Welcome, AI Enthusiasts!

Today’s AI Insights:

• OpenAI nears $40B megadeal—biggest AI raise ever

• Nvidia in talks to acquire Lepton AI

• Google rolls out new vacation-planning features

• Manus creator eyes $500M valuation

• Alibaba unveils Qwen2.5-VL-32B multimodal model

• How to create high-quality product photos with AI

• AI tool of the day

• Latest AI and tech news

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LATEST AI NEWS

OPENAI

💰 OpenAI Nears $40B Megadeal—Biggest AI Raise Ever

OpenAI is reportedly close to finalizing a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank — a deal that would mark the largest private investment in AI history and double the company’s valuation in under a year.

The Details:

• SoftBank to lead with $7.5B initially, followed by a $22.5B commitment later this year

• Syndicate of investors — including Magnetar Capital, Coatue, Founders Fund, and Altimeter — to add another $10B

• Magnetar may invest up to $1B; OpenAI would hit a $300B valuation, up from $157B in Oct 2023

• The capital will fuel research, expand GPT-4o capabilities, and help OpenAI stay ahead of rivals like Anthropic and xAI

Why it matters:

This would not only cement OpenAI as the undisputed AI frontrunner — it could also strengthen its expansion in Asia via SoftBank’s global reach. For the AI race, it’s a major power move… and a massive war chest.

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NVIDIA

💼 Nvidia in Talks to Acquire Lepton AI

Nvidia is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Lepton AI, a startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s own AI chips — signaling a deeper push into the server rental and infrastructure space.

The Details:

• The acquisition deal is reportedly valued at several hundred million dollars

• Lepton AI, founded in 2022, raised $11M in a seed round from CRV and Fusion Fund

• The company offers server rentals using Nvidia hardware — the same tech in high demand for AI model training

• This follows Nvidia’s reported acquisition of synthetic data startup Gretel just last week

Why it matters:

This move could give Nvidia more control over the AI infrastructure stack — from chips to servers — and sharpen its edge in a market increasingly dominated by startups like Together AI. With AI demand skyrocketing, Nvidia isn’t just selling the shovels — it’s now getting into the gold rush itself.

GOOGLE

✈️ Google Adds New AI Travel Features to Search, Maps & Gemini

Google is rolling out new AI features to help you plan your summer trips directly from Search, Maps, and Gemini — and it might just replace your travel agent.

The Details:

• AI Overviews in Search now generate custom itineraries when you ask things like “plan a nature trip in Costa Rica,” with photos, maps, and export to Docs, Gmail, or Google Maps.

• Gemini’s Gems feature, now free for all users, lets you create a personal AI travel planner that suggests destinations and packing lists.

• You can now track hotel prices — not just flights — with filters like star rating or beach access. Alerts are sent via email if prices drop.

• Google Maps on iOS can now scan your camera roll for vacation-related screenshots and pin the places to your map for easier planning (coming soon to Android).

Why it matters:

Google is turning its ecosystem into a one-stop travel assistant. With AI itinerary builders, smart hotel tracking, and visual planning via Maps, it’s positioning itself as the go-to trip planner — just as more users look to AI for travel help.

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AI & TECH NEWS

OpenAI temporarily limited image generation in ChatGPT as GPU demand spiked, with Sam Altman joking their “GPUs are melting.” Free users will soon be capped at 3 images/day, underscoring the strain generative AI places on infrastructure amid rapid user growth.

Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, creator of viral AI agent Manus, is seeking a $500M valuation—5x its last—as it courts U.S. investors. With 2.6M+ on the waitlist, it hopes new funding will ease infrastructure costs and support global expansion.

Alibaba released Qwen2.5-VL-32B, a multimodal AI that beats larger models in benchmarks, handling images and math tasks with ease. It’s open-sourced on Hugging Face and live on Qwen Chat, showing strong reasoning and human-like conversation skills.

Oracle has unveiled AI Agent Studio at CloudWorld London—a free platform to build and manage custom AI agents. It offers pre-built templates, multi-agent orchestration, and smooth integration with Oracle Fusion apps and third-party tools, aiming to simplify enterprise AI adoption.

A U.S. judge allowed The New York Times to proceed with its lawsuit against OpenAI over alleged unauthorized use of its articles to train ChatGPT. While some claims were narrowed, key copyright issues remain—potentially setting major precedents for AI and fair use.

AI TUTORIAL

📸 How to Create High-Quality Product Photos with InsMind

insMind is a free AI-powered photo editor designed to enhance product photos by quickly removing backgrounds, erasing unwanted objects, and generating new backgrounds. 

Steps to follow:

1. Go to insMind’s website.

2. Click on “Start from a photo” to upload the image you want to edit.

3. Use the “Background Remover” tool to automatically remove the background from your image.

4. Apply additional features like “AI Background” to generate realistic backgrounds, “Magic Eraser” to remove unwanted objects, or “AI Shadows” to add realistic shadows.

5. Once satisfied with the edits, click the “Download” button to save your enhanced image.

TOP AI TOOLS

🎧 PDF2Audio - Transform PDFs into customizable audio outputs.

🎨 Image Prompt - Tools for generating and optimizing AI art prompts.

🤖 WebFill - AI assistant for automating forms, surveys, and data entry.

🚀 Re-Engage - Transform existing content into viral social media posts.

📹 DeepVideo - Transforms websites into personalized videos efficiently.

💬 Polyglot Pal - AI chatbot for effective language learning and practice.

AI MEME OF THE DAY

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