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Entrepreneur Brian Singerman (R) and Noelle Moseley arrive at the Tenth Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on April 13, 2024. 

Etienne Laurent | Afp | Getty Images

Brian Singerman, one of the earliest employees of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, said on Tuesday that he’s stepping down as a general partner.

Singerman, who joined the firm 17 years ago and became a partner four years later, wrote in a post on X that he’s moving into the role of partner emeritus and will stay on as an “investor and strategic advisor.” Singerman is best known for supporting the firm’s investments in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and defense-tech companies like Anduril.

In exiting the partner ranks, Singerman leaves Founders Fund with three general partners: Thiel, Napoleon Ta and Trae Stephens.

Thiel helped launch Founders Fund in 2005 and has since turned it into one of the leading venture firms in the country, thanks to early bets on Facebook, SpaceX and Palantir, which he co-founded. Keith Rabois left the firm earlier this year and returned to Khosla Ventures, where he worked before joining Thiel.

“From its inception and still today, FF is the place where talented, unconventional thinkers are encouraged to follow their convictions and make world-changing bets,” Singerman wrote in his post.

It’s been a tough few years for the venture industry, with IPOs virtually drying up in late 2021 due, at the time, to rising inflation and interest rates. There have been signs of life of late, with a few companies indicating plans to go public next year, but the highest-valued private companies have yet to indicate when they’ll test out the market.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that SpaceX is considering a tender offer that would value the rocket company at $350 billion, up from $210 billion earlier this year.

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OpenAI temporarily blocked from using ‘Cameo’ after trademark lawsuit

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OpenAI temporarily blocked from using 'Cameo' after trademark lawsuit

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

OpenAI will not be allowed use the word “cameo” to name any products or features in its Sora app for a month after a federal judge placed a temporary restraining order for the term on the AI startup.

U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee granted a temporary restraining order on Monday, blocking OpenAI from using the “cameo” mark or similar words like “Kameo” or “CameoVideo” for any function related to Sora, the company’s AI-generated video app.

“We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo’, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC.

Lee granted the order after OpenAI was sued in October by Cameo, a platform that allows users to purchase personalized videos from celebrities. Cameo filed a trademark lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company following the launch of Sora’s “Cameo” feature, which allowed users to generate characters of themselves or others and insert them into videos.

“We are gratified by the court’s decision, which recognizes the need to protect consumers from the confusion that OpenAI has created by using the Cameo trademark,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement. “While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo.”

The order is set to expire on Dec. 22, and a hearing for whether the halt should be made permanent is scheduled for Dec. 19.

Cameo CEO on OpenAI lawsuit: Problem is using our name, not Sora AI

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OpenAI announces shopping research tool in latest e-commerce push

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OpenAI announces shopping research tool in latest e-commerce push

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 announced a new tool called “shopping research” on Monday, right as consumers will be ramping up spending ahead of the holiday season.

The startup said the tool is designed for ChatGPT users who are looking for detailed, well-researched shopping guides. The guides include top products, key differences between the products and the latest information from retailers, according to a blog.

Users will be able to tailor their guides based on their budget, what features they care about and who they are shopping for. OpenAI said it will take a couple of minutes to generate answers with shopping research, so users who are looking for simple answers like a price check can still rely on a regular ChatGPT response.

When users submit prompts to ChatGPT that say things like, “Find the quietest cordless stick vacuum for a small apartment,” or “I need a gift for my four year old niece who loves art,” they will see the shopping research tool pop up automatically, OpenAI said. The tool can also be accessed from the menu.

OpenAI has been pushing deeper into e-commerce in recent months. The company introduced a feature called Instant Checkout in September that allows users to make purchases directly from eligible merchants through ChatGPT.

Shopping research users will be able to make purchases with Instant Checkout in the future, OpenAI said on Monday.

OpenAI said its shopping research results are organic and based on publicly available retail websites, and that it will not share users’ chats with retailers. It’s possible that shopping research will make mistakes around product availability and pricing, the company said.

Shopping research is rolling out to OpenAI’s Free, Go, Plus and Pro users who are logged in to ChatGPT.

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Tesla fans told by Dutch safety regulator to stop pressuring agency on ‘FSD Supervised’

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Tesla fans told by Dutch safety regulator to stop pressuring agency on 'FSD Supervised'

A Tesla logo outside the company’s Tilburg Factory and Delivery Center.

Karol Serewis | Getty Images

Tesla is trying to get its “FSD Supervised” technology approved for use in the Netherlands. But Dutch regulators are telling Tesla fans to stop pressuring safety authority RDW on the matter, and that their efforts will have “no influence” on the ultimate decision.

The RDW issued a statement on Monday directed at those who have been sending messages to try and get the agency to clear Tesla’s premium partially automated driving system, marketed in the U.S. as the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) option. It’s not yet available for use in the Netherlands or Europe broadly.

“We thank everyone who has already done so and would like to ask everyone not to contact us about this,” the agency said. “It takes up unnecessary time for our customer service. Moreover, this will have no influence on whether or not the planning is met. Road safety is the RDW’s top priority: admission is only possible once the safety of the system has been convincingly demonstrated.”

The regulator said it will make a decision only after Elon Musk’s company shows that the technology meets the country’s stringent vehicle safety standards. The RDW has booked a schedule allowing Tesla to demonstrate its systems, and said it could decide on authorization as early as February.

Last week, Tesla posted on X encouraging its followers to contact RDW to express their wishes to have the systems approved.

The post claimed, “RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026,” adding a message to “please contact them via link below to express your excitement & thank them for making this happen as soon as possible.” Tesla said other EU countries could then follow suit.

The RDW corrected Tesla on Monday, saying in a statement on its official website, that such approval is not guaranteed and had not been promised.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla’s FSD-equipped vehicles in October following reports of widespread traffic violations tied to use of the systems.

The cars Tesla sells today, even with FSD Supervised engaged, require a human driver ready to brake or steer at any time.

For years, Musk has promised that Tesla customers would soon be able to turn their existing electric vehicles into robotaxis, capable of generating income for owners while they sleep or go on vacation, with a simple software update.

That hasn’t happened yet, and Tesla has since informed owners that future upgrades will require new hardware as well as software releases.

Tesla is testing a Robotaxi-brand ride-hailing service in Texas and elsewhere, but it includes human safety drivers or supervisors on board who either conduct the drives or manually intervene as needed. Musk has said the company aims to remove human driers in Austin, Texas, by the end of 2025.

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