Sam Altman’s Merge Labs Raises $250M With Backing From OpenAI
OpenAI has invested in Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup founded by CEO Sam Altman, as part of a $250 million seed round valuing the company at $850 million.
A transformer is a neural network architecture that uses attention to model relationships within a sequence or across multiple data types. Unlike recurrent networks that process elements step by step, transformers can analyze many positions in parallel during training. Self-attention lets each token weigh the relevance of other tokens, while additional layers transform those contextual representations. The architecture underpins modern language models and is also used for images, audio, video, biology, and robotics. Transformers scale effectively but can require substantial data, memory, and computation. Their outputs still reflect training limitations, and long context does not guarantee correct reasoning or recall. Model size, attention design, data quality, and evaluation remain central to performance.
OpenAI has invested in Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup founded by CEO Sam Altman, as part of a $250 million seed round valuing the company at $850 million.
Barclays Research says humanoid robots are moving from experimental labs into real-world deployment as advances in AI and hardware reduce costs. The firm estimates the market could expand sharply over the next decade amid labor shortages.
U.S. senators are demanding detailed explanations from major tech platforms on how they prevent and monetize AI-generated sexual deepfakes. The inquiry follows renewed scrutiny of generative AI tools and their safeguards.
Microsoft outlined a community-first strategy for expanding AI data centers, promising to cover electricity costs and reduce local environmental impact. The move comes amid rising public opposition to large-scale AI infrastructure projects.
Apple introduced Apple Creator Studio, a subscription bundle combining professional creative apps with new AI-driven features across video, music, imaging, and productivity tools. The offering expands Apple’s push into intelligent software workflows for creators.
Meta has introduced a new top-level initiative, Meta Compute, to expand its AI infrastructure and energy capacity at large scale. The effort signals a long-term push to support advanced AI development and global data center growth.
Apple will rely on Google’s Gemini models and cloud infrastructure to power future artificial intelligence features, including Siri. The multi-year partnership supports Apple’s next generation of foundation models.
Anthropic has partnered with Allianz to deploy its Claude AI models and custom agents across the insurer, emphasizing responsible, transparent AI for multi-step workflows and regulatory compliance.
Lenovo introduced Qira, a system-level AI spanning PCs, tablets, smartphones, and wearables. The assistant offers context-aware, cross-device intelligence for writing, collaboration, and workflow management.
xAI closed a $20 billion Series E round, exceeding its original target and adding strategic backing from NVIDIA and Cisco. The funding supports expanded data center capacity, large-scale GPU deployment, and continued development of the Grok model family.