Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence
Salesforce announces new investments in the Bay Area
Cloud-based software company, Salesforce, announced plans to invest US$15 billion (A$23.05 billion) into a new AI Incubator Hub on the Salesforce San Francisco campus. The company’s investment will also help companies adopt an AI agent that can perform tasks on the user's behalf. “This $15 billion investment reflects our deep commitment to our hometown — advancing AI innovation, creating jobs, and helping companies and our communities thrive in this incredible new era,” Salesforce chair and CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. This announcement comes ahead of the company’s annual Dreamforce conference, which will welcome nearly 50,000 people to San Francisco in what is billed as the world’s largest AI event. Dreamforce is celebrating its 23rd year in the city and is expected to generate $130 million in local revenue. On the same day, the company also surpassed $1 billion in lifetime contributions to the Bay Area, with new investments in healthcare and education. This includes a $100 million gift to USCF Beioff Children’s Hospital to advance its world-class pediatric care and $39 million to equip educators and students with AI skills while also supporting local children's hospitals. “With that leadership comes
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI bolsters computing power with Broadcom deal
Technology giant Broadcom shares jumped almost 10% after it announced it would build OpenAI’s first in-house artificial intelligence (AI) processors. Under the strategic collaboration, Broadcom said it would co-develop systems with OpenAI , including accelerators and Ethernet solutions for “scale-up and scale-out” between 2026 and 2029. OpenAI will design 10 gigawatts (GW) of custom AI accelerators, which are hardware components designed to speed up AI workloads, especially those involving machine learning and deep learning. “Partnering with Broadcom is a critical step in building the infrastructure needed to unlock AI’s potential and deliver real benefits for people and businesses,” OpenAI Co-Founder and CEO Sam Altman said in a joint media release. “Developing our own accelerators adds to the broader ecosystem of partners all building the capacity required to push the frontier of AI to provide benefits to all humanity.” Broadcom President and CEO Hock Tan said the collaboration with OpenAI was a pivotal moment in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence. This is the latest deal signed by OpenAI as it tries to build the computing power needed to meet surging demand for its services, like the ChatGPT AI cha
Artificial Intelligence
Google to invest US$5.8bn in Belgian AI expansion
Google will invest €5 billion (US$5.8 billion) in Belgium to expand its data centre campus in St. Ghislain and create 300 full-time jobs. The Alphabet subsidiary also announced new carbon-free energy agreements and support for local artificial intelligence (AI) skilling programs. The announcement brings Google’s investment in Belgium to more than €11 billion since breaking ground on its first data centre in St. Ghislain in 2007. Google said the expenditure in 2026 and 2027 would extend its AI capabilities to meet growing demand for its Google Cloud suite of cloud computing services and power other services like Search, Maps and Workspace. Google Global Infrastructure Vice President Bikash Koley said the announcement deepened the company’s roots, extended its investments in Belgium, and created new avenues for “AI-driven transformation”. “Our investments in technical infrastructure and AI skills development help ensure people across Belgium and across Europe have access to opportunity in this exciting era of European innovation,” Koley said in a statement. The St. Ghislain facility is part of Google’s global network of 42 regions that provide services used by businesses and organisations to build and scale AI-powe
Artificial Intelligence
IBM shares rise on AI partnership with Anthropic
IBM and Anthropic will partner to add Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence model to IBM’s software, with IBM shares climbing to a record high. Claude will first be available within IBM’s new integrated developer environment (IDE), which is used to build and modernise software for businesses, and will later be added to other IBM products. “IBM has been the backbone of enterprise technology for decades because we understand what it takes to deploy at scale in mission-critical environments,” said IBM SVP, Software Dinesh Nirmal. “This partnership enhances our software portfolio with advanced AI capabilities while maintaining the governance, security, and reliability that our clients have come to expect. We’re giving development teams AI that fits how enterprises work not experimental tools that create new risks.” According to IBM, its new IDE currently has 6,000 users among IBM clients in its early testing phase. Users reported an average 45% increase in productivity, the company said. IBM has also unveiled a guide for designing and managing enterprise-focused AI models, verified by Anthropic. IBM’s shares briefly reached a record high of US$301.04 following the announcement. The company’s stocks have risen by
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Qualcomm buys Arduino, bringing its tech to developers
Qualcomm Technologies has announced it will buy Italian-based open-source hardware and software company Arduino. Qualcomm said Arduino’s 33 million-plus users would be able to use its technologies to prototype and test new solutions “with a clear path to commercialisation”. The acquisition built on its recent integrations of Edge Impulse and Foundries.io and reinforced its commitment to delivering a “full-stack edge platform” spanning hardware, software and cloud services. “By combining Qualcomm Technologies’ leading‑edge processing, graphics, computer vision, and AI (artificial intelligence) with Arduino’s simplicity, affordability, and community, the Company is poised to supercharge developer productivity across industries,” Qualcomm said in a news release. No price was announced for the acquisition, which is part of the global technology company’s plan to give more developers access to its technologies. Arduino’s free electronics tools are used by entrepreneurs, businesses, technology professionals, students, educators and hobbyists to build prototypes of robots and other gadgets, and are popular for testing ideas or proving concepts. Qualcomm’s Group General Manager, Automotive, Industrial and Embedded IoT, N

Artificial Intelligence
Figma shares up 7.4% after ChatGPT integration
Software design app Figma’s shares closed 7.4% higher after OpenAI announced Figma would be integrated into ChatGPT. Figma is now available as an interactive app within ChatGPT, alongside apps from companies like Spotify, Booking.com, Coursera, and Canva. “Apps in ChatGPT fit naturally into conversation. You can discover them when ChatGPT suggests one at the right time, or by calling them by name. Apps respond to natural language and include interactive interfaces you can use right in the chat,” according to OpenAI. “While an idea may start on a whiteboard, notebook, or even a cocktail napkin, it’s only when it moves into a collaborative space like FigJam that teammates can help take the idea further. The Figma app in ChatGPT helps with that transition by turning drawings into diagrams,” wrote Figma product manager Luke Zhang. Figma’s ChatGPT app can be used to build collaborative diagrams and charts, Figma said, with further options to come. Apps from companies like Uber, Tripadvisor, and Peloton will be added to ChatGPT this year, OpenAI said. Software developers will be able to submit apps for potential ChatGPT integration later in 2025. Etsy shares also jumped by 16% last week after OpenAI unveiled a new feat
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OpenAI surpasses SpaceX as the highest valued startup
OpenAI has surpassed Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the world’s biggest startup following a deal allowing employees to sell US$6.6 billion worth of shares. ChatGPT now has a valuation of $500 billion. This is an increase from its previous US$300 billion, which came from a major $1.5 billion deal with SoftBank last November. CNBC reported in August that the AI giant was looking to conduct a secondary sale to reach the $500 billion valuation with investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price. A spokesperson from MGX said the firm was “pleased to be a core partner to OpenAI and to continue building on our strong relationship as a significant investor across multiple funding rounds”. Open AI had originally authorised up $10.3 billion in shares for sale, an increase from the $6 billion target, but only around two-thirds of that amount ultimately changed hands. The new valuation sees them surpass SpaceX’s $456 billion valuation to become the world’s most valuable privately held company. The sale is set to intensify competition for AI talent, following Meta reportedly offering nine-figure compensation packages in a bid to recruit top researchers.
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Samsung, SK Hynix to supply chips for OpenAI's Stargate
Samsung and SK Hynix plan to supply advanced memory chips for OpenAI’s data centres, as it looks to expand its Stargate infrastructure project in the United States. OpenAI also agreed to explore developing and building artificial intelligence data centres in South Korea. “Korea has all the ingredients to be a global leader in AI — incredible tech talent, world-class infrastructure, strong government support, and a thriving AI ecosystem,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “Partnering on Stargate represents a landmark moment for SK and the official starting point for comprehensive technological innovation, with SK bringing powerful synergies across the full AI stack — memory semiconductors, data centres, energy, and networks,” said SK Hynix chair Chey Tae-won. “As primary partners, SK and OpenAI will jointly drive global AI infrastructure innovation through expanding collaboration spanning infrastructure, model development, applications, and breakthrough research on next-generation AI computing solutions.” Under the deal, Samsung and SK Hynix will scale up their production of memory chips to power OpenAI’s AI models. The companies will aim to start production of 900,000 wafers each month. The partnership will support Ope
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Sonnet 4.5 outperforms; Anthropic leads over AI rivals
Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.5 artificial intelligence (AI) tool has scored 77.2% on SWE-bench Verified, the benchmark that measures how well AI handles real-world software engineering work, putting it ahead of OpenAI's GPT-5 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. The newly-released model represents a jump from 42.2% to 61.4% on OSWorld testing in just four months, a whopping 45% improvement. The AI developer says pricing remains unchanged at US$3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens - delivering vastly better output for the same cost. Microsoft slotted Claude into Copilot 365 last week, and OpenAI has conceded Anthropic's got the edge on work-focused AI applications.Coding improvementsAnthropic claims Sonnet 4.5 is their most aligned frontier system yet, claiming to have reduced concerning behaviours including sycophancy, deception, and power-seeking tendencies. “We’ve also made considerable progress on defending against prompt injection attacks, one of the most serious risks for users of these capabilities,” Anthropic said in a statement. Company engineers have watched Sonnet 4.5 churn through code for 30-plus hours without losing focus on complex, multi-layered projects, versus Opus 4's seven-hour limi