Red Hat principal software engineer Sally O’Malley unveiled Tank OS, an open‑source tool that packages the OpenClaw AI agent in a rootless Podman container on Fedora Linux. Designed for power users and IT professionals, the solution isolates credentials, stores state and makes the container bootable, aiming to curb the security risks that have plagued early OpenClaw deployments. O’Malley, a maintainer of the OpenClaw project, said the weekend project was built to give enterprises a safer way to run autonomous AI agents at scale. 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 →

Microsoft announced major revisions to its long‑standing partnership with OpenAI, dropping the contract’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) clause and allowing OpenAI to sell its products on any cloud platform. While Azure remains the primary cloud for OpenAI services, the new terms cap revenue‑sharing payments through 2030 and make them subject to a total limit, ending independent of any AGI milestone. The changes also make Microsoft’s license to OpenAI’s models non‑exclusive through 2032, opening the door for competitors to join the mix as OpenAI eyes an IPO and a tighter focus on enterprise customers. Read more →

Canadian AI firm Cohere announced a deal to acquire Germany's Aleph Alpha, creating a combined entity valued at roughly $20 billion. The transaction, pending regulatory approval, will be financed by a €500 million commitment from German retailer Schwarz Group, which will also supply its sovereign cloud platform, STACKIT. Cohere aims to position the new company as a privacy‑focused alternative for enterprises in highly regulated sectors, challenging the dominance of U.S. AI providers. Read more →

OpenAI rolled out GPT‑5.5 for paying users, DeepSeek previewed its V4 series and Anthropic launched Opus 4.7, intensifying a three‑way race to dominate the next generation of artificial‑intelligence tools. The releases target coding, reasoning and agentic tasks, each promising longer context windows, cheaper hardware deployment and sharper output quality. While OpenAI highlighted the model’s intuitive coding assistance, DeepSeek touted a hybrid‑attention architecture that retains long query histories. Anthropic’s Opus 4.7 focuses on literal prompt interpretation and refined visual aesthetics. The flurry of announcements underscores a fast‑moving market where companies vie for developer and enterprise adoption amid geopolitical scrutiny. Read more →

Toronto‑based Cohere and Heidelberg‑based Aleph Alpha announced a merger in Berlin that values the combined entity at roughly $20 billion. The deal gives Cohere’s shareholders about 90% of the new firm and Aleph Alpha’s shareholders 10%, effectively making it a Cohere acquisition framed as a merger. German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger and Canada’s AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon attended the launch, underscoring the geopolitical stakes. The German government will serve as an anchor customer, providing early revenue and political backing as the two firms aim to offer a non‑U.S. alternative for enterprise and public‑sector AI services. Read more →

OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.5 on Thursday, branding it its most intuitive and powerful model to date. Co‑founder Greg Brockman said the new system delivers sharper reasoning with fewer tokens, positioning the company closer to a long‑term “super app” that could blend ChatGPT, Codex and an AI browser into a single enterprise service. Early benchmarks show GPT-5.5 outpacing rivals from Google and Anthropic across a range of tasks, from coding assistance to scientific research. The model is now rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users of ChatGPT. Read more →

Customer‑service AI firm Sierra announced Thursday that it has bought French startup Fragment, a Y Combinator‑backed company that helps businesses embed artificial‑intelligence tools into everyday workflows. The deal marks Sierra's third public acquisition in as many weeks, following purchases of Japan's Opera Tech and voice‑agent firm Receptive AI. Fragment co‑founders Olivier Moindrot and Guillaume Genthial will join Sierra's engineering ranks. Financial terms were not disclosed, though PitchBook estimates Fragment raised about $2 million in seed funding. Sierra, founded by former Salesforce co‑CEO Bret Taylor, now counts Casper, Clear and Brex among its clients and is valued at roughly $10 billion. Read more →