+ Microsoft And OpenAI Rewrote Their Partnership
Microsoft and OpenAI announced an amended agreement on Tuesday that ends Microsoft's exclusive hold on OpenAI's technology. ChatGPT and the rest of the OpenAI product line can now run on Amazon and Google's clouds for the first time. Microsoft remains the primary cloud partner, OpenAI products will still ship on Azure first when possible, and Microsoft keeps a license to OpenAI models and products through 2032. Microsoft also dropped the AGI clause that previously cut off its commercial rights once OpenAI declared it had built a general-purpose AI.
The change cleared the way for OpenAI's $50 billion deal with Amazon, announced in February, which had been stuck on the old exclusivity terms. Microsoft's stock rose on the news. Sam Altman called it the next phase of the partnership. Satya Nadella called it a simplification.
What it all means: The largest commercial relationship in AI is now a non-exclusive one. Every other big AI deal will use this template. Buyers should expect their AI tools to be portable across clouds inside a year, and any vendor still pitching exclusive lock-in is selling against where the market just went.
+ Musk And Altman Are In Court Over Who OpenAI Belongs To
The civil trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI started Monday in Oakland, California, and ran four days through Thursday. Musk, who put $38 million into OpenAI when it launched as a nonprofit in 2015, is asking the court to revert OpenAI to its original nonprofit structure, remove Altman and president Greg Brockman from the board, and award $130 billion in damages to OpenAI's nonprofit foundation. He testified for roughly five hours on Wednesday and continued on the stand Thursday under cross-examination.
Musk told the jury he was "a fool" for funding OpenAI when the founders said it would stay a nonprofit, and accused current leadership of "looting the nonprofit." Altman's lawyer pressed him on whether he ever read the 2018 term sheet he claims he was misled about. The judge had to remind Musk during cross-examination that he is not a lawyer and "has not taken a class in evidence." Musk replied that he had "technically" taken "law 101." A nine-person jury will advise the judge, who has the final ruling.
What it all means: This is the first major court case to test what an AI company owes its original mission and its early funders. The ruling will set the template for every other AI nonprofit-to-for-profit conversion that follows, and there are several already in motion.
+ China's DeepSeek Launched A Model That Does Not Need Nvidia
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab that shocked the industry last year by training a top model on a small budget, released DeepSeek V4 on April 24. The new model is open source, performs near the top of the global benchmarks for reasoning and coding, and runs on Huawei's Ascend chips instead of Nvidia's. It also costs roughly a sixth of what OpenAI's GPT-5.5 charges per million words processed.
Three days later, DeepSeek added image and video understanding to its consumer chatbot, calling the upgrade "the whale can now see," a reference to its logo. The combined release puts a serious open-source model at a cheaper price, on Chinese chips, in front of consumers, all in the same week. The Council on Foreign Relations called the release "a new phase" of the U.S.-China AI race.
What it all means: For three years the assumption was that frontier AI required Nvidia chips and an American lab. DeepSeek just published a working counter-example. Pricing pressure on US frontier labs is going to intensify, and any AI strategy that assumed only one supply chain just got more fragile.
+ Google Put Gemini In Millions Of Cars
Google announced on Thursday that Gemini will replace Google Assistant in cars with Google built-in software, the in-dash system used by carmakers including Ford, Honda, Volvo, Renault, and Polestar. The rollout will reach millions of vehicles over the next several months, and the upgrade is free. Drivers will be able to ask Gemini to plan a trip, find a charging station, summarize a long incoming email, or set up a calendar item, all by voice while driving.
It came in the same Gemini Drops update that brought a native Mac app, personalized image generation that can use photos of you, and significant upgrades to Gemini 3's voice and Workspace integration. Google's distribution advantage in cars, phones, and search continues to be the part of the AI race that no other company can replicate.
What it all means: For most consumers, the first time they use a real AI assistant by voice, hands-free, is going to be in a car. The default voice tool in everyday life is shifting from a basic timer-and-music helper to something that can plan, summarize, and act. Expect that bar to reset what people then expect from their phone, their TV, and their workplace tools.
