The Information AM

Save 25% on an annual subscription to read the most important news about technology and business first. For even more, Save $250 on The Information Pro for unlimited access to our proprietary org charts, databases and surveys.

1.	Amazon in Talks to Make $10 Billion OpenAI Investment By Anissa Gardizy Source: The Information

Amazon is in talks to invest $10 billion or more in OpenAI at a valuation exceeding $500 billion, The Information reported on Tuesday.

As part of the potential deal, OpenAI would use Amazon’s Trainium artificial intelligence chips, and the investment would help fund OpenAI’s massive cloud-infrastructure commitments, including to Amazon Web Services. Last month, OpenAI said it would spend $38 billion over the next seven years renting servers from AWS, making it one of at least five cloud providers OpenAI relies on to develop its AI.

The discussions are ongoing and could include commerce partnership opportunities. AWS would not be able to sell OpenAI models directly to its cloud customers, however, because Microsoft, which owns about 27% of OpenAI equity, has secured an exclusive right to do so.

2.	U.S. Threatens Retaliation Against European Tech Companies By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan Source: The Information

The Trump administration has threatened to impose penalties on European technology companies in response to a pattern of what it says are “discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines, and directives” against American tech companies.

In a post on X, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pointed to several European firms, including Mistral, Spotify and Accenture, arguing these companies “operate freely” in the U.S. compared to U.S. tech companies in Europe. “If the EU and EU Member States insist on continuing to restrict, limit, and deter the competitiveness of U.S. service providers through discriminatory means, the United States will have no choice but to begin using every tool at its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures,” the post said.

The European Union has taken a tough stance on big tech in recent years. It recently fined Elon Musk’s X $140 million dollars, and, a few months earlier, fined Google around $3.5 billion.

3.	Waymo Discusses Raising Billions at More Than $100 Billion Valuation By Katie Roof Source: The Information

Waymo is in early talks with potential investors to raise more money at a valuation of at least $100 billion, The Information first reported Tuesday. The size of the round will at least be several billions of dollars, possibly even more than $10 billion.

A new valuation at more than $100 billion would more than double the valuation of its last round. The self-driving car unit, which is controlled by Google-parent Alphabet, last October it said it had raised $5.6 billion, at a valuation of $45 billion, from Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Fidelity and others.

Last week it said that its cars had made 14 million rides so far this year.

4.	Tencent Names Former OpenAI Researcher Chief AI Scientist By Juro Osawa Source: The Information

Tencent Holdings internally announced that Yao Shunyu, a researcher who joined from OpenAI in September, is now serving as a chief AI scientist overseeing the Chinese tech giant’s large language model department as well as its newly established AI infrastructure department, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Yao’s major role, part of Tencent’s office of the CEO and president, highlights the critical importance of his responsibility. Yao reports to Tencent President Martin Lau.

Tencent has been lagging behind rivals ByteDance and Alibaba Group in China’s domestic race to develop the best AI models. But in recent months it is stepping up its fight to catch up. The company is aggressively recruiting ByteDance’s AI researchers by offering to double their salaries, while empowering Yao to push through internal changes so he can build a stronger AI development team, The Information reported last week.

As part of its ongoing reorganization of AI-related teams, Tencent has also created an AI data department and a data computing platform department, according to the internal announcement, which was first reported by Chinese media outlet 36kr.

5.	Databricks Valued at $134 Billion in New Financing By Cory Weinberg Source: The Information

Databricks said it had raised more than $4 billion from investors including Insight Partners, Fidelity Management and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, valuing the AI software firm at $134 billion.

The round will allow Databricks to continue to stay private while allowing employees to sell some shares. The company expects to pull in more than $4 billion in revenue this year, and generate some cash for the year, The Information previously reported.