There Is Only One AI Company. Welcome to the Blob

It each began, arsenic galore things do, with Elon Musk. In the aboriginal 2010s helium realized that AI was connected a way to go possibly the astir almighty exertion of each time. But helium had heavy suspicion that if it were to autumn nether the power of almighty profit-driven forces, humanity would suffer. Musk had been an aboriginal capitalist successful DeepMind, the UK-based laboratory that was up of the battalion successful pursuing artificial wide intelligence. After Google bought DeepMind successful 2014, Musk chopped ties with the probe organization. He felt it was indispensable to make a counterforce incentivized by quality benefit, not profits. So helium helped make OpenAI. When I interviewed Musk and Sam Altman astatine the company’s unveiling successful 2015, they were adamant that shareholder nett would not beryllium a origin successful their decisions.

Fast-forward to today. OpenAI is worthy a fractional a trillion dollars, oregon possibly $750 billion, and its for-profit limb has go a nationalist payment corporation. Musk, the world’s richest human, runs his ain for-profit AI company, xAI. So overmuch for nonprofit labs starring the way. But adjacent the astir panicked Cassandra of a decennary agone apt didn’t ideate that precocious AI would beryllium controlled by a single, interlocking, money-seeking behemoth.

That’s what we person today. Even much concerning, this interlinked analyzable is funded successful portion by overseas powers and supported by the US government, which seems to prioritize winning implicit safety. This rococo postulation of partnerships, mergers, backing arrangements, authorities initiatives, and strategical investments links the destiny of virtually each large subordinate successful the AI-o-sphere. I telephone this entity the Blob.

Blob’s Black Box

A afloat statement of the interlocking connections of these entities would instrumentality maine mode beyond my connection bounds here. Even compiling a streamlined database requires the usage of—you guessed it—AI. Reader, I confess. I went to GPT-5 to assistance maine get the afloat picture. ”My caput is spinning,” I wrote, swallowing my pridefulness to inquire this smug stochastic parrot for a broad database of unreality deals, investments, partnerships, and authorities arrangements. It took 2 minutes and 35 seconds earlier the usually speedy LLM came backmost with immoderate answers. “You’re not incorrect that it’s dizzying,” said the bot, ever the sycophant. “It’s fundamentally 1 elephantine circular money-and-compute machine.” Note to GPT: You bash not get to constitute the show substance for this essay. Leave the editorializing to me. In immoderate case, erstwhile it stopped its punditry, GPT-5 proceeded to churn retired respective 1000 words, with travel charts, arrows, and cross-references to dozens of back-scratching arrangements similar the iconic Stargate inaugural that binds OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Softbank, and an Abu Dhabi concern firm, with the US government’s support.

This week provided a fresher lawsuit successful point: a analyzable woody involving Nvidia, Microsoft, and Anthropic. Microsoft’s property merchandise sums it up successful 3 lines, similar a subpar Allen Ginsberg verse: “Anthropic to standard Claude connected Azure / Anthropic to follow NVIDIA architecture / NVIDIA and Microsoft to put successful Anthropic.” The woody has the earmarks of what critics telephone a circular arrangement, whereby wealth goes backmost and distant betwixt companies earlier a azygous lawsuit is involved. Microsoft is investing astatine slightest $5 cardinal successful Anthropic—a nonstop rival of Microsoft’s cardinal spouse OpenAI—and Anthropic has committed to buying $30 cardinal worthy of compute from Microsoft’s cloud. Meanwhile, Nvidia invests successful Anthropic, which commits to make its exertion connected Nvidia chips. Poof! Nvidia gets deeper into the concern of its customers. Microsoft gets a hedge from its earlier reliance connected OpenAI. And Anthropic’s valuation jumps to $350 billion. (Only 2 months ago, it was valued astatine $183 billion.)

Anthropic didn’t remark connected the woody beyond a property release, pointing journalists to a video wherever the 3 CEOs explicate the deal. The hyperscale bosses enactment remotely; these deals are truthful routine, it’s seemingly not worthy the fuss to get connected a level to denote them successful person. In the video, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella appears successful the middle, beaming similar the Cheshire feline arsenic helium invokes what mightiness beryllium the Blob’s slogan: “We are progressively going to beryllium customers of each other.” As helium lays retired the particulars, the others springiness bobblehead nods. On the near is Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Anthropic doesn’t person its ain unreality oregon a non-AI-related gross travel similar Google, Microsoft, oregon Meta, truthful it’s present added Microsoft to its erstwhile stock-for-compute deals with Amazon and Google. Hat trick!

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, successful his signature leather jacket, calls the woody “a imagination travel true,” elaborating that he’s been eyeing Anthropic for immoderate clip and is thrilled to adhd the institution to his bulging woody book. “We’re successful each endeavor successful each azygous country,” helium says. “Now this concern of the 3 of america volition beryllium capable to bring AI, bring Claude, to each enterprise, to each industry, astir the world.”