OpenAI says an unreleased AI model found and fixed 948 Linux security bugs for $1.2M

OpenAI describes a pipeline that used an upcoming model built for cybersecurity to check and patch 948 local privilege escalation bugs in Linux. These are flaws that let someone already on a machine gain more control over it. OpenAI says the API costs came to $1.2 million. It says security research that used to need a separate investigation for each finding can now run as a systematic process.

OpenAI promises to stop using secrecy deals for data centres after the US midterms

Bloomberg reports that OpenAI says it will avoid nondisclosure agreements when it negotiates data-centre deals. It also says it will make sure local residents don't pay for the electricity its sites use. On its own blog, OpenAI introduces a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint, which it says will protect local resources and create jobs. Separately, the Wall Street Journal's sources say OpenAI discussed resetting its 2027 capacity plans.

Apple reportedly cuts how much its engineers can spend on AI each day

Bloomberg reports that in October Apple lowered the daily AI spending cap for engineering teams from $300 to $200. Sources say more cuts are coming, with some allowances falling to $100 a day. Outside engineering, Apple is said to be weighing a limit as low as $25 a day. TechCrunch has asked Apple for comment.

Amazon makes Uber Eats the delivery partner for US Prime members, replacing Grubhub

Amazon and Uber say Uber Eats is now the official restaurant delivery partner for Prime subscribers in the US. Prime members can order takeout straight from the Amazon app or website, with no delivery fee on orders over $25. Amazon previously worked with Grubhub. Amazon says members could save more than $175 a year. The deal comes as rivals DoorDash and Instacart merge.

Google DeepMind spinout Isomorphic Labs in talks to raise $5B, Bloomberg says

Bloomberg's sources say Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet's company that uses AI to find new drugs, is in talks to raise about $5 billion at a valuation of about $50 billion. It last raised $2.1 billion in May. No deal has been announced.

Chip designer Arm reports a record $1.44B quarter as its server chips gain ground

Arm says revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to $1.44 billion. Licensing brought in $773 million and royalties $670 million, and royalties from data centres doubled. Arm's partners shipped more than 10 billion Arm-based chips in the quarter. Arm says it has orders through 2027 for its own server chip, the Arm AGI CPU, with first deliveries due in the last quarter of its fiscal year. It also says Arm-based PCs are about 20% of global PC shipments.

Memory chipmaker Micron reportedly pauses a $3B–$4.5B Taiwan plant over a labour dispute

Bloomberg's sources say Micron has suspended construction of its Fab 11E memory chip plant in Taiwan, which was set for 2028. The plant was expected to cost $3 billion to $4.5 billion. The sources point to growing uncertainty over a long local labour dispute.

Discord drops Electron and rebuilds its desktop app in Rust to use less memory

Discord is moving its desktop app off Electron, a framework that lets developers build desktop apps with web technology. It is moving fully to Rust, a programming language designed for speed and memory safety. Electron apps are known for using a lot of system resources. Discord's CTO shared an image of the Windows app using 290MB of RAM.

X says its rebuilt website shows profiles in 2.7 seconds instead of 22 on slow connections

X is moving signed-in users to a rewritten web app one country at a time. Logged-out visitors and search engines already get the new version. In a blog post, principal engineer Yagiz Nizipli says the rewrite replaces three separate servers, one each for people, search crawlers and link previews, with one. Security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who has access, said it 'feels snappy'.

China tells SoftBank it won't allow its $5.4B purchase of ABB's robotics unit

The Financial Times' sources say China has told SoftBank it will not let the $5.4 billion purchase of ABB's robotics division go ahead. China is the division's biggest market, and the unit has a very large factory in Pudong, Shanghai.

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