Thursday February 26, 2026
As the Citrini debate continued yesterday, with more companies pushing back on the idea of an AI demand shock, I remained focused on adoption and timing. I was reminded of the early days of email in the mid to late 1990s.
I have always leaned toward early adoption. When I began using email in 1992, the experience was clunky. The user interface was poor and I had to manually configure SMTP for sending and POP for receiving. It worked, but barely. Over time, the interface improved, and usability followed.
One of my clearest memories from 1994 was proudly adding my email address to my business card. I expected to correspond with partners digitally. The reality was different. None of them had email. A few maintained personal accounts on CompuServe, Prodigy, or AOL, but business adoption was minimal. For the first few years, email functioned mostly as an internal tool, and even inside the company many colleagues questioned its value.
Retail adoption was not instant either. It took AOL roughly five years to reach five million users. In 1996, Hotmail introduced free web based email. Nearly eight more years passed before Gmail launched and redefined the category. Today, many younger users would struggle to explain what Hotmail was.
Another moment stands out. I demonstrated our email system to our Chairman, who was in his 60s. He was impressed by the technology, but when I offered to set up his own account, he declined. He explained that electronic mail was not something he needed. He had secretaries for his correspondences and agreed email would be useful for them, but unnecessary for him. At the time, that view was common among senior executives.
The broader point is that email was radical when it arrived. Its utility was not obvious to everyone. Adoption required behavioral change, infrastructure upgrades, and generational turnover. It took longer than many early enthusiasts expected.
AI feels similar and is much more advanced. It had its public breakthrough moment in November 2022 with OpenAI releasing ChatGPT. Each iteration since has improved meaningfully, yet we are still in the very early days.
Many people experiment with chatbots, far fewer integrate advanced tools like Claude Code or Skills into daily workflows or deploy autonomous agents at scale. The narrative around AI is loud, but true operational integration remains limited.
One year from now, the capabilities will look materially stronger. Five years from now, the shift will be more dramatic. But history suggests that even transformative technologies require time to diffuse across institutions, habits, and generations.
Email did not reshape the economy overnight. It evolved from novelty to necessity over more than a decade. AI may follow a faster curve, but it is still early.
◾ Nvidia $NVDA Q4’26: Revenue $68B +73% y-o-y | Data center revenue $62B +75% y-o-y | OI $44B +94% y-o-y | NI $42B +98% y-o-y (Nvidia)
◾ Big tech to sign WH data center power cost pledge (CNBC)
◾ Vatican: no weapons in AI or space (VaticanNews)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ ECB: no AI layoff surge (Reuters)
◾ Congress eyes ISS extension, moon base (Reuters)
◾ Norway joins EU sat network (Bloomberg)
◾ Canada links shooting debate to OpenAI (Politico)
◾ OCC opens Genius Act comments (Occ.gov)
◾ UK seeks crypto donation ban (Parliament.uk)
◾World Bank backs Malaysia digital ID (PRNewswire)
◾ India: valve caused 2025 mission failure (Isro.gov.in)
◾ NASA identifies astronaut cause of shortened mission (NbcNews)
◾ UK picks four for stablecoin trials (Fca.org.uk)
◾ South Korea mandates influencer holding disclosures (HeraldCorp)
Financial Notices & Public Company Releases
◾ Financial updates:
Circle $CRCL Q4’25: USDC in circulation of $75.3B | Revenue and Reserve Income $770M +77% y-o-y | NI $133 | aEBITDA $167M +412% y-o-y (SecFiling)
American Bitcoin $ABTC Q4’25: Revenue $78M | Op loss $104M | Net loss $59M (PRNewswire)
DMG Blockchain $DMGGF Q1’26: Revenue $11.2M -2% y-o-y | Net loss $2.2M (GlobeNewswire)
◾ ETHZilla rebrands as Forum (PRNewswire)
◾ GD Culture $GDC to sell BTC reserve for buybacks (GdCulture)
◾ Intuitive Machines $LUNR receives $175M equity investment (IntuitiveMachines)
Restructuring, Hacks, Losses & Legal Updates
◾ Anthropic chatbot used in Mexico data breach (Bloomberg)
Crypto Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Tether invest in Whop.com (PRNewswire)
◾ Kraken rolls out crypto loans (Businesswire)
◾ World Liberty Financial proposes USD1 staking (WorldLibertyFinancial)
◾ Binance selects Greece for EU home (Reuters)
◾ Sygnum unveils $100B crypto mandate (Sygnum)
◾ Vitalik releases ETH roadmap (X)
◾ Blockfills CEO exits (TokenPost)
◾ AllUnity launches CHF stablecoin (AllUnity)
◾ Gate wins Malta PSD2 license (Gate)
◾ Alan Howard closes WebN incubator (CoinDesk)
AI Models, Applications & Developments
◾ Anthropic acquires Vercept agentic tools (Anthropic)
◾ DeepSeek blocks latest model from US chipmakers (Reuters)
◾ $35B of Amazon’s $AMZN OpenAI deal tied to AGI or IPO (TheInformation)
◾ $GGOGL updates Flow image generator (Google)
◾ $AMD buys $150M of Nutanix $NTNX (Bloomberg)
◾ LinkedIn adds AI skill validations (ComputerWorld)
The Attention Economy, Gaming & Interactive Shifts
◾ Discord delays age checks (Ign)
◾ Kalshi flags flags MrBeast, CA gov insider cases (Kalshi)
◾ Samsung launches Gemini AI powered phone (Cnbc)
◾ Rumble $RUM adds shorts to iOS (GlobeNewswire)
Space Systems, Satellites & Cosmic Activity
◾ USSF pauses Vulcan missions (AviationWeek)
◾ Virgin Media O2 launches sat-to-mobile service (Reuters)
◾ Artemis II rolled backed from pad (Space.com)