Internet

• Amazon plans first big-box retail store in Chicago suburb - Amazon has submitted plans for a large-format store near Chicago that would be larger than a Walmart Supercenter.
• OpenAI and SoftBank announce $1 billion investment in SB Energy as part of massive AI buildout - OpenAI and SoftBank agreed to invest $1 billion into a SoftBank-backed energy provider as the companies prepare for a massive buildout of AI data centers.
• Meta signs nuclear energy deals to power Prometheus AI supercluster - Meta said it secured agreements with energy companies Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo, which are all working on nuclear power technologies.
• AMD's Lisa Su says AI isn't replacing people, but is changing who they hire - AMD CEO Lisa Su said AI has not slowed the pace of hiring at the company.
• Memory chip giants spark global semiconductor rally as shortages stoke price hikes - Memory giants Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung have led a rally in semiconductor stocks this year.
• Elon Musk's Starlink offers free internet access in Venezuela following U.S. airstrikes and Maduro’s arrest - SpaceX's Starlink is offering free broadband internet service to the people of Venezuela through Feb. 3, amid the fallout of a U.S. military operation in the country.
• Elon Musk envisions humanoid robots everywhere. China may be the first to make it a reality - China has made the development of humanoid robots a strategic priority in its tech battle with the U.S.
• Amazon faces 'leader's dilemma' — fight AI shopping bots or join them - Agents like OpenAI's Instant Checkout and Perplexity's Instant Buy threaten to reshape the e-commerce landscape.
• Waymo will update driverless fleet after San Francisco blackout to improve navigation during outages - Three days after blackouts in San Francisco brought down Waymo's service, the company said it's implementing changes for when "infrastructure fails."
• Google was at risk of losing its dominance — until it promoted this AI executive - Josh Woodward, a 16-year Google veteran, is tasked with running the Gemini app and going head-to-head with OpenAI in the booming generative AI market.