💰 VC Brief

🎯 SoftBank, OpenAI scale back $500B AI project; OpenAI, xAI plan 1M+ GPU deployments; Amazon acquires Bee.

🔸 SoftBank and OpenAI $OPENAI have sharply reduced their $500B “Stargate” AI data center plans, now focusing on a single Ohio site due to governance and supply chain issues.

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🔸 Anthropic will seek investment from UAE and Qatar, reversing its prior stance and highlighting the growing influence of Gulf capital in frontier AI.
🔸 Slingshot AI launched Ash, a clinically-trained therapy chatbot, after raising $93M in a follow-on Series A led by Radical Ventures and Forerunner Ventures.

🔸 Microsoft $MSFT has hired at least 24 Google DeepMind $GOOGL researchers, intensifying competition for AI talent among major tech players.
🔸 Amazon $AMZN is acquiring AI wearable startup Bee, re-entering the consumer wearables segment with a privacy-focused, generative AI device.

🔸 OpenAI $OPENAI and xAI each announced plans to deploy over 1 million GPUs by year-end, with xAI targeting 50 million GPUs in five years, underscoring escalating hardware and capital demands in AI.