Matthias Bastian

Jan 10, 2026

OpenAI is bringing in the team behind Convogo, an AI startup that built software for evaluating executives, as part of its broader cloud strategy. Founder Matt Cooper announced the news on LinkedIn. Convogo's software used AI to automatically analyze interviews, surveys, and psychometric tests.

According to OpenAI (via Techcrunch), the acquisition is about the people, not the product. The three founders, Matt Cooper, Evan Cater, and Mike Gillett, will help drive OpenAI's AI cloud efforts. The deal was settled entirely in shares, though the amount remains undisclosed. Convogo's software is being shut down.

The founding team's strong product focus likely made them attractive. Cooper writes that the key to closing the gap between AI's potential and its actual use lies in well-designed, purpose-driven applications, a "usage gap" narrative that Microsoft and OpenAI have both pushed before.

The acquisition also fits OpenAI's strategy of controlling the entire value chain, from infrastructure to models to the end product. This push likely reflects how differentiating on model capabilities alone is getting harder as performance converges and cheaper open-source alternatives catch up.

Comment Source: via LinkedIn | Techcrunch

Matthias Bastian

Jan 10, 2026

Short News

Last fall, OpenAI reportedly set aside a stock pool for employees worth about ten percent of the company. Based on the $500 billion valuation from October 2024, that comes to around $50 billion, according to The Information, citing two people familiar with the plans.

OpenAI has also already issued $80 billion in allocated shares. Combined with the new stock pool, employees now own about 26 percent of the company. Meanwhile, OpenAI is in early talks with investors about a new funding round worth roughly $750 billion.

A previous analysis found that OpenAI pays its employees more than any tech startup in history, with stock-based compensation averaging about $1.5 million per employee. That level of spending complicates the path to profitability: the company is targeting around $20 billion in ARR. But on top of hefty payroll, development costs, and day-to-day operations, OpenAI faces about $1.4 trillion in data center commitments over the next eight years.

Comment Source: The Information

Matthias Bastian

Jan 8, 2026

Short News

In a glorious AI future, you'll order pizza directly from Excel. Microsoft and Stripe are teaming up to bring shopping to the AI assistant Copilot. US users will soon be able to buy products directly in the chat without ever leaving the app. At launch, the feature includes Etsy retailers and brands like Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie.

Called "Copilot Checkout," the feature runs on Stripe and uses the "Agentic Commerce Protocol," an open standard for AI-powered commerce that Stripe helped develop. ChatGPT already uses the same protocol with Stripe Checkout.

Meanwhile, Google is developing its own open protocol called "Agent Payments Protocol" (AP2), backed by more than 60 companies, including Mastercard, PayPal, Coinbase, and Adobe. Both OpenAI and Google have also announced partnerships with PayPal to enable payments directly in AI chats.

There's real money at stake here. If purchases happen through chatbots, the providers can take a cut of every transaction. OpenAI recently launched its own product research agent to position chatbots as a shopping channel. Copilot in Edge already offers AI-powered shopping tools in the US.

Comment Source: Stripe

Matthias Bastian

Jan 8, 2026

AI in practice

Tailwind's shattered business model is a grim warning for every business relying on site visits in the AI era

Tailwind CSS is one of the most successful open-source projects in web development. But while the framework is booming, revenue at the company behind it has dropped 80 percent. Founder Adam Wathan blames AI assistants. His story is a warning sign for large parts of the web.

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Matthias Bastian

Jan 8, 2026

AI in practice

Dr. ChatGPT is now officially in, as OpenAI launches dedicated health section for its chatbot

Matthias Bastian

Jan 7, 2026

Short News

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, is raising $10 billion at a valuation of $350 billion - nearly double its $183 billion valuation from just four months ago. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management are leading the round, which is expected to close in the coming weeks. The final numbers could still shift, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This new capital comes on top of the up to $15 billion that Nvidia and Microsoft plan to invest in the company. As part of that arrangement, Anthropic will purchase $30 billion worth of computing capacity from Microsoft Azure running Nvidia systems. The company expects to break even for the first time in 2028.

Anthropic's raise follows xAI's recent announcement of a $20 billion funding round at a valuation exceeding $230 billion. OpenAI is also reportedly planning its next round of up to $100 billion at a $750 billion valuation. Based on these numbers, the AI investment boom isn't cooling off anytime soon in 2026.

Comment Source: Wall Street Journal

Matthias Bastian

Jan 7, 2026

Short News

Google's "Nano Banana" is currently the most powerful image model on the market, but the name is undeniably strange. According to the Wall Street Journal, the moniker was a 2:30 a.m. accident. When project manager Naina Raisinghani needed a name to upload the model to the benchmark platform LM Arena, no one was around to consult. She simply mashed up two of her own nicknames: Nano and Banana. Within days, the tool shot to the top of the performance rankings and became a social media trend. Compared to this late-night improvisation, the name "Gemini" has a slightly more deliberate origin story.

Another interesting detail from the WSJ report: An OpenAI researcher, of all people, apparently helped push Google co-founder Sergey Brin out of retirement and back into the company's AI efforts. Daniel Selsam asked him at a party why he wasn't working full-time on AI given the rise of ChatGPT. That question helped drive Brin back to Google to accelerate the company's AI ambitions.

Comment Source: Wall Street Journal

Matthias Bastian

Jan 7, 2026

AI research

Elon Musk's xAI closes 20 billion dollar funding round

Matthias Bastian

Jan 7, 2026

Update

Short News

Artificial Analysis just released version 4.0 of its Intelligence Index, ranking AI models across multiple benchmarks. OpenAI's GPT-5.2 at its highest reasoning setting takes the top spot, with Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 and Google's Gemini 3 Pro close behind.

The index scores models across four equally weighted categories: Agents, Programming, Scientific Reasoning, and General. Results are less saturated this time, with top models peaking at 50 points compared to 73 in the previous version.

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.0: GPT-5.2 (xhigh) leads with 50 points, followed by Claude Opus 4.5 (49) and Gemini 3 Pro Preview (48). It's a tight race at the top. | Image: Artificial Analysis

At the top of the cost table is GPT-5.2 (xhigh) with a total cost of $2,322, followed by Grok 4 ($1,574) and Claude 4.5 Opus ($1,510). Gemini 3 Pro Preview trails significantly behind at $988. | Image: Artificial Analysis

The updated index swaps three older tests (AIME 2025, LiveCodeBench, and MMLU-Pro) for a fresh set: AA-Omniscience checks model knowledge across 40 topics while flagging hallucinations, GDPval-AA tests models on practical tasks across 44 professions, and CritPt tackles physics research problems. Artificial Analysis says it ran all tests independently using a standardized approach, with full details available on its website.

Comment Source: Artificial Analysis via X

Matthias Bastian

Jan 7, 2026

Short News

China's Ministry of Commerce is looking into whether Meta's purchase of AI startup Manus, valued at $2 billion or more, violated export control rules. According to the Financial Times, authorities want to know if the relocation of Manus employees and technology to Singapore, followed by the sale to Meta, should have required an export license.

The company's core team relocated to Singapore in the summer of 2025 to distance itself from China-related geopolitical risks. The Beijing offices have sat empty ever since. All three founders, Red Xiao, Peak Ji, and Tao Zhang, also moved from China to Singapore.

The relocation came after a $75 million funding round led by US firm Benchmark. That investment triggered its own set of questions, but from the opposite direction. The US Treasury Department investigated whether American money was flowing into a Chinese AI company without proper authorization. Meta says there were no longer any Chinese ownership stakes in Manus by the time the deal closed. The founders had previously turned down investment offers from local Chinese government entities.

Comment Source: Financial Times