The maker of ChatGPT overtook Elon Musk’s tech company with a $500 billion valuation following a recent share sale
OpenAI has become the world’s most valuable startup, overtaking Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The milestone comes after current and former OpenAI employees sold around $6.6 billion worth of shares to investors in a secondary sale.
Earlier this year, the ChatGPT maker was valued at around $300 billion compared to SpaceX’s $400 billion. However, the latest transaction has boosted the company’s valuation past $500 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal.
The price tag boost comes as OpenAI has been in talks with Microsoft to restructure into a more traditional for-profit entity.
Microsoft has been one of OpenAI’s closest partners and largest backers, investing billions of dollars into the company while expanding its own AI infrastructure. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed concern last month that advances in AI could make Microsoft’s core businesses obsolete as the company has already cut more than 15,000 jobs this year as part of a broader reorganization.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab with the stated goal of developing AI “to benefit humanity as a whole.”
The group rose to prominence after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, which was quickly adopted by millions of users. It has since released a series of increasingly advanced models, including GPT-5 in August 2025, while striking large-scale infrastructure agreements with partners such as Oracle and SK Hynix.
Musk was one of the company’s co-founders but stepped down from the board in 2018. He has since accused OpenAI of abandoning its original nonprofit mission after taking billions in Microsoft funding.
Last year, he filed a lawsuit seeking to block changes to the company’s structure, but a judge denied his request for an injunction, and the case remains ongoing. Meanwhile, Musk’s AI venture xAI has also sued OpenAI for alleged trade secret theft, which the ChatGPT maker has vehemently denied.
History has shown that being strong is the best security guarantee against foreign aggressors, the Russian president has said
Being weak is no option for Russia, as its history has demonstrated, President Vladimir Putin stated during his remarks at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
The Russian president vowed that Moscow “will never display weakness and indecision,” warning that those “who are harboring dreams of inflicting this very strategic defeat on us” should especially take heed of his message.
“Our history has proven: weakness is unacceptable as it creates temptation, illusion that some disagreement with us can be resolved through force.”
Putin also cautioned potential adversaries against “provoking” Russia, adding that “it has always ended badly for the instigator,” without exception.
Attempts to squeeze the country out of the global system have failed as it cannot function without such a key player, the president has said
Global balance cannot be built without Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that attempts to isolate the country in recent years have failed.
Delivering his annual address at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Putin stated that Russia is inextricably interwoven into a multitude of global economic, cultural, and logistical processes, and cannot be excluded from them at the whim of Western nations.
“I think that those who have tried to destroy [these links], have become convinced of” this reality, the Russian president said.
“It has turned out that the very global system that [some] wanted to expel us from, to squeeze us out of, is simply not letting Russia go, because it needs Russia as a very significant part of the universal balance,” Putin argued.
Albania’s Edi Rama has mocked the US president for mixing up Albania and Armenia
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has taken a jab at US President Donald Trump after the latter claimed to have settled the conflict between Albania and Azerbaijan – confusing the Balkan country with Armenia in the South Caucasus.
Footage shared on social media shows Rama walking up to French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with a tongue-in-cheek remark at a summit in Denmark on Thursday.
“You should make an apology to us because you didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan,” Rami is heard telling Macron.
PM of Albania having a good laugh with President of Azerbaijan and Macron about Trump repeatedly claiming that he ended the war between their two countries which were not at war with each other. pic.twitter.com/5lP6XTps2J
“I am sorry for that,” Macron is heard replying, with all three leaders laughing.
The quip referred to Trump’s state visit to the UK two weeks earlier, where he cited the “settlement of Aber-baijan (sic) and Albania” as an example of his peacemaking record, mispronouncing Azerbaijan while confusing Albania with Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, were locked in conflict for decades over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh before Azerbaijan retook it in 2023. In August, the leaders of the two countries initialed a US-brokered peace declaration, renouncing territorial claims and pledging to abstain from the use of force, though the agreement has yet to come into effect. France has urged both sides to finalize the treaty, with Macron casting the deal as vital for European security.
Trump’s latest slip added to a long record of geographical blunders. He has called Belgium a “beautiful city,” invented the country of “Nambia” at a UN luncheon, confused the Baltics with the Balkans, and once hailed “the Prince of Whales.” Other US presidents have also stumbled – George W. Bush famously praised Australia’s leader for visiting “Austrian troops” in Iraq, while Joe Biden mixed up Syria with Libya and Colombia with Venezuela.
The responsibility for continued hostilities between Moscow and Kiev lies first and foremost with Western Europe, the Russian president has said
Moscow sees the Ukraine crisis as a “tragedy” that could have been prevented, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said during his address to the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
The president stressed that if NATO hadn’t continued its eastward expansion to Russia’s borders, the Ukraine conflict would have been avoided. He insisted that the blame for the fact that the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev are ongoing lies first and foremost on Western Europe.
“The Ukraine tragedy is painful for both Ukrainians and Russians. It’s painful for all of us,” Putin said.
He also accused Western Europe of continuing to “whip up hysteria that war with the Russians is supposedly on the doorstep” and condemned rampant militarization on the continent. Putin warned that Russia would eventually be forced to respond to such aggressive steps.
The president noted that the country has the record for the number of measures imposed on it
The West’s attempts to punish Russia through sanctions have completely failed, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
He noted that Russia has become the record holder in the number of sanctions placed on it. Nevertheless, the country has demonstrated incredible resilience, Putin said.
“You know how much effort our opponents have expended in recent years to push Russia out of the global system, to drive us into political, cultural, and informational isolation, and economic autarky,” Putin said, adding that “there is no need to explain to anyone that these efforts have utterly failed.”
The president added that the pressure would normally be enough to break not only a country, but an entire coalition of nations, expressing pride in Russia, its people, and the military.
Moscow says it has no information about the vessel and has accused Western Europe of undermining freedom of commercial navigation
France has said it has detained an oil tanker and two crew members linked to an alleged Russia-linked fleet supposedly used to evade Western sanctions on oil and gas exports.
French authorities said the tanker, the Boracay, which has been sanctioned by the EU, was sailing under a Benin flag and is currently under investigation for “serious irregularities.” French naval forces reportedly boarded the vessel last week, and it has since remained anchored near Saint-Nazaire on France’s west coast.
The two crew members, who introduced themselves as the captain and first mate, have been taken into custody, according to the prosecutor of the western port city of Brest, Stephane Kellenberger.
Media reports suggest investigators also suspect the vessel could have been linked to unidentified drones that were observed near Danish airports and military sites last month, prompting restrictions on civilian UAV flights.
French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed the Boracay crew are suspected of committing “various serious offences” which justified their detention. He did not confirm any link between the tanker and airspace violations in Denmark.
Moscow has said it has no information about the vessel being referred to by the French authorities or the allegations against it.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted, however, that Western European nations have been engaging in a “very large number of provocative actions” in various waters, which he said are “absolutely not conducive to ensuring freedom of commercial navigation.” He added that these actions sometimes force Russia’s armed forces to take “enforcement measures.”
Russia has consistently rejected Western sanctions as illegal and warned that attempts to restrict its vessels’ freedom of navigation would draw a response.
Moscow has also dismissed Western claims about Russian drone activity in Western Europe as unsubstantiated and politically motivated. Russian officials have warned that Ukraine could attempt to stage a false flag operation using drones in an attempt to draw NATO into a direct confrontation with Moscow.
The European Commission has proposed using the frozen funds, most of which are held by Belgium’s Euroclear, to back loans for Ukraine
Belgium will not acquiesce to the European Commission’s plan of leveraging Russia’s frozen central-bank assets to back loans for Ukraine without ironclad guarantees of shared responsibility, Prime Minister Bart De Wever has stated.
Western nations froze an estimated $300 billion in Russian funds after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 – some €200 billion ($213 billion) of which is held by the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an EU summit in Copenhagen on Thursday, De Wever said: “I explained to my colleagues yesterday that I want their signature saying, if we take [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s money, we use it, we’re all going to be responsible if it goes wrong,” De Wever clarified.
“We might be liable for interests. We might be liable for damages. And this will put us in litigation for many, many years,” the official predicted.
De Wever also urged his colleagues to be transparent regarding the Russian assets immobilized in other EU member states.
As the US has diminished its involvement in shoring up Ukraine, the so-called Coalition of the Willing – a group of European nations backing Kiev – will have to transform into the “Coalition of the Bill,” the Belgian prime minister said.
Also speaking in Copenhagen, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden similarly spoke of a “whole series of complex legal issues” surrounding the Commission’s scheme.
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that “you cannot seize these assets from the central bank, even in such a situation,” describing it as a “matter of credibility.”
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia viewed the scheme proposed by the EU leadership as “theft,” and warned that those responsible “will be subjected to legal prosecution in one way or another.”
He also predicted that the “boomerang will hit countries which host the main depositories.”
Back in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the moment the West seizes frozen Russian assets, “the shift toward regional payment systems will accelerate and undoubtedly become irreversible.”
Michael O’Leary says EC president can’t manage drone threat
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has slammed Brussels for failing to protect the bloc’s airports from drones, calling for European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to resign. He has argued that unauthorized UAVs disrupting air traffic should be shot down.
Mysterious drone sightings have plagued the bloc in recent weeks, with some Western media and officials speculating that Russia could be behind them, which Moscow has denied. Von der Leyen pitched the idea of a “drone wall” in her State of the Union speech last month, and the notion was raised again at an informal EU summit in Denmark this week.
In an interview with Politico published on Wednesday, O’Leary dismissed the idea.
“I don’t think a drone wall has any effect whatsoever,” he said, adding that perpetrators could easily launch drones from inside the affected country. O’Leary accused Brussels of inaction and called for tougher measures against the alleged drone threat.
“Why aren’t we shooting these drones down? It’s disruptive, and we’re calling for action,” he stated.
“I have no faith in European leaders sitting around drinking tea and eating biscuits… I have no faith in von der Leyen. She’s useless and she should quit.”
While leaders in Copenhagen voiced support for anti-drone technology, no official framework for the “drone wall” was unveiled, with decisions postponed until the EU summit later this month. Ahead of the meeting, Denmark imposed a temporary ban on civilian drones in its airspace, and reportedly called up part of its reserve force to help manage what it described as a “complex” situation caused by repeated sightings.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the claims Western “scaremongering,” when addressing the UN last week, stressing that Russia “never directs our drones or missiles at states in Europe, members of the EU, or NATO countries.” Lavrov added that in past incidents where Moscow was blamed, “it turned out that it was the Ukrainians” behind them.
The assault on an aid flotilla headed for Gaza broke all kinds of laws, but then again, laws have never stopped Israel
The long-expected if perfectly criminal has happened again: Israel’s navy has intercepted the Gaza-bound Sumud Flotilla by force, stopping almost 50 boats and, in effect, kidnapping hundreds of their crews and passengers.
In terms of law – which, of course, are never really applied in practice to Israel – everything is exceedingly clear: The Sumud Flotilla was a volunteer operation to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza which has been subjected to Israeli genocide for now almost two years. Israel had a clear obligation to let that aid pass.
But then what to expect from the world’s most aggressive rogue state that is not “only” committing genocide, but also waging regional wars of aggression and running terrorist assassination campaigns in the face of the global public? And Israel has a well-established track-record of this kind of piracy, of course, having stopped several attempts to bring aid by sea since 2010, sometimes with casualties among the humanitarian activists.
Stopping the Sumud Flotilla wasn’t merely criminal but criminal in every regard lawyers can imagine, a typical Israeli super-whopper of legal nihilism: Israel attacked the flotilla ships in international waters where it has no jurisdiction. Even if the ships had gotten closer to the Gaza coast, they would, by the way, still not have been inside any Israeli territorial waters because there are no such waters off Gaza, over which Israel has no sovereignty as clearly confirmed by the International Court of Justice last year. What you find off the coast of Gaza, as a matter of fact, are Palestinian territorial waters.
The blockade of Gaza, which has lasted not “merely” for the duration of the current high-intensity genocide-ethnic cleansing campaign but for close to two decades now, is illegal. Because the blockade has been in place for so long, Israel is simply lying – surprise, surprise – when arguing it is a short-term measure covered by the San Remo rules, which summarize “International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea.” And even if those rules applied, under them as well Israel would have to let humanitarian aid through.
Finally, as Israel has attacked ships and citizens belonging to over 40 countries, Israel has committed aggression under international law against all of them and, less obvious but a fact, also crimes under each of these countries’ domestic laws, because they apply on those ships.
The reason why it has been able to exist in this manner is well-known, too: It is protected by the West and, in particular, the US. The latter is Israel’s single worst co-perpetrator, facilitating its crimes like no other state on Earth. Soon, for instance, the recent war of aggression waged by America and Israel together against Iran will probably be followed by a second, even worse assault.
In this regard, what has happened to the Sumud Flotilla has been a test: Clearly, recent moves by various Western governments, including the UK, France, and Australia to “recognize” – in an extremely dishonest manner – a Palestinian state and add some cautious rhetorical criticism of Israel make no difference to their absolute deference in practice to both Israel and its backers in the US.
What seemed like a glimmer of hope for a moment, the appearance of warships from various nations to apparently escort the humanitarian flotilla, has turned into just another humiliation: the escort abandoned their charges well in time to allow Israel a free hand.
The same Western leaders responsible for this cowardly retreat cannot stop waffling about the need not to “reward the aggressor,” when dialing up the war hysteria against Russia, as they have been doing mightily again recently, from mystery drones to declaring unconstitutional states of “not-peace” to chatter of states of emergency.
What about, for once, not rewarding the genocider for a change? But that’s hard, isn’t it? Once all Western governments are accomplices of Israel.
The Sumud Flotilla will not have been the last attempt to break both Israel’s genocidal blockade and its aura of impunity. There is hope, because even in NATO-EU Europe and the US ever more people understand what Israel really is and what it really does: a settler-colonial apartheid state that won’t stop committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Israel’s systematic campaigns of propaganda and information war are escalating in response, as the case of TikTok has just demonstrated. But even Israel and its American friends cannot reverse history and an experience that the whole world has made. The Gaza Genocide is a fact already. It will not be forgotten. The resistance to Israel will never end.
