Japanese tech investment firm Softbank has agreed to acquire Silicon Valley chip startup Ampere for $6.5 billion, indicating that technology originating in smartphones will eventually become integral to global data centers and the future of artificial intelligence. The eight-year-old Ampere sells chips based on Arm technology, the processor type used in virtually all mobile phones. SoftBank purchased Arm in 2016 and has since been working to ensure the technology becomes used more broadly. Softbank says it will allow Ampere to retain its own name, operating it as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Read more

OpenAI has debuted three new models for transcription and voice generation — gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe and gpt-4o-mini-tts. The text-to-speech and speech-to-text AI models are designed to help developers create AI agents with highly customizable voices. OpenAI claims these models will power natural and responsive voice agents, moving AI out of the text-based communications stage and into intuitive spoken conversations. The suite outperforms existing solutions in accuracy and reliability, OpenAI says, especially with “accents, noisy environments, and varying speech speeds,” making them well-suited for customer call centers and meeting notes. Read more

Chat interfaces powered by generative AI are impacting online shopping, according to an Adobe Analytics study that found that AI-influenced visits to U.S. retail website increased by 1,200 percent from July 2024 to February 2025. Adobe says this “significant surge” demonstrates an emerging retail AI economy. GenAI chat interfaces are “becoming a helpful assistant for compiling research before making a purchase,” influencing how consumers behave online, according to Adobe. While paid search and email continue to be the dominant traffic drivers, the past year’s growth in AI-aided shopping signals a shift. Read more

Adobe is challenging Salesforce and other customer management platforms with a suite of AI agents launching within its flagship Adobe Experience platform. Adobe’s customizable Experience Platform Agents can perform tasks like optimizing websites, generating content, identifying targeted audience sectors and more. New tools include the Adobe Experience Agent Orchestrator and Brand Concierge, which serves customers a personalized website experience based on prior interactions. Introduced at Adobe Summit 2025, the new products are engineered to drive Customer Experience Orchestration (CXO) in the era of artificial intelligence. Read more

Speaking in San Francisco during the Game Developers Conference this week, Netflix Games President Alain Tascan discussed how its gaming content can keep the platform’s 700 million-plus customers entertained between seasons. “We are not yet the Netflix of games, but that is where we are headed,” the executive said, calling gaming “the biggest shift in entertainment in the last 30 years.” In light of global youth’s involvement with games, “we see we need to be there,” Tascan said. Netflix added its first mobile games in 2021 and has since expanded by purchasing video game studios and building one from scratch. Read more