Listen to today’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silk-logic-small-business-daily/id1841930957
Small Business Daily Podcast — January 11, 2026
Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories:
Everything we know about how Wall Street’s biggest firms, from JPMorgan to Blackstone, are adopting AI
Finance heavyweights are rapidly embedding generative AI to boost productivity and cut costs, from JPMorgan’s enterprise rollouts and in-house Proxy IQ platform to Goldman’s efficiency drive and Citi’s developer-hour savings. Hedge funds and asset managers are deploying internal chatbots, AI-driven funds, and agentic platforms, while PE firms and fintechs are using AI to source deals, accelerate coding, and streamline diligence. The message is clear: AI is becoming table stakes across the money industry.
OpenAI, SoftBank invest $1 billion in Stargate partner SB Energy
OpenAI and SoftBank will each invest $500 million in SB Energy, which will build and operate OpenAI’s 1.2GW Texas data center as part of a broader race to secure power for AI. The deal aligns with OpenAI’s Stargate initiative to massively expand U.S. AI infrastructure. Expect increased competition around energy sourcing, data-center development, and long-term power contracts.
CES 2026: From digital to physical, AI is touching every aspect of consumer life
AI flooded the CES show floor—from home robots and personalized sleep systems to driverless, data-rich mobility—against a backdrop of tariffs and shifting global supply chains. Bosch, Nvidia, and LG showed how “physical AI” and hyper-personalization may define the next wave of consumer products. The throughline: AI is moving from screens into devices that adapt to your daily life.
Hidden gems: the top startups at CES 2026 that caught our eye
Standouts included a pocket food-allergy tester, Subtle’s Voicebuds for whisper-quiet recording, a revived Pebble smartwatch line, and even an AI-powered bartender. We also saw privacy-first voice masks, color-changing nails, AI jewelry, and a soft-gel molding tool. Together they point to focused, hardware-plus-AI niches where small teams can break through.
AI comes of age while some of its founders are yet to
Investors say the average age of AI founders is dropping into the 20s as coding agents lower build barriers and job insecurity nudges more students into startups. From YC-backed Anytool to Mercor’s young billionaire founders, VCs are adapting their models to spot non-obvious talent earlier. Expect faster iteration cycles and a premium on distribution over pedigree.
India AI Mission fuels startup ecosystem, strengthens push to make India a global AI producer
Experts say India’s AI Mission is shifting the country from consumer to producer, anchored by access to more than 38,000 GPUs and government-backed compute. Founders are calling for deeper policy support to scale “built in India, for the world” solutions. For global startups and investors, it signals a fast-maturing market and new partnership opportunities.
Cognitive Science students pitch health tech, AI assistants to investors
UC Berkeley’s BASICS Pitch Day showcased AR stroke rehabilitation, supply-chain disruption modeling, diabetes management tools, a cognitive time coach, and executive AI dashboards. The course blends cognitive science with entrepreneurial training, helping students turn research into products. It’s a preview of the AI-native talent pipeline heading to industry.
InfiniteGPU is a platform that enables effortless exchange of compute resources for AI workloads
InfiniteGPU proposes a marketplace where requestors run ONNX-based inference or training across a distributed network while providers monetize idle GPUs, NPUs, and CPUs. With Stripe-powered payments, real-time orchestration, and a native Windows client, it aims to lower infrastructure costs and broaden access to compute. If it scales, this model could ease one of AI’s biggest bottlenecks: affordable, available hardware.
Amazon plans to build big-box store near Chicago
Amazon is pursuing a 229,000-square-foot big-box concept while pushing Bee, its “ambient AI” wearable that turns conversations into actionable tasks and insights. The retail experiment tests a broader one-stop format as Bee adds proactive features like email drafting and calendar integration. It underscores how AI is reshaping both physical stores and personal devices to anticipate consumer needs.
Bottom line
From Wall Street’s AI rollout and India’s national push to power and compute infrastructure, the week’s stories show AI moving from pilots to platforms—and from screens to physical products. For operators and founders, that means new moats in energy and compute access, fresh niches in AI-infused consumer hardware, and a younger, faster-moving talent pool. The opportunity now is to pair smart distribution with the right infrastructure bets as AI becomes the default layer across industries.
