1. New York Becomes First State to Halt New Data Center Construction

New York State. Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order pausing approvals for new large data centers rated at 50 megawatts or larger, pending an environmental review expected to take about a year. The order cites concerns over strain on the electrical grid, water supplies, and utility bills, and could affect more than a dozen planned projects. It makes New York the first US state to impose such a moratorium as public sentiment sours on AI infrastructure buildouts. Source

2. DeepSeek Seeks Fresh Capital at ~$71B Valuation Weeks After $7B Round

DeepSeek. The Chinese AI lab is raising new funding at a roughly $71 billion pre-money valuation, just weeks after closing a $7 billion round at a $52 billion valuation in late May. Reported backers include founder Liang Wenfeng, CATL, Tencent, JD.com, NetEase, and a state-backed AI fund. The company says it needs the capital to build its own data centers, buy AI chips, and sustain aggressive discount pricing on its V4 models. Source

3. Reflection Signs $1B Compute Deal With Nebius

Reflection AI. The open-model startup, valued at $8 billion, signed a $1 billion agreement with cloud provider Nebius for access to Nvidia's latest AI chips. The deal follows a similar recent compute arrangement Reflection struck with SpaceX, and the company has raised roughly $2.6 billion from backers including Nvidia, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed. The move underscores how open-weight model developers are locking in large compute commitments to compete with closed labs. Source

4. Chai Discovery Raises $400M Series C at $3.8B Valuation for AI Molecule Design

Chai Discovery. The AI drug-discovery startup raised a $400 million Series C led by Index Ventures at a $3.8 billion valuation, roughly tripling its value from seven months earlier. Investors include Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, and OpenAI, and the company's models for antibody and molecule design are already used in collaborations with Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Novartis. The round reflects surging investor appetite for AI applied to preclinical drug discovery. Source

5. Publishers Sue Google Over Alleged Unauthorized Gemini Training

Book publishers. Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. filed a class-action lawsuit in New York accusing Google of training its Gemini models on copyrighted works without authorization. The complaint alleges Google accessed the works through Google Books and Google Play but stripped copyright information to obscure the training, and cites an internal document estimating potential fines in the billions to tens of billions of dollars. The case adds to a growing wave of copyright litigation over AI training data. Source

6. DeepMind CEO Proposes FINRA-Style Body to Regulate Frontier AI

Demis Hassabis. The DeepMind CEO called for an independent standards organization, modeled on the financial-industry regulator FINRA, to test frontier AI models before release and develop best practices. Under the proposal, labs would voluntarily submit models for review up to 30 days before launch, transitioning over time to mandatory compliance for US deployment. Hassabis framed the body as an alternative to ad hoc government reviews amid the Trump administration's resistance to formal AI oversight. Source

7. OpenAI Researcher Miles Wang in Talks to Launch $2B AI Drug Discovery Startup

Miles Wang. The OpenAI researcher is in talks to start a company building AI models for drug discovery, reportedly seeking about $200 million at a $2 billion valuation with Lightspeed Venture Partners in discussions to lead. Several other OpenAI researchers are expected to join, and the venture may focus on repurposing existing and previously failed drugs for faster time-to-market. Wang disputed the reported figures without offering corrections. Source

8. Spotify Launches ChatGPT-Style Conversational AI Assistant

Spotify. The streaming service began rolling out an AI conversational assistant that lets Premium subscribers chat by text or voice to discover music, podcasts, and audiobooks and to act on recommendations. Spotify said the feature uses a mix of its own AI technology and models from multiple third-party providers depending on the task. The beta is initially available to users 18 and older in the US, Ireland, and Sweden on iOS and Android. Source

9. ChatGPT Returns to WhatsApp in Europe After EU Forces Meta to Reopen Access

European Commission. After the Commission issued interim measures in June requiring Meta to let rival AI chatbots back onto WhatsApp at no cost, OpenAI re-enabled ChatGPT access for users in the European Economic Area starting July 13. Users can reach the bot via the verified 1-800-CHATGPT contact without an account, with support for text, images, and voice. Meta had banned ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity from the platform in January while keeping its own assistant. Source

10. OpenAI Pushes Back on Apple's Trade Secret Lawsuit

OpenAI. OpenAI publicly rejected Apple's trade-secret misappropriation lawsuit, filed days earlier, which alleged theft of proprietary information involving senior leadership. The response escalates a high-profile legal fight between the device maker and the model developer that could shape how courts treat talent movement and information flow between major AI and platform companies. The dispute is one of several ongoing legal battles across the AI industry. Source