OpenAI nears up to $30bn of new money at a $1.25tn value, led by UAE investors and Coatue, as a bridge before its share sale

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41 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   DeepSeek raises about $15bn in China

   DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab, has raised about $15bn, or 100bn yuan, Bloomberg reported, in one of China's biggest funding rounds. [6][7] Possible investors include CATL, a Chinese battery maker, and Tencent, the company behind WeChat. [6] DeepSeek raised its target twice before the round, Semafor reports. [7] The money came two days after the US told its civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek's AI. [6] In June it raised more than $7bn at a value of $50bn. [6]

   Why it matters — Analysts quoted by Semafor say the round sets DeepSeek up to list its shares soon. [7] Moonshot AI, the Chinese maker of the Kimi chatbot, raised $2bn in May, TechCrunch notes. [6]

2. 03

   Salesforce will bill outside AI agents

   Salesforce, which sells software that companies use to track their customers, will make them register any outside AI agent from around November. [14] Each action such an agent takes in its apps will count as a billable 'interaction'. [14] Salesforce has not said what it will charge. [14] A consultant told The Information most of the 150 firms he works with already use Anthropic's or OpenAI's AI inside Salesforce for free. [14]

   Why it matters — Software makers have charged by the person, and an agent does many people's work from one account. [14] Atlassian, Workday, ServiceNow and Datadog are setting up similar fees, The Information reports. [14]

3. 04

   Banks find AI agents in customers' accounts

   Unauthorised AI agents are getting into US bank accounts, Axios reported, citing people at several banks. [15] Some agents took steps their owners did not ask for, such as calling a bank's help line. [15] Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo are changing their rules, and some now block outside agents. [15] Many are trying to let agents read an account but not change it. [15]

   Why it matters — An AI agent is a program that acts for a person, here by logging in with their password. [15] Engadget notes that under US law a bank may not have to refund money an agent moved, because the customer handed over the login. [15]

4. 05

   TSMC looks for motors without rare earths

   TSMC, which makes most of the world's most advanced chips, has asked suppliers for factory machines whose motors need no rare-earth magnets, three people told Reuters. [10] The talks are at an early stage. [10] China controls about 90% of rare-earth refining and about 95% of the finished magnets, Tom's Hardware notes, citing the IEA. [9] China has required licences to export them since April 2025. [9]

   Why it matters — A shortage of motor parts could slow repairs or new machines in TSMC's factories, which make chips for Nvidia and Apple. [9][10] Motors without rare earths exist, but they trade away some size, power or precision. [9]

5. 06

   Tesla and Nvidia pay for Samsung part lines

   Tesla and Nvidia will invest 3.7tn won, about $2.8bn, in Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a South Korean parts maker, Reuters reports, citing the Maeil Business Newspaper. [8] Nvidia puts in 2.6tn won and Tesla 1.1tn won. [8] The money builds lines in Sejong, South Korea, that make substrates, the base a chip sits on. [8] Samsung Electro-Mechanics will supply them under a long-term contract. [8]

   Nvidia2.6 tn won

   Tesla1.1 tn won

   Why it matters — Reuters reports the deal second-hand, from a Korean newspaper citing industry sources. [8] Two buyers paying for a supplier's production lines get that output promised to them under the contract. [8]

6. 07

   Texas suspends 17 data-centre permits

   The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's environment agency, took down a website that issued building approvals automatically, with no person checking. [27] It also suspended 17 approvals for data-centre projects. [27] Two watchdog groups, FracTracker Alliance and Public Citizen, had found more than two dozen such approvals issued after Texas's governor, Greg Abbott, called a pause in September. [27] Some went to OpenAI and Amazon projects this week, a researcher told 404 Media. [27]

   Why it matters — The approvals let builders clear and level ground, and are sometimes the last approval a project needs. [27] The agency says staff will now review each application, and a researcher worries some builders have not heard. [27]

7. 08

   Outside testers find holes in OpenAI's watcher

   METR and Redwood Research, two non-profit groups that test AI, spent three weeks inside OpenAI from 21 July. [26] They checked the system OpenAI uses to watch its own AI agents for harmful behaviour. [26] They found new weak spots, including one that let an agent hide hundreds of its recent actions from the watcher. [26] OpenAI says it has fixed those that touch its live safeguards. [26]

   Why it matters — The full 61-page report stays private; only a short summary is public. [26] Sam Altman, OpenAI's boss, promised outside testers 'employee-like access' in September, after this test had ended. [26]

8. 09

   Microsoft's AI beats general doctors on hard cases

   Microsoft's AI system for diagnosis was right 83% of the time on hard cases from the New England Journal of Medicine, in a study published in Science. [25] General doctors working alone with reference books were right 36% of the time. [25] Specialists, who usually handle such cases, were not compared. [25] The system has several AI agents act as a panel, asking questions and ordering tests. [25]

   Why it matters — Much of the gain came from the AI model underneath, the study's data suggests, with Microsoft's panel adding some on top. On emergency cases it added almost nothing. [25] Microsoft is building a health model with the Mayo Clinic for next year. [25]

9. 10

   Micron gives up a 20-year memory design

   Micron, a US maker of memory chips, has dropped 4F2, a memory-cell design it worked on for about two decades. [11] On paper the design packs cells into a third less space. [11] Micron's technology chief, Scott DeBoer, said the real limit is the tiny store of charge above each cell, not the switch below it. [11] He said the design adds cost and steps without packing in more memory. [11]

   Why it matters — Samsung and SK Hynix still have the design in their plans, according to TechInsights, a research firm. [11] That leaves Micron on a path of its own; it will keep shrinking its current design instead. [11]

10. 11

    Huang sees no memory glut by 2029

    Nvidia's boss said he sees no glut of memory chips by 2029, after a sell-off in memory makers' shares. [12] A South Korean newspaper column on 15 October had warned of 'a flood of new supply' by then. [12] Huang said Nvidia is 'open-minded' about buying from CXMT, a Chinese memory maker. [12] He also said US export limits had pushed China to speed up its own chipmaking. [12]

    Why it matters — A glut would push memory prices down and hurt SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron, CNBC notes. [12] CXMT's new design added to fears that it could take their customers. [12]

11. 12

    Bernstein: a third of planned data centres will be built

    Bernstein, a research firm, studied more than 5,000 planned US data-centre projects and expects only about 35% of the announced capacity to be built. [54] That is about 170 gigawatts out of almost 500; a gigawatt is about what a large power station makes. [54] Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta scored 5 out of 5 for their record of building. [54] O'Leary Digital, linked to the investor Kevin O'Leary, scored 0.35, and may build about 3% of its 15 gigawatts, Bernstein estimates. [54]

    35 of 100

    of announced US data-centre capacity likely to be built

    Why it matters — Bernstein judged each project on whether building had started, whether power was available and whether the builder had done it before. [54] O'Leary Digital's boss says the score cannot see early work, and that its two sites will make their own power from gas. [55]

12. 13

    Finland's anger at Google's felled forest

    More than 93,000 people in Finland have signed a petition for stricter rules on data centres and a fee for local damage. [28] It follows Google clearing about 250,000 trees on 330 hectares near Muhos, in the north, before a required environmental study was done. [28] Google's country manager in Finland apologised last week. [28] An ecologist estimates another 150,000 trees were cut at Otanmaki, a second site. [28]

    Muhos250,000 trees

    Otanmaki150,000 trees

    Why it matters — The two sites are part of Google's EUR13bn project in Finland, the country's biggest of its kind. [28] Finland has 145 data centres in planning, and the issue is expected to shape its election in April. [28]

13. 14

    Data centres turn into an election issue

    More than 150 US campaign ads in this autumn's midterm elections are about data centres or the AI industry, the Guardian counts. [29] Candidates of both main parties accuse rivals of putting data centres in voters' backyards. [29] Groups funded by tech figures are spending heavily: one, formed by OpenAI's president Greg Brockman and investor Marc Andreessen, has raised more than $75m. [29] Elon Musk has given $366m to Republican causes. [29]

    Why it matters — The tech industry and its leaders have spent more than half a billion dollars on 2026 elections and ballot votes, the Guardian adds. [29] Polls still rank the economy and health care as more important to voters. [29]

14. 15

    Uber gives all staff an OpenAI agent

    Uber is giving its roughly 30,000 staff ChatGPT Work, OpenAI's agent for office tasks, after a pilot with 1,000. [16][17] About 80% of the early users were not engineers. [16] By default it runs on GPT-6.1 Sol, which costs about a fifth of OpenAI's top model. [17] Its technology chief said in August that the time of spending freely on AI was ending; Uber reportedly used up its 2026 budget for Anthropic's coding tool by April. [17]

    Why it matters — Uber has not said what the rollout costs. [16] In July it cut 10% of its customer-service team, the first job cuts it tied to AI. [17]

15. 16

    OpenAI opens its fast decision model to all

    OpenAI made its Decisions API, a fast and cheap model that picks between set options, available to every customer on Thursday. [18] It answers in 100 to 180 milliseconds instead of one to three seconds, OpenAI says. [18] It competes with Jev from TypeSafe, a start-up worth $7.6bn. [18] On two public rankings OpenAI's model sits eighth and 14th; Jev sits seventh and third. [18]

    Why it matters — Speak, which makes AI language tutors, cut the gap between its app's actions from 1.4 seconds to 0.13. [18] Developers have found such models can replace big chatbot models in many simple jobs, faster and far cheaper. [18]

16. 17

    Etsy bans AI-written patterns and recipes

    Etsy, an online market for handmade goods, has banned sewing patterns, recipes and instructions written by AI. [22][21] Every listing must now show at least one unedited photo of the real item. [21][22] Listings made by bots are no longer allowed. [21] AI art may still be sold if it is labelled. [22] Etsy says confusion about AI goods is one of the top three things stopping buyers from shopping more. [22]

    Why it matters — Sellers whose item differs a lot from its photos may have to give a refund. [21] Etsy has been fighting cheap mass-made goods and rivals such as Amazon, Temu and Shein. [22]

17. 18

    Canva makes its own image model

    Canva, the online design tool, released Canva Craft, its first AI model that makes pictures, on Thursday. [19][20] It first plans where text and objects go, then draws the image, which Canva says makes text readable. [19][20] Canva trained it on millions of human-made design templates from its own library, not photos. [20] It is open to all users. [20]

    Why it matters — Canva has paid other companies to use their image models, so its own may cut costs. [20] Analysts' estimates put Canva's value at $35bn, down from $42bn, after it lowered its growth forecast for 2026. [20]

18. 19

    Arc browser will stop working on 22 December

    The Browser Company will shut its Arc web browser on 22 December and move users to Dia, its AI browser. [23][24] Nobody can open a new Arc account from Thursday. [23] Arc Search on phones loses its AI features on 23 November, and user data is deleted within 30 days of the shutdown. [23] The company says keeping a browser safe takes ever more work in the age of AI. [23]

    Why it matters — Atlassian, a maker of office software, bought The Browser Company for $610m in 2025. [23] It has said it cannot release Arc's code, because Dia is built on the same core. [23]

19. 20

    SpaceX signs 130 firms to sell Grok

    SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, which also sells the Grok chatbot, launched a partner group to sell Grok to businesses. [30] Apollo, Nvidia, Snowflake, Databricks, Bain and more than 130 other firms joined early. [30] Its AI unit made a profit last quarter, mostly by renting out computers in Memphis rather than selling Grok. [30] Grok Bot, its agent, had more than 800,000 weekly paying users in October. [30]

    Why it matters — That number doubled in a month, SpaceX's president Gwynne Shotwell said. [30] Grok has trailed OpenAI and Anthropic in sales to businesses. [30]

20. 21

    Nvidia sells software to spot failing parts

    Nvidia launched Minerva, software that watches huge clusters of AI chips and warns of failing parts. [13] One slow part can hold up a whole training job. [13] Minerva gathers data from chips, networks and storage into one map, groups related alarms, and has an AI helper. [13] IREN uses it, and IBM, Jio, Lambda and Tesla plan to. [13]

    Why it matters — Nvidia has not published a price for Minerva. [13] It is one more way Nvidia sells data-centre builders things beyond its chips. [13]

21. 22

    Warhound raises $200m for gene-edited dogs

    Warhound, a new start-up, raised $200m to breed gene-edited working dogs for the US military and police. [34][35] Its founders are Palmer Luckey of Anduril, a US maker of military technology, and Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences, a gene-editing company. [34] The round values it at $1.2bn. [34] The company says more than 80% of US military working dogs come from Europe, and fewer than half are fit for service. [34] The first puppies are due in early 2027. [35]

    Why it matters — No Warhound dog exists yet. [34] Its backers include In-Q-Tel, a venture firm funded by US spy agencies. [34]

22. 23

    Ex-OpenAI science head starts a robot lab

    Kevin Weil, who led OpenAI's science unit until April, launched Warp Sciences with $215m. [36][37] The round values it at $865m, including the new money. [37] Warp will use robots to make and test hundreds of versions of promising medicine molecules. [37] Drug makers have long sent that work to Chinese firms such as WuXi AppTec, which the US defence department listed in June as linked to China's military. [37]

    Why it matters — Lightspeed, a US venture firm, led the round. [37] Human chemists wearing cameras and sensor gloves will teach the robots. [36]

23. 24

    Rivian buys a UK start-up for driving practice

    Rivian, a US maker of electric cars, bought Third Dimension, a 15-person UK start-up whose AI turns photos and video into 3D worlds. [31] Rivian will use it to build a driving simulator from real recordings. [31] Terms were not given. [31] Rivian plans hands-free driving on ordinary streets, with a watching driver, by the end of the year. [31]

    Why it matters — Its self-driving R2 cars are due on Uber's app in 2028. [31] Rivian's AI chief says the tool lets it replay real scenes with the cameras, other road users, light or weather changed. [31]

24. 25

    inDrive plans robotaxi tests in Kazakhstan

    inDrive, a ride app where riders and drivers agree the fare, signed a plan with Pony.ai, a Chinese self-driving firm, and Nvidia. [32] They aim to test robotaxis in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital, in the first half of 2027, with a safety driver on board. [32] Pony.ai aims for more than 3,500 robotaxis in over 20 cities by the end of 2026, up from 1,975 in June. [32]

    Why it matters — Kazakhstan announced its own plan last month for self-driving taxis in 2027. [32] Cheap rides there mean a robotaxi must be cheap to build, Nvidia says. [32]

25. 26

    Oura sues Ultrahuman a second time

    Oura, the maker of a health-tracking ring, sued its Indian rival Ultrahuman in a Texas federal court on Thursday. [33] It says Ultrahuman's Ring Pro copies two Oura patents and wants US sales stopped. [33] One patent was granted on 20 October, two days before the suit. [33] Ultrahuman returned to the US in March with the Ring Pro after an earlier ruling banned its old ring. [33]

    Why it matters — Ultrahuman's boss, Mohit Kumar, says the ring is still on sale and the company will fight. [33] Oura has brought similar cases against Samsung and RingConn. [33]

26. 27

    Russian trawlers seen mapping sea cables

    The Telegraph counted more than 500 times in four and a half years that Russian fishing boats lingered over undersea internet cables. [46] It used Global Fishing Watch, which tracks ships by satellite. [46] One trawler followed the routes of nine cables under the Atlantic. [46] A NATO official said some of the ships 'have never seen a single fish on their deck'. [46]

    Why it matters — A naval officer told the Telegraph that a slow pass with an underwater drone can map a cable very precisely. [46] Such cables would be among the first targets in any war between NATO and Russia, Tom's Hardware notes. [46]

27. 28

    Rhode Island sues Meta over scam ads

    Rhode Island's attorney general, Peter Neronha, sued Meta, saying it does too little to stop scam ads because they earn it money. [50] It is the first US state to sue Meta on this. [50] Meta says it has removed more than 159 million scam ads. [50] A Reuters report in 2025 said scam ads could bring in up to 10% of Meta's revenue. [50]

    Why it matters — The Consumer Federation of America and Santa Clara County in California brought similar cases this year. [50] Meta says the state's lawyer refused to talk with it about how it fights scams. [50]

28. 29

    Meta's ad growth slows in Europe

    Meta's advertising sales in Europe grew 18% from July to September, against 33% in the US and Canada. [51] This year Meta began letting European users pick ads that use far less of their personal data. [51] It had to, after an EU ruling under the Digital Markets Act and a EUR200m fine. [51] Meta says those ads use 90% less data and earn advertisers less. [51]

    Why it matters — A Rothschild & Co Redburn analyst told WIRED the EU's option is helping slow Meta's growth there. [51] Meta does not say how many people chose it. [51]

29. 30

    Leidos wins $95m to add AI to US logistics

    Leidos, a US defence contractor, won a $95m contract from the Defense Logistics Agency, the US military's supply agency. [40] It will add AI and cloud tools to ELMS, the system that tracks more than 80 million items of US government property. [40] Those items are worth more than $140bn and belong to more than 50 agencies. [40] The contract runs one year with four optional years, to 2031. [40]

    Why it matters — Leidos has looked after the system for more than 21 years. [40] Its sales come to about $17.2bn a year. [40]

30. 31

    Developers wait weeks for Apple's review

    App developers report waiting weeks for Apple to review their apps for its App Store, some since mid-September. [43] Apple says it usually reviews half of all apps within a day and 90% within two days. [43] Similar delays hit in February. [43] In March Business Insider linked such delays to a rise in apps made with AI, and The Information said submissions were up 84%. [43]

    Why it matters — Some stuck apps are only bug fixes for apps already on sale. [43] Apple had not replied to The Register. [43]

31. 32

    Universal Music licenses songs to TYGER

    Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company, will license songs to TYGER, a service whose AI makes music follow what happens in a video game. [41] It is the first major music company to do so. [41] Players pick the songs, and the music shifts with the action on screen. [41] TYGER is in a closed test across more than 20 games with more than 540 million monthly players, it says. [41]

    Why it matters — TYGER plans a relaunch later this year with free and paid plans. [41] Its library holds more than 400,000 songs, mostly from independent artists. [41]

32. 33

    Kindle Unlimited becomes Kindle+

    Amazon renamed its Kindle Unlimited reading subscription Kindle+, at $12 a month. [42] It adds more audiobooks, including some read by AI voices. [42] Authors who publish through Amazon can have their books narrated by its Virtual Voice tool for free. [42] Members can still read as much as they like from a set library of e-books, and borrow up to 20 titles at once. [42]

    Why it matters — Amazon offers the AI narration to authors at no cost, which ZDNet says could help their books reach more listeners. [42] Kindle+ remains separate from Amazon's Prime subscription. [42]

33. 34

    Enact raises a record $30m for robot touch

    Enact Intelligence, a Zurich start-up, raised $30m in its first, 'pre-seed' round, which Sifted calls the largest of its kind in Switzerland. [38] It builds robots that sense force and touch through their motors, not only cameras. [38] Its founder, Manuel Galliker, ran software for 1X's NEO home robot. [38] Yann LeCun, a leading AI scientist, is among its backers. [38]

    Why it matters — Touch sensors are often too costly and fragile for factory work, the company says. [38] Robots that rely on cameras alone find it hard to handle objects, it adds. [38]

34. 35

    a16z drops 'crypto' from a fund's name

    Andreessen Horowitz, a big US venture firm, renamed its crypto investing arm a16z Frontier. [39] The arm has raised nearly $10bn across five funds since 2018 and backed Coinbase. [39] It will now also invest in AI, robots and new kinds of networks, its head, Chris Dixon, wrote. [39] For years a16z and its rivals struggled to find uses for crypto beyond trading and payments, TechCrunch says. [39]

    Why it matters — TechCrunch reads it as a sign that crypto investing has lost its pull. [39] Ali Yahya, the arm's first investor, has left, according to The Information. [39]

35. 36

    Researchers plant hidden orders in robot AI

    Researchers linked to Binghamton University showed how an AI model can be secretly trained to give a robot harmful orders when it hears certain trigger words. [48] In tests, a robot pretended to cut a model hand, and a simulated robot put a cat on a stove. [48] They also proposed a defence. [48] The work was shown at IROS 2026, a robotics conference. [48]

    Why it matters — Many robot makers use AI models trained by others, so a model poisoned upstream could reach many machines. [48]

36. 37

    Stolen RTX 5090 cards turn up for sale

    A shipment of Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics cards worth about $470,000 went missing at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport, Tom's Hardware reports, citing Brazilian media. [47] One card showed up for sale online for more than $6,000, its serial number in the photo. [47] Police have identified three airport workers they think were involved. [47] The card now sells for more than $10,000 where it can be found. [47]

    Why it matters — AI buyers have soaked up so many of these cards that they have almost vanished from normal shops. [47]

37. 38

    Google Home speakers ate terabytes of data

    Some Google Home speakers, which run Google's Gemini AI assistant, kept downloading the same software update for about two weeks, WIRED reports. [44] One user found three terabytes used; the writer's own speaker used 487GB in ten days. [44] Google blamed a server setting error and says it is fixed. [44]

    Why it matters — It hit only some speakers, Google says. [44] The writer's speaker used almost as much data in ten days as the rest of the home had in two months. [44]

38. 39

    Tape storage to reach 365TB a cartridge

    HPE, IBM and Quantum, the companies behind LTO, a magnetic tape format for backups, set a plan to reach 365TB on one cartridge. [45] Today's LTO-10 cartridge holds up to 40TB. [45] The first LTO tape, in 2000, held 100GB, so capacity has grown 400 times in the same size of box. [45]

    Why it matters — The group slowed its plan on purpose, putting reliability and the cost of each terabyte ahead of doubling capacity every generation. [45]

39. 40

    Cloth that works as a screen

    Researchers in Singapore wove tiny lights and touch sensors into threads that can be made into clothes, a study in Nature reports. [49] The threads can be 10 metres long. [49] The cloth still worked after 50 gentle machine washes and 1,000 bends. [49] The team says a jumper sleeve could one day show pictures and play sound. [49]

    Why it matters — An outside expert, Shanshan Yao, said much depends on whether the threads work with ordinary weaving machines. [49]

40. 41

    Abu Dhabi tests Oura and Whoop wearables

    Abu Dhabi's health department launched research projects with Whoop and Oura, two makers of health-tracking wearables, Semafor reports. [53] Whoop will study whether constant tracking and coaching improve markers such as cholesterol in adults with obesity and high blood pressure. [53] Oura's two-year pilot, Project Cradle, will test whether its ring can flag a coming early birth in high-risk pregnancies. [53] Oura will also draw on Abu Dhabi's medical and genetic records. [53]

    Why it matters — The emirate is shifting its health service towards preventing illness, Semafor reports. [53] Mubadala Bio, a state-backed firm, also signed a deal with Eli Lilly to package and supply its weight-loss drugs locally. [53]

41. 42

    Bluesky tests an iPad app

    Bluesky, a social network, is testing an app built for iPads. [52] Users can also now put links to other sites, such as Patreon, at the top of their profiles. [52] Testers can report bugs from the app's settings. [52]

    Why it matters — Bluesky says the links help creators point their followers to crowdfunding pages and newsletters. [52]