Good morning. It's Wednesday, January 21, and we're covering human-first AI, rising energy stakes, OpenAI’s first device, and more. First time reading? Join a community of 600k+ people keeping up with the future of tech. Sign up here.

⚡ Energy Costs Shape AI Winners
At Davos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that countries producing energy at the lowest cost “will have a significant advantage in the AI race”. He noted that GDP growth from AI will reflect local power costs. (Microsoft plans roughly $80B in related data-center spending for 2025.) Nadella also cautioned that Europe’s high energy prices could undermine its competitiveness in AI.

🧐 AI Chip Sales Spark Security Fears
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei blasted the US decision to sell Nvidia’s H200 chips to China as “crazy” and “a big mistake — like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea”. He warned the H200 gives China capabilities beyond its prior access. (The US approved the sales under a 25% tariff.) NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang countered that restrictive export policies may spur Chinese innovation, urging instead that policymakers focus on ‘helpful’ policies that foster innovation.

🪐 SpaceX Eyes Orbital AI Data Centers
Axios reports Elon Musk said SpaceX is exploring orbiting data centers to power AI, potentially using proceeds from a future Starlink IPO to fund development. Musk and other tech leaders note that Earth-based data centers may face political resistance and energy constraints, while space-based facilities could avoid many regulations and tap abundant solar power. He emphasized that this idea is still conceptual, with no detailed plans released yet.

💰 Google’s AI Boss Says No Plans to Put Ads in Gemini
DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said at Davos that Google has “no plans” to put ads in its AI assistant Gemini. He contrasted this with OpenAI’s recent move to test ads in ChatGPT’s free tier. Hassabis’s remark reinforces Google’s stance of keeping Gemini an ad-free tool focused on productivity.

Quick test. One image. Two possibilities. Let’s see if you can still tell what’s real. Is this image real or fake? Answer at the bottom! 👇

OpenAI unveils ads, an $8 plan, and $20B revenue—revealing a compute-driven growth flywheel focused on scale, lock-in, and future monetization.

The Recap: Humans&, a San Francisco–based AI start-up founded by former researchers from Anthropic, Google, and xAI, launched with a mission to help AI support human collaboration rather than replace workers. The company has raised $480 million in seed funding and reached a $4.48 billion valuation just three months after launch, despite employing only about 20 people. The article, by Cade Metz, situates Humans& as part of a broader “human-centered AI” push amid rising concern that many mainstream AI systems are designed for autonomous labor replacement.

Highlights:

Forward Future Takeaways:
Humans& is a clear counterpoint to the dominant narrative that AI’s highest value lies in replacing workers through autonomy and scale. Its early valuation shows that investors are still willing to fund alternative visions—so long as they’re backed by elite talent and credible technical ambition. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)

👷 Palantir CEO Questions Mass Immigration (Paywall): Alex Karp said AI will automate enough work to fill jobs domestically, arguing large-scale immigration may fade except for highly specialized skills.

📱 OpenAI Targets First Device in 2026: According to global affairs chief Chris Lehane, OpenAI plans to unveil its first hardware device in the second half of 2026. Reports suggest the device may be small, screenless, and possibly wearable.

💸 NVIDIA Backs Baseten’s AI Push: The chipmaker invested $150 million in AI inference startup Baseten, valuing it at $5 billion as demand grows for faster, cheaper AI service delivery.

🚧 TSMC Hits AI Chip Bottleneck: Surging data-center demand has outpaced TSMC’s capacity, forcing it to turn down NVIDIA and Broadcom orders and exposing cracks in the global AI supply chain.

🏗️ Data Centers Power US Building Boom: Spending is set to rise 23% in 2026, making data centers the fastest-growing US construction sector as AI demand offsets a wider real-estate slowdown.

📈 Emergent Triples Valuation to $300M: The Indian vibe-coding startup raised $70M led by SoftBank and Khosla, citing $50M ARR and rapid global adoption of its AI app-building platform.

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Thanks for reading today’s newsletter—see you next time!
Matthew Berman & The Forward Future Team

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