This week’s AI landscape shows the market maturing in multiple directions at once, from consumer scale and enterprise adoption to capital formation and policy pressure. On the industry side, Google’s Gemini crossed 750 million monthly users following the Gemini 3 launch, Amazon pushed Alexa+ to all U.S. Prime members and Anthropic used the Super Bowl stage to draw a clear line around ad-free AI. At the same time, Intel’s move toward GPUs and Nvidia’s reaffirmed ties to OpenAI highlight how competition is intensifying across the compute stack.
Beneath the headlines, deeper structural shifts are taking shape. A guest post this week argues that custom AI models fail without tight integration into customer journey data, while regulators and industry groups warn that delayed action in robotics could mirror past drone-policy missteps. Capital continues to pour in, spanning research-first labs, AI-native infrastructure, autonomous construction, inference silicon, voice and multimodal agents and even space-based weather intelligence.
Industry & Enterprise
Guest Post: Custom AI Models Need Customer Journey Data to Deliver True Personalization
Guest contributor Chirag Deshpande argues that while custom generative AI models can accelerate content creation and customer engagement, they fall short without deep integration with customer journey data. He contends that connecting AI systems to high-quality, well-governed analytics is essential to delivering true personalization, improving ROI, and turning AI investments into measurable business outcomes. (AI Insider)
Google’s Gemini AI Surpasses 750M Monthly Users Following Gemini 3 Launch
Google said its AI chatbot Gemini surpassed 750 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 650 million the prior quarter, placing it ahead of Meta AI and closer to ChatGPT as consumer adoption accelerated. The growth followed the launch of Gemini 3 and a lower-priced Google AI Plus subscription, alongside strong results at Alphabet, which topped $400 billion in annual revenue as AI demand expanded across its products and infrastructure. (AI Insider)
Anthropic Uses Super Bowl Campaign to Position Claude as Ad-Free AI Alternative
Anthropic aired Super Bowl commercials using satire to emphasize that its AI assistant, Claude, will not include advertising, contrasting its approach with rivals that are introducing ads into chatbots. The campaign was widely seen as a response to OpenAI’s plans for ads in ChatGPT’s free tier, highlighting growing competition among leading AI labs as consumer adoption rises and business models begin to diverge. (AI Insider)
Amazon Rolls Out Alexa+ Generative AI Assistant to All U.S. Prime Members
Amazon said it has rolled out Alexa+ broadly across the U.S., making the generative AI–powered assistant free for Prime members while offering limited access or a separate subscription for non-Prime users. The model-agnostic assistant runs on a mix of Amazon and third-party AI systems, with the company reporting higher engagement and tens of millions of users following a year-long beta. (AI Insider)
Intel Signals Entry Into AI GPU Market in Strategic Shift
Intel said it plans to begin producing graphics processing units, signaling a push beyond its traditional CPU business into a market dominated by Nvidia, with applications spanning gaming and AI model training. According to Reuters, the early-stage effort will be led within Intel’s data center group and shaped by customer demand as the company seeks to establish a foothold in AI-focused compute. (AI Insider)
NVIDIA Reaffirms Commitment to OpenAI Investment Amid Reports of Partnership Tensions
Nvidia pushed back on reports of growing friction with OpenAI, with CEO Jensen Huang calling suggestions of a pullback unfounded following a Wall Street Journal report that the chipmaker was reassessing its planned investment. Speaking in Taipei, Huang said Nvidia intends to participate in OpenAI’s upcoming funding round, while OpenAI confirmed discussions remain active as Amazon, Microsoft, and SoftBank also explore participation. (AI Insider)
Research & Innovation
Flapping Airplanes Launches Research-First AI Lab With $180M Seed Round
Flapping Airplanes launched publicly with $180 million in seed funding from Google Ventures, Sequoia, and Index to pursue a research-first AI strategy focused on fundamental breakthroughs rather than brute-force scaling. The lab aims to develop large models that require far less data and compute, positioning itself as a counterpoint to infrastructure-heavy approaches dominating the current AI landscape. (AI Insider)
Policy & Governance
U.S. Robotics at Strategic Inflection Point, AUVSI-Backed Partnership for Robotics Competitiveness White Paper Warns
A new white paper from AUVSI’s Partnership for Robotics Competitiveness warns the U.S. is approaching a drone-era inflection point in robotics and physical AI, where delayed and fragmented policy could allow Chinese state-backed firms to dominate supply chains and weaken domestic manufacturing. The paper argues robotics is becoming foundational infrastructure across multiple sectors and calls for early, coordinated action – centered on a National Robotics Strategy, stronger trade and procurement enforcement, and investment in supply chains and workforce development — before market dominance becomes difficult to reverse. (AI Insider)
RevealDx Receives FDA Clearance for AI Powered Lung Nodule Risk Assessment
RevealDx said it received FDA clearance for RevealAI-Lung following its November 2025 MDR certification, enabling U.S. clinical deployment and reimbursement of its lung nodule characterization software. The PACS-integrated tool generates a Malignancy Similarity Index validated on more than 1,500 patients, interoperates with Riverain and Fuji systems, is distributed by Sirona in the U.S., and is reimbursable under CPT codes 0721T and 0722T with a Medicare OPPS payment rate of $650. (AI Insider)
Startups & Capital
Andreessen Horowitz Raises $15B, Allocates $1.7B to AI Infrastructure Strategy
Andreessen Horowitz said it has closed a new $15 billion fundraising effort, with $1.7 billion earmarked for its infrastructure team, which backs AI companies such as OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Ideogram, Cursor, Fal, and Black Forest Labs. The group’s strategy, led by general partner Jennifer Li, focuses on AI-native companies facing rising demand for compute, search infrastructure, and technical talent, as discussed publicly amid broader debate over where capital is concentrating in the AI stack. (AI Insider)
SpaceX Acquires xAI to Form $1.25T AI and Space Infrastructure Company
SpaceX has acquired xAI in a deal valuing the combined company at about $1.25 trillion, consolidating Elon Musk’s space and AI businesses into what Bloomberg described as the world’s most valuable private company. Musk said the strategy centers on space-based data centers to power next-generation AI, pairing SpaceX’s launch and satellite assets with xAI’s Grok models as competition with OpenAI and Google intensifies. (AI Insider)
Tomorrow.io Announces $175M Financing to Deploy DeepSky, The World’s First AI-Native Weather Satellite Constellation
Tomorrow.io said it has raised $175 million to deploy DeepSky, which it describes as the world’s first AI-native weather satellite constellation, aimed at improving forecasting accuracy and resilience for governments and enterprises. The financing supports the launch of space-based sensing infrastructure designed to feed proprietary AI models with real-time atmospheric data, as demand grows for more precise weather intelligence tied to climate risk, defense, and critical infrastructure planning. (AI Insider)
ElevenLabs Closes $500M at $11B Valuation to Expand Voice AI Into Multimodal Agents
ElevenLabs said it raised $500 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the AI audio company at $11 billion and more than tripling its valuation since January 2025. The company said the capital will fund AI research, product development, and global expansion while extending its platform beyond voice into multimodal agents and video-enabled AI systems. (AI Insider)
Bedrock Robotics Raises $270M in Series B Funding to Accelerate the Future of Autonomous Construction
Bedrock Robotics raised $270 million in a Series B round, bringing total funding to more than $350 million as it scales autonomous construction systems from single machines to coordinated fleets. The financing backs expanded field deployments of its retrofit autonomy platform and supports plans to target fully operator-less excavator operations in 2026 amid labor shortages and project backlogs. (AI Insider)
Positron AI Raises $230M Series B at Over $1B Valuation to Scale Energy-Efficient AI Inference
Positron AI raised an oversubscribed $230 million Series B at a valuation above $1 billion to scale energy-efficient, memory-first AI inference systems aimed at power-constrained workloads. The company said its Atlas systems and next-generation Asimov silicon deliver higher tokens-per-watt and memory efficiency than forthcoming Nvidia GPUs, with early traction including Jump Trading as both a customer and lead investor. (AI Insider)
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