Highlights for this morning: OpenAI mega-round, $15 billion for Waymo, Warner Bros. prefers Netflix

OpenAI is discussing raising more than $10 billion from Amazon and a possible move to Trainium chips, which means less dependence on Microsoft. Alphabet-owned startup Waymo is negotiating a $15 billion round, which would give it a valuation of $110 billion. These and other topics are covered in our review of key events for the morning of December 17.

ChatGPT developer OpenAI is in talks with Amazon about a possible investment and agreement to use its Trainium AI chips, CNBC reported, citing a source. According to him, the amount could exceed $10 billion, although the terms have not yet been finalized. The Information wrote about the same earlier. The deal under discussion could value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, Bloomberg's source specified.

The discussions came after OpenAI's restructuring in October, which expanded the company's freedom to raise capital and partnerships outside of Microsoft's ecosystem, CNBC explains. Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, no longer has the exclusive right to be the first to offer its servers and facilities to the startup.

Amazon has already invested at least $8 billion in OpenAI competitor Anthropic and is actively developing its Inferentia and Trainium AI chips, the channel notes.

Waymo, which provides robot cab services, is in talks to raise about $15 billion in a new round of funding, sources told CNBC and The Information. The money could come both from Waymo's parent company Alphabet and from outside investors, and the startup's valuation could reach $110 billion.

Waymo now operates in Austin, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles and, according to CNBC, performs about 450,000 paid rides per week. In 2026, the company plans to launch its service in 11 more U.S. cities, as well as enter the London market.

The board of directors of Warner Bros. Discovery may already on Wednesday, December 17, announce a decision on Paramount Skydance's proposal to take over the company for $108.4 billion and, according to Reuters sources, will most likely recommend shareholders to vote against the deal. Netflix is also vying for WBD's assets: it has offered $72 billion in cash and stock and is considered the favorite despite coming in second.

Paramount's proposal is being funded with equity from the family of CEO David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, as well as capital from RedBird Capital and debt from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo. The day before, Affinity Partners, the company of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, withdrew its support for the bid, Bloomberg wrote.

Shares of Chinese chip maker MetaX Integrated Circuits rose about 700% on the first day of trading in Shanghai after the IPO: at the offering price of 104.66 yuan, the quotes rose above 835 yuan, CNBC reports. In total, the company raised about $600 million.

MetaX is developing graphics processors for artificial intelligence tasks. Investors' interest is fueled by China's desire to reduce its dependence on U.S. chips amid U.S. export restrictions, including a ban on shipments of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips to the country, the channel said.

Swedish AI startup Lovable has raised new funding with a $6.6 billion valuation, sources told CNBC. After the previous round in July, it was valued at $1.8 billion. The investment was provided by U.S. venture capital fund Accel, as well as Khosla Ventures. This is Lovable's third round this year, making the company one of the most expensive in Europe, the channel points out.

Founded in 2023, the startup is the leader in the European "vibe coding" segment: the platform allows you to create applications and websites based on text queries without programming skills, using the OpenAI and Anthropic models. By November 2025, Lovable has reached $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) - less than a year after reaching $1 million.

- Japan's broad Topix index was little changed, with the Nikkei 225 up 0.3 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index jumped more than 2 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 1 percent, while the Kosdaq fell 0.6 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.2 percent.

- Futures on major U.S. stock indices were virtually unchanged.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor