Generative artificial intelligence continued to dominate the news this week as Anthropic reportedly is raising an additional $2 billion from Google and others, and reports indicated that gen AI partners OpenAI and Microsoft are each looking to design their own AI chips during a severe shortage of graphics processing units from Nvidia.

Meanwhile, U.K. antitrust authorities zeroed in on cloud computing providers, in particular Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. On this side of the pond, the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google plodded ahead, though some have doubts about the Federal Trade Commission’s similarly sweeping case against Amazon.

On the cybersecurity front, MGM Resorts International declined to pay a ransom following a costly attack that took out its systems, a contrast to Caesar’s Entertainment’s decision to pay $30 million after an attack last month.

Finally, chipmaking giant Intel keeps spinning things out, this time its programmable-chip business, to shore up its finances.

Hear more about this and other news in theCUBE Pod, John Furrier’s and Dave Vellante’s weekly podcast, out now on YouTube. And don’t miss Vellante’s weekly Breaking Analysis, coming Saturday, in which he will dig into how higher interest rates may depress tech spending for longer than many people may assume.

So here’s the news we reported this week:

AI everywhere

It appears Google isn’t out of the Anthropic AIverse yet: Anthropic seeks huge investment from Google just days after Amazon invested billions It’s quite a bit behind OpenAI on revenue apparently, but its enterprise focus and seemingly more open partnership strategy would seem to bode well.

Billions of dollars burning a hole in OpenAI’s pocket? Maybe, but they gotta get more compute somewhere: Report: OpenAI could develop custom AI chips

And late-breaking Friday, Microsoft also may do its own AI chip.

More fun with more realistic weird images: Microsoft integrates OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 into Bing for enhanced image creation

And just a whole heck of a lot of new gen AI-powered business applications — but aren’t they all today?:

Dell enhances its generative AI hardware and software portfolio to cover more extensive use cases

Alteryx launches no-code AI Studio to simplify the development of generative AI applications

Meta now offers generative AI-powered features to advertisers

LinkedIn rolls out new AI-powered automation tools

Zendesk debuts new AI features for its customer service platform

Asana leans on AI to boost productivity and help companies benchmark their employees’ performance

Zoom adds collaborative document feature and folds generative AI into its entire product line

Stampli reels in $61M for its AI-powered accounting platform

David Strom connects with author Kashmir Hill on what happened to facial recognition: The rise and fall of Clearview.AI and the evolution of facial recognition

Interesting angle on the market, a cloud platform for hosting custom and open-source LLMs: Gradient raises $10M for its AI customization and inference platform

Enterprise roundup

Antitrust watch:

UK launches investigation into public cloud market with focus on hyperscalers

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testifies in high-profile Google antitrust trial

Meantime, Alex Kantrowitz at Big Technology thinks the FTC is way overmatched by the companies it’s suing.

Google doubles down on hardware:

Google announces Chromebook Plus with boosted hardware specs and AI features Plus software: Google releases Android 14 and updates to features for Pixel devices

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger keeps picking away to get Intel to a better place in moves that remind me a bit of Dell, where he headed VMware for years and maybe learned at the right hand of the master, Michael Dell: Intel to spin out programmable chip business, with IPO slated for 2-3 years later

Divestitures and spinoffs look to be a thing these days and these surely won’t be the last as the economy slows:

Yahoo spins off AI scaling engine Vespa as an independent company

BlackBerry to split in two, take IoT business public next year

And in other enterprise news:

Docker debuts new tools for developing container applications And embraces gen AI, not surprisingly: Docker debuts GenAI developer stack and its first AI coding assistant

Zeus Kerravala looks at how Zoom is challenging Microsoft Teams, Google Docs and the whole notion that we should still be collaborating in an 8-½-by-11 format: Outside the 8½-by-11 box: Five thoughts from Zoomtopia 2023

Telcos never stop trying to extract more for their pipes, bogus as their arguments may be: EU telcos call for big tech to help finance internet infrastructure upgrades

Jeremy Burton’s company gets a Series A round: Observe raises $50M and integrates generative AI to simplify application observability

Space remains pretty hot: Reusable rocket startup Stoke Space raises $100M for further development

Cyber beat

Damned if you do pay, damned if you don’t: Report: MGM Resorts refused to pay hackers following ransomware attack

I’m thinking “fat chance,” but the effort counts: Red Cross aims to make civilian wartime hacking more humanitarian

After 10 years of crypto scammers, there’s still a rocky road ahead And we’re going to hear a whole lot about one of the accused in coming weeks and months.

I’m not sure whether to feel reassured or alarmed: New NSA center will oversee development and integration of AI capabilities

Malware is forever: Prolific malware and botnet operator Qakbot still operating despite FBI takedown

More momentum for passwordless authentication: Okta announces passwordless passkey support alongside AI for identity and security

Comings and goings

RIP IronNet: Network security company IronNet ceases operations two years after going public In retrospect, perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Headlines on X disappear, at least on mobile. Gracious, what will Elon think of next?

Amazon Web Services uber-vet Jim Scharf joins MongoDB as chief technology officer

The usual post-private-equity buyout playbook: Qualtrics lets go 780 workers to simplify its organizational structure

More layoffs at Flexport too: In wake of CEO departure controversy, Flexport announces another round of layoffs

And in crypto, not surprisingly: Crypto wallet hardware maker Ledger lays off 12% of staff

What’s next

UiPath Forward VI, Oct. 10-11 in Las Vegas and on theCUBE; we’ll be onsite and will have the news and lots of interviews

Adobe MAX, Oct. 10-12, Los Angeles

BoxWorks, Oct. 11, virtual; we’ll have the news, including direct from CEO Aaron Levie

Supercloud 4, Oct. 24-25, live virtual event. Our own editorial event, the latest in a regular series, will look at how generative AI is changing every industry, including tech itself. We’re adding new guests every day to a roster that already includes AI21 Labs’ co-founder and co-CEO Ori Goshen, Google Cloud AI chief June Yang, Neeva co-founder Sridhar Ramaswamy, Monte Carlo co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Lior Gavish, Dell’s new Chief AI Officer Jeff Boudreau, Walmart Senior Vice President David Glick and more. Register here.

Image: Bing Image Creator