Happy Monday, N2K reader!

Let’s start with a tweet, shall we?

Margaret Lea won last week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ with this beauty about your AI companion not being your real friend.

Congratulations, Margaret! Here’s your celebratory gif:

And here’s how y’all voted on the competition:

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ All things considered | I’d prefer an AI friend | To an AI foe ~ Jon Daigle (133)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Siri tell me please | You love me and won’t leave me | Unlike my ex-wives ~ Bob Andersen (34)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I am on the mend | I have a brand new friend | She is really me ~ Karen O'Donnell (44)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ AI is honest | where my other friends are not | who is my real friend ~ Steve (12)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 AI can’t hug you, or keep you close in its heart. It doesn’t have one. ~ Margaret Lea (156)

379 Votes via @beehiiv polls

This week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ is about how China’s BYD has overtaken Tesla as the world’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles. I believe you — yes, you, dear reader! — can craft an incredible haiku on the subject. Send me your entry — to our spiffy new email address, haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET Thursday for consideration by your Cheddar peers!

—Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

• What ‘running’ Venezuela will do to the U.S. stock …

• China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s leading ele …

• Tech bros are all going shoeless in the office now

• The BlackBerry is back! Or … is it?

• OpenAI bets big on audio in the war on screens

• Is AI automating jobs or just creating excuses for …

• Poll of the day: Shoeless office, bro?

What’s the stock market up to, eh?

$SPX ( ▲ 0.64% ) $DJI ( ▲ 1.01% ) $NDX ( ▲ 0.64% )

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

$NOC ( ▼ 0.61% )  $GD ( ▲ 1.19% )  $ITA ( ▲ 1.58% )  $RTX ( ▲ 0.62% )  $LMT ( ▲ 1.91% )  $CVX ( ▼ 4.44% )  $HOOD ( ▼ 1.43% )  $VIX ( ▼ 1.48% )  $BYDDF ( ▲ 1.68% )  $TSLA ( ▼ 4.62% ) OpenAI $AAPL ( ▼ 1.75% )  

What ‘running’ Venezuela will do to the U.S. stock market

On December 18 I wrote a Need2Know story entitled “how a war with Venezuela might help your stocks,” and while it was certainly #NotFinancialAdvice, or intended to be an act of prophecy, it turns out it was perhaps unwittingly a bit of both, which is yet another reason why you might send this newsletter to a bunch of your mates today and tell them to subscribe! I.e,. profit/prophet!

The portfolio I outlined is up 4.44% over the period since then, even with one of those stocks (Lockheed) falling 10%, compared to the S&P 500 $SPX ( ▲ 0.64% ) , which is up just 1.2% over the same couple of weeks:

On Saturday I also bought $100 worth of Chevron $CVX ( ▼ 4.44% ) stock on Robinhood $HOOD ( ▼ 1.43% ) , since they’re the only oil major U.S. oil company with significant, active operations in Venezuela. Again, that’s #RequiredDisclosure, #NotFinancialAdvice, but let’s see what happens to their stock at the opening bell this morning 📈. I bet the performance will be almost as impressive as the newly created Polymarket account that appeared to invest $30,000 on Friday night in Nicolas Maduro's exit. After Maduro went into custody Saturday, that same investor netted more than $400,000.

But what does it mean for investors that America appears to be “running” Venezuela now, since the operation in the small hours on Saturday morning to capture the country’s president and bring him to New York for trial on, let’s say, various charges?

Short-term spikes in certain stocks aside, this [waves hands about] means uncertainty for the markets. The biggest metric to watch over coming days is the VIX $VIX ( ▼ 1.48% )  gauge, or volatility index, or (let’s be honest) the “fear gauge,” as investors weigh the potential for a “quick win” versus a quagmire for U.S. interests. Speaking of which, when was the last time we didn’t have a quagmire? Grenada?

Protesters voiced their outrage in, of all places, Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere over the weekend, but perhaps the most predictable critic of the move was [checks notes] French fascist leader Marine Le Pen:

In other words, nobody is acting predictably in response to the news, and that’s likely to carry over into Your Stock Portfolio™. Will it be up? Will it be down? I honestly don’t know, mate, and if I did, you can bet I’d be lying on a beach right now instead of knocking out this reasonably high-quality newsletter five days a week.

“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart also pointed out the eerie parallels between rhetoric about Venezuela and Iraq in the run-up do the 2003 war:

Meanwhile over the weekend, financial reporters all over the world were trying to roust an analyst willing to say anything definitive about what the situation in Venezuela will do for the markets. But since so many said the tariffs last year were going to really upset the apple cart, and then they didn’t, such analysts do appear to have gotten a little more cautious about making strong predictions either way.

“The overall market reaction will be muted,” said one analyst. “Markets sometimes swing into risk-off mode on expectations of conflict, but once the conflict starts, they rotate quickly to risk-on,” said another. Perhaps the most bullish investment response comes from Tina Fordham, an analyst in London, who told Reuters:

Animal spirits! A bonanza! 😻

Hold on…what’s that about Iran? Never mind: That’s a mañana problem.

In Venezuela, outstanding critical questions for investors include: Who will get paid out first on the $170 billion in outstanding Venezuelan government debt? If the U.S. is “running” the country, does this mean contracts signed today will be legally binding under future sovereign Venezuelan law, or could they be nullified as unconstitutional once a local government takes full control? How fast can the country ramp up oil production? How will the situation impact Chinese and Russian deals with Venezuela to trade oil for debt? And how stable is Venezuela as a whole? Can a transition government guarantee the physical safety of pipelines and refineries without a permanent and expensive military presence, or will the country descend into civil war between pro-Maduro forces and various guerrilla factions taking advantage of the chaos?

Meanwhile the U.S. Secret Service is ramping up for a 20% surge in staffing. It’s a stable job as long as you’re prepared to launch yourself into the line of fire, Clint Eastwood–style. I’ll stick with “journalism,” thanks.

China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer

Tesla’s $TSLA ( ▼ 4.62% ) decade-long dominance in the electric vehicle market is no more, as the firm’s annual sales declined by 9% in 2025, paving the way for Chinese rival BYD $BYDDF ( ▲ 1.68% ) to officially claim the global lead — shipping a record 2.26 million battery-electric vehicles.

The shift reflects a year defined by stiff overseas competition and a customer revolt linked to CEO Elon Musk’s politics. Analysts also highlighted the expiration of the $7,500 federal tax credit in late 2025 as a significant headwind.

Despite the cooling numbers, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives remains focused on the future, telling TechCrunch that Wall Street is "laser focused on the autonomous chapter kicking off in 2026” — perhaps explaining why Tesla’s stock was relatively unaffected by the news, because investors are all about self-driving electric cars, now, and Tesla is widely regarded as innovating successfully in the field despite killing a few people.

BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu acknowledged that the company's technological headstart has "diminished" in a crowded market, but he remains confident in his "120,000-strong engineering team" to maintain their new lead. Meanwhile, Tesla is doubling down on software. An analyst at TD Cowen noted that as Tesla rolls out "eyes-off features and expands sull self-driving capability," it should "generate more demand for their vehicles."

For now, the era of Tesla as the undisputed EV king has paused, leaving 2026 as, potentially, a defining year for the company’s robotaxi ambitions.

Song of the Day: Jill Scott, ‘Beautiful People’

One of my favorite songs ever is Jill Scott’s “Getting in the Way,” about a woman fending off a rival’s advances toward her boyfriend. It features the following incredible line about preparing to punch her rival in a boxing match…

🎶 “Queens shouldn’t swing if you know what I mean, but I’m about to take my earrings off, get me some Vaseline.” 🎶

Poetic. Now we’re seeing the first new album in 11 years from this queen of music royalty, whose “Beautiful People” teaser track offers a hypnotic, funk-inspired bass-line, not to mention the classic R&B sound that put her on the map. No punches to be thrown this time, though. It carries a message of love and togetherness, just like this newsletter. Listen to it here.

Tech bros are all going shoeless in the office now

Ah, startup culture. Just when you thought "996" — working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — couldn’t get any more soul-draining, here comes Silicon Valley’s latest masterpiece: the “no shoes” trend. The secret to world-changing innovation lies, it seems, in forcing employees to pad around the office in socks or branded flip-flops like they’re on a spa retreat, except with 12-hour coding marathons instead of massages.

Take startups like Cursor, Replo, and Composite, who have embraced this genius idea, according to the New York Times, which profiles noshoes.fun (yes, it’s a real website and I warn you that it might trigger, let’s say, strong emotions if you click through), where these tech darlings are replacing sneakers with slippers to create a “second home” vibe.

CEO Sneha Sivakumar of Spur, a start-up with a no-shoes policy, has hailed it as “disarming in a positive way.” A bit like your friend’s mom hitting on you at a Christmas party, depending of course on how hot she is.

I prefer the disarming joy of a reasonable work schedule, myself. These offices may smell like a mix of Febreze and sweaty feet, but at least their workers will feel “comfortable” working through the next 10 p.m. product launch. They’re idiots, as I suspect you’ll tell me in our poll of the day. Or will you?

Quote of the Day

The BlackBerry is back! Or … is it?

Ah, the BlackBerry™. The phone that once ruled the hands of Wall Street executives and anyone else with two thumbs who wanted to bash out a work email on a date with speed and precision. Guess what? In 2026, a company called Clicks just couldn’t resist the urge to drag this relic from its grave. Enter: their “take” on the BlackBerry smartphone, which obviously they insist is not based on a BlackBerry; in fact they don’t even mention BlackBerries, because then lawyers tend get involved. But: Look at it! What do you think?

It’s a BlackBerry¹ .

It’s also an eye-watering $499, which is still half an iPhone because we are all nuts.

In a world dominated by iPhones and Samsungs, Clicks has dared to say, “What if we made phones clunkier?” (They’re not the only ones.) I swear this is halfway toward my 2026 prediction of phone companies releasing a block of wood and calling it the UnPhone but whatever. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing. Some legacies are better left where they belong — in 2008.

Should you check your 401(k) today?

👍️ 

Yes, markets were up a tad yesterday.

OpenAI bets big on audio in the war on screens

OpenAI’s latest push into audio AI marks a decisive move toward a future where, they hope, we talk to our devices instead of tapping them. Personally, I think this is, let’s say, ambitious, because in frustration I threw my Alexa out of the window into the street as I was typing this.

I’ve heard “I’m afraid I can’t help you with that, but would you like me to play you a selection of tracks from Amazon music?” for the last time.

According to The Information, OpenAI has unified teams to overhaul its audio models, all in preparation for an audio-first personal device expected to launch in 2026. With this leap into audio, the company joins a growing wave in Silicon Valley that views voice as the interface of the future. OpenAI says its upcoming audio model promises to behave more like a true conversational partner — interrupting gracefully, speaking while you’re talking, and sounding more natural.

See above about throwing my Alexa out of the window and tell me what’s changed.

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive, now involved in OpenAI’s hardware efforts, said audio-first design is a chance to “right the wrongs” of past consumer tech and tackle device addiction head-on. Good luck Jony. I saw he’d appeared on “Desert Island Discs” recently and chortled. So much for “996.”

Is AI automating jobs or just creating excuses for layoffs?

I guess it depends on whether you trust your company’s bosses to make smart, evidence-based decisions — and I know you’re going to tell me you totally do.

As AI technology accelerates, so do the concerns about its impact on jobs. Unsurprisingly, recent findings and predictions suggest there’s plenty of reason for workers to worry. A November MIT study estimated that 11.7% of jobs could already be automated with current AI capabilities. Pair that with surveys revealing employers are cutting entry-level roles and pointing to AI-driven layoffs, and you have a picture of a workforce under threat.

“I think on the flip side of seeing an incremental increase in AI budgets, we’ll see more human labor get cut and layoffs will continue to aggressively impact the U.S. employment rate,” said Marell Evans, founder of Exceptional Capital, talking with our friends at TechCrunch.

And this trend doesn’t seem likely to slow down. Antonia Dean, a partner at the not at all sinister-sounding Black Operator Ventures, pointed out, “Many enterprises, despite how ready or not they are to successfully use AI solutions, will say they are increasing their investments in AI to explain why they are cutting back spending in other areas or trimming workforces… AI will become the scapegoat for executives looking to cover for past mistakes.”

Others, like Eric Bahn of Hustle Fund, foresee big changes but question what they will look like. “Is it going to lead to more layoffs? Higher productivity? Or will AI just augment the labor market to be more productive? All of this seems unanswered,” he said.

Despite promises from AI companies that automation will shift workers to higher-skilled tasks, VCs like Jason Mendel at Battery Ventures anticipate a more abrupt change by 2026. “2026 will be the year of agents as software expands from making humans more productive to automating work itself,” he said. 

Whether this is a productivity revolution or the likely harbinger of widespread job displacement, it’s obvious that big changes lie ahead for workers this year.

Poll of the day: Shoeless office, bro?

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