Good morning.
If you thought yesterday's Big Tech earnings storm was crazy, you might want to sit down.
Big news: Tesla is reportedly going to merge with either xAI or SpaceX (or both).
Bigger news: Tesla is no longer a car company. Tesla is stopping production of its Models S and X to create more Optimus humanoid robots. An analyst said “forget the Tesla you knew.”
Oh, and OpenAI confirmed it will IPO in Q4 of 2026, GameStop’s CEO said he’s going to almost 10x the company’s market cap, and Trump officially nominated his pick for the next Fed Chair.
You know. Just normal 2026 things.
Today:
Tesla to merge with SpaceX and/or xAI?
OpenAI plans to IPO in Q4 2026
GameStop CEO declares plan for $100 billion market cap
Trump nominates Jerome Powell’s successor
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📰 Market Headlines
Tesla (TSLA) is done being a car company. On its Q4 call yesterday evening, Musk announced the end of Model S and X production, calling it an "honorable discharge" as the company pivots hard into autonomy and robots. Tesla now has 1.1 million paying full self driving (FSD) subscribers (up 38% YoY), 500 robotaxis circling Austin and the Bay Area, and plans to begin Optimus robot production before year-end.
Also: TSLA plans to double its CapEx next year, investing heavily in driverless technology, humanoid robots, and AI chips (CNBC). Shares slid 3% despite the earnings beat, but are up about 2% as of this morning. Musk stated that Tesla’s market cap could be as high as $25 trillion eventually.
And Tesls is mulling a merger with SpaceX and/or xAI, according to Bloomberg. No final decisions yet, but this decision could make Tesla a mega-mega cap company. Key detail: if this merger goes through, xAI private investors will get to profit and cash out on their shares before OpenAI or Anthropic investors do in their IPOs, putting xAI squarely ahead of them in the foundation model race.
And here’s a wild thought: if the merger goes through, original Twitter shareholders might end up profiting from an insane cascade of acquisitions. “Twitter equity effectively morphed into xAI exposure, which now has a clean path into SpaceX” (see the full Signull breakdown here →)
President Trump announced his nomination for Fed Chair: Kevin Warsh, who will likely maintain Fed independence, seems to like Bitcoin, and “has the respect and credibility of the financial markets,” according to The Bahnsen Group’s Chief Investment Officer David Bahnsen.
GameStop (GME) CEO Ryan Cohen shared plans to build his company from $11 billion to $100 billion in market cap. The roadmap? Acquiring a “big” publicly traded company in a very risky move that Cohen himself said would either be “genius or totally, totally foolish.” We don’t know what the company is, but we do know that Michael Burry of The Big Short fame is bullish on GME currently.
OpenAI announced plans for an IPO in Q4 of 2026. The company is apparently growing its finance team in anticipation of the move.
Gold spiked past $5,600 before pulling back to hover near $5,400. It just keeps breaking through to new all-time highs again and again. Silver topped $120. The rally has analysts spooked: "The continued surge across metals is entering a dangerous phase," said Saxo Bank's Ole Hansen. Gold is up roughly 20% year to date as the dollar slides. Also, relevant:
The Fed held rates steady on Wednesday. Markets are pricing in two quarter-point cuts by year-end, but President Trump's pick for the next Fed chair (due by May) could shake things up.
The government shutdown has likely been averted. President Trump and Democrats struck a deal to hopefully keep the lights on.
🤖 AI/Future/Tech News
Google’s new Project Genie lets you generate interactive worlds (basically, you can create your own open video game world).
Microsoft's Maia 200 chip outperforms Amazon's Trainium and Google's TPUs on inference, but Nadella said they'll keep buying from Nvidia and AMD anyway.
OpenAI's Sora downloads plunged 45% in January to 1.2 million, dropping from No. 1 to No. 101 on the App Store.
Music publishers are suing Anthropic for $3 billion over 20,000 pirated songs, naming CEO Dario Amodei personally.
🪙 Crypto
Coinbase is directly integrating Jupiter Exchange into itself, meaning that users will be able to trade millions of Solana tokens.
Democrats tried to add amendments banning public officials from crypto ventures, citing President Trump family profits. All were rejected.
🤫 Insider Trading
🎤 What do you think?
What will Tesla's market cap be closest to in 10 years? (Currently $1.3 trillion)
🎤️ What you said last time
🎪 Crowdfunding Showcase
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With existing retail distribution, major grocery partnerships, and growing revenues in a large beverage market, Asarasi is raising on Wefunder via a convertible note at a $13.5M valuation cap to accelerate product distribution, expand its lineup, and scale operations.
🧠 The Missing (Market) Links
Rap artist Nicki Minaj has pledged $150-300k in support for Trump accounts.
An Indonesian stock exchange CEO just resigned after an $84 billion market wipe out.
The Trump family is suing the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department for $10 billion over alleged leaking of their tax information
Starter homes under $300K have vanished in 42 US markets, NYC and LA have 7,700 listings, but fewer than 70 under that price.
US homicides dropped 21% in 2025 and 44% from 2021, potentially the lowest rate in over a century.
Jobless claims fell to 209,000, the lowest since September 2024.
Smithfield is buying Nathan's Famous for $450 million; they already had the hot dog license through 2032.
America may have hit peak pizza: pizzerias are now outnumbered by coffee shops and Mexican joints.
A $500 steak dinner yields just $25 profit; beef prices have restaurants in "code red."
📜 Quote of the Day
The biggest risk of all is not taking one
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Brandon & Blake of Invested Inc
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