What's up: Meta poaches OpenAI researchers; Bezos and Blue Origin try to capitalize on Trump-Musk split; Intel cuts marketing staff.

Good morning. The future of IT and the potential unlocking of tens of billions of dollars in new funding for AI development may pivot on the meaning of a Silicon Valley buzzword.

OpenAI and Microsoft are working to renegotiate their historic commercial agreement. OpenAI wants to convert itself into a for-profit company. Negotiations have been acrimonious.

Enter buzzword. The WSJ's Berber Jin reports that the contract stipulates that when OpenAI’s systems reach “artificial general intelligence” the startup will be able to limit Microsoft’s access to its future technology.

Many experts see AGI—not to be confused with "superintelligence"—as the point at which generative AI systems achieve humanlike intelligence.

OpenAI and Microsoft are at odds over the issue. OpenAI executives believe they are close to hitting that milestone. Microsoft, perhaps not surprisingly, disagrees. “Us self-claiming some AGI milestone, that’s just nonsensical benchmark hacking,” CEO Satya Nadella said on a tech podcast in February. Read the story.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has poached three OpenAI researchers to join his superintelligence efforts, WSJ reports. The three, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, set up OpenAI’s office in Zurich late last year. Before that, they worked together at Google DeepMind, the company’s AI unit.

Zuckerberg has been on an intense recruiting drive to right the company’s AI efforts after the release of its latest model fell flat, offering some researchers $100 million. Meta recently invested $14 billion in AI startup Scale and hired its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead the new team.

Intel plans to outsource marketing to Accenture (and AI) as it makes cuts to its own employees. “We are partnering with Accenture to leverage AI-driven technologies with the goals of moving faster, simplifying processes and reflecting best practices,” the company said last week in an employee memo reviewed by Oregon Live.

The move comes as Intel’s new CEO works to return the company to chip-making leadership. Shortly after taking the role in March, Lip-Bu Tan indicated that he planned to eliminate layers of management.

• Amazon CEO Says AI Will Lead to Smaller Workforce

Dating app Bumble on Wednesday became the latest dating company to slim down its staff, announcing that it will lay off about 30% of its workforce, or roughly 240 employees, as it aims to change its structure and speed up how it operates. But don’t blame the AI adoption for job loss. Younger users, particularly those in Generation Z, have soured on online dating, WSJ reports.

ScaleAI used public Google Docs to store confidential information on its customers, including Meta Platforms and Google, Business Insider reports. The docs, which also included email addresses and payment details, were open to anyone with a link. ScaleAI tells the New York Post that it is investigating the matter.

Startup OpenRouter has raised $40 million in venture funding to help software developers overwhelmed by the growing number of artificial-intelligence models, WSJ reports. The company is now valued at roughly $500 million, according to a person familiar with the situation.

OpenRouter directs prompts from AI apps to large language models and cloud hosting providers based on customer price, performance and other requirements.

Memory-chip maker Micron Technology notched a big leap in sales and earnings for its latest quarter amid booming demand for AI-driven memory, WSJ reports.

The simmering feud between President Trump and Elon Musk is producing a potential winner: Jeff Bezos. The Blue Origin founder talked to Trump at least twice this month, and the space company’s CEO, Dave Limp, came to the White House to meet with Trump’s chief of staff, WSJ reports.

Cybersecurity company Rubrik has agreed to acquire data management company Predibase, which helps companies deploy AI models. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Shell is holding early-stage talks to acquire rival BP in what would be the largest oil deal in a generation, people familiar with the matter said. (WSJ)

President Trump’s exasperation over the Federal Reserve’s take-it-slow approach to cutting interest rates is prompting him to consider accelerating when he will announce his pick to succeed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term runs for another 11 months. (WSJ)

Two weeks after China promised the U.S. it would ease the exports of rare-earth magnets, Chinese authorities are dragging out approval of Western companies’ requests for the critical components. (WSJ)

Senate Republican leaders kept pressing the gas pedal Wednesday to get their “one big, beautiful bill” passed by this weekend, even while hundreds of billions of dollars in crucial decisions are being negotiated, key senators are holding out, and some House lawmakers are crying foul. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.