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Nvidia and OpenAI are discussing a $250 billion financing guarantee for a SoftBank-backed 10-gigawatt AI data center in Ohio, while Nvidia and Naver plan a $1 billion investment tied to a large-scale AI data center project in South Korea.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft are spending record sums on Washington lobbying, while OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta have helped push AI-industry political spending past $65 million ahead of the U.S. midterms.
Chinese open models are keeping pressure on U.S. labs, with Moonshot AI, Zhipu, Alibaba, and DeepSeek gaining American users as cheaper systems close the gap with OpenAI and Anthropic, even as DeepSeek pauses a new fundraising round after founder Liang Wenfeng’s comments went viral in China.
Here’s your daily update.
Markets
The Nasdaq fell 0.64%, led by semiconductors, as concerns about returns on heavy AI spending outweighed a 3.9% drop in Brent crude and lower Treasury yields. Intel and Micron sank 7.9% and 7.0%, while Broadcom and Nvidia lost 2.7% and 0.9%. Data-centre operator Digital Realty bucked the weakness, surging 11.0%.
Headlines
Nvidia and OpenAI are discussing a $250 billion financing guarantee for a SoftBank-backed 10-gigawatt AI data center in Ohio. (The Wall Street Journal)
Nvidia and Naver plan a $1 billion Nvidia investment tied to a large-scale AI data center project in South Korea. (The Wall Street Journal)
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft are spending record sums on Washington lobbying as AI regulation, data centers and model releases become political battlegrounds. (Financial Times)
OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta have helped push AI-industry political spending past $65 million ahead of the U.S. midterms. (Business Insider)
DeepSeek pauses a new fundraising round after founder Liang Wenfeng’s AI comments go viral in China. (Times of India)
Moonshot AI, Zhipu, Alibaba and DeepSeek are gaining U.S. users as cheaper Chinese open models close the gap with OpenAI and Anthropic. (AP)
Anthropic launches Claude Opus 5, pitching it as a more cost-efficient model for everyday workplace tasks. (Bloomberg Law)
Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta back a Washington letter urging U.S. policymakers not to restrict open-weight AI models. (Reuters)
Nvidia and SK Group unveil a $500 billion-plus AI infrastructure and memory partnership spanning AI factories and next-generation HBM. (Reuters)
Microchip Technology agrees to acquire edge-AI chipmaker Hailo to expand into robotics, smart cameras and embedded AI systems. (Globes)
The 5 stages of finance grief
Denial that manual reconciliation is acceptable
Anger over the lack of spend visibility
Bargaining with colleagues to submit expense receipts
Depression for the late nights closing the books
Accepting Ramp to skip the first 4