Overview
- OpenAI announced a $110 billion round at a $730 billion pre‑money valuation, funded by Amazon ($50 billion), NVIDIA ($30 billion) and SoftBank ($30 billion), alongside a new Amazon partnership and NVIDIA commitments for next‑gen inference and training capacity.
- Usage data from OpenRouter show Chinese models surpassed U.S. peers in February token volume, led by MiniMax M2.5 and Kimi K2.5, with three Chinese systems accounting for most of the top‑five traffic.
- WSTS data indicate the semiconductor market reached $792 billion in 2025, up 25.6% year on year on AI demand, even as memory tightness weighs on PC and smartphone chip makers.
- NVIDIA posted record fiscal‑year revenue and profit but shares fell more than 5% after earnings as investors questioned the durability of heavy AI capital spending by major cloud providers.
- During German Chancellor Merz’s visit to China, BMW and CATL signed an MoU on battery supply‑chain decarbonization and BMW slated a long‑wheelbase iX3 debut for April in Beijing, while NIO and Bosch agreed to cooperate on steer‑by‑wire and battery management across NIO’s brands.