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Sam Altman says he can't wait to get Elon Musk under oath

Sam Altman (left) and Elon Musk (right) have taken their legal battle to the court of public opinion, trading barbs in posts on X.

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• Sam Altman said he's "really excited" to get Elon Musk under oath.
• Their case will go to trial in April, a California judge said in January.
• Musk has accused OpenAI and Altman of misleading him into thinking it would remain a nonprofit.

Sam Altman is pumped to take on Elon Musk in court.

"Really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!" the OpenAI CEO said in a Tuesday evening X post.

He also reposted his chief security officer Jason Kwon's X post, with the caption "concerning."

The post contained screenshots of a court filing from OpenAI's attorneys, which said that Musk preferred using messaging apps like Signal or XChat with message retention settings of a week or less.

Altman and Musk took their yearslong public feud to the next level in 2024. Musk, who is Tesla and SpaceX's CEO, launched a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman in February 2024, accusing Altman of jeopardizing its nonprofit mission.

Musk said that he contributed $38 million to OpenAI, thinking it would remain a nonprofit. He was one of the company's founders, along with Altman, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, and others.

Despite OpenAI's attorneys' attempts to have the case thrown out, a California judge said in a January hearing that there was enough evidence to go to trial, which is set for April.

The billionaire duo have been trading barbs on social media. Musk attacked OpenAI's ChatGPT on January 20, writing "Don't let your loved ones use ChatGPT." He was responding to an X post alleging that the chatbot has been linked to multiple deaths since 2022.

Altman responded to Musk's post, slamming Tesla's Autopilot system as unsafe, and questioning xAI's Grok chatbot. Grok has faced criticism from governments in several countries after reports of Grok users uploading pictures of women and minors and asking the chatbot to undress them.

Representatives for Musk and Altman did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

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Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Oracle want you to know they're definitely not fighting

Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Oracle push back on reports of tension over OpenAI's deal with Nvidia.

Justin Sullivan—Getty Images/Reuters

• Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Oracle have publicly said there's no tension.
• "We love working with NVIDIA," Altman wrote in a post on X. "I don't get where all this insanity is coming from."
• Their responses follow reports of tension between Nvidia and OpenAI.

Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Oracle want to make one thing clear: They're not fighting.

The OpenAI CEO, Nvidia CEO, and software company all stepped forward this week to swat down rumors of tension over Nvidia's planned multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, after a string of reports suggesting tension between the parties.

"We love working with NVIDIA and they make the best AI chips in the world," wrote Altman in a post on X on Tuesday.

"We hope to be a gigantic customer for a very long time. I don't get where all this insanity is coming from," he added.

The pushback came after reports on a deal Nvidia disclosed in September, when it said it planned to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. The move would give the chipmaker a stake in the startup while helping OpenAI secure the vast computing power it needs to train and run its models.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that some Nvidia executives had raised internal concerns about the deal, citing people familiar with the matter.

Separately, Reuters reported on Tuesday that OpenAI had been dissatisfied with some of Nvidia's newer AI chips and had explored alternatives since last year, citing people familiar with the matter.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Saturday, Huang said the idea that he would be unhappy with OpenAI is "nonsense." He also reaffirmed his support for the startup's work and Altman's leadership.

"I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible," the Nvidia CEO said, adding that OpenAI is "one of the most consequential companies of our time."

"We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we've ever made," he added.

Oracle, another major player in OpenAI's infrastructure stack, also pushed back against speculation that the OpenAI-Nvidia dynamic might affect its own deal.

"The NVIDIA-OpenAI deal has zero impact on our financial relationship with OpenAI. We remain highly confident in OpenAI's ability to raise funds and meet its commitments," the company said in a post on X on Tuesday.

Oracle has a multi-year deal with OpenAI under which the AI startup will purchase $300 billion in computing power for its AI models.

With OpenAI committing to substantial spending on computing infrastructure, any uncertainty about its ability to raise capital could ripple through the companies supplying that capacity.

OpenAI's spending under scrutiny

Oracle's response and Huang's remarks highlight how closely OpenAI's funding outlook is being watched, especially as the startup's AI strategies hinge on its growth.

Investors have raised concerns about OpenAI's trillion-dollar-plus compute commitments, including "Big Short" investor Michael Burry, who questioned whether a still-private company can realistically finance such spending.

In some cases, investor skepticism about those deals has weighed on the share prices of companies exposed to OpenAI's expansion, including Oracle.

OpenAI has signed a series of massive spending agreements spanning chips, cloud infrastructure, and data centers, with partners including Nvidia, Oracle, and AMD. Some of them are worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Altman said in a podcast episode on "Bg2 Pod" published in November that he has had "enough" of having to justify how OpenAI will pay for its spending commitments.

"If you want to sell your shares, I'll find you a buyer," he said.

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Before gold and silver crashed, hedge funds were already making a quiet move

Gold and silver's yearlong rally unraveled rapidly.

YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP via Getty Images

• Hedge funds were already cutting precious-metal exposure before gold and silver collapsed.
• Positioning data show a rotation out of metals and into energy as volatility surged.
• Silver's crowded rally left it especially vulnerable when the sell-off hit.

Gold and silver's spectacular crash stunned markets, but hedge funds were already shifting their exposure away from precious metals before prices collapsed, positioning data showed.

Spot gold was trading around $4,829 per troy ounce at 12.56 a.m. ET on Tuesday — more than 10% off its record high above $5,500 per ounce reached just last week.

The spot silver price was around $83.40 per ounce — over 30% lower than its record high of over $121 per ounce.

Those shifts in trading positions show up in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly Commitments of Traders report, which provides a snapshot of investors' holdings in US futures markets as of Tuesday. It's released every Friday.

The latest update, covering managed money positioning across 25 major commodity futures markets, highlighted a rotation out of metals — including gold, silver, and platinum — as hedge funds reduced long exposure amid a sharp rise in volatility, Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, wrote in an analysis on Monday.

Meanwhile, investors reallocated capital into energy markets, where oil prices had been under pressure for years due to ample supply and weak demand growth.

Oil prices got a lift coming into 2026 amid fears of supply disruption following the Trump administration's raid on Venezuela, renewed geopolitical tensions with Iran, and winter storms in the US.

US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are trading around $62 per barrel — about 8% higher this year.

Long positions in crude oil futures reached their highest levels since August, and net long silver positions slumped to a two-year low, Hansen wrote.

The heavy pullback in silver bets leaves funds with "plenty of room" to re-enter the trade once volatility normalizes, and the technical outlook improves. However, this would likely take time following Friday's meltdown, Hansen added.

Why silver unraveled

While both gold and silver prices have come off sharply from record highs, the blistering rally — particularly in the white metal — had already triggered warnings about charging headlong.

"The run up in December and January was primarily not traditional gold and silver long-term, 'I want to buy physical metal and hold it' investors," Jeffrey Christian, a longtime commodities analyst and managing director at CPM Group, told Bloomberg TV on Monday.

Christian pointed to market mechanics as a key driver of the metals meltdown, as investors adjusted their positions ahead of the end of January.

President Donald Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve Chair magnified the drawdown in a market that was already pumped up by speculation and trading activity.

"Extreme trading volumes across futures, options, and ETFs, combined with increasingly strained market plumbing, amplified the move. Eventually, the system buckled," Hansen added.

Analysts warn that while fundamental drivers for precious metals — including geopolitical tensions and central bank buying — remain intact, the recent correction is a warning for momentum and FOMO traders.

"When gold and silver turn into hot topics at dinner tables and in workplaces, it is often a sign that a particular phase of the rally is nearing exhaustion," Hansen wrote.

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A Chinese humanoid robot flopped face-first onto the ground during a public showcase. Its CEO says it's all part of 'learning to walk.'

The Chinese humanoid robot called IRON made its first public appearance in Southern China on Saturday.

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• A humanoid robot from XPeng fell face-first during its first public appearance in China.
• XPeng's CEO said the mishap was part of "learning to walk."
• Clips of the fall quickly spread across Chinese social media, drawing jokes and criticism.

After drawing cheers from a crowd at its debut in China, a humanoid robot dressed in a black suit and pants fell face-first onto the stage.

The robot, called IRON, was developed by XPeng Motors and made its first public appearance at a shopping mall in southern China on Saturday. It had previously attracted attention online for its unusually light, catwalk-like gait, according to Chinese media reports.

In videos circulating on social media, IRON can be seen walking human-like to the center of the stage before turning to face the crowd. As it lifted its arm, the robot appeared to lose balance. Staff rushed forward to intervene, but the robot fell face-first onto the ground.

The fall drew audible gasps from the audience. The event's host attempted to reassure the crowd, saying that robots, like humans, must "overcome setbacks on the way to a better future."

In a post on Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng said on Sunday the incident reminded him of "children learning to walk."

"After falling, they steady themselves, and the next step is to start running and keep running," he wrote.

XPeng is a Chinese electric vehicle maker that has set its sights beyond cars, branching into flying vehicles and robotics as competition in the transport industry heats up. The company sells vehicles across Asia and Europe and is pushing into the Middle East and Africa.

He said in an internal letter in late 2024 that the EV industry will face an "elimination round" from 2025 to 2027.

The incident is one of several recent mishaps involving Chinese humanoid robots.

In April last year, multiple humanoid robots stumbled and fell while taking part in a half-marathon against human runners in Beijing.

Separately, humanoid robot by Unitree kicked an engineer in the groin during a test in China last month.

Netizens reacted quickly to the flop

The incident quickly drew widespread attention on Chinese social media. On RedNote, the topic "XPeng robot fell at its debut and was carried away" had racked up about 10 million views as of Monday.

In one widely circulated video posted on Sunday showing staff lifting the robot up, users on RedNote questioned XPeng's ambitions beyond electric vehicles.

One RedNote user mocked the robot's malfunction. "So what if you fall? Can't you get up by yourself?" they wrote.

Others found humor in the mishap.

"The fall was so real, just like me almost slipping while rushing for my 8 a.m. class," one RedNote user wrote.

"The robot is saying: Can't I take a break when I'm tired of walking?" another joked.

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China's speculative traders sent silver soaring and crashing in a volatile run

Silver's sharp reversal followed analyst warnings that the rally was outpacing underlying fundamentals.

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• Silver's white-hot rally is unraveling after traders rushed to lock in profits, sending prices sharply lower.
• A China-driven speculative surge and surprise Fed news jolted the market, triggering a rapid selloff.
• Rising margin requirements are adding to ongoing market instability.

Silver prices crashed in a harrowing roller-coaster ride that underscored how quickly China's army of speculators can move global commodity markets — and how fast those gains can unravel.

The white metal has been in the spotlight over the past year after dramatically outperforming gold. Prices surged about 170% in 2025 and climbed more than 60% again in early 2026, vaulting silver to $121 per troy ounce at its peak before the rally spectacularly broke down.

Spot silver was trading around $77.10 per troy ounce at 3:06 a.m. ET on Monday, having erased a large portion of its historic gains in just a few sessions.

On Friday, silver prices cratered as much as 36% as investors rushed to lock in profits following the meteoric rally and adjust positions.

The sell-off came on the back of President Donald Trump announcing Kevin Warsh as his pick for the next Federal Reserve chair. The move rattled markets and sparked a sharp reassessment of interest-rate expectations.

Even before the meltdown, warning signs were flashing in China, where speculative trading had reached frenetic levels, leaving prices vulnerable to a rapid unwind.

"Before the correction, warning signs emerged on Tuesday as Chinese investors faced difficulties withdrawing funds from leveraged gold-trading accounts, and several Chinese funds halted subscriptions to manage overheating sentiment," wrote Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG, on Monday.

In response to the volatility, major trading venues, including CME Group and the Shanghai Gold Exchange, raised margin requirements. Higher margins require traders to post more cash to hold positions. The move is aimed at cooling speculation but it often forces leveraged investors to sell — adding further downward pressure to prices.

"Price action was magnified by margin calls on leveraged positions, which further intensified selling pressure amongst other traders," Yip said.

Silver's violent price reversal followed recent analyst warnings that silver's rally was running far ahead of underlying fundamentals.

Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, wrote last week that the surge was driven largely by retail demand for coins and bars, alongside "strong and persistent demand" from China that pushed silver prices in Shanghai to a widening premium over London benchmarks.

When that speculative demand faltered, the impact rippled across the broader metals complex. The pullback rippled into other metals, including copper and platinum.

Gold, which had also enjoyed a powerful rally, wasn't spared. Spot gold was trading around $4,612 per ounce, after hitting a fresh record above $5,500 per ounce just last week.

Markets are now closely watching trading activity in China for further clues, particularly with risks building ahead of the long Chinese New Year holidays, when markets will be closed.

Thin liquidity during the break could amplify volatility once trading resumes — a prospect that has investors bracing for more sharp moves in the days ahead.

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Canada is having a moment — and the world is finally paying attention