• Bytes: Week in Review — Google to make links more prominent, Palantir moves to Florida and Ring reportedly had plans to use "Search Party" for more than finding lost dogs
    Feb 20 2026

    This week, Palantir announced on X it’s relocating its headquarters to Miami. Plus, we look at the controversy around Ring's Search Party feature.


    But first, an update to Google's AI search summaries. If you use AI-enabled search on Google, it’ll spit out an AI-generated summary with source links to the right. Now, the company is making links more prominent when users hover over certain words in the AI summary.


    Google says this new interface is “more engaging.” Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, about all this and more.

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    10 Min.
  • Meta's big bet on "superintelligence"
    Feb 19 2026

    Meta anticipates up to $135 billion worth of capital expenditures this year, nearly double the company’s outlay in 2025. One driver of that expenditure growth is what Meta calls its "Superintelligence Labs." This kind of spending puts it right up there with other tech giants pouring money into their AI capabilities. And it's a shift from a company that used to be hyper-focused on virtual reality. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes talked about this with Mike Isaac, a reporter for the New York Times, to learn more.

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    9 Min.
  • Can software companies survive the AI boom?
    Feb 18 2026

    As artificial intelligence companies roll out more sophisticated agents, many analysts and investors raised concerns that AI could replace traditional software. Some are dubbing this the “SaaSpocolypse.”


    New AI tools allow users to “vibe code,” or describe what you’d like to create in plain language and have the AI generate the code for you. This could make some software easier for companies to create themselves.


    Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group, a technology research firm, to learn more.

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    9 Min.
  • Fewer students are enrolling in computer science classes and majors
    Feb 17 2026

    According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the number of students enrolling in computer and information science decreased this past fall from the year before. That's at both the graduate and undergraduate level and the first drop since 2020. Meanwhile, the Computing Research Association says there's been a decline in a number of computing-related majors. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Kari George, Senior Research Associate at the CRA's Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline to learn more.

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    8 Min.
  • High-tech data centers get a powerful assist from a century-old company
    Feb 16 2026

    Caterpillar, which manufactures heavy duty equipment like asphalt pavers, diesel engine locomotives, and industrial gas turbines, has been around for 101 years. And now, the company seems to be one of the big winners of the AI infrastructure build out.


    Big tech companies are working as fast as possible to get their data centers up to power artificial intelligence. Some are building their own natural gas plants to provide electricity for those data centers. Enter Caterpillar, maker of electric generators. Marketplace’s Dan Ackerman has been reporting on this.

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    6 Min.
  • Bytes: Week in Review — Alphabet takes on debt to pay for AI projects, the social network where humans aren't allowed, and Spotify reports record user growth
    Feb 13 2026

    This week, we look at Spotify's stellar quarter. Plus, there's a new AI-only social network called Moltbook. But first, Alphabet, parent of Google, went to the debt markets this week, raising tens of billions of dollars to fund its AI spending.


    One of the bonds Alphabet is offering, issued in British pounds, has a maturity date of 100 years from now. This is very unusual in the corporate world. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, about what she makes of Alphabet doing this kind of borrowing.

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    14 Min.
  • Crypto’s big growth on the books and in the shadows
    Feb 12 2026

    Cryptocurrency is being used more frequently in illegal transactions — about $158 billion was used in illicit crypto activity last year. That’s an all-time high, according to a new report from the startup TRM Labs. This comes as the overall crypto ecosystem is growing and, it should be said, legitimate uses of crypto are growing at a faster rate than illegitimate ones. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs and one of the authors of the new report, to learn more.

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    11 Min.
  • Is the moon (and its resources) up for grabs?
    Feb 11 2026

    NASA’s Artemis II mission, which will send humans around the moon for the first time in over five decades, could launch as early as March. This is part of a larger campaign to establish a long-term presence on the moon and eventually prepare for human space flight to Mars.


    Meanwhile, China also has a goal of landing humans on the moon by 2030, setting up a kind of modern space race. One reason for the rush: It's like a game of finders keepers, said Saadia Pekkanen, a professor focused on space law and policy at the University of Washington.

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    7 Min.