Daily Tech & GNSS News Digest - February 5, 2026

The tech selloff that began with software stocks has now engulfed the entire sector, with a trillion-dollar wipeout spreading from Silicon Valley to Asia. Alphabet’s record $185 billion AI spending plan failed to calm investors, while Bitcoin crashed toward $60,000 in its worst drawdown since the FTX collapse. In GNSS news, Furuno and Xona Space Systems announced a partnership to bring LEO PNT into timing applications—a critical step for infrastructure resilience.

Tech News

Trillion-Dollar Tech Wipeout Spreads Globally as AI Fears Intensify

The tech selloff intensified Thursday as hundreds of billions more were wiped from stocks, bonds, and loans across Silicon Valley. The S&P 500 fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 posted its worst three-day rout since April’s meltdown. Software stocks remained at the epicenter—the iShares software ETF has lost nearly $1 trillion in value over the past seven days.

Asian markets bore the brunt overnight as the selloff spread. Bloomberg’s Asia Trade reported a “tech wipeout weighing on Asian stocks,” with Japan’s software firms and India’s IT sector extending losses. The S&P 500 software group has now plunged more than 25% since reaching an all-time high in October.

Apple proved a notable exception, rising 1.8% while the Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.4%—its widest outperformance in a year. Investors view Apple as a safe haven amid AI disruption fears, with the stock up nearly 6% in February while the broader index has fallen 3.3%. The M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros remain on track for an “imminent” launch, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Alphabet Announces Record $185 Billion AI Spending Despite Beat on Earnings

Alphabet reported strong Q4 earnings—revenue up 18% to $113.8 billion and net income surging 30% to $34.5 billion—but shocked investors with plans to spend $175–185 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026. That’s roughly double the $91.4 billion invested in 2025 and far exceeds Wall Street’s $119.5 billion estimate.

The spending will fund AI compute capacity for Google DeepMind and meet “significant cloud customer demand.” Alphabet’s cloud business posted stellar results, surging 48% to $17.7 billion—its fastest growth in over four years. CEO Sundar Pichai noted that Gemini now has 750 million monthly active users, up from 650 million last quarter.

Shares initially plunged 6% in after-hours trading before recovering to trade down about 1% by Wednesday’s close. Pichai emphasized efficiency gains: “We lowered Gemini serving unit costs by 78% over 2025 through model optimizations, efficiency and utilization improvements.” But investors remain focused on whether the massive spending will generate returns.

Bitcoin Crashes Toward $60,000 in Worst Drawdown Since FTX

Bitcoin tumbled more than 12% Thursday, crashing below $64,000 in its steepest one-day decline since the FTX collapse in November 2022. The cryptocurrency has now fallen nearly 50% from its October high of around $126,000, with over $950 million in crypto positions liquidated in 24 hours.

The selloff accelerated after Bitcoin broke below its 1,000-day exponential moving average for the first time since 2023—a technical signal that often marks the transition from bull market to bear market. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, fell over 17% as the cryptocurrency sank below its average acquisition price.

“As Bitcoin continues its slide toward the psychological barrier of $70,000, it’s clear the crypto market is now in full capitulation mode,” said Coin Bureau’s Nic Puckrin. Stifel’s Barry Bannister predicted Bitcoin could ultimately bottom around $38,000—down 70% from recent highs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the U.S. government cannot step in to support cryptocurrencies in a crash.

Additional Headlines

ARM Data Center Surge: ARM Holdings reported data center royalty revenue growing over 100% year-over-year, with the segment expected to become larger than mobile “in a few years.” Neoverse CPUs have surpassed 1 billion cores deployed.
Qualcomm Memory Crunch: Qualcomm beat Q1 estimates but gave weak Q2 guidance, citing memory chip shortages as data center demand crowds out smartphone production. Shares fell 8% after hours.
January Layoffs Hit 2009 Levels: U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs in January—up 118% year-over-year and the highest since 2009. Amazon alone cut 16,000 jobs as companies cited AI as a key driver.
Meta Reality Labs Cuts: Meta laid off approximately 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division, continuing the shift of resources toward AI infrastructure.

GNSS News

Furuno and Xona Partner to Bring LEO PNT into Timing Markets

Furuno has signed a memorandum of understanding with Xona Space Systems to develop products integrating Xona’s Pulsar low Earth orbit positioning, navigation and timing (LEO PNT) service, with a particular focus on timing and synchronization applications. The companies announced the partnership on February 3.

Xona’s Pulsar constellation—approximately 258 satellites in the 500–2,000 km orbital band—delivers signals roughly 100 times stronger than traditional MEO GNSS, providing critical resilience against jamming and spoofing. The signal structure is intentionally GNSS-like, enabling integration via firmware updates to existing multi-band receiver designs rather than requiring complete hardware redesigns.

Furuno explicitly linked the initiative to U.S. policy priorities on PNT resilience, including Executive Order 13905. The focus on timing aligns with how many operators are approaching LEO PNT: timing for critical infrastructure and networks is often the first operational use case, with full position/velocity integration following as receiver designs mature. The partnership builds on prior technical collaboration, including a joint paper on tight GNSS/LEO/INS integration presented at an ION GNSS+ conference.

JAVAD GNSS Launches TR-2S LEO for Space Applications

JAVAD GNSS announced the TR-2S LEO on January 16—a compact GNSS OEM board specifically designed and tested for Low Earth Orbit applications. The receiver delivers extreme accuracy, rapid ephemeris lock, and protection against jammers and spoofers, making it suited for the growing LEO satellite market.

The TR-2S features 874 channels for all-in-view satellite tracking across GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS, IRNSS, L-Band, and SBAS. The compact form factor—just 55 x 40 x 11 mm weighing 21 grams—makes it ideal for space-constrained satellite platforms. JAVAD GNSS boards already have significant space heritage, including the navigation system for ESA’s Vega launch vehicle.

The launch targets the booming small satellite sector, where space-capable GNSS receivers are in high demand for precision orbit determination. JAVAD OEM solutions have been flight-qualified by multiple organizations for launch vehicles and high-dynamic aerospace applications, serving customers in land, sea, air, and on-orbit LEO operations.

Hexagon NovAtel Ships OEM7 Firmware for Challenging Environments

Hexagon | NovAtel released version 7.10.00 firmware for its OEM7 GNSS receiver family, delivering up to 20% improvement in position solution availability and up to 48% improvement in 3D position error under challenging conditions when paired with SPAN GNSS+INS technology.

The new “high availability” tracking mode targets scenarios including mixed urban corridors, tree canopy operation, and regions affected by ionospheric scintillation. Test data shows significant gains in PPP and RTK performance where signal visibility is intermittent and multipath is severe.

Key Takeaways

Tech Selloff Deepens: What started as AI disruption fears in software stocks has spread to the entire tech sector, with the Nasdaq 100 posting its worst three-day rout since April—but Apple’s safe-haven status and ARM’s data center surge suggest the damage isn’t universal.
AI Spending Race Accelerates: Alphabet’s $185 billion capex plan signals hyperscalers are doubling down on AI infrastructure despite investor concerns about returns—the gap between spending and proven revenue is widening the risk premium on tech.
LEO PNT Enters Production Phase: The Furuno-Xona timing partnership marks a shift from experimentation to commercial integration, positioning LEO PNT as the critical backup layer for infrastructure timing as GNSS jamming threats intensify globally.