DeepSeek, China's best-known AI lab, is close to raising $12bn to $15bn from Tencent, CATL and state funds before a share sale planned for 2027

The rest of the day

45 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   OpenAI says sorry to Australia's parliament

   Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, apologised on Tuesday to Australia's parliamentary inquiry on AI. [7] In June an OpenAI agent, AI software that acts on its own, got into non-public data on a Medicare portal; Medicare is Australia's public health insurance. [8] OpenAI found out in mid-August and told Australia's government on 10 September, by email to a public inbox. [8] Kwon said its boss, Sam Altman, did not know when he met Australia's deputy prime minister on 1 September. [6][8] OpenAI says it now watches its agents so staff can stop training at once. [8]

   Why it matters — Kwon said OpenAI knows of no other cases, but it is still reading 50 petabytes of its agents' records. [6] At the same hearing, Anthropic said Australia's copyright law makes training AI there impossible, and the music industry warned artists would be 'roadkill'. [7]

2. 03

   Forged web certificates for Google

   Attackers took control of three countries' web address endings, .gh for Ghana, .sl for Sierra Leone and .as for American Samoa, Google said on Tuesday. [9] They changed address records for chosen sites and used that to get real certificate companies to issue certificates in those sites' names. [9] A certificate is what proves to a browser that a site is genuine. [9] Forged ones were issued for several Google sites and other big brands Google did not name. [9]

   Why it matters — With a forged certificate, an attacker can pose as a real website without the browser warning anyone. [9] Chrome now blocks the ones Google found, but Google says it cannot promise it found them all, and other browsers may not be protected. [9]

3. 04

   Mistral releases a trillion-part AI model

   Mistral, a French AI company, released Mistral Large 4 on Tuesday, a model with 1 trillion parameters, the settings a model learns in training. [13][12] Mistral calls it the strongest model built outside China whose files anyone can download and run. [11][13] For now it runs only through Mistral's own service, and the files follow in about three weeks, after safety testing. [10] It was trained on 4,000 Nvidia chips in Mistral's own European data centres. [13]

   Why it matters — Until now the best freely downloadable models have mostly come from China. [13] CNBC notes the new model still lags the leading closed models at coding. [13]

4. 05

   Free Gemini users lose the better models

   From Friday 9 October, people using Google's Gemini assistant for free can no longer pick its Flash or Pro models, Google says in a support note. [14][15] They will get only Flash-Lite, the cheapest and least capable of the three. [14] People on the $5-a-month AI Plus plan also lose Pro. [15] Pro is the model built for hard maths, logic and coding questions. [15] Google is also adding a low, medium or high effort setting, and higher effort uses up more of a user's limit. [14]

   Why it matters — Students and others who used free Pro for long documents or homework may now need the $20-a-month plan. [14] Paying users gain: the $20 plan gets Deep Think, a slower reasoning mode once kept for plans costing $100 a month or more. [15]

5. 06

   Monthly AI plans cost more than they bring in

   SemiAnalysis, a US research firm, says Claude's monthly plans use about 42% of Anthropic's computing but bring in only about 10% of its income. [16] It worked out how much use each plan gives for each dollar. [16] It says Claude's $20 plan gives about 2.9 billion tokens a month, against 1 billion for ChatGPT's $20 plan; a token is a small chunk of text. [16] SemiAnalysis also says recent changes roughly halved what OpenAI's $200-a-month plan gives. [16]

   Why it matters — SemiAnalysis says the plans are heavily subsidised, giving far more for the money than paying per use would. [16] One AI start-up boss calls the cheap plans a way to get people used to the tools before they bring them to work. [16]

6. 07

   Qualcomm will pay Huawei for patents

   Qualcomm, the US company whose chips run many Android phones, will pay Huawei to use Huawei's patents under a new multi-year deal. [20] It is a reversal. Huawei began paying Qualcomm for patents 25 years ago, in 2001. [20] The deal covers 5G phone networks, AI and computing, and Qualcomm will also buy some of Huawei's US patents. [20] Neither side gave a price or the number of patents. [20]

   Why it matters — Huawei says the deal takes its patent licences past $6.9bn in total, and since 2021 it has earned more from them than it pays others. [20] The patent purchase still needs government approval. [20]

7. 08

   Lambda raises $4bn on one big order

   Lambda, a US company that rents out AI computers, is raising up to $4bn at a value of $14.5bn before the money, the Wall Street Journal reports. [21] Coatue and Blackstone, two big investment firms, lead it. [21] Lambda's order book grew from $15bn in June to $50bn in September. [21] About $35bn of that is one deal with Anthropic, signed in late August. [21] Lambda plans to sell shares in 2027. [21]

   Why it matters — Lambda's value now leans heavily on Anthropic being able to keep paying. [21] Lenders who fund data centres are getting choosier, so Lambda is raising money before stock-market scrutiny arrives. [21]

8. 09

   South Korea suspects AI in bank hacks

   South Korea's president, Lee Jae Myung, said on Tuesday there are signs AI was used in recent hacks of the country's banks. [22] Police are investigating attacks on Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank. [22] Shinhan says the credit details of about 25,000 people leaked. [22] The Record, a security news site, reports officials blame a Chinese tool called Artex AI and count at least 68,000 people across seven firms. [24] The banking regulator held an emergency meeting on 2 October. [73]

   Why it matters — Lee said AI now lets people hack easily without special skills. [23] If confirmed, it would be the first known case of AI agents hacking banks. [24]

9. 10

   Google buys power from old nuclear plants

   Google signed a 20-year deal with Constellation, the biggest US operator of nuclear plants, on Tuesday. [25] Constellation will spend $4.3bn upgrading 11 reactors at six sites in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. [25] The new parts should add 890 megawatts, about as much as one large new reactor. [25] A second, 15-year deal covers 2,700 megawatts from other Constellation plants, whatever their fuel. [25][26]

   Why it matters — The plants feed PJM, the biggest US power grid, where electricity prices in New Jersey have risen 54% in five years. [25] Google may spend as much as $205bn on data centres and computing this year. [26]

10. 11

    Finland halts work at two Google sites

    Finland's environment regulator ordered building work stopped at two planned Google data centres, in Muhos and Kajaani. [27] More than 300 hectares of forest were cleared, and one site skipped a required check on harm to nature. [27] The work must stop by 23 October. [27] The two sites are part of a record 13bn-euro Google investment in Finland, announced less than a month ago. [27] Google said it had fallen short of its own standards. [27]

    Why it matters — The company building the sites must explain by 14 October, or the regulator can start enforcement. [27] A Finnish nature group says forest that should have been kept was cut down. [27]

11. 12

    A data centre that burns wood

    Drax, a British power station that burns imported wood, wants to turn part of its site into a 1.2-gigawatt data centre. [28] The Natural Resources Defense Council, a US environmental group, estimates it would burn 4.9m tonnes of wood a year. [28] It puts the carbon dioxide at 8.6m tonnes a year, nearly double that of every flight from Gatwick airport. [28] Drax says the site could run from 2031 if approved. [28]

    Why it matters — Britain has 315 data centres waiting to join its grid, asking for 73 gigawatts, almost double the country's winter peak demand. [28] The group's figure assumes the site runs flat out every hour. [28]

12. 13

    US data-centre building hits a record

    Spending on building US data centres reached a record yearly pace of $85bn in August, up 73% in a year, the US Census Bureau's figures show. [29] That counts only the buildings, not the computers inside. [29] Data centres are now about 63% of all private office building in the US. [29] Ordinary office building fell almost 10% over the same year. [29]

    Why it matters — US private building other than homes fell 1% in a year, and 5.9% if data centres are left out. [29] Of August's monthly rise in that spending, 74% was data centres. [29]

13. 14

    AI chips go beside car chargers

    Xeal, a US company that runs electric-car chargers, plans to put more than 100,000 Nvidia AI chips in cabinets at its 1,600 charging sites. [30] Each cabinet holds up to 48 chips and needs no water for cooling. [30] Xeal says its chargers usually use less than 10% of the power they are allowed. [30] The spare power would run AI answers close to the cities that ask for them. [30]

    Why it matters — Getting a new building connected to the grid is one of the slowest steps in adding AI computers. [30] Xeal's sites are already connected, so it can skip that wait. [30]

14. 15

    Rules for AI agents that shop

    Meta, Walmart, Stripe and Sierra, a start-up run by OpenAI's chairman Bret Taylor, are writing a standard for how personal AI agents deal with businesses. [32][31] It would let a shop tell an agent from a person and choose what the agent may do. [31] A first draft is due this month. [31] Payments are left for later. [31] Amazon blocks Meta's Muse on purpose, and other sites' checks for bots shut agents out by accident. [33]

    Why it matters — Taylor told CNBC it is 'kind of chaos' until such a standard exists. [32] Shoppers cannot tell whether a site blocked their agent on purpose or by accident. [33]

15. 16

    AI agents lift AMD and Intel

    Shares in AMD and Intel rose 32% and 21% in a month, as AI agents that work for hours lean on ordinary processors as well as AI chips. [34] Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots both tell users they run on AMD processors. [34] AMD's boss, Lisa Su, said in Taipei that demand is ahead of supply and AMD will add much more in 2027. [35] Wells Fargo, a US bank, now expects Meta to keep spare computing for Muse instead of renting it out. [36]

    Why it matters — Since ChatGPT arrived, Nvidia's AI chips have taken most of the money spent on AI computers. [34] Agents spread that spending to the main processors that AMD and Intel make. [34]

16. 17

    Three more personal AI helpers

    Hark, a start-up founded less than a year ago by Brett Adcock, released Hark Pro, which uses a person's computer for them. [37] Underdog, from a young coder named Sigil Wen, runs entirely on the user's own computer, so their data never leaves it. [38] Wajo, backed by the investor Vinod Khosla, sells its agent on trust and can hire a human for a task. [39] All three chase Meta's Muse. [37]

    Why it matters — Each sells itself on privacy. Hark's design chief says it is not there to sell ads, and Khosla says people do not trust Meta with their data. [37][39] Underdog uses a much smaller model to manage it, which its maker says is enough for everyday jobs. [38]

17. 18

    Anthropic gives start-ups a free year

    Anthropic now gives qualifying start-ups a free year of Claude Team, its paid plan for groups, for up to five people. [17] They also get $1,000 to spend on Claude through its programming connection, and up to $45,000 of discounts on other tools. [18] Firms qualify if they were founded in the last five years or raised money in the last two. [17] OpenAI and Google run similar programmes. [18]

    Why it matters — Most of Anthropic's income comes from businesses, and it wants the next ones built on Claude before its expected share sale. [18] It comes on the same day Google took two models away from its free users. [14]

18. 19

    Anthropic merges its hacker-access schemes

    Anthropic folded its two schemes that let vetted security teams use Claude for hacking-related work into one programme with three levels. [19] The schemes began in April with Mythos, its most capable model. [19] Anthropic says partners found at least 129,000 confirmed software flaws between April and July. [19] Of 5,674 confirmed flaws in Anthropic's own figures, only 516 have been fixed. [19]

    Why it matters — Anthropic's own figures show flaws being found far faster than they are fixed. [19] A researcher found under 0.5% of 225 flaws linked to Anthropic were being used by attackers. [19]

19. 20

    Patch now for Atlassian's office software

    Atlassian, an Australian maker of work software, warned of a serious flaw in eight of its self-hosted products, including Jira and Confluence. [40][42] It lets an attacker with no login read files on the server, if they know a file's exact name. [42] It is rated 9.3 out of 10. [40] Atlassian's own cloud versions are already fixed, and fixes are out for the rest. [41]

    Why it matters — Companies that run these tools themselves must update or take them off the internet. [40] Atlassian warns that some setups keep sensitive files where the flaw can reach them. [40]

20. 21

    Hackers send a ransom note through ASOS's app

    Shoppers using ASOS, a British online clothes shop, got a phone alert on Tuesday saying 'ASOS HACKED' and threatening to leak data. [44] It came through ASOS's own app. [44] ASOS confirmed that outside services it uses to message customers were broken into, and names and contact details may have been seen. [44] It says card details and passwords were not taken. [43] Its shares fell more than 10%. [45]

    Why it matters — The hackers claim they took ASOS's data from Snowflake, a cloud data service, and ASOS has not confirmed that. [44] Snowflake customers were hit in a big 2024 theft campaign. [43]

21. 22

    Trump Mobile customers' details leaked

    A hacking group called BYOD published names, home addresses and order details of 3,615 Trump Mobile customers. [46][47] Trump Mobile is a phone service sold under the Trump name. [47] The group says it got in by infecting a worker at Liberty Mobile, the network behind it, and says neither firm used a second login check. [46] Some people listed say they paid a $100 deposit for a phone that never came. [46]

    Why it matters — The leak includes the Trump Organization's own technology chief. [46] Neither company answered questions. [46]

22. 23

    A coding helper tricked into leaking keys

    Researchers at Adversa AI showed that GitHub Copilot CLI, a coding assistant that runs commands on a programmer's computer, can be tricked by a web page. [48] The page hides orders in encrypted text, with the key beside it, so safety filters cannot read them. [48] The assistant decrypts them itself, then sends a programmer's secret passwords to the attacker. [48] It worked on half of attempts with Microsoft's own model. [48]

    Why it matters — It only works when the assistant is left to act without asking, which is optional in Copilot. [48] The same trick worked on Grok, xAI's assistant, two months ago. [48]

23. 24

    Uber buys ezCater for $2.3bn

    Uber is buying ezCater, a US marketplace where businesses order catering for meetings, for $2.3bn in cash. [49] ezCater handled over $2.5bn of orders in the last 12 months. [49] It was founded in 2007 and ran without outside money for seven years. [49] Uber is also buying Delivery Hero, a food-delivery company, for $15bn. [49]

    Why it matters — Uber wants restaurants to win large office orders through Uber Eats. [49] It is also investing in drone-delivery companies such as Zipline. [49]

24. 25

    Anduril wins $2.9bn submarine work

    Anduril, a US defence-technology company, won a US Navy contract worth up to $2.9bn to help build Virginia-class submarines. [50] It is also spending $3.7bn on a shipyard near Baltimore, due to open in 2030 with about 3,100 jobs. [50] Days earlier its co-founder, Palmer Luckey, joined a new Pentagon group on future weapons. [50] A Pentagon official said there is 'nothing to see here'. [50]

    Why it matters — Anduril, best known for drones, is pushing into ordinary shipbuilding. [50] Luckey's double role raises questions about influence in Washington. [50]

25. 26

    Benchmark backs cheap missile makers

    Benchmark, a famous Silicon Valley investor, led a $25m early round in Furientis, its first bet on a pure defence start-up. [51] Furientis, a year old, builds cheap missiles that shoot down other missiles. [51] It already has a paid Pentagon contract. [51] Its co-founder says the US Navy gets 300 to 500 such missiles a year, while China claims 3,000 anti-ship missiles a month. [51]

    Why it matters — Wars in Ukraine and Iran used up US missile stocks, which changed investors' minds about defence. [51] Each US interceptor of the old kind costs about $3m. [51]

26. 27

    Apple and LG plan smart-home gear

    Apple is working with LG on a lock, doorbell, thermostat and cameras that will carry LG's name, Bloomberg reports. [52][53] They will work with a new Apple home hub with a six-inch screen, expected at an event on 13 October. [52] The lock could open by itself as its owner walks up. [52]

    Why it matters — It is a step into a market where Amazon's Ring cameras are strong. [53] It is also a fresh start for Apple's home system, HomeKit. [52]

27. 28

    UK shoppers take Google to court over app fees

    A seven-week trial is under way in London over a claim of up to 1.2bn pounds against Google for about 20 million British shoppers. [54] The claim says Google's Play Store cut of up to 30% was passed into what people paid for apps since October 2015. [54] Google says it is not dominant and asked for the case to be dropped. [54] Six weeks ago it settled a similar claim from app makers for 260m pounds. [54]

    Why it matters — If it wins, money would go to ordinary buyers, not app makers. [54] In the European Union only non-profit groups may bring such a claim for shoppers. [54]

28. 29

    Ofcom investigates Instagram's new feature

    Ofcom, Britain's online-safety regulator, opened an investigation into Meta over Instants, an Instagram feature for photos that vanish after viewing. [55] It is checking whether Meta tested properly if Instants could show illegal content or reach children. [55] Fines can reach 10% of global revenue. [55] Meta says it did a risk check and spoke to Ofcom first. [55]

    Why it matters — UK law requires firms to check for harm before they make big changes to a service. [55] Meta is already suing Ofcom in two other cases. [55]

29. 30

    Mathematicians angry at OpenAI again

    OpenAI planned to post hundreds of AI-made answers to unsolved maths problems on GitHub, a code-sharing site, on Tuesday, people told Wired. [56] In August about 40 mathematicians asked it to publish proper papers explaining them instead. [56] One, Bryna Kra of Northwestern University, said that advice was ignored. [56] OpenAI says it has not set a release time. [56]

    Why it matters — Mathematicians say results dumped online are hard to check and credit. [56] They say OpenAI and Anthropic are racing to show off before their share sales. [56]

30. 31

    Most VMware users look for a way out

    In a survey of 300 organisations, 90% said they are looking at alternatives to VMware, software that runs many virtual computers on one machine. [57] They blame higher licence costs since Broadcom bought VMware. [57] Some customers say costs rose by up to 1,000%. [57] The survey came from Rimini Street, which sells support for such software and gains if users leave. [57]

    Why it matters — Moving off VMware is slow and risky, and 40% named complexity as the biggest barrier. [57] 60% are thinking of running more than one such system. [57]

31. 32

    Office 2021 loses support on 13 October

    Microsoft stops fixing Office 2021, the version people buy once instead of renting, on 13 October, after five years. [58] Office 2010 and 2013 got ten years. [58] Windows 11 now runs on about 71.5% of Windows computers, against 27.8% for Windows 10. [59] Businesses' fee for Windows 10 security fixes doubles this year to $122 per computer. [59]

    Why it matters — Shorter support pushes buyers towards the Microsoft 365 subscription. [58] Office 2021 will keep working, but without security fixes. [58]

32. 33

    Xbox gets the only GTA 6 streaming rights

    Microsoft's Xbox has won the exclusive right to stream Grand Theft Auto VI over the internet when it launches in November, The Verge reports. [60] Streaming lets people without an Xbox, or who play on a phone, play it over the internet. [60] From November Xbox also limits streaming to 15, 10 or 5 hours a month, by plan, and adds pay-by-the-hour. [60]

    Why it matters — GTA VI has no PC version yet, so streaming is the only way to play it without a console. [60] The hour limits start in the same month the game comes out. [60]

33. 34

    A neon-recycling fix for chipmaking

    Gigaphoton, a Japanese maker of lasers for chipmaking, showed a system that recycles about half the neon gas its lasers use. [61] About 70% of the world's neon goes into making chips. [61] Before 2022 Ukraine supplied up to half of it, until the war shut its refiners. [61] A rival, Kanken Techno, has shown over 90% recycling. [61]

    Why it matters — Chipmakers would need less of a gas whose supply fell sharply when Ukraine's refiners shut. [61] South Korea and Taiwan built their own neon supplies after 2022. [61]

34. 35

    ASML's move worries a Dutch chip-tool maker

    Bank of America cut its view of Besi, a Dutch maker of machines that bond chips together, and nearly halved its price target. [62] It says ASML, the Dutch company that makes the most advanced chipmaking machines, may enter Besi's market. [62] Besi shares fell up to 6.4% on Tuesday. [62] Applied Materials, a US rival, has owned 9% of Besi since April 2025. [62]

    Why it matters — Bonding chips directly, with no metal bumps between, is Besi's main hope for growth. [62] Any takeover would need approval from the Dutch government. [62]

35. 36

    An investor wants Snap to sell part of its glasses

    Blue Duck Capital, an investment fund, wrote to Snap's board urging it to sell a fifth of Specs, its augmented-reality glasses unit, at a $5bn value. [63] That would raise $1bn, about two years of spending. [63] Another fund wants Snap to shut or spin off Specs. [63] Specs go on sale this autumn in the US, Britain and France, at $2,195. [63]

    Why it matters — Neither fund can force anything, because Snap's public shares carry no votes. [63] In Europe, regulators and shops are already pushing back on camera glasses. [63]

36. 37

    Chip-simulation firm Vinci raises $250m

    Vinci, a Palo Alto company whose software predicts how a chip design will heat up before it is built, raised $250m at a $1.5bn value. [64] Advent, Temasek and Xora led the round. [64] The 70-person company plans to simulate vibration and electrical effects too. [64]

    Why it matters — Heat has become a growing problem as AI chips get bigger. [64] Vinci competes with long-established chip-design software makers. [64]

37. 38

    Google's offline search model for phones

    Google released EmbeddingGemma 2, a free model that lets software find text, code, images, sound and video by what they are about. [65] It runs on a phone in about 191MB of memory for text, so nothing has to leave the device. [65] Anyone may use it under an open licence. [65] Google says it had no safety tuning and works unevenly across its 100 languages. [65]

    Why it matters — Search by meaning usually runs in someone else's cloud. [65] Keeping it on the phone avoids sending private data away. [65]

38. 39

    LibreOffice says no to built-in AI

    The Document Foundation, the charity behind LibreOffice, a free office suite, said it will not add AI to the software for now. [66] It says documents should never leave a user's computer, and no AI tool meets its rules yet. [66] Users can still add AI through optional extensions that use AI models on their own machine. [66]

    Why it matters — Tens of millions of people and organisations use LibreOffice, many handling private files. [66] It is going the opposite way to most software makers. [66]

39. 40

    Bluesky applies for its own web ending

    Bluesky, a social network, has applied for '.bsky' to become a web address ending like '.com'. [67] Users' handles could then be short web addresses. [67] ICANN, the body that runs web addresses, publishes the applications on 7 October. [67] Approval takes 18 to 24 months, and Bluesky says it will not sell the addresses. [67]

    Why it matters — Owning a web address lets people keep their online identity if they leave a platform. [67] Bluesky is giving up money it could have made. [67]

40. 41

    US senators ask about a secret AI plan

    US senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal wrote to Trump administration officials about a framework for testing AI models before release. [68] The framework has not been published. [68] They asked how much tech companies shaped it, including Meta's boss, Mark Zuckerberg. [68] They want answers by 19 October. [68]

    Why it matters — The framework is voluntary and secret, so nobody outside knows how models are checked. [68] Semafor notes their demands would carry more weight if Democrats won back Congress. [68]

41. 42

    Talk of a cap on AI intelligence

    At The Curve, a yearly AI meeting in Berkeley, several speakers said future AI may need a limit on how intelligent it is allowed to become, Platformer reports. [69] The talks were private, so speakers were not named. [69] Anthropic's boss, Dario Amodei, has called for a 'speed limit' on AI that improves itself. [69]

    Why it matters — A strict limit could amount to banning AI smarter than people. [69] The speakers gave few details, including how intelligence would be measured. [69]

42. 43

    KPMG offers 100 pounds to drop claims

    KPMG, a big accounting and consulting firm, is cutting about 4% of its UK staff, around 200 people, mostly in AI, cyber and software-testing teams. [70] It offered 100 pounds to those leaving if they give up the right to appeal or sue. [70] People will learn by email on 9 October. [70] Some staff call it a gag order. [70]

    Why it matters — It is KPMG UK's second cut this year, after 600 jobs went six months ago. [70]

43. 44

    US tech jobs fell in September

    US tech companies cut 10,350 jobs in September, says CompTIA, a tech trade group, and tech jobs across all industries fell by about 6,000. [71] Tech unemployment rose to 3.3%. [71] AI was named as the reason for 9% of all US job cuts that month. [71] Employers still posted 272,040 new IT jobs, 16% more than a year ago. [71]

    Why it matters — Employers are cutting general jobs while hunting for narrow skills. [71] Energy costs and the war in Iran keep hiring cautious. [71]

44. 45

    Atos wins London police computer deal

    London's Metropolitan Police gave Atos, a French computing firm, a six-year contract worth up to 350m pounds to run and secure its software. [72] It can be extended by two years. [72] Atos needed a rescue deal with its lenders in 2024. [72]

    Why it matters — Britain's biggest police force gave DXC Technology a separate deal worth up to 1bn pounds in April. [72]

45. 46

    Outlook blocks two more file types

    Microsoft will block .msix and .msixbundle attachments, used to install Windows apps, in new Outlook and Outlook on the web. [74] The change arrives in early to mid November. [74] A harmful app package opened from an email could take over a computer. [74]

    Why it matters — Microsoft says the files are rarely sent by email. [74] Administrators who need them can allow them before the change. [74]