In the high-stakes war for AI talent, you never know which way the wind will blow next.

OpenAI had reportedly been in talks to acquire AI coding platform Windsurf when Google stormed in to hire away the startup’s top talent and secure nonexclusive licensing rights to some of Windsurf’s assets. Then Cognition, the AI startup behind coding agent Devin, announced a deal to buy up the rest of Windsurf.

The episode is the latest in a string of reverse-acquihire-style deals that have become fashionable in the AI space. A Big Tech company will peel off top employees from a startup and license rights to some tech assets, while stopping short of an outright acquisition. Some examples include Microsoft and Inflection, Google and Character.ai, Meta and Scale, and Amazon and Adept.

Legal loophole: These types of deals notably sidestep the traditional merger review process, which might have been especially attractive under the Biden administration’s heightened antitrust enforcement.

But the Newcomer newsletter pointed out that these deals have another advantage that could explain why they’ve lived on into a new administration: expediency.

Keep reading here.—PK

It’s fair.

That’s what two California judges recently ruled about Meta and Anthropic’s use of certain copyrighted books in training their respective LLMs. The companies each faced a lawsuit from a different set of prominent authors.

These are the first major rulings to weigh in on the question of whether it should be legal for developers to train GenAI models on copyrighted materials.

Tech companies argue that falls under the fair use doctrine, a legal exception that allows for nonpermissioned use of protected works in certain contexts, like news reporting, research, or parody. But copyright holders like authors, news publishers, and other media creators tend to argue that AI models harm the market for their work or aren’t sufficiently transformative in output, both of which would mean fair use isn’t applicable.

These arguments are playing out over a slew of high-profile lawsuits currently in the court system. Lawyers have told us that it will likely take a Supreme Court decision to settle this for good—and that could take years.

But for now, the Anthropic and Meta rulings offer a window into how judges are thinking about these questions. And so far, they’ve sided with AI companies, albeit with major caveats.

Keep reading here.—PK

What do good rom-coms and electric vehicle batteries have in common? They’ve got the right chemistry.

To that end, the US auto industry is working to commercialize lithium iron phosphate (LFP), a battery chemistry that’s popular in China, as the sector aims to deliver more affordable EVs.

On Monday, Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors and South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, announced plans to upgrade its battery cell manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, “to scale production of low-cost lithium iron phosphate battery cells,” according to a news release.

Ultium Cells will start the process of converting battery cell lines at the plant for LFP production later this year, with plans for commercial production to start “by late 2027.” GM plans to incorporate the battery chemistry into its EV lineup alongside nickel-rich batteries, the industry norm today, and lithium-manganese-rich batteries.

“At GM, we’re innovating battery technology to deliver the best mix of range, performance, and affordability to our EV customers,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s VP of batteries, propulsion, and sustainability, said in a statement.

Keep reading here.—JG

Usually, we write about the business of tech. Here, we highlight the *tech* of tech.

The price we pay: It’s no secret that AI tools are energy-intensive and that data centers to support the tech are popping up all over the globe. IT Brew talked with Owen Quinlan, the head of data at Arbor, “a free service that helps consumers find lower rates on their electricity,” about what that means for your electric bill.

Won’t you be my neighbor? Nextdoor “is trying to be a place where users do something other than complain.” Can it succeed? The Verge detailed new features—including better emergency alerts, local news partnerships, and (of course) an AI chatbot—the hyperlocal platform is rolling out in service of this goal.