|
May 06, 2025
|
|
|
|
|
|
Happy Tuesday! OpenAI reverses plan to drop nonprofit control. Uber and WeRide expand robotaxi partnership to 15 more cities. DoorDash strikes a big European acquisition. A U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that requires location tracking of Nvidia AI chips to curb smuggling.
|
|
|
|
OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor said Monday that the artificial intelligence firm will no longer move its for-profit arm, which develops ChatGPT, out from under the control of a nonprofit board. Taylor said OpenAI reversed course after conversations with the attorneys general of Delaware and California, which oversee nonprofits like OpenAI. OpenAI hatched the plan to convert itself into a full-fledged for-profit firm in the wake of the firing and rehiring of CEO Sam Altman by the nonprofit board in 2023. Elon Musk, who helped start the OpenAI nonprofit but now runs a rival AI firm, sought to block the conversion in court,
arguing OpenAI was betraying its original nonprofit mission and misled early funders like him by starting a for-profit subsidiary in 2019. (Musk is still suing OpenAI over that 2019 decision.) Delaware AG Kathy Jennings said in a statement that she had expressed concerns to OpenAI about its earlier reorganization plan and would review its new plan to turn the for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation that aims to balance profits with societal goals. OpenAI said it will also go through with its plan to change the for-profit unit’s equity to traditional stock rather than shares that give current holders the right to its future profits. It will also end the cap it put on investors’ financial returns, which was put in place during the 2019 for-profit formation.
|
|
|
|
Ride-hailing platform Uber and Chinese robotaxi company WeRide are expanding their partnership to 15 more cities in the next five years, according to Uber. The two companies started a robotaxi service earlier this year in Abu Dhabi and have plans to launch later this year in Dubai. Uber has made deals with multiple autonomous driving companies in the U.S. and abroad to offer robotaxis on its app. It has partnered with Waymo, Lyft, Avride, Nuro and May Mobility in major American cities for both food and passenger delivery. Some of the locations with WeRide will be in Europe, according to the company.
|
|
|
|
A U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce new legislation to track the location of artificial intelligence chips, particularly those from Nvidia, Reuters reported. The initiative aims to address concerns that Nvidia’s chips, essential for developing advanced AI systems, continue to reach China on a large scale despite export restrictions imposed by both the Trump and Biden administrations. Nvidia said previously that it is unable to track its chips once they are sold. U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois and former particle physicist, plans to introduce the bill in the coming weeks, according to Reuters. The bill will focus on two main areas: ensuring that chips are used only in locations authorized by export control license and preventing chips from powering on if they lack the appropriate license,
Foster said in an interview with Reuters. Foster’s proposed bill would require the Commerce Department to establish regulations within six months to improve oversight and prevent the unauthorized distribution of the critical technology. Last month, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a bipartisan House committee focused on China, also called for similar geo-tracking measures to ensure that U.S. export controls are not abused by smuggling. The technology to track chips’ locations already exists. For instance, Google tracks the location of its in-house AI chips and other components within its extensive network of data centers for security purposes, Reuters reported citing two sources with direct knowledge of the operations.
|
|
|
|
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, President Donald Trump’s top advisor on international trade, advised China-founded fast fashion giant Shein before joining the Trump administration, Wired reported. Greer worked on behalf of Shein while he was a partner at the law firm King & Spalding, the report said. In 2023 he advised Leonard Lin, a top Shein executive, on drafting responses to a congressional inquiry about Shein’s business practices, in particular the company’s potential ties to suppliers in Xinjiang, a region where the U.S. has accused the Chinese government of carrying out human rights abuses. Shein didn’t immediately
respond to a request for comment. Since then, Shein has expanded its lobbying efforts, which have mainly been led by Donald Tang, the company’s executive chairman, and sought to gain favor with conservative U.S. lawmakers. But since taking office, Trump has eliminated the “de minimis” trade provision that Shein used to send many of its shipments from China to U.S. shoppers tax-free. Shein had originally planned a U.S. initial public offering, but more recently has been pursuing a listing in the U.K.
|
|
|
|
Databricks is in talks to acquire startup Neon, which rents access to a cloud database service that’s designed for AI agents and applications, for around $1 billion, the technology news site Upstarts reported. The talks are the latest sign of Databricks’ push to get customers to build AI agents that can handle multi-step tasks like planning trips and organizing product returns. When Databricks announced a partnership with Anthropic to provide Claude AI models directly to its customers, it made a point of highlighting that this would make it easier for customers to build AI agents. Neon’s service, based on open-source software called PostgreSQL, lets customers pay for short periods of database usage, such as several seconds. That makes Neon a cost-effective option for customers using AI agents in their business operations, as some agents are continually creating new databases and using them for brief periods to carry out tasks.
|
|
|
|
Palantir said Monday that first-quarter revenue rose 39% year over year to $884 million, fueled by strong demand from U.S. businesses and government agencies for its data-analytics software. U.S. commercial revenue grew 71% to $255 million, while U.S. government revenue grew 45% to $373 million. The results surpassed Palantir’s forecast for $860 million in total revenue. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Alex Karp said Palantir benefited from surging interest in using new AI models, which can analyze large amounts of text and spoken data, to make large organizations more efficient. “The rush towards large language models … has turned into a stampede,” he said. The strong results prompted Palantir to raise its full-year revenue outlook to around $3.9 billion,
or 36% growth year over year. The company said it expects around $936 million in revenue in the second quarter, a 38% increase from the second quarter of 2024. Palantir shares fell by roughly 5% following the announcement. The company is one of the most highly valued public companies relative to its earnings, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 656. It’s up more than 64% this year.
|
|
|
|
Trading platform eToro said Monday it’s launching the roadshow for its initial public offering, making it one of the first companies to move forward with their listing plans after tariff-induced market turmoil froze the IPO market last month. The Israel-based company and its shareholders are offering a total of 10 million shares for $46 to $50 each, seeking to raise up to $500 million, according to an updated filing Monday. BlackRock has indicated an interest in buying up to $100 million shares, the filing says. EToro plans to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker
ETOR. For the first quarter, equities and crypto accounted for 43% and 37% of eToro’s trading commissions, respectively. It reported preliminary first-quarter net income of between $56 million and $60 million, a decrease of 9% from a year ago at the midpoint, due to increase in investments in marketing and growth. See our Tech IPO Tracker for the latest on timing for EToro and other initial public offering hopefuls.
|
|
|
|
| |
