What's up: Elon Musk’s Starlink offers internet access in Venezuela; the ‘Mad Max’-loving CEO challenging Nvidia; Healthcare is going all-in on artificial intelligence.

Good morning. Corporate tech leaders will be the key decision-makers this year when it comes to AI. The model developers, chip companies and data center builders are bound to be volatile, with market leadership, valuations and margins shifting. As long as CEOs, boards and enterprise technology leaders remain committed to AI, their spending will provide crucial ballast for the market.

Last year, we reported on how big companies “remain all-in on AI,” and it appears that sentiment remains strong going into 2026, especially in healthcare. “Health systems are increasingly adopting AI, with 27% paying for commercial licenses, triple the rate across the U.S. economy,” the WSJ reports today.

AI has broken through in less-flashy but labor-intensive hospital tasks such as taking notes, fielding patient phone calls and dealing with insurance claims (More on that below). It’s exactly that sort of practical benefit that keeps leadership in so many industries from finance to retail investing in AI.

While the world is focused on broader questions of AI model and chip development and investment, those AI spending decisions taking place in the boardrooms of hospitals, banks and other companies will be the decisive votes on the future of AI. Those decisions are the manifestation of AI demand, and the proving ground that demonstrates whether it’s worthwhile or not. And corporate tech chiefs are the leaders figuring out a framework for making those assessments and finding ways to integrate AI into the workplace.

Where is your company’s AI spending headed, and is it paying off so far? We would love to hear from you.

Up-and-coming managers at Hasbro are role playing an in-house strategy game that tests their mettle for decision-making.

Toy maker Hasbro has created an internal leadership training tool that looks a lot like a board game, the Journal reports. “Toy Tycoon,” available only to selected employees, puts rising managers in the role of CEO for a day, forcing them to make real-world decisions on product mix, licensing, hiring, inventory, and investor expectations. Players compete to grow brands, manage cash and dominate toy categories, learning how strategy, risk tolerance and adaptability shape business outcomes.

Says Hasbro Chief Executive Chris Cocks: “I think the job of a CEO is very similar to a grand strategy game.” 

Readers: what game would you recommend to up-and-coming technology executives? Let us know.

Big hospital systems have become the proving ground for widespread AI adoption, testing what the technology can do and where it falls flat, WSJ reports.

AI has made its biggest inroads in some of healthcare’s least flashy, but most labor-intensive jobs: clinical note-taking, handling patient calls and processing insurance claims.

Doctors still make the final medical decisions, but AI is increasingly shaping how those decisions are informed. Dr. Samir Abboud, chief of emergency radiology for Northwestern Medicine, said generative artificial intelligence rolled out in 2024 can analyze patient scans and write reports in about 45 seconds.

“It was the first time I felt like there was a clock on my career,” Abboud tells the Journal.

Yet the gains come with trade-offs. An October study in the Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology found that physicians who used AI during colonoscopies detected significantly fewer growths once the tool was removed, raising concerns about clinical “deskilling.”

“I’m constantly worried about deskilling,” said Anthony Cardillo, a New York City-based pathologist who directs a Memorial Sloan Kettering lab specializing in blood samples. 

South Korean company FuriosaAI has an AI chip entering mass production, the Journal reports.

Valued at nearly $700 million, FuriosaAI has drawn interest from Meta Platforms, OpenAI and LG. The startup argues its neural processing units can deliver strong real-world performance for inference while using less power than GPUs, WSJ reports.

The company’s name comes from the female protagonist in the 2015 film "Mad Max: Fury Road." Furiosa’s AI chip is dubbed “RNGD”—short for renegade—and slated to start mass production this month.

The giant consumer tech event takes over Las Vegas this week, with AI once again expected to play a central role. 

Self-driving truck company Kodiak AI said it is working with auto supplier Bosch on a system that delivers self-driving capabilities to standard trucks, TechCrunch reports.

LG is showing off an AI-powered robot it says can help out with household tasks including folding laundry and unloading the dishwasher, Engadget reports.

Coming to Samsung’s line of smart refrigerators: voice-activated door opening and closing, the Verge reports. 

Max Tegmark wants to halt development of artificial superintelligence—and has Steve Bannon, Meghan Markle and will.i.am as supporters.

Max Tegmark, an MIT physicist turned AI-safety activist, is pushing his boldest campaign yet: halting the development of human-level “superintelligence” until it can be proven safe, WSJ reports. After convening with academics and technologists at a September Vatican meeting, Tegmark helped draft an appeal to the pope that ultimately gathered more than 130,000 signatures, including those from AI luminary Geoffrey Hinton, MAGA die-hard Steve Bannon, former government official Susan Rice and celebrities will.i.am, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Starlink is offering free satellite internet access in Venezuela​ through Feb. 3, CNBC reports. Service credits are being added to accounts as connectivity disruptions hit parts of Caracas and nearby states following U.S. military operations. The SpaceX subsidiary has played a growing role providing service in conflict zones, including Ukraine.

For years, Caterpillar built much of its $65 billion operation on giant yellow dump trucks, bulldozers and other mining and construction equipment. AI has changed the equation. Today, sales of generators are powering the manufacturer's fastest-growing segment and a race to help data centers skip the grid, WSJ reports. Power-generation sales at the company stood at $7.8 billion in 2024, up 22% from the prior year.

Elon Musk’s Grok is under intensifying scrutiny and potential government action worldwide after the AI chatbot generated sexualized images—including of minors—on X in response to user prompts. The latest in a string of controversies surrounding Grok comes as xAI rolls out two new subscription tiers of its chatbot for business customers, the Information reports.

China’s BYD raced past Tesla in EV sales worldwide, after Tesla on Friday said EV sales for 2025 declined 9%, the New York Times reports.

Energy and defense stocks rose after the U.S. ousted Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, and President Trump pledged American drillers would revive the country's crude production. (WSJ)

In returning to a form of “gunboat diplomacy” in Venezuela, President Trump has largely spurned the usual veneer of armed interventions—acting without an Oval Office speech justifying the attack, congressional authorization, a promise of elections in a foreign land or even a detailed plan for its future. (WSJ)

President Trump made clear he wants to take control of Greenland. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and the European Union needs us to have it and they know that,” he told reporters on Air Force One. (WSJ)

The “talent is everywhere” mantra adopted by U.S. employers when the job market was white hot is giving way to a more traditional entry-level recruiting strategy: hire from a few select universities. (WSJ)

This February 10–11, technology leaders will gather in Palo Alto for The WSJ Technology Council Summit to explore the realities of enterprise AI, the evolving role of tech leadership and the urgency behind building meaningful, business-driving AI strategies. Join the Technology Council and be part of the conversations shaping the future of corporate innovation.

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The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.