OpenAI in line to get funding boost

Read time: under 4 minutes

No one likes getting put on hold, but online search is now getting an upgrade that could get rid of that problem for good. And undeterred from this week’s DeepSeek saga, OpenAI is putting together what might be its biggest funding round to date.

Today’s Insights

• Today in AI: OpenAI x SoftBank and Gemini’s new features

• Tutorial: How to access Qwen 2.5

• Frontier: Open-source startups take on DeepSeek

• 5 new AI tools to boost your productivity

• News, memes, what’s trending on socials, and more

TODAY IN AI

1. OpenAI could soon land its biggest investor yet: Move over, Microsoft. Japanese investment giant SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest as much as $25B in the ChatGPT-maker. The pair are already going in together on Stargate, the largest AI infrastructure deal in US history. All told OpenAI’s next funding round could bring in $40B, valuing the startup at a whopping $340B.

That wasn’t OpenAI’s only major update this week: 

• After meeting with government officials in Washington, Sam Altman laid out plans to bring OpenAI’s models to up to 15,000 top scientists at US National Laboratories

• Researchers will be able to use o1 for everything from boosting nuclear safety to exploring physics fundamentals and treating diseases; in exchange, OpenAI can use Venado, a massive supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory

• One last tease: Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil says “We have a new model coming soon that is head and shoulders above anything that’s out there today”

2. Alphabet’s AI can now call businesses for you: Instead of waiting on hold for hours, you can now hand over scheduling duties to an AI. A new experimental Search Labs feature called “Ask for me” lets a voicebot call a local salon or auto repair shop on your behalf to see when there’s availability, based on the specific services you’re looking for.

• Alphabet also revealed that Gemini 2.0 Flash is rolling out as the default model for all users, delivering “stronger performance” than its predecessors

• Plus, Gemini can now instantly transform spreadsheets into charts, then analyze the data for you

PRESENTED BY ZYCUS

Take the 3-minute survey, win $20 (and help our community)

Superhuman readers: Your input is needed!

Participate in the Agentic AI in Procurement 2025 Benchmark Study and help shape the future of autonomous procurement solutions.

• First 100 participants receive $20

• Complimentary access to the full report (worth $495)

• Less than 3 minutes to complete

Take the survey, thank you in advance!

THE AI ACADEMY

How to access Alibaba’s new Qwen 2.5 AI model

• Open your web browser and go to Qwen Chat.

• Click on Sign in and log in using your email or Google account.

• Once logged in, look for the drop-down menu at the top. This lets you select from different Qwen 2.5 models.

• Select the version you want to use (Qwen 2.5 Plus, Max, or other variants).

• Start interacting! Just enter your prompt in the chatbox, and Qwen 2.5 will generate a response.

FROM THE FRONTIER

Two new frontier models take on DeepSeek

Looks like DeepSeek already has some open-source competition. First up, the Seattle-based non-profit Ai2 just unveiled Tülu 3 405B. It matches the performance of OpenAI’s GPT-4o while beating V3 — the model DeepSeek released just before R1.

The details:

• R1 was allegedly built in part by fine-tuning V3; so while R1 still has an edge when it comes to reasoning, Ai2 could theoretically borrow some of DeepSeek’s training methods to boost Tülu 3 beyond its current capabilities — and potentially come out on top

• Another perk: While DeepSeek keeps a lot of its data under wraps, Tülu is completely open, meaning researchers can see exactly how it was built and create their own spin-off models

Mistral brought something to the table, too: The Paris-based startup launched Mistral Small 3, a model so efficient it can allegedly run on a high-end MacBook. It performs about as well as Llama 3.3, but with just a third of the parameters.

Finally, a new lab called Oumi has emerged with ambitious plans to build the "world’s first unconditionally open-source AI platform.” It’s already brought on more than a dozen researchers from the likes of Stanford, Princeton, and MIT with the ultimate goal of breaking down silos in the industry.

PRESENTED BY SEAMLESS.AI

Stop cold calling. Use this B2B “search engine” instead

With Seamless.AI, you can “search” for your ideal buyer and instantly get a list of profiles with high-buying intent, complete with emails, phone numbers, and more. 

Zero in on decision-makers from over 1.3 billion business contacts: Seamless.AI has the most complete and up-to-date databases available, so you can generate leads quickly and easily. 

Sign up for no cost or book a demo. 

AI & TECH NEWS

Everything else you need to know today

🥡 Bot Appetit: Autonomous food delivery robots could soon roam US college campuses, starting with 100 robots at Ohio State University, thanks to a new partnership between Grubhub and autonomous tech startup Avros.

🛠️ Supply Smarts: Cloud giant Oracle released an agent that can automate supply chain tasks, like alerting managers when a machine needs to be repaired and recommending the specific parts needed to fix it.

🦅 Civic Duty: Perplexity announced it’s offering a free year of Perplexity Pro to public employees with a .gov email address, giving them access to the platform’s advanced search capabilities and frontier models.

🪙 Bitcoin Bonus: Tesla’s income last quarter got a boost from an unexpected source: Bitcoin. The Elon Musk-led startup brought in $600M thanks to the investment.

🏈 First-Down Detective: The NFL is experimenting with an AI tool that uses six cameras to detect whether the ball has passed the first-down line, helping referees make more accurate calls.

💰 Funding: Motif, which builds AI-powered tools for architects and designers, raised $46M in a Series A led by CapitalG, a VC owned by Alphabet. And Indian IT company SuperOps raised $25M in a Series C as it looks to expand into AI, with a new valuation of $200M.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

✅ PaperPilot: Simplify complex research papers with AI tools like smart notes, summarization, and podcasts.

✅ Jolt AI: An AI code generator for 100k to multi-million line codebases that automatically identifies context files, handles complex changes, and matches your code style.

✅ Bardeen*: AI Copilot for GTM teams, helping you work smarter, close faster, and win more deals. This powerful browser extension connects your tools and automates your busiest workflows—giving you more time to focus on what matters.

✅ QuillAI: An AI-powered tool that generates SEO-optimized articles and trending keywords, making it easy to drive organic traffic and grow visibility.

✅ Recap: Transform any content into thought-provoking questions crafted from multiple expert perspectives, then enhance engagement with mind maps, timelines, flowcharts, and tables.

^{* indicates a promoted tool, if any}

PROMPT OF THE DAY

Unexpected Superhero

Prompt: Invent a superhero version of me. What are my powers and weaknesses?

_{Source: imaginewithrashid}

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending on socials today

💡 Your Next Startup: Y Combinator has released its list of requests for startups. Includes everything from secure AI app stores to browser automation.

😂 Irony Pro Max: Mark Zuckerberg is apparently frustrated that his conversations are being leaked, according to an allegedly leaked report.

🧑‍💻 Coder’s Delight: Deepseek models are now available in Cursor and hosted on US servers. Cursor does clarify that Claude Sonnet still appears to perform better.

💼 Corporate Comedy: Deutsche Bank, Europe’s second-largest bank, has come up with an unorthodox way to teach its clients about AI trends: A meme-filled slide deck. Introducing: 25 Themes in 25 Memes.

📚 Fact or Fiction: The non-profit Authors Guild is now handing out “certificates” for books that were created by humans to help differentiate them from AI-generated ones — sparking a debate on Reddit.

Acquire new customers and drive revenue by partnering with us

Superhuman is the world’s biggest AI newsletter for businesses and professionals with 1M+ readers and 2M+ followers on socials working at the world’s leading startups and enterprises. Companies like Amazon, Hubspot, and Salesforce feature their products in Superhuman. You can learn more about partnering with us here.

Your opinion matters!

Got more feedback or just want to get in touch? Reply to this email and we’ll get back to you.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time!

Zain & the Superhuman AI team