Kim Kahn

After a manager highlighted that Google's Gemini had improved at connecting to Google Drive and summarizing photos, Nadella shot back that Microsoft's tools for connecting Copilot to Gmail and Outlook for the most part don't really work and are not smart.

The tone echoes other AI leaders like Sam Altman sounding the alarm as LLMs improve, raising the question, have the CEOs thought of handing their duties over to AI yet?

Meanwhile, on the street, Wedbush's Dan Ives says Microsoft is poised to surprise with AI growth.

He argues investors are underestimating the Azure story and the AI-driven shift about to hit Redmond heading into 2026, calling Microsoft one of his favorite large-cap tech names over the coming years as it sits in the sweet spot of enterprise AI deployments.

Among active stocks, Larry Ellison is putting his money where Paramount's merger bid is.

Paramount Skydance is in focus after revealing that the Oracle founder had provided an irrevocable personal guarantee for $40.4 billion in equity as part of its $30 per share bid for Warner Bros.

Discovery.

The backing is aimed at easing Warner's concerns over the David Ellison-led group's financing.

Instacart is ending its algorithmic pricing system following a Consumer Reports investigation and advocacy group criticism.

The report found some grocery prices on the platform differed by as much as 23% per item between customers.

And Nvidia is reportedly preparing to start shipping its H200 GPUs to China by mid-February.

Reuters says shipments could begin before the Lunar New Year and may total 5,000 to 10,000 modules.

In other news of note, Cuba's deepening economic crisis is at risk of tipping into outright breakdown, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The country is already facing severe food shortages, long blackouts, rising disease, and mass emigration, with more than a quarter of the population leaving since 2020.

Now, U.S.

efforts to clamp down on Venezuelan oil exports through tanker seizures and enforcement actions risk cutting off a key fuel lifeline for Cuba's power plants, transport network, and fragile private sector, raising the stakes for an economy already on the brink.

And in the Wall Street Research Corner, TS Lombard economists-slash-comedians Dario Perkins and Alexandros Xenophontos are out with their annual anti-prediction note, things that won't happen in 2026.

among the non-forecasts, a Fed version of the traders, and a full K-shaped economy implosion.

But the standout is the rise of the digital god.

They write that the AI capex splurge keeps going into 2026 until it reaches 293% of US GDP.