Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🥤 Costco: Coke > Pepsi
• 🌌 The push to ban space ads
• 🤔 The origin of “First-World”

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.95-minute read (1,052 words).

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“Words are the clothing of our thoughts.”

–Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

DeepSeek is driving US markets to seek deep for answers.

AI infrastructure stocks fell across the board yesterday, as investors digested news that upstart Chinese AI firm DeepSeek had developed a pair of top-performing models at a fraction of the cost compared to Silicon Valley giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.

Why it’s a big deal: Prior to DeepSeek’s latest models – which have displaced ChatGPT at the top of Apple’s App Store – the conventional thinking was that AI companies required expensive, high-end computer chips to train the best systems. This belief served as justification for major US tech firms to invest hundreds of billions of dollars towards building, training, and supporting AI models.

• However, DeepSeek didn’t have anywhere close to that amount of financial power – one of its two top models reportedly cost just $5.6 million to train using reduced-capability chips.
• Despite this, DeepSeek’s AI models are still roughly on par with top US rivals, largely thanks to the company’s innovative training techniques.

The market reacts

Nvidia, whose high-end chips have been used by the tens of thousands to power many leading AI models, saw its shares fall ~17% yesterday. The move wiped out ~$593 billion from the company’s market value – the biggest single-day figure in history by more than 2x.

Other companies with AI infrastructure interests suffered double-digit losses, including Oracle (-14%), chipmakers Broadcom (-17%) and Micron (-12%), server maker Super Micro Computer (-13%), and power provider Constellation Energy (-21%).

• Overall, Monday’s selloff removed ~$1 trillion from the US stock market’s value, per Dow Jones Market Data.

👀 Looking ahead…While some analysts say it’s too soon to determine whether DeepSeek has upended the AI infrastructure industry, others predict DeepSeek’s success means AI models will soon require fewer chips and energy.

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Cola-Cola notched a recent win against Pepsi in the Cola Wars – a longstanding rivalry between the two drink behemoths that’s been called “a blood feud” and “the most important struggle in the history of capitalism.”

Costco is switching from Pepsi to Coke products in its food courts beginning this summer, CEO Ron Vachris recently revealed in a shareholders meeting.

• Coke was previously a mainstay of Costco food courts for decades. But in 2013, Costco shifted to Pepsi products to maintain the price of its tentpole $1.50 hot dog combo, CNN reports.

The almighty hot doggo

The $1.50 hot dog price is a powerful marketing tool for Costco, and has become as synonymous with the retailer’s brand as its lunch-replacing free samples.

The price of the hot dog-soda combo has remained the same since 1985 – Costco cofounder Jim Sinegal famously once said, “If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out,” according to former CEO Craig Jelinek. And it puts up numbers: Costco sold ~150 million of the combos last year.

The move to Coke isn’t changing the policy. "The $1.50 hot dog price is safe," Costco CFO Gary Millerchip said last year.

📰 In other Costco news: The retailer recently rejected an anti-DEI proposal, and is staring down the barrel of an ~18,000-worker strike.

While the Moon may never be made of barbecue spare ribs (sorry Harry Caray), a Chili’s logo could at some point appear alongside it – unless astronomers have their way.

At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) earlier this month, the organization published a statement calling for a global ban on “obtrusive space advertising” due to the interference it would cause for ground-based astronomy.

A deeper dive: While a federal ban on obtrusive space advertising has been in place for decades, astronomers say there’s a growing concern that companies in other nations could launch such payloads.

• In particular, the AAS statement cited a Russian company called Avant Space, which launched a small satellite last April designed to test technologies for a future constellation capable of shining lasers to form logos or other images for advertisers.

📅 This isn’t a new advertising strategy. In 2019, a Russian subsidiary of PepsiCo signed a contract with local space company StartRocket to explore using satellites equipped with Mylar sails to reflect sunlight in the form of an energy drink logo. But after conducting an “exploratory test” using a high-altitude balloon, Pepsi declined to pursue these plans any further.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🚗 Crypto bros are buying Lambos again: Sales of cars that cost at least $80,000 increased 37% in December compared to the previous year, according to Kelley Blue Book.
• ☕ Arabica coffee prices briefly hit a record-high in intraday trading following the US-Colombia tariff spat.
• 🥚 Egg prices are expected to increase another 20% this year, the Agriculture Department projects.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Kanguro

• ⚖️ Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni received a March 2026 trial date for Lively’s lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and attacks on her reputation by fellow It Ends With Us costar Baldoni.
• 🏀 The Miami Heat suspended star forward Jimmy Butler indefinitely for walking out of practice early; it’s his third suspension this month following a recent trade demand.
• 🏆📺 Bluey topped the US streaming charts in 2024 with a near-record 55.6 billion total minutes viewed, per Nielsen’s year-end recap. See the other top performers.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧑‍🚀👀 Astronauts’ eyes and vision become weakened after 6-12 months onboard the International Space Station, though their eyes return to normal once back on Earth, per a new study.
• 🐖🫀 An Alabama woman has made medical history as the longest-surviving recipient of a pig organ transplant, at 64 days and counting.
• 🪐 The dwarf planet Ceres may have received organic materials – one of the building blocks for life – from impacting asteroids, per a new study.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with MANSCAPED®

• 🦠 The CIA said it now believes with “low confidence” that Covid most likely originated from a Chinese lab.
• 🌍 A NATO team found three Russia-linked ships near a damaged fiber-optic cable in the Baltic Sea; it’s NATO’s first coordinated response to a suspected sabotage campaign in the area. | 🇧🇾 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won an election widely labeled as a sham by Western governments, extending his 30-year rule over the Eastern European nation.
• 🏛️🗳️ Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth was confirmed as President Trump’s Secretary of Defense in a 50-50 Senate vote, mostly along party lines, that was decided by VP JD Vance. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

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Pedestrians in large US cities are walking faster and doing less socializing than ever before, per a new analysis published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. People to cities: Hey, we’re speedwalking here (bangs on hood).

• Researchers found the average pedestrian walking speed increased by 15% between 1980 and 2010, while the time spent lingering in public spaces was cut in half, based on analysis of video footage from New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.
• And while the percentage of pedestrians walking alone remained relatively stable – from 67% to 68% – the frequency of those solo walkers creating a group declined, indicating fewer overall interactions in public spaces.

Bottom line: The study’s authors say their findings suggest urban residents increasingly view streets as thoroughfares, rather than as social spaces like previous generations.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the winners from the Underwater Photography Guide’s 13th annual Ocean Art competition, featuring thousands of entries from 90+ countries.

🤔 Did You Know? The terms First World, Second World, and Third World originally stemmed from Cold War-era political alliances. All NATO-aligned nations represented the First World, any Warsaw Pact member-nations – including the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba – were the Second World, and any non-aligned countries were the Third World.

📰 Worth a Read: Stuck in a Traffic Nightmare, a Region Turns Its Anger on a 3-Inch Figurine.

🖱 Clickbait: You’ve always wondered, here’s the answer: do dogs actually watch TV?

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

📈 The household income required to afford a typical US home increased by 223% from Jan. 2012 to Nov. 2024 ($39,200 → $126,800), per Redfin.

🛍️ 55% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials earning $100,000+/year say they’ve stolen from online retailers in the past year.

🇺🇸💤 In 2024, 27% of Americans said the statement "if you work hard you'll get ahead" still holds true, down from 50% in 2010.

🏫 Roughly 1 in 8 students at New York City public schools experienced homelessness at some point last year.

🏘️ The portion of first-time US home buyers who are single women increased by 26% over the past year.

Yesterday, we covered how Silicon Valley is buzzing over a pair of new Chinese AI models that match or exceed the performance of the most advanced systems from top US companies, despite using inferior chips and far fewer resources.

❓ Our question to you: Do you regularly use AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude?

• 👍 Yes: 34%
• 👎 No: 66%

❓ Follow-up questions for “Yes” folks: How often do you use AI models?

• 5x/day or more: 15%
• 3x-5x/day: 15%
• 1x-2x/day: 26%
• A few times per week: 35%
• A few times per month: 9%

Are you going to use DeepSeek?

• Yes: 18%
• No: 25%
• Maybe: 57%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,149 votes and 227 longform responses.

❤️ Caleb Serban-Lawler is being hailed a hero after his quick thinking during the California Palisades fire. The 25-year-old EMT rescued a woman and her four dogs from the flames minutes before they devoured her home. Read the full story here.

🥏 Happy Birthday, Frisbee! Did you know that Frisbees started selling as “Flyin’ Cake Pans” in 1957? The flying discs have since evolved from repurposed kitchenware into the design we know and love today. Last week, the classic toy celebrated its 68th birthday.

🏠 A first-of-its-kind social housing project was recently completed in Ireland using 3D printers to build a collection of homes from the ground up, expediting the process 35% faster than conventional methods.

🥇 Question: What's the chemical symbol for gold?

🎓 True or False? The Eiffel Tower grows taller in the summer.

As you may have noticed, we’re no strangers to bargains around these parts.

If there’s one that caught your eye but you let it slip by, it’s probably on our DONUT Dealz page. And we’re updating it all the time with new deals and partners, partner.

Browse all available DONUT Dealz by clicking here.

🥇 Question: Au

🎓 T/F: True, due to thermal expansion