TL;DR
Nvidia maps $1.5T AI market; OpenAI seeks $40B+ funding; Disney sues Midjourney over AI copyright.
Highlights
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang outlined a $1.5T global AI hardware market at VivaTech Paris, announcing a strategic partnership with Mistral AI to build large-scale European AI infrastructure and forecasting "hundreds of billions" in Grace Blackwell processor sales 1.
- Disney and NBCUniversal sued Midjourney for alleged copyright infringement, seeking up to $150,000 per violation, marking the first major Hollywood lawsuit targeting a generative AI firm 2.
- OpenAI is in talks with SoftBank, Saudi PIF, Reliance, and UAE’s MGX for a $40B funding round, with plans for an additional $17B raise in 2027 3.
- Microsoft is negotiating a 1M-seat Copilot deployment and developing a Pentagon-specific Copilot, following the patching of a critical zero-click security flaw (EchoLeak) in 365 Copilot 410.
- Meta released the open-source 1.2B-parameter V-JEPA 2 world model and announced AI-powered video editing tools for its apps 5.
- Micron announced a $200B US chip manufacturing and R&D expansion, including relocating some production from Taiwan and supplying Nvidia’s next-gen processors 6.
- Honda will invest in Japan’s Rapidus chip startup; Denso shifted investments to Rohm; Xpeng launched the G7 SUV with in-house “Turing” AI chips, claiming triple the performance of Nvidia Orin and aiming to supply Volkswagen 78.
- Samsung and Nvidia invested $35M in Skild AI as part of a $4.5B Series B led by SoftBank, targeting consumer robotics software 9.
- Brazil’s Supreme Court reached a majority to hold platforms liable for illegal user posts, raising compliance risks for AI-driven content platforms 11.
- Wikipedia suspended its AI-generated summaries pilot after editor backlash over accuracy concerns 12.
- Databricks launched Agent Bricks for enterprise AI agent deployment, a Free Edition for developers, and a $100M talent fund to expand its ecosystem 13.
- Saudi Arabia selected Cisco and AMD for a domestic AI cloud project, supporting its Vision 2030 digital infrastructure strategy 14.
- UC Davis researchers enabled a paralyzed ALS patient to speak and sing in real time via a 10ms-latency AI-powered brain-computer interface 15.
Commentary
This cycle highlights the intensifying global focus on AI infrastructure, hardware, and capital. Nvidia ’s $1.5 trillion market projection and its partnership with Mistral AI underscore the scale of anticipated demand for accelerated data-center hardware and the push for regional AI sovereignty, particularly in Europe 1. Micron ’s $200 billion US investment and Honda’s stake in Rapidus signal ongoing efforts by both US and Asian players to secure domestic chip supply and reduce exposure to foreign manufacturing 67, while Xpeng’s in-house Turing chip—claimed to outperform Nvidia Orin—indicates growing competition in automotive AI hardware 8.
On the enterprise and consumer AI front, Microsoft ’s pursuit of a 1 million-seat Copilot deal and a Pentagon-specific version demonstrates the rapid scaling of generative AI assistants into both commercial and government domains 4. However, the EchoLeak zero-click vulnerability in Microsoft 365 Copilot, now patched, highlights the increasing security risks as AI agents become more deeply embedded in workflows 10. Meta ’s open-sourcing of V-JEPA 2 and Databricks’ new agent platform and developer initiatives reflect a continued push to attract developers and enterprises amid intensifying competition in generative AI tooling 513.
Legal and regulatory developments are moving quickly. The Disney/NBCUniversal lawsuit against Midjourney could set important precedents for copyright liability in generative AI 2, while Brazil’s Supreme Court decision to hold platforms liable for user content will require new compliance strategies for AI-driven platforms operating in the region 11. Wikipedia’s suspension of AI-generated summaries after editor pushback further illustrates the ongoing challenges around trust, accuracy, and transparency in deploying LLM-generated content 12.
Investment activity remains robust. OpenAI’s ongoing $40 billion raise (with a $17 billion follow-up planned) 3, Skild AI’s $4.5 billion Series B 9, and Saudi Arabia’s selection of Cisco and AMD for local AI cloud infrastructure all point to sustained capital inflows and the emergence of new regional AI ecosystems 14. Meanwhile, advances like UC Davis’s real-time brain-computer interface for ALS patients demonstrate the expanding range of AI’s impact beyond traditional enterprise and consumer applications 15.