AI-driven shopping assistants are projected to influence $263 billion in global online holiday sales, representing 21% of seasonal e-commerce. Retailers including Walmart, Target and Etsy are enabling purchases via ChatGPT, while AI-referred traffic in the U.S. shows higher conversion, longer browsing, and greater revenue per visit.

Over the week, Oracle’s share price fell around 10% after its Q2 2026 earnings, as quarterly revenue of $16.06 billion came in below the $16.21 billion forecast. Yet the company’s remaining performance obligations climbed to $523 billion and high-margin cloud services expanded rapidly, while Larry Ellison’s influence in political and defense circles underpins expectations for future AI and government contracts. These factors suggest the pullback in ORCL may reflect timing of revenue conversion more than a broad AI bubble reversal.

On December 11th, 2025 in New York, TestMachine announced it had secured $6.5 million in venture funding to accelerate global deployment of its AI-based blockchain security platform Predator. The round was led by Blockchange Ventures, Decasonic, Delphi Ventures, and New Form Capital, with participation from several other investors, and will support expanded development and integration of Predator across exchanges, custodians, market makers, and DeFi protocols.

President Donald Trump signed a federal executive order on Thursday at the White House that prevents U.S. states from enforcing their own artificial intelligence laws and centralizes oversight in Washington. The directive establishes a Justice Department task force to challenge conflicting state rules in court, orders a 90-day review of state AI laws, and ties certain broadband and grant funding to alignment with federal AI policy.

On December 11, 2025, at its first Autonomy and AI Day, Rivian unveiled a custom autonomy AI chip, a new vehicle computer, and in‑house models. RIVN fell over 4% intraday and closed down as much as 9%. Nvidia ended 2% lower. Autonomy+ is slated for early 2026 at $2,500 upfront or $49.99 per month.

On December 11, 2025, MiniMax and Zhipu said they are preparing Hong Kong IPOs, aiming to list in early 2026. MiniMax could raise hundreds of millions, while Zhipu is targeting about $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Both Alibaba- and Tencent-backed companies still need CSRC approval after the exchange’s review.

OpenAI said on December 11, 2025 that its next‑generation models may reach high cybersecurity capability, enabling functional zero‑day exploits and complex attacks. The company cited a capture‑the‑flag performance jump from 27% (GPT‑5, August 2025) to 76% (GPT‑5.1‑Codex‑Max, November 2025). It introduced Aardvark, trusted defender access, and a Frontier Risk Council.

Intel on Monday outlined plans to manufacture chips in India, followed on Tuesday by Microsoft pledging $17.5 billion over four years and on Wednesday by Amazon announcing more than $35 billion in fresh investment. The commitments focus on cloud and AI infrastructure, with Microsoft and Amazon’s combined pledges topping $50 billion within a 24‑hour period.