Industry Trend AI News & Updates

Meta Plans Standalone AI Chatbot App and Subscription Service

Meta is reportedly developing a standalone app for its AI assistant, Meta AI, to compete more directly with ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. The company is also planning to test a paid subscription service for Meta AI with enhanced capabilities, though pricing details haven't been revealed.

OpenAI Faces GPU Shortage for GPT-4.5 Rollout

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that the company is facing GPU shortages that are forcing a staggered rollout of its new GPT-4.5 model. The massive and expensive model, which is being priced at $75 per million input tokens and $150 per million output tokens, will initially be available to ChatGPT Pro subscribers before expanding to Plus customers.

Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet Cost Only Tens of Millions to Train

According to information reportedly provided by Anthropic to Wharton professor Ethan Mollick, their latest flagship AI model Claude 3.7 Sonnet cost only "a few tens of millions of dollars" to train using less than 10^26 FLOPs. This relatively modest training cost for a state-of-the-art model demonstrates the declining expenses of developing cutting-edge AI systems compared to earlier generations that cost $100-200 million.

DeepSeek Resumes API Services After Capacity-Driven Pause

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has reopened access to its API after a three-week pause caused by capacity constraints. The company's openly available R1 reasoning model has gained recognition for matching or exceeding the performance of OpenAI's top models, prompting competitive responses from both OpenAI and domestic rivals like Alibaba.

Microsoft Reduces Data Center Footprint Amid Industry Expansion

Microsoft has canceled leases totaling approximately two data centers' worth of capacity with multiple providers. This contraction stands in contrast to significant industry expansion, including the $500 billion Stargate project by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, and raises questions about Microsoft's expectations for future AI demand.

Anthropic Increases Funding Round to $3.5 Billion Despite Financial Losses

Anthropic is finalizing a $3.5 billion fundraising round at a $61.5 billion valuation, up from an initially planned $2 billion. Despite reaching $1.2 billion in annualized revenue, the company continues to operate at a loss and intends to invest the new capital in developing more capable AI technologies.

DeepSeek Announces Open Sourcing of Production-Tested AI Code Repositories

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has announced plans to open source portions of its online services' code as part of an upcoming "open source week" event. The company will release five code repositories that have been thoroughly documented and tested in production, continuing its practice of making AI resources openly available under permissive licenses.

OpenAI Reports Massive User Growth with 400M Weekly Users

OpenAI has announced it now serves 400 million weekly active users, up from 300 million in December 2024, demonstrating rapid growth in consumer adoption. On the enterprise side, the company has reached 2 million paying enterprise users, doubling since September 2024, while developer API traffic has doubled in the past six months.

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.