OpenAI is piloting a new group chat experience designed for socialization and work collaboration with ChatGPT, taking aim at Slack and Microsoft Teams. “Whether you’re organizing a group dinner or drafting an outline with coworkers,” OpenAI wants to make ChatGPT the place you do it. Group chats are beginning to roll out on mobile and web for logged-in users on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan. OpenAI says the pilot is “a small first step toward shared experiences in ChatGPT.” The company plans to collect early user feedback to inform further development. Continue reading OpenAI Pilots ChatGPT Group Chat in Select Foreign Markets

San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic, founded in 2021, announced plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. computing infrastructure, starting with the creation of data centers with Fluidstack in Texas and New York (with additional plans for future sites). Fluidstack builds and operates high-performance GPU clusters for researchers and AI teams. The new project with Anthropic is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and about 2,400 construction jobs. Sites are scheduled to come online throughout next year. “These facilities are custom built for Anthropic with a focus on maximizing efficiency for our workloads, enabling continued research and development at the frontier,” according to Anthropic. Continue reading Anthropic Plans to Invest $50 Billion in AI Data Centers in U.S.

Microsoft’s new Azure AI data center in Atlanta, Georgia — the second in its Fairwater series — is ushering in a new era of connected AI super clusters that will power what The Register calls “the 100 trillion-parameter models of the near future.” Fairwater Atlanta, which became operative in October, is part of “a new class of data center – one that doesn’t stand alone but joins a dedicated network of sites functioning as an AI superfactory to accelerate AI,” training models “on a scale that has previously been impossible,” according to Microsoft. The new purpose-built data center is connected to the tech giant’s first Fairwater site, located in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Continue reading Microsoft Introduces New Era of Connected AI Super Clusters

Microsoft and Google are making big investments in European AI infrastructure, with the Seattle-based software giant spending more than $10 billion to build a data hub in Portugal, and Alphabet investing $6.35 billion on new construction and expansion of an existing complex in Germany. The moves are the latest in U.S. tech’s push for a global AI footprint. Microsoft is working with Nvidia, the UK startup Nscale and data center building specialist Start Campus. Google is bringing green initiatives to its project in Deutschland, which it estimates will bring 9,000 jobs and nearly $1.2 billion to German GDP. Continue reading Microsoft, Google Spending Heavily on European Data Hubs

SoftBank has cashed out of Nvidia, liquidating its stock holdings for $5.83 billion that it will reportedly use to fund what CNBC describes as “its ‘all in’ bet on ChatGPT maker OpenAI.” The sell-off was disclosed in SoftBank’s most recent earnings statement, which indicated 32.1 million Nvidia shares were sold in October. The Japanese conglomerate also said it sold part of its T-Mobile holdings for $9.17 billion. “Through those options and tools we make sure that we are ready for funding in a very safe manner,” SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said at an investor presentation. SoftBank announced a four-to-one stock split yesterday, while Nvidia shares were down 1.7 percent on the sell-off news. Continue reading SoftBank Sells Off Nvidia Shares to Pursue OpenAI, Robotics

Microsoft has laid out an ambitious plan to develop its own AI superintelligence as it moves to separate its artificial intelligence plans from those of OpenAI, the startup it has financed to the tune of $13 billion, an investment valued at $135 billion following OpenAI’s restructuring as a for-profit public benefit company structure. Microsoft has reorganized to concentrate internal AI efforts under a unit called the MAI Superintelligence Team led by group CEO Mustafa Suleyman. MAI will work towards “Humanist Superintelligence (HSI): incredibly advanced AI capabilities that always work for, in service of, people and humanity more generally,” Suleyman says. Continue reading Microsoft Pursues AI Superintelligence Separate from OpenAI

Snap Inc. has secured San Francisco-based Perplexity as its new partner in artificial intelligence, with Perplexity’s AI-powered answer engine to become an in-app feature of social service Snapchat starting in early 2026. Snapchat’s community of over 943 million monthly active users will be able to converse with Perplexity, asking questions and getting “clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources,” Snap explains. Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million over the next year through a combination of cash and equity, gaining access to Snap’s mobile-native audience, comprised of more than 75 percent of 13–34-year-olds in over 25 countries. Continue reading Perplexity Deal Will Bring Conversational AI to Snapchat App

Amazon’s generative AI voice assistant Alexa+ is coming to the Amazon Music mobile app for iOS and Android for customers across all subscription tiers in Alexa+ Early Access. Alexa+ was announced in February at Amazon’s Devices & Services event, and began rolling out in early access in the spring. It is reported to now have more than a million users. Customers were able to get early access by registering for it on the Amazon website or purchasing a compatible product. Adding generative AI to Amazon Music is seen as a competitive move following Spotify’s October integration with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. Continue reading Alexa+ for iOS and Android Now Available for Amazon Music

OpenAI has entered into a $38 billion cloud computing deal with AWS in a deal set to extend at least seven years, the hyperscaler says. The Monday news propelled Amazon stock to an all-time high of $254 per share, up 4 percent at close. After initially working exclusively with investor Microsoft for cloud services, OpenAI has negotiated expansively to meet increased demand. This year, the startup has signed with Oracle, Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom for storage and processing power as well as funding for data center construction plans of its own, here and abroad. The strategic alliance with AWS marks OpenAI’s first such arrangement with Amazon. Continue reading OpenAI Sets $38 Billion AWS Deal for Training and Inference

OpenAI’s new Aardvark agentic security researcher powered by GPT‑5 is an autonomous agent that aims to help developers and security teams find and fix security vulnerabilities at scale. Aardvark is now in private beta as the company refines its capabilities in the field. “Each year, tens of thousands of new vulnerabilities are discovered across enterprise and open-source codebases,” making software security one of the most critical aspects of doing business, says OpenAI, explaining that Aardvark “continuously monitors and analyzes source code to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities and propose fixes.” Continue reading OpenAI Aardvark Agentic GPT-5 Security Tool in Private Beta

Amazon Q3 revenue was up 13 percent to $180.2 billion in the third quarter, compared with $158.9 billion in 2024. The AWS group that includes AI saw sales increase 20 percent year-over-year to $33 billion. The company reported that gross profit increased 38 percent to $21.2 billion for the quarter, due largely to consumer spending online and the demand for cloud computing. Amazon is the dominant player in the cloud space with about 30 percent of global share. However, investors have been cautious about AWS, which accounted for 65 percent of the company’s total operating income in Q3. Since 2022, competition has heated up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT signing on with Microsoft Azure. Continue reading AWS, Cloud and AI Help Drive Impressive Quarter for Amazon

Increased demand for cloud computing and AI services has propelled revenue growth of 18 percent to $77.7 billion for Microsoft for its fiscal Q1, ending September 30. Net income was $27.7 billion for the quarter, an increase of 12 percent year-over-year. “Our planet-scale cloud and AI factory, together with Copilots across high value domains, is driving broad diffusion and real-world impact,” said Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, noting “It’s why we continue to increase our investments in AI across both capital and talent to meet the massive opportunity ahead.” The news coincides with OpenAI’s next steps in becoming a for-profit company and an update in Microsoft’s stake in the AI startup. Continue reading Microsoft Market Cap Passes $4 Trillion Propelled by OpenAI

Meta Platforms shares fell by more than 7 percent despite record revenue of $51.2 billion in an adverse reaction to accelerated AI spending. Sales were up 26 percent year-over-year, but net income of $2.7 billion was far below analysts’ expectations. The company attributed the net income miss to accounting changes resulting from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act even as it advised analysts of “aggressive” capital expenditure increases to come. Meta’s 2025 capital expenditure forecast grew from the existing estimate of $66 billion to $72 billion. Most of that will be spent on data centers and researchers, Meta said, indicating 2026 capex would be “notably larger” and could reach as high as $100 billion. Continue reading Meta Reports Sales Increase, Record Revenue of $51.2 Billion

To coincide with Adobe MAX 2025 in Los Angeles, Adobe has released a new version of its generative AI tool Firefly, calling it “your all-in-one creative AI studio.” Firefly now offers under one subscription a collection of models that include not only Firefly Image Model 5 (in public beta) but those from partners including Google, OpenAI, Luma AI, ElevenLabs, Topaz Labs, and more. From concept to final product, Firefly is attempting to support every phase of the workflow with AI to generate music, narration and video clips, while supporting areas such as ideation and editing, Adobe says. Continue reading Adobe Firefly Adds Third-Party Models to Generative AI Suite

Google has released Veo 3.1 and Veo 3.1 Fast in paid preview, adding new capabilities to the generative video model that is already a leader in the field. Creative and technical upgrades include richer native audio from dialogue to sound effects, greater understanding of cinematic styles and better prompt adherence. The two new models are available via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, with Veo 3.1 also available in the Gemini app and the storytelling tool Flow, which now gets native audio. Flow has generated more than 275 million videos since its release at Google I/O in May, according to the company. Continue reading Google Veo 3.1 Advances Generative Video in Flow and Vertex