One is chasing models, while the other feels its needs can’t be met by just one partner.

The Microsoft-OpenAI partnership has been on shaky ground for months now, as the two companies have started to compete across more areas and formed new alliances with the other’s rivals. But the companies recently clarified a new phase of their agreement, as OpenAI continued its drift toward a more traditional for-profit structure.

Freed from certain strictures of their previous deal, per Fortune, Microsoft then debuted a new superintelligence team that will allow it to build its own more sophisticated models in a potential bid for AI self-sufficiency. Microsoft released its first in-house models in August.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has woven an elaborate web of deals to feed its insatiable need for more infrastructure to undergird its AI ambitions, including agreements with Microsoft rivals Oracle, Google, and Amazon. OpenAI now plans to spend more on Oracle and others by 2030 than it will with Microsoft, The Information reported.

Analysts said it was inevitable that the two companies would outgrow the alliance that has defined the generative AI revolution.

“It’s been pretty clear that these two are at least going to be frenemies,” Larry Dignan, editor in chief at Constellation Research, told us. “Today, it makes sense to be commingled and have this relationship, but they’re going to gradually separate because I think they’re going to gradually compete.”

Keep reading here.—PK

The US power industry is in transition: not the green energy transition, or making the change from using power sources like oil and coal to renewable power, but one focused on maximizing the amount of electrons generated by all sources to satisfy skyrocketing power demand.

This conclusion comes in a new report from global electrical engineering company Black & Veatch, which surveyed 500 energy industry stakeholders about their power priorities and predictions. Two years ago, half of the respondents said that “new energy efficiency initiatives to address emissions” were a focus at their company; this year, just over a third said that was the case.

“The forward momentum from new clean energy technologies is plateauing,” the report states. “Load growth is starting to edge out emissions reduction as the top priority.”

The electrical industry’s attention is shifting in large part because of AI and data centers’ energy needs, but also because green energy has become politicized. So, utilities are “investing in technologies and business models designed to weather political cycles rather than depend on them.”

Keep reading here.—TC

Meta has been raking in the cash from scammy ads, according to new reporting from Reuters.

Last year, the tech company internally projected that it expected to make 10.1% of its overall annual revenue, or about $16 billion, from ads promoting scams and banned goods, ranging from illegal gambling, banned medical products, and fraudulent investment schemes, according to internal Meta documents between 2021 and 2025 that were reviewed by Reuters. That includes showing users roughly 15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements on average each day, according to the documents.

Meta has estimated that it is now involved in as much as a third of successful domestic scams, according to a document detailing a May 2025 presentation given by Meta safety staff, which also noted that some tech rivals appear to be managing scam ads better than they are.

“It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google,” Meta wrote in one internal review from April 2025.

In a statement to Marketing Brew about the report, Meta spokesperson Matthew Tye characterized the 10.1% figure as “a rough and overly inclusive estimate,” noting that “so far in 2025, we’ve removed more than 134 million pieces of scam ad content.”

Keep reading here.—JS