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Dec 08, 2025
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Supported by
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Happy Monday! IBM is in talks to acquire Confluent for $11 billion. Apple's semiconductor chief is contemplating leaving the company. And OpenAI's Nick Turley envisions using ChatGPT to give users "superpowers."
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IBM is in advanced talks to acquire data analytics company Confluent for roughly $11 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. Confluent, which went public in 2021 and currently has a market capitalization of around $8 billion, sells software that analyzes data in real time, making it useful for applications like ride-hailing and fraud prevention. In recent years,
Confluent has touted its software’s ability to give AI models access to fresh data, and OpenAI has used Confluent’s software to analyze how customers are using ChatGPT and other products. But Confluent’s sales growth has been slowing due to increasing competition and customers getting better at controlling their cloud spending, and the company had reportedly been exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest two months ago. Confluent, which manages the open source Apache Kafka software, would be a logical fit for IBM, which acquired Red Hat in 2019 for $34.5 billion—the largest software deal in history—as well as cloud management tool provider HashiCorp last year. If the Confluent deal happens, it would mark one of IBM’s biggest acquisitions in recent years as it pivots further into software, cloud and AI under CEO Arvind Krishna.
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The executive in charge of Apple’s hugely successful in-house chip design efforts is eyeing an exit from the company, Bloomberg reported. Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, has told the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, that he is “seriously considering” departing Apple in the near future, the publication reported. If he leaves, Srouji has also told colleagues his next move will be to join another company, Bloomberg reported. Such a departure would be a blow to Apple, which has seen unusually high levels of turnover in its senior ranks lately. This week alone, the company announced the departure of four senior leaders, including John Giannandrea, its AI head; Alan Dye, one of its design chiefs; Kate Adams, general counsel; and Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and
social initiatives. A spokesman for Apple didn’t have an immediate comment. Cook’s own future at Apple has been the subject of intense speculation as well, as The Information reported on Friday. Cook recently turned 65 and became CEO nearly 15 years ago. Some current and former Apple executives believe Apple is likely to name a successor to Cook in the coming years.
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X has cut off the advertising account of the European Commission days after the agency imposed a €120 million fine on the platform for breaching the Digital Services Act, a set of regulations governing internet companies. Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, wrote in a post on X on Sunday that the platform was terminating the commission’s ad account after the agency used it to improperly amplify the reach of a post on X about its fine on the Elon Musk-owned service. Bier wrote that the commission had taken advantage of an “exploit” in an X tool for advertisers to mislead X users into thinking the post
contained a video. “As you may be aware, X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform,“ Bier wrote. “However, it seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account.” The commission imposed the penalty on X earlier in the week to address alleged DSA violations, including what it called deceptive practices related to X’s “blue check” verification badge, a lack of transparency around its ad-database and a hindering of researcher access to the platform.
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Instrumental in helping OpenAI’s ChatGPT retain its lead as the dominant artificial intelligence is a low-profile, 30-year-old product manager named Nick Turley, The Information reported on Saturday. Turley, a former Instacart and Dropbox product executive, envisions OpenAI’s flagship chatbot transitioning into a kind of “superassistant” that will connect the AI to other apps such as email and Slack and boosting its search capabilities, say by taking actions for users who tap the chatbot to find information or services. Products like ChatGPT are going to be “how many people are going to experience artificial general intelligence,” he said in an interview. “It’s not just important to reach more people—it’s to go deeper and give them superpowers.” Turley is also focused on helping OpenAI tap into advertising as a new source of revenue. Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has told staff that the company plans to delay initiatives such as advertising to focus on improving the core part of ChatGPT, employees say work is continuing on the ads product.
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Chinese startup AgiBot said on Monday that the number of humanoids it has manufactured just reached 5,000, hitting a new milestone in its mass production. AgiBot’s announcement is the latest example of how Chinese companies are ramping up their production of humanoid robots. Last month, UBTech, another Chinese robot maker, said it had started mass production and delivery of its industrial humanoids. UBTech aims to deliver 500 units by the end of this year. Shanghai-based AgiBot said its humanoids are currently being used in a variety of industries including entertainment, manufacturing and logistics as well as for scientific research. Apart from a full-size humanoid and a half-size humanoid, the company also sells humanoids designed for complex operations in specific industries. AgiBot was founded in 2023 by Zhihui Peng, a former member of Huawei Technologies’ “Genius Youth” program. It is one of a growing number of Chinese startups that are racing to develop more capable humanoids by taking advantage of the country’s vast hardware supply chain and deep talent pool in AI and advanced robotics.
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