Days before launching Operation Epic Fury on February 28, US President Donald Trump was reportedly warned by then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would backfire by installing a more hardline successor eager for nuclear weapons.

Gabbard briefed Trump that attack on Iran will trigger the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, destabilize global energy markets, and prompt Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces and Gulf allies.

Despite these explicit intelligence assessments and similar cautions from Vice President JD Vance and senior military leaders regarding potential casualties and depleted stockpiles, Trump proceeded with the strikes, persuaded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine who argued for decisive military strikes.

The war has resulted in the death of Khamenei on the first day but failed to topple the regime or achieve a quick resolution as initially promised. The conflict is in its sixth month with 18 U.S. service members killed, 3,000 Iranians dead, and significant economic fallout including high oil prices and damaged American assets.

Gabbard, who had previously clashed with Trump over Iran’s nuclear timeline and was sidelined from pre-war planning, left the administration in May 2026, while the White House now faces pressure from Gulf allies and domestic political concerns to end a war that intelligence had predicted would have unwieldy consequences.

SpaceX and Nvidia have officially partnered to deploy a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system into orbit, with the first launch targeted for Q4 2027 and significant scaling planned for 2028.

Announced on Monday, this initiative marks the first attempt to place a full rack-scale AI training and inference node in space, extending Nvidia's terrestrial "AI factory" architecture to SpaceX's Starmind satellite constellation. CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company will exclusively use Nvidia hardware going forward, citing the Vera Rubin architecture as the "best AI computer" available for both ground and orbital operations.

The orbital system leverages the Vera Rubin NVL72 platform, which integrates 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs connected via NVLink 6 into a shared-memory fabric. The Vera CPU, described as the first processor built specifically for AI agents, features 88 custom Olympus cores and 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth, claimed to complete agent tasks 1.8 times faster than comparable x86 processors. This infrastructure is intended to power the next generation of Grok's agentic AI applications, handling complex orchestration, code execution, and data processing directly in orbit to keep GPUs fully utilized.

The system aims to deliver up to 25 times more AI compute per GPU than previous space-based solutions like the H100, enabling real-time processing for geospatial intelligence and autonomous operations without relying on ground stations.

The core of this project is the Starmind AI satellite, which will house the adapted Vera Rubin NVL72 rack. Unlike traditional racks, this space-optimized version is designed to be simpler, lower cost, denser, and lighter, addressing unique orbital constraints such as power draw, thermal dissipation, radiation hardening, and physical integration.

This partnership extends xAI's infrastructure strategy, powering the Grok AI model both on Earth and in space. "SpaceX, in partnership with Nvidia, has designed a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system for launch to orbit in Q4 next year, with significant scale in 2028," Musk said. He has also said in a past X post the design is simpler, lower cost, and denser than traditional racks, making it suitable for both terrestrial gigawatt-scale data centers and orbital deployment.

This move aims to bypass terrestrial constraints like grid interconnect timelines and cooling limits while creating a unified computing ecosystem across Earth and orbit.

"@SpaceX is deploying NVIDIA Vera to accelerate the orchestration, code execution, and data processing that powers its next generation of agentic AI — keeping GPUs fed and agents acting fast. From gigawatt AI factories to orbit. One NVIDIA architecture, everywhere" Nvidia wrote on X.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian on Thursday, firmly rejected U.S. efforts to isolate Iran economically, stating that "sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue." Beijing opposed what it termed "illegal unilateral sanctions" that lack a basis in international law or authorization from the UN Security Council.

Instead, China called on all parties to "take responsible measures" and resolve the Middle East conflict through "political and diplomatic means."

"China always believes military actions, sanctioning, pressuring do not help solve the problem; it only builds up the tensions in the current situation," Lin said. "China opposes any illegal, unilateral sanctions without authorization of the UN Security Council... We urge the relevant party to solve the current dispute through negotiations and dialogue."

This rebuke came in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of an "economic D-Day" and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s vow to impose the "toughest sanctions in history" to "collapse" the Iranian regime.

The Treasury secretary is explicitly targeting third-party nations buying Iranian oil or enabling capital flows—aiming much of this pressure directly at China, Iran's largest trade partner. He warned that any state extending a "lifeline" to Tehran would feel the "full force of the U.S. Treasury."

Bessent urged China to "get with the program," arguing that Beijing’s reliance on Gulf energy supplies would be served by joining the campaign.

However, Beijing maintained that such coercive tactics are ineffective and contrary to the interests of all parties involved.

Trump has also touted U.S. Central Command's (CENTCOM) naval blockade as "extremely effective" at cutting off Iranian shipping, while claiming the Strait of Hormuz remains "open and operating" under U.S. oversight. Tehran countered that it maintains operational control over the waterway, imposing transit fees and alternative routes while characterizing Washington's blockade as illegal "economic terrorism."

While the U.S. claims control over the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials have called the blockade and sanctions "economic terrorism" and vowed that the Strait will remain closed until the U.S. meets Iran's conditions.

"14 years ago: 'Most crippling sanctions in history.' Failed. 8 years ago: 'Maximum pressure.' Failed. 5 months ago: 'Unconditional surrender.' Failed. Today: Most crushing economic operation ever. Bound to fail. We have seen this movie before. Same bull. Different bullies," Iran Foreign Minister

The conflict between the U.S. and Iran is in its sixth month and peace talks have stalled, with Washington shifting from military strikes to economic warfare after military objectives proved unrealistic.