Altman vs. Musk, DeepMind on DeepSeek, and robotaxis: AI news

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Image for article titled Altman vs. Musk, DeepMind on DeepSeek, and the robotaxi push: AI news roundup — Graphic: Images: Apptronik, Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu, Justin Sullivan, Mario Tama

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman responded to Elon Musk’s offer to buy the AI startup this week by saying it’s not for sale.

Read about this and more in this week’s AI news roundup.

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A Google-backed startup raised $350 million to create a future where humans and robots are ‘true partners’

Apptronik’s five-foot-eight, 160-pound Apollo robots have been used to perform low-skilled work for Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics.

Apptronik said Thursday that it had closed its Series A fundraise at roughly $350 million, with plans to use the funding to scale production of its artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots.

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All the ways Sam Altman and Elon Musk traded insults in just 24 hours

Photo illustration of Sam Altman (left), OpenAI’s logo, and Elon Musk.

Illustration: Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu (Getty Images)

Sam Altman and Elon Musk are trading barbs about OpenAI again — this time after Musk’s reported offer to buy the artificial intelligence startup’s assets for $97.4 billion.

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Sam Altman to Elon Musk: ‘OpenAI is not for sale’

Sam Altman speaking with his hands up — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI DevDay on November 6, 2023 in San Francisco, California.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has responded to Elon Musk’s offer to buy the artificial intelligence startup’s assets by saying it’s not for sale.

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The next big robotaxi push is almost here

A Waymo robotaxi operates without a driver in Los Angeles, CA.

Most Americans aren’t sold on driverless cars or robotaxis, but they’re coming anyways; Tesla (TSLA), Uber (UBER), and Lyft (LYFT) are betting on it.

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OpenAI may be trying to wean itself off Nvidia

"Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a talk session with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at an event titled "Transforming Business through AI" in Tokyo, Japan, on February 03, 2025. SoftBank and OpenAI announced that they have agreed a partnership to set up a joint venture for artificial intelligence services in Japan." (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images) — Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks at an event in Tokyo on February 03, 2025.

Like the broader artificial intelligence sector, OpenAI relies on Nvidia’s (NVDA) costly training chips to build tools like ChatGPT, but that could change — if OpenAI’s in-house chip design somehow pans out.

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A top Google AI exec says there’s nothing new about DeepSeek

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis during a Bloomberg Television interview on May 7, 2024 in London, U.K.

Photo: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg (Getty Images)

Despite rattling global tech stocks with competitive artificial intelligence models, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek didn’t introduce anything new, a Google (GOOGL) executive said.

Altman vs. Musk, DeepMind on DeepSeek, and the robotaxi push: AI news roundup

Plus, Apptronik closed its Series A funding round for scaling AI-powered humanoids