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France is fast‑tracking unmanned naval and aerial systems by funding prototype competitions and using operational trials to pick winners, aiming to field armed surface drones and new loitering munitions within two years. Procurement reforms favour decentralised, experiment‑led buying and closer ties between start‑ups and large defence firms to accelerate capability delivery and preserve industrial capacity through exports.

The US military has tested a "one-to-many" drone tactic in which a single operator simultaneously controlled three armed drones to hit different targets, showcasing advances in AI-enabled autonomy. The exercise underlines both the tactical promise of swarming—rapid, distributed attacks that confer asymmetric advantages—and the operational challenges of scaling command-and-control and surviving electronic warfare in contested environments.

Tesla’s 2025 results show a sharp slump in profits and the first annual revenue decline in the company’s history, driven by weaker automotive sales, aggressive price cuts and intensifying competition. Energy storage and services are growing rapidly and provide cash flow, while a $2 billion investment in xAI and continued bets on robotaxis and humanoid robots underpin a high‑risk, high‑reward strategic pivot.

Kunlun Tiangong founder Zhou Yahui says the company’s Mureka V8 music model marks a 2026 inflection point for AI-composed music and plans to launch an overseas, Spotify-like AI music platform. The firm will avoid direct competition with China’s ByteDance and Tencent, collaborate domestically, and focus overseas on productising AI-generated music via creator tools, a consumer app and APIs. Zhou argues AI music and short-form AI dramas could be the first major categories disrupted by native AI platforms in the next 1–3 years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not permit the reconstruction of Gaza until it is fully demilitarized, rejected Palestinian statehood, and barred Turkey and Qatar from participating in any international stabilization force. His stance complicates a U.S. plan to move from ceasefire to phased governance, disarmament and rebuilding, and raises the prospect of a prolonged humanitarian and political stalemate.

France has dispatched its nuclear carrier Charles de Gaulle to join Orion 26, a large multinational exercise scheduled for February–April that French media place in the North Atlantic. The deployment, timed with diplomatic talks between Paris, Copenhagen and Greenland’s autonomous government, underlines Paris’s bid to shape security dynamics around Greenland and project high-end naval power in a strategically sensitive region.

India used its Republic Day parade to unveil a long‑range, truck‑mounted weapon the government presents as a hypersonic anti‑ship missile, alongside a suite of new indigenous platforms. The display signals New Delhi’s push to join a small group of states fielding advanced high‑speed strike systems, though technical and operational questions about the missile remain.

CENTCOM has announced a multi-day Ninth Air Force readiness exercise in the Middle East, emphasizing rapid, dispersed deployments, while the nuclear-powered Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group has entered the region. The moves heighten military pressure on Iran and signal US intent to deter threats while calibrating operational posture to reduce vulnerabilities from large force concentrations.

Unnamed sources cited by Reuters claimed the U.S. had not abandoned plans to militarily occupy Greenland, provoking alarm in Washington and among allies. While U.S. officials denied the plan was serious, the episode highlights Greenland’s strategic value and the diplomatic strain any such suggestion creates between the United States, Denmark and NATO partners.

Japan is considering a GOCO model — government ownership of munitions plants with private contractors operating them — to guarantee ammunition supply in a crisis. The plan, part of a broader defence‑industry reorganisation, is being coordinated with revisions to national security documents and reflects lessons from global ammunition shortages since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Taiwan’s domestically built submarine Hai Kun underwent its sixth sea trial on January 26 but did not complete a first dive, conducting instead a complex pre‑dive systems verification. The programme has been delayed from original schedules, with Taipei imposing contractual fines on the builder as it seeks an accelerated delivery later this year.

U.S. officials have informed Israel that preparations for possible military action against Iran are nearing completion, with operational windows expected to emerge in coming months but final action subject to presidential authorization. Public statements from Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran reflect heightened deterrent signaling that increases the risk of miscalculation and wider regional escalation.

Foxconn Industrial Internet expects a roughly 56–63% year‑on‑year jump in Q4 2025 net profit and a 51–54% rise for the full year, driven by explosive sales of 800G+ switches and AI servers. The results reflect a major upgrade cycle in Chinese data centres as cloud providers scale up capacity for large AI models, while also exposing the company to customer concentration and component‑supply risks.

Chinese markets closed mixed as resource and commodity stocks powered a narrow rally while growth and health-care sectors lagged. Heavy turnover and a broad list of declining stocks indicate the advance was concentrated in a small number of themes, raising volatility and regulatory risks for investors.

ASML will cut about 1,700 jobs, mostly in technical and IT management roles in the Netherlands and some in the U.S., representing roughly 4% of its workforce. The reduction appears aimed at overhead trimming and organizational realignment amid a cyclical industry and geopolitical uncertainty, rather than at production capacity.

Chinese robotics firms are prioritizing rehabilitation and eldercare as the first real markets for embodied intelligence, pairing non‑invasive brain–computer interfaces with exoskeletons to restore patient agency and create quantifiable training data. Industry players are addressing technical, data and integration challenges through consortiums and clinical partnerships, aiming to convert early prototypes into scalable clinical products over the next three to five years.

iFlytek forecast 2025 net profit of Rmb785–950 million, a 40–70% increase, citing rapid deployment of its large‑model AI "Spark" and stronger government procurement. About Rmb300 million of the gain comes from non‑recurring government grants, so investors should separate one‑offs from recurring commercial momentum.

PwC’s US arm has struck a three‑year, $400m collaboration with Google Cloud to build AI‑enabled security operations and resilience tools. The deal underscores a trend of consulting firms and hyperscalers combining expertise and infrastructure to offer managed, automated cyber‑security services, while raising questions about governance and vendor dependence.

US military moves in the Middle East and reports of possible action against Iran have pushed oil up about 3% and driven gold to record highs as investors seek safety. At the same time China is advancing domestic regulatory reforms, dealing with supply‑chain cost pressures in semiconductors, and showcasing logistics prowess through high‑profile corporate outreach.

Elon Musk announced that Neuralink's next‑generation brain–computer interface will offer about three times the performance of the current system and plans to introduce a blind‑vision enhancement for totally blind people pending regulatory approval. The device aims to provide low‑resolution visual percepts, but technical, safety and regulatory challenges mean clinical validation and widespread use will take time.