Top stories today:

1. Elon’s xAI unveils Grok 3, slightly ahead of Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSeek
2. Safe Superintelligence said to be raising $1B+ at $30B+ valuation
3. OpenAI said to consider special voting rights to block hostile bids
4. Elon Musk not DOGE employee, has no decision-making authority: WH
5. Delta Bombardier CRJ-900 flips upside down in Toronto landing

0. Data and calendar

No major events today.

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):

1. Elon’s xAI unveils Grok 3 AI models, slightly ahead of Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSeek

The standard Grok 3 surpassed its key competitors on crowdsourced AI benchmark LMArena:

• Unclear how Grok DeepSearch compares with ChatGPT Deep Research, its most intelligent version.

• Memphis data center containing ~200K GPUs has been used to train Grok 3.

• “10x” more compute used for training vs. Grok 2.

• Shortly: X’s Premium+ tier (now at $40/month or $395/year) will get Grok 3 access.

• SuperGrok plan at $30/month or $300/year should also launched with additional features and thinking ability.

Grok 3 surpassed OpenAI’s o3-mini, o1, and DeepSeek R1 on the AIME 2025 math benchmark, according to xAI

xAI has also launched DeepSearch, an AI agent for web-based research, brainstorming, and data analysis

• Voice-based chatbot will also be released “as soon as possible.”

• xAI’s enterprise API will get Grok 3 with Deep Search in a few weeks.

• xAI also plans to open-source Grok 2 in a few months, Elon Musk said.

3. Safe Superintelligence said to be raising $1B+ at $30B+ valuation

• Greenoaks Capital Partners is said to lead the round with a $500M investment.

• Sep.: Safe Superintelligence raised $1B at $5B valuation from Sequoia Capital, a16z, and DST Global, among others.

• Jun.: OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever founded Safe Superintelligence.

• Developing safe AI systems is its focus.

4. OpenAI said to consider special voting rights to fend off hostile takeover bids