Chomping at the Bitcoin; Anthropic “Ads are coming to AI, but not Claude” and Amazon is Spending HOW MUCH on AI? Design

Big money, big myths, and big strategic pivots dominate today’s headlines. Amazon’s decision to supercharge AI spending has rattled investors and reignited concerns about the true cost of the artificial-intelligence arms race. Bitcoin’s latest slump is forcing a long-overdue reckoning with its once-sacred reputation as a hedge against inflation and fiscal excess. In the AI wars, Anthropic is drawing a bold line against advertising with a Super Bowl ad that subtly pokes OpenAI, while Pizza Hut is quietly retreating at home as competition and outdated stores weigh on its U.S. business. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Markets Around The World

Markets as of 5th February 2026. Cells in RED mean that the value is down, cells in Green mean the value is up.

MAJOR HEADLINES

• Amazon to spend $200 Billion on AI Infrastructure

  
  

Amazon on Thursday projected a surge of more than 50% in capital expenditures this year, joining its peers in a spending spree to build out artificial-intelligence infrastructure, and sending its shares down 11.5% in after-hour s trading.

As the shares sputtered on news that Amazon ​would be pumping $200 billion into boosting its AI efforts in 2026, CEO Andy Jassy struck a defensive tone during the company's call with investors, a contrast to the ‌more self-assured Alphabet executives on Wednesday as Google showed resilience in developing AI software.

"As a reminder," said Jassy, referring to the results of cloud platform Amazon Web Services, "it's very different having 24% year-over-year growth on $142 billion annualized run rate, ‌than to have a higher-percentage growth on a meaningfully smaller base, which is the case with our competitors."

AWS's revenue grew to $35.6 billion in the December quarter, while Google Cloud grew 48% to $17.75 billion. Microsoft's Azure surged 39% in the same period. Amazon's results are the latest sign that Big Tech will not be hitting the brakes any time soon on hefty AI investments. Amazon shares closed down 4.4% during regular trading as worries deepened about the enormous cost of the artificial-intelligence boom. The top four hyperscalers - Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta - are expected to collectively spend more than $630 billion this year. Yahoo.Finance

• Bitcoin’s latest selloff is shattering many of its most enduring myths

  
  

Bitcoin’s latest selloff is shattering many of its most enduring myths. As bitcoin prices press lower, investors and proponents are being forced to confront an uncomfortable reality regarding the nature of the pioneering cryptocurrency. Perhaps the biggest myth that has been busted so far: during its early days, bitcoin was said to be a hedge against fiscal excess, government money-printing, and inflation. Yet bitcoin prices have continued to trend lower since October, even as the U.S. dollar has weakened and worries about unsustainable levels of government debt have been blamed, at least in part, for driving a huge rally in gold. 

The depth and speed of the downturn this year have caught many off guard. Bitcoin has fallen more than 50% from its all-time high reached in late 2025, slipping below key technical levels not seen since late 2024 and entering what analysts are calling a prolonged bear market rather than a typical correction. This decline has triggered large-scale liquidations in derivatives markets, with billions of dollars in leveraged positions unwound as risk appetite evaporated, underscoring that bitcoin now behaves more like a highly speculative financial asset than a store of value insulated from broader market pressure.

Wider macroeconomic forces and shifting investor behavior are adding to the challenge. With real yields rising and liquidity tightening, risk assets across the board from tech stocks to cryptocurrencies have been repriced lower, and institutional demand has waned, with major spot Bitcoin ETFs recording notable outflows. In this environment, many long-held narratives about bitcoin’s role in a diversified portfolio are being questioned as traders rotate into traditional safe havens like gold or defensive positions amid ongoing uncertainty. Marketwatch

• Anthropic's Super Bowl spot skewers ChatGPT: 'Ads are coming to AI, but not to Claude'

  
  

On Wednesday, Anthropic rolled out a glitzy ad campaign that will air nationally during Sunday's Super Bowl, which implicitly centers on OpenAI's plans to bring advertising to ChatGPT. "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude," the tag line reads.

The declaration shows that Anthropic is willing to draw a line in the sand with its no-AI-ads-in-chatbots stance. But the move also means Anthropic is declining to pursue a potentially key revenue stream for Claude at a time when AI companies are spending more than ever in the AI race. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he laughed at the ads, but questioned their "clearly dishonest portrayal" of what OpenAI plans to do. "Our most important principle for ads says that we won't do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them," Altman wrote Wednesday afternoon in a lengthy post on X. "We are not stupid and we know our users would reject that." Altman said that OpenAI would have its own Super Bowl ad. "It's about builders, and how anyone can now build anything," he said. BusinessInsider

• Pizza Hut to Close 250 Stores and Probably find New Owner

  
  

Pizza Hut plans to close 250 U.S. restaurants in the first half of this year as its parent company considers a sale of the chain. Yum Brands said Wednesday it’s targeting underperforming Pizza Hut restaurants in its system. Pizza Hut has more than 6,000 locations in the U.S. Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands said in November it was conducting a formal review of options for Pizza Hut, which has struggled with outdated stores and growing competition. 

The chain’s U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 5% last year, Yum said. Rival Domino's, the world's largest pizza company, hasn't yet released its full-year earnings, but its U.S. same-store sales were up 2.7% in the first nine months of last year. Internationally, Pizza Hut’s results have been stronger. International same-store sales were up 1% last year, with growth in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, Yum said. China is Pizza Hut’s second-largest market outside the U.S., accounting for 19% of sales. Yum CEO Chris Turner said Wednesday that the company plans to complete its review of options for Pizza Hut this year. He declined to share further updates on the process.

 Pizza Hut ended 2025 with 19,974 stores globally, which was 251 fewer than it had the previous year. Pizza Hut opened nearly 1,200 stores across 65 countries last year, but closures outpaced that. Yum said Wednesday that Pizza Hut plans more global openings in 2026 but it didn’t give details. Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas. PepsiCo acquired the chain in 1977 but spun off its restaurant division which became Yum Brands in 1997. Yum Brands also owns KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger &Grill. AbcNews

Minor Headlines

• Oracle’s stock suffers worst eight-day stretch in over two decades Marketwatch

• Software short seller minted $24B in Tuesday's selloff Aiinvest

• Private credit is starting to crack under software threats New York Times

• Coca-Cola to discontinue frozen products in US and Canada Reuters

•  Washington Post begins widespread layoffs, sharply shrinking storied newspaper’s reach CNBC

• Russian oil revenues plunged to a five-year low Bloomberg

• Bank of England hold rates BBC

• SNL (Saturday Night Live) is coming to London BBC