and saying it 'sucks'. The algorithm is used to determine what posts are recommended to users on the X platform. Musk has promised to update the code repository every four weeks, but some parts of the algorithm, such as the one used for advertising, are still missing.

Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, criticized the US administration's decision to approve the sale of Nvidia's H200 chips to China, likening it to selling nuclear weapons. Amodei's comments were notable given Nvidia's partnership with Anthropic, and highlight the existential concerns surrounding the AI race.

Serve Robotics, a sidewalk delivery robot company, is acquiring Diligent Robotics, a hospital assistant robot company, for $29 million. The acquisition marks Serve's expansion into the healthcare industry and will leverage Diligent's robots to assist in hospitals.

Emergent, an Indian AI vibe-coding platform, has raised $70 million in a Series B round, tripling its valuation to $300 million. The funding was led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures. Emergent uses AI agents to help users design, build, test, and deploy full-stack web and mobile apps, targeting entrepreneurs and small businesses.

A PwC survey of 4,454 business leaders found that over half of CEOs report seeing neither increased revenue nor decreased costs from AI, despite massive investments in the technology. Only 12% reported both lower costs and higher revenue, while 56% saw neither benefit.