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BANDPASS
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February 21, 2026 · 2 min read
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Independent editorial ·
Methodology |
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Bandpass is independently written.
SectorHQ funds this issue so it stays free.
No editorial control. |
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Anthropic grabbed the headlines. Sony grabbed the momentum.
Sony climbed 55 places in seven days (#85 → #30) on 11 mentions from 106 publishers. Sony at 11 mentions - credible signal, needs a second week to confirm. Separately, OpenAI and Anthropic were the pair mentioned together most (20 shared mentions) - the overlap to watch. ★ Oddity: Sony went from obscurity to the top 30 in a single week. What this signals Signal Sony's coverage is still thin. Watch whether it sustains next week or fades. Mechanism Disney is also breaking out. Multiple surprise movers at once usually means a category is re-rating, not just one company. Implication Second-order watch: Western Digital is rising alongside Sony. When one breakout pulls others, the signal is in the category. |
What this is:
Bandpass is a daily brief on what’s materially happening across AI, startups, and
markets, built from thousands of publishers and scored for momentum.
Key:
Momentum is a 0 - 100 score for how much the AI sector is being talked about right now,
based on news volume, product launch pace, and overall tone.
Velocity = change vs yesterday.
Rank #1 = most momentum.
A mention is one news item where a company appears.
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Today's 3 tells ▸Product launches up 197% (803 this week vs 270 prior).
Why: Release cadence is compressing. Market-share land-grab behaviour. ▸Sony: #85 → #30 on 11 mentions (7d).
Read: Sony at 11 mentions - credible signal, needs a second week to confirm. Watch for follow-through next week. ▸Momentum 57 (Steady State) - 15,053 mentions vs 15,324 last week.
Note: Holding pattern. Volume shifted but the composite barely moved - noise, not signal. SO WHAT?
Investors: High launch velocity usually precedes category consolidation. Watch for bundles and platform tie-ups in the next 7 days.
Builders: Ship faster and borrow distribution. In a launch race the bundlers win. |
Presented by SectorHQ (sponsor)
SectorHQ is a live dashboard that tracks which AI companies
and products are getting the most attention across 106+ publishers.
No editorial control.
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Explore the live board →
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The one-line takeaway
Anthropic got the headlines this week. Sony got the momentum. Watch which one matters more.
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The forward
“Product launches up 197%. When everyone ships at once, distribution moats become the differentiator.”
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Sony had the biggest move in AI this week, up 55 places (#85 → #30). Why it matters: companies outside the usual top 5 are drawing serious attention. (Momentum 57/100, 15,053 mentions)
Copy for Slack: Sony had the biggest move in AI this week, up 55 places (#85 → #30). Why it matters: companies outside the usual top 5 are drawing serious attention. (Momentum 57/100, 15,053 mentions) https://bandpass.news/intelligence/2026-02-21
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Live snapshot · 08:00 GMT
Momentum 57 (Steady State) high Velocity (change vs yesterday) + sentiment + launch pace in a single score. Higher = more activity converging at once. Top mover (24h): Disney up 4 placesmedium Biggest rank move in the last 24 hours. Single-day moves need follow-through to confirm. Fastest-rising term: "Standard" new (20 mentions, 24h) high This term surged vs its baseline. 20 mentions across independent publishers in 24 hours. This week's hottest pairing: OpenAI ↔ Anthropic (20 shared mentions) high Another thing we noticed: OpenAI and Anthropic showed up together most this week (20 shared mentions). When the same pair keeps appearing, attention is clustering.
Confidence: HIGH = 10+ publishers confirm ·
MED = 5-9 publishers ·
LOW = emerging signal, verify next week.
Full methodology |
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Investor lens
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Our read: The release calendar is getting crowded. 803 product launches is a land-grab pace.
We’re wrong if most launches are minor updates. Real launch races produce category-defining products.
| Dark horse → Sony → +55 places on 11 mentions in 7 days | attention clustering → OpenAI, Anthropic → 20 shared mentions this week |
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The Trade · next 7 days
Watch: Launch velocity (803 this week). If it holds, consolidation announcements follow.
We're wrong if: Launch volume drops below 401 next week - these were incremental updates, not a real cycle.
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14-day news mention trend
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Daily AI news mentions holding steady over 14 days.
Daily AI news mentions across all tracked publishers. Peak day: 4,229 on Feb 10. 14-day total: 30,377.
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Momentum
Where the market is today |
As of 08:00 GMT
| 57 | Steady State 0 Cool50 Warm75 Hot100 Frenzy
Velocity flat ·
Market sentiment positive ·
803 launches
Since yesterday: launches +159
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The Lead Anthropic: Ranked #3. Covered by 4 publishers. Anthropic CEO Predicts AGI in 3 Years, Trillion-Dollar AI Economy One million tokens of context. That technical benchmark, achieved by Anthropic's new Claude Sonnet 4.6 model, signals a profound leap in AI's ability to understand, reason, and operate autonomously in complex environments. Why it's in this issue: It's a distribution move in a heavy launch cycle. Context: Anthropic ranks #3 in Power Board. Covered by 4 publishers. |
Sponsor Spotlight
SectorHQ is a live dashboard that tracks which AI companies
are getting the most attention across 100+ publishers.
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Power Board
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OpenAI LLM
7d ▼ -10% Positive
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accelerating
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194 mentions this week |
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Google Cloud
7d ▲ +1% Bullish
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accelerating
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196 mentions this week |
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Anthropic LLM
7d ▲ +4% Bullish
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steady
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141 mentions this week |
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Microsoft Cloud
7d ▲ +6% Positive
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steady
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100 mentions this week |
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Nvidia General AI
7d ▲ +9% Bullish
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accelerating
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95 mentions this week |
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Meta General AI
7d ▲ +17% Positive
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steady
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50 mentions this week |
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Amazon General AI
7d ▲ +4% Positive
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accelerating
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49 mentions this week |
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Apple General AI
7d ▲ +3% Bullish
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accelerating
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63 mentions this week |
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Breakouts & breakdowns
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HIGH CONFIDENCE (25+ mentions)
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None this week. Requires 25+ mentions to qualify.
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NEW ON RADAR (early blips, treat with caution)
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Fault lines
OpenAI and Anthropic appeared together in
20 mentions this week - the most of any tracked pair.
Also linked: Meta / Nvidia (15), AMD / Nvidia (8), Google / Apple (8).
Why it matters: 20 shared mentions across 5 tracked pairs this week. The top pair accounts for 35% of all co-mentioned volume. |
The bet: OpenAI/Anthropic co-mentioned hit 20 this week. Track whether this holds above 10 next issue.
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Second-order bets
who benefits indirectly
These are not recommendations. They are pattern-derived hypotheses from this week's data.
Enterprise AI integrators If Sony is re-rating on enterprise AI demand, the system integrators and consultancies that deploy these solutions benefit first. | AI security and compliance With 803 product launches this week, enterprises need security review and compliance tooling to evaluate them all. | Data infrastructure OpenAI and Anthropic showed up together in 20 mentions. When model providers converge on the same use cases, the data layer underneath captures value. |
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Intelligence Briefs
Microsoft bug exposes confidential emails to Copilot AI Microsoft pitched Copilot as your trusted AI assistant, a guardian of productivity. Context: Top-10 ranked company (#4). Covered by 3 publishers. | Google Unveils Gemini 3.1 Pro, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet Achieving a 77.1% score on the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark, Google's newly unveiled Gemini 3.1 Pro model demonstrates a twofold leap in reasoning... Context: Top-10 ranked company (#2). Covered by 3 publishers. | Apple Unveils Ferret-UI Lite, Camera-Equipped AirPods Pro, and AI Wearables Apple researchers have unveiled Ferret-UI Lite, a new 3B-parameter AI agent designed to understand and interact with any device's screen.. Context: Top-10 ranked company (#8). Covered by 3 publishers. | OpenAI nears $100B funding round in record-breaking deal OpenAI is nearing a monumental $100 billion funding round, a record-shattering deal poised to fuel the AI giant’s ambitious plans to build out... Context: Top-10 ranked company (#1). Covered by 2 publishers. |
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What to do this week
Builders: Anthropic led coverage this week (4 publishers). Primary publisher linked above. Investors: Western Digital jumped +212 places on 3 mentions (7d). Now #67. Watch list: Cohere dropped 101 places. (1 mention - low volume, verify with next week's data.) |
Watchpoints
next 2 weeks OpenAI/Anthropic: 20 shared mentions this week. Tracking whether co-mentioned volume holds or diverges. Western Digital: +212 places on 3 mentions (7d). Now #67. Tracking whether velocity holds next week. |
The Number 20 times OpenAI and Anthropic appeared in the same mention this week. |
