xAI’s Grok Models Now on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI):
xAI’s latest Grok 3 model, featuring advanced reasoning capabilities, is now available via Oracle’s Generative AI service. This collaboration leverages OCI’s scalable, secure infrastructure with zero data retention endpoints for enterprise AI workloads.
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Midjourney Launches AI Video Generation Model V1:
Midjourney unveiled its first AI video generation tool, enabling 5-second video clips from images via Discord. The feature is GPU-intensive and part of Midjourney’s roadmap to real-time 3D environments.
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South Korea & AWS commit $5.11B to new Ulsan AI data centre
Officially confirmed June 20: SK Group + Amazon Web Services will build the nation's largest AI hyper-scale data centre in Ulsan. It will span 100 MW initially, scaling to 1 GW by 2029, housing ~60,000 GPUs. Groundbreaking slated for September 2025 with expanded capacity planned in future stages
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Pure Storage launches Enterprise Data Cloud with Fusion control plane
Announced June 18 at Pure Accelerate 2025: Pure Storage released “Enterprise Data Cloud”—a unified management layer across global arrays, enabling centralised governance, security, and AI-ready workflows. New hardware (FlashArray//XL R5 & FlashBlade//EXA) targets performance-heavy workloads.
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Thinking Machines Lab Raises $2B at $10B Valuation
Mira Murati’s new venture, Thinking Machines Lab, has closed a $2 billion funding round at a $10 billion valuation. The lab is focused on developing agentic AI systems for reasoning, planning, and autonomy. Investors include top-tier VCs betting on Murati’s vision post-OpenAI.
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IBM launched a unified platform combining Guardium AI Security and watsonx.governance to help enterprises govern and secure AI agents across environments.
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Artisan’s AI BDR platform automates end-to-end outbound sales, leveraging 300M+ B2B leads and multi-channel messaging to deliver qualified prospects at scale.
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OpenAI shared new safety protocols to mitigate biothreat risks, including constant monitoring and red teaming for future models expected to cross “high risk” thresholds.
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Nvidia’s sovereign AI gets EU attention
At VivaTech on June 21, France’s Macron termed AI infrastructure “a fight for sovereignty,” alongside news of NVIDIA partnering with Deutsche Telekom to build an AI cloud in Germany
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Cisco Introduces AI-Specific Hardware Improvements:
Cisco’s new network stack supports increased throughput and performance for AI inference and training workloads.
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Solo developer Maor Shlomo sold Base44 (a “vibe coding” startup) to Wix for $80M after just 6 months of bootstrapped growth, showcasing the rise of solo AI unicorns.
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Meta nearly acquired Perplexity AI but pivoted to investing in Scale AI and hiring the CEOs of Safe Superintelligence and NFDG instead.
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SoftBank’s founder plans to build a $1T AI and robotics manufacturing complex in Arizona, aiming to rival China’s Shenzhen in tech hardware production.
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Meta continues expanding its AI venture portfolio by hiring investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross and partially buying out their VC fund NFDG.
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Ulsan AI campus to serve tech hubs beyond Seoul
Minister Lee Jae Myung emphasised that locating the centre outside the capital signals high‑tech growth across South Korea’s regions
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NextDC Signs Major Hyperscale Client for Kuala Lumpur Data Center:
NextDC confirmed a key client contract for its AI-native KL1 facility, bolstering its Asia expansion
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A Gallup study reveals accelerating AI adoption among white-collar workers, especially in tech, finance, and professional services — despite slow internal planning from most enterprises.
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Microsoft announced another wave of mass layoffs, focusing cuts in sales to double down on data center growth for AI services, with $80B in planned capital expenditure.
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Couchbase stock jumps on $1.5B buyout
Couchbase saw a 30% share surge after agreeing to be acquired by Haveli Investments for $1.5 billion in cash, a deal expected to close in H2 2025.
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SK + AWS’s Ulsan centre sparks stock rally
Following the $5B announcement, SK Hynix, Kakao, and LG CNS shares surged (~3‑11%), pushing Korea’s KOSPI past 3,000 for the first time in 3½ years.
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TerraPower Closes $650M Fundraise with Nvidia Backing:
TerraPower secured $650 million to advance its Natrium nuclear reactor, with Nvidia as a key investor[Latest news].
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Apple explores acquisition of Perplexity AI:
Multiple outlets report Apple executives—including M&A lead Adrian Perica and Services chief Eddy Cue—are in early internal discussions to acquire AI search startup Perplexity AI, valued at ~$14 billion. The move aims to strengthen Apple’s native AI and reduce reliance on Google’s $20 billion/year Safari search deal. No formal offer has been made, and Perplexity publicly denied awareness of ongoing negotiations.
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Samsung in advanced talks with Perplexity AI:
Reports indicate Samsung is negotiating to integrate Perplexity’s AI search technology into Galaxy devices, potentially investing $500 million. This partnership could give Samsung a competitive edge in AI-powered search and complicates Apple’s acquisition ambitions.
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xAI’s Grok 3 Model on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Announced June 21: xAI’s Grok 3, featuring advanced reasoning and multi-modal capabilities, is now available via Oracle’s Generative AI service, offering enterprise-grade scalability with secure, zero data retention endpoints.

Midjourney I2V Video Generation Model V1
Rolled out June 18: Midjourney launched its first image-to-video model, enabling users to animate still images into 5-second video clips (up to 20 seconds), with camera movement and scene transitions specified via prompts.

Nanobrowser’s Gemini-Powered Automation Extension
Released June 17: Nanobrowser debuted a free Chrome extension that automates browser tasks—such as data collection, competitor research, and social media management—using Gemini-powered natural language commands.

Operant AI’s MCP Gateway
Unveiled June 16: Operant AI released the MCP Gateway, a hardened security layer for Model Context Protocol applications, designed to prevent data exfiltration and adversarial tampering in live AI deployments.

Skyhawk Security’s Cloud CDR Partner Program
Kicked off June 16: Skyhawk Security launched a partner ecosystem for its AI-powered cloud threat detection and response (CDR) platform, enabling integrators to deliver proactive remediation across multicloud environments.