October 8, 2025 News
OpenAI Secures Multi-Billion Dollar Infrastructure Deals with AMD and Nvidia, Plans More Partnerships
OpenAI has announced unprecedented deals with AMD and Nvidia worth hundreds of billions of dollars to acquire AI infrastructure, including an unusual arrangement where AMD grants OpenAI up to 10% equity in exchange for using their chips. CEO Sam Altman indicates OpenAI plans to announce additional major deals in coming months to support building 10+ gigawatts of AI data centers, despite current revenue of only $4.5 billion annually. These deals involve circular financing structures where chip makers essentially fund OpenAI's purchases in exchange for equity stakes.
Skynet Chance (+0.04%): Massive infrastructure scaling could enable training of significantly more powerful AI systems with less oversight due to rapid deployment timelines and distributed ownership structures. The circular financing arrangements may create misaligned incentives where commercial pressure to justify investments overrides safety considerations.
Skynet Date (-1 days): The aggressive infrastructure buildout with 10+ gigawatts of capacity substantially accelerates the timeline for deploying potentially dangerous AI systems at scale. OpenAI's confidence in rapidly monetizing future capabilities suggests they expect transformative AI developments within a compressed timeframe.
AGI Progress (+0.03%): The trillion-dollar infrastructure commitment signals OpenAI's internal confidence that their research roadmap will produce significantly more capable models requiring massive compute resources. This level of investment from major tech companies validates expectations of substantial near-term capability gains toward AGI.
AGI Date (-1 days): Securing unprecedented compute resources (10+ gigawatts) removes a critical bottleneck that could have delayed AGI development by years. Altman's statement about never being "more confident in the research roadmap" combined with massive infrastructure bets suggests they expect AGI-level breakthroughs within the timeframe these facilities will come online.
OpenAI Plans to Transform ChatGPT into Third-Party App Platform and Operating System
OpenAI's Head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, revealed plans to transform ChatGPT from a conversational interface into an operating system-like platform hosting third-party applications, drawing inspiration from how web browsers evolved into de facto operating systems. With 800 million weekly active users, ChatGPT aims to integrate apps from companies like Expedia, DoorDash, and Uber to enable e-commerce transactions and provide developers access to its massive user base. Turley frames ChatGPT as the "delivery vehicle" for OpenAI's mission to distribute AGI to humanity, suggesting the consumer product is central to achieving the company's nonprofit goals.
Skynet Chance (+0.04%): Expanding ChatGPT into a platform ecosystem with third-party integrations and potential hardware devices increases its embeddedness in daily life and economic systems, creating more dependency and potential attack surfaces. However, the focus on user controls and privacy safeguards provides some mitigation against uncontrolled AI expansion.
Skynet Date (-1 days): The push to rapidly scale ChatGPT into an operating system with 800 million users and deep integration into commerce, education, and daily activities accelerates AI's penetration into critical systems. The explicit framing of ChatGPT as the "delivery vehicle" for AGI suggests intentional acceleration of widespread deployment.
AGI Progress (+0.03%): Turley's statement that ChatGPT is the "delivery vehicle" for AGI and his view that "AGI is probably not this single moment in time, but rather a gradual thing" suggests OpenAI considers current ChatGPT capabilities as steps along the AGI continuum. The platform strategy indicates confidence in scaling toward more general capabilities through ecosystem expansion.
AGI Date (-1 days): OpenAI's strategy to rapidly build a comprehensive product ecosystem (ChatGPT platform, Sora, potential browser, hardware with Jony Ive) and explicit positioning of these as AGI distribution mechanisms suggests accelerated timelines. The company is moving from research demos to mass deployment infrastructure, indicating they expect transformative capabilities sooner rather than later.
OpenAI's Sora Video Generation App Achieves Massive Launch Success, Rivaling ChatGPT Adoption
OpenAI's video-generating app Sora recorded approximately 627,000 iOS downloads in its first week in the U.S. and Canada, nearly matching ChatGPT's first-week performance of 606,000 U.S. downloads. Despite being invite-only, Sora reached the No. 1 position on the U.S. App Store and has driven widespread creation of AI-generated videos, including controversial deepfakes of deceased individuals.
Skynet Chance (+0.04%): Widespread consumer adoption of realistic deepfake generation technology increases potential for misinformation, social manipulation, and erosion of trust in digital media, which are precursor risks to loss of control over information ecosystems. The ease of creating convincing fake content at scale represents a step toward AI systems that can deceive humans effectively.
Skynet Date (+0 days): Rapid public adoption and deployment of advanced generative AI capabilities demonstrates accelerating commercialization of powerful AI tools with minimal safeguards. The speed of rollout and widespread accessibility suggests the pace of deploying increasingly capable AI systems is outpacing safety considerations.
AGI Progress (+0.03%): The Sora 2 model's ability to generate realistic video content represents significant progress in multimodal AI capabilities, a key component of AGI. The level of consumer demand and successful integration of complex video generation into a consumer product indicates meaningful advancement in making sophisticated AI capabilities practical and accessible.
AGI Date (+0 days): The rapid development and deployment of advanced multimodal models like Sora 2, coupled with massive consumer adoption despite invite-only status, demonstrates accelerating progress in bringing complex AI capabilities to market. This pace of commercialization and capability advancement suggests shorter timelines to more general AI systems.
SoftBank Acquires ABB Robotics for $5.4B to Advance Physical AI and ASI Vision
SoftBank Group announced the acquisition of ABB Group's robotics business unit for $5.375 billion, with the deal expected to close in mid-to-late 2026. The acquisition is part of SoftBank's strategic focus on "physical AI" and its stated mission to realize Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), combining advanced robotics with AI capabilities. ABB's robotics division employs 7,000 people and generated $2.3 billion in revenue in 2024, producing robots for industrial tasks like picking, cleaning, and painting.
Skynet Chance (+0.04%): The explicit pursuit of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) combined with physical robotics integration increases potential risks if alignment and control mechanisms are not properly developed. Large-scale deployment of AI-powered physical systems with ASI-level capabilities could present new safety challenges related to autonomous action in the real world.
Skynet Date (-1 days): The significant capital investment ($5.4B) and strategic focus on combining ASI with robotics suggests acceleration of physical AI deployment timelines. However, the deal's 2026 closure and focus on existing industrial robotics technology moderates the immediate timeline impact.
AGI Progress (+0.03%): SoftBank's explicit commitment to ASI as a strategic mission, backed by multi-billion dollar acquisitions, represents significant capital and institutional focus on advancing beyond narrow AI toward general intelligence. The integration of physical robotics with advanced AI could provide crucial embodied learning capabilities necessary for AGI development.
AGI Date (-1 days): The consolidation of robotics capabilities with substantial financial backing ($5.4B acquisition plus broader investments in Skild AI, Agile Robots, and AI infrastructure) accelerates the embodied AI development pathway. SoftBank's four-pillar strategy (AI chips, data centers, energy, and robotics) creates an integrated ecosystem that could speed AGI development timelines.