Endex.ai has secured $14 million in funding to bring AI directly into Microsoft Excel. The funding round was led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, marking a significant moment for traditional tools in the business world.
Founded in 2022 by Tarun Amasa and Kevin Yang, the startup has spent the past year collaborating quietly with financial institutions to refine its product.
Now available to the public through limited invites, the tool embeds itself within Excel and helps users manage tasks like financial modelling, data cleanup, and detailed analysis (without switching applications).
Unlike broader AI tools, Endex has been designed specifically for finance professionals. It understands financial terminology, adapts to user habits, and references trusted data sources such as SEC filings, CapIQ, and earnings reports.
The company describes its product as Excel-native, aiming to enhance rather than replace a tool already deeply integrated into finance work.
With the new funding, Endex plans to expand development and scale its reach. The AI agent already works on both Mac and Windows, and its frictionless interface is proving attractive in a field where saving time and improving accuracy can make a substantial difference.
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Most cryptocurrency exchanges in Poland may shut down by the end of 2025 due to the high costs of complying with the EU’s MiCA regulation and national requirements. Smaller platforms struggle to afford expensive licences, capital, and compliance systems.
Under MiCA, providers must pay costly licence fees—up to 3 million złoty ($800,000)—and maintain significant capital. One Warsaw operator called the rules ‘a death sentence for local players.’
Meanwhile, global firms like Binance and Coinbase are better positioned to meet these demands.
While investors could gain more protection, market consolidation may reduce competition and raise fees. Poland is debating legislation to ease fees and attract crypto investment, but uncertainty remains as the MiCA deadline approaches.
Some firms welcome the changes, seeing a chance to compete fairly with traditional finance. Poland’s largely unregulated crypto market is entering a major transformation.
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Apple is increasing its domestic investment by an additional $100 billion, bringing its total commitment to US manufacturing to $600 billion over the next four years.
The announcement was made by CEO Tim Cook during a joint appearance with President Donald Trump at the White House, as the administration signals plans to impose steep tariffs on foreign-made semiconductors.
The investment includes a new American Manufacturing Program aimed at expanding US production of key Apple components, such as AI servers and rare earth magnets. Facilities are already under development in states including Texas, Kentucky, and Arizona.
Apple says the initiative will support 450,000 jobs across all 50 states and reduce reliance on overseas supply chains.
Apple’s expanded spending arrives amid criticism of its slow progress in AI. With its ‘Apple Intelligence’ software struggling for traction, and the recent departure of foundation model head Rouming Pang to Meta, the company is now shifting focus.
Cook confirmed that investment in AI infrastructure is accelerating, with data centres expanding in five states.
While Apple’s move has drawn praise for supporting American jobs, it has also stirred controversy. Some users expressed discontent with Cook’s public alignment with Trump, despite the strategic importance of avoiding tariffs.
Trump stated that companies investing in the US would not face the proposed import charges.
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China’s top security agency has raised concerns over crypto-related projects collecting biometric data, warning they may threaten national security. A recent MSS bulletin warned that crypto firms trading tokens for iris scans could misuse personal data.
While the agency didn’t explicitly mention Worldcoin, the description aligns with its practice of exchanging tokens for biometric scans in over 160 countries.
Officials described iris recognition as a sensitive form of identification that, once leaked, cannot be changed. The bulletin warned that fake facial data may be used by foreign agencies for espionage and infiltration.
In response to privacy concerns, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently proposed a pluralistic identity system. The concept combines multiple sources of verification rather than relying on a single, centralised ID.
He argued that current models risk eliminating anonymity and may favour wealthy participants in verification systems.
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An unexpected technical issue led United Airlines to temporarily ground all its mainline flights across key US airports. The disruption affected hundreds of departures, notably at hubs like Newark, San Francisco and Denver.
United Express flights remained unaffected, and in‑air services continued as planned. The airline reassured customers that safety was the top priority while staff worked to restore systems.
So far around 827 flights have been delayed and 23 cancelled. United confirmed that a cyberattack was not to blame for the outage.
Passengers reported delayed departures due to missing system data needed for take‑off. The airline noted delays may persist into the evening as technical fixes are completed
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Trump Media and Technology Group has begun testing a new AI-powered search engine called Truth Search AI on its Truth Social platform.
Developed in partnership with AI company Perplexity, the feature is intended to enhance access to information for users of the platform.
Devin Nunes, CEO and Chairman of Trump Media, said the tool will strengthen Truth Social’s position in the so-called ‘Patriot Economy’.
Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, added that the collaboration brings powerful AI to users who are seeking answers to significant questions.
The search engine is already live on the platform and has responded to politically sensitive queries with measured language.
When asked whether Donald Trump was a liar, the tool noted that the label often depends on context, but acknowledged that fact-checkers have documented many misleading claims.
A similar question about Nancy Pelosi prompted the response that such a claim was partisan rather than factual.
Trump Media plans to expand the feature to its iOS and Android apps shortly. The launch is part of a wider strategy to broaden the company’s digital offerings, which also include ventures in cryptocurrency and finance, such as a proposed Bitcoin ETF in partnership with Crypto.com and Yorkville America Digital.
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A sweeping cyberattack has compromised the federal court filing system across multiple US states, exposing sensitive case data and informant identities. The breach affects core systems used by legal professionals and the public.
Sources say the Administrative Office of the US Courts first realised the scale of the hack in early July, with authorities still assessing the damage. Nation-state-linked actors or organised crime are suspected.
Critical systems like CM/ECF and PACER were impacted, raising fears over sealed indictments, search warrants and cooperation records now exposed. A dozen dockets were reportedly tampered with in at least one district.
Calls to modernise the ageing court infrastructure have intensified, with officials warning of rising cyber threats and the urgent need for system replacements.
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AWS CEO Matt Garman celebrated the partnership as a ‘powerhouse combination’, noting that the models outperform comparable options, claiming they are three times more price-efficient than Gemini and five times more than DeepSeek‑R1, when deployed via Bedrock.
Rich functionality comes with these models: wide context capacity, chain-of-thought transparency, adjustable reasoning levels, and compatibility with agentic workflows. Bedrock offers secure deployment with Guardrails support, while SageMaker enables experimentation across AWS regions.
Financial markets took notice. AWS stock rose after the announcement, as analysts viewed the pairing with OpenAI’s open models as a meaningful step toward boosting its AI offerings amid fierce cloud rivalry.
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GitHub has prematurely unveiled OpenAI’s next-generation GPT-5 models in a blog post that was swiftly deleted. The post briefly revealed that GPT-5 will be released in four variants, promising significant upgrades in reasoning ability, coding performance, and user experience.
Archived versions of the removed announcement show that GPT-5 features improved agentic capabilities and can complete complex coding tasks with minimal input.
The four model versions include a full-strength GPT-5 for logic and multi-step operations, a lightweight mini version for cost-efficient usage, a nano version optimised for speed and low latency, and a chat-focused variant built for advanced, multimodal enterprise interactions.
Reddit users first spotted the post, including comparisons between GPT-5 and competing models such as Llama 4 Scout and Cohere v2.
The accidental release aligns with growing anticipation after OpenAI insiders hinted at a major release earlier in the week, with CEO Sam Altman teasing the update just days before.
OpenAI is expected to launch GPT-5 later today, officially during a live-streamed event. The company has also introduced two new open-weight GPT-OSS models, including one that can run locally on personal devices.
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OpenAI has launched its first open-weight AI models in over five years, under the Apache 2.0 license. Developers now have access to download, adapt, and deploy the models commercially, marking a significant shift in policy from the company’s previously closed-source approach.
The move comes amid pressure from China’s open-source AI sector and Western rivals, such as Meta. The GPT-OS models focus on reasoning and support complex tasks such as coding and mathematics.
GPT-OS-120 b targets high-performance setups, while GPT-OS-20 b can run on standard machines. While not fully open-source, the release provides transparency regarding weights and architecture, although the training data remains undisclosed.
The approach has split expert opinion: some praise the openness, others question the limited disclosure. Regardless, it signals OpenAI’s strategic recalibration in response to market pressure.
Benchmark tests show the models excel in advanced reasoning. The o4-mini, a related model, has already surpassed its competitors in evaluations such as AIME 2024 and 2025. Analysts say these tools could reshape workflows across sectors, from coding to enterprise automation.
OpenAI’s timing aligns with rapid revenue growth and a $40 billion funding round. Analysts see this release as a calculated step in a maturing, competitive industry, where a balance of proprietary control and open access may define future leadership.
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