OpenAI is adding Google Cloud to its list of global infrastructure providers for ChatGPT after relying exclusively on Microsoft Azure since the chatbot’s 2022 launch until January 2025 when Stargate was announced. Oracle and CoreWeave are also OpenAI cloud providers. Oracle is a Stargate investor, as is Nvidia, which holds a minority interest in CoreWeave. OpenAI has been active as it heads toward a December deadline for transitioning to a for-profit company. Meanwhile, ChatGPT is integrating a payment system to receive commissions on sales it initiates, and yesterday OpenAI launched a new AI agent that can perform complex tasks within a user’s browser.

Simultaneously, Gadgets 360 writes that OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT support for Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. “Currently, users can generate an Excel or PowerPoint file using ChatGPT,” but the files must then be downloaded and opened within the respective apps to be viewed and edited.

As per the terms of a funding round announced in March, Japan’s SoftBank will by the end of year facilitate a total of $40 billion invested in OpenAI if the company completes its switch to a profit-focused entity. In May, OpenAI confirmed it will transition to a public benefit corporation (PBC), a for-profit company with a mandate for social good. If that change is not completed by December 31, SoftBank can reduce its investment to $20 billion.

OpenAI is building global data centers with massive capacity through Stargate, which will exclusively power OpenAI businesses, and now apparently also contracting for additional capacity, as per the Google Cloud deal reported by CNBC.

“The Google infrastructure will run in the U.S., Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom,” CNBC says.

Rumors of OpenAI’s in-development AI web browser (code-named Aura) swirled in recent weeks. Digital Information World was among those suggesting the Chromium-based Aura browser has been in active testing, and if released “would place OpenAI in a similar space as Perplexity, which is already offering AI-driven web browsing.”

Then OpenAI announced yesterday that it is introducing an AI agent to assist in automating multistep browser tasks. “ChatGPT agent, as the feature is called, is powered by a new reasoning-optimized AI model,” according to SiliconANGLE. “OpenAI says that the algorithm outperforms its earlier AI systems across a range of benchmarks.”

“The agent is designed to automate tasks that require the user to perform actions in multiple cloud applications,” notes SiliconANGLE. “A developer, for example, could have it download a code file from GitHub and save it in a Google Drive folder. ChatGPT could also be instructed to run the file through a vulnerability scanner before saving it.”

“The model can choose to open a page using the text browser or visual browser, download a file from the web, manipulate it by running a command in the terminal, and then view the output back in the visual browser,” OpenAI details in a blog post. “The model adapts its approach to carry out tasks with speed, accuracy, and efficiency.”

DIW adds that OpenAI continues “steady efforts to extend the platform’s features without drawing much attention to individual rollouts,” noting that “ChatGPT’s image generation tool now includes built-in visual styles” that allow users to “select a preferred look, like Retro Cartoon, Anime or Photo Shoot, without having to write detailed prompts.”

Images can be uploaded, then by choosing a preset users can generate an picture that “closely matches that theme,” DIW explains.

Related:
OpenAI’s New ChatGPT Agent Tries to Do It All, Wired, 7/17/25
OpenAI Launches Personal Assistant Capable of Controlling Files and Web Browsers, The Guardian, 7/17/25
OpenAI’s New ChatGPT Agent Can Control an Entire Computer and Do Tasks for You, The Verge, 7/17/25
ChatGPT: Everything You Need to Know About the AI-Powered Chatbot, TechCrunch, 7/18/25
OpenAI Working on Payment Checkout System within ChatGPT, FT Reports, Reuters, 7/16/25
ChatGPT Has 10 Times as Many Downloads as Microsoft’s Copilot, Quartz, 7/17/25