While everyone builds chatbots, SAP just closed a €1bn-plus bet on AI that understands your spreadsheets
While everyone builds chatbots, SAP just closed a €1bn-plus bet on AI that understands your spreadsheets

The AI industry is obsessed with models that write and talk. SAP has just completed a large bet on a different kind entirely, one built for structured data, as its acquisition of Prior Labs closed. The deal is now done, with regulatory approvals secure…

Mamdani wants NYC landlords to label the AI in their apartment photos
Mamdani wants NYC landlords to label the AI in their apartment photos

The apartment in the StreetEasy photo is bright, airy, and a shade roomier than the walls actually permit. Under a plan from New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, that listing would soon have to confess the touch-up. On 16 July his administration publish…

SoftBank lines up a new $60bn bond to keep its OpenAI bet funded
SoftBank lines up a new $60bn bond to keep its OpenAI bet funded

Sixty billion dollars is a lot of bond, even by SoftBank Group’s standards. The Japanese conglomerate is reportedly preparing to raise up to that much in fresh debt, according to Bloomberg, a target that would eclipse anything Masayoshi Son’s firm has …

Databricks hits $188bn valuation in Coatue-led round, landing above its own $175bn talks
Databricks hits $188bn valuation in Coatue-led round, landing above its own $175bn talks

$188bn is a large number for a company that keeps insisting it is in no rush to go public. That is the valuation Databricks has reached in a new funding round led by Coatue Management, a figure first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The mark sits w…

Xi tells World AI Conference no single country should monopolise AI
Xi tells World AI Conference no single country should monopolise AI

Xi Jinping told the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday that artificial intelligence “should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation,” casting Beijing as the patron of open, shared technology. Th…

1Password lets Claude log you into websites without ever seeing your passwords
1Password lets Claude log you into websites without ever seeing your passwords

1Password has launched a browser integration that lets Anthropic’s Claude use stored credentials to complete tasks on the web without the passwords ever reaching the AI model, according to a blog post published on Thursday. The company calls it a zero-…

The EU is forcing Google to open Android to rival AI and share its search data
The EU is forcing Google to open Android to rival AI and share its search data

Google will have to let rival AI assistants run on Android the way its own Gemini does. It must also hand some of its search data to competitors. The European Commission set out both requirements on Thursday. The two decisions fall under the EU’s Digit…

29 countries sign a treaty to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization
29 countries sign a treaty to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization

Twenty-nine countries signed an agreement on 16 July to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), Reuters reported. China says the intergovernmental body aims to promote international cooperation and global governance in AI. China’s fore…

Fireworks raised $1.5bn on a bet that companies will build AI, not rent it
Fireworks raised $1.5bn on a bet that companies will build AI, not rent it

The AI economy has run on a simple habit: rent a model from a big lab. Fireworks just raised $1.5bn to argue the opposite, that every company will build intelligence of its own. The Series D values the San Mateo startup at $17.5bn, it said. Atreides Ma…

Oak raised $60M to give every user, machine, and AI agent one identity system
Oak raised $60M to give every user, machine, and AI agent one identity system

Most companies still cannot say who, or what, has access to their systems at any given moment. Oak, an Israeli startup, has raised $60M to fix that, and it is betting AI agents make the problem urgent. The company came out of stealth with the seed roun…