Stripe seals its OpenRouter deal for a reported $7.5bn or more
Stripe seals its OpenRouter deal for a reported $7.5bn or more

Stripe has agreed to buy OpenRouter, the startup whose software helps companies route their spending across hundreds of AI models. The payments firm confirmed the deal on Wednesday, making official an acquisition the press first reported earlier this m…

PayPal is no longer refusing to sell. Now the question is whether regulators allow it
PayPal is no longer refusing to sell. Now the question is whether regulators allow it

The Wall Street Journal reported the talks on 14 August. Cara Lombardo, Gina Heeb and Lauren Thomas wrote it. The framing is what changed. PayPal is in talks to sell itself, rather than fielding an offer it has rejected. Stripe and Advent International…

SpaceX has closed its $60bn Cursor deal, and Cursor was buying a company the day before
SpaceX has closed its $60bn Cursor deal, and Cursor was buying a company the day before

SpaceX confirmed completion in a regulatory filing. Bloomberg’s Carmen Arroyo and Natasha Mascarenhas reported the close. The desk covered the binding agreement in June, when SpaceX filed an 8-K and said it expected to complete in the third quarter, su…

An activist investor says the market has decided Lionsgate is an AI casualty. It wants the studio to prove otherwise or sell.
An activist investor says the market has decided Lionsgate is an AI casualty. It wants the studio to prove otherwise or sell.

Activist investor Anson Funds is pressing Lionsgate to redefine itself for the AI era or put itself up for sale, according to a July letter to the board reviewed by Semafor. The argument turns on how the market reads a film library. “The rise of genera…

The Arena Group is renaming itself Paradium.AI, and its revenue just halved
The Arena Group is renaming itself Paradium.AI, and its revenue just halved

The Arena Group is renaming itself Paradium.AI. The publisher of TheStreet, Parade and Men’s Journal expects the change to finish by the end of August. Business Insider had it first. Steven Tweedie and Ben Shimkus obtained a staff memo from chief execu…

OpenAI just bought a slide deck startup. It is assembling an office suite one acqui-hire at a time.
OpenAI just bought a slide deck startup. It is assembling an office suite one acqui-hire at a time.

OpenAI has acquired NextSlide, a startup that turned prompts, notes, documents, and research into finished editable presentations. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the team has moved onto ChatGPT. Founder Ahmed Beshry announced the deal in a not…

DeepSeek made AI cheap. Now it is raising $8bn and buying robots
DeepSeek made AI cheap. Now it is raising $8bn and buying robots

DeepSeek spent early 2025 proving that a good AI model did not have to cost a fortune. This week it has been busy proving it can spend one. In a handful of days, the Chinese lab reopened a multi-billion-dollar fundraising. It took a stake in the countr…

The biggest leveraged buyout in history just took EA private
The biggest leveraged buyout in history just took EA private

The largest leveraged buyout in history has closed. Electronic Arts is now private. A group led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought it for $55bn, alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. The maker of The Sims, Battlefiel…

Bending Spoons is buying Airtable for $1.285bn: “We’re committed for the long run”
Bending Spoons is buying Airtable for $1.285bn: “We’re committed for the long run”

Bending Spoons has agreed to buy Airtable for $1.285bn. Its chief executive is selling the deal as a long-term bet. “Airtable is a pioneering brand reshaping how teams organize data and manage critical workflows,” said Luca Ferrari, the Italian company…

Yellow.ai is going public to buy the call centres it wants to replace with AI
Yellow.ai is going public to buy the call centres it wants to replace with AI

Most AI companies want to sell software to call centres. Yellow.ai wants to buy the call centres. The enterprise-AI firm has agreed to go public through a merger with a blank-cheque company. It plans to spend much of the money acquiring the outsourcing…