OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Alongside Microsoft $1 Billion Investment

The artificial intelligence sector continues its rapid evolution, marked by both intense competition and significant investment. Recently, an independent research group's test of autonomous cryptocurrency trading saw Alibaba's Chinese AI model, Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen3-Max), achieve a notable 22% profit. In stark contrast, OpenAI's GPT-5, a US model, experienced a substantial 62% loss in the same experiment. Alibaba's Qwen3-Max also demonstrated its prowess by matching OpenAI's GPT-5 Pro in global mathematics competitions, achieving 100% accuracy in contests like AIME 2025, contributing to a 94% year-to-date rise in Alibaba stock. This competitive landscape underscores the diverse approaches and capabilities emerging in AI development. The journey of OpenAI itself highlights the high-stakes nature of AI investment. In 2019, Bill Gates initially expressed skepticism to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the company's foundational US$1 billion investment in OpenAI, believing the funds would be 'burned' due to OpenAI's non-profit status and uncertain potential. However, Nadella proceeded, and the partnership has since flourished, growing to over US$13 billion, with Microsoft acquiring a 27% stake. OpenAI, in turn, committed to purchasing US$250 billion in Azure services. The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 significantly elevated OpenAI's profile, leading Bill Gates to acknowledge AI's swift progress. Beyond these major players, AI is permeating various industries. In finance, the investment management sector is rapidly adopting AI tools to automate labor-intensive processes, enhance decision-making, and improve compliance, from forecasting and quantitative analysis to due diligence and administrative tasks. While Wall Street anticipates increased bonuses this year, a report from Johnson Associates warns that AI will likely reshape the workforce, leading to fewer but more highly valued employees. For creative professionals, Freepik launched 'Spaces,' a new offering designed to foster collaborative AI workflows, allowing teams to share and reuse design processes. In disaster relief, researchers at Johns Hopkins University are developing AI-powered robot dogs with brain-inspired navigation to assist human rescuers in dangerous environments. Cybersecurity leader Fortinet introduced its Secure AI Data Center solution, featuring the high-performance FortiGate 3800G firewall, to protect the entire AI stack, including models, data, and infrastructure, against threats like prompt injection and data leakage. Thomson Reuters also unveiled new agentic AI solutions, such as ONESOURCE+ and CoCounsel, to help professionals in tax, audit, legal, and compliance automate complex, multi-step tasks, significantly reducing preparation times. As AI's influence expands, the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business is addressing the growing demand for AI skills by offering a new AI concentration for its MBA students. Crucially, experts emphasize the urgent need for ethical boundaries to guide AI's growth, ensuring transparency, accountability, and fairness to prevent issues like social bias, discrimination, misinformation, and privacy loss, particularly concerning autonomous weapons and data-driven surveillance.

Key Takeaways

• Alibaba's Qwen3-Max achieved a 22% profit in an autonomous cryptocurrency trading test and 100% accuracy in global mathematics competitions, while OpenAI's GPT-5 incurred a 62% loss in the same crypto test.
• Bill Gates initially doubted Microsoft's 2019 US$1 billion investment in OpenAI, but the partnership expanded to over US$13 billion, with OpenAI committing to US$250 billion in Azure services.
• The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 significantly raised OpenAI's profile and changed perceptions of AI's potential.
• AI is transforming the investment management industry by automating processes, enhancing decision-making, and improving compliance across various functions.
• Wall Street expects increased bonuses this year, but a report warns AI will likely lead to fewer, more highly valued employees in the financial sector.
• Freepik launched 'Spaces' to facilitate collaborative AI workflows for creative teams, focusing on orchestrating various available AI models.
• Johns Hopkins University is developing AI-powered robot dogs for disaster zones, using brain-inspired navigation and energy-efficient AI to support human rescuers.
• Fortinet introduced its Secure AI Data Center solution, including the FortiGate 3800G firewall, to protect AI infrastructures and large language models against cyber threats.
• Thomson Reuters launched agentic AI solutions like ONESOURCE+ and CoCounsel to automate complex, multi-step tasks for tax, audit, and legal professionals.
• Ethical boundaries are crucial for AI growth to prevent issues such as social bias, discrimination, misinformation, and privacy loss, ensuring responsible development and deployment.

Chinese AI Wins Crypto Trading Test, US Rivals Lose

An independent research group tested AI models in autonomous cryptocurrency trading. Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen, a Chinese AI model, made a remarkable 22% profit. In contrast, OpenAI's GPT-5, a US model, suffered a significant 62% loss in the same experiment. This test aimed to assess the AI's ability to make independent trading decisions and manage risk. Experts suggest the differing results may come from how the AI models were trained and designed. This highlights the rapidly changing landscape of AI in finance.

Alibaba AI Excels in Crypto Trading and Math Challenges

Alibaba's flagship AI model, Qwen3-Max, recently outperformed rivals in a crypto trading challenge, turning a $10,000 investment into a 22.32% gain in two weeks. OpenAI's GPT-5, one of the US models, plunged 62.66% in the same Alpha Arena challenge. Alibaba also unveiled Qwen3-Max-Thinking, a new AI reasoning model that matched OpenAI's GPT-5 Pro in global mathematics competitions, achieving 100% accuracy in contests like AIME 2025. Additionally, Alibaba's mapping unit, Amap, is expanding globally to support Chinese automakers entering foreign markets. Alibaba stock is up 94% year-to-date due to its cloud unit and AI integration.

Freepik Spaces Helps Creative Teams Collaborate with AI

Freepik launched a new offering called Spaces, designed to make AI a team sport for creators. CEO Joaquin Cuenca Abela wants creative teams to share their entire design process, not just the final results. Spaces provides a shared workflow board where users can connect image and video outputs using a node-style interface. This allows for quick changes, reusing saved workflows with different inputs, and increases transparency. Freepik focuses on orchestrating various available AI models rather than building its own. The company also plans an Enterprise version that supports custom models.

Ethical Rules Are Crucial for Artificial Intelligence Growth

Artificial intelligence promises great efficiency and innovation, but it urgently needs ethical boundaries to guide its growth. Without proper oversight, AI can amplify social bias, discriminate in hiring, and spread misinformation. In military contexts, autonomous weapons raise serious concerns about human supervision and moral responsibility. AI also thrives on data, which can lead to surveillance and a loss of privacy and autonomy. Ethical boundaries are essential to ensure transparency, accountability, and fairness, making sure AI remains a tool of service and not a weapon of dominance.

Robot Dogs Use AI to Save Lives in Disaster Zones

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are developing four-legged robot dogs with advanced AI to help in disaster zones. Led by Tinoosh Mohsenin, these robots use brain-inspired navigation and energy-efficient AI to survive longer and search farther in dangerous areas. Their goal is to protect and support human rescuers by entering unstable rubble or flooded corridors. When communication networks fail, the robots can still make decisions locally and conserve battery power for extended searches. This technology helps multiply the reach of rescue teams, making critical decisions even when cut off from the outside world.

Bill Gates Initially Doubted Microsoft's OpenAI Investment

In 2019, Bill Gates warned Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the company's initial US$1 billion investment in OpenAI. Gates believed the money would be "burned" because OpenAI was a non-profit with uncertain potential at the time. However, Nadella had a high risk tolerance and decided to proceed with the investment. This partnership has since grown to over US$13 billion, with Microsoft acquiring a 27% stake and OpenAI agreeing to purchase US$250 billion in Azure services. The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 significantly changed OpenAI's profile, and Bill Gates now recognizes the rapid progress of AI.

Michigan Business School Adds AI Focus for MBA Students

The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business will now offer a new artificial intelligence concentration for its full-time MBA students. This program aims to equip students with a well-rounded AI skill set, which companies forecast is becoming as important as strategic thinking for business leaders. Courses will cover AI Fundamentals, AI and Business Models, and AI and Society, allowing students to take classes from various university schools. This new concentration comes as the university also plans to build a data center in Ypsilanti Township, though these plans have raised environmental and community concerns. Other top business schools have also added similar AI programs.

Fortinet Unveils Secure Solution for AI Data Centers

Fortinet, a global cybersecurity leader, launched its Secure AI Data Center solution, an end-to-end framework to protect AI infrastructures. This solution secures the full AI stack, including models, data, and underlying infrastructure. As part of this, Fortinet introduced the FortiGate 3800G, a high-performance data center firewall designed for AI workloads with hyperscale throughput and energy efficiency. The Secure AI Data Center solution offers features like ASIC-accelerated segmentation, scalable protection for GPU clusters, and security for large language models against prompt injection and data leakage. It also includes quantum-safe security and simplifies operations through the Fortinet Security Fabric.

Wall Street Bonuses Rise, But AI May Cut Future Jobs

Wall Street is expecting a significant increase in bonuses this year, with payouts for traders, advisors, and wealth managers set to surge. A report from Johnson Associates predicts a broad recovery across the financial industry. However, the report also warns that artificial intelligence will likely reshape the workforce, leading to fewer but more highly valued employees. While Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon believes AI could lead to more jobs, many expect automation to reduce team sizes. Investment banking advisory bonuses are expected to rise 10-15%, and wealth management may be more protected from AI job cuts due to a growing number of millionaires.

AI Transforms Asset Management from Data to Decisions

The investment management industry is rapidly adopting AI tools to automate labor-intensive processes, enhance decision-making, and improve compliance. AI helps managers process large datasets for forecasting, quantitative analysis, and portfolio construction. Natural language processing mines financial news for market signals, while generative AI summarizes research and drafts investment theses. For due diligence, AI quickly extracts and aggregates data, forecasts results, and assesses creditworthiness. In administration, AI automates recordkeeping, reporting, and reconciliation, leading to faster and more accurate net asset value calculations. Compliance teams use AI to monitor trading and communications for suspicious activity and policy violations.

Thomson Reuters Launches New AI Tools for Professionals

Thomson Reuters introduced new agentic AI solutions designed to help professionals in tax, audit, legal, and compliance delegate complex, multi-step tasks. David Wong, Chief Product Officer, stated that Thomson Reuters has the necessary foundation for professional-grade agentic AI. The new offerings include ONESOURCE+, an AI-powered compliance network with tools like ONESOURCE Sales and Use Tax AI, which automates tax filing and reduces preparation time by up to 60%. CoCounsel Tax, Audit and Accounting now features "Ready to Review" for automated 1040 tax return preparation and "CoCounsel Document Analysis" for audit workflows. Additionally, CoCounsel Legal offers bulk legal document review for up to 10,000 documents.

Sources

• Chinese AI Models Profit, U.S. Rivals Lose 60% in Crypto Trading Test
• What's Going On With Alibaba Stock Wednesday? - Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA)
• Freepik’s Spaces Makes AI A Team Sport For Creators
• Why artificial intelligence needs ethical boundaries
• The dogged pursuit of lifesaving AI
• What Bill Gates Thinks About Microsoft & OpenAI’s Alliance
• University of Michigan business school adds AI concentration amid data center plans
• Fortinet Launches Secure AI Data Center Solution to Protect Models, Data, and Infrastructure at Scale
• Wall Street is in for a sweet payday this year, but AI could mean leaner teams ahead
• From Data to Decisions: Harnessing AI in Asset Management
• Thomson Reuters Advances AI Market Leadership with New Agentic AI Solutions