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5 min read

Week 16, 2025

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key developments

Billion dollar seed rounds
  • Former OpenAI executives are commanding unprecedented seed funding.
  • Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence Inc. secured $2B at a $32B valuation with no product.
  • Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab is pursuing a $2B seed round at a potential $10B valuation.
  • Both startups are packed with elite ex-OpenAI talent.
  • Investors are betting heavily on founder reputations and AI potential despite zero revenue.
$200 premium AI plans
  • Anthropic has launched "Claude Max" plan with $100/month for 5× Pro usage and $200/month for 20× usage.
  • Max plan also includes early access to upcoming tools and capabilities.
  • This parallels OpenAI's $200/month ChatGPT Pro, which offers unlimited access to its advanced models.
  • The similar pricing and features highlight 1) industry trends toward usage-based AI pricing models and 2) growing demand for high-capacity AI tools among professional users.
10% of world uses ChatGPT
  • Sam Altman revealed that "about 10% of the world uses our systems a lot," representing roughly 800 million users.
  • ChatGPT reached 400 million weekly active users in February 2025, up from 300 million in December 2024.
  • The platform's user base reportedly doubled in just weeks, partly driven by new image generation features.
  • India has emerged as ChatGPT's fastest-growing market.
Canva, Adobe, WordPress embrace AI
  • Creative software platforms are rapidly integrating AI to transform complex technical tasks into simple prompt-based workflows, fundamentally changing how design and content creation happen.
  • Canva's Visual Suite 2.0 expands AI capabilities with tools for generating designs, visualizing data, and creating custom images from text prompts.
  • Adobe has introduced AI features across Creative Cloud that enhance video editing, content search, and photo manipulation capabilities.
  • WordPress now leverages AI to improve website development through automated design assistance, performance optimization, and security enhancements.
AI standards race begins
  • Google has launched Agent2Agent (A2A), an open protocol for AI systems to communicate across platforms, while simultaneously announcing support for Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) in its Gemini models.
  • The complementary protocols address different needs: A2A enables agent-to-agent collaboration, while MCP connects AI models to data sources and tools.
  • Over 50 major technology companies and service providers have backed the A2A protocol, including Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, and major consulting firms.
  • Google's dual-protocol strategy positions it to influence both tool integration and agent coordination standards, though industry observers question whether the protocols will eventually compete for dominance.
Google's AI hardware leap
  • Google's new Ironwood TPU challenges Nvidia's dominance with specialized AI inference hardware that delivers 42.5 exaflops of computing power.
  • The chip offers 24× the performance of top supercomputers while doubling energy efficiency over its predecessor.
  • Google Cloud now runs over 50% of its AI workloads on TPUs, signaling a shift in the $120 billion AI accelerator market projected to grow 29.4% annually.
Apple underfunded AI
  • Apple's push to catch up in the AI race has been severely hampered by internal budget constraints.
  • Despite CEO Tim Cook approving a plan to double the AI team's chip budget in 2023, CFO Luca Maestri reportedly cut the increase by more than half, forcing Apple to rely on outdated hardware and external computing power from Google and Amazon.
  • Internal power struggles between executives over Siri's development have led to delays and quality issues, with the impressive Apple Intelligence demo at WWDC 2024 reportedly being "fictitious."
Tariff confusion continues
  • The Trump administration has created significant market uncertainty with contradictory messages about whether semiconductors and electronics are exempt from recently announced tariffs or simply being moved to different tariff categories.
  • An April 12 product list appeared to exempt 20 categories of electronics, but Trump's subsequent social media posts denied any exemptions exist.
  • Commerce Secretary Lutnick clarified that electronics would face separate "semiconductor tariffs" coming within weeks, leaving markets uncertain about actual policy.
Whistleblower rocks Meta - 1) Secret China collaboration
  • Former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams has testified that the company undermined U.S. national security by working "hand in glove" with Chinese authorities to secure an $18 billion advertising business in China.
  • The whistleblower alleged Meta provided custom censorship tools to the Chinese Communist Party, removed dissident accounts, and proposed data-sharing arrangements that potentially exposed American user data.
  • Wynn-Williams claimed Meta executives lied to Congress, shareholders, and employees about these activities.
  • Meta has denied all allegations, calling the testimony "divorced from reality" and emphasizing that it does not currently operate its services in China.
Whistleblower rocks Meta - (2) Teen data abuse
  • Wynn-Williams also testified that the company monitored teenagers' emotional states and shared this data with advertisers to target them during moments of vulnerability.
  • Meta allegedly tracked behavioral indicators like deleted selfies and specific emoji usage to identify insecurities, then served targeted ads for beauty products and weight-loss services.
  • Executives allegedly knew about potential psychological harm but prioritized engagement and revenue over teen protection measures.

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other

AI - Deals / Milestones

SSI raises $2B at $32B valuation

Murati raising $2B at $10B+ valuation

Altman claims 10% of world uses ChatGPT

OpenAI may acquire Jony Ive's AI device startup

Alibaba's Quark becomes China's top AI app

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AI - Models / Apps

Anthropic debuts Claude Max plan

ChatGPT gets long term memory

OpenAI to retire GPT-4

xAI launches API for Grok 3

Google unveils Gemini 2.5 Flash

Google adds links to AI Overviews

Google launches Workspace Flows

Amazon launches voice AI Nova Sonic

Canva launches Canva AI

Adobe outlines agentic AI features

Reddit integrates Gemini into search

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AI - Other

Google introduces Firebase Studio

Google announces A2A protocol

OpenAI launches Pioneer Program

OpenAI shortens model safety testing

OpenAI countersues Musk for harassment

Apple AI derailed by budget cut

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Chips / Cloud

TSMC sees fastest growth since 2022

MS backs out of more data centers

China exempts Taiwan-made products from 125% tariff on US products

Google unveils first inference TPU

Google Cloud launches Unified Security

Nvidia H20 export restrictions reversed

  • Decision came after Jensen Huang had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

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Robotics

Samsung and Google plan to launch Ballie, a soccer-ball-shaped home robot that uses AI

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Commerce

Amazon expands Haul to offer name-brand items from its US inventory

Amazon weighs $15B warehouse expansion

Beijing blocks Shein production outside China

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Social Media

Zuck accused of secret China ties

Meta targeted vulnerable teens with ads

Facebook rolls out Teen Accounts

Whatsapp releases dozen new features

Instagram working on iPad app

Snap releases sponsored AI lenses

BeReal rolls out in-feed ads

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Content / Entertainment

Netflix tests OpenAI-powered search

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Device / Hardware

Apple airlifts iPhones into US to avoid tariffs

  • Apple now makes 20% of iPhones in India
  • Apple unlikely to produce iPhone in US

Apple working on lighter, cheaper Vision Pro

Google cuts hundreds in devices unit

Google adds Loss of Pulse Detection to Pixel Watch 3

  • Received FDA clearance in Feb 2025

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App / Platform

MS rolls out Recall

Google offers federal agencies 71% discount on Workspace

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EV / Mobility

DoorDash launches robot deliveries

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Crypto / Finance

DOJ disbands unit investigating crypto fraud

Tether may offer US only coin

BlackRock's crypto ETF net inflow down 83%

Ripple to acquire prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25B

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Policy / Regulation

Tariff confusion continues

Palantir helping DOGE build IRS database API

DOGE using AI to censor anti-Trump talk within government

Meta adds former Trump adviser to its board

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Etc

a16z raising $20B AI megafund

Dorsey and Musk wants to delete all IP law

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