■ TOP STORY

SOFTBANK BOOKS $11.6B PROFIT ON $25B OPENAI STAKE GAIN

SoftBank's Q4 net income surged 3x to $11.6 billion, vastly exceeding analyst expectations of $1.5 billion, driven primarily by a $25 billion unrealized gain on its OpenAI investment. The company plans to increase its total OpenAI investment to $64.6 billion by October.

► WHY IT MATTERS: SoftBank's massive OpenAI bet signals institutional conviction in AI's near-term value realization, while positioning Japan's largest conglomerate as a key financial backer of the most commercially viable AI platform.

VERCEL CONFIRMS SECURITY BREACH, DATA FOR SALE

Cloud development platform Vercel disclosed unauthorized access to internal systems after threat actors using the ShinyHunters handle claimed a breach on BreachForums. The incident exposes vulnerability in a platform trusted by thousands of developers.

► A breach at a core developer infrastructure provider threatens the supply chain security of countless applications and services built on Vercel's platform.

OPENAI DELAYS GPT-5.6 RELEASE AT TRUMP'S REQUEST

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that the company will stagger the release of GPT-5.6 following a request from the Trump administration citing security concerns. The phased approach comes after direct government intervention.

► Government-level intervention in AI model releases sets a precedent for state-level control over commercial AI deployment and signals deepening policy debates around large model security.

APPLE HIKES MAC, IPAD PRICES BY HUNDREDS

Apple is increasing prices across MacBooks, iPads, and Mac Studio devices due to memory and storage shortages. The M3 Ultra Mac Studio jumps $1,300 to $5,299, while MacBook Neo starts at $699 instead of $599.

► Apple's price hikes reflect sustained component constraints passing directly to consumers and signal that supply-side inflation will persist longer than previously anticipated.

ANDURIL HITS $61B VALUATION ON DEFENSE TECH

Defense technology company Anduril Industries raised $5 billion in a funding round led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, reaching a $61 billion valuation. The round reflects investor appetite for autonomous defense systems.

► Massive capital flowing to AI-enabled defense startups accelerates the militarization of autonomous systems and signals the emergence of a new high-capital defense-tech sector.