SoftBank junk bond sale raises stakes for CEO Son's all-in AI bet SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son's bets have a mixed track record -- his investment in Chinese tech giant Alibaba was a major success, but he also directed $16 billion to Adam Neumann's WeWork, which ultimately went bankrupt. SoftBank's promise to pay its highest-ever yields in a record $11 billion junk-bond offering highlights the pressure on CEO Masayoshi Son to secure returns on his all-in bet on artificial intelligence amid concerns about possible overheating in the market. The SoftBank debt issuance last month added to a sharp surge in corporate borrowing this year, including major bond sales from Amazon, Alphabet and Tencent. The scale of Son's investments, which include backing totaling $64.6 billion for ChatGPT maker OpenAI, in particular, has made the technology-and-investing conglomerate a bellwether for AI sentiment. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

OpenAI discovered a recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of its San Francisco buildings last month. U.S. federal agents have arrested a Saudi national who was an OpenAI engineer and charged him with installing a hidden audio recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The case highlights growing security concerns around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for the talent and technology that could confer economic and strategic advantages. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, the Justice Department said in a statement. An email sent to an address associated with that name did not elicit a response, and it was not immediately clear who his lawyer was.

A Saudi national who worked as an engineer at the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI has been arrested after a listening device was found in the company's conference room, according to United States authorities. In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that the employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi engineer named Abdulrahman Alfozan, had worked at the company since July 2025. Alfozan made his first court appearance on Tuesday and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. "Protecting American [super intelligence] innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation's economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities," Kash Patel, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said in response to the arrest. The incident raises concerns about surveillance and underhanded efforts to gain an edge in the AI sector, where companies and countries have angled for an advantage.

Chatbot prompts reveal the engineer's alleged efforts to set up a covert listening device days before one was found in a meeting room used by high-level executives. An engineer at OpenAI allegedly concealed an audio recording device in a piece of toilet paper and attached it behind a monitor inside an executive conference room at one of the company's San Francisco offices, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday. Abdulrahman Alfozan, who federal prosecutors describe as a 35-year-old Saudi Arabian national and US permanent resident, allegedly spent several weeks querying an unspecified "productivity agent" and an "AI chatbot" to plan his alleged surveillance operation. He used an internal OpenAI tool to ask about meetings scheduled in the targeted conference room. He also appears to have used a chatbot account associated with his spouse to ask various technical questions about setting up a covert audio recording device, according to prosecutors and the court filing.

OpenAI is holding early talks with investors about a fresh funding round that would value the ChatGPT creator at more than $1.2 trillion ahead of an initial public offering. OpenAI is holding early talks with investors about a fresh funding round that would value the ChatGPT creator at more than $1.2 trillion ahead of an initial public offering. Discovery of'sophisticated' gadget adds to company's list of privacy concerns after hackings by rogue agents OpenAI said it has found a hidden recording device in one of its offices and has referred the matter to the FBI. One of its employees has been arrested. In a statement on Tuesday, the San Francisco-based AI company said it discovered the "sophisticated recording device" and used one of its "models to understand the device and where it had come from".

Saudi man charged with planting'sophisticated' recording device in OpenAI office A Saudi national has been charged with secretly planting a recording device in one of OpenAI's offices in California, federal prosecutors announced. Abdulrahman Alfozan, who worked at the AI firm as an engineer, was charged federally with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. OpenAI said it had discovered a sophisticated recording device hidden in their San Francisco office and alerted the FBI. The company said it used its AI models to track that it had been planted by an employee. Prosecutors say the device, wrapped in toilet paper, was found inserted in a USB port on the back of a TV in an executive conference room.

US federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a Saudi national with allegedly hiding a sophisticated recording device inside of OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters. Per the San Francisco Standard, Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old engineer who had been with the company since July 2025, has been accused of attempting to record oral conversations between OpenAI employees. Alfozan allegedly left a DIY recording device inside of an executive conference room he wasn't authorized to enter or use. We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices. We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier.

Trending Now Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series The newest frontier AI model from Google has landed, after an earlier limited release. Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and . Google announced the public launch of Gemini 4 Argon after an earlier limited release to select testing partners.

AI leaders joined whistleblowers and security leaders at a sweeping parliamentary session, while a few hundred meters away Britain's spy chief warned AI could be used to create new bioweapons. Representatives for OpenAI and Anthropic told a British parliamentary hearing that voluntary pledges were no longer enough to ensure safety and that new laws should be introduced, deepening a public schism with Google DeepMind and Meta, both of which declined to back new legislation. The Business, Innovation, Science, and Trade Committee, comprising a cross-party panel of MPs, held an evidence session on Tuesday with appearances from four frontier AI firms, four former staff of the firms turned whistleblowers and senior British civil servants. "The rules should be binding," Anthropic's head of Europe Liam Booth-Smith told the committee, when asked if the company's view was that AI safety now needs a statutory framework . The company, he said, has "consistently believed that there should be binding rules on companies and that voluntary commitments are not enough."

Google's latest AI model, Gemini 4 Argon, is now available for more people. It first rolled out to members of Google's Fairwind Program, made up of governments and trusted partners that need access to the company's models with the most advanced cybersecurity capabilities, earlier this month. Now, developers can access it via the Gemini API and Google's agentic software developer platform Antigravity, while Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers will be able to use it through the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search. Access to Argon will set users back 2 per million input tokens and 10 per million output tokens. But those are just introductory prices valid until November 30.