Strap in, Tech Insiders.
Elon's trillion-dollar space-AI mash-up is rewriting the launch pad, while no-code devs outsource their keyboards and malware authors get uncomfortably creative. Grab your coffee; gravity's optional from here on out. |
|
|
Here's what you need to know today: |
|
|
SpaceX-xAI Mega Merger Shoots for Trillion-Dollar Orbit |
I guess if you want a moonshot, it helps to own both the rocket and the GPU budget.
SpaceX just bought Elon Musk's other moonshot, xAI, in the largest merger ever by overall valuation. The all-stock, $1.25 trillion deal values the rocket maker at $1 trillion and the AI lab at $250 billion, converting xAI stock into SpaceX shares at a 0.1433-to-1 ratio.
The new juggernaut plans to loft orbital data centers, a constellation of up to one million solar-powered satellites. By launching a million tons of hardware annually, SpaceX aims to add 100 gigawatts of compute where the sun always shines and cooling bills are zero.
|
Image created with Nano Banana Pro |
Musk says space compute will beat Earth on cost within three years and filed a formal request with the FCC last Friday to launch the swarm.
But Google's "Project Suncatcher" is already racing to put its own TPUs in orbit, and the cosmic vision still faces technical "gravity wells"—from radiators larger than tennis courts to the $1 billion-a-month burn rate incinerating xAI's cash.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has temporarily paused Falcon 9 flights after an "off-nominal" second-stage event on Monday, just as the Department of War (the DoD) launched a pilot program putting Grok into military workflows.
Why it matters: If successful, Musk won't just dominate launch; he'll own a vertically integrated "infrastructure of intelligence" that ground-bound rivals can't touch. By absorbing xAI and its real-time X data feed, Musk is attempting a celestial land grab. If it fizzles, investors may discover that in space, no one hears your cap table scream. |
|
|
If SpaceX-xAI hits the stock market, what's your move? |
|
|
Results from Yesterday's Pulse Check |
Would you let an AI agent post publicly under your name? |
|
|
AI Labs Declare 'No-Code' Coding Era |
Turns out the hottest IDE in 2026 is a prompt. Engineers at Anthropic and OpenAI say they have virtually stopped hand-coding altogether. Claude Code and GPT models now generate the vast majority of the code that ships to production.
Anthropic's Boris Cherny recently pushed 22 pull requests (PRs) in a day, each one entirely model-written, while OpenAI's pseudonymous researcher Roon shrugged, "I don't write code anymore."
To prove the point, Cherny's team built "Cowork," a new file management app, from scratch in just 10 days. |
Image created with ChatGPT |
Across Anthropic, company-wide output is already 70%–90% AI-authored, and CEO Dario Amodei told Davos last month that the rest of the industry is just 6–12 months from the same keyboard-free workflow.
The teams even task models with self-reviewing PRs (using tools like claude -p) to trim "slop," such as dead code and over-complicated logic.
Then there's the hiring ripple. Instead of polyglot specialists, teams now prize adaptable generalists who can steer LLM architecture and sanity check its output. Entry-level dev postings are thinning, and Microsoft and Salesforce admit roughly 30% of their own code is already being generated by AI assistants.
This shift suggests that if AI writes the boilerplate, human devs might finally focus on product vision—assuming they still have a seat at the stand-up. On the bright side, your rubber duck just got a promotion. It talks back now. |
|
|
🤖 Shape Trusted AI With Data Leaders
Today, we're bringing you a special offer from our partner, DataDriven26, taking place Feb. 23–25 in Orlando, FL. Grab your spot before it's too late.
💼 Hire Faster With Top ATS Picks
The Best Applicant Tracking Systems roundup compares Zoho Recruit, BambooHR, Recruit CRM, and more, so you can automate hiring, cut manual work, and lock in great talent sooner.
🤖 Hire a Vision Pro, Minus the Guesswork
The Computer Vision Engineer Hiring Kit packs a job spec, interview Qs, and advert template—saving you 20 hours of recruiting legwork.
💻 This section contains sponsored tech insights. Advertise with us! |
|
|
Rethinking ITSM for Scale and Speed |
ITSM complexity can slow teams down and limit visibility. Join Complexity to Clarity: ITSM Customer That Switched on Feb. 11 at 1:00 p.m. ET for a live discussion with Freshworks and Ultradent on moving from legacy ITSM to a modern approach.
The session covers implementation challenges, change management, and how teams evaluate ITSM success. |
|
|
GhostChat Spyware Masquerades as Dating App |
A new Android campaign called GhostChat is baiting users in Pakistan with a "VIP" dating app.
The APK is sideloaded, demands broad permissions, then accepts a fake login with hardcoded credentials ("chat/12345") before quietly siphoning device IDs, contacts, and every file it can reach. Google Play Protect now detects known samples, but sideloaded updates can still slip through. |
Image created with ChatGPT |
Cybersecurity firm ESET found 14 locked female profiles—pure theater to trick victims into entering preshared codes.
Behind the scenes, the malware uploads files every five minutes and links to "ClickFix" sites (spoofing PKCERT, Pakistan's national cyber agency) and a GhostPairing QR scam (impersonating the Ministry of Defence) to hijack WhatsApp sessions.
Lock it down: Ban sideloads, keep Play Protect on, audit WhatsApp "Linked Devices," and watch for suspicious outbound traffic to Pakistani-themed domains or unfamiliar Cloudflare-hosted IPs. Swipe left on mystery APKs; your phone deserves better dates. |
ClawHavoc Malware Floods OpenClaw Skill Store |
Koi Security's sweep of ClawHub found 341 booby-trapped skills, 335 of which came from a single coordinated "ClawHavoc" campaign.
Disguised as wallet trackers, YouTube helpers, and the ironic "auto-updater" they tout, they use typosquatting (e.g., clawhubb) to coax users into running ZIPs or shell scripts that land Atomic Stealer (AMOS) malware or a NovaStealer variant on macOS and Windows.
The fake "prerequisites" siphon browser logins, crypto wallets, and the API tokens OpenClaw bots use to hop into Slack, Gmail, and cloud servers.
With 21,000 public OpenClaw instances and a (now-patched) one-click RCE bug (CVE-2026-25253) proving this platform is a bona fide "dumpster fire," fallout spreads quickly.
Stay safe: Use Koi's "Clawdex" scanner, sandbox agents in a VM, store secrets in a manager (not .env files), rotate tokens weekly, and block outbound calls to the known C2 infrastructure mentioned in Koi's report. Remember... if a chatbot asks you to paste a base64 blob into your terminal, the correct response is "talk to the claw." |
UpScrolled Rockets Past 2.5 Million Users |
Founder Issam Hijazi told Web Summit Qatar that UpScrolled will never "sell your data" and will keep feeds strictly chronological, specifically promising an end to the "shadowbans" of pro-Palestinian content he claims Big Tech suppresses.
Hijazi even boasted that he doesn't need "Silicon Valley money" to scale.
The flip side of this unfiltered pitch is that a flood of NSFW imagery and the sort of hateful or explicit posts rivals usually suppress has already arrived. Hijazi is now scrambling to hire a moderation team and draft looser-than-Meta community rules before regulators or advertisers completely get the jitters.
UpScrolled's surge echoes earlier migrations to Mastodon and Threads, but sustaining momentum will require more than just a TikTok technical meltdown.
Competing newcomer Skylight just topped 400,000 users, and ByteDance still retains nearly 20% of TikTok US. If UpScrolled can tame the chaos without becoming a total toxic wasteland, it could graduate from protest download to permanent home.
Guess freedom feels great... until Aunt Linda stumbles into an NSFW feed while looking for sourdough recipes. |
|
|
|
Writer at TechnologyAdvice |
Justin Meyers is an investigative writer and editor who draws on over a decade of meticulous hands-on research to deliver the full, trustworthy story behind consumer and enterprise tech, including cybersecurity. |
|
|
Curious about where AI is really headed? |
The Neuron cuts through the noise to bring you smart, hype-free takes on the latest AI trends, tools, and breakthroughs. Join 500,000+ professionals from top companies like Microsoft, Apple, Salesforce and more.
|
|
|
Advertise in Daily Tech Insider! Daily Tech Insider is a TechnologyAdvice business.
© 2026 TechnologyAdvice, LLC. All rights reserved. TechnologyAdvice, 3343 Perimeter Hill Dr., Suite 215, Nashville, TN 37211, USA. |
|
|
|
