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Shoppers carry bags of purchased merchandise at the King of Prussia Mall on December 11, 2022 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Mark Makela | Getty Images

Google announced Thursday new artificial intelligence tools that can help you with holiday shopping. So, if you’re shopping for a 4-year-old nephew this year, it can help you find ideas on what he might like with a command like “gifts for a 4-year-old who likes science.”

It’s the first time that generative artificial intelligence is available in Google Shopping, and comes ahead of the holiday season which might attract people to use the site over other options. Holiday spending is expected to reach record highs, according to the National Retail Federation, with its projection ranging from $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion.

Google Shopping has three new features that were announced Thursday:

  • It can tell you what kind of gift a person might like depending on the interests you provide in search.
  • It can generate a photorealistic image of an item you might want, all you have to do is describe it.
  • It now offers 40 photos of men and women of various shapes, sizes and backgrounds to attempt to give a virtual clothing try-on experience.

People can opt into the new options by going into Search Labs and turning on Search Generative Experiences (SGE.)

Here’s a look at what’s new:

The first feature, which is a part of Google’s search generative experience, lets you type in a phrase to the search bar, like “great gifts for home cooks” and Google will return a list of gifts, descriptions of items that a home cook would like and other non-physical items like cooking classes.

You can also get more specific and type in something like “gifts for a 7-year-old who wants to be an inventor.” In that case, it recommended a $25 Inventor’s Box set from Target, among other products.

Google’s second new tool also uses SGE and is designed so you can specify exactly what you’re looking for by describing it. So, if you wanted to search for a “puffy, colorful metallic-looking jacket” it might return results like the picture below:

Google will generate photorealistic images to attempt to make shopping easier.

Google

AI creates a photorealistic image of a variety of items that fit the description you type, and then actual products that are similar to the generated image will appear after you click. This one is designed more for when you are looking for something for yourself, but don’t know exactly what you want. It launches in the U.S. in December.

Google has 40 photos of men and women of different shapes, sizes and backgrounds to try to give people a virtual try-on experience.

Google

The last new function lets you see how a product might look on you. You can search, for example, “brown jacket at J-Crew” and Google will show you photos of 40 different men and women of different shapes, sizes and backgrounds so you can see what a piece of clothing looks like on different models. A version of this already existed for women’s tops, but it is now a more broad-reaching tool.

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CNBC Daily Open: Beauty is in the eye of the U.S. jobs report beholder

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CNBC Daily Open: Beauty is in the eye of the U.S. jobs report beholder

Business representatives staff a table at a career fair in Harlem hosted by Assemblymember Jordan Wright on Dec. 10, 2025, in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The U.S. November jobs report has something for everybody.

Those convinced of weakness will highlight the higher-than-expected unemployment rate as well as the number of jobs shrinking in October.

On the other hand, proponents of a strong economy will focus on jobs growth in November beating estimates, and point out that the increase in the unemployment rate was mostly because the labor force grew, as CNBC’s Jeff Cox noted.

Without any definitive judgment that can be made on the state of the labor market, traders left their bets on interest rate cuts in January mostly unchanged. It’s currently at 25.5%, around one percentage point higher than before the release of the November jobs report, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

“Today’s data paints a picture of an economy catching its breath,” said Gina Bolvin, president at Bolvin Wealth Management Group. “Job growth is holding on, but cracks are forming. Consumers are still standing, but not sprinting.”

That ambivalence was reflected in markets as well. Major U.S. indexes were mixed: The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.24% and 0.62% respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite registered a mild gain of 0.23%, thanks to Tesla stock closing at an all-time high.

Whether you’re a bull or a bear, Tuesday’s tea leaves will show you what you want to see — but beware confirmation bias.

What you need to know today

And finally…

A general view looking past Tower Bridge toward Residential and commercial skyscrapers in Canary Wharf on June 26, 2025 in London, United Kingdom.

John Keeble | Getty Images News | Getty Images

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OpenAI in talks with Amazon about investment that could exceed $10 billion

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OpenAI in talks with Amazon about investment that could exceed  billion

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

OpenAI is in discussions with Amazon about a potential investment and an agreement to use its artificial intelligence chips, CNBC confirmed on Tuesday.

The details are fluid and still subject to change but the investment could exceed $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are confidential. The Information first reported on the potential deal.

The discussions come after OpenAI completed a restructuring in October and formally outlined the details of its partnership with Microsoft, giving it more freedom to raise capital and partner with companies across the broader AI ecosystem.

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI and backed the company since 2019, but it no longer has a right of first refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider, according to an October release. OpenAI can now also develop some products with third parties.

Amazon has invested at least $8 billion into OpenAI rival Anthropic, but the e-commerce giant could be looking to expand its exposure to the booming generative AI market. Microsoft has taken a similar step and announced last month that it will invest up to $5 billion into Anthropic, while Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion in the startup.

Amazon Web Services has been designing its own AI chips since around 2015, and the hardware has become crucial for AI companies that are trying to train models and meet growing demand for compute. AWS announced its Inferentia chips in 2018, and the latest generation of its Trainium chips earlier this month.

OpenAI has made more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure commitments in recent months, including agreements with chipmakers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom. Last month, OpenAI signed a deal to buy $38 billion worth of capacity from AWS, its first contract with the leader in cloud infrastructure leader.

In October, OpenAI finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a $500 billion valuation.

WATCH: Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Oracle says there have been 'no delays' in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

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Shares of Chinese chipmaker MetaX soar nearly 700% in blockbuster Shanghai debut

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Shares of Chinese chipmaker MetaX soar nearly 700% in blockbuster Shanghai debut

Narumon Bowonkitwanchai | Moment | Getty Images

Shares of Chinese chipmaker MetaX Integrated Circuits soared about 700% in their market debut in Shanghai on Wednesday, after the company raised nearly $600 million in its initial public offering.

Shares, which were priced at 104.66 yuan in the IPO, surged to over 835 yuan on debut, marking a 697% jump.

Similar to Moore Threads, which saw a robust debut at the start of the month, MetaX develops graphics processing units for artificial intelligence applications, tapping into a fast-growing sector driven by rising adoption of AI services.

MetaX is part of a growing cohort of local chipmakers building AI processors, reflecting Beijing’s push to reduce dependence on U.S. chips following Washington’s tech curbs on export of high-end technology to China.

Washington has imposed export curbs on U.S. chip behemoth Nvidia, barring sales of its most advanced AI chips to China.

Newer Chinese players such as Enflame Technology and Biren Technology have also entered the AI space, aiming to capture a share of the billions in graphics processing unit, or GPU, demand no longer served by Nvidia. Chinese regulators have also been clearing more semiconductor IPOs in their drive for greater AI independence.

Earlier this month, shares of Moore Threads, a Beijing-based GPU manufacturer often referred to as “China’s Nvidia,” soared by more than 400% on its debut in Shanghai following its $1.1 billion listing.

Macquarie’s equity analyst Eugene Hsiao said investor enthusiasm around Chinese AI-chip IPOs such as MetaX is partly shaped by longer-term expectations that China will build a self-sufficient semiconductor ecosystem as tensions with the U.S. persist.

“For that to work, you need these players. You need names like Moore Threads, Meta X, etc,” he said.

“So I think when investors are looking at these IPOs, they implicitly are thinking about the nationalistic element,” Hsiao noted, adding that the main driver of the frenzy, however, was the firms’ growth potential.

— CNBC’s Dylan Butts contributed to this article.

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