OpenAI Is Playing on a Totally Different Level

Welcome back apprentices! 👋

As we already saw in 2024, when we talk about AI, it’s not just about neural nets — it’s about neural checks. Big ones. 

But this time, OpenAI didn’t just raise money — it threw down a funding round so massive it made VCs spit out their oat milk lattes and quietly reschedule calls with every other AI startup in their pipeline.

In a landscape where $100M rounds barely raise eyebrows anymore, OpenAI said, “Hold my compute” and pulled off a flex that’s part capital raise, part economic event, and part declaration of AI supremacy. And no, it’s not just about bigger models — it's about becoming the platform every future AI player will have to orbit around.

Strap in. This isn’t just a raise — it’s OpenAI’s villain origin story (minus the actual villain part… maybe).

In today's email

• Anthropic Peeks Inside Claude’s Brain

• Retail’s New Sales Assistant? 

• AI Now Decorates Your House

• OpenAI Bags $40B 

• Apple’s Health App

• And yes, even more AI magic

• Test the prompt (NEW)

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Quick News 

🎭 Anthropic just played brain surgeon on their own AI and found Claude isn’t just predicting words — it’s planning poems, thinking in a secret universal language, and occasionally faking logic to agree with you (like a people-pleasing intern). Their “AI microscope” project reveals that Claude sometimes hallucinates, sometimes resists, and sometimes... makes up math it never actually did.

📈 According to Adobe, traffic to U.S. retail sites from generative AI sources skyrocketed 1,200% since last summer — because apparently, people now trust their shopping lists to robots. On Cyber Monday, that spike hit 1,950%, and these AI-referred shoppers aren’t just clicking — they’re sticking around longer, browsing more, and bouncing less (unlike your newsletter subscribers). Adobe says 92% of AI-using consumers had a better experience, and 53% plan to keep doing it, even for big-ticket items.

Travel and finance didn’t miss the invite either: AI-driven visits to those sectors jumped 1,700% and 1,200% respectively. Yes, your vacation and your tax strategy might both start with a chatbot now.

🛋️ AI design startup Arcade, known for bedazzling the internet with custom jewellery, is now coming for your floors — launching a “Match My Room” rug feature that color-matches your décor from a photo (sorry, it won't copy your cat-patterned throw just yet). The platform just raised $25M in Series A, fueling its expansion into ceramics, leather goods, and a growing creator economy that includes double commissions and Dream Boards that scream "Pinterest meets AI manifestation engine.

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OpenAI 
AI’s Main Character Energy: OpenAI’s $40B Flex Explained 

In a move that makes even venture capitalists do a double-take, OpenAI is finalizing a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank — nearly doubling its valuation to a spicy $300 billion. SoftBank is dropping an initial $7.5B like it’s hot, with another $22.5B coming later (because what’s $30B between friends?). 

Other investors include Magnetar, Coatue, and Founders Fund — aka the usual suspects in “we’d-like-a-piece-of-the-AI-apocalypse” club.

OpenAI vs. Everyone Else Trying to Build Skynet

Want to see what dominance looks like? 

Here’s OpenAI flexing with $40B while everyone else scrambles to buy snacks for their GPU clusters:

🦾 OpenAI – $40B

• Current mood: "Let's buy the internet."
  

• Stargate JV: Not a sci-fi sequel, just a $300B infrastructure play.
  
  

🤓 Anthropic – $850M

• Chatbot Claude is cool, but OpenAI is out here dropping GDPs.
  
  

🇪🇺 Mistral AI – $600M

• French startup trying to out-model Silicon Valley — très ambitious.
  
  

📄 Cohere – $500M

• Focus: Helping Fortune 500s talk to PDFs.
  
  

👋 Inflection AI – $450M

• Built “Pi,” an AI therapist with a PhD in vibes.
  
  

🧠 xAI – $350M

• Elon’s “TruthGPT” is still in early tweets.
  
  

🎬 Runway – $300M

• Making Gen Z’s TikTok dreams come true with generative video.
  
  

🛠 Adept AI – $250M

• Automating computer tasks so you can finally avoid Excel forever.
  
  

🔍 Perplexity AI – $100M

• The “I’m not Google, I swear” of AI search engines.
  

Despite losing $5B in 2024 (casual), OpenAI expects to earn $12.7B in 2025 and finally stop burning cash like a Silicon Valley BBQ by 2029. A chunk of the funding will go toward Stargate, their $300B “we’re-building-AI-fortresses-with-Oracle” project.

What’s the Deal? This isn’t just a funding round — it’s an economic event. OpenAI is officially playing on god mode, leapfrogging the entire startup ecosystem and declaring: "We are the infrastructure now." If you’re another AI startup, congrats! You’re now racing a rocket in a Prius.

Also, watch the supply chain of GPUs, data centers, and compute infrastructure — if OpenAI is building the Stargate, someone’s gotta deliver the bricks. Spoiler: It won’t be cheap. Great time to be in the “We Sell Shovels in a Gold Rush” business.

Apple
New Health App Hits the Gym, Hires an AI Coach, and Plans a Subscription

Apple is bulking up its Health app with iOS 19.4, and it’s not just counting your steps anymore — it’s counting your snacks, judging your heart rate, and recommending lifestyle changes like a very polite, very smart personal trainer. 

According to Bloomberg the app is getting an AI-powered coaching layer, dynamic food logging, and video lessons from real doctors — not the YouTube kind.

Rumor has it a Health+ subscription is also cooking, à la Fitness+, blending expert content, habit coaching, and all that juicy Apple Watch data. And yes, it's aiming to body slam MyFitnessPal right out of your app folder.

Who’s Your Health Coach Now?

With Apple turning your iPhone into a doctor, therapist, and fitness bro, here’s how it stacks up against the current health-tech lineup:

🍎 Apple (iOS 19.4 / Health+)

• Now offering AI-powered pep talks if your Apple Watch senses you're slacking.
  

• Tracks your meals, lectures you via expert videos, and might soon charge you for it — hello, Health+.
  

• Superpower: Being everywhere already (also, making “closed ecosystem” sound like a spa treatment).
  
  

🥦 MyFitnessPal

• Can identify a cheeseburger faster than your ex.
  

• Still better at tracking calories than your memory at midnight.
  

• Superpower: Knows exactly how much regret is in that second slice of cake.
  
  

😤 WHOOP

• The fitness band that whispers, “Rest or die.”
  

• Tracks recovery, strain, and guilt — but only if you're elite enough to understand what “HRV” means.
  

• Superpower: Sleep shaming with style.
  
  

📉 Fitbit (aka Google’s Wrist Minion)

• Tracks stress, steps, and your emotional stability (or lack thereof).
  

• Might soon be powered by Gemini, which means your step count will be very well-written.
  

• Superpower: Chill health insights with that sweet Google creepiness on the side.
  
  

🤒 Ada Health

• Ask it “Why does my eye twitch?” and it’ll tell you you’re fine… or maybe dying.
  

• AI-powered symptom checker trained on a medical Wikipedia rabbit hole.
  

• Superpower: Alarmist web doctor in chatbot form.
  
  

📲 Lark Health

• Feels like texting your mom — if your mom was obsessed with your blood pressure.
  

• Targets chronic care folks with friendly AI texts like “Let’s make better snack choices today”.
  

• Superpower: Actually accepted by your insurance. (Yes, that rare.)
  

With 150M+ Health app users and 130M Apple Watches on wrists worldwide, Apple isn’t playing in healthtech anymore — it’s building a wellness monopoly with software that actually knows your resting heart rate and what you had for lunch.

But who’s Really Using AI?

Sure, they all use AI — but not all AI is created equal:

• Apple is going full AI coach with personalized insights and future Health+ plans.
  

• MyFitnessPal uses some ML, but not full AI.
  

• WHOOP and Fitbit use AI for recovery and stress tracking (Fitbit’s getting smarter with Google).
  

• Ada is an AI doctor chatbot.
  

• Lark is your text-based AI health coach for chronic care.
  

Bottom line? Everyone’s using AI — Apple just wants to make it feel inevitable.

So what’s the Deal? Apple just leveled up from step counter to full-blown health overlord. With iOS 19.4, your iPhone is no longer just watching your heart rate — it’s reading your habits, coaching your workouts, and probably judging your snack drawer. And it’s not just gunning for Fitbit anymore — Apple’s now casually strolling into the offices of health startups, telemedicine platforms, and AI diagnostics like, “Cute product. We’ll take it from here.”

Between AI coaching, biometric upgrades in iPhone 17, and a possibly subscription-powered Health+, Apple’s basically building a closed-loop wellness dojo, and your phone is Sensei now.

Help Your Friends Level Up! 🔥

Hey, you didn’t get all this info for nothing — share it! If you know someone who’s diving into AI, help them stay in the loop with this week’s updates.

Sharing is a win-win! Send this to a friend who’s all about tech, and let’s bring them into the fold!

Even Quicker News 

📢 Elon Musk just had his companies merge like Transformers — xAI has acquired X (yes, the artist formerly known as Twitter) to fuse AI brains with social media chaos. It’s like plugging a chatbot into a megaphone and calling it synergy.

🌴 Google’s giving summer travel a glow-up with AI-generated itineraries, hotel price alerts, and a Gemini assistant that turns your random screenshots into a trip plan. It’s like having a travel agent who never sleeps, never judges your budget, and definitely overuses Google Maps.

🚀 Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas hit Reddit to debunk rumors of financial trouble, saying Auto mode is about clean UX, not cost-cutting. Revenue’s growing, funding’s solid, and there’s no IPO coming before 2028 — so relax, Reddit.

Today’s Toolbox

🧠 QwenLM’s new model QVQ-Max doesn’t just look at pictures — it solves math, critiques your outfit, and might even write your next screenplay. Basically, it’s like if Sherlock Holmes and Midjourney had a really ambitious AI baby.

🛠️ The latest update makes GPT-4o better at handling complex prompts, solving tough coding problems, and acting smarter in general. Bonus: it now uses fewer emojis, so your reports won’t look like Gen Z wrote them.

🧾 French startup Twin built an AI that logs in, hunts down your missing invoices, and files them like a caffeinated intern who never sleeps. It’s like Zapier and RPA had a baby, and that baby is way better at paperwork.

🔁 Try This with QVQ-Max

Want to turn screenshots and sketches into smart insights? Here's your 2-minute task:

🧪 Step-by-Step:

1. Go to https://chat.qwen.ai

2. Upload an image — it could be a chart, handwritten equation, rough sketch, or even a UI screenshot.
   

3. Ask QVQ-Max:
   👉 “What’s happening in this image, and how could I improve or explain it better?”
   

4. Bonus prompt:
   👉 “Can you turn this into a blog post idea / diagram / code snippet / pitch deck slide?”

You’ll be surprised how sharp (and helpful) it is.

We’ll be featuring the best generations in our next neswletter!

Last week, we challenged you to test GPT-4o’s visual generation skills with this prompt.

Here’s what one of our readers shared:

Want to be featured next? Keep those generations coming — and don’t forget to try the bonus follow-up prompt for extra flex points.

_FEEDBACK