OpenAI

Recent news

• Sep 9, 2026

  If you lost your LLM tomorrow, would you still have a business?

  The article argues that European AI companies need sovereign fallback infrastructure and should plan for model outages, supplier changes, and regulatory restrictions rather than rely entirely on foreign API providers.

  • It cites a recent Anthropic incident in which the US Department of Commerce allegedly required access restrictions on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, leading Anthropic to switch off the models for all customers and restore them 17 days later.
  • It says Europe should retain the ability to run models on internal infrastructure, use open-weight models such as Mistral, Gemma, DeepSeek, and Qwen, and it highlights constraints around funding, grid connections/data centres, and talent retention; it also references the EU’s 19 AI Factories and 13 Antennas attached to EuroHPC supercomputers.
• Sep 9, 2026

  🤖 La Machine #91: Mistral’s €3 Billion Mic Drop

  Mistral AI has announced a €3 billion funding round at a post-money valuation above €21 billion.

  • Samsung led the financing, which Mistral says is the largest private European tech equity round on record.
  • The funds are intended for frontier research, more compute, and Mistral’s own infrastructure; the article also says Mistral has nearly doubled its valuation in a year and is still positioning itself against OpenAI and Anthropic.
  • The piece is a newsletter-style news summary referencing a recent announcement rather than publishing Mistral’s original press release.
  • The article also mentions Mistral’s sovereignty pitch and says competitive models are coming “very soon.”
• Sep 3, 2026

  Uber To Lay Off 200-250 Employees In India Amid Global Restructuring

  Uber has announced a global restructuring that will cut about 3,300 roles worldwide and 200-250 jobs in India. - The company said the changes will remove management layers, consolidate functions, and affect technology and operations teams in India, with nearly half of the AI Solutions team reportedly impacted.

  • Uber also said it will ask most remote employees to return to the office, keep a hybrid policy of three office days per week, and invest more than $10 Bn in autonomous vehicle technology over the coming years.
• Sep 2, 2026

  🤖 La Machine #90: AI Regulation Gets Real

  The article is a newsletter-style roundup with one main first-time feature on INCOM and multiple separate headlines and event listings.

  • INCOM is highlighted as a French startup proposing a cooperative model for platform drivers under France’s “entrepreneur-salarié” system, framed as an alternative as France prepares to transpose the EU Platform Work Directive.
  • The rest of the piece briefly references other news items, including Nvidia/Hugging Face, EU AI enforcement, OpenAI, and the €387.8M Bull supercomputer contract in Finland, plus sponsored events in Paris.
  • Contacts are provided via email at the end of the newsletter: chris@frenchtechjournal.com and helen@frenchtechjournal.com.
• Sep 1, 2026

  Oracle To Lay Off Another 3,000 Employees In India: Report

  Oracle reportedly plans another round of layoffs in India. - Times of India reported that Oracle plans to cut nearly 3,000 jobs in India, with layoffs potentially starting September 1; Moneycontrol said the cuts could begin mid-September.

  • The report says this could eliminate up to 10% of Oracle’s 30,000-strong India workforce; Oracle has also previously downsized its India staff by nearly 12,000 in March citing AI-led automation.
  • The article adds that Oracle spent $55.7 Bn on capex in FY26, up from $21.2 Bn in FY25, to build data centres and server capacity for AI clients such as OpenAI and NVIDIA.
• Aug 28, 2026

  Data centers face backlash, but unions are fighting for the jobs they create

  The Wall Street Journal reports on a growing backlash against U.S. data center construction and the resulting political fight over jobs.

  • Public opposition has centered on electricity costs, water consumption, noise, and in some cases tax breaks used to attract data center investment.
  • Construction unions are pushing back as politicians slow approvals or increase oversight ahead of the 2026 midterm elections; unions are also threatening to withhold campaign support from politicians who oppose these projects.
  • Technology companies including Meta, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft have partnered with unions and invested in training skilled workers because labor shortages are a major challenge for the AI industry.
  • The article also notes that white-collar labor groups are more concerned about AI’s effects on job quality and employment.
• Aug 27, 2026

  ‘Out of Hyperbole’: Nvidia’s AI Boom Tests Data Center Infrastructure Limits

  Nvidia and AWS have announced an expanded GPU deployment plan, with AWS saying it will deploy 2 million additional Nvidia GPUs across its global infrastructure in 2027 and 2028.

  • AWS said the GPUs will include Blackwell Ultra, Rubin, and Rubin Ultra systems and will support agentic AI, scientific computing, enterprise automation, and physical AI.
  • Nvidia also said AWS had received its first Vera CPU server and Vera Rubin GPU, and that Nvidia will provide credit support for SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Ohio.
  • The article adds context from analysts on power, cooling, interconnection, and grid constraints; AWS and Nvidia did not disclose capacity or power requirements for the GPU deployment.
  • Nvidia said it would invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy and that the Ohio project is planned for 8 IT GW of capacity for OpenAI, with 4.25 IT GW initially secured by Nvidia and an option for the remaining 3.75 IT GW.
• Aug 26, 2026

  🤖 La Machine #89: Is Hugging Face About to Become AI’s Next $13B Prize?

  The newsletter republishes and comments on an earlier Mistral AI appearance before French lawmakers, while also summarizing a separate Mistral-HUMAIN partnership announced by Mistral AI.

  • Arthur Mensch told a French parliamentary inquiry on May 12 that Europe has about two years to secure a meaningful share of AI value creation, warning that AI is now the core of the cloud business and that Europe must focus on high-value AI services rather than low-margin commodity cloud services.
  • The issue also references Mistral AI’s separate strategic partnership with HUMAIN for sovereign AI infrastructure, localized models and enterprise applications across Saudi Arabia and the wider region, and mentions broader newsletter items including a €2bn Microsoft AI data center in Alsace and other AI and data-center-related stories.
• Aug 26, 2026

  How Data Center Controversies Have Transformed the Midterm Elections

  The Associated Press has published an analysis of the growing political opposition to U.S. data centers and how it is reshaping policy debates. It is commentary and reporting on a broader trend, not a first-time corporate announcement.

  • The article says Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to spend more than $700 billion on U.S. data centers this year, while OpenAI and Oracle are building Project Jupiter, a $165 billion complex near the Mexican border in New Mexico.
  • It also notes opposition over water use, electricity costs, and climate impacts; examples include a challenge to well drilling permits in New Mexico, a one-year ban on large data centers in New York, and tougher regulatory steps in Texas under Greg Abbott.
• Aug 23, 2026

  NVIDIA, Cloverleaf Partnering to Advance Data Center Development

  NVIDIA and Cloverleaf Infrastructure have announced a strategic partnership to advance digital infrastructure development across the U.S., with NVIDIA also taking a minority stake in Cloverleaf.

  • Cloverleaf said the deal will help it and its utility partners meet rising demand for accelerated computing and will support AI factory development using the NVIDIA DSX Platform.
  • The company said it has already delivered multiple GW-scale projects and that the partnership will help customers evaluate site, power, cooling, computing, and facility tradeoffs within power, water, and grid constraints; financial terms were not disclosed.
  • The article also notes NVIDIA’s earlier $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy for the PORTS-Pike campus in Pike County, Ohio, and says Cloverleaf was founded in 2024 and raised $300 million in its first year.
• Aug 21, 2026

  Nvidia scales back financing guarantee for OpenAI data center

  Nvidia has reportedly reduced its planned financial guarantee for a large OpenAI-linked data center project in Ohio, cutting the commitment from as much as $250 billion to less than $120 billion.

  • The revised structure would have Nvidia guarantee financing for the project’s first phase, covering about 5 gigawatts or half of the proposed capacity; financing for the remaining capacity would be considered later.
  • Earlier this month, Nvidia also announced partnerships with Apollo Global Management, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize more than $500 billion in capital for AI computing infrastructure; the project is being developed by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank. The report frames the change as a restructuring of Nvidia’s role in financing and cites broader concerns about AI infrastructure costs and funding.
• Aug 19, 2026

  Federal Trade Commission Chairman Sees AI Antitrust Risks Upstream

  FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the biggest competitive risks in artificial intelligence are in chips, power, and construction rather than among AI models themselves.

  • Speaking at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum in a fireside chat with Brian Sullivan of CNBC, Ferguson said competition among large language model developers appears healthy, citing near weekly releases from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
  • Ferguson said the main concern is input monopolies in chips, energy, and construction, warning against monopoly power upstream and acquisitions that could create a chokepoint in the AI supply chain; he also said FTC enforcement is focused on false marketing claims rather than AI uses deemed merely potentially illegal.
• Aug 19, 2026

  Nvidia Backs OpenAI’s Ohio Data Center Buildout With $105B Guarantee

  Nvidia has disclosed conditional residual-value guarantees of up to $105 billion for OpenAI’s planned Ohio data center campus, while also saying it is investing $1.5 billion in SB Energy.

  • The guarantees cover an initial 4.25 GW of IT capacity at SB Energy’s PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, with an option to support another 3.75 GW for about 8 GW total.
  • The structure is tied to leased infrastructure under a 20-year lease with OpenAI; Nvidia said OpenAI will reimburse and indemnify it for amounts actually paid, and the actual guarantee agreements are still to be filed in a future quarterly report.
• Aug 19, 2026

  List of AI companies turning to old and rare books for AI training

  Amazon has been reported to be buying old, obscure and rare books and sending them for destructive scanning at its Las Vegas facility VGT3, according to an investigation by 404 Media.

  • 404 Media said it tracked a rare book with a device to Amazon facility VGT3 in Las Vegas; workers reportedly remove spines, scan pages, and discard physical copies.
  • Amazon said it buys books through commercial channels, but did not say how many books it purchases or whether it preserves rare titles; booksellers in Europe and Ireland reported suspicious bulk orders, including 5,000 obscure titles to Kennys.
  • The article also compares Amazon’s practice with similar AI-book uses by Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, and Google; it cites Anthropic’s Project Panama, Meta’s discussion of buying Simon & Schuster and paying $10 per book, and Anthropic’s later $1.5 billion settlement over pirated books.