The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off Friday evening, local time, in Milan, as Big Tech firms simultaneously announced a massive surge in AI spending, a development that coincides with the emergence of a groundbreaking autonomous AI agent, OpenClaw. The opening ceremony at the San Siro stadium featured Italian ballet dancers and paid homage to Italian culture, while tech giants like Alphabet and Amazon revealed plans to dramatically increase their capital expenditures on AI, totaling over $630 billion.
The "OpenClaw moment" represents the first time autonomous AI agents successfully transitioned from the lab to the general workforce, according to VentureBeat. Originally conceived in November 2025 by Austrian engineer Peter Steinberger as "Clawdbot," the framework evolved to "Moltbot" before settling on "OpenClaw" in late January 2026. Unlike previous chatbots, OpenClaw possesses the ability to execute shell commands, manage local files, and navigate messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Slack with persistent, root-level permissions. This capability, coupled with its adoption by AI power users on X, marked a significant shift.
Meanwhile, Big Tech's financial commitment to AI reached unprecedented levels. Alphabet plans to double its capex in 2026 to nearly $185 billion, and Amazon intends to devote $200 billion to capex, according to Fortune. Meta's full-year capex is projected to rise to as much as $135 billion. This concentrated spending on AI computer scaling, rather than a mix of strategic bets, has investors watching closely.
The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics saw athletes from over 90 countries march into the San Siro stadium, as reported by NPR News and NPR Politics. The event included tributes to Italian music, art, and culture.
In other news, oil- and gas-producing regions in the continental United States are emitting up to five times more methane than companies are reporting to government regulators, according to Nature News.
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