| |  | Dec 08, 2025 | | | | | Supported by |  | | | | | | Happy Monday! IBM is in talks to acquire Confluent for $11 billion. Apple's semiconductor chief is contemplating leaving the company. And OpenAI's Nick Turley envisions using ChatGPT to give users "superpowers."
| | | | IBM is in advanced talks to acquire data analytics company Confluent for roughly $11 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. Confluent, which went public in 2021 and currently has a market capitalization of around $8 billion, sells software that analyzes data in real time, making it useful for applications like ride-hailing and fraud prevention. In recent years, Confluent has touted its software's ability to give AI models access to fresh data, and OpenAI has used Confluent's software to analyze how customers are using ChatGPT and other products. But Confluent's sales growth has been slowing due to increasing competition and customers getting better at controlling their cloud spending, and the company had reportedly been exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest two months ago. Confluent, which manages the open source Apache Kafka software, would be a logical fit for IBM, which acquired Red Hat in 2019 for $34.5 billion—the largest software deal in history—as well as cloud management tool provider HashiCorp last year. If the Confluent deal happens, it would mark one of IBM's biggest acquisitions in recent years as it pivots further into software, cloud and AI under CEO Arvind Krishna. | | | | The executive in charge of Apple's hugely successful in-house chip design efforts is eyeing an exit from the company, Bloomberg reported. Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, has told the company's CEO, Tim Cook, that he is "seriously considering" departing Apple in the near future, the publication reported. If he leaves, Srouji has also told colleagues his next move will be to join another company, Bloomberg reported. Such a departure would be a blow to Apple, which has seen unusually high levels of turnover in its senior ranks lately. This week alone, the company announced the departure of four senior leaders, including John Giannandrea, its AI head; Alan Dye, one of its design chiefs; Kate Adams, general counsel; and Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives. A spokesman for Apple didn't have an immediate comment. Cook's own future at Apple has been the subject of intense speculation as well, as The Information reported on Friday. Cook recently turned 65 and became CEO nearly 15 years ago. Some current and former Apple executives believe Apple is likely to name a successor to Cook in the coming years. | | | | X has cut off the advertising account of the European Commission days after the agency imposed a €120 million fine on the platform for breaching the Digital Services Act, a set of regulations governing internet companies. Nikita Bier, X's head of product, wrote in a post on X on Sunday that the platform was terminating the commission's ad account after the agency used it to improperly amplify the reach of a post on X about its fine on the Elon Musk-owned service. Bier wrote that the commission had taken advantage of an "exploit" in an X tool for advertisers to mislead X users into thinking the post contained a video. "As you may be aware, X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform," Bier wrote. "However, it seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account." The commission imposed the penalty on X earlier in the week to address alleged DSA violations, including what it called deceptive practices related to X's "blue check" verification badge, a lack of transparency around its ad-database and a hindering of researcher access to the platform. | | | | Instrumental in helping OpenAI's ChatGPT retain its lead as the dominant artificial intelligence is a low-profile, 30-year-old product manager named Nick Turley, The Information reported on Saturday. Turley, a former Instacart and Dropbox product executive, envisions OpenAI's flagship chatbot transitioning into a kind of "superassistant" that will connect the AI to other apps such as email and Slack and boosting its search capabilities, say by taking actions for users who tap the chatbot to find information or services. Products like ChatGPT are going to be "how many people are going to experience artificial general intelligence," he said in an interview. "It's not just important to reach more people—it's to go deeper and give them superpowers." Turley is also focused on helping OpenAI tap into advertising as a new source of revenue. Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has told staff that the company plans to delay initiatives such as advertising to focus on improving the core part of ChatGPT, employees say work is continuing on the ads product. | | | | Chinese startup AgiBot said on Monday that the number of humanoids it has manufactured just reached 5,000, hitting a new milestone in its mass production. AgiBot's announcement is the latest example of how Chinese companies are ramping up their production of humanoid robots. Last month, UBTech, another Chinese robot maker, said it had started mass production and delivery of its industrial humanoids. UBTech aims to deliver 500 units by the end of this year. Shanghai-based AgiBot said its humanoids are currently being used in a variety of industries including entertainment, manufacturing and logistics as well as for scientific research. Apart from a full-size humanoid and a half-size humanoid, the company also sells humanoids designed for complex operations in specific industries. AgiBot was founded in 2023 by Zhihui Peng, a former member of Huawei Technologies' "Genius Youth" program. It is one of a growing number of Chinese startups that are racing to develop more capable humanoids by taking advantage of the country's vast hardware supply chain and deep talent pool in AI and advanced robotics. | | | | A new securities filing shows that corporate communications strategist Lulu Cheng Meservey has raised $40 million for a venture capital fund. Cheng Meservey has worked with clients like Ramp and Safe Superintelligence at her advisory firm, Rostra. She previously was an executive at Activision Blizzard and Substack. Prior to that, she co-founded communications agency TrailRunner International. She's known for a strategy called "go direct," where she often recommends that companies speak directly to their audiences rather than using traditional media as a forum. She has taken equity in some clients and earlier this year was on The Information's list of The Next General Partners. The filing did not indicate the investment thesis for the new fund. | | | | Meta Platforms has postponed the launch of its next-generation mixed-reality glasses, code-named Phoenix, from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027, Business Insider reported. In internal memos shared with employees, Meta leaders said the delay will give its teams more time to improve the product, the report said. The Phoenix glasses resemble goggles and have a separate power puck to reduce weight and overheating, The Information has previously reported. | | | | Netflix is to buy Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming operations for $82.7 billion in cash and stock, combining the world's biggest streaming service with one of Hollywood's iconic film studios and the HBO Max service. The deal won't close for at least a year and before it does, WBD will spin off its cable channels which include CNN, TNT, Discovery and TBS. Those businesses are in decline. WBD had planned to spin those off before a bid from the Ellison family's Paramount Skydance put the company into play. The big question hanging over the deal is whether the government will approve the combination. As the leading streaming service, Netflix is likely to face opposition to buying another big streaming service. At the same time, the Ellisons have a closer relationship with the Trump administration, which would have given them an edge in getting approval. | | | | Microsoft is in talks to design future custom chips with Broadcom, which would involve Microsoft switching its business from Marvell, another maker of custom chips, according to one person involved in the discussions. Those discussions come amid intense demand for such chips as companies like Microsoft race to acquire more semiconductors and increase their AI products. Nvidia lords over the semiconductor market—while And Broadcom is seen as perhaps Nvidia's most credible rival. Read more about Broadcom's strategy and CEO Hock Tan's fondness for megadeals and unsentimental management in our Weekend Big Read. Meanwhile, Marvell recently tried to win more business from Meta Platforms by waiving part of an up-front engineering fee for designing chips, according to two people involved in the talks. Meta plans to launch this chip in 2027, according to three people involved in its development. | | | | Microsoft's shareholders approved the board's proposed compensation for CEO Satya Nadella and other top executives on Friday, raising Nadella's pay to $96.5 million, up from $79.1 million last year. The majority of Nadella's compensation will come from stock awards, while his base salary is $2.5 million. Shareholders also voted to approve the board's nomination of Walmart CFO John David Rainey to serve on the company's board of directors. Rainey will replace former ADP CEO Carlos Rodriguez, who announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection. Meanwhile, shareholders voted against six proposals put forward by investors, all of which the board had opposed. Those included measures that would have directed Microsoft to commission reports on its business's impact on climate change, how its training of AI models complies with copyright laws, and how its products are used by governments of Israel, China, and Saudi Arabia. | | | | | Popular articles By Stephanie Palazzolo and Erin Woo
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