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Starting this fall, the decade-long spat between Apple and Facebook will start a new chapter. And this part of the story has Apple encroaching on Facebook’s territory in ways it never has before.

On Monday, Apple revealed several new social features that will come to iPhones and iPads with the launch of iOS 15 this fall.

Soon, iPhone users will be able to hold FaceTime video calls with Android and Windows users for the first time. They will also be able to use a new feature called SharePlay, which lets you hold a FaceTime call and watch a streaming movie, listen to music, or share your screen with your contacts. IMessage is getting a boost as well, with new features that make it easier to share web links, photos, Apple Music tracks and Apple News articles with your contacts.

In short, Apple is laying the groundwork for a suite of social features designed to let you do a lot of what you would normally do on Instagram and Facebook, only with more emphasis on privacy. Think of it as a watered-down social network without all the bloat and annoying stuff you find in other apps.

It’s the kind of stuff that will drive Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg absolutely crazy.

Zuckerberg has already said he considers Apple a major competitor, largely because of apps like FaceTime and iMessage that come preinstalled on the more than 1 billion Apple gadgets in use around the world.

On top of that, Facebook late last year started an anti-Apple PR and advertising blitz over a new iOS privacy feature that limits how companies like Facebook can use your personal data to send you targeted ads. (Facebook makes most of its money from ads, and needs that targeting data for its ads to be effective.)

It’s no coincidence Zuckerberg took a swipe at the 30% fee Apple collects from many app makers on the iPhone just hours before Apple’s big event on Monday.

Apple’s new social features in iOS 15 are also coming well before Zuckerberg can complete Facebook’s pivot to privacy, which he announced more than two years ago. In Zuckerberg’s view, there will be two types of social sharing on the internet in the future: private communication, such as messaging in Facebook apps like WhatsApp and Messenger, and public communication, like posts on Instagram or the core Facebook service.

Apple’s announcements on Monday proved you don’t need Facebook for a lot of the stuff you already do on Facebook. Why log into Facebook or Instagram and give up personal data when you can just as easily share photos, messages, and videos right there in iOS 15?

If Zuckerberg was right and there will be a large swath of communication that takes place on a “privacy-focused” version of the internet, Apple has largely beaten Facebook to that future.

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OpenAI takes stake in Thrive Holdings to help accelerate enterprise AI adoption

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OpenAI takes stake in Thrive Holdings to help accelerate enterprise AI adoption

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.

David A. Grogan | CNBC

OpenAI on Monday announced it is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a company that was launched by one of its major investors, Thrive Capital, in April.

The startup said it will embed engineering, research and product teams within Thrive Holdings’ companies to help accelerate their AI adoption and boost cost efficiency.

Thrive Holdings buys, owns and runs companies that it believes could benefit from technologies like artificial intelligence. It operates in sectors that are “core to the real economy,” starting with accounting and IT services, according to its website.

OpenAI, which is valued at $500 billion, did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

“We are excited to extend our partnership with OpenAI to embed their frontier models, products, and services into sectors we believe have tremendous potential to benefit from technological innovation and adoption,” Joshua Kushner, CEO and founder of Thrive Capital and Thrive Holdings, said in a statement.

It’s the latest example of OpenAI’s circular dealmaking.

In recent months, the company has taken stakes in infrastructure partners like Advanced Micro Devices and CoreWeave.

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The partnership is structured in a way that aligns the incentives of OpenAI and Thrive Holdings long term, according to a person familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because the details are private.

If Thrive Holdings’ companies succeed, the size of OpenAI’s stake will grow.  

It also acts as a way for OpenAI to get compensated for its services, according to another person familiar with the agreement who declined to be named because the details are confidential.

“This partnership with Thrive Holdings is about demonstrating what’s possible when frontier AI research and deployment are rapidly deployed across entire organizations to revolutionize how businesses work and engage with customers,” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said in a statement.

OpenAI also announced a collaboration with the consulting firm Accenture on Monday.

The startup said its business offering, ChatGPT Enterprise, will roll out to “tens of thousands” of Accenture employees.

WATCH: OpenAI taps Foxconn to build AI hardware in the U.S.

OpenAI taps Foxconn to build AI hardware in the U.S.

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Runway rolls out new AI video model that beats Google, OpenAI in key benchmark

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Runway rolls out new AI video model that beats Google, OpenAI in key benchmark

Mustafa Hatipoglu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence startup Runway on Monday announced Gen 4.5, a new video model that outperforms similar models from Google and OpenAI in an independent benchmark.

Gen 4.5 allows users to generate high-definition videos based on written prompts that describe the motion and action they want. Runway said the model is good at understanding physics, human motion, camera movements and cause and effect.

The model holds the No. 1 spot on the Video Arena leaderboard, which is maintained by the independent AI benchmarking and analysis company Artificial Analysis. To determine the text-to-video model rankings, people compare two different model outputs and vote for their favorite without knowing which companies are behind them.

Google’s Veo 3 model holds second place on the leaderboard, and OpenAI’s Sora 2 Pro model is in seventh place.  

“We managed to out-compete trillion-dollar companies with a team of 100 people,” Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela told CNBC in an interview. “You can get to frontiers just by being extremely focused and diligent.”

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Runway was founded in 2018 and earned a spot on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list this year. It conducts AI research and builds video and world models, which are models that are trained on video and observational data to better reflect how the physical world works.

The startup’s customers include media organizations, studios, brands, designers, creatives and students. Its valuation has swelled to $3.55 billion, according to PitchBook.

Valenzuela said Gen 4.5 was codenamed “David” in a nod to the biblical story of David and Goliath. The model was “an overnight success that took like seven years,” he said. 

“It does feel like a very interesting moment in time where the era of efficiency and research is upon us,” Valenzuela said. “[We’re] excited to be able to make sure that AI is not monopolized by two or three companies.” 

Gen 4.5 is rolling out gradually, but it will be available to all of Runway’s customers by the end of the week. Valenzuela said it’s the first of several major releases that the company has in store.

“It will be available through Runway’s platform, its application programming interface and through some of the company’s partners,” he said.

WATCH: We tested OpenAI’s Sora 2 AI-video app to find out why Hollywood is worried

We tested OpenAI’s Sora 2 AI-video app to find out why Hollywood is worried

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Nvidia takes $2 billion stake in Synopsys with expanded computing power partnership

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Nvidia takes  billion stake in Synopsys with expanded computing power partnership

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Synopsys partnership: 'It's a huge deal'

Nvidia on Monday announced it has purchased $2 billion of Synopsys‘ common stock as part of a strategic partnership to accelerate computing and artificial intelligence engineering solutions.

As part of the multiyear partnership, Nvidia will help Synopsys accelerate its portfolio of compute-intensive applications, advance agentic AI engineering, expand cloud access and develop joint go-to-market initiatives, according to a release. Nvidia said it purchased Synopsys’ stock at $414.79 per share.

“Our partnership with Synopsys harnesses the power of Nvidia accelerated computing and AI to reimagine engineering and design — empowering engineers to invent the extraordinary products that will shape our future,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in the release.

Synopsys stock climbed 3%. Nvidia shares rose slightly.

Tune in at 9:30 a.m. ET as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi join CNBC TV to discuss the partnership. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.

Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom because it makes the graphics processing units, or GPUs, that are key to building and training AI models and running large workloads.

Synopsys offers services including silicon design and electronic design automation that help its customers build AI-powered products.

“The complexity and cost of developing next-generation intelligent systems demands engineering solutions with a deeper integration of electronics and physics, accelerated by AI capabilities and compute,” Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi said in a statement.

The partnership is not exclusive, which means that Nvidia and Synopsys can still work with other companies in the ecosystem.

Both companies will hold a press conference to discuss the announcement at 10 a.m. ET.

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Nvidia CEO: AI is going to transform every single industry

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