OpenAI reportedly raises another $11 billion, valuing it at $1.25 trillion

Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that OpenAI has closed on about $11 billion in new funding. It is the first part of a round that values the company at $1.25 trillion, and the round could grow to as much as $20 billion. TechCrunch says the full round has not closed yet and is expected to in the coming weeks. The Verge notes that OpenAI raised $122 billion in March at a valuation of $852 billion.

AI startup Thinking Machines Lab shows Inkling 2 Small, with open weights due next week

Thinking Machines Lab has announced Inkling 2 Small. It is a mixture-of-experts model, which means only some parts of the model run for each word. It has 594 billion parameters in total, and 17 billion are active at a time. It accepts images as well as text. The lab says it will release the weights, the files anyone can download and run, under the open Apache 2.0 licence next week, after outside safety testing. For now it is only available through the lab's Tinker platform. The lab says it scores 31 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, well above its earlier models. Separately, Business Insider reports that the lab is raising $5 billion at a $40 billion valuation.

Meta's Muse AI app can now build custom mini-apps, called spaces, on request

Meta says users of its Muse AI app can now create 'spaces' by describing them, such as a shopping hub, school dashboard, music tracker or trivia game. If you connect outside apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, OpenTable or Notion, Muse keeps pulling in information to update prices, dates and other details in the background. You can tick things off, add notes and edit inside a space, and choose where and when spaces appear in the app. Meta is also bringing 'Active Memory' and 'Active Focus' features from its Muse Wonder model into Muse and Meta AI. Spaces are rolling out to all Muse users.

Amazon lets shoppers text its Alexa assistant to find and buy products

Amazon says some US customers can now chat with its Alexa AI agent by text message to shop. They can search for items, add them to the cart and buy them. They can also manage lists, track prices, compare products, check orders and send a photo to find similar listings. Amazon says Alexa will learn users' preferences over time. Selected customers get a text inviting them to turn it on, others can join a waitlist, and Amazon says it will reach more people in the coming weeks. TechCrunch notes the launch comes after Amazon blocked Meta's Muse agent from searching its site in September.

Asian tech stocks plunge on fears the US will slow down building data centres

Asian stock markets tied to the AI boom fell sharply on Friday morning after a tech sell-off, Nikkei Asia reports. Investors fear that US Democrats may delay data-centre projects. Taiwan's Taiex had its biggest intraday point drop on record, South Korea's Kospi fell 8.7% and Japan's Nikkei fell 6.7%. Separately, Bloomberg cites research firm Cleanview, which says about 40% of planned US data-centre capacity is in states whose newly elected governors pledged to pause or halt construction.

Fox completes its $22 billion purchase of streaming platform Roku, ahead of schedule

Fox Corp. has closed its acquisition of Roku, a deal valued at $22 billion, well ahead of the expected 2027 date, Variety reports. The deal was first announced in June, and TechCrunch notes that Justice Department investigators were looking into it a few months ago. Roku founder Anthony Wood joins Fox's board and will co-chair a new unit that combines Tubi, Fox One and Roku. The Verge says Roku reaches more than 100 million US households and that Fox plans to bring its sports, news and local stations to the platform. Ars Technica reports one screensaver developer has already pulled their app from Roku over the deal.

Chipmaker TSMC may start making memory chips at Nvidia's request, report says

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is considering expanding into making advanced 3D DRAM memory chips, The Information reports, citing sources. The request came from Nvidia, TSMC's biggest customer. Memory chips are in short supply because of demand from the AI boom. TechPowerUp notes that DRAM is now made mainly by SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron, and that even new factories may not end the shortage.

US intelligence says China's spy agency recruited a businesswoman to target Nvidia's CEO

The New York Times reports that US intelligence concluded that Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed who developed a close relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security. According to the report, the agency wanted her to gather information about American AI chips and potentially influence Nvidia to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China. Tom's Hardware separately reports that Nvidia now requires Southeast Asian cloud providers seeking partner status to join its Fleet Intelligence tracking program, as investigations involving Megaspeed and Super Micro draw attention to chip smuggling.

Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production in mid-2027 to build more robotaxis

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will wind down Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory around the middle of next year, the Financial Times reports. He said the space will be used "to make room for increased Cybercab production", Tesla's robotaxi. TechCrunch says the decision follows a few years of underwhelming sales. The Verge and NBC News also reported the plan.

EU says TikTok broke its online safety law by trapping users in harmful video loops

The European Commission said on Friday, in preliminary findings, that TikTok breached the Digital Services Act, the EU law for online platforms. It says TikTok failed to stop its recommendation system from pulling users into harmful 'rabbit holes' of content, The Record reports. The Verge says regulators point to 'endless and repeated exposure' to videos about sadness, isolation or body image, and want TikTok's For You feed to change.

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