The Rundown

Mistral AI is reportedly in early talks to raise around €3 billion, or about $3.5 billion, at a valuation of roughly €20 billion.

The French AI startup was last valued at €11.7 billion during a funding round in September.

The new talks are still in an early stage, and the final terms could change depending on investor demand.

The funding would give Mistral more cash as it tries to compete with larger AI companies in the US and China.

Source: Bloomberg
Image: Getty Images

Top AI-heavy companies are now spending about $7,500 per employee every month on AI.

Ramp describes these firms as “AI-pilled,” meaning they are among the most aggressive users of AI tools.

However, AI costs have not yet overtaken human labor costs, with the average software engineer still costing around $16,000 per month.

The gap is also wide across companies: the top 10% spend about $611 per employee monthly, while the median company spends just $11.38. Still, AI spending among top users rose 14.1% last month.

Source: Ramp

Meta has fully cut operational ties with Manus after Chinese regulators reportedly ordered the companies to unwind their $2 billion acquisition deal.

Meta has stopped sharing data with the AI startup, and employees can no longer use Manus’ tools internally.

The deal had faced scrutiny from both U.S. and Chinese regulators, reflecting growing tensions around cross-border AI investments.

Manus was developed by Butterfly Effect, a startup originally founded in China.

The acquisition had become sensitive because Manus was originally founded in China, later moved to Singapore, and had backing from a U.S. investor.

That put the deal under pressure from both Chinese and U.S. regulators as governments pay closer attention to cross-border AI investments.

Source: The Information

OpenAI says it banned likely China-based users who used ChatGPT in a suspected influence campaign targeting US debate over data centers.

The company said the small operation, called “Data Center Bandwagon,” created posts in English and Chinese that appeared to pose as Americans and amplified concerns about energy costs and local impacts from data center construction.

OpenAI said the campaign ran from late 2025 into early 2026 but gained little real engagement.

The company believes the users may have been linked to a private Chinese tech firm working with local government clients.

Source: Businees Insider
Image: Getty Images

Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire as SpaceX shares soared above $170 on its first day of trading.

The company raised $75 billion by selling 555.6 million shares at $135 each, and will trade under the ticker “SPCX.”

Source: WSJ

ChatGPT reached 1 billion monthly app users in May.

It hit the milestone just 3.5 years after launch, making it the fastest app to reach 1 billion users, ahead of Google Maps.

The growth comes as more people question AI’s impact on jobs, privacy, safety and the environment.

Still, AI use keeps rising, with apps like Claude and Meta AI also seeing big gains as more users continue to adopt these tools every day.

Source: Reuters

OpenAI is reportedly considering big price cuts for its AI tools as competition with Anthropic heats up.

The cuts would focus on token prices, which are the units companies pay for when using AI models.

The move comes as some businesses push back on high AI costs.

Sam Altman also recently said AI costs have become “a huge issue.”

Lower prices could help more companies use AI, but they could also hurt profits at OpenAI and Anthropic, which already spend huge amounts on computing power.

Source: WSJ
Image: Getty Images

Tampa General Hospital in Florida says an AI-enabled sepsis system built with Palantir is helping clinicians identify patients at risk earlier.

The tool combines data from electronic health records, lab results, clinical notes and bedside monitors.

It then flags possible warning signs for rapid response teams.

According to The Times, the hospital estimates the Sepsis Hub has helped save 886 lives since August 2022.

Tampa General has also reported 30% shorter hospital stays for sepsis patients.

The hospital says the system supports, not replaces, clinicians.

Source: The Times

Jeff Bezos is taking on AI’s next frontier: the physical world.

His startup, Prometheus, is emerging from stealth after raising $12 billion at a $41 billion valuation.

Led by Bezos and former Google X executive Vik Bajaj, the company aims to build an “artificial general engineer” trained on physics data and manufacturing tests.

Prometheus wants to speed up the design and production of everything from skyscrapers to smartphones and jet engines, potentially reshaping manufacturing and engineering.

Source: Semafor
Image: Bloomberg