Technology

AI Daily Roundup: December 14–16, 2025

Posted by vatsal on

A comprehensive look at the past 48 hours in artificial intelligence

The past 48 hours brought significant developments across the AI landscape: NVIDIA launched its Nemotron 3 open model family and acquired workload management leader SchedMD, signaling a push beyond hardware into the software stack. iRobot, the pioneer behind Roomba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be taken private by its Chinese manufacturer Picea Robotics—a cautionary tale about regulatory barriers and global competition. Meanwhile, the U.S. government announced the “Tech Force” initiative to hire 1,000 AI specialists, and the MIT Technology Review declared 2025 “the year of the great AI hype correction.” This roundup covers the latest in AI models, infrastructure, policy, and enterprise adoption.

TL;DR

  • NVIDIA acquired SchedMD (Slurm workload manager) and launched Nemotron 3, a family of open models designed for agentic AI with hybrid Mamba-Transformer architecture and native 1M-token context windows
  • iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after 35 years, citing tariffs, competition, and debt; will be acquired by Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen Picea Robotics
  • U.S. Government launched “Tech Force” to hire 1,000 AI specialists with $150K-$200K salaries, partnering with Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI
  • Disney-OpenAI exclusivity revealed to last only one year, after which Disney can license characters to competing AI platforms
  • OpenAI hired Google’s Albert Lee to lead corporate development, signaling aggressive M&A strategy as the company eyes potential 2026 IPO
  • MIT Technology Review published major analysis declaring 2025 “the year of the great AI hype correction” with 95% of businesses reporting zero value from AI pilots
  • AI Funding reached record levels: 50% of all global VC funding in 2025 went to AI, totaling $202.3 billion across the sector
  • Chai Discovery raised $130M Series B at $1.3B valuation for AI-powered drug discovery, backed by OpenAI, Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst

📰 Top Stories

NVIDIA Acquires SchedMD and Launches Nemotron 3 Open Models

NVIDIA Blog | December 15, 2025

NVIDIA made two major announcements Monday: the acquisition of SchedMD, the company behind the open-source Slurm workload management system, and the launch of the Nemotron 3 family of open AI models. Slurm is critical infrastructure for high-performance computing and AI, used by foundation model developers to manage training and inference workloads. NVIDIA will continue developing Slurm as open-source, vendor-neutral software.

The Nemotron 3 family introduces a hybrid Mamba-Transformer mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture designed for agentic AI applications. The models feature native 1M-token context windows, enabling high-throughput, long-horizon reasoning for multi-agent systems. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated: “With Nemotron, we’re transforming advanced AI into an open platform that gives developers the transparency and efficiency they need to build agentic systems at scale.”

📊 4x higher throughput of Nemotron 3 Nano vs. Nemotron 2 Nano · 1M native token context window · Hybrid MoEMamba-Transformer architecture for efficient multi-agent systems

iRobot Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy After 35 Years

NPR / CNBC / TechCrunch | December 14-15, 2025

iRobot, the Massachusetts-based company that pioneered consumer robot vacuums with Roomba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday. The company will be taken private through acquisition by Shenzhen Picea Robotics, its primary Chinese manufacturer. Picea will cancel approximately $190 million in debt and take 100% equity ownership.

Co-founder Colin Angle called the outcome “profoundly disappointing” and “nothing short of a tragedy for consumers,” blaming regulatory opposition to Amazon’s abandoned $1.7 billion acquisition in 2024. The company faced mounting pressure from Chinese competitors, tariff costs of $23 million in 2025 alone (including 46% levies on Vietnam-manufactured products), and a depleted balance sheet. Founded in 1990 by MIT roboticists Rodney Brooks, Colin Angle, and Helen Greiner, iRobot sold over 50 million robots and held 42% U.S. market share.

📊 $190M debt to be cancelled · $3.4M owed in unpaid tariffs to U.S. Customs · $1.7B value of failed Amazon acquisition · 35 years of company history

U.S. Government Launches “Tech Force” to Hire 1,000 AI Specialists

CNN / CNBC | December 15, 2025

The Trump administration announced the U.S. Tech Force, an early career hiring program to bring technology and AI talent into the federal government. The initiative will recruit approximately 1,000 specialists with annual salaries between $150,000 and $200,000, plus benefits. Partners include Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google Public Sector, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI.

“We’re trying to reshape the workforce to make sure we have the right talent on the right problems,” said OPM Director Scott Kupor. Members will work directly for individual agencies on projects determined by agency leadership, with OPM conducting initial technical assessments before agencies make final hiring decisions. The announcement follows President Trump’s July AI action plan emphasizing U.S. competitiveness and infrastructure development.

📊 1,000 specialists to be hired · $150K-$200K annual salary range · 7 major tech company partners

Disney-OpenAI Exclusivity Limited to One Year

TechCrunch | December 15, 2025

Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the company’s three-year licensing partnership with OpenAI includes only one year of exclusivity. After that period, Disney is free to sign similar deals with competing AI companies for its characters on platforms like Google’s or Anthropic’s video generation tools.

The deal allows OpenAI’s Sora and ChatGPT Images to generate content featuring over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. As part of the agreement, Disney invested $1 billion in OpenAI and became a major customer using OpenAI’s APIs for products and employee tools. Notably, on the same day the partnership was announced, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google alleging copyright infringement—suggesting the company is protecting its IP across the industry while testing waters with generative AI.

📊 1 year of exclusivity · $1B Disney investment in OpenAI · 200+ characters licensed

OpenAI Poaches Google Executive for M&A Push

CNBC | December 15, 2025

OpenAI hired Albert Lee, Google’s former head of corporate development for Google Cloud and Google DeepMind, to lead its corporate development efforts. Lee worked on several high-profile acquisitions at Google, including the $32 billion purchase of cloud security startup Wiz in March.

The hire signals OpenAI’s aggressive M&A strategy as it looks to gain competitive advantages over rivals. Recent acquisitions include Neptune (AI model training), Software Applications Incorporated (Mac automation), Statsig ($1.1B), and Jony Ive’s io startup (over $6B). OpenAI also recently named Slack CEO Denise Dresser as chief revenue officer and hired former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo to lead applications.

📊 The Great AI Hype Correction of 2025

MIT Technology Review Analysis

MIT Technology Review | December 15, 2025

MIT Technology Review published a landmark analysis declaring 2025 “the year of the great AI hype correction.” The piece highlighted several sobering findings:

  • 95% of businesses that tried using AI found zero value in initial pilots (MIT study, July 2025)
  • Researchers at Upwork found AI agents from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic “failed to complete many straightforward workplace tasks by themselves”
  • Even AI evangelist Ilya Sutskever now highlights LLM limitations, noting models “are very good at learning how to do a lot of specific tasks, but they do not seem to learn the principles behind those tasks”

The article frames the correction as necessary recalibration: “It has become obvious that LLMs are not the doorway to artificial general intelligence, or AGI.” However, the piece also notes that measuring AI value narrowly may miss broader benefits, and that the technology continues to advance despite the cooling hype cycle.

💰 Funding & Market Trends

AI Captures 50% of Global VC Funding in 2025

Crunchbase | December 16, 2025

AI investment reached unprecedented levels in 2025:

  • $202.3 billion invested in AI sector in 2025 (up 75% from $114B in 2024)
  • 50% of all global VC funding went to AI (up from 34% in 2024)
  • 79% of AI funding went to U.S.-based companies ($159B total)
  • $122 billion went to San Francisco Bay Area alone (76% of U.S. AI funding)
  • OpenAI valued at $500B, the most valuable private company ever
  • Anthropic fourth-most valuable at $183B valuation

Corporate investors led billion-dollar rounds: Meta, SpaceX, NVIDIA, Disney, and Google all participated. SoftBank led the largest deal with a $40 billion investment into OpenAI. Enterprise AI revenue reached $37 billion in 2025, up 3x year-over-year.

Notable Funding Rounds (December 14-16)

CompanyAmountStageFocus
Fervo Energy$462MSeries EGeothermal power for data centers
Harness$240MGrowthAI-driven DevOps automation
QuEra Computing$230MSeries BQuantum computing systems
Chai Discovery$130MSeries BAI drug discovery ($1.3B valuation)
Serval$75MSeries BAI platforms (unicorn status)

🏢 Company Announcements

Meta’s AI Strategy Shift: From Llama to “Avocado”

CNBC / WinBuzzer | December 9-15, 2025

Reports emerged that Meta is pivoting away from its open-source Llama strategy toward a closed, proprietary AI model codenamed “Avocado.” The shift follows the internal failure of the Llama 4 “Behemoth” model, which was shelved after underperforming on benchmarks.

Key developments:

  • Alexandr Wang (former Scale AI CEO) named Chief AI Officer and heads elite “TBD Lab” unit
  • Meta raised 2025 capex guidance to $70-72 billion for AI infrastructure
  • Company reportedly offering $100M+ signing bonuses to poach AI talent
  • AI-driven ad suite now running at $60B+ annualized revenue pace

Long-time researcher Yann LeCun has departed, signaling a break from the company’s research-driven past. The strategic reversal was partially driven by Chinese competitor DeepSeek’s success in copying Llama’s architecture.

Google Updates Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio

Android Central / Google AI | December 15, 2025

Google released an upgraded Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio model (12-25 revision) powering Gemini Live and Search Live. The improvements include:

  • Better multi-turn conversation quality with improved context retention
  • Smoother handling of complex workflows without interrupting chat flow
  • Enhanced function calling and speech cut-off handling
  • Surpasses OpenAI’s gpt-realtime model in benchmarks

The update represents continued refinement of Google’s voice AI capabilities following the Gemini 3 launch in November.

EY Survey: AI Productivity Gains Not Leading to Layoffs

Yahoo Finance | December 15, 2025

A new EY survey found that companies experiencing productivity gains from AI are not turning around and firing workers. The majority of companies seeing benefits are reinvesting AI-driven efficiencies into growth rather than workforce reduction. This contradicts earlier fears about AI-driven job displacement and suggests enterprises are finding value in human-AI collaboration rather than pure automation.

🏛️ Policy & Regulation

Trump Executive Order Targets State AI Laws

White House / NPR / CNBC | December 11, 2025

President Trump signed an executive order establishing a national AI policy framework intended to override state-level AI regulations. Key provisions:

  • AI Litigation Task Force: DOJ to challenge state AI laws on constitutional grounds
  • Commerce Department review: 90-day evaluation of “onerous” state laws
  • Federal funding leverage: States with conflicting AI laws may lose broadband grants
  • Legislative proposal: Calls for Congress to create preemptive federal AI standards

The order specifically cites Colorado’s “algorithmic discrimination” ban as problematic. AI advisor David Sacks stated the administration will protect child safety laws but will “push back on the most onerous examples of state regulations.” Legal challenges from affected states are expected.

📊 30 days to establish DOJ task force · 90 days for Commerce Department review · 36 state attorneys general opposed federal preemption in November letter

📈 Markets & Infrastructure

AI Infrastructure Selloff Continues

CNBC | December 15, 2025

AI infrastructure stocks experienced continued selling pressure:

  • Broadcom fell 5.6% Monday following 11% Friday decline (18% below record high)
  • Oracle dropped 2.7%, now down 17% over three trading days
  • Oracle lease commitments reached $248B for data centers (up 148% from August)

Despite the selloff, fundamentals remain strong: Broadcom expects AI chip sales to double to $8.2 billion this quarter, while Oracle continues expanding cloud capacity. The correction reflects investor concerns about capital intensity and margin pressure rather than demand weakness.

Biren Technology Eyes $300M Hong Kong IPO

TechStartups | December 16, 2025

China’s Biren Technology is preparing a Hong Kong IPO to raise approximately $300 million. The company, which developed the BR100 AI chip positioned as competitive with NVIDIA’s data center accelerators, was added to the U.S. Entity List, limiting access to critical supply chain partners. The IPO highlights how export controls and national priorities are shaping the global AI hardware race.

🔮 What to Watch

This Week’s Key Themes:

  1. Open vs. Closed AI: NVIDIA’s Nemotron launch and Meta’s pivot to proprietary models represent diverging strategies on AI accessibility
  2. Regulatory Battles: The federal-state collision course over AI regulation will play out in courts and Congress through 2026
  3. Hype Recalibration: Enterprise adoption is slower than predicted, but survivors will be those showing genuine ROI
  4. M&A Acceleration: OpenAI, Anthropic, and others are building M&A capabilities for the next wave of consolidation
  5. Global Competition: Chinese AI companies continue advancing despite export controls, with Biren IPO and DeepSeek success challenging U.S. dominance

🚀 What Shipped This Week

📚 Further Reading

🔗 Sources

This roundup was compiled from 35+ verified sources across major publications and company announcements.

Primary Sources:

  • NVIDIA Blog and Newsroom
  • MIT Technology Review
  • TechCrunch
  • CNBC
  • NPR
  • Crunchbase
  • Google AI Developer Blog
  • White House Presidential Actions
  • Yahoo Finance
  • Bloomberg
  • The Information
  • Reuters

Next roundup: December 17, 2025