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Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’s revelation that it had completed its long-gestating restructuring into a near-normal company, one that can go public one day. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also was busy making news at the company’s GTC event in Washington, revealing the volume of orders it has received through the end of calendar 2026 for new chips, along with a deal with Uber and carmakers related to Nvidia-powered self-driving–car technology. You wonder what Huang’s buddy Elon Musk thinks of that, given how important robotaxis are to Tesla’s future.
Musk surely also has an opinion about the OpenAI news, given that he has a lawsuit outstanding trying to block the OpenAI restructuring, which is due to go to trial next March. The California Attorney-General’s memo approving the restructuring made clear it didn’t affect pending litigation, which means a cloud of uncertainty still hangs over the restructuring. Aside from that wrinkle, today’s news is a big deal, given that the company is on its way to becoming a multitrillion-dollar behemoth, thanks to the popularity of ChatGPT and the speed at which it is rolling out new products. It is also great news for Microsoft, an early and crucial backer of OpenAI whose $13 billion investment is now worth $135 billion and is likely to appreciate much more. (For more on this news, see here and TITV today).
The restructuring news is a good reminder of just what a singular corporate creation OpenAI is. Here’s a company that is revolutionizing technology and promising to dramatically change people’s lives. It is spending money like it’s going out of fashion. CEO Sam Altman today revealed that it has made total commitments for computing capacity that will cost $1.4 trillion over the next few years—and “we hope to do much more.” Altman is trying to turn OpenAI into a vertically integrated AI giant as fast as possible.
And yet, as today’s restructuring confirmed, the company is effectively controlled by a nonprofit. Who controls the nonprofit? Its board. What does that mean down the road? Your guess is as good as ours. This may not matter much now, but in the long term, you can imagine scenarios where control of the nonprofit becomes a big deal.
The Sam and Jakub Show
Forget Nvidia’s GTC show today and Satya Nadella’s appearance on TBPN. One of the more entertaining videos on Tuesday has to be the livestream OpenAI CEO Sam Altman held today with members of the public, where he and chief scientist Jakub Pachocki discussed the company’s potential and its future research and then hosted a Q&A with anyone who wanted to write in with a question. Altman is clearly conscious of the intense questions surrounding AI and its social impact and cost, and he is doing what he can to put those questions to rest.
He was a good sport about the questions—making a surprised face when someone asked whether OpenAI could turn into Ask Jeeves, a once-popular search engine that has faded away over the years (now known as Ask.com). Altman’s answer: “Sure hope not! We don’t think it will be.”
Pachocki, meanwhile, played to the stereotype of a scientist, staring off into space at some of the hard-to-answer questions before giving rambling responses that offered little clarity. Still, there was something refreshing about the session: It was a demonstration that media training has thankfully not invaded every company.
In Other News
• Skyworks Solutions, which supplies radio frequency chips to Apple and other smartphone makers, is acquiring its main rival, Qorvo, for $10.6 billion in a combination of cash and stock. The news, announced Tuesday morning, confirmed a report in The Information late Monday night.
• Livestream shopping app Whatnot announced a $225 million fundraising Tuesday at a valuation of $11.5 billion, more than double the level at which it last raised.
• Adobe and Google announced an expanded agreement under which customers will be able to use Google’s latest AI models to power Adobe applications like Photoshop and Premiere.
• Securitize, which helps asset managers put their products on the blockchain, said it will go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in a deal that values the firm at $1.25 billion in pre-money equity.
• Seres Group, a major electric vehicle maker in China, is looking to raise $1.7 billion in a Hong Kong listing, according to the company’s filing with the city’s stock exchange.
• Amazon is cutting around 14,000 corporate jobs, human resources executive Beth Galetti wrote in a memo the company published Tuesday.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check out our latest episode of TITV in which we speak with Adobe executives about the company’s enterprise AI strategy.
