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OpenAI set to air a minute-long Super Bowl ad for a second consecutive year, per WSJ

OpenAI is expected to broadcast a lengthy commercial at Super Bowl LX, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Having aired its first-ever paid ad at last year’s Big Game, the ChatGPT maker is set to take another 60-second ad slot during NBC’s broadcast on February 8, according to people familiar with the matter.

Prediction markets have already reacted to the news, with the odds of OpenAI in the “Which brands will advertise during the Big Game 2026?” event contract jumping to 96% on January 13. Other brands that traders are assuming will take a spot during the Super Bowl are beverage giant Pepsi (99%) and drinks minnow Liquid Death (97%).

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The marketing push comes as rival AI giants step up their ad spending, with the WSJ reporting that tech companies including Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity collectively spent ~$334 million on linear TV ads promoting AI offerings in the US in 2025 — a 43% jump from the year before.

And, as far as TV ads go, 60 seconds during a break at the Super Bowl are notoriously among the most expensive: ad buyers cited by the WSJ said that some advertisers are paying over $8 million for just 30 seconds of airtime this year (not inclusive of the cost of producing the often extravagant commercials).

Prediction markets have already reacted to the news, with the odds of OpenAI in the “Which brands will advertise during the Big Game 2026?” event contract jumping to 96% on January 13. Other brands that traders are assuming will take a spot during the Super Bowl are beverage giant Pepsi (99%) and drinks minnow Liquid Death (97%).

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The marketing push comes as rival AI giants step up their ad spending, with the WSJ reporting that tech companies including Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity collectively spent ~$334 million on linear TV ads promoting AI offerings in the US in 2025 — a 43% jump from the year before.

And, as far as TV ads go, 60 seconds during a break at the Super Bowl are notoriously among the most expensive: ad buyers cited by the WSJ said that some advertisers are paying over $8 million for just 30 seconds of airtime this year (not inclusive of the cost of producing the often extravagant commercials).

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The most popular male and female names in the US, according to the latest Census

New data published Tuesday by the US Census Bureau has revealed the most common names provided in the 2020 Census, in the first release to include forename data since 1990.

As described in the brief, Michael was the most popular name for males in the US, with roughly 3.5 million American men reporting having this name or a close variant. This is up from fourth place in the 1990 Census, when the top US male name was James — though there were still 3 million Jameses in 2020’s tally.

Despite a three-decade gap, Mary remained the top name for American females in both censuses, with the 2020 survey counting almost 1.8 million females with this given name. Interestingly, Mary was one of just two predominantly female names that broke the top 10 given names in the US, with the overall list dominated mostly by male monikers.

Most popular names US census 2020 chart
Sherwood News

In all, American females had far more first-name diversity than male counterparts: 16% of US males had one of the top 10 most frequent names among men, compared with 7.8% of women. Zooming out, almost 3x as many given names were needed to cover a quarter of the US female population than that of males.

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6 months after hiking Game Pass prices by 50%, Xbox determines it may be too expensive

Microsoft’s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, thinks the division’s recent price hikes have been a mistake, per an internal memo to employees seen by The Verge.

“Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” Sharma’s memo reportedly read.

It’s an interesting take, given that Xbox hiked the price of its Game Pass subscription by 50% in October, before Sharma took over. The memo is a signal that Sharma’s tenure — which began in February, taking the industry by surprise — will include some big changes for Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Whether Game Pass prices will drop is not yet clear. Last month, The Information reported that Sharma and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters have “kicked around ideas” about potential bundles. That would fit with Netflix’s renewed gaming ambitions.

Xbox Game Pass Chartr
(Sherwood News)

It’s an interesting take, given that Xbox hiked the price of its Game Pass subscription by 50% in October, before Sharma took over. The memo is a signal that Sharma’s tenure — which began in February, taking the industry by surprise — will include some big changes for Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Whether Game Pass prices will drop is not yet clear. Last month, The Information reported that Sharma and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters have “kicked around ideas” about potential bundles. That would fit with Netflix’s renewed gaming ambitions.

Xbox Game Pass Chartr
(Sherwood News)

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC. Futures and event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC.