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1.	Apple AI Leader Giannandrea Departs By Aaron Tilley Source: The Information

John Giannandrea, who was Apple’s artificial intelligence chief since 2018, is stepping down, Apple announced on Monday. Amar Subramanya, a former Google and Microsoft AI executive, will be joining Apple to take over some areas of the AI team, including AI research and internal foundation model development, Apple said.

At Apple, Giannandrea struggled over turf wars and the company’s strict adherence to privacy, which helped stymie it from making an ambitious push in AI, The Information previously reported. In particular, he fumbled an overhaul of Apple’s voice assistant, Siri. In 2024, Apple announced a more personalized and conversational version of Siri, which had been languishing for years. Apple delayed the release earlier this year and is now promising a new-and-improved Siri next year.

Under a new structure for its AI leadership, Subramanya won’t report directly to CEO Tim Cook, as Giannandrea did. Instead, Subramanya will report to Apple’s software leader Craig Federighi, who already took over Siri earlier this year. Other parts of the AI group that were overseen by Giannandrea will shift to chief operating officer Sabih Khan and Apple services executive Eddy Cue “to align closer with similar organizations,” Apple said.

Subramanya spent 16 years at Google, where he headed up engineering for Gemini Assistant near the end of his time. He moved to Microsoft for a short stint as an AI executive.

2.	Nvidia Invests $2 Billion in Synopsys By Rocket Drew Source: The Information

Nvidia bought $2 billion worth of stock in Synopsys, which provides software for designing semiconductors and is a Nvidia customer, the companies announced Monday. The investment is the latest in a slew of deals inked by Nvidia in software and AI firms that use its chips. Synopsys shares rose 5%.

As part of the transaction, Synopsys will continue to use Nvidia’s hardware and software to support its technology, including for chip design. Synopsys will also use Nvidia software, including its Cosmos AI world model, to generate digital simulations for companies in industries such as aerospace, robotics and healthcare.

Synopsys also agreed to help sell Nvidia’s technology, building on an existing agreement to sell Nvidia’s Omniverse simulation software.

Nvidia has recently faced concerns that its investments in its customers are designed to prop up their purchases of Nvidia chips. Addressing this concern on a conference call Monday morning, Sassine Ghazi, Synopsys’ president and CEO, said, “there is no intention or commitments to use that $2 billion to purchase” Nvidia chips.

3.	OpenAI Takes an Equity Stake in Thrive Holdings By Sri Muppidi and Laura Mandaro Source: The Information

OpenAI is taking an equity stake in Thrive Holdings, a business launched by backer Thrive Capital to start and buy firms that could gain from artificial intelligence, such as in accounting and other service- oriented industries, Thrive Holdings and OpenAI announced Monday.

OpenAI’s research and AI teams will work with engineers and other employees at Thrive Holdings to “deeply integrate AI into the businesses that we own and operate,” Thrive Holdings said in a statement. The announcement deepens the relationship between OpenAI and one of its biggest investors. In early 2024, Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital led a sale of OpenAI shares that valued it at $86 billion and last fall led the company’s $6.6 billion fundraise valuing the startup at $157 billion.

Josh Kushner’s Thrive is one of a number of venture firms, including General Catalyst, to pursue a strategy of buying and merging service firms like accounting or call centers and integrating them with AI to save costs. Thrive Holdings raised an initial $1 billion in capital earlier this year for the strategy.

Thrive Holdings has backed accounting firm Crete Professionals Alliance and IT services firm Shield Technology Partners, both of which are using OpenAI’s models and will train and improve customized OpenAI models and products, according to a person with knowledge of the plans.

OpenAI is getting a “material” equity stake in Thrive Holdings but hasn’t invested any money, according to a different person with knowledge of the plans. OpenAI also will gain additional expertise on working with business customers, including understanding specific workflows that it could apply to other enterprises and access data that it could use to train its models, according to the person. OpenAI in the last year has rapidly increased the number of business customers it serves through its ChatGPT products, in addition to selling access to its AI models through an API.

OpenAI could also choose to work with other investment firms that are buying and operating services companies and integrating them with AI, said the same person.

(Updates throughout with details of the partnership and corrects an earlier version to note OpenAI will not invest in Thrive. )

4.	Amazon Tests U.S. Ultrafast Delivery Offering By Ann Gehan Source: The Information

Amazon said Monday it has started testing a new ultrafast delivery service aimed at getting groceries and other staple items to shoppers in as little as 30 minutes, confirming an earlier report from The Information. The service is now live in Seattle and Philadelphia, Amazon said, and deliveries will cost $3.99 per order for Prime members and $13.99 for non-members, with additional fees for orders under $15.

The Amazon Now service will operate out of small, specialized convenience store–style fulfillment centers, where Amazon Flex gig workers will pick up orders of items like snacks, prepared food and household products after warehouse staffers pack them, according to plans for the fulfillment centers reviewed by The Information. These centers would generally be smaller than 10,000 square feet and centrally located in urban areas, according to planning permits.

The offering could boost Amazon’s business selling what it calls “everyday essentials”—items like groceries and household products—which has emerged as a critically important category for the company over the past few years under Amazon’s retail chief, Doug Herrington. These items can be low margin and sometimes even unprofitable for Amazon to sell, but executives say they encourage repeat purchases and bring new shoppers to its site, which is beneficial for its business over the long term.

5.	China’s Kuaishou Launches All-In-One AI Video Model By Juro Osawa Source: The Information

Chinese short-video company Kuaishou Technology on Tuesday launched a new artificial intelligence model that seeks to integrate different stages of video generation.

Kuaishou said that its new model, Kling Video O1, not only creates videos but also offers various editing capabilities, such as modifying the background, adding and removing objects, or turning videos taken in real life into animation. The company describes O1 as the first model that unifies video generation, editing and post production into one platform. Until now, users of video generation models have typically relied on separate tools for editing.

Kuaishou, which competes with ByteDance’s Douyin in China, is one of the global leaders in AI videos. The release of O1 highlights the fierce competition in the AI video sector, where many Chinese companies are battling it out with U.S. giants like Google and OpenAI. Kuaishou’s Kling 2.5 Turbo 1080p video model, released in September, is currently ranked in the top three for both text-to-video and image-to-video categories on the global leaderboard of AI models compiled by Artificial Analysis.