11 Sep 2025

AI News Digest

🤖 AI-curated 5 stories

Today's Summary

Oracle just pulled off a major coup with multi-billion dollar AI cloud contracts, causing its stock to skyrocket by 40%—not a small feat since 1992. In the big picture, it’s a sign of the growing hunger for AI infrastructure, with Oracle making a solid case to be a heavyweight on the cloud scene, shaking up market dynamics and valuations. Meanwhile, Microsoft is doubling down on AI, rolling its Sales, Service, and Finance Copilots into Microsoft 365 at no extra cost, aiming to make AI agents as commonplace as your morning coffee, and setting the stage for a deeper dive at their upcoming Ignite event.

In another twist, Nebius is gearing up to raise $3 billion following a massive GPU deal with Microsoft, highlighting the intense competition for AI compute power. Over in the world of Windows 11, Microsoft’s latest update brings more Copilot features and an interactive tutorial, making AI tools more accessible and user-friendly, while also giving IT teams new privacy controls to chew on. And for those eager to get their hands dirty, Boot.dev’s new ‘Training Grounds’ feature offers a fresh way to hone coding skills—perfect for anyone looking to turn theory into practical expertise.

Stories

Oracle’s stock rockets after unveiling multi‑billion AI cloud contracts

Oracle disclosed four multi‑billion‑dollar cloud contracts tied to AI infrastructure, sending its shares up roughly 40% — the biggest one‑day gain since 1992 — and pushing the company toward a trillion‑dollar valuation. The deals highlight surging demand for AI compute and position Oracle as a major backer of large‑scale model training and inference, with knock‑on effects for cloud competition, data‑center buildout plans, and enterprises betting on AI. Market reaction underscores how commercial AI contracts are reshaping valuations and vendor‑partner dynamics across the industry.

Microsoft bundles Sales, Service and Finance Copilots into Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft announced that, starting in October, its Copilot for Sales, Service and Finance capabilities will be included at no extra cost for Microsoft 365 Copilot customers, effectively simplifying pricing and widening access to business‑focused AI agents. The move signals Microsoft’s push to make role‑based AI agents mainstream inside productivity suites, and previews broader agent management tooling (Agent 365) to be highlighted at Ignite — a strategic step to drive enterprise adoption and compete on integrated AI experiences.

Nebius moves to raise $3B after blockbuster Microsoft GPU deal

Nebius Group said it will raise $3 billion — a $2 billion private offering of convertible senior notes plus a $1 billion underwritten public offering of class A shares — after striking a multi‑year GPU infrastructure deal with Microsoft. The Microsoft contract, initially valued at $17.4 billion and potentially rising to about $19.4 billion if Microsoft buys more capacity, sent Nebius shares sharply higher and underscores surging demand for dedicated AI compute. Why it matters: the fundraising will bankroll rapid expansion of data‑center and GPU capacity at a moment hyperscalers and AI labs are racing to secure specialized infrastructure; it highlights how smaller, GPU‑focused cloud providers can capture outsized market value by locking in long‑term contracts with Big Tech, and signals continued heavy corporate spending on AI compute that will ripple across chip suppliers, data‑center developers and financing markets.

Windows 11’s September Patch Tuesday adds more Copilot features and an interactive 'Click to Do' tutorial

Microsoft’s September 2025 cumulative update for Windows 11 (version 24H2) began rolling out with several user-facing improvements — notably a redesigned Recall homepage, a new interactive tutorial for the Copilot-driven 'Click to Do' feature on Copilot+ PCs, expanded Settings AI agent coverage (now supporting AMD and Intel NPUs), and privacy controls that log recent third‑party AI activity. Why it matters: these updates push more everyday AI tooling into the OS (and make them easier to adopt), while adding visibility and controls that matter for user trust and enterprise rollout. Impact: Windows users with Copilot+ hardware will get smoother onboarding and broader access to local AI helpers; IT teams should note new privacy/activity logs and hardware prerequisites (40+ TOPS NPU + BitLocker/device-encryption + Windows Hello).

Boot.dev launches 'Training Grounds' and updates AI-agent and web‑scraping courses to give hands‑on practice

Boot.dev’s September update introduces 'Training Grounds' — a personalized practice-challenge generator that creates coding and interview-style exercises tailored to learners’ progress — plus new 'Boots' interview-style lessons and a published walkthrough of its AI Agent course (Python) on FreeCodeCamp’s YouTube channel. Why it matters: these are practical, learner-focused features that help people turning theoretical AI/coding knowledge into repeatable, hands-on skills (practice generation, interactive interview simulation, and refreshed web-scraping courses). Impact: developers and students looking to level up in AI agents, RAG, and scraping workflows get more targeted practice and guided walkthroughs — useful for job prep and real projects.