Bulletin: NBC News Anchor Savannah Guthrie and Family Issue Video Appeal to Kidnappers to Return 84 Year Old Mother (NBC News)

In a tearful video posted Wednesday on Instagram, NBC News co-anchor Savannah Guthrie pleaded for more information from her 84-year-old mother Nancy’s possible kidnapper, saying her family is “ready to talk.”

Savannah — reading from prepared remarks, speaking directly to a camera and seated alongside her two siblings — said her family was aware of reports about a ransom letter sent to at least two media outlets. “We are doing everything we can,” she said.

Watch the video here.
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AI Hits the Markets

Trillion-Dollar Tech Wipeout Ensnares All Stocks in AI’s Path (Bloomberg)

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There have been many AI-driven selloffs in the three years since ChatGPT burst into the mainstream. Nothing, though, quite rivals the rout rippling through stock and credit markets this week.

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For one, there’s the sheer speed and breadth of it. In the span of two days, hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the value of stocks, bonds and loans of companies big and small across Silicon Valley. Software stocks were at the epicenter, plunging so much that the value of those tracked in an iShares ETF has now dropped almost $1 trillion over the past seven days.

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For another, this drubbing, unlike many previous ones, was triggered not by fears of a bubble but rather concern that AI is on the verge of supplanting the business models of a wide swathe of companies that doomsayers have long predicted were at risk.

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“I don’t think it is an overreaction,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at Jonestrading. “For two years, we have been talking about how AI is going to change the world and that it is a multi-generational technology. In the past few weeks, we have seen signs of it in practice."

Tech Engine: Alphabet Plans Record Spending in Race to Win AI Customers (Bloomberg)

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Alphabet Inc. topped projections for quarterly revenue and outlined an ambitious capital spending plan, far surpassing predictions, leveraging its growth to build out the data centers and infrastructure needed to lead in the AI age.

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Google’s parent company said capital expenditures will reach as much as $185 billion this year, compared with the $119.5 billion analysts expected.

Georgia Fights Back

Ballots in Custody: Georgia County Sues to Reclaim FBI-Seized 2020 Voting Records (Bloomberg)
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The recent FBI raid of a Georgia county election office is a precursor to battles ahead as President Trump’s administration steps up efforts to obtain sensitive voter information from states.

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The effort has set up legal showdowns with 24 states and Washington, DC, with the Justice Department suing them for refusing to turn over voter data. The administration has also sued Fulton County, Georgia, seeking records from the 2020 election, as part of a broader push tied to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the contest was mired by fraud that led to his defeat.

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Fulton County responded on Wednesday by filing suit in Atlanta federal court, demanding that the federal government return ballots and other election materials from the 2020 presidential contest that the F.B.I. seized last week, the New York Times reported.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the county’s elections center near Atlanta on Jan. 28. The US Justice Department said it had obtained a grand jury subpoena to seize the records as part of a criminal investigation.

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Among those present during the raid was Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. The Trump administration defended her involvement, saying she is working with other agencies to protect the security and integrity of US elections.

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The New York Times also reported that Gabbard met with F.B.I. field agents the day after the Fulton County search and called Trump, allowing the president to speak on speakerphone with agents involved in the investigation.

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Interference Fears: Trump’s Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections Adds to State Officials’ Alarm (New York Times)

As Trump has escalated efforts to involve the administration in election and voting matters while also eliminating programs designed to fortify these systems against attacks, secretaries of state and other top state election officials, including some Republican ones, have begun to sound alarms.

They point to Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, his continued false claims that the contest was rigged, the presence of election deniers in influential government positions and his administration’s attempts to dig up evidence of widespread voter fraud that year, even though none have ever been found.

The worry, these election officials say, is that Trump and his allies might try to interfere in or cast doubt on this year’s midterm elections. The president is urgently trying to defend the Republican majorities in Congress, and the political environment has appeared to grow less friendly to his party.

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What I'm Reading

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Blue Lines Hold: Supreme Court Allows New California Voting Map for Midterms (Bloomberg)
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The US Supreme Court cleared California to use its new congressional map that favors Democrats during this year’s midterm elections, giving the party a pathway to neutralize anticipated Republican gains in the House due to new districts in Texas.
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The justices on Wednesday denied a request from the California Republican Party and the US Department of Justice to prevent the state from using its new voter-approved map on the grounds that it was racially gerrymandered and therefore illegal. California leaders have maintained that the new map was drawn purely to counteract the Republican redistricting in Texas and that race was not a factor.

Pullback in Minnesota: DHS to Withdraw 700 Federal Agents From Minneapolis, Tom Homan Says (Bloomberg)

The Department of Homeland Security will immediately pull 700 officers from Minneapolis amid efforts to ease tensions after federal agents killed two US citizens, White House border czar Tom Homan said.

About 2,000 federal immigration agents will remain in Minnesota, down from the surge but well above the roughly 150 officers typically assigned to the state, Homan said.

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Diplomacy Test: Russia and Ukraine Resume Talks After a Huge Attack by Moscow (New York Times)
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The second round of peace talks among Russian, Ukrainian and American officials began on Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates, following another huge Russian attack on Ukraine’s power grid early Tuesday.
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Negotiators spent about five and a half hours behind closed doors, and a Ukrainian official said the talks would resume today. While officials did not publicly say what was discussed, the delegations had been expected to talk about the two main sticking points in reaching a peace deal: the fate of Ukrainian-controlled territory in the east that Russia wants, and how Ukraine’s security would be guaranteed if Russia again attacks.

Fragile Channels: Iran and the US Will Hold Nuclear Talks Friday in Oman as Tensions Remain High (Associated Press)

China on the Line: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping Discuss Ukraine and Trade Ahead of US State Visit to Beijing (Financial Times)

Donald Trump said he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the Ukraine war, Taiwan and other issues, in a call that came two months before the Chinese leader is expected to welcome the US president on a state visit to Beijing.

New in Streaming: Bloomberg’s New Video Hub Aims to Keep Audiences – And Subscribers – On its Own Turf (Digiday)
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Bloomberg has launched a new premium global video experience, creating a single destination for its live and on-demand video and audio content across its website and app.

Available today on Bloomberg.com and via the new Stream tab in the Bloomberg app, the hub brings together more than two million hours of Bloomberg TV, Originals, short-form clips, podcasts, and series in one place, making content easier to discover and watch.

Internal Bailout: SpaceX Merger Provides Lifeline for Elon Musk’s Debt-Ridden AI Startup (Bloomberg)

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Shrinking the Post: Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists (Bloomberg)

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The Washington Post told employees on Wednesday that it was beginning a widespread round of layoffs that are expected to decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage.

The company is laying off about 30% of all its employees. That includes people on the business side and more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom, the people said.

Democracy Dies in Darkness: How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post (The New Yorker)

Fallout: Brad Karp Steps Down as Paul Weiss Chairman After Epstein Emails (Bloomberg)

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Gateway to Court: New York and New Jersey Sue Administration for Withholding Gateway Tunnel Funding (Wall Street Journal)
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New York and New Jersey sued the Trump administration Tuesday for withholding federal funding for a new $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
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The project manager overseeing construction of the Hudson Tunnel Project said last month that it was stopping all work on the project after losing funding. The Trump administration froze funds in October while it reviewed whether the project included any diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

As Mike Bloomberg warned in a recent op-ed, “we can’t afford any more delays.” He noted that the commission’s head has cautioned construction could be halted by Feb. 6 — despite more than $1 billion already spent — calling any pause “a terrible waste of taxpayer money.”

NY Governor Ticket: Kathy Hochul Taps Former City Council Speaker as Running Mate (Bloomberg)

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has tapped former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to run as her lieutenant governor, after her former running mate chose to challenge her for the Democratic nomination.

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🔊 New Episode Alert: The Daily Read Podcast is live with an AI-fueled breakdown of today’s biggest headlines. Smarter context, sharper analysis—stream it now on Spotify or  Apple Podcasts.

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Spain Unplugs: Prime Minister Sánchez Targets the “Digital Wild West” With Under-16 Social Media Ban (Financial Times)

Driverless Goes Global: Uber to Launch Robotaxi Services in Hong Kong, Madrid, Houston, and Zurich (Bloomberg)
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Uber will expand its robotaxi services to include Hong Kong and Madrid as the ride-hailing giant pours hundreds of millions of dollars into the emerging industry.
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Robotaxis will also be launched in Houston and Zurich, according to an earnings presentation Wednesday. Hong Kong will be Uber’s first robotaxi market in Asia.
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Uber plans to make driverless cars one of its key growth areas and aims to offer driverless vehicles in more than 10 markets globally by the end of 2026.

Ads Enter the AI Race: Anthropic Takes Aim at OpenAI’s ChatGPT in Super Bowl Ad Debut (Wall Street Journal)

The AI-chatbot marketing wars are kicking into high gear as Anthropic, the startup behind Claude, takes aim at rival OpenAI in its Super Bowl advertising debut. Watch the ad clip here, or by clicking the photo below. 

Though OpenAI isn’t named, the ad is a clear jab at that company, which recently announced it would bring ads to ChatGPT. OpenAI is also airing its own Super Bowl ad.

Last year, tech companies—including Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Perplexity—collectively spent $333.6 million on broadcast TV ads for their AI offerings in the US. This year, thirty seconds of Super Bowl ad time costs more than $8 million.

Must-See Art in the UK: Mark Manders’s Sculptures at the London Mithraeum Possess a Fragile Authority (Frieze)
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A new site-specific commission by acclaimed Dutch artist Mark Manders has opened at the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE—a contemporary gallery set directly above the ancient Roman Temple of Mithras, beneath Bloomberg’s London headquarters. Discovered during construction of the building, the 3rd-century temple is now a unique public cultural site where archaeology and contemporary art meet.
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The exhibition, Room with All Existing Words, transforms the gallery into a striking dialogue between ancient history and Manders’ timeless sculptural language. Featuring three new works, the installation reflects Manders’ practice of being a “writer with objects,” visualizing the way language, memory, and thought take shape in the human mind. 

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Already tipped as a must-see by Frieze which describes the exhibition as “conjuring an air of relic and eternity,” the exhibition is free to visit, and reservations can be made here.

Visitors can explore the installation and the wider Mithraeum site via Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app, including an audio guide from the artist, or watch an exclusive interview with Manders on Studio International here, where he discusses time, language, and the origins of his practice.

[Left] Mark Manders, Room with All Existing Words (2026) Credit: Tom van Nuffell
[Right] London Mithraeum. Credit: Getty Images

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Best of Late Night

On Turning Point USA staging an alternative to Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl this Sunday, called The All-American Halftime Show, featuring Kid Rock:

“According to the press release, the show is called ‘The All-American Halftime Show,’ in a font that is called ‘T-Shirt on a Quiet, Angry Dad at Disney World.’”
-- Stephen Colbert

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“We’ve got Gabby Barrett, Brantley Gilbert, Garby Billet, Billy Garbet, Breely Grabbers. Bobby Glabert, Gaggy Bobbles, Barnacle Gasperty, Babette Gingletree, Hologram Hulk Hogan, Gregorlee Banklebob, Kid Rock and Kid Rock’s father, Adult Rock.”
-- Michael Kosta

“Now, if you want to attend this alternate halftime show, you can’t. Because it is unclear what venue will host, which I believe is fitting, because Kid Rock is often unclear what venue he’s in.”
-- Stephen Colbert

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“But they have announced the event will be available to stream on the actual real platforms TBN, DW+, Charge and Rumble. Also they’re negotiating to stream on Crunch, Cramble, Hunkle, Krampus and ParamountPlus.” 
-- Stephen Colbert

And from The Daily Show: With Amazon’s $40 million documentary about the first lady premiering at the Trump Kennedy Center, Jordan Klepper ventured to Washington, D.C., where he chatted with attendees about director Brett Ratner’s appearance in the Epstein files, whether the film’s purchase was a bribe, and why THIS is what our country should be focused on right now — not Minneapolis. Click the photo below to watch. 
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