Silism Week 7 (2026): OpenClaw goes viral, Anthropic nears $350B valuation, Nvidia scales coding with Cursor IDE, ByteDance builds AI chips, and global AI regulation accelerates.
Last week felt different.
Not because of one model release. Not because of one funding round.
But because something else is happening:
👉 OpenClaw is spreading like early GitHub.
And that changes the tone of AI from “tool” to “infrastructure.”
Here’s your Silism Week 7 – 2026 breakdown.
Need-to-Know
- Section is hosting a live session on February 18 (11 a.m.–12 p.m. ET) breaking down the operating models powering today’s top AI-native companies.
- AI avatar company Soul Machines, which raised $135M+, has entered receivership as KPMG searches for buyers.
- New York lawmakers proposed a three-year halt on new data centers amid energy, cost, and community concerns.
- Anthropic revised its Super Bowl ad, removing a direct swipe at OpenAI and repositioning it around ad-free AI conversations.
- OpenClaw partnered with VirusTotal to scan third-party skills, strengthening security—though gaps remain.
- Jason urged laid-off Amazon workers to automate former roles with OpenClaw to unlock higher-paid returns.
- Mikli shared that a consultant installing OpenClaw for clients is reportedly generating eight-figure annual revenue.
- Kepano noted that installing Obsidian 1.12 with CLI enabled allows OpenClaw agents to operate inside Obsidian.
- Simon Høiberg said running nine OpenClaw agents in Discord feels like managing a real team.
- Joaki launched Agent Wars, where OpenClaw agents compete in live coding battles and users bet using SOL.
- Nvidia deployed a custom Cursor IDE to 30,000 engineers, tripling code output while maintaining stable bug rates.
- Anthropic is reportedly closing a $20B+ round valuing it near $350B, with $9B+ annualized revenue.
- Databricks CEO said AI won’t kill SaaS systems of record—but natural language will make them invisible.
- Windrose Electric proposed turning electric semi-trucks into mobile AI data centers.
- OpenAI upgraded ChatGPT Deep Research with full-screen viewing and navigation for Plus and Pro users.
- Peter Steinberger joked his OpenClaw now brews beer and runs half his design company.
- Jason offered $25,000 to back OpenClaw-based startups.
- 0xMarioNawfal said OpenClaw launched on TradingView for live AI-powered chart analysis and trade execution.
- Eli Mernit argued that modeling companies as filesystems lets Claude-powered agents operate businesses.
- Matthew Berman demonstrated OpenClaw paired with GPT5.3 Codex and Opus 4.6 across automation workflows.
- Mozart AI raised $6M to expand its AI music workstation.
- OpenAI researcher Zoë Hitzig resigned over ChatGPT ads, warning of trust erosion.
- ByteDance is building its own AI chip and negotiating with Samsung to produce 100,000+ units.
- Threads launched “Dear Algo,” allowing users to request feed adjustments.
- The New York Times built internal AI tools to transcribe and analyze podcasts covering the “manosphere.”
- Legendary compared China’s GLM-5 and Kimi K2.5 running inside OpenClaw workflows.
- Kyohei Ogawa suggested OpenClaw users add DockKit hardware to give agents physical presence.
- OpenClaw surpassed VSCode in GitHub stars, joking it may become a one-person unicorn factory.
- Frank claimed the “gold rush” begins when non-technical users monetize OpenClaw wrappers.
- AI.com, purchased in 1993 for $3–4, sold in 2025 for $75–80 million.
- Blackstone increased its Anthropic investment to ~$1B at a $350B valuation.
- ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0, a viral video AI model in China.
- As OpenAI moves toward ads, Anthropic expanded Claude’s free capabilities.
- India now requires AI-generated content labeling by February 20.
Weekly AI Launches
- Runner AI launched a revenue-optimizing AI website builder.
- Umbrel launched Pro, a premium home server for one-click app hosting.
- Dropstone released v3.0, enabling multiplayer AI-human collaboration.
- SuperX launched an X growth toolkit with AI rewriting and analytics.
- Unicorne launched a live revenue-verified startup leaderboard.
- rivva launched an AI planner aligned with biological energy rhythms.
- Tinkerer Club launched a lifetime self-hosting and local AI community.
- Agent Builder by Thesys launched a no-code AI agent platform.
- Normain launched structured document AI focused on traceability.
- Spawned launched an AI app builder with Solana token integration.
- Tines offers secure automation workflows.
- Migma AI launched an AI email platform with conversion tracking.
- Subscription Day² launched on iOS.
- Revo AI Email Assistant connects Slack, CRM, and meetings to auto-answer emails.
If you’re building, investing, automating, or just trying to understand where this is heading:
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