Ray Blanco:

Musk Clips His Mars Settlement Ambition, Aims for the Moon Instead

Elon Musk’s ambition to one day settle Mars appears to have taken a back seat for a rather nearer and more achievable goal – sending humans to live on the Moon.

In a statement on X on Sunday, the billionaire said his company SpaceX has now shifted its priorities to building “a self-growing city on the Moon,” arguing that it could be achieved in less than a decade, compared with more than 20 years for a similar plan on Mars.

“The overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” he said on X Sunday. “It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time).”

It is not immediately clear what Musk meant by a “self-growing city” or whether his plans are in line with a similar lunar plan NASA proposes.

Musk said the company remains committed to building a Mars city, and will begin doing so in about five to seven years. As recently as last May, Musk had said SpaceX was working to land its first uncrewed Starship on Mars as soon as late 2026.

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James Altucher:

AI Takes Over Super Bowl Ads As Tech Firms Spend Millions To Dominate the Big Game

Artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as one of the dominant themes at Super Bowl LXI yesterday, as brands ranging from early-stage startups to some of the world’s largest tech companies spent up to $10 million on 30-second ads.

U.S. vodka brand Svedka ran what it claims is the first “primarily” AI-generated national Super Bowl spot. The ad, titled “Shake Your Bots Off,” featured the firm’s female robot character, Fembot, and her companion, Brobot, dancing at a party with humans.

Other examples of AI-powered commercials included Anthropic marketing its Claude chatbot, OpenAI hyping its products, Meta showcasing its Oakley-branded AI glasses, and Amazon pushing its AI assistant Alexa+.

Workforce management platform Rippling also made its Super Bowl debut with an ad starring Tim Robinson. Startups advertising at the Super Bowl highlight both AI’s deep capital backing and the intensifying competition spanning models, agents, and physical AI.

Meanwhile, down on the field, the Seahawks went on to beat the Patriots 29–13 to claim the second Super Bowl title in franchise history.

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Greg Guenthner:

Crypto Investment Outflows Ease After Three Weeks of Heavy Selling

Crypto investment products logged a third straight week of outflows, though the pace of selling eased markedly as digital asset prices steadied after a sharp downturn.

Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $187 million in outflows during the week, a sharp drop from the $3.43 billion seen over the previous two weeks, CoinShares reported on Monday.

The slowdown came as Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since November 2024, with the price touching $60,000 on Coinbase last Thursday.

“While flows typically move in line with crypto prices, changes in the pace of outflows have historically been more informative, often signaling inflection points in investor sentiment,” said James Butterfill, CoinShares’ head of research.

Bitcoin investment products were the only ETP group to suffer significant losses last week, with outflows totaling $264.4 million. XRP funds led inflows, attracting $63 million, while other altcoin ETPs, such as those tracking Ether and Solana, posted modest gains of $5.3 million and $8.2 million, respectively.

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