OpenAI expands Stargate, AI workslop costs billions

Today’s venture capital landscape sees massive infrastructure expansions and concerning productivity trends reshaping the tech industry. OpenAI announces five new Stargate data center sites with Oracle and SoftBank, while Harvard Business Review coins “workslop” to describe the growing problem of AI-generated content destroying workplace productivity. Meanwhile, Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions face reality checks and Alibaba escalates the AI arms race.

OpenAI Builds Five New Stargate Data Centers

OpenAI will construct five new AI data centers across the United States with Oracle and SoftBank, boosting Stargate’s planned capacity to seven gigawatts - enough to power over 5 million homes. Oracle is developing sites in Shackelford County (Texas), Doña Ana County (New Mexico), and a Midwest location, while SoftBank builds in Lordstown (Ohio) and Milam County (Texas). This expansion follows Nvidia’s planned $100 billion investment in OpenAI and builds on the previously announced $300 billion compute deal starting in 2027.

AI Workslop Destroys Enterprise Productivity

Harvard Business Review has defined “workslop” as AI-generated office content that appears polished but lacks substance, shifting the burden of correction to recipients. A recent survey reveals 40% of U.S. workers received workslop last month, each losing nearly two hours fixing low-quality AI output. This phenomenon creates an invisible cost of $186 per employee monthly, with half of workers viewing colleagues who send workslop as less capable and reliable.

Archetype Closes $100M Crypto VC Fund

NYC-based early-stage crypto venture capital firm Archetype closed its third fund, Archetype III, at over $100 million. The fund received support from institutional investors including funds of funds, pensions, academic endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. Limited partners include Accolade Partners and The Ether Machine, signaling continued institutional interest in crypto infrastructure despite market volatility.

Google Photos Adds Conversational AI Editing

Google Photos now lets Android users edit images with natural language via voice or text commands, powered by Gemini AI. Users can request adjustments to lighting, object removal, photo restoration, or creative AI elements, with follow-up requests supported for fine-tuning. The update includes C2PA Content Credentials support to mark when images were AI-created or edited, expanding beyond Pixel 10 devices to all Android users.

Tesla Robotaxi Tests Result in Three Crashes

Tesla’s robotaxi test in Austin experienced three separate crashes on its first day of operation (July 1) after logging just 7,000 total miles. Two crashes involved other cars rear-ending a Model Y, while the third saw a Tesla with a safety operator collide with a stationary object, causing minor injury. By contrast, Waymo’s crash rate is more than two orders of magnitude lower, with 60 crashes over 50 million miles (now at 96 million miles total).

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Go in Indonesia

OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Go in Indonesia at Rp75,000 ($4.50) per month, following its India rollout. The mid-tier plan offers 10x higher usage limits than the free version, plus image generation, file uploads, and better conversation memory. The launch intensifies competition with Google, which recently debuted its AI Plus plan in Indonesia featuring Gemini 2.5 Pro, creative tools, NotebookLM, and 200GB cloud storage.

Alibaba Unveils Qwen3-Max with Trillion Parameters

Alibaba unveiled Qwen3-Max, its most powerful AI model boasting over 1 trillion parameters with advanced capabilities in code generation and autonomous agents. The model reportedly outperformed rivals like Anthropic’s Claude and DeepSeek-V3.1 in benchmarks. Alibaba backs this AI push with a $53.4 billion infrastructure investment over three years, alongside new products like Qwen3-Omni for immersive AR/VR applications.

Major Startup Funding Rounds

Greptile, a San Francisco AI code reviewer, raised $25M in Series A funding led by Benchmark, with Eric Vishria joining the board. Judi Health (formerly Capital Rx) secured $400M for its enterprise health technology platform. Filevine closed $400M in all-equity financing across two rounds led by Insight Partners, Accel, and Halo Fund. AmplifiAI raised $33.7M in Series B led by CVS Health Ventures for its contact center AI platform. Manas AI secured $26M in seed extension for AI-native drug discovery, while Obot AI raised $35M in seed funding led by Mayfield Fund and Nexus Venture Partners.

China’s Reusable Launch Concerns US Intelligence

A US Space Force intelligence official expressed concern that China mastering reusable lift would enable more rapid orbital capability deployment. The United States’ key advantage remains SpaceX’s 500 successful Falcon 9 landings to date. Without reusable rockets, China requires 14 different launcher types to achieve less than half the US launch rate, mostly accomplished using the Falcon 9.

Today’s developments highlight the accelerating infrastructure race in AI, with OpenAI’s Stargate expansion setting new benchmarks for compute capacity. However, the emergence of “workslop” as a productivity destroyer shows AI’s double-edged impact on enterprise efficiency, while Tesla’s robotaxi struggles demonstrate the gap between autonomous driving ambitions and real-world deployment.