OpenAI is raising $40 Billion

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s Thursday.

Bloomberg is reporting that OpenAI is closing in on a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank at a $300 billion post-money valuation.

This would be the largest venture capital round ever — again.

In October 2024, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion, setting the record for the largest venture capital deal in history. At that time, the company was valued at $157 billion.

OK let’s keep going ↓

Here’s what you should know:

• Databricks and Anthropic sign landmark deal

  Multi-year partnership will help 10,000+ customers securely build and deploy AI agents with Claude over their enterprise data.

• Perplexity partners with Firmly to boost shopping features

  New partnership scales the native Perplexity Shopping experience to merchants of all sizes.

• Rapt AI and AMD collaborate

  This alliance aims to improve AI inference and training workload management and performance on AMD Instinct GPUs.

• OpenAI adds MCP support to Agents SDK

  Model context protocol (aka MCP) is popular, and Sam Altman mentioned that support for the GPT desktop app and Responses API is coming soon.

• Mazda is using AI to improve dealer training

  The company plans to use AI to personalize the learning even more than it is today.

• N Korea's Kim inspects test of 'AI suicide attack drones'

  In addition to the drone, Kim also unveiled what is thought to be the country's first airborne early-warning aircraft.

• SEC should avoid ‘overly prescriptive’ AI rules, acting chair says

  Acting Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mark Uyeda said the agency should generally avoid “overly prescriptive” AI rules that can quickly become outdated and impede innovation.

• Instacart will use AI to check grocery store inventory

  Introducing Store View and Second Store Check.

• Arizona Supreme Court adds AI reporters

  AI reporters can generate summaries in about 20 minutes, significantly speeding up the process.

• China's H3C warns of Nvidia AI chip shortage amid surging demand

  One of China’s largest server makers, H3C, has flagged potential shortages of Nvidia's H20 chip, the most advanced AI processor legally available domestically under U.S. export controls, in a client notice seen by Reuters.

• Workato acquires AI support automation company DeepConverse

  This acquisition will allow DeepConverse customers to combine the power of conversational AI with the Workato One platform.

• Twin’s first AI agent is an invoice retrieval agent for Qonto customers

  The Paris-based company is releasing an automation agent in partnership with Qonto, the fintech startup that offers business bank accounts to more than 500,000 customers across Europe.

The numbers:

• Related is seeking to raise as much as $8 Billion in capital for the venture called Related Digital (AI data center)

• Hakimo, an AI physical security monitoring startup, raised a $10.5M Series A

Thought starters:

• Harnessing AI to Improve Access to Justice in Civil Courts

• Doctor explains how AI is already being deployed in medical care

One major trend that I’m noticing is that more and more schools across the U.S. are adopting AI. Recent examples have been cited in Texas and Illinois.

Additional examples from this month alone:

• Google highlights 8 universities and schools using AI

• Business schools ease their resistance to AI

• Philly teacher embraces AI but treads carefully

• Teachers Believe That AI Is Here to Stay in Education. How It Should Be Taught Is Debatable.

• AI-driven teaching methods essential for modern education, researcher says

• Knowledge Graph Helps Build AI Rooted in Learning Science

• An Open-Source AI Agent for Doing Tasks on the Web

• 'This has been a game changer' - Educators embrace AI at Texas State University symposium

Meme of the day:

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

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