SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son (left) and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attend an event in Tokyo in February 2025. SoftBank's investment gain on OpenAI stood at an estimated $19.8 billion as of December. SoftBank Group sprang back to a quarterly profit after investment gains from OpenAI neared $20 billion, a promising start for one of CEO Masayoshi Son's signature gambles alongside ByteDance and Alibaba Group Holding. The Tokyo-based company has invested about $34.6 billion in OpenAI, accumulating an 11% stake as of December, and has been in talks to invest as much as $30 billion more in a round that would value the startup at about $750 billion to $830 billion. As of December, SoftBank's investment gain on OpenAI stood at $19.8 billion, the company said Thursday.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attend an event in Tokyo in February 2025. SoftBank's investment gain on OpenAI stood at an estimated $19.8 billion as of December. SoftBank Group sprang back to a quarterly profit after Masayoshi Son's bet on OpenAI paid off in valuation gains, cementing the Japanese company's position as an investment proxy for the ChatGPT creator. The Tokyo-based company has invested more than $30 billion (¥4.58 trillion) in OpenAI, accumulating an 11% stake as of December, and has been in talks to invest as much as $30 billion more in a round that would value the startup at about $750 billion to $830 billion. As of December, SoftBank's investment gain on OpenAI stood at an estimated $19.8 billion, the company said Thursday.

We examine an adaptive learning framework for nonatomic congestion games where the players' cost functions may be subject to exogenous fluctuations (e.g., due to disturbances in the network, variations in the traffic going through a link, etc.).

High-altitude platforms could help connect over 2 billion people around the world who are still offline. Today, an estimated 2.2 billion people But that number could drop this year, thanks to tests of stratospheric airships, uncrewed aircraft, and other high-altitude platforms for internet delivery. Even with nearly 10,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit and the OneWeb constellation of 650 satellites, solid internet coverage is not a given across vast swathes of the planet. One of the most prominent efforts to plug the connectivity gap was Google X's Loon project . Launched in 2011, it aimed to deliver access using high-altitude balloons stationed above predetermined spots on Earth. But the project faced literal headwinds--the Loons kept drifting away and new ones had to be released constantly, making the venture economically unfeasible.

Tests conducted by the Guardian show that GPT-5.2 sourced some of its info from the AI-generated online encyclopedia from Elon Musk's xAI. OpenAI may have called GPT-5.2 its most advanced frontier model for professional work, but tests conducted by the cast doubt on its credibility. According to the report, OpenAI's GPT-5.2 model cited Grokipedia, the online encyclopedia powered by xAI, when it came to specific, but controversial topics related to Iran or the Holocaust. As seen in the's report, ChatGPT used Grokipedia as a source for claims about the Iranian government being tied to telecommunications company MTN-Irancell and questions related to Richard Evans, a British historian who served as an expert witness during a libel trial for Holocaust denier David Irving. However, the noted ChatGPT didn't use Grokipedia when it came to a prompt asking about media bias against Donald Trump and other controversial topics. A study done by US researchers also showed that the AI-generated encyclopedia cited questionable and problematic sources.

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini How to claim Verizon's $20 credit for Wednesday's service outage It isn't applied automatically, because of course it isn't. Verizon is offering a very small after Wednesday's massive outage, which drew more than 1.5 million reports on Downdetector and lasted hours. The carrier posted on X that it will offer a $20 credit, but customers must redeem it in the myVerizon app. This credit isn't meant to make up for what happened. No credit really can, the company wrote.

Shocking new video shows NYC's anti-white renters' tsar sharing her desire to make ALL Americans live in social housing Amy Schumer's friends reveal true meaning of thin bikini pictures and why they're'monitoring her'... as depth of ex Chris Fischer's heartbreak is laid bare The urgent questions for Timothy Busfield's wife Melissa Gilbert that no one dares ask: MAUREEN CALLAHAN analyzes child sex abuse claims spanning 30 years... and uncovers a potential bombshell Chilling final message of doctor's wife gunned down next to her twins, 6, in Arkansas mansion... as her son reveals red flags everyone missed Moment teenager launches bottle attack on'paedophile' is shown to murder trial after 49-year-old'was lured to meeting with girl, 16, and beaten to death with rocks' 'Brazilian Popeye' bodybuilder famed for injecting alcohol and oil into his arms dead at 55 Disney adult sparks outrage with her'trashy' bar crawl through kid-friendly theme park Swimsuit model Aoi Fujino, 27, dies just days after retiring with emotional post: 'Please remember me' Ellen Greenberg case set to be REOPENED by federal prosecutors after infamous 2011 'suicide' of Philadelphia schoolteacher found with 20 stab wounds I was swimming in shallow waters on my dream holiday when I was attacked by a shark. I lost my hand, leg and two-thirds of my blood. I should be dead... but this is how I was saved by three angels Palm Beach elites break out in civil war over $200m'greed project'... as Don Jr's fiancée furiously intervenes RICHARD EDEN: Meghan and Harry'plot' and why Prince William and Kate have REALLY hired a crisis expert. South Florida residents unnerved by military planes and helicopters flying around overhead - with officials causing further panic by saying it was part of mysterious'rehearsal' 'The end of the world as we know it': Poland warns of'disaster' if NATO nations turn on each other over Trump's bid to claim Greenland as Danish troops arrive in the region Verizon's massive nationwide network outage on Wednesday may have been caused by a failure in just one East Coast state. Officials believe a network server in New Jersey going down was the likely trigger of the day-long network crash, according to an initial investigation by law enforcement agencies on the East Coast searching for signs of sabotage.

A major Verizon outage appeared to impact customers across the United States starting around noon ET on Wednesday. Calls to Verizon customers from other carriers may also be impacted. Customers of the telecom giant Verizon began reporting cellular outages around the United States beginning around noon ET on Wednesday, saying they could not complete calls and did not have access to mobile data. Verizon broadband internet customers are also reporting issues. AT&T and T-Mobile customers also began reporting service outages in the same timeframe, however these reports may be linked to the Verizon outage.

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini Issues appear to be concentrated in the eastern United States. Verizon's network appears to be having technical issues that are impacting calls and wireless data. Users on X have reported seeing "SOS" rather than the traditional network bars on their smartphones, and even Verizon's own network status page is struggling to load. Based on the experience of Verizon users on Engadget's staff, the services that are impacted appear to be calls and wireless data. Text messages continue to be delivered normally.