Anthropic has given investors just 48 hours to commit to its next fundraising round, which insiders say could bring in about $50 billion and close within two weeks. The company is aiming for a valuation near $900 billion—potentially higher—while gearing up for an IPO later this year. Early backers who invested in 2024 or earlier are sitting out, hoping to cash out when the stock debuts. The capital will fund Anthropic’s expanding compute infrastructure as its revenue run rate climbs toward $40 billion. Read more →

Microsoft announced on Monday that its long‑standing deal with OpenAI has been rewritten to let the AI startup sell its models on any cloud provider, including Amazon Web Services. The amendment extends Microsoft’s revenue‑share rights through 2032, removes an artificial‑general‑intelligence clause, and keeps Azure as OpenAI’s primary partner while opening the door for rivals to host the latest models. The shift follows months of tension over exclusivity and revenue terms, and it reshapes the financial and strategic stakes for both companies. Read more →

Google’s Gemini AI is now baked into Gmail, offering automated drafting, email summarization and inbox organization. Users who want to disable the assistant face two “Smart Features” toggles that not only mute Gemini but also strip away long‑standing Gmail tools such as tabbed inboxes, Smart Compose and package tracking. A deeper Workspace toggle even reaches into Drive, removing personalized search and loyalty‑card syncing, yet UI prompts repeatedly coax users back to the AI. The convoluted process has drawn criticism for its lack of transparency and for forcing a trade‑off between AI convenience and basic functionality. Read more →

OpenAI chief Sam Altman hinted that a next‑generation model, GPT‑6, is already in the works, adding a tongue‑in‑cheek remark that it should come with “extra goblins.” The comment followed a recent mishap in which the company’s Codex tool generated unexpected goblin‑themed responses, prompting a quick fix. While Altman offered no timetable, the tease aligns with OpenAI’s pattern of hinting at models with better memory, more consistent behavior and tighter integration with apps, as competition from Google and Anthropic accelerates the rollout pace. Read more →

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the company’s first‑quarter earnings call that its Superintelligence team is developing AI agents designed to help users achieve personal goals and assist businesses in reaching customers. Built on the recently unveiled Muse Spark model, the agents aim to be more approachable and easier to set up than existing tools such as OpenClaw. While no launch date was given, Zuckerberg emphasized a focus on polish, accessibility and a ready‑made infrastructure that could even be handed to a non‑technical user. Read more →

Artificial‑intelligence startup Anthropic is fielding preemptive bids to raise as much as $50 billion, potentially valuing the company at $850‑$900 billion. Sources say the round could total $40‑$50 billion and that investors are eager to commit, even before the firm decides at a May board meeting. Anthropic’s revenue run rate has surged past $30 billion, driven by its Claude coding tools, prompting investors to see untapped growth in sectors like finance and healthcare. The company has not commented on the fundraising talks. Read more →

Elon Musk has taken his lawsuit against OpenAI to trial, accusing the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission and turning into a profit‑driven enterprise. The case, which pits Musk against OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman, centers on whether the firm’s shift violates the law. A court‑ordered overhaul could reshape OpenAI’s leadership, funding structure, and product roadmap, with ripple effects for users and the broader artificial‑intelligence industry. Read more →

Google has entered a classified agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense that lets the Pentagon use the company’s artificial‑intelligence models for “any lawful government purpose,” including sensitive military tasks. The move comes despite an open letter signed by more than 600 Google employees urging CEO Sundar Pichai to refuse the contract, citing concerns over lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. Google says the deal includes safeguards against domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons without human oversight, while the Pentagon declined to comment. The controversy revives memories of the 2018 Project Maven protests and raises fresh questions about corporate responsibility in national‑security AI work. Read more →

The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI fell short of internal revenue and user‑growth goals, including a target of one billion weekly ChatGPT users by the end of 2025. The company dismissed the story as "clickbait" and said its business is "firing on all cylinders," but investors reacted sharply. Shares of Oracle, CoreWeave, SoftBank and several chip makers dropped between 5% and 10% as the market reassessed the massive compute spending commitments tied to OpenAI's projected revenue growth. Read more →

Elon Musk took the stand Wednesday in a federal jury trial in California, accusing OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of breaching the nonprofit's charter and enriching themselves at the expense of its mission. The lawsuit, which also names Microsoft and OpenAI as defendants, alleges fraud, unjust enrichment and a illegal shift to a for‑profit structure. Witnesses slated to appear include Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, CTO Kevin Scott and former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, now heading Thinking Machines Lab. Musk seeks a court order to strip Altman and Brockman of authority and unwind OpenAI’s for‑profit conversion. Read more →

OpenAI announced that Microsoft will remain its primary cloud partner but will no longer hold exclusive rights to the AI firm’s services. The shift allows OpenAI to run workloads on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud while keeping Azure as the first choice when suitable. Microsoft retains model access through a license lasting until 2032 and will continue receiving a revenue share through 2030, though the exclusivity that once barred OpenAI from other providers has been lifted. Read more →

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Images 2.0 outperformed Google’s Gemini Nano Banana 2 in a series of practical image‑editing trials, delivering more realistic results across background swaps, cinematic tweaks, product mock‑ups and seasonal changes. While Nano Banana 2 proved faster, reviewers consistently favored ChatGPT Images for its attention to lighting, texture and facial fidelity, naming it the overall winner of the head‑to‑head comparison. Read more →

Google has entered a classified agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense that lets the Pentagon use the company’s artificial‑intelligence models for any lawful government purpose. The deal, reported by The Information, comes just a day after more than 560 Google engineers signed an open letter urging CEO Sundar Pichai to refuse such military contracts. Unlike an earlier Anthropic pact that barred mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, Google’s terms contain no ethical carve‑outs. The move adds the tech giant to a short list of AI firms supplying unrestricted AI capability to the U.S. military. Read more →

Former DeepMind researcher David Silver has launched Ineffable Intelligence, a new AI startup focused on reinforcement‑learning “superlearners.” The company secured $1.1 billion in seed financing at a $5.1 billion valuation, backed by Lightspeed Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Silver, who built AlphaGo, says the firm will train agents inside simulations to achieve general intelligence without relying on human‑generated data. Investors see the approach as a fresh path amid a market dominated by large‑language models, while Silver stresses safety and alignment as core design goals. Read more →

British AI start‑up Ineffable Intelligence announced a $1.1 billion funding round that values the company at $5.1 billion. Founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, the lab aims to create a “superlearner” that can acquire knowledge and skills through reinforcement learning alone, without relying on human‑generated data. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners and included investors such as Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia, the British Business Bank and the U.K.’s sovereign AI fund. Silver says any profits will fund high‑impact charities. Read more →

China’s decision to halt Meta’s purchase of AI firm Manus has thrown the deal into limbo, raising fresh uncertainty for both companies’ artificial‑intelligence plans. Manus founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao had already moved most of their staff to Meta’s Singapore office and stripped the startup of Chinese ties. The cancellation could prevent Manus from using Anthropic’s Claude models and marks a setback for Meta’s pivot toward AI after years of investing in the metaverse. Industry observers say the move underscores the growing tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Read more →

Microsoft and OpenAI announced a renegotiated partnership that replaces the exclusive license Microsoft held on OpenAI's models with a non‑exclusive arrangement lasting until 2032. The deal clears a legal snag created by Amazon's up‑to‑$50 billion investment, which had granted AWS exclusive rights to certain OpenAI technologies. Azure remains OpenAI's primary cloud, but the maker can now run its products on any provider. The revised terms also reshape revenue‑share flows and preserve Microsoft’s sizable equity stake, while giving enterprises more cloud‑choice flexibility. Read more →

OpenAI is reportedly planning a new smartphone that eliminates traditional apps in favor of AI agents. Supply‑chain analyst Ming‑Chi Kuo says Qualcomm and MediaTek will co‑design a custom processor while Luxshare Precision Industry will handle exclusive manufacturing. The device could ship as early as 2028 with projected annual sales of 300‑400 million units, a volume that would rival Apple and Samsung. Qualcomm’s shares jumped on the news, but none of the firms have confirmed the partnership. The move marks OpenAI’s second major hardware effort, following a separate project with designer Jony Ive. Read more →

Microsoft announced Monday that its exclusive right to sell OpenAI’s artificial‑intelligence models on Azure will end. The tech giant will retain a non‑exclusive licence to OpenAI’s intellectual property through 2032, remain the primary cloud partner and hold onto its 27% equity stake. OpenAI will continue paying a capped revenue share to Microsoft through 2030, while Microsoft will no longer pay a share on products it resells. Shares of Microsoft fell about 3% after the news, while rivals Amazon and Alphabet logged modest gains. Read more →

OpenAI announced a revision to its multiyear partnership with Microsoft that removes the tech giant's exclusive rights to the startup's latest AI models. The amendment lets OpenAI sell its services through any cloud platform while keeping Azure as the primary launch venue. Microsoft will retain a non‑exclusive license to the models through 2032 and continue receiving revenue‑share payments from OpenAI until 2030, though the share will now be capped. Both companies said the change adds flexibility and broadens AI access. Read more →