CNBC Tech - Gaming

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1. Ilya Lichtenstein, Bitcoin hacker behind massive crypto theft, credits Trump for early prison release

   Ilya Lichtenstein had been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty and admitting to the hack of crypto assets valued in the billions of dollars.

2. Chip stocks rally to start 2026 after third-straight winning year

   Investors piled into the winning artificial intelligence-adjacent sector following another big year of gains.

3. Musk's xAI faces backlash after Grok generates sexualized images of children on X

   Users on X raised concerns over explicit content of minors being generated using Musk's Grok tool.

4. Tesla reports 418,227 deliveries for the fourth quarter, down 16%

   Tesla's fourth-quarter deliveries report follows a steep rally in the company's stock in the last few months of 2025.

5. Buffett hands over the reins, the stock market's losing streak, airline class wars and more in Morning Squawk

   Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day.

6. China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s top EV seller for the first time

   The milestone caps an extraordinary rise for BYD, a company Tesla's Elon Musk once dismissed by laughing at their products.

7. Baidu’s semiconductor unit Kunlunxin files for Hong Kong listing amid AI chip boom in China

   Baidu has announced plans to spin off its artificial intelligence chip subsidiary, Kunlunxin, and list the new firm on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

8. Bernie Sanders and Ron DeSantis speak out against data center boom. It's a bad sign for AI industry

   Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for a data center moratoriu, while Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed back on the AI industry in Florida.

9. Dust to data centers: The year AI tech giants, and billions in debt, began remaking the American landscape

   Big Tech is remaking the U.S. map into an AI empire — kingdom-scale data centers, unprecedented debt, power constraints, and a near-religious belief in scaling.

10. Google wraps up best year on Wall Street since 2009, beating megacap peers as AI story strengthens

    Shares of Alphabet rallied in 2025 as the company responded to skepticism of its position in artificial intelligence with new products that excited investors.