Moreover, OpenAI emphasized the broader impact of this capital infusion, stating, “The capital being deployed today is helping build the infrastructure layer for intelligence itself.” The company further added, “Over time, that value will flow back into the economy, to companies, to communities, and increasingly to individuals.”

At the same time, the ChatGPT developer revealed that its revenue run rate has reached $2 billion per month and continues to grow at a fast pace. In addition, the funding round drew participation from a diverse mix of strategic partners, including Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Interestingly, around $3 billion of the total funding reportedly came from individual investors, marking an unusual move for a deal of this scale.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT continues to dominate the consumer AI landscape, boasting over 900 million weekly active users and approximately 50 million paid subscribers. Furthermore, OpenAI noted that usage of ChatGPT’s online search capabilities has tripled over the past year, reflecting increasing reliance on AI-powered tools.

Commenting on this growth trajectory, the company stated, “These are not just growth milestones—they show that frontier AI is becoming part of everyday life for people around the world.”

In addition to scaling its core offerings, OpenAI has started diversifying its revenue streams. For instance, the company began rolling out advertising for non-premium users earlier this year to boost monetization. Simultaneously, it is working on building a comprehensive “superapp” that aims to integrate ChatGPT, web browsing, a Codex coding assistant, and advanced agentic capabilities designed to autonomously perform tasks.

Looking ahead, the funding round arrives amid growing speculation that OpenAI is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) later this year. However, competition in the AI sector continues to intensify. Rival firm Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees, has been gaining traction with its Claude AI models and recently secured a $30 billion funding round. Likewise, Google’s Gemini AI and Elon Musk’s xAI are emerging as strong contenders, attracting both users and investment.

Ultimately, OpenAI’s latest funding milestone not only cements its leadership position in the global AI race but also signals a broader shift toward AI becoming a foundational layer of the digital economy. As investments accelerate and competition deepens, the coming months will likely determine how effectively these companies can translate technological advancements into sustainable business models.

As generative AI continues to evolve rapidly and social challenges grow increasingly complex, many companies are actively exploring its potential for transformational initiatives. For instance, businesses are using generative AI to launch new ventures while also automating and enhancing existing operations. In this context, Sakana AI brings a differentiated approach by integrating techniques that optimally combine multiple foundation models for inference, while also enabling AI systems to learn and apply tacit domain knowledge and accumulated expertise.

Consequently, Mitsubishi Electric expects to deliver solutions that support precise decision-making in complex business environments where traditional, general-purpose AI models have struggled. To achieve this, the company plans to combine its core strengths—including advanced components, extensive customer assets, and deep domain expertise across industries—with Sakana AI’s cutting-edge AI foundation model capabilities.

Furthermore, Mitsubishi Electric intends to develop solutions across a wide range of sectors, including manufacturing and infrastructure. By doing so, the company aims to expand its Serendie-related businesses and accelerate its transition into an innovation-driven enterprise through digitalisation. Ultimately, this initiative is expected to contribute to addressing various real-world social challenges.

Ren Ito, Co-founder of Sakana AI Inc., said, “We will position AI use in the manufacturing domain, including physical AI, as our third strategic pillar, following our initiatives in the financial and defense sectors, striving to create innovative solutions that leverage Japan’s strengths. By combining Mitsubishi Electric’s manufacturing knowledge and extensive datasets with our next-generation AI technologies, we will collaborate to bring AI into practical implementation across society.”

Echoing this vision, Satoshi Takeda, Senior Vice President, CDO, and Group President, Digital Innovation at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, said, “By strengthening our Serendie digital platform and leveraging generative AI, we are creating new business value and enhancing our competitive position. We are confident this investment will be an important step toward broadening AI’s capacity to address concrete, real-world challenges.”

This investment highlights Mitsubishi Electric’s strategic push to integrate advanced AI into real-world applications. By partnering with Sakana AI, the company is positioning itself at the forefront of AI-driven innovation, aiming to unlock new efficiencies, enhance decision-making, and drive meaningful impact across industries.

According to an internal memo, Moonton CEO Zhang Yunfan confirmed that the Beijing-based company has signed an agreement with the Saudi-backed firm, and the transaction will be finalized in the near future. Furthermore, Zhang clarified that he and his management team will continue to lead the company, while employees will receive a range of incentive programs as part of the transition.

Although the memo did not disclose the financial details, sources familiar with the matter indicated that the deal values Moonton at around $6 billion. Notably, this represents a significant increase from the $4 billion ByteDance paid to acquire the studio in 2021, highlighting the strong growth trajectory of the gaming business.

Meanwhile, Savvy Games Group, which operates under Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund, continues to play a key role in the kingdom’s ambitious strategy to become a global powerhouse in video games and esports. As a result, this acquisition aligns closely with Saudi Arabia’s broader vision of expanding its footprint in the global gaming ecosystem.

Moonton, for its part, specializes in multiplayer mobile games that have gained immense popularity, particularly across Southeast Asia. Its flagship title, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, has surpassed 1.5 billion installations worldwide, underscoring the studio’s strong market presence and user engagement.

At the same time, ByteDance’s decision to divest Moonton reflects a broader industry shift, as major technology companies increasingly prioritize artificial intelligence and next-generation digital capabilities over traditional gaming investments.

The sale of Moonton marks a strategic pivot for ByteDance while simultaneously strengthening Savvy Games Group’s position in the global gaming market. As both companies realign their priorities, the deal highlights the growing convergence of technology, gaming, and AI-driven innovation on a global scale.

Through this program, Anthropic plans to collaborate closely with partner organizations so they can integrate and deploy the Claude AI model for enterprise clients more effectively. Consequently, the company aims to strengthen its enterprise ecosystem while expanding the practical use of its AI technologies.

Moreover, Anthropic has committed an initial $100 million for 2026 to support the partner network. The funding will provide training, technical support, and joint market development opportunities for participating organizations. In addition, the company indicated that it expects to increase this investment over time as the program grows.

Starting Thursday, partners that join the network will receive immediate access to a new technical certification program. Furthermore, eligible partners will gain access to investment opportunities under the initiative, which will help them scale AI deployment for enterprise customers.

At the same time, Anthropic plans to significantly strengthen its partner ecosystem by expanding its partner-focused team fivefold. The expansion will include hiring applied AI engineers, technical architects, and professionals dedicated to localized go-to-market support across international markets. As a result, the company expects to improve implementation support and accelerate global adoption of its AI solutions.

Importantly, membership in the Claude Partner Network will remain free. The program will stay open to any organization involved in bringing Claude to market, thereby encouraging a broader ecosystem of technology partners, consultants, and system integrators.

Through this initiative, Anthropic aims to position its Claude AI platform as a central enterprise solution while enabling partners to build, deploy, and scale AI-powered applications worldwide.

Anthropic’s launch of the Claude Partner Network signals a major push to expand the enterprise adoption of Claude AI. By committing significant funding, strengthening its technical partner team, and offering free membership to organizations globally, the company is building a collaborative ecosystem designed to accelerate AI implementation across industries.

The five-year-old startup founded by former Google researchers Jad Tarifi and Nima Asgharbeygi, develops AI models designed for automated systems such as robots and self-driving vehicles. Since 2021, the company has collaborated with auto parts manufacturer Denso Corp. to train industrial robots to learn new capabilities by observing demonstrations.

At the same time, the 15-person startup has started early discussions with major Japanese corporations, including Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Group Corp., Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Mitsui Chemicals Inc. Through these conversations, the company aims to demonstrate how artificial intelligence can improve manufacturing efficiency and automation.

Furthermore, Tarifi explained that the next stage will allow a human operator to give a robot a language command such as “make a coffee,” after which the robot will independently learn how to complete the task. This capability could significantly change how machines learn and adapt within industrial environments.

Japan already holds a dominant position in the robotics industry. Companies such as Fanuc Corp. and Yaskawa Electric Corp. rank among the world’s leading industrial robot manufacturers. Meanwhile, SoftBank Group Corp. is acquiring the robotics unit of ABB Ltd., which further strengthens the country’s robotics ecosystem. Additionally, automation specialists such as Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. contribute to the sector’s growth.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, Japanese companies deliver roughly 29 percent of the global supply of industrial robots. However, Tarifi believes the country still has a gap to address in artificial intelligence capabilities. As he explained, “Japan is strong in robotics, but they’re not strong in AI and computing.”

Tarifi, who established Google’s first generative AI team in 2013, belongs to a growing group of AI researchers who believe the brain’s neocortex holds the key to building advanced AI systems. These scientists study how humans learn as children and attempt to replicate that process in artificial intelligence models.

Therefore, Tarifi aims to design AI models that can extract knowledge from smaller datasets while also processing new information without erasing previously learned data. This approach plays a crucial role in continuous learning systems.

As a result, such models could allow companies to advance physical AI technologies and tackle complex challenges such as designing new batteries, discovering advanced materials and drugs, and powering humanoid robots. Tarifi emphasized that these applications could redefine how industries deploy artificial intelligence.

Ultimately, the company wants to enable organizations to train robots that can build other robots. Tarifi explained the broader vision clearly: “They might build a cooking robot, they might build a cleaning robot, or they might build a factory robot that builds an iPhone.”

Moreover, the ability for machines to learn independently could reduce the need for constant software updates. Tarifi noted that current large language models, including ChatGPT from OpenAI and Gemini from Google, depend heavily on human-guided training processes. Consequently, this dependence can limit flexibility, efficiency, and reliability.

Tarifi’s personal history also shaped his motivation to work on physical AI. After facing life-threatening conditions as a child in war-torn Lebanon, he developed a strong belief that artificial intelligence must influence the physical world rather than remain limited to digital systems. He expressed this belief during a 2024 interview with Nikola Danaylov, author of Conversations with the Future: 21 Visions for the 21st Century, on the Singularity.FM podcast.

So far, Integral AI has raised approximately $5.5 million in funding. Now, the startup aims to secure another $10 million in a new funding round to expand its AI model and prepare it for a public release.

Although this amount appears small compared with the massive investments that large technology companies pour into artificial intelligence, Tarifi believes it is sufficient for algorithm development. After the company launches its Genesis AI model later this year, it plans to pursue larger investments to scale operations.

Danaylov commented on the company’s ambitious approach and said, “The company’s claims are extremely bold.” He also added, “But when you can’t afford to use or recreate the paradigm, you have no other option but to invent a new one.”

Integral AI is positioning itself at the intersection of robotics and artificial intelligence by developing systems that allow machines to learn tasks independently. By targeting Japan’s powerful robotics industry and collaborating with leading manufacturers, the startup aims to accelerate the development of physical AI systems capable of transforming manufacturing, automation, and advanced robotics worldwide.

In a series of posts on X, the generative AI startup announced that the program aims to support developers who are building applications within India’s rapidly expanding AI ecosystem. The company stated, “Today, we’re launching the Sarvam Startup Program. AI is the era for builders. We want to compound that momentum by powering the startup ecosystem with high-quality models and tools so they can create with full agency.”

According to the company, the program will provide selected startups with cloud credits, priority technical assistance, and production-ready infrastructure. Consequently, the initiative will allow companies to concentrate on developing and scaling their AI products instead of managing complex backend AI systems.

Moreover, participating startups will gain access to Sarvam AI’s suite of artificial intelligence tools and application programming interfaces. These capabilities include speech-to-text, text-to-speech, translation, chat completion, and document intelligence features.

Additionally, the platform supports more than 22 Indian languages along with English. Therefore, the company continues to emphasize the development of AI technologies that address India’s extensive linguistic diversity.

Furthermore, startups that join the program will receive direct technical assistance from Sarvam AI’s engineering team. As a result, participants will benefit from priority troubleshooting as well as expert guidance during product development.

The company also highlighted that startups in the program may receive co-branded case studies and promotional support during their product launches. Consequently, these opportunities may help emerging startups gain stronger visibility across the technology ecosystem.

Engineers Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar founded Sarvam AI, and the company has positioned itself as part of India’s broader effort to build sovereign generative AI infrastructure tailored to the country’s digital and linguistic landscape.

Meanwhile, the company has continued developing foundational models and APIs designed for multilingual AI applications. Specifically, these technologies focus on Indian languages, where many global AI systems still struggle to deliver accurate results.

Sarvam AI’s Startup Program highlights the growing momentum in India’s artificial intelligence ecosystem. By providing infrastructure, developer support, and multilingual AI capabilities, the company aims to accelerate innovation among early-stage startups. As AI adoption continues to expand across industries, initiatives like this program could play a significant role in enabling developers to build scalable AI-driven solutions tailored for India’s diverse digital landscape.

As the maker of ChatGPT accelerates plans to invest trillions of dollars in global AI infrastructure, the company’s overall valuation could cross $850 billion once the full funding round closes. Notably, this figure exceeds earlier estimates of around $830 billion. However, sources say OpenAI will maintain a pre-money valuation of $730 billion during the initial phase of the deal.

Meanwhile, the first tranche of funding will primarily come from strategic corporate investors. These include Amazon, SoftBank Group, Nvidia, and Microsoft. Collectively, these companies could commit close to $100 billion if they invest at the upper end of the proposed ranges.

According to people briefed on the matter, the strategic investors aim to finalize their allocations by the end of this month. Subsequently, the company plans to close a second phase of fundraising later this year. That round will likely include venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, and other large financial investors, potentially pushing the total amount raised well beyond the initial target.

However, the discussions remain ongoing, and the final structure of the deal could still change. Representatives from OpenAI and the participating companies either declined to comment or did not respond immediately to inquiries.

Previously, it was reported that Amazon could invest up to $50 billion, while SoftBank may commit as much as $30 billion. Nvidia has also reportedly explored an investment of around $20 billion. Importantly, corporate investors will deploy the capital in multiple tranches throughout the year instead of making a single lump-sum investment.

As part of its deepening partnership with Amazon, OpenAI also plans to expand its use of Amazon’s cloud infrastructure and custom AI chips. Consequently, this collaboration could play a critical role in supporting OpenAI’s rapidly growing compute demands as competition in generative AI intensifies.

In recent months, vibe coding has emerged as a highly disruptive force in software development, as it allows developers and nondevelopers alike to generate, refine, and debug application code using natural language prompts. As a result, the approach has shifted developer focus away from writing code line by line and toward higher-level guidance, while significantly accelerating development cycles.

However, IBM has pointed out that vibe coding does not always deliver flawless results. Although large language models excel at producing logic, they often struggle to maintain consistent, high-quality, and brand-aligned user interfaces. Consequently, Anima addresses this gap by democratizing UI design through an AI agent that enables virtually anyone to function as an application designer. Importantly, Anima’s agents access complete brand context, including design files, codebases, and brand language, which allows the platform to create branded products that teams can ship instantly.

Anima refers to this approach as “design-to-code.” Its platform integrates seamlessly with tools such as Adobe XD, Figma, and Sketch and converts UI designs into fully functional, high-fidelity code with a single click. In doing so, the company positions itself as a critical bridge between designers and developers by transforming static visual layouts into clean, responsive code that teams can deploy directly into production.

Moreover, the company says its platform accelerates the design-to-development pipeline by automating repetitive tasks such as writing boilerplate frontend code, HTML, and CSS. As a result, developers can concentrate on complex application logic rather than visual presentation. Users simply upload a visual design, after which Anima generates the necessary code to build a working user interface. From there, users can further refine designs through natural language prompts until they achieve the desired outcome.

Meanwhile, IBM has not disclosed the size of the investment but has emphasised that it shares a core belief with Anima that design should no longer exist as a static artifact. Instead, IBM views design as evolving into living, interactive code that responds dynamically and connects to real-world data. Notably, AI enables this shift because it understands the structure of code more effectively than it interprets pixels or vectors.

Commenting on the broader trend, Anima Chief Executive Officer Avishay Cohen said vibe coding is pushing the industry toward a future in which more than 3 billion people globally will become coders. “AI brings a new era for design and product, where code is the new canvas,” he said. “This strategic investment from IBM supercharges our mission to bring Anima to every enterprise team, drawing on its global operations and extensive expertise in enterprise technology and AI.”

Anima, which last raised external funding in September 2021, said the undisclosed investment will help deepen platform integrations with enterprise brands and design tools while also enabling support for legacy front-end code. Already, the startup has gained strong traction, becoming a core part of design workflows at companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Deloitte Touche Ltd., and Accenture Plc. These organisations report that Anima accelerates design timelines by up to 50% on average while reducing frontend development costs by nearly 80%.

From IBM’s perspective, Emily Fontaine, IBM’s global head of venture capital, said Anima’s platform has strongly resonated with enterprise product and design teams. “We are confident Anima will stay at the forefront as design and engineering converge, delivering greater efficiency and innovation for enterprise clients,” she said.

IBM’s investment in Anima highlights a growing shift toward AI-native, design-driven software development where speed, brand consistency, and automation converge. By backing Anima’s design-to-code vision, IBM strengthens its position in the evolving vibe-coding landscape while supporting a future where design and engineering merge into a single, intelligent workflow for enterprises worldwide.

At the same time, Coatue Management and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, are expected to lead the funding round alongside existing shareholders. Meanwhile, the talks are taking place as speculation grows that Anthropic is preparing for an initial public offering within the next 12 to 18 months, especially as competitors such as OpenAI continue to secure massive capital infusions. However, the financing discussions remain ongoing, and the company could still revise its plans.

More broadly, these talks underscore the intense investment surge sweeping through the AI sector, even as concerns mount about a potential bubble and the long-term sustainability of AI business models. In particular, companies developing AI products such as chatbots face extraordinarily high costs, as they must invest heavily in computing infrastructure, energy, and data to train their systems.

In comparison, OpenAI finalized a funding deal in October that valued the company at $500 billion. Similarly, on Tuesday, Elon Musk’s xAI announced it had raised $20 billion in a funding round that likely pushed its valuation beyond $230 billion.

Anthropic, founded in 2021 by siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, emerged after the pair departed OpenAI following disagreements over how the organization funded and distributed its technology through Microsoft. Subsequently, they launched Anthropic with a focus on developing AI systems built with strong safety guardrails. In addition, they structured the company as a public benefit corporation, emphasizing public and social responsibility alongside commercial goals.

In 2024, Anthropic secured $8 billion from Amazon, which remains its largest investor. Furthermore, Google has invested approximately $3 billion and holds about a 14% stake in the company, according to court documents reviewed by the Times. Altogether, PitchBook data indicates that Anthropic has raised at least $40 billion in total funding to date.

Most recently, Anthropic closed its previous funding round in September at a valuation of $183 billion. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft and Nvidia announced plans to collectively invest roughly $15 billion in the company by the end of the year.

As Anthropic continues to advance its AI capabilities and expand deployment for enterprises and consumers, the company is committing tens of billions of dollars to data center infrastructure. Late last year, Anthropic revealed plans to invest $50 billion in data centers located in Texas and New York in partnership with cloud provider Fluidstack. However, the company has not yet disclosed how it intends to finance the project.

At the same time, Anthropic is spending billions to secure computing capacity from both Google and Amazon. Notably, the company will become the primary tenant of an exceptionally large Amazon data center in New Carlisle, Indiana, which will eventually draw 2.2 gigawatts of electricity—enough power to supply approximately one million homes.

PvX Partners operates as a financial services and data intelligence platform for consumer applications. Instead of taking equity, it co-invests directly in a company’s sales and marketing budgets. In return, PvX receives a predefined share of the revenue generated from newly acquired users, capped at an agreed limit. As a result, Reface can scale user acquisition efficiently while maintaining ownership control.

According to Anton Volovyk, co-CEO of Reface, the capital will directly support product expansion. Specifically, “the capital will be used to fuel the next phase of growth for its AI-powered consumer apps across creativity, wellbeing, and health.” Consequently, the company plans to strengthen its position across multiple AI-native consumer categories.

Founded in 2018, the startup develops AI-native tools focused on content creation and lifestyle use cases. Initially, the startup gained global visibility after Elon Musk shared a face-swap video featuring the “made with Reflect” watermark on X.com. Subsequently, the company launched the Reface app in 2022, which originally operated under the name Doublicat.

Today, Reface’s product portfolio includes several popular AI-powered apps. Reface enables users to swap faces in photos and videos, create voice-over content, and generate AI portraits using multiple selfies. Meanwhile, Revive allows instant animation and editing of photos, memes, and artistic portraits. Additionally, Restyle lets users transform the visual style of images and videos. Other products include unboring.ai, Ink AI, Letsy, and Memomet. Collectively, the company reports more than 300 million downloads across its apps.

Reface claims that global celebrities, including Britney Spears, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, and Snoop Dogg, have used its apps. Furthermore, the company has collaborated with major brands such as BMW, HALO, JBL, Prime Video, Toyota, and Universal.

On the investment front, Reface has attracted backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, Unity Technologies founder David Helgason, TQ Ventures managing partner Scooter Braun, and Adam Leber, known for managing Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus. In addition, Kyiv-based AI-focused investment group Roosh also supports the company.

Beyond commercial growth, the startup has maintained a strong humanitarian commitment. In May 2022, the company launched the Reface Fund to support Ukrainian citizens and defenders. Since then, it has donated €424.2k ($500k) toward humanitarian relief efforts.