Anthropic commits 5% of shares to a benefit fund, Google Cloud adds OpenAI models, and more - Enterprise AI Brief #90

In this edition, covering 17 to 22 October:

• Anthropic plans to put 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund, and Nscale and Anthropic reportedly discuss a second $45 billion compute deal.
• Google Cloud offers OpenAI models in Model Garden, and Volkswagen Group has given Copilot to more than 330,000 employees.
• Nvidia signs an industrial AI declaration with Germany and plans 13 more minority stakes in European AI companies.

Anthropic plans a public benefit fund as more software connects to Claude

Anthropic plans to place 5% of its shares into the wholly owned Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, subject to stockholder approval. The board could add 2% for every 50% increase in the company's value above a set baseline. The fund may support nonprofits, specific populations and efforts addressing AI's effects on workers. Together with earlier founder and employee commitments, Anthropic says about 20% of its shares will be dedicated to public benefit activities. Public benefit fund

Nscale and Anthropic, which already have a $45 billion compute agreement, are reportedly in talks for a second deal of the same size. The talks are ongoing and terms could change, while both companies pursue initial public offerings. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt owns about 1% of Anthropic after investing tens of millions of dollars in its Series A, Bloomberg reported, according to Reuters. It is unclear whether he has sold any of the stake. Some investors discussed an IPO valuation of around $1.5 trillion. Nscale · Eric Schmidt

Three more business applications now work inside Claude. Zillow launched a connector for listing search, interactive maps, home value estimates, affordability calculations and tour requests, alongside its existing experiences in ChatGPT and Gemini. UKG in Claude, in beta, connects the assistant to UKG workforce data through the Model Context Protocol, so leaders can ask about staffing, overtime, costs and retention and take supported actions under their existing UKG permissions. Cube lets finance teams query live, permissioned FP&A data in Claude, compare actuals with forecasts and build scenarios, with source traceability preserved. Zillow · UKG · Cube

Google Cloud offers OpenAI models, OpenAI opens in Israel

Google Cloud is rolling out OpenAI's GPT Astra, GPT 6.1 Sol and GPT 6 Luna models in private preview through Model Garden for select enterprise customers. Customers can access them through Google Cloud Marketplace, use existing cloud commitments and apply Google Cloud's security, data governance and access controls. Codex workflows and wider availability through Gemini for business and Google Antigravity are planned. Model Garden

OpenAI is hiring local executives and expanding partnerships in Israel, while Anthropic and SpaceX are entering the market through local firms to sell AI services to banks, healthcare providers, government ministries and defense organizations. Israel

Google introduced a Gemini business landing page for small business owners, with tools for branding, financial analysis, customer insights and marketing. It connects with Google products and apps including Adobe, Canva, Dropbox, Shopify, Wix, Zoho and Xero, and rolls out globally to Gemini users in the coming days. Gemini for small business

Nvidia signs with Germany and plans 13 more European stakes

Germany's federal government signed a Joint Declaration of Intent with NVIDIA at the Invest in Germany Summit to work on a joint initiative on AI models for physical AI. Jensen Huang also announced planned investments in four German startups, Agile Robots, Avelios Medical, Mirelo and Reflex Aerospace. Following Huang's pledge to announce $2 billion in new European investments, NVIDIA says it plans 13 additional minority stakes in European AI companies. It has invested in 26 European tech companies over the past three years, and some deals have not formally closed. Germany · 13 stakes

Agile Robots plans to produce 1,000 to 2,000 small humanoid robots with Nvidia next year, with production expected to start late this year. Huang said Europe's engineering expertise gives the region an advantage in physical AI and robotics. Agile Robots

Pigment, the Paris based AI planning company, raised $250 million in a Series E at a $2.3 billion valuation, led by Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, with WIL, existing investors and a planned investment from NVIDIA. Nebius and NVIDIA expanded the AI Builder Program in Europe with $10 million in compute grants and founder funding connections through Accel and other European venture firms. Mistral and NVIDIA will develop AI engineering workflows for simulation, CAD to simulation, 3D scene generation and public benchmarks for physics AI in CAE and EDA. Pigment · Nebius · Mistral

Volkswagen rolls out Copilot and builds a driving data system

Microsoft says Volkswagen Group has provided more than 330,000 employees worldwide with Copilot. The phased rollout includes Copilot Chat, Copilot with Work IQ and more than 26,000 active agents, and the companies plan to expand Volkswagen Group's data foundation on Microsoft Fabric. Copilot

Volkswagen Group, Porsche and CARIAD are also building a shared data system for autonomous vehicle development with Voxel51, NVIDIA and Microsoft, connecting fleet data with simulation, training and validation on Microsoft Azure. The collaboration is expected to reduce repeated physical test drives by up to 90% and AI regression test cycles by up to 85%. Data system

Bolt selected the NVIDIA Alpamayo Stack for its planned European autonomous ride hailing programme with Lucid. The programme is due to begin in Madrid in 2027, subject to regulatory approval, and targets at least 25,000 vehicles. Bolt

Robots and physical AI

Teradyne Robotics and Sereact will deploy Sereact's Cortex physical AI platform on Universal Robots arms for returns handling, piece picking and replenishment in retail, logistics and manufacturing. The companies say dual arm systems already operate at Zalando fulfillment centers in Germany and Poland through CEVA Logistics. At NVIDIA GTC Berlin 2026, TÜV SÜD and Accenture presented a Physical AI Safety Suite concept that uses digital twins, AI agents and simulations to assess factory and warehouse automation before deployment. TÜV SÜD estimates the digital process could bring production online up to 30% sooner. Teradyne and Sereact · TÜV SÜD and Accenture

Neura Robotics and Austria's NXAI are developing a memory component for Neuron AI based on NXAI's xLSTM architecture. Generative Bionics plans three Physical AI data facilities, starting with a 5,000 square metre hub in Italy scheduled to open by the fourth quarter of 2027, with AMD Helios computing infrastructure. Körber is acquiring a stake in NAiSE, whose software connects automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots and manually operated industrial trucks in warehouses and production. Neura and NXAI · Generative Bionics · Körber and NAiSE

Lucas Systems and Carnegie Mellon University are researching how data analysis and prediction models can help warehouse supervisors plan workforce and tasks. Lucas Systems

Santander, Crédit Agricole and Truist expand their AI work

Santander and Nvidia are working on tools to evaluate AI models and agents for banking tasks. Santander's AI lab uses a Model Arena and Nvidia NeMo Customizer to select and adapt specialised models, and in a customer service test the bank improved conversation quality while reducing costs by more than 50%. The companies also plan work on fraud detection, anti money laundering, real time decision making and banking digital twins. Santander

Crédit Agricole Artificial Intelligence partners with Mistral on customer conversational agents, business process automation, cybersecurity and adapting large language models to the banking group's data. It also works with Prisme.AI so employees can create and share AI agents. Infosys and Truist are expanding Truist's global capability center in Hyderabad, where more than 1,000 colleagues are expected to join later in October. Crédit Agricole · Truist

In wealth management and trading, Mili's AI agents now work with client files stored in Egnyte alongside CRM, portfolio and planning data, governed by Egnyte permissions. GS Securities gives verified clients Acuity Trading's AI trading signals for forex, gold and indices through its client portal and MT5 desktop platform. Mili and Egnyte · GS Securities

Workday, Oracle, Zoom and ServiceNow open their platforms to agents

Workday says customers can build, deploy and manage HR and finance agents with their preferred development tools and models, including those from Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, OpenAI and NVIDIA, while Workday data, permissions, policies and business processes govern what the agents do. Oracle announced AI Agent Studio, a no code and low code platform for industry specific agents across its Industry Applications, Fusion Applications and OCI services, planned for the United States within the next 12 months. Workday · Oracle

At Zoomtopia 2026, Zoom introduced a Unified Context Layer that links meeting, chat, phone, document and third party application data so people and AI agents can work from shared business context. Tools for Humanity made World ID for Zoom available in the Zoom Marketplace, to confirm that video call participants are verified humans rather than deepfakes. Zoom · World ID

ServiceNow expanded its NVIDIA partnership with Arc, a personal AI agent governed by ServiceNow's Super Intelligence Control Tower and NVIDIA OpenShell. OpenShell and BlueField will also use ServiceNow's AI Passport to check which actions agents are allowed to perform. Cloudflare added Cloudflare OS integrations with Asana, Box, Canva, ClickHouse, GitHub, Gong and Notion, and deployment partnerships with EPAM, HappyCog and Towards AI. Pax8 launched 8os, which gives IT service providers tools to manage AI agents, models, permissions, usage and billing for small business customers, and a managed AI coworker called 8bot. General availability is planned for early 2027. ServiceNow · Cloudflare · Pax8

Factory's autonomous software agents, called Droids, are now available through Databricks Marketplace, and Databricks will expand its 5 Bryant Park office in New York City to about 120,000 square feet across five floors. Visier expanded its Workforce Context Engine to give governed workforce context to AI agents and platforms including Databricks, Snowflake and Google Cloud, and says Eaton used it to reduce manual reports by 90%. UK based Valarian will deploy Perplexity's AI tools through its ACRA platform on infrastructure the customer selects. Factory · Databricks office · Visier · Perplexity and Valarian

New agents for analysis, knowledge and procurement

WisdomAI introduced Owls, AI analysts that continuously analyze governed enterprise data, recommend approved actions and track progress toward assigned goals, managed through Slack or Microsoft Teams. Owls enter beta in early November. MirrorShip launched its MirrorShip Intelligence Platform in Hong Kong, combining real time analytics, shared business metric definitions, data access controls, AI agents and auditing. WisdomAI · MirrorShip

CollectivIQ introduced GigaBrain, a shared knowledge layer with source tracing, access permissions and an incognito mode for information that should stay out of shared memory. Haystack expanded its MCP server to ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot Studio and Slack alongside Claude, and write access for creating pages and posts on all four starts on 26 October. Thought Industries launched Lens in beta, which identifies conflicting or outdated product guidance before it reaches customers. CollectivIQ · Haystack · Thought Industries

Asuri.ai, built by Sprouter Technologies, lets nontechnical teams coordinate specialized agents across more than 1,000 business applications. Precoro's Intake Agent turns brief employee requests into compliant requisitions, which requesters confirm before submission. Freespace launched Space Manager, which tests office layouts, seating plans and attendance patterns against occupancy data and business goals. Scaled Cognition introduced Voice, a text to speech model for customer service in more than 25 languages, priced at $9 per million characters for the hosted API and $1 per million characters for self hosting, excluding infrastructure costs. Asuri.ai · Precoro · Freespace · Scaled Cognition

Cognizant, Tech Mahindra and Publicis Canada build AI practices

Cognizant and Google Cloud formed a Gemini Frontier Capability Group backed by more than 18,000 Cognizant engineers, to help companies deploy AI agents for legacy modernization, software development, business processes and cybersecurity. More than 55,000 Cognizant associates also completed a Google Cloud Gemini workshop. Cognizant launched AI Nexus, an operating layer that tracks AI spending, assesses quality, routes requests across models and documents business results. It also agreed to acquire DyFlex Solutions, an SAP Platinum Partner with more than 300 employees in Australia and New Zealand. Financial details were not disclosed, and completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027. Gemini group · AI Nexus · DyFlex

Tech Mahindra and SpaceXSI will combine Tech Mahindra's engineering and consulting services with SpaceXSI's Grok Build AI coding platform to help enterprises modernize applications. In Canada, Moov AI and Nurun are forming MOOV, a Publicis Canada company with more than 200 experts in strategy, data, AI, design and software development. Tech Mahindra · MOOV

TalentNeuron and Boston Consulting Group will help organizations assess how AI changes roles, skills and workforce costs. Fulcrum and Slalom will help electrical, gas and water utilities use AI for field operations. AuxoAI raised $20.7 million in a Series A led by NTT Venture Capital to expand its enterprise AI consulting. evolv Consulting appointed Matt Gennone, formerly Fractal's Chief Commercial Officer, as CEO, and founder Eric Neef becomes executive chairman. TalentNeuron and BCG · Fulcrum and Slalom · AuxoAI · evolv

SAP and IBM report third quarter results

SAP's third quarter revenue rose 13% to €10.27 billion and cloud revenue 26% to €6.67 billion. Current cloud backlog grew 28% to €24.1 billion, and SAP moved its 2026 cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue outlooks toward the upper ends of its ranges. IBM's revenue rose 5% to $17.1 billion, with 8% growth in Software and 4% in Infrastructure. IBM now expects full year free cash flow to rise by more than $1 billion from 2025 and kept its forecast of 4% to 5% constant currency revenue growth. SAP · IBM

Otter.ai, Town and Coherence Neuro raise money, Helsing backs Destinus

Otter.ai received $320 million from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund, capital that comes without equity dilution, for enterprise growth, sales and marketing, international expansion and product development. Otter.ai says 40 million people have used its product and its annual recurring revenue passed $100 million last year. Town, an AI assistant startup founded by former Plaid CTO Jean-Denis Greze, raised a $108 million Series B at a unicorn valuation, led jointly by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures, bringing its total funding to at least $160 million. Otter.ai · Town

The OpenAI Startup Fund and Founders Fund backed Coherence Neuro in a $45 million seed round. The company is developing a brain implant to detect and treat cancer, plans a long term clinical trial for glioblastoma and says OpenAI will not have access to its brain or health data. IBM Ventures made a strategic investment in Leena AI, whose agents automate HR, IT and finance workflows at more than 500 enterprises. Jooba raised a $4 million seed round for recruiting that combines human recruiters with AI sourcing agents, sold through flat subscriptions. Coherence Neuro · Leena AI · Jooba

In defence, Helsing and Destinus agreed a commercial partnership to offer joint solutions to NATO and allied armed forces, and Helsing will take part in Destinus' latest funding round. Bloomberg had reported a valuation of about $6.7 billion. Navantia and Multiverse Computing signed a memorandum to develop AI and quantum inspired solutions for naval defence using Multiverse's CompactifAI technology. Helsing and Destinus · Navantia

Data centers, chips and power

Armada will manufacture and deploy modular AI infrastructure based on NVIDIA's DSX POD reference design for the Vera Rubin platform, and with Johnson Controls plans to build 500MW of distributed sovereign AI capacity in 2027. Duos Technologies signed a 10 year, 20 MW colocation agreement with a publicly traded US cloud services provider, worth more than $400 million over its initial term, with deployment expected in the second quarter of 2027. Soluna and Applied Digital will form a jointly owned company to develop a planned 50 MW data center in Briscoe County, Texas, powered by the 150 MW Briscoe Wind Farm and the grid. Applied Digital is expected to hold 51% and Soluna 49%, and ChronoScale has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to lease the facility. Armada · Duos · Soluna and Applied Digital

Vantage secured more than 1 GW of Heron Power Electronics' Heron Link solid state transformers for 800 VDC power distribution at its hyperscale campuses. Endeavour and Trevi Systems will scale desalination that uses data center waste heat to produce up to 200,000 gallons of clean water per day for each megawatt of computing capacity. Arelion deployed multi terabit capacity on its Helsinki to Warsaw route as part of its Baltic network expansion. Vantage · Endeavour and Trevi · Arelion

Samsung Electro-Mechanics and NVIDIA will jointly invest in dedicated ABF substrate production in Sejong and Busan, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics will supply substrates for NVIDIA AI processors and networking switches from 2026 under a multi year agreement. Japan's NEDO selected Preferred Networks and Tenstorrent for a five year project to develop AI processors that integrate photonics and electronics. G42 and its portfolio company Analog signed nonbinding MoUs with Yann LeCun's AMI Labs covering world models, AI infrastructure and sovereign enabled cloud. Samsung Electro-Mechanics · NEDO · G42 and AMI Labs

T-Mobile and Elisa test AI-RAN, carriers add voice AI

T-Mobile completed the first AI-RAN call on a commercial network, in Bellevue, Washington, using Nokia software on NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer servers. Elisa, after live network trials in Helsinki, plans to validate AI RAN in its commercial network in 2027 with NVIDIA and Nokia, and BT and Deutsche Telekom plan further trials in 2027. NTT DOCOMO and NTT began a trial on 20 October that uses AI to shift communications workloads between base stations with solar power and battery management, with completion planned by December. Saudi Arabia's stc group published a white paper on developing an AI native core network by 2030. T-Mobile · Elisa · NTT DOCOMO · stc

Deutsche Telekom uses AudioCodes VoiceAI Connect with Mistral AI services for Voice AI Notes Mobile, which records, transcribes and summarizes business calls for small and medium sized businesses. Ribbon launched network based detection of AI generated voice deepfakes for carriers. Teleste added Acapela's AI text to speech voices to its S-ARRIVE passenger information platform for trains, trams and metros in Finland. Deutsche Telekom · Ribbon · Teleste

AstraZeneca, SickKids and UK Biobank work on health AI

AstraZeneca and Oracle will work on AI and real world data projects for clinical trial recruitment, earlier diagnosis, safety monitoring and care. The first programme supports hypertension care and research in Abu Dhabi with M42, and the collaboration is based on a nonbinding term sheet. The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Microsoft Canada agreed a five year partnership to expand SickKids' use of Azure, strengthen clinical data systems and develop staff skills. AstraZeneca and Oracle · SickKids

Ultima Genomics will sequence 80,000 blood samples for an immune profiling study by IMU Biosciences, UK Biobank and Waters Corporation, creating a single cell immune dataset for AI. HistoIndex and A*STAR will use AI powered digital pathology in the preclinical evaluation of fibrosis therapies, and Helfie AI and Health Innovation South West will evaluate smartphone based hypertension screening. Google.org awarded a combined $36 million to 17 AI for Science projects in climate, energy, health and scientific research. Ultima Genomics · HistoIndex · Helfie AI · Google.org

Qatar, Jisc and Advtech bring AI to education

Qatar University, Qatar's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Scale AI will develop the National Co-Advisor Platform, which gives students personalized academic guidance and helps advisors identify students needing support, with human oversight. Jisc and Google started a two year partnership on AI training and governance for UK universities and colleges, including a Jisc reseller framework for Google Workspace for Education. Advtech acquired a 25% stake in MathU, with a board seat and exclusive rights to its AI enhanced education products. Qatar · Jisc and Google · Advtech

Legal AI connects to data rooms and case files

Ansarada and Legora launched a beta integration that lets authorised Legora customers import documents and folders from Ansarada data rooms for due diligence, drafting and closing, keeping Ansarada permissions and audit records. Mary Technology's connector brings its factual investigation software into Harvey for litigation teams. Lexsoft Systems will offer Clio Work and Clio Manage to law firms and corporate legal departments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ansarada and Legora · Mary Technology · Lexsoft and Clio

Also

Uber is giving all 30,000 of its employees access to ChatGPT Work after a pilot with 1,000 staff in finance, operations and product. Podium says its AI agent business passed $150 million in annual recurring revenue in two and a half years, with more than 20,000 agents working for local businesses. Uber · Podium

Goldman Sachs launched a Small Business AI Institute as part of a $500 million expansion of its 10,000 Small Businesses program, with Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta providing AI training and tools. SpaceXSI started a partner network for companies building products, integrations and services with Grok; more than 130 companies joined its early access phase. Goldman Sachs · Grok partners

Hyland for Guidewire connects Hyland's Content Innovation Cloud and OnBase with Guidewire ClaimCenter, PolicyCenter and BillingCenter without content migration. Twenty Labs gained FedRAMP Class C certification for its Polycore government platform through a partnership with Knox Systems. Hyland · Twenty Labs

In commerce, Shoplazza supports TikTok's Buy Direct and Shopping Assistant as a commerce and payment partner, and Dr Dent extends its work with Vidsight to its UK TikTok Shop affiliate programme after a US pilot. Sunrate's payment services are being integrated into TourMind's AI travel platform, and Rentec Direct added Market Ready Turn's AI turnover technology for rental units. Hi Auto and Bojangles extended their partnership for Bo-Linda, the AI drive thru order taker that runs at nearly 500 Bojangles locations and handles more than a million orders a week; it will reach 100 more locations by mid 2027. Shoplazza · Dr Dent · Sunrate · Rentec Direct · Bojangles

Moises and SoundCloud let eligible artists import SoundCloud tracks into Moises and publish finished music back to SoundCloud. Spaxial, founded by John Padgett, creator of Disney's MagicBand, launched a platform for personalized services at cruise lines, casinos, theme parks, stadiums and resorts. Moises and SoundCloud · Spaxial