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Packages move along a conveyor at an Amazon fulfillment center on Cyber Monday in Robbinsville, New Jersey, U.S., on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chad Rubin was looking for a way to spice up his Amazon listing for a vacuum hose. He was struggling to come up with a catchy title that would make shoppers want to click on his hose instead of the countless others in Amazon’s vast marketplace.

For assistance, Rubin turned to ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that’s gone viral since its launch late last year. He soon began to experiment with the tool for completing tasks such as generating copy on his product page. Rubin asked ChatGPT to “generate 5 insanely clever and catchy headlines” for an infographic promoting his vacuum cleaner hose.

“Dirt destroying air flow,” he said, reading off one of ChatGPT’s responses. “I would have never in a million years thought of that for a vacuum hose.”

As ChatGPT rapidly finds its way into use by lawyers, clinicians, professors and their students, it’s also showing its utility in the business world, notably for Amazon sellers seeking the tiniest competitive advantage as they try to bolster sales. Third-party merchants who have embraced ChatGPT say it can make the job of selling on Amazon’s marketplace easier and more lucrative.

A stream of YouTube videos, articles and LinkedIn posts have appeared in recent months touting the benefits of ChatGPT for Amazon sellers. E-commerce software providers such as JungleScout have also jumped on the trend by integrating ChatGPT into their services.

“This is one of those technologies that is going to fundamentally change everything we do in our lives,” said JungleScout technology chief Stephen Curial, who previously spent a decade at Amazon in software development. “It’s that powerful.”

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Curial said it won’t be long before generative AI tools such as ChatGPT become ordinary productivity aides, similar to calculators or spellcheck, helping busy businesspeople minimize daily grunt work.

ChatGPT has taken the technology industry by storm since it was introduced to the public in November by OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed startup that’s reportedly held talks with investors to sell shares at a $29 billion valuation.

Millions of people are using the free chatbot to do things such as write fiction, generate computer code and edit resumes. Microsoft has incorporated the technology into its Bing search engine, while Google introduced rival chatbot Bard last month.

Investors are pouring into the market with massive checks even as the broader tech startup market continues to suffer from the 2022 downturn. Last week, a 22-person pre-revenue startup called Character.AI, which was founded by two former Google employees, raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Hamza Amor, an Amazon seller and founder of e-commerce consulting firm Fussy Penguins, has posted TikTok videos showing how ChatGPT can help merchants discover their next hit product.

Amor started experimenting with ChatGPT in December, asking it questions such as “Tell me more about you” and “What is the meaning of life?” He then asked it to write small passages, such as a children’s story, and was impressed by the results.

ChatGPT helped him improve his products after he asked the chatbot to summarize what users like and dislike about an item based on a set of reviews. For an under-desk footrest, it suggested he use different packaging and more durable materials, or consider offering multiple sizes and the ability to adjust the height of the footrest.

‘It does it in seconds’

The software also assisted with the writing of a few listings, a process that normally requires hours of writing and editing.

“It does it with the tone you suggest, and it does it in seconds,” Amor said. “That’s the part that was mind-blowing.”

ChatGPT’s handiwork has already delivered results for some users. Rubin said the conversion rate, or the percentage of clicks on an ad that result in sales, went up for several of his vacuum filters, coffee filters and air filters after he used ChatGPT for help with listings. For one product, the conversion rate increased from an average of 26% to 46% over an eight-week period, he said.

Rubin sees the opportunity to further capitalize on the trend by giving other sellers a streamlined way to use it. That’s important because third-party sellers are often managing dozens, if not hundreds, of listings on Amazon at the same time and are competing with many new sellers every day.

In 2021, Rubin started a pricing software company called Profasee, which has used AI in some of its features. Rubin said he plans to incorporate ChatGPT into a new tool that will help sellers quickly fine-tune their product listings.

But despite the hype, there’s good reason for skepticism when it comes to ChatGPT’s effectiveness. The nascent technology has shown that it’s prone to making mistakes and, in some cases, just making stuff up. ChatGPT learns to write by analyzing large volumes of information from the internet, and it can get things wrong, a phenomenon that AI experts call “hallucination.”

Aidan Duffy, a seller who also runs a consulting firm, turned to ChatGPT to help improve the listing for a sauna backrest, one of his newer products. Not only did the chatbot assist with writing bullet points on the listing, it also suggested he create an adjustable backrest for taller or shorter users, which he said he considered having manufactured.

Still, Duffy said he has some concerns about the technology’s accuracy. He recently used it for advice on the best way to import products from China, where his items are manufactured.

“It came back with a readable answer, but I see it as a baseline,” Duffy said. “It won’t do your job for you.”

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CyberArk’s stock jumps on report Palo Alto Networks in talks to buy company for over $20 billion

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CyberArk's stock jumps on report Palo Alto Networks in talks to buy company for over  billion

Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, looks on during the closing bell at the Nasdaq Market in New York City, U.S., March 25, 2025.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

CyberArk shares soared as much as 18% on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks has held discussions to buy the identity management software maker for over $20 billion.

Cloud security is becoming an increasingly critical piece of the enterprise tech stack, especially as rapid advancements in artificial intelligence bring with them a whole new set of threats, and as ransomware attacks become more commonplace.

Founded in 2005, Palo Alto Networks has emerged in recent years as a consolidator in the cybersecurity industry and has grown into the biggest player in the space by market cap, with a valuation of over $130 billion. CEO Nikesh Arora, who was appointed to the job in 2018, has been on a spending spree, snapping up Protect AI in a deal that closed in July, and in 2023 buying Talon Cyber Security, Dig Security and Zycada Networks.

But CyberArk would represent by far Arora’s biggest bet yet. The Israeli company, which went public in 2014, provides technology that helps companies streamline the process of logging on to applications for employees.

CyberArk faces competition from Microsoft, Okta and IBM‘s HashiCorp. Another rival, SailPoint, returned to the public markets in February.

With Tuesday’s rally, CyberArk shares climbed to a record, surpassing their prior all-time high reached in February. The stock is up 29% this year, pushing the company’s market cap to almost $21 billion, after jumping 52% in 2024. Palo Alto shares, meanwhile, slid 3.5% on the report and are now up about 9% for the year.

Representatives from Palo Alto Networks and CyberArk declined to comment.

During the first quarter, CyberArk generated around $11.5 million in net income on around $318 million in revenue, which was up 43% from a year earlier.

It’s been an active stretch for big deals in the cyber market. Google said in March that it was spending $32 billion on Wiz, its largest acquisition on record by far, and a purchase intended to bolster its cloud business with greater AI security technology.

Networking giant Cisco also made its biggest deal ever in the security space, buying Splunk in 2023 for $28 billion. Splunk’s technology helps businesses monitor and analyze their data to minimize the risk of hacks and resolve technical issues faster.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report

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Spotify stock falls on revenue miss, lackluster guidance

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Spotify stock falls on revenue miss, lackluster guidance

Thomas Fuller | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Spotify shares dropped about 4% Tuesday after the music streaming platform fell short of Wall Street’s expectations and posted weak guidance for the current quarter.

Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:

  • Loss: Loss of .42 euros vs earnings of 1.90 euros per share expected
  • Revenue: 4.19 billion euros vs. 4.26 billion expected

The Sweden-based music platform’s revenues rose 10% from about 3.81 billion euros in the year-ago period. The company posted a net loss of 86 million euros, or a loss of .42 euros per share, down from net income of 225 million euros, or 1.10 euros per share a year ago.

Third-quarter guidance came up short of Wall Street’s forecast.

The company expects revenues to reach 4.2 billion euros, compared to a 4.47 billion euro estimate from StreetAccount. Spotify said the forecast accounts for a 490-basis-point headwind due to foreign exchange rates.

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Monthly active users on the platform jumped 11% to 696 million, while paying subscribers rose 12% from a year ago to 276 million.

For the current quarter, Spotify said it expects to reach 710 million monthly active users, with 14 million net adds. The company expects 5 million net new premium subscribers in the third quarter to reach 281 million subscriptions.

During the period, Spotify said it rolled out a request feature for its artificial intelligence DJ. The company said engagement with the offering has roughly doubled over the last year.

In 2024, Spotify posted its first full year of profitability. Shares are up 57% this year.

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Samsung backs South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions ahead of IPO

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Samsung backs South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions ahead of IPO

The Rebel-Quad is the second-generation product from Rebellions and is made up of four Rebel AI chips. Rebellions, a South Korean firm, is looking to rival companies like Nvidia in AI chips.

Rebellions

South Korean artificial intelligence chip startup Rebellions has raised money from tech giant Samsung and is targeting a funding round of up to $200 million ahead of a public listing, the company’s management told CNBC on Tuesday.

Last year, Rebellions merged with another startup in South Korea called Sapeon, creating a firm that is being positioned as one of the country’s promising rivals to Nvidia.

Rebellions is currently raising money and is targeting funding of between $150 million and $200 million, Sungkyue Shin, chief financial officer of the startup, told CNBC on Tuesday.

Samsung’s investment in Rebellions last week was part of that, Shin said, though he declined to say how much the tech giant poured in.

Since its founding in 2020, Rebellions has raised $220 million, Shin added.

The current funding round is ongoing and Shin said Rebellions is talking to its current investors as well as investors in Korea and globally to participate in the capital raise. Rebellions has some big investors, including South Korean chip giant SK Hynix, telecommunication firms SK Telecom and Korea Telecom, and Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco.

AI chip startup Rebellions looks to raise up to $200 million ahead of IPO

Rebellions was last valued at $1 billion. Shin said the current round of funding would push the valuation over $1 billion but declined to give specific figure.

Rebellions is aiming for an initial public offering once this funding round has closed.

“Our master plan is going public,” Shin said.

Rebellions designs chips that are focused on AI inferencing rather than training. Inferencing is when a pre-trained AI model interprets live data to come up with a result, much like the answers that are produced by popular chatbots.

With the backing of major South Korean firms and investors, Rebellions is hoping to make a global play where it will look to challenge Nvidia and AMD as well as a slew of other startups in the inferencing space.

Samsung collaboration

Rebellions has been working with Samsung to bring its second-generation chip, Rebel, to market. Samsung owns a chip manufacturing business, also known as foundry. Four Rebel chips are put together to make the Rebel-Quad, the product that Rebellions will eventually sell. A Rebellions spokesperson said the chip will be launched later this year.

The funding will partly go toward Rebellions’ product development. Rebellions is currently testing its chip which will eventually be produced on a larger scale by Samsung.

“Initial results have been very promising,” Sunghyun Park, CEO of Rebellions, told CNBC on Tuesday.

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Park said Samsung invested in Rebellions partly because of the the good results that the chip has so far produced.

Samsung is manufacturing Rebellions’ semiconductor using its 4 nanometer process, which is among the leading-edge chipmaking nodes. For comparison, Nvidia’s current Blackwell chips use the 4 nanometer process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Rebellions will also use Samsung’s high bandwidth memory, known as HBM3e. This type of memory is stacked and is required to handle large data processing loads.

That could turn out to be a strategic win for Samsung, which is a very distant second to TSMC in terms of market share in the foundry business. Samsung has been looking to boost its chipmaking division. Samsung Electronics recently entered into a $16.5 billion contract for supplying semiconductors to Tesla.

If Rebellions manages to find a large customer base, this could give Samsung a major customer for its foundry business.

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