In a stunning move, Meta offers a potential AI hire an eye-watering $1.25 billion contract over four years, amounting to $312 million annually, but the individual rejects the staggering offer as tech giants wage a fierce battle for elite AI talent.
Artificial intelligence companies are facing a potential bust larger than the dot-com crash, as they are more overvalued than dot-coms in the early 2000s, with the AI boom being bigger, raising concerns that their empires may crumble when the world realizes AI does not justify their massive valuations.
Twelve elite US venture capital firms capture over half of all venture funding in early 2025, with Founders Fund raising a massive $4.6 billion while 44 first-time managers struggle to collectively raise just $1.8 billion amid record 15.3-month fundraising timelines.
In an escalating tech talent war, Google acquires AI coding startup Windsurf for $2.4 billion, onboarding co-founder Varun Mohan and senior R&D staff to bolster its AI capabilities against rivals like OpenAI and Meta.
Nvidia's stock skyrockets, propelling the company's market capitalization beyond an unprecedented $4 trillion mark, fueled by the surging demand for its AI-accelerating hardware amidst the generative AI frenzy sweeping the tech industry, despite geopolitical headwinds and restrictions on chip sales to China.
Mistral, the European AI firm behind Le Chat chatbot, aims to raise $1 billion in equity and hundreds of millions in debt to expand its open-weight large language model capabilities.
Microsoft lays off over 3,000 employees in Washington state as it pivots focus to artificial intelligence, investing billions into AI infrastructure amid criticism of impersonal termination processes and an intense work culture.
In a major restructuring amid tech industry upheaval, Microsoft announces sweeping job cuts, slashing 15,000 positions across divisions and regions to streamline operations and adapt to technological shifts, despite robust financials.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son announces plans to invest $33.2 billion in OpenAI, predicting it will become the world's most valuable company and positioning SoftBank as the leading platform provider for artificial superintelligence within a decade.
Scale AI strategy chief Jason Droege becomes CEO as founder Alexandr Wang departs for Meta in a $14 billion deal, with Meta taking a 49% stake and Wang leading a new AI research lab.