Industry Trend AI News & Updates

Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence Startup Nearing $1B Funding at $30B Valuation

Ilya Sutskever's AI startup, Safe Superintelligence, is reportedly close to raising over $1 billion at a $30 billion valuation, with VC firm Greenoaks Capital Partners leading the round with a $500 million investment. The company, co-founded by former OpenAI and Apple AI leaders, has no immediate plans to sell AI products and would reach approximately $2 billion in total funding.

Former OpenAI Leaders Launch Thinking Machines Lab to Build More Customizable AI

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has launched Thinking Machines Lab, a startup focused on developing more customizable and capable AI systems that address key gaps in current AI technologies. The company, which includes OpenAI co-founder John Schulman and other high-profile AI researchers, aims to build frontier multimodal systems for applications in science and programming while emphasizing AI safety.

OpenAI Plans Special Voting Rights to Safeguard Board Against Takeover Attempts

OpenAI is considering giving its nonprofit board special voting rights that would allow it to overrule major investors, protecting against hostile takeovers like the recent $97.4 billion offer from Elon Musk and investors. This move comes as OpenAI transitions from a capped-profit structure to a public benefit corporation by late 2026, with plans to separate its nonprofit arm with its own staff and leadership team.

DeepSeek Founder to Meet China's Xi Jinping Amid AI Competition

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is reportedly set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other top politicians during an upcoming summit. The meeting comes after DeepSeek's AI models demonstrated strong performance against leading American AI companies, raising concerns among U.S. officials about China's growing competitiveness in the AI race.

xAI Seeks $10 Billion Funding at $75 Billion Valuation

Elon Musk's AI company xAI is reportedly in talks to raise $10 billion at a $75 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to over $22 billion. The company is also considering purchasing more than $5 billion in servers from Dell to support development of its Grok AI models, with Grok 3 expected to release in the coming weeks.

Musk Makes $97.4 Billion Bid for OpenAI, Altman Dismisses Offer

Elon Musk has reportedly made a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI, which would be one of the largest tech acquisitions in history. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly dismissed the offer, responding with a suggestion he could buy Musk's X platform for a tenth of the price, highlighting growing tensions between the AI industry leaders.

Musk-Led Consortium Offers $97.4 Billion to Buy OpenAI Amid Legal Battle

Elon Musk and investors have offered $97.4 billion in cash to acquire OpenAI, with the bid expiring in May 2025. The offer comes amid Musk's lawsuit attempting to block OpenAI's conversion from nonprofit status, with his legal team stating they'll withdraw the bid if OpenAI remains a nonprofit.

Musk Offers Conditional Withdrawal of $97.4B OpenAI Nonprofit Bid

Elon Musk has offered to withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI's nonprofit if the board agrees to preserve its charitable mission and halt conversion to a for-profit structure. The offer comes amid Musk's ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, with OpenAI's attorneys characterizing Musk's bid as an improper attempt to undermine a competitor.

OpenAI Cancels o3 Model in Favor of Unified GPT-5 Release

OpenAI has canceled its planned o3 AI model release, instead incorporating its technology into an upcoming GPT-5 release that aims to unify various capabilities including voice, canvas, search and reasoning. CEO Sam Altman announced that before GPT-5, the company will release GPT-4.5 (Orion) in the coming weeks, which will be OpenAI's last non-chain-of-thought model as the company fully embraces reasoning models.

Musk's $97.4 Billion Bid for OpenAI Nonprofit Complicates Corporate Restructuring

Elon Musk has made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI's nonprofit arm, which currently controls the for-profit entity developing ChatGPT. The bid, quickly dismissed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, complicates OpenAI's ongoing restructuring into a traditional for-profit company and may force the board to demonstrate they aren't underselling the nonprofit's assets to insiders.