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SoftBank lifts OpenAI stake to 11% with 41 billion investment
Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted SoftBank toward artificial intelligence. Japanese tech investor SoftBank said Wednesday that its stake in OpenAI is now around 11% after completing the second stage of a $41-billion investment in the maker of ChatGPT. Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, flamboyant founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted SoftBank toward artificial intelligence. SoftBank had announced in April its planned investment of up to $40 billion in Open AI, and on Wednesday it said that the second tranche of $22.5 billion was completed. The final investment reached $41 billion and includes $30 billion from SoftBank's Vision Fund plus $11 billion from other third-party co-investors, it said.
GTA 6 and everything else: What to watch in video games in 2026
The video games industry is unpredictable. If you'd told us this time last year that a previously unknown French studio would claim game of the year, Battlefield 6 would knock Call of Duty off the top of the annual charts and that Saudi Arabia would buy gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) we'd have been... sceptical. So you'd have to be very sure of yourself - or very foolish - to try and predict what's going to happen in the year ahead. Luckily, we're not in the crystal ball business here at BBC Newsbeat, but there are a few things we can be confident video game fans should keep an eye on in 2026. GTA 6: Will it actually arrive in 2026?
Made in space? Start-up brings factory in orbit one step closer to reality
It sounds like science fiction - a factory, located hundreds of kilometres above the Earth, churning out high-quality materials. But a Cardiff-based company is a step closer to making this a reality. Space Forge have sent a microwave-sized factory into orbit, and have demonstrated that its furnace can be switched on and reach temperatures of around 1,000C. They plan to manufacture material for semiconductors, which can be used back on Earth in electronics in communications infrastructure, computing and transport. Conditions in space are ideal for making semiconductors, which have the atoms they're made of arranged in a highly ordered 3D structure.
Is the US economy strong heading into 2026? The picture is complicated
How dangerous is the US standoff with Venezuela? Is the US economy strong heading into 2026? As the United States economy heads into 2026, the report card emerging on its performance is complicated. By many measures, the world's largest economy appears to be in a strong position. After a tumultuous year marked by President Donald Trump's return to the White House and his swing towards tariffs and protectionism, recent growth has outpaced the expectations of most analysts.
Meta buys Chinese-founded AI start-up Manus
Meta says it is acquiring the Chinese-founded AI firm Manus as it looks to boost the capabilities of its tech. Bloomberg analysts and The Wall Street Journal suggested the purchase could be worth more than $2bn (£1.48bn). Meta said the deal would help improve its own AI by giving people access to agents - tools which can do complex things with minimal user interaction such as planning trips or making presentations. Manus's exceptional talent will join Meta's team to deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including Meta AI, it said in a blog post. Barton Crockett, analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, told Reuters it was a natural fit for Meta, which extended into boss Mark Zuckerberg's vision of personal AI using agents.
The office block where AI 'doomers' gather to predict the apocalypse
In a building in central Berkeley, not far from the university campus, a group of modern-day Cassandras are looking into concerns around the latest AI models. In a building in central Berkeley, not far from the university campus, a group of modern-day Cassandras are looking into concerns around the latest AI models. The office block where AI'doomers' gather to predict the apocalypse On the other side of San Francisco bay from Silicon Valley, where the world's biggest technology companies tear towards superhuman artificial intelligence, looms a tower from which fearful warnings emerge. At 2150 Shattuck Avenue, in the heart of Berkeley, is the home of a group of modern-day Cassandras who rummage under the hood of cutting-edge AI models and predict what calamities may be unleashed on humanity - from AI dictatorships to robot coups. Here you can hear an AI expert express sympathy with an unnerving idea: San Francisco may be the new Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid originated and wreaked havoc on the world.
AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer
Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian professor of computing, says the idea that chatbots are becoming conscious is'going to drive bad decisions'. Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian professor of computing, says the idea that chatbots are becoming conscious is'going to drive bad decisions'. A pioneer of AI has criticised calls to grant the technology rights, warning that it was showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be prepared to pull the plug if needed. Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to giving citizenship to hostile extraterrestrials, amid fears that advances in the technology were far outpacing the ability to constrain them. Bengio, chair of a leading international AI safety study, said the growing perception that chatbots were becoming conscious was "going to drive bad decisions".