AI Leaders Weekly Briefing

January 23, 2026

OpenAI hit $20B ARR and launched ads, while Musk seeks $130B in lawsuits against them. Meta cuts metaverse jobs to focus on AI and compute infrastructure, and more.

• OpenAI's annualized revenue reportedly crossed $20 billion, with its API business alone generating over $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, prompting new monetization efforts including the rollout of ads in ChatGPT and a new $8 monthly subscription tier. ^12345678
• OpenAI detailed massive compute efforts, including scaling PostgreSQL for 800 million ChatGPT users and announcing partnerships with Cerebras for a $10 billion AI chip buildout, while also confirming its debut AI hardware device is on track for a 2026 reveal. ^910111213
• Elon Musk escalated his legal battles against OpenAI and Microsoft, seeking over $130 billion in damages, while his company xAI faced intense regulatory scrutiny from California over non-consensual deepfake pornography generated by Grok. ^{14151617181920212223}
• Anthropic released a new "constitution" for its Claude model detailing values and guidelines, simultaneously projecting lower gross profit margins for 2025 despite its revenue skyrocketing; the company also appointed a new trustee to its Long-Term Benefit Trust. ^2425262728
• Meta continued its pivot from the metaverse to AI, laying off hundreds of employees in California offices, announcing a $2 billion acquisition of AI agent startup Manus, and beginning to build a nuclear supply chain to power its massive AI infrastructure needs. ^293031323334
• European AI leaders showed strength as French firm Mistral predicted €1 billion in revenue for 2026, and ElevenLabs entered the AI music race amid talks of an $11 billion valuation. ³⁵³⁶³⁷
• Other developments included DeepMind introducing the D4RT model for 4D scene reconstruction, and Runway publishing research showing over 90% of participants failed to reliably detect its Gen-4.5 AI videos from real ones. ³⁸³⁹⁴⁰

Sources

1. OpenAI is making more than $1 billion a month from something that has nothing to do with ChatGPT Yahoo Finance
2. OpenAI Targets Growth with $8 ChatGPT Plan, Ad-Supported Tiers & 2026 Revenue Push Geeky Gadgets
3. OpenAI steps into advertising as chatbot trials begin Proactive Investors
4. OpenAI Triples Computing Power and Revenue heise online
5. OpenAI CFO says annualized revenue crosses $20 billion in 2025 Reuters
6. OpenAI Lines Up Advertisers, Reveals Key Details Ahead of Ads Launch The Information
7. OpenAI Brings Ads To ChatGPT As Costs Mount Forbes
8. OpenAI announces business model scaling with intelligence value OpenAI
9. OpenAI confirms its debut hardware device is on track for 2026 reveal Wareable
10. OpenAI scales PostgreSQL for 800 million ChatGPT users OpenAI
11. OpenAI CFO Responds to Google Criticism, Touts Infrastructure Progress at Davos The Information
12. OpenAI: First hardware product "on track" heise online
13. OpenAI taps Cerebras for US$10 billion AI chip buildout DIGITIMES
14. Judge denies Musk's bid to force OpenAI to hand over source code in Apple AI lawsuit 9to5Mac
15. Asking Grok to delete fake nudes may force victims to sue in Musk's chosen court Ars Technica
16. Mother of Elon Musk's son sued xAI for creating 'perverted images' of her. It sued back Austin American-Statesman
17. Elon Musk seeks over $130 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft amid claims of wrongful gains from his support: He … lent his reputation Yahoo Finance
18. California s AG investigates Musk s xAI over non-consensual deepfake pornography CBS 8 San Diego
19. Can OpenAI Survive Elon Musk? Yahoo Finance
20. Regulatory Pressure Mounts on xAI as Musk Escalates Legal Battle With OpenAI and Microsoft The AI Insider
21. Elon Musk accused of making up math to squeeze $134B from OpenAI, Microsoft Ars Technica
22. Elon Musk vs OpenAI, Microsoft: Why xAI Founder seeks $134B in ‘wrongful gains’ The News International
23. California demands Musk s xAI stop producing sexual deepfake content Nikkei Asia
24. Anthropic Lowers Gross Margin Projection as Revenue Skyrockets The Information
25. Anthropic publishes Claude's new constitution Anthropic
26. Anthropic Releases A New “Constitution” For Claude Forbes
27. Anthropic appoints Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar to Long-Term Benefit Trust Anthropic
28. Sequoia to Join Funding Round for AI Startup Anthropic, FT Says Bloomberg
29. Meta cuts hundreds of California jobs in pivot from metaverse to AI USA TODAY
30. Meta’s $2 billion Manus deal pushes away some of startup’s customers, who are sad that this has happened’ CNBC
31. Exclusive: Meta's new AI team delivered first key models internally this month, CTO says | Reuters Reuters
32. A Look At Meta Platforms (META) Valuation As It Pivots From Metaverse To AI Smart Glasses Yahoo Finance
33. Manus AI Review: The $2B AI Agent Meta Just Acquired Unite.AI
34. Meta Builds a Nuclear Supply Chain for the AI Era Data Center Frontier
35. French AI firm Mistral predicts revenue of €1 billion in 2026 Le Monde
36. ElevenLabs Launches AI Music Platform, Enters Race With Suno And Udio Forbes
37. AI voice start-up ElevenLabs in funding talks at $11bn valuation Financial Times
38. DeepMind introduces D4RT model DeepMind
39. Runway publishes research on human detection of Gen-4.5 AI videos Runway
40. Runway introduces Image to Video for Gen-4.5 Runway