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This Week's Tech Stories That Actually Matter

Amazon & OpenAI's $38 Billion Cloud Deal Just Rewrote the Infrastructure Playbook

AWS and OpenAI locked in a 7-year, $38 billion partnership—the largest cloud infrastructure agreement in AI history. OpenAI's moving critical workloads to AWS data centers across the US, diversifying beyond its Microsoft dependency.

Translation? OpenAI just hedge their bets. Microsoft's still the primary partner, but AWS now powers the backup plan—complete with massive GPU capacity expansion and infrastructure guarantees through 2032.

When your AI model costs billions to run, you don't put all your chips in one cloud. Smart move.

Big Tech's $380 Billion AI Spending Spree (While Investors Freak Out)

Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta collectively announced over $380 billion in AI infrastructure spending for 2025-2026. The breakdown is insane:

Microsoft secured a $9.7 billion deal with IREN for Nvidia GB300 chips in Texas, plus $8 billion for UAE cloud expansion.

Alphabet bumped 2026 capex to $92 billion (up from $85B) as Google Cloud backlog surged 46% to $155 billion. Someone's buying.

Meta raised capex guidance to $70-72 billion despite an 11% stock drop—its worst in three years. Investors are asking the obvious question: where's the cloud business to justify this spend?

When you're spending billions on infrastructure without a clear monetization path, Wall Street gets nervous. Meta's betting the farm on AI compute. The market's not convinced yet.

US Startups Raised Nearly $900M in One Week

November kicked off with significant capital deployment across AI and deep tech:

Metropolis (parking tech) raised $500M Series D at $3.5B total valuation. Yes, parking. AI-powered parking management apparently prints money.

Synchron (brain-computer interface) secured $200M Series D led by Bezos Expeditions and Khosla Ventures. When Bezos backs your brain implant company, you're probably onto something.

Inception AI raised $50M seed led by Menlo Ventures with backing from Microsoft M12, Nvidia NVentures, Andrew Ng, and Andrej Karpaty. That's basically the AI Hall of Fame writing checks.

Reevo grabbed $80M led by Khosla Ventures.

Silicon Valley startups alone raised $894.6M in the first week of November. The AI funding spigot isn't slowing down -- it's accelerating.

US Government Picks Winners: Nvidia Chips for UAE, Nothing for China

The Commerce Department approved export licenses allowing Microsoft to ship Nvidia GB300 GPUs (equivalent to 60,400 A100 chips) to the UAE. This is the first major approval under tightened export controls and enables Microsoft to power regional AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Nvidia shares jumped 2% on the news.

Meanwhile, the US doubled down on blocking Nvidia Blackwell chips to China, reinforcing the geopolitical AI arms race.

When your government decides who gets cutting-edge AI chips, you're not just building technology--you're building empires. The US just picked its allies. China wasn't on the list.

Google, Meta, Microsoft Quietly End Diversity Reporting

Three of tech's biggest companies--Google, Meta, and Microsoft—stopped publishing annual workforce diversity data, ending a decade-long transparency trend.

Amazon, Apple, and Nvidia still disclose. But the pullback reflects mounting political pressure and corporate retreat from DEI commitments under the current administration.

When the world's most powerful tech companies simultaneously ghost their diversity reports, it's not a coincidence. It's a coordinated retreat.

The move sparked immediate backlash about accountability and transparency in Big Tech hiring practices. Whether you call it strategic or cowardly depends on where you sit.

Pinkfong's Baby Shark Company Files for $400M US IPO

The SmartStudy Company (Pinkfong), the Korean entertainment company behind "Baby Shark"—the most-viewed YouTube video ever with 15+ billion views—filed for a US IPO targeting a $400 million raise.

Baby Shark generated over $5 billion in consumer product sales globally and spawned a Nickelodeon series, live tours, and an entire licensing empire. The company's betting American investors will pay premium multiples for a proven global IP franchise.

When a children's song earns more than most venture-backed unicorns, you're not selling content—you're selling a money-printing machine. Wall Street's about to find out if viral videos translate to public market valuations.

TL;DR: That's your week. Amazon and OpenAI signed a $38B cloud deal. Big Tech's dropping $380B on AI infrastructure. US startups raised $900M in seven days. The government approved Nvidia chips for UAE (China got nothing). And Google, Meta, and Microsoft ghosted their diversity reports. And Baby Shark's going public at $400M because a viral kids' song somehow prints more money than most SaaS companies. The future's not coming -- it's already billing.

Cheers,
Oleg👊

🚀 I'm proud to support the Houston Founder Institute, a program designed to provide structure, feedback, and supportive networks for the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Houston Spring 2026 program is accepting applications and kicks off in February 2026. You can apply using my referral link for priority access with the global admissions office: https://fi.co/apply/houston/mentor-2511431


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