OpenAI Clause Puts Microsoft on Edge

It's upgrade season, Tech Insiders.

Fresh code drops and flashier robots dazzle under the spotlight, but zero-days and data leaks crash the party before the music even starts.

Let's see who's shipping and who's scrambling.

Here's what you need to know today:

OpenAI Clause Strains Microsoft Alliance

So much for "Azure forever"—turns out the contract has an eject button.

Microsoft's $13 billion love affair with OpenAI hides a ticking clock: a clause that lets OpenAI ditch Microsoft the moment it deems its models to have reached artificial general intelligence and are powerful enough to generate the $100+ billion required to pay off its backers.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, once shrugged it off, assuming AGI was years away. Now, Sam Altman hints it could be months, and Microsoft is scrambling to renegotiate as part of OpenAI's shift to a public-benefit corporation.

The clause also forbids Microsoft from independently pursuing AGI, effectively handcuffing its research while rivals like Meta throw Ohtani-sized paychecks at talent. If OpenAI's board rings the "we did it" bell, Redmond might be stuck with last year's model while the rest of Big Tech sprints ahead.

OpenAI reportedly may concede that its nonprofit roots and profit caps are outdated, giving Microsoft leverage to kill the clause altogether. Whether that happens will shape who controls the next-gen AI gold mine—and on whose cloud it runs.

Why it matters: If the clause stands, the moment OpenAI crosses its own AGI finish line, Microsoft could lose first dibs on the hottest models in tech. And that would come just as everyone else is gearing up for the AGI super cycle. Your Copilot license might suddenly feel like yesterday's Clippy.

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Insider Intel

Goldman Pilots AI Coder Devin

Wall Street finally found a junior dev who never sleeps—and never unionizes.

Goldman Sachs is piloting Cognition Labs' agentic AI, Devin, as an autonomous software engineer alongside 12,000 human developers. CIO Marco Argenti says "hundreds" of Devins could scale to "thousands," chewing through legacy code migrations, refactors, and other drudgery.

Early demos show Devin handling full-stack tasks with minimal oversight, though outside audits last year found a 15% success rate on tougher builds.

Still, if Devin really delivers the three- to four-fold productivity boost Argenti touts on routine tickets, project timelines—and yes, payroll—could shrink fast. He envisions a hybrid model where humans prompt and supervise fleets of agents (think scrum master meets zookeeper).

The move underscores a broader turn from chatty copilots to fully agentic AI that executes multistep jobs, echoing Microsoft's and Alphabet's claims that AI already writes a third of their code. For finance, where regulatory change and security patches pile up daily, an infinite intern army is alluring—bugs and compliance headaches notwithstanding.

Suddenly, "too big to fail" feels like "too automated to fire."

Flash Bytes

Security Alerts

Fortinet Rushes Patch for Severe SQL Flaw

Fortinet, a major cybersecurity company, has patched CVE-2025-25257, a pre-auth SQL injection bug in its FortiWeb application firewall that scores a gnarly 9.6 CVSS. The vulnerability is in a component called the Fabric Connector, the firewall's built-in API service for communicating with other devices.

Attackers can sling a crafted Bearer token to execute arbitrary SQL, write files as root with MySQL's INTO OUTFILE, and pivot to remote code execution.

Versions 7.0 through 7.6 are vulnerable; admins should jump to 7.0.11, 7.2.11, 7.4.8, or 7.6.4 and disable HTTP/HTTPS admin ports until upgraded.

Pro tip: Patch first, debate why prepared statements weren't default later.

Louis Vuitton's 'Monogrammed Mayhem' Spreads

Louis Vuitton's latest data breach is no longer just a UK headache. Notices this week confirm the July 2 intrusion also snared customers in South Korea and Turkey—143,000 records in the latter—and investigators believe attackers slipped in via a third-party account in early June.

Stolen data is limited to names, contacts, and purchase history, but that's prime bait for luxe-themed phishing scams.

It's LVMH's second brand-level leak in three months (following the Christian Dior breach), and watchdogs from London to Seoul are probing. Cartier, Adidas, and Victoria's Secret have logged similar hacks, underscoring a rough season for luxury retail cybersecurity.

Industry Shakeups

Intel Spins Off RealSense for Robot Boom

Intel has carved out its RealSense 3D-vision group as an independent company, backed by a $50 million Series A from MediaTek Innovation Fund and Intel Capital.

New CEO Nadav Orbach says RealSense will chase soaring demand for humanoid and mobile robots, expanding its depth-camera lineup (60% of AMRs and humanoid robots in the world already use them) and hiring AI engineers across three continents.

For Intel, the move aligns with a cost-cutting push after a brutal year and lets RealSense move "faster and more boldly," unburdened by its former parent. For the robotics sector, it signals fresh competition against Nvidia and Qualcomm for the eyes—and brains—of physical AI.

Every startup deck now reads: "Robots are the new smartphones—please clap."

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