Intel seeks Apple investment, Meta AI video slop

Today’s venture capital landscape sees major AI platform expansions and billion-dollar settlements reshaping the tech industry. Intel seeks strategic investment from Apple days after securing Nvidia backing, while Meta launches its controversial AI-generated video platform “Vibes” to widespread criticism. Meanwhile, Amazon agrees to a massive $2.5 billion FTC settlement and OpenAI introduces ChatGPT Pulse for proactive morning briefings.

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Pulse for Morning Briefings

OpenAI introduced Pulse, a feature in ChatGPT that generates five to ten personalized reports overnight, available first to $200/month Pro subscribers. Pulse integrates with connectors like Gmail and Google Calendar, surfaces key updates, and uses memory to tailor briefs ranging from news roundups to travel itineraries and meal suggestions. Designed to be proactive yet limited, Pulse aims to position ChatGPT as a daily assistant rather than just a chatbot, while competing indirectly with news apps and newsletters.

xAI Offers Grok to U.S. Government for 42 Cents

xAI struck a deal with the General Services Administration to provide Grok to federal agencies at 42 cents for 18 months, undercutting OpenAI and Anthropic’s $1/year offers. The discount includes xAI engineers for integration support, and the “42” pricing nods to Musk’s humor and “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Despite earlier setbacks after Grok’s offensive outputs, the White House pushed for its approval, and xAI has also secured a $200M Pentagon AI contract.

Databricks Bakes OpenAI Models Into Products

Databricks signed a $100M multi-year deal to integrate OpenAI’s models, including GPT-5, into its data platform and Agent Bricks product for enterprise AI adoption. The deal guarantees OpenAI $100M whether or not Databricks’ customers generate equivalent revenue, giving OpenAI predictable income while it scales data centers. Enterprise customers like Mastercard can now access OpenAI’s models natively in Databricks, with GPT-5 positioned as the flagship option for building AI apps and agents.

Meta Launches ‘Vibes’ AI-Generated Video Feed

Meta introduced Vibes, an AI-generated short-form video feed inside the Meta AI app and on meta.ai, positioned as a TikTok/Reels alternative but filled entirely with AI-created clips. Users can generate or remix videos, add visuals, music, and styles, then post to Vibes, DMs, or cross-post to Instagram and Facebook; Meta partnered with Midjourney and Black Forest Labs for early models. The launch drew heavy criticism, with users calling it “AI slop” and questioning why Meta is pushing unoriginal content after previously urging creators to focus on authentic storytelling.

Amazon Pays $2.5B in FTC Settlement Over Prime Tactics

Amazon will pay $2.5 billion — $1B in civil penalties and $1.5B in refunds to ~35M consumers — to settle FTC claims it tricked users into Prime subscriptions and made cancellations intentionally difficult. The settlement requires Amazon to stop “subscription traps,” clearly disclose costs and renewal terms, and provide a simple cancellation method matching the sign-up flow. It marks one of the FTC’s largest settlements, following Meta’s $5B privacy fine in 2019, and comes as Amazon faces a separate antitrust lawsuit over alleged anti-competitive practices.

Intel Seeks Investment from Apple

Intel is in early talks with Apple, seeking an investment in its chipmaking business just days after securing a $5 billion commitment from its AI chip industry rival Nvidia. An agreement could revive Intel’s struggling foundry by securing Apple as a top-tier customer, years after the iPhone maker dropped the company for its own custom-designed central processing units. For Apple, the potential deal offers a way to diversify its chipmaking supplier base beyond Taiwan and bring more of its manufacturing operations back to America, offsetting geopolitical risks.

Meta Poaches OpenAI Scientist for AI Lab

Yang Song, a researcher who led OpenAI’s strategic explorations team, is now the research principal at Meta Superintelligence Labs, reporting to another former OpenAI scientist, Shengjia Zhao. Song’s new manager is an OpenAI alum who Meta appointed as chief scientist in July after he threatened to go back to his previous employer, WIRED reported. The new hire’s past work includes a technique that helped inform OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 image generation model, while his recent research focused on processing large, complex datasets.

Anthropic’s $1.5B Copyright Settlement Gets Approval

A California judge gave preliminary approval to a $1.5B settlement between Anthropic and authors who accused the AI firm of using pirated books to train its Claude model. The deal is the first major settlement in a wave of copyright lawsuits against AI companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, and could influence how other cases unfold. Final approval will come after affected authors are notified; plaintiffs say the outcome signals that AI firms cannot bypass copyright law to build their systems.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Facilitate TikTok Deal

President Trump approved a deal valuing TikTok US at around $14B, giving American investors majority control and blocking DOJ enforcement of a prior ban for 120 days. Oracle will oversee security and provide cloud services, while TikTok’s algorithm, source code, and moderation systems transfer to U.S. ownership; Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX are reported to take a 45% stake. Trump said the move ensures TikTok remains available in the U.S. under “American-operated” leadership, with VP JD Vance claiming it will improve data security and user trust.

Major Startup Funding Rounds

Nscale raised $1.1 billion in Series B led by Aker ASA for enterprise-grade AI infrastructure. Inspiren secured $100M in Series B led by Insight Partners for AI-powered senior living solutions. SEON closed $80M in Series C led by Sixth Street Growth for fraud prevention and AML compliance. Irregular (formerly Pattern Labs) raised $80M led by Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures for frontier AI security. Remedio secured $65M in first-ever funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners for real-time device posture management. Light raised $30M in Series A led by Balderton Capital for its AI-native finance platform.

Today’s developments highlight the aggressive expansion of AI platforms into enterprise and government sectors, with OpenAI and xAI competing on price while Databricks locks in strategic partnerships. The emergence of Meta’s “Vibes” as an AI content platform and Amazon’s massive FTC settlement underscore the growing tensions between tech innovation and regulatory oversight in an increasingly AI-dominated landscape.