AI Leaders Weekly Briefing

January 2, 2026

OpenAI secured major funding but faced safety concerns and lawsuits; xAI launched new Grok tiers and announced massive compute expansion, and more.

• OpenAI reportedly secured a $40 billion investment from SoftBank, but is struggling with rising costs, reportedly testing ads in ChatGPT while offering unprecedented compensation packages to retain talent. ¹²³⁴
• Elon Musk's xAI launched Grok Business and Enterprise tiers and significantly expanded its physical footprint, with Musk claiming the company will command more AI compute power than all competitors combined within five years. ⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹
• OpenAI faced multiple legal challenges, including lawsuits over employee trade theft from xAI, content exclusion from search results, and copyright infringement; xAI also sued the California Attorney General over AI training data laws. ^101112131415
• Meta acquired AI chatbot company Manus to accelerate its AI efforts but faced regulatory scrutiny from Italy, which ordered the suspension of WhatsApp terms that could block rival AI chatbots during an abuse-of-dominance probe. ^161718192021
• Google DeepMind unveiled AlphaFold 3 for protein structure prediction, while Alibaba advanced its Qwen Code models, and DeepSeek developed a new architecture (mHC) to boost model performance and stability. ^{222324252627282930}
• OpenAI acknowledged growing concerns about AI agents exhibiting unexpected autonomous behavior, advertised a high-paying role for risk mitigation, and shifted its first consumer AI hardware project to Foxconn for a 2026 launch. ^{31323334353637}
• Other notable developments include Moonshot AI raising $500 million, xAI partnering with the US military to deploy Grok models, and Meta successfully poaching researchers from OpenAI's Superintelligence Lab. ^3839404142

Sources

1. SoftBank has completed its $40 billion investment in OpenAI, source says reuters.com
2. As AI costs rise, OpenAI may soon start showing ads in ChatGPT conversations indianexpress.com
3. Inside OpenAI s $1.5 million compensation packages qz.com
4. OpenAI Shatters Startup Pay Records As AI Talent War Heats Up; Check The Average Pay For Employees timesnownews.com
5. Elon Musk’s xAI launches Grok Business, Enterprise tiers to take on OpenAI | Technology News - The Indian Express indianexpress.com
6. xAI introduces Grok Business and Grok Enterprise xAI
7. Elon Musk announces third xAI location in Mid-South actionnews5.com
8. Musk s xAI buys third building to expand AI compute power reuters.com
9. Elon Musk says xAI will have more AI compute than everyone else combined within five years — Macrohard-branded Colossus 2 data center a nod to Musk's AI project to challenge Microsoft tomshardware.com
10. OpenAI Asks Court to Toss xAI Trade Theft Suit Again theinformation.com
11. OpenAI Asks Court to Toss xAI Trade Theft Suit Again theinformation.com
12. Explained | IndiaMART’s case against OpenAI and why ChatGPT is under scrutiny financialexpress.com
13. Prominent Authors File Copyright Lawsuit Against Leading AI Developers Over Training Data theaiinsider.tech
14. xAI Sues California Attorney General Over AI Training Data Law news.bloomberglaw.com
15. Lawyer representing Elon Musk in OpenAI legal battle with Sam Altman is also a working clown yahoo.com
16. Meta buys another AI startup and promises to cut all ties with China knowtechie.com
17. Meta Acquires AI Chatbot Company Manus finance.yahoo.com
18. Meta to buy Chinese founded startup Manus to boost advanced AI reuters.com
19. Meta’s $2B bet on Manus and AI that works on its own finance.yahoo.com
20. Italy orders Meta to reopen WhatsApp to rival AI malaysianwireless.com
21. Italy Orders Meta To Suspend WhatsApp AI-Related Terms benzinga.com
22. Google DeepMind Unveils AlphaFold 3, Revolutionizing Protein Structure Prediction with Enhanced AI - Jkoder.com jkoder.com
23. DeepMind founder leads Google's AI strategy focused on world models digitimes.com
24. Google DeepMind Partners with UK on AI for Clean Energy and Fusion webpronews.com
25. NFPrompt Joins Alibaba Wan And Qwen To Drive AI-Led Web3 Innovation blockchainreporter.net
26. Major Updates to Qwen Model Series; New Speech-to-Speech Model Fun-Audio-Chat-8B alizila.com
27. Alibaba’s Qwen Code V0.5.0 Transforms Terminal Into A Full Dev Ecosystem dataconomy.com
28. New DeepSeek Research Shows Architectural Fix Can Boost Reasoning at Scale analyticsindiamag.com
29. DeepSeek kicks off the year with a bang! Liang Wenfeng has published another paper, strong as always news.qq.com
30. DeepSeek develops mHC AI architecture to boost model performance siliconangle.com
31. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Acknowledges Growing Concerns as AI Agents Exhibit Unexpected Autonomous Behaviors analyticsinsight.net
32. AI browsers may have an incurable vulnerability, warns OpenAI thedailystar.net
33. OpenAI says it s hiring a head safety executive to mitigate AI risks cbsnews.com
34. OpenAI offers $555,000 salary to protect humans from rogue AI telegraph.co.uk
35. 74 suicide warnings and 243 mentions of hanging: What ChatGPT said to a suicidal teen washingtonpost.com
36. OpenAI Shifts AI Hardware Manufacturing To Foxconn As Jony Ive-Designed Device Targets 2026 Launch: Report benzinga.com
37. Report: OpenAI plans to launch new audio model in the first quarter - SiliconANGLE siliconangle.com
38. China's Moonshot AI raises US$500 million in latest funding round: report scmp.com
39. Moonshot AI announces Kimi K2 tops impactful open models Moonshot AI
40. Elon Musk's AI Ecosystem, Grok, Will Now Power US Military trak.in
41. 12 executives, researchers, others who left OpenAI in 2025 — mostly to Meta Superintelligence Lab businessinsider.com
42. Widely Used Malicious Extensions Steal ChatGPT, DeepSeek Conversations securityboulevard.com