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.”

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

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.

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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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

Last week’s recovery rally allowed the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 to both finish their seventh straight winning month. But technology stocks weren’t able to regain as much ground, as investors weighed concerns about overspending on artificial intelligence.

Here’s a recap:

• The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped around 1.5% in November, snapping its seven-month win streak.
• Palantir was a notable tech loser last month. The defense stock dropping around 16% for its biggest monthly decline in more than two years.
• Silver surged back to all-time highs last week and notched its longest streak of positive months since 1983.
• Today’s session kicks off the final trading month of 2025, which is poised to cap another year of big wins for stock investors.
• Traders are hoping that that market will end the year on a high note. But as CNBC’s Mike Santoli notes, investors have relatively low exposure to U.S. stocks.
• Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum fell this morning, indicating more pain for the crypto trade ahead.
• Follow live markets updates here.

Eli Lilly is getting in on the price-cutting action this morning. The pharma company said it’s lowering the cash cost of single-dose vials of weight-loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform.

Beginning today, patients using cash and with a valid prescription can buy the drug for between $299 and $449 a month, depending on the dose, on the LillyDirect platform. That’s down from the prior range of $349 to $499.

Eli Lilly’s move comes weeks after President Donald Trump signed deals with the company and its competitor Novo Nordisk to make their blockbuster weight-loss drugs more accessible and affordable.

Hollywood has something to be thankful for. This year’s Thanksgiving box office performance is poised to be one of the best in history.

The holiday weekend brought in around $294 million, though that number won’t be finalized until today to account for all of yesterday’s sales. Still, CNBC’s Sarah Whitten reports that this weekend will likely equate to the third or fourth best Thanksgiving period ever. Disney’s “Zootopia 2” led the way, bringing in an estimated $156 million.

Additionally, IMAX said it saw $40.8 million in global ticket sales over the five-day holiday weekend period. That’s a new all-time high and marks a 70% increase from the record set last year.

European-listed shares of Airbus tumbled this morning following reports of an industrial quality issue facing dozens of its A320-family aircraft.

Reuters reported, citing sources, that a flaw is affecting the planes’ fuselage panels, resulting in some some delayed deliveries. However, there are no indications that the issue is affecting planes currently in service.

Airbus did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. In a Monday statement, the company apologized for a software glitch that grounded about 6,000 of its A320-family planes over the holiday weekend.

Family businesses that provide personalized memorial products like gravestones are facing dual challenges. For several years, they’ve been adjusting as the cremation rate grows. More recently, Trump’s tariff increases have added pressure to their bottom lines.

These businesses told CNBC they still import granite despite the levies, due to higher labor costs in the U.S. On top of that, certain types of the stone are only made internationally. As Rome Monument’s John Dioguardi put it, “God gave the different parts of the world certain yummies.”