PRISM Weekly Digest: First Week of March 2026

Mar Week 1, 2026 | Oil Doubled. A Game Boy Hit $1B. Nothing Went as Planned.

This week, everything moved in the wrong direction.

Oil doubled in two months. From $54 to $108. As the U.S.-Iran war threatened the Strait of Hormuz, markets panicked. Bitcoin — supposed "digital gold" — collapsed alongside stocks instead of rising above them.

The same week, the man who builds autonomous weapons built a Game Boy and hit a $1 billion valuation. And a 125-year-old invention — the hybrid car — started outselling the electric vehicles that were supposed to replace it.

The future isn't a straight line. This week proved it again.

$108 — Double in Two Months

Week two of Operation Epic Fury. The U.S.-Iran war is becoming a prolonged conflict, not the quick strike Washington planned. After Khamenei's death, his son Mojtaba was named successor — but the regime didn't collapse. Trump played the ground forces card and publicly rejected Britain's offer of carrier support: "We don't need them."

The war hit markets hard. WTI crude surged 19.1%19.1% in a single session to $108.35 per barrel. Brent topped $107. The Nikkei plunged over 6%6%. U.S. stock futures dropped nearly 2%2%. The Strait of Hormuz — carrying over 20%20% of the world's seaborne oil — faced a real blockade threat.

Iran's oil depots were bombed. Iraqi oil production collapsed. Six Gulf states came under simultaneous attack. Asian central banks, including South Korea's, were trapped between fighting inflation and supporting growth — with no good options left.

Meanwhile, China was playing an entirely different game. Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Europe to "join the gym" of China's market. While America was consumed by war, Beijing declared a multipolar world order and courted European allies.

Weapons and Game Boys, From the Same Hands

The tech world saw its own set of reversals.

Palmer Luckey — the man who sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion and founded $60 billion defense startup Anduril — spent 17 years perfecting a Game Boy. His retro gaming startup ModRetro is now raising at a $1 billion valuation. The Verge called his Chromatic console "the best Game Boy ever made." The uncomfortable question lingers: can you enjoy pure nostalgia from a weapons maker's hands?

At OpenAI, robotics lead Caitlin Kalinowski resigned over the company's Pentagon deal. Last week, Anthropic refused that military AI contract; OpenAI grabbed it within 48 hours. This week, the internal cost of that choice became visible. A person left because of where the line was drawn — or wasn't.

In the auto industry, the reversal was even more dramatic. The hybrid car — a concept Ferdinand Porsche invented in 1900 — is beating cutting-edge EVs. U.S. hybrid market share jumped from 4%4% in 2021 to over 10%10% by 2025. GM, Ford, and Volkswagen walked back EV timelines while Toyota and Hyundai-Kia's dual-track strategies proved prescient.

This Week's Records

Through all the noise, K-Pop kept writing records.

IVE claimed their 7th music show win for pre-release track "Bang Bang." The pre-release outperforming the title track is becoming a new formula. BLACKPINK's 'DEADLINE' debuted at No. 11 on the UK Official Albums Chart — their fourth UK charting entry. Stray Kids' 'Back Door,' released in 2020, crossed 400 million YouTube views — a song from six years ago still setting milestones.

The drama scene was equally hot. Park Shin Hye's 'Undercover Miss Hong' reclaimed the No. 1 spot on buzzworthy rankings ahead of its finale, while 'The Practical Guide to Love' hit its all-time rating high on the same night. Red Velvet's Irene announced her first full solo album 'Biggest Fan' for March 30 — twelve years after debut. And Kep1er confirmed a late-March comeback with 'CRACK CODE.'