AI-Proof - Weekly AI Pulse
A concise summary of the week’s most important AI developments
Executive Summary
This week’s dominant theme is the accelerating integration of AI across industries, driven by rapid advances in AI hardware and intensifying geopolitical and regulatory pressure.
Leading semiconductor players such as AMD and Nvidia are pushing next-generation chips that promise major performance gains, reinforcing a simple reality: AI advantage is increasingly tied to access to compute, not just clever prompts.
Meanwhile, AI hardware startups in China, South Korea and beyond are scaling fast, highlighting global competition to build “compute sovereignty” and reduce dependence on foreign supply chains.
At the same time, regulators are escalating scrutiny of generative AI safety and content moderation following controversial outputs from major platforms, while internal leadership shifts at large tech firms reveal strategic uncertainty about where AI is heading next.
Why this matters to businesses
AI is moving from “interesting software” to a board-level issue because it will impact costs, risk and competitiveness in 2026:
Cost and capability: Faster chips and tighter supply will shape what AI you can run, where you can run it, and how much it costs. We’ve already seen this in 2025 with OpenAI Sora 2 roll-out, yet to be launched globally rumoured online to be linked to infrastructure capacity.
Vendor and supply-chain exposure: Geopolitics and export controls can directly affect availability, pricing and roadmaps.
Regulatory and reputational risk: Content, privacy and safety expectations are hardening quickly; failure modes are becoming more expensive. This week Grok, came under fire by governments over what images users could create.
Competitive pressure: As AI becomes embedded in products and operations, “wait and see” turns into margin erosion and slower execution.
What to do next
If you are not already doing so, treat AI as an operating capability: pick 2–3 high-value use cases, confirm data readiness, set governance for risk and compliance, and monitor your dependency on a small number of model and hardware providers.
This Week’s Policy & Regulation Brief
What’s next for AI in 2026
The MIT Technology Review forecasts AI trends including China’s growing dominance in open-weight LLMs, the rise of agentic AI in commerce, and legal battles shaping AI governance. This paints a complex geopolitical and regulatory landscape that will define AI’s global trajectory.
Meta’s AI chief scientist leaves with parting shots
Yann LeCun’s departure from Meta exposes deep strategic conflicts within the company regarding AI superintelligence approaches, signaling potential shifts in how tech giants prioritise and develop foundational AI tech going forward.
Chinese AI chip startup Biren surges in Hong Kong IPO
Biren’s IPO success and massive share price jump reflect strong domestic investor appetite for AI semiconductor firms in China, underscoring a drive for self-reliant AI hardware amid U.S. export controls.
Baidu’s AI chip unit Kunlunxin confidentially files for Hong Kong IPO
Kunlunxin’s planned spin-off highlights China’s strategic push to cultivate competitive AI chipmakers, threatening to reshape the global AI hardware ecosystem through domestic innovation and investment.
Samsung’s Q4 operating profit set to soar on AI chip shortage
A severe memory chip shortage, driven by booming AI data centre demand, is poised to lift Samsung’s profitability by 160% year-over-year, spotlighting AI’s disruptive impact on semiconductor supply chains and market dynamics.
Regulatory probes into X’s Grok AI raise safety concerns
Europe, India, Malaysia, and the UK are investigating the Grok chatbot for generating harmful explicit content, illustrating intensified regulatory pressure on generative AI platforms for responsible content management and legal compliance.
Nokia reinvents itself with AI infrastructure focus
Nokia’s pivot to cloud services, data centres, optical networks, and a partnership with Nvidia demonstrates the transformation of legacy telco infrastructure providers into critical AI ecosystem enablers.
Model & Platform Updates
Amazon Brings Alexa+ AI Assistant to the Web with Alexa.com
Amazon has launched a web version of its generative-AI assistant, Alexa+, accessible via Alexa.com for early-access customers, expanding beyond voice and mobile platforms. The browser-based AI delivers conversational answers, task completion, and integrations with shopping, calendars and smart home controls, positioning Amazon to compete with web-based bots like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Samsung deploys Gemini AI features on 400M devices, targets 800M in 2026
Samsung’s rapid rollout of AI-powered Galaxy features driven by Google’s Gemini models showcases large-scale consumer device AI adoption and investor confidence reflected in a 5% stock boost. This signals another win for Gemini in its rivalry with ChatGPT.
ChatGPT has 900 million users. Turning them into revenue is the hard part.
ChatGPT’s user base is vast and growing, with roughly 900 million weekly users worldwide, but monetisation remains heavily skewed towards a small, high value segment. Only around five percent of users pay for a subscription, while the largest growth markets such as India and Brazil generate significantly lower revenue per user than North America.
OpenAI to Buy Pinterest?
Speculation that OpenAI may acquire Pinterest highlights the value of Pinterest’s visual discovery, high-intent user data, and advertising infrastructure for ChatGPT’s commerce ambitions. An acquisition could accelerate AI-powered shopping and visual search, but it’s still unconfirmed and would face regulatory and integration challenges.
AMD unveils AI-focused PC processors for mainstream and gaming use
AMD’s AI-enabled Ryzen AI Max+ and AI 400-Series chips integrate powerful GPUs with dedicated AI acceleration, driving affordable, high-performance on-device AI for laptops and PCs in 2026.
Nvidia announces Alpamayo AI model family and Mercedes-Benz collaboration
Nvidia’s new open AI suite for autonomous vehicles and a full-stack AV partnership with Mercedes-Benz signals deeper AI integration in next-gen transportation platforms and sets a new benchmark for AI-powered vehicle intelligence.
Kodiak AI partners with Bosch to retrofit semi-trucks with autonomous driving tech
The collaboration to create scalable hardware and software stacks reflects autonomous vehicle tech maturing for commercial trucking and accelerating the industry’s shift toward automation.
Quick Hits
Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax prices its Hong Kong IPO at the top of range - Strong investor demand prompts MiniMax to close the order book early ahead of a high-profile AI-focused public listing.
FuriosaAI ramps mass production of ‘RNGD’ AI chip - South Korean startup moves to compete aggressively in the global AI semiconductor race after rejecting Meta’s acquisition offer.
Nvidia awaiting export approvals to begin H200 chip sales in China- Geopolitical controls stall delivery despite robust market demand, illustrating global tensions impacting AI hardware distribution.