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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (L) attends a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education in the East Room of the White House on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images

OpenAI has announced it is developing an AI-centered jobs platform as part of broader efforts to expand AI literacy, and as the company grows its consumer and business-facing AI applications.

The ChatGPT maker’s “OpenAI Jobs Platform” will utilize AI to help connect qualified job candidates to companies, which could put it in competition with Microsoft’s LinkedIn. 

OpenAI and Microsoft have an uneasy partnership, with Microsoft formally labeling the AI startup as a competitor in search and news advertising in its annual filing last year. Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest investor, having reportedly poured $13 billion in the company.

The news was announced by Fidji Simo, chief executive officer of applications and the former head of Instacart, in a blog post on Thursday. 

“Importantly, the jobs platform won’t just be a way for big companies to attract more talent. It will have a track dedicated to helping local businesses compete, and local governments find the AI talent they need to better serve their constituents,” Simo said.

She didn’t elaborate further on details regarding the platform, but a company spokesperson told TechCrunch that it expects to launch the service by mid-2026. 

Additionally, OpenAI will introduce a new certification program in connection with its “OpenAI Academy,” an online learning platform that teaches workers how to use AI on the job better. This could also put it in competition with LinkedIn’s learning platform, which also offers video courses across business, technology and creative fields, with certifications.

“[W]e’re going to expand the Academy by offering certifications for different levels of AI fluency, from the basics of using AI at work all the way up to AI-custom jobs and prompt engineering,” Simo said, adding that the program will utilize ChatGPT’s Study mode. The study feature turns the chatbot into a teacher that questions, hints and provides feedback, instead of giving direct answers.

AI is eliminating jobs and climbing the corporate ladder

Organizations will be able to make the certificate part of their own learning and development programs, with OpenAI already working with Walmart, the largest private employer in the U.S. OpenAI said it plans to certify 10 million Americans by 2030.

The plans come amid fears about how AI is impacting the labor market. Business leaders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff have recently announced layoffs due to AI, while new studies have linked the technology to mass job loss for certain workers.  

Simo acknowledged the “disruptive” force of AI in her post, saying jobs and companies will look different and need to adapt. 

“[W]hat we can do is help more people become fluent in AI and connect them with companies that need their skills, to give people more economic opportunities. 

Recent research from labor market data company Lightcast found that roles that require AI skills pay higher salaries on average than those that don’t. 

The new initiatives were also said to come as part of OpenAI’s “commitment to the White House’s efforts toward expanding AI literacy.” 

The company has been strengthening ties with Washington, launching a new offering called OpenAI for Government on June 16, the same day it was awarded a contract of up to $200 million by the U.S. Department of Defense. OpenAI is also part of the $500 billion Stargate project, which aims to invest in AI infrastructure in the U.S. over the next four years. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was part of a group of tech leaders that met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday to discuss topics including the development of artificial intelligence. 

Before the dinner, first lady Melania Trump made a speech highlighting the importance of AI in education and American progress, but that “we must manage AI’s growth responsibly.”

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Roblox announces short-video, AI features amid child safety concerns

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Roblox announces short-video, AI features amid child safety concerns

Thiago Prudêncio | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Roblox on Friday announced new short-video and AI features that come amid increasing lawmaker scrutiny into how the company protects children on its platform.

With Roblox Moments, users 13 and older will be able to create and share video clips of their gameplay with others on a feed within the platform. The artificial intelligence additions, meanwhile, will allow users to generate advanced 3D objects for the games they create on the platform.

Tune in at 4:15 p.m. ET: Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki joins CNBC TV to discuss the company’s latest announcements coming out of its developer conference. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.

Although users can share video clips from mature games on Moments, users who do not meet the age requirements of those experiences will be unable to view them, the company said. Roblox will moderate each video shared on Moments and will allow users to “flag content that they find is inappropriate,” said Matt Kaufman, Roblox safety chief. Moments is launching in a limited release on Friday.

The AI features will roll out to users before the end of the year. Roblox users will be able to use the artificial intelligence tools to create objects, like futuristic monster trucks, that match the aesthetics of the games users build on the platform, said Anupam Singh, Roblox’s senior vice president of engineering. Those creations will also be moderated, Kaufman said.

Roblox faces a number of lawsuits alleging that its design enables online predators to exploit underage victims.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sued Roblox in August, alleging the company fails to implement robust safety protocols to “protect child users from predators.” At the time, Roblox said, “any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue.”

The company on Wednesday announced it would expand an age estimation program that Roblox debuted in July.

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Google hit with $3.45 billion antitrust EU fine amid U.S. trade tensions

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Google hit with .45 billion antitrust EU fine amid U.S. trade tensions

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Google was on Friday hit with a 2.95-billion-euro ($3.45 billion) antitrust fine from European Union regulators for anti-competitive practices in its lucrative advertising technology business.

The European Commission, which is the executive body of the EU, accused Google of distorting competition in the so-called adtech market by unfairly favoring its own display advertising technology services to the detriment of rival adtech providers, advertisers and online publishers.

It also ordered Google to “bring these self-preferencing practices to an end” and “implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain.” The company has 60 days to respond.

“Today’s decision shows that Google abused its dominant position in adtech harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. This behaviour is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said in a statement Friday.

“Google must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies.”

Google’s global head of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said the EU decision is “wrong” and the firm will appeal.

“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” Mulholland said. “There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.”

The case dates back to 2021 when the EU first opened a probe into Google to assess whether the tech giant favors its own online display ad technology services.

The news comes after Reuters reported earlier this week that the Commission had delayed the fine as regulators were waiting for the U.S. to cut tariffs on European cars as part of a trade deal.

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Broadcom stock jumps 15% on new $10 billion customer that analysts say is OpenAI

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Broadcom stock jumps 15% on new  billion customer that analysts say is OpenAI

Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom.

Martin H. Simon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Broadcom shares soared 15% on Friday after the chipmaker said on its earnings call that it had secured a new $10 billion customer. Analysts quickly pointed to OpenAI.

Following a better-than-expected earnings report late Thursday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told analysts that a fourth large customer had put in orders for $10 billion in custom artificial intelligence chips, which the company calls XPUs.

“One of these prospects released production orders to Broadcom, and we have accordingly characterized them as a qualified customer for XPUs,” Tan said. He added that the order increased Broadcom’s forecast for AI revenue next year, when shipments will begin.

Analysts at Mizuho, Cantor Fitzgerald and KeyBanc all said they think AI startup OpenAI is the customer. The Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the partnership, that the two companies co-designed a chip that will hit the market next year.

OpenAI declined to comment on the report.

While Broadcom doesn’t name its large web-scale customers, analysts have said dating back to last year that its first three clients were Google, Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance.

“During the call, the company surprised us by noting that it had secured a $10B order from a fourth XPU customer (we believe this is OpenAI), adding significant upside to the company’s three current XPU customers (Google, Meta, and ByteDance),” analysts at Cantor wrote in a note late Thursday. “Shipments are expected to commence in 2026.”

Broadcom’s stock has been on a tear of late as the company has joined Nvidia at the front of the race to build the kinds of processors and infrastructures needed for massive AI workloads. The stock is up about 130% in the past year, lifting Broadcom’s market cap past $1.6 trillion.

For the fiscal third quarter, Broadcom reported earnings and revenue that topped estimates. The company said it expects $17.4 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, higher than the $17.02 billion expected by Wall Street analysts, with AI revenue reaching $6.2 billion.

But news of an incoming $10 billion customer is what got Wall Street excited.

Tan said on the call that “immediate and fairly substantial demand” boosts the outlook for next year, “and really changes our thinking of what 2026 would be starting to look like.”

The company didn’t provide specific guidance for next year, but Tan suggested that growth in its AI could be above the 50% to 60% range he’d offered in the prior call.

Analysts at Mizuho raised their AI revenue growth estimate for next year to 76% up from about 60%, which would bring the total to $35 billion. Total revenue for the year ending in October 2026 is expected to increase about 30% to $81.8 billion from $63.1 billion this fiscal year, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG.

In addition to hardware, Broadcom has a large software business, keyed by its $61 billion acquisition of server virtualization software vendor VMware in 2023. Revenue in the infrastructure software business, which includes VMWare, rose 43% to $6.79 billion.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

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