Top Stories This Morning: Apple Has Developed AI for China; OpenAI's Revenue Could Exceed $40 Billion

Apple has trained its own AI model for the Chinese market with support from Alibaba—it could become the first foreign company to receive Beijing’s approval to use its model in the country. OpenAI has reached an annual revenue run rate of over $40 billion, roughly double what it was at the end of last year. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of August 14.

Apple has developed a large language model specifically for the Chinese market with support from Alibaba, sources told Reuters. This marks a departure from its previous strategy, which relied on models from local partners. Having its own product will give Apple more control over AI features and could make it the first foreign company to receive Beijing’s approval to use its own AI model.

Apple Intelligence is scheduled to launch in China in the coming months following an iOS update. The service is also expected to incorporate Alibaba’s Qwen model and Baidu’s technologies. It is not yet clear exactly how Apple’s model will work alongside the solutions from its Chinese partners, the agency notes.

OpenAI has reached an annualized revenue rate of over $40 billion, which is roughly double the level projected for the end of 2025, according to Bloomberg sources. This refers to annualized revenue, which reflects a year-end forecast based on current growth rates. Growth has accelerated thanks to AI programming tools, subscriptions, and the recently launched advertising business. In July alone, revenue increased by more than 20% compared to the previous month.

The company is preparing to go public and is competing for corporate clients with Anthropic, which has also filed a confidential IPO application and may go public as early as this fall. In May, Anthropic reported an annual revenue run rate of over $47 billion, the agency notes.

Brazilian fintech Nubank’s net income in the second quarter rose 49% year-over-year to a record $1.06 billion, exceeding analysts’ forecast of $967 million, according to Reuters. Revenue increased by 39% to $5.88 billion, while the loan portfolio grew by 37% to $39.4 billion.

The results exceeded market expectations thanks to revenue growth and an improvement in the risk-adjusted interest margin—to 12.4% from 9.9% a year earlier, the agency notes. Nubank shares jumped by about 9.5% in after-hours trading.

Uber and China’s Pony.ai plan to deploy 2,000 self-driving taxis in Europe and expand their partnership to the Middle East, according to CNBC. In March, the companies already launched a commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb, and now they intend to expand to four more European cities, though the names and timelines have not yet been disclosed.

Uber is actively expanding its partnerships with autonomous vehicle developers in an effort to become the world’s largest platform for the commercialization of autonomous transportation. The company is also collaborating with WeRide and other operators and is preparing robotaxi projects in Madrid and Tokyo, according to the TV channel.

Reddit will be added to the S&P 500 index on August 18, replacing AvalonBay Communities, according to CNBC. The social media company’s shares rose 11% in after-hours trading: inclusion in major indices typically boosts demand for the stock from funds that track those indices.

Reddit will become the second social media company in the S&P 500 after Meta. The company recently reported its eighth consecutive quarter of revenue growth of more than 60%, although investors are concerned about Reddit's reliance on Google search traffic.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index rose 0.4%, while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.3%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.1%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 0.3%.

— In South Korea, the KOSPI rose 2%, while the KOSDAQ fell 0.4%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1%.

— U.S. stock index futures remained virtually unchanged.

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