Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The Ethereum Foundation declared a strategic reorganization on February 17, 2026, formally treating Ethereum as a unified “platform” spanning its base layer and the rollup networks built on top of it. The announcement comes as new academic research has examined low-cost attack vectors against the rollup systems Ethereum increasingly relies on for scaling, and as…
Toyota is pumping $1.3 billion into its Georgetown, Kentucky factory to build a new electric SUV and assemble battery packs, even as Ford and General Motors pull back on their own EV timelines. The investment signals that the world’s largest automaker by volume is betting on a blended strategy of hybrids and battery-electric vehicles while…
Runaway demand for artificial intelligence hardware is draining the global memory chip supply and driving up the cost of smartphones, laptops, and other personal electronics. Contract prices for conventional DRAM are set to jump 90 to 95 percent quarter-over-quarter in the first quarter of 2026, while NAND flash is forecast to rise 55 to 60…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused fellow tech leaders of using artificial intelligence as a convenient excuse to justify workforce cuts that have nothing to do with the technology. Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit in February 2026, Altman told CNBC-TV18 that companies are engaged in “some AI washing” by blaming AI for layoffs they…
Amazon just committed roughly $200 billion in capital spending for 2026, a bet so large it spooked investors even as the company posted strong holiday-quarter results. That figure lands against a backdrop of surging global demand for data center capacity, with one research firm projecting the sector could top $650 billion in spending this year…
The Supreme Court’s decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump stripped the White House of one tariff tool, but President Trump responded within hours by announcing a 15 percent global tariff rate using alternative legal authorities. For Michigan, home to the densest concentration of auto manufacturing and parts suppliers in North America, the rapid policy…
OpenAI is telling prospective investors it expects to spend roughly $600 billion on compute infrastructure and generate $280 billion in annual revenue by 2030, according to recent reporting, as the company closes in on a funding round that could exceed $100 billion. The projections, shared during investor briefings, arrive alongside a major restructuring of the…
The UK government has scrapped a £950 million electric vehicle rapid charging fund originally announced by the Conservatives, replacing it with £400 million spread over five years. The decision comes as industry groups warn that planning bottlenecks at British ports are delaying infrastructure needed to meet net zero targets. Taken together, the reduced funding and…
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s fiscal year 2027 preliminary budget for New York City includes a proposed 9.5% property tax rate increase, a move that would hit more than three million homes and over 100,000 commercial buildings. The plan has drawn sharp criticism from residents and political figures who say it contradicts the mayor’s campaign pledges to…
Robert Kiyosaki, the financial author behind “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” is betting big on Bitcoin and predicting it will reach $250,000, a price level he believes will cement the cryptocurrency’s dominance over gold as a store of value. At the same time, he forecasts gold will climb to $27,000 per ounce, a target he credits…
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