Top stories today:

1. Google unveils Universal Commerce Protocol for AI shopping agents
2. Claude for Healthcare launched by Anthropic with HIPAA-ready tools
3. DeepSeek said to ready next-gen V4 AI model by mid-Feb.
4. Powell says DOJ threatened Fed with criminal indictment
5. a16z raises $15B to build $90B power broker shaping tech, capital
6. Amazon said to revive big-box retail plans with Chicago-area store

0. Calendar

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):

1. Google unveils Universal Commerce Protocol for AI shopping agents

UCP was co-developed with Shopify, Walmart, and Target, and backed by 20+ commerce and payments partners:

• The open standard lets AI agents operate across multiple stages of the buying process.

• It interoperates with other agentic protocols, including AP2 and MCP.

• Google plans to use UCP for eligible product listings in AI Mode and Gemini apps.

• Personalized ads are also coming to AI Mode, Google announced.

• Walmart has also partnered with Google to let users buy items directly on Gemini.

• Walmart will also expand Wing’s drone delivery to 150 more stores, reaching 270+ locations and ~10% of the U.S. population.

2. Claude for Healthcare launched by Anthropic with HIPAA-ready tools, following OpenAI

• Targets healthcare providers, insurers, and consumers.

• Builds on Claude for Life Sciences, focused on research and drug discovery.

• Powered by Opus 4.5 with extended reasoning capabilities.

• Supports tasks like checking clinical criteria against patient records, pulling CMS or custom coverage rules, and speeding up claims and appeals.

• Claude for Life Sciences has also added new connectors to Medidata, ClinicalTrials.gov, bioRxiv, medRxiv, Open Targets, ChEMBL, and Owkin.

4. DeepSeek said to ready next-gen V4 AI model with stronger coding by mid-Feb.