On February 8, 2026, the autonomous AI agent Owockibot was taken offline after it exposed the private keys to its hot wallet, leading to losses of around $2,100. The bot, created by the Gitcoin team and funded with a small crypto treasury, had been granted both internet access and on-chain control before the incident. Soon after its launch, the Owockibot token traded on Uniswap V4 via the Base network but quickly slumped to new lows, raising concerns that AI-powered, tokenized agents can still create significant risks for users.

In a post on X, Elon Musk said SpaceX is prioritizing a self‑growing lunar city, arguing it could be achieved in less than 10 years, while a Mars city would take over 20. He cited the Moon’s faster cadence—launches every 10 days and a two‑day transit—as key to quicker iteration. NASA said the SpaceX Crew‑12 ISS launch is planned for no earlier than 6:01 a.m. EST on Wednesday, February 11.

In a snap poll conducted by the University of Chicago’s Clark Center with the Financial Times, nearly 60% of leading economists said artificial intelligence is unlikely to reduce inflation or borrowing costs meaningfully over the next two years. Their view contradicts Kevin Warsh, Donald Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, who argues AI-driven productivity will justify cutting rates from the current 3.5%–3.75% range without rekindling inflation. Many respondents also flagged tensions around Warsh’s push to shrink the Fed’s balance sheet further and his support for bank deregulation.

Waymo's onboard software lead argued robotaxis must exceed human-level safety, rejecting Tesla's camera-only approach. Following a Jan 29 ScaledML appearance by Tesla's AI chief, Waymo contrasted its 29-camera, 5-lidar, 6-radar setup and referenced an independent 200 million-mile audit indicating fewer serious crashes than human drivers.

Samsung Electronics plans to begin shipping HBM4 later this month, with initial batches scheduled after the Lunar New Year, according to industry sources. Shipments to Nvidia could start in the third week of February, and the memory is expected to power the Vera Rubin accelerators at GTC 2026. Samsung targets 11.7 Gbps speeds and up to 3 TB/s bandwidth per stack.

Since late 2024, Chinese national and local authorities have assembled over $26 billion in funds for humanoid robotics and related AI, while more than 140 companies, concentrated in Shenzhen and Suzhou, are now producing these machines. Analysts expect Chinese firms to ship up to 100,000 humanoid units in 2026 after securing over $300 million in orders in the second half of 2025, even as the U.S. retains an edge in core AI models but depends on Chinese manufacturing. This state-backed manufacturing head start, including subsidies like free land and purchase incentives, is raising concern among American policymakers and industry leaders such as Elon Musk about China's long-term dominance in embodied AI.

Anthropic rapidly became the week's strongest tech stock performer after releasing new Claude tools that automate coding, legal work, and complex business tasks. The launch triggered a sharp selloff across software, legal, financial, and real estate tech stocks, as investors reassessed the risk to enterprise platforms. Anthropic's enterprise-focused strategy, high API usage share, and internal target to break even by 2028 are now positioning it as a leading rival to OpenAI.

MultiversX has integrated Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, allowing AI agents to access and operate crypto wallets directly on its blockchain. Through this setup, software agents can check balances, validate conditions and execute on-chain transactions without human intervention. The move positions the network as infrastructure for autonomous economic activity and advances machine-to-machine payments on public blockchains.