Firefox, Firefox Focus, Safari and other Apps on iPhone screen

The buttons of the internet browser app Firefox, surrounded by Safari and other apps on the screen of an iPhone (Getty Images)

FIREWALL

Firefox will soon let users block AI features in its browser

As Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge ramp up AI offerings, Firefox is betting people will want an off switch.

Millie Giles

2/4/26 5:12AM

When the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation launched Firefox back in 2004, its mission was to provide the online world with a secure, open-source alternative to the web’s then dominant browser, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Cut to a little over two decades later, and Firefox is still trying to set itself apart in the crowded browser landscape. On Monday, Mozilla announced in a blog post that a new “AI control” update to Firefox will enable users to toggle individual AI features on and off, such as translations, enhanced tab grouping, and its built-in AI chatbot.

Bot-com bubble?

The preference settings will be available on Firefox 148, which launches on February 24, and will allow users to “block current and future generative AI features” and “review and manage” these at their discretion. The pivot toward opting in for AI comes at a time when leading browsers are increasingly building the tech into their products as the default.

Browser market share 2026 chart — Sherwood News

Just last week, Google unveiled plans to embed more Gemini-powered AI features into Chrome — the biggest web browser today by some way, commanding an almost monopolistic ~71% share of the market, per Statcounter. These features include image generator tool Nano Banana, an “Auto browse” ability, and a chatbot panel in its viewing window.

While Microsoft retired Internet Explorer in 2022 after a precipitous drop in usage, the company’s hoping that an experimental AI-powered Copilot Mode in its Edge browser will help it catch up with competitors. Apple’s Safari, the second-biggest web browser by market share at (a still much smaller) 15%, has also recently outlined plans to offer AI-powered searches.

Before this new announcement, even Firefox itself had spent the past year trying to draw consumers with newfangled AI tools, like its “shake to summarize” iPhone feature, released last September. Rather than fighting a losing battle against tech giants like Google, maybe Mozilla now thinks that appealing to the cohort that wants less to do with artificial intelligence might help it to win back at least some search engine purists.

Rani Molla11h

Anthropic’s scramble for compute now includes rival xAI

Another day, another major partnership with an AI rival. This time, Anthropic signed a deal with SpaceX’s xAI to access compute from its Colossus 1 data center to help it improve capacity for its Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers. Just yesterday, The Information reported that Anthropic planned to spend $200 billion on Google Cloud services over the next five years. As Sherwood News’ Luke Kawa wrote:

“Anthropic has been a victim of its own success: the popularity of Claude Code and Cowork have revealed compute constraints and left users frustrated by caps. In response, the Claude developer has embarked upon a mad scramble for compute, striking or expanding deals with CoreWeave, Amazon, Google, and Broadcom.”

Now, it’s adding xAI to the list — even as the Elon Musk company builds a competing model.

In less terrestrial news, xAI said that as part of the agreement, Anthropic “expressed interest in partnering to develop multiple gigawatts of orbital AI compute capacity.”

xAI — Creators of Grok, the AI Chatbot

“Anthropic has been a victim of its own success: the popularity of Claude Code and Cowork have revealed compute constraints and left users frustrated by caps. In response, the Claude developer has embarked upon a mad scramble for compute, striking or expanding deals with CoreWeave, Amazon, Google, and Broadcom.”

Now, it’s adding xAI to the list — even as the Elon Musk company builds a competing model.

In less terrestrial news, xAI said that as part of the agreement, Anthropic “expressed interest in partnering to develop multiple gigawatts of orbital AI compute capacity.”

13h

TEST TIME!

Meet your new interview partner: Claude

Chris Stokel-Walker

Rani Molla15h

SpaceX and Tesla’s Terafab could cost $119 billion — far more than expected

The initial phase of SpaceX and Tesla’s joint chip production effort, called Terafab, could cost $55 billion, with additional phases adding up to $119 billion in capital investment, Reuters reports, citing a notice posted on a Texas county website. Ultimately the goal of Terafab is to build enough in-house AI chip capacity to supply both companies.

The price tag is also higher than expected. Morgan Stanley had previously estimated Terafab would cost $34 billion to $45 billion.

Fortunately for Tesla, whose capex is expected to skyrocket this year, much of the early spending will sit on SpaceX’s balance sheet.

Here’s Musk on the last earnings call:

“SpaceX is going to take care of like the initial phase of the scaled up Terafab... Any kind of intercompany thing has to be approved by both the SpaceX and Tesla board of directors. It’s got to go through a conflict resolution. It’s going to have, unfortunately, a lot of complexity because we’ve got to make sure Tesla shareholders are served and SpaceX shareholders are served, and strike the right balance there.”

SpaceX files plan for $55 billion Terafab chip facility in Texas

The price tag is also higher than expected. Morgan Stanley had previously estimated Terafab would cost $34 billion to $45 billion.

Fortunately for Tesla, whose capex is expected to skyrocket this year, much of the early spending will sit on SpaceX’s balance sheet.

Here’s Musk on the last earnings call:

“SpaceX is going to take care of like the initial phase of the scaled up Terafab... Any kind of intercompany thing has to be approved by both the SpaceX and Tesla board of directors. It’s got to go through a conflict resolution. It’s going to have, unfortunately, a lot of complexity because we’ve got to make sure Tesla shareholders are served and SpaceX shareholders are served, and strike the right balance there.”

Rani Molla5/5/26

Apple to let users choose between Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI models

Apple has been inching toward letting outside AI power its devices — and now it’s going further.

The company plans to let users choose between rival AI models across iOS 27, due this fall, expanding beyond ChatGPT to include players like Google and Anthropic, Bloomberg reports. The difference this time: deeper integration, with outside models powering features like Siri, writing tools, and image generation across the system.

Currently, Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, gives users the ability to query ChatGPT, but doing so requires a clunky extra step and usage has been poor. Meanwhile, Apple’s own AI tools have fallen short. (Apple has decided to use Google’s Gemini to power Siri in the future.) It’s not clear users care which AI is under the hood — as long as it works.

Apple to Let Users Choose Rival AI Models Across Its iOS 27 Features

Rani Molla5/5/26

FactSet and S&P Global fall after Anthropic releases financial services agents

FactSet and S&P Global are trading lower after Anthropic unveiled a set of AI agents meant to automate financial services work. Both stocks also sold off earlier this year after Anthropic’s Claude introduced financial research tools.

The 10 agents handle tasks like earnings analysis, market research, financial modeling, and auditing — tasks that mirror how analysts use FactSet and S&P Global’s data and research platforms.