Elon needs capital 💰, Nvidia OpenAI deal stalls 📉, tech loyalty is dead 💼

Elon Musk's companies are trending towards convergence. SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla as well as xAI ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

Sign Up |Advertise|View Online TLDR Together With TLDR 2026-02-02 AI for when it is rocket science (Sponsor) AI still fails at complex, specialized work. Sure, it can draft emails — but does anyone really trust it to review overnight hot-fire test results or answer advanced technical questions? Contextual AI built Agent Composer specifically for complex tasks. Here's what it's already done: An advanced manufacturer reduced root-cause analysis from 8 hours to 20 minutes by automating sensor data parsing and log correlation. A tech-enabled 3PL provider achieved 60x faster issue resolution by diagnosing problems across WMS logs and supplier APIs. A test equipment maker generated test code in minutes instead of days by translating procedures into control logic. Get up to $50 in credit and start building 📱 Big Tech & Startups Elon Musk's Relentless AI Pursuit Has Him on the Hunt for Capital (13 minute read) Elon Musk's companies are trending towards convergence. SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla as well as xAI. A tie-up would consolidate cash flow while bringing together capabilities in energy, manufacturing, satellite production, and rocket launches under one roof. xAI is currently burning around $1 billion a month, forcing Musk to further blur corporate boundaries, pool capital, and rethink whether largely independent moonshots should stay separate. The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice (5 minute read) A plan for Nvidia to invest $100 billion into OpenAI, announced last September, has stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed doubts about the deal. Nvidia plans to push ahead with a separate large investment in OpenAI that will amount to $100 billion from multiple partners. The original $100 billion agreement was nonbinding and not finalized. OpenAI is laying the foundation to go public by the end of 2026 - the stalled pact is a blow to this effort. 🚀 Science & Futuristic Technology Blue Origin shutters New Shepard rocket program to focus on moon lander development (2 minute read) Blue Origin is pausing flights of its New Shepard rocket for at least two years to focus on efforts to build a moon lander for NASA. The company has a $3.6 billion contract with NASA to build a lunar lander to send US astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade. New Shepard has launched dozens of paying passengers and research experiments towards the edge of space since 2021. It was Blue Origin's first rocket, debuting back in 2015. SpaceX Eyes 1 Million Satellites for Orbital Data Center Push (3 minute read) SpaceX has filed a request with the FCC to launch up to one million satellites to create a network of orbiting data centers around Earth. The company's Orbital Data Center system would deliver the compute capacity required for large-scale AI inference and data center applications for billions of users. They will be solar-powered and use optical links to connect to Starlink. The filing claims that orbital data centers are the most efficient way to meet the accelerating demand for AI computing power. 💻 Programming, Design & Data Science The new Agent Composer brings AI to expert-level engineering work (Sponsor) Most AI tools lack the context to help with high-complexity tasks such as root cause analysis. Agent Composer by Contextual AI is built for high-stakes environments like: semiconductors, aerospace, logistics, and finance. Early adopters are using it to compress hours of complex engineering work into minutes. Want to see how? Join launch event on February 5. Code is cheap. Show me the talk (23 minute read) Large language model coding tools have fundamentally changed software development. Reading and critically evaluating code has become more important than learning syntax and typing it out line by line. Developers who can imagine, articulate, define problem statements, architect, and engineer have a massive advantage over those who can't, now more disproportionately than ever. Knowledge of specific language, syntax, and frameworks is no longer a bottleneck. Developers now need good critical thinking and foundational human skills, and competence to run the machinery. How X Decides What 550 Million Users See (10 minute read) X recently open-sourced its algorithm. This post dissects the code to find out how it works. The algorithm tries to maximize positive engagement and minimize negative engagement while prioritizing quality over quantity. Controversial content persists despite penalties because volume overwhelms penalty. Rage bait works when the engaged audience vastly outnumbers the offended minority. Early engagement matters because of feedback loops, not because of any multiplier for fast likes. 🎁 Miscellaneous Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet right now (7 minute read) OpenClaw is an open-source implementation of a digital personal assistant pattern. Moltbook is a social network where these digital assistants can talk to each other. These agents have been used to buy cars by negotiating with multiple dealers over email, understand voice messages by using multiple tools, and more. The demand for these tools is clearly here, but the security challenges still remain. Loyalty Is Dead In Tech (3 minute read) It used to be that early employees who took the risk along with the founders shared the outcome. That is no longer the case, with founders leaving companies and employees in acquihires that license the technology and abandon the rest. Employees are starting to learn that a 'mission' is just a recruiting pitch. There are still some founders who would rather go slower than abandon the people who believed in them - finding them has never mattered more. ⚡ Quick Links Runable: AI Suite for Everyone (Sponsor) Stop juggling tools. Runable 2.0 creates finished slides, websites, reports, and videos – all from one prompt. Edit sections without burning credits. 300,000 users joined last month. Start creating Inside China's Real Advantage: Manufacturing at Scale (17 minute read) This post looks at how China manufactures at scale, how new energy moves through factories and supply chains, and what execution looks like on the ground. Banker claims Oracle may slash up to 30,000 jobs, sell health unit to pay for AI build-out (2 minute read) Equity and debt investors are increasingly questioning how Oracle will finance its $300 billion, five-year contract with OpenAI. The Crypto CEO Who's Become Enemy No. 1 on Wall Street (13 minute read) Brian Armstrong, head of Coinbase and a powerful voice in industry debates, has attracted a lot of criticism from leaders in traditional finance. AI After Drug Development (28 minute read) If AI could help lower drug failure rates, it would make it far more economical for pharmaceutical companies to take more shots. In Praise of –dry-run (3 minute read) Dry runs let users see what happens if commands are run without making any changes. The AI Boom Is Coming for Apple's Profit Margins (4 minute read) Apple is seeing constraints in its chip supplies, and memory prices are increasing significantly. Love TLDR? Tell your friends and get rewards! Share your referral link below with friends to get free TLDR swag! https://refer.tldr.tech/7c97ce4b/ Track your referrals here. 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