The Information AM technology news newsletter

The Information’s TITV: Tech news and analysis. Every weekday at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET. Now streaming → → Oct 02, 2026 The Information AM Supported by Save 25% on an annual subscription to read the most important news about technology and business first. For even more, Save $250 on The Information Pro for unlimited access to our proprietary org charts, databases and surveys. TGIF! OpenAI fires three safety employees for mishandling sensitive information. A federal judge dismisses publishers' lawsuits over Google's AI Overviews. A state-backed Chinese financing company funds the purchase of restricted Nvidia chips. Read more briefings 1. OpenAI Fires Three Safety Researchers By Rocket Drew Source: Wall Street Journal OpenAI said it fired three safety employees for mishandling corporate information, which a person familiar with the matter said included sensitive information with an outside organization that does AI evaluations. “We have parted ways with three individuals for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information,” said a spokesperson for OpenAI in a statement. “Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work.” The firings come amid widening fears about the risks posed by advanced AI models. OpenAI and other AI companies have worked closely with evaluation organizations in the past, and in response to the growing concern have recently expressed interest in “embedding” personnel from AI safety organizations into their operations who can audit statements about the risks from the companies’ technology. But these arrangements usually involve strict conditions on what the outside parties can access and share publicly. One of the terminated researchers focused on AI safety, another on alignment and the third was a research program manager for alignment, according to the OpenAI spokesperson. OpenAI’s investigation found a pattern of misconduct, including mishandling research information in violation of company policies, the spokesperson added. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the terminations. 2. Exclusive: Nvidia, SoftBank Make Final $20 Billion Investment in OpenAI’s Last Round By Julia Hornstein and Phoebe Liu Source: The Information Nvidia and SoftBank have each made the final $10 billion investment in each of their $30 billion pledges to OpenAI’s last funding round, according to a person with knowledge of the investments and a statement from SoftBank. OpenAI in March said it had $122 billion in commitments in a round that valued it at $852 billion, including the money raised. In addition to SoftBank and Nvidia investments, Amazon committed to invest up to $50 billion in two parts. Amazon in July completed the entire investment, after OpenAI negotiated a new agreement with long-term partner Microsoft so that it could run its AI on competing cloud services. Finalizing the March round could help pave the way for OpenAI to raise its next private financing. It’s targeting raising $30 billion and could seek a valuation of around $1.4 trillion. SoftBank has entered into a complicated series of financings to fund its OpenAI investments. In a statement to the Tokyo stock exchange early Thursday, SoftBank said the final installment of its funding to OpenAI brings its total investment in the ChatGPT maker to $64.6 billion and its ownership interest to about 13%. The tech and telecom conglomerate run by Masayoshi Son funded the final installment of its OpenAI investment with an $11.1 billion high-yield bond offering in late September. 3. Chinese State-Backed Firm Funded Purchase of Nvidia Chips By Juro Osawa Source: Bloomberg A state-backed Chinese financing company has revealed in documents filed with regulators that it funded the purchase of Nvidia chips subject to U.S. export restrictions, Bloomberg reported on Friday.