News/Partnerships
ChatGPT adds workspace integrations as OpenAI manages GPT-5 capacity
OpenAI has expanded ChatGPT's third-party integrations with new connectors for Dropbox, Microsoft Teams, and other enterprise tools while CEO Sam Altman outlined the company's strategy for managing GPT-5 demand amid capacity constraints. The updates reflect OpenAI's effort to balance its ambitious AI rollout with infrastructure limitations, as the company serves 700 million weekly ChatGPT users following GPT-5's "bumpy" debut last week. What you should know: OpenAI is prioritizing existing customers first as it scales GPT-5 access across different user tiers and API services. Current paying ChatGPT users will receive more total usage than before GPT-5's release, though specific increases weren't...
read Aug 12, 2025Australia’s first sovereign AI data center launches in 2026 via Dell-Macquarie deal
Macquarie Data Centres, part of the Macquarie Technology Group, and Dell Technologies are partnering to establish Australia's first sovereign AI infrastructure facility, combining Dell's AI technology with locally-operated data center infrastructure. The initiative addresses growing concerns about Australia's lack of investment in domestic AI capabilities, which experts warn poses national security and economic risks in an increasingly competitive global AI landscape. What you should know: The Dell AI Factory with Nvidia will be hosted in Macquarie's purpose-built IC3 Super West data center, a 47MW facility designed specifically for high-power AI workloads. The facility is scheduled for completion in mid-2026 and...
read Aug 12, 2025AWS launches OpenAI’s first open-weight models in 6 years
AWS has launched day-of-launch availability of two new open-weight models from OpenAI on Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, breaking Microsoft's traditional exclusivity with OpenAI. This marks the first time OpenAI has released open-weight models since GPT-2 in 2019, allowing AWS customers to fine-tune the models for specific use cases without directly interacting with OpenAI. What you should know: The two new models—gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b—represent OpenAI's first open-weight releases in six years. Open-weight models have visible parameters that allow AWS customers to fine-tune them for specific use cases, though the underlying training data isn't visible like in fully open-source models. OpenAI...
read Aug 11, 2025Biotech startup Tahoe raises $30M for AI cancer drug discovery platform
Biotech startup Tahoe Therapeutics has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Amplify Partners, bringing its total funding to $42 million and valuing the company at $120 million. The Palo Alto-based company has developed breakthrough technology for generating massive biological datasets needed to train AI models that can simulate living cells, positioning it to accelerate cancer drug discovery through digital cell modeling. What you should know: Tahoe's proprietary Mosaic platform can generate unprecedented amounts of single-cell data by testing multiple patient cell types simultaneously, rather than conventional one-patient-at-a-time approaches. In February 2024, the company released Tahoe-100M, a dataset...
read Aug 11, 2025Saudi Arabia deploys OpenAI’s open-source models in sovereign data centers
Saudi Arabia's AI venture Humain and chipmaker Groq have deployed OpenAI's new open-source models—gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B—within Saudi Arabia's sovereign data centers. This marks a significant step in Saudi Arabia's push for AI sovereignty, ensuring compliance with local data regulations while providing high-speed AI inference capabilities to enterprises, government institutions, and developers without requiring data to leave the Kingdom. What you should know: The deployment brings cutting-edge AI capabilities directly to Saudi infrastructure with impressive performance metrics.• The gpt-oss-120B model operates at over 500 tokens per second, while the smaller gpt-oss-20B delivers over 1,000 tokens per second on Groq's specialized hardware.•...
read Aug 11, 2025Cleveland Clinic partners with Piramidal to monitor brain health in real time
The Cleveland Clinic is partnering with San Francisco-based startup Piramidal to develop an AI foundation model that monitors patients' brain health in intensive care units using electroencephalogram (EEG) data. The system aims to interpret continuous streams of brain wave data and flag abnormalities in seconds, potentially transforming how doctors detect neurological issues in critically ill patients. Why this matters: Current EEG monitoring in ICUs requires manual review that can take two to four hours for a day's worth of data, with reports generated only every 12 to 24 hours—delays that could prove critical for patients experiencing seizures or declining brain...
read Aug 11, 2025NASA and Google build AI medical assistant for Mars missions
NASA and Google have developed the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA), an AI-powered medical tool designed specifically for Mars missions and long-distance space travel. The system addresses critical challenges of space medicine, including communication delays of up to 223 minutes with Earth and the impossibility of medical evacuations or sample returns during multi-year missions. How it works: The CMO-DA runs on Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform and uses open-source language models like Llama 3 and Mistral-3 Small to provide independent medical diagnostics. NASA retains full ownership of the tool's source code, while Google provides the cloud infrastructure and AI...
read Aug 8, 2025“Learn to AI”: California propels workforce training with tech giants across public education system
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced partnerships with Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and IBM to integrate AI training and tools across the state's community colleges and California State University system. The voluntary agreements aim to prepare students and educators for an AI-driven workforce while modernizing curricula and expanding access to generative AI technologies across California's public education system. What you should know: These memoranda of understanding formalize partnerships focused on workforce development, teacher training, and hands-on AI experience without any exchange of funds. Google is providing AI-focused training courses for students on effective prompting and for educators on using generative AI...
read Aug 8, 2025Deutsche Telekom plans AI data center with Nvidia for 2026 launch
Deutsche Telekom plans to begin construction of a large-scale AI data center in 2026, developed in partnership with Nvidia and investment firm Brookfield as part of what the companies describe as the world's first industrial AI cloud for European manufacturers. The facility represents a significant push into AI infrastructure by the German telecom giant, targeting the growing demand for specialized computing power among manufacturing companies across Germany and mainland Europe. What you should know: Deutsche Telekom is targeting a 2026 construction start for its AI "Gigafactory" using Nvidia's advanced chip technology. CEO Tim Höttges confirmed the timeline during an investor...
read Aug 8, 2025Orange deploys OpenAI’s open-weight models across 26 countries with full data control
Orange has partnered with OpenAI to deploy new open-weight AI models—gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b—entirely within its own sovereign infrastructure across 26 countries. This deployment allows the French telecom giant to maintain complete data control while customizing AI solutions for customer service, network operations, and enterprise clients, positioning Orange as among the first organizations globally to integrate these models under strict data governance standards. What you should know: Orange can host and run OpenAI's models entirely within its own infrastructure, from large-scale French data centers to smaller edge environments. The open-weight nature of the gpt-oss models ensures compliance with regulatory frameworks across...
read Aug 8, 2025UAE’s du launches first Arabic LLM for telecom operations
UAE telecommunications operator du has partnered with Microsoft, Nokia, Khalifa University, and the International Telecommunication Union to develop what it claims is the first Arabic-language large language model specifically designed for internal telecom operations. The model addresses the growing need for localized AI systems in strategic sectors while supporting the UAE's emphasis on developing sovereign AI infrastructure. What you should know: The Arabic LLM is designed to handle operational tasks with cultural and linguistic nuances specific to the UAE and broader region. The model supports real-time customer complaint handling, device issue diagnostics, and internal process optimization through AI-generated insights. Unlike...
read Aug 7, 2025AI’s Fortress of Solitude: OpenAI picks Arctic Norway for $1B data center
OpenAI has chosen Narvik, Norway—a remote Arctic location—over traditional European tech hubs for its $1 billion Project Stargate data center, which will house 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by 2026. The surprising location choice prioritizes Norway's abundant hydropower and low electricity costs, positioning the facility to become one of Europe's largest AI infrastructure installations with 520MW capacity. What you should know: OpenAI partnered with AI infrastructure firm Nscale and Norwegian industrial company Aker to build what they're calling an "AI Gigafactory" in Northern Norway. The initial 20MW phase requires roughly $1 billion in investment, with plans to scale to 520MW capacity. The...
read Aug 7, 2025Brookfield commits $33B to European AI infrastructure buildout
Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management is making a massive bet on the infrastructure gold rush powering artificial intelligence, committing over $33 billion to European AI projects as demand for specialized computing facilities explodes worldwide. The Toronto-based asset manager, which oversees more than $900 billion in assets across real estate, infrastructure, and renewable energy, announced a dedicated investment strategy targeting the complex web of physical infrastructure that AI systems require to function. This isn't just about building more data centers—it's about creating an entirely new category of industrial facilities designed specifically for AI's voracious appetite for computing power and energy....
read Aug 7, 2025Google and Microsoft launch Gemini CLI GitHub Actions for AI-powered coding
Google and Microsoft's GitHub have partnered to launch Gemini CLI GitHub Actions, a free beta AI tool that integrates Google's Gemini AI directly into GitHub repositories as an autonomous coding assistant. The collaboration expands Google's recently launched Gemini CLI beyond terminal interfaces, positioning it as a comprehensive AI teammate for software development workflows. What you should know: Gemini CLI GitHub Actions functions as both an autonomous agent and on-demand collaborator within GitHub repositories. The tool can auto-label, prioritize and filter new issues, provide instant feedback on code quality, style and correctness, and collaborate through @gemini-cli commands to write tests, implement...
read Aug 7, 2025NSF awards $32M to 5 teams for AI-powered protein design breakthroughs
The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $32 million to five teams across the United States through its inaugural Use-Inspired Acceleration of Protein Design (NSF USPRD) initiative. This strategic investment aims to accelerate the translation of AI-based protein design approaches into real-world applications, strengthening America's competitive position in the rapidly expanding bioeconomy sector. Why this matters: The funding represents a critical push to maintain U.S. leadership in biotechnology as global competition intensifies, particularly in areas where AI-driven protein design could revolutionize industries from manufacturing to healthcare. The big picture: The National Science Foundation's Technology, Innovation and Partnerships directorate is betting...
read Aug 6, 2025Federal agencies can now buy OpenAI’s ChatGPT for just $1 annually
OpenAI has announced a major partnership with the US government, making its frontier AI models available to federal agencies for just $1 for the next year through an agreement with the General Services Administration. This unprecedented deal represents the culmination of months of lobbying efforts by OpenAI executives and positions the company to capture a significant share of the massive federal AI market, particularly as the Trump administration accelerates government modernization efforts. What you should know: The partnership grants federal employees access to OpenAI's most advanced models at a symbolic price point, marking a significant expansion of AI tools across...
read Aug 6, 2025AI accounting startup Rillet raises $70M at $500M valuation
Rillet, an AI-powered accounting software startup founded by former N26 executive Nicolas Kopp, has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ. The funding values the company at approximately $500 million and comes just two months after its previous $25 million raise, bringing total funding to over $100 million as the startup targets legacy accounting systems from Oracle and Microsoft. Why this matters: Rillet's platform addresses a critical pain point in enterprise finance by automating accounting tasks that traditionally take weeks to complete, leveraging AI to transform what Kopp calls "dumb databases" into...
read Aug 6, 2025AWS signs 80MW wind power deal to fuel $8.3B India expansion
Amazon Web Services has signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement with Gentari, the clean energy subsidiary of Malaysian energy giant Petronas, for 80MW of wind energy in Tamil Nadu, India. The wind farm is expected to generate 300,000 MWh of clean electricity annually starting mid-2027, supporting AWS's ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 while powering the company's expanding $8.3 billion cloud infrastructure investment across India. What you should know: The wind farm is part of the broader Karur Wind Development zone, a major renewable energy hub in Tamil Nadu that hosts several large-scale projects. The region includes...
read Aug 6, 2025ElevenLabs launches AI music generator with full commercial rights
ElevenLabs has launched an AI music generator that offers full commercial rights to users, allowing generated music to be used in YouTube videos, movies, and advertising without licensing restrictions. The move positions the AI voice company to expand beyond its core offering into the less-crowded generative music space, where commercial usage rights could provide a significant competitive advantage. What you should know: The tool operates through simple text prompts, similar to chatbots or image generators, where users can request specific musical styles and themes. Users can input prompts like "create an early 2000s pop song with lyrics about a romantic...
read Aug 5, 2025ASUS and NVIDIA unveil desktop AI supercomputers with 784GB memory
ASUS and NVIDIA have unveiled a new class of AI desktop supercomputers featuring the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell superchips, including the ASUS ExpertCenter Pro ET900N G3 desktop and the ultra-compact ASUS Ascent GX10 mini-PC. These systems address the "last mile" challenge in AI computing by delivering data center-level performance in desktop form factors, with the ExpertCenter Pro offering up to 784GB of GPU memory and the palm-sized Ascent GX10 providing up to 1,000 AI TOPS of processing power. The big picture: Traditional consumer graphics cards like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 with 32GB of VRAM can handle smaller AI models, but...
read Aug 5, 2025Meta’s AI cuts concrete carbon by 35% while boosting strength 43% faster
Meta and ready-mix supplier Amrize have deployed an AI-optimized concrete recipe at Meta's Minnesota data center that reaches 4,000-psi strength 43% faster while cutting embodied carbon by 35%. The breakthrough demonstrates how Bayesian optimization can solve concrete's carbon paradox—delivering both speed and sustainability for the trillion-dollar data center construction boom. How it works: The collaboration used Meta's open-source Ax and BoTorch frameworks combined with University of Illinois research to create a "bespoke" mixture design. Researchers fed hundreds of thousands of historic cylinder tests, aggregate gradations, and supplementary material chemistries into a Bayesian optimization engine that treated strength, shrinkage resistance, and...
read Aug 5, 2025Orange partners with OpenAI to bring AI models to 2,000+ African languages
Orange plans to use OpenAI's latest open-weight AI models to work with African languages, expanding beyond its current use of OpenAI's Whisper speech model. This initiative addresses a significant gap in AI accessibility, as the benefits of AI models have largely bypassed Africa's 2,000+ languages due to data scarcity and limited computational resources. What you should know: Orange, a French mobile operator serving 18 African countries, signed a deal with OpenAI last year to access pre-release AI models and fine-tune large language models for translating regional African languages. The company started working with African languages this year using OpenAI's Whisper...
read Aug 5, 2025Fermi America and Hyundai plan 11GW nuclear grid for AI expansion
Fermi America and Hyundai Engineering & Construction have signed a partnership to develop what they're calling the world's largest private electrical grid—an 11-gigawatt nuclear-powered energy hub designed specifically to meet the massive electricity demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The ambitious Texas-based project represents a significant bet on nuclear power as the solution to AI's growing energy crisis. As AI models become more sophisticated and data centers proliferate, the technology sector is consuming electricity at unprecedented rates, creating bottlenecks that threaten to slow AI development. This hybrid energy system combines nuclear reactors with natural gas, solar power, grid electricity, and battery...
read Aug 5, 2025OpenAI releases first open source models in 6 years amid China competition
OpenAI has returned to its open source origins with the release of two new frontier language models: gpt-oss-120b (120 billion parameters) and gpt-oss-20b (20 billion parameters). This marks the company's first open source language model release in over six years, positioning OpenAI to compete directly with the surge of high-performing open source models from Chinese competitors like DeepSeek while offering enterprises maximum privacy and control over their AI deployments. The big picture: OpenAI's strategic pivot back to open source reflects mounting competitive pressure from Chinese AI companies that have released powerful open source models matching proprietary performance at zero cost....
read