AI Weekly Recap – July 2025: NVIDIA H20 Chip Returns, OpenAI Agents Launch, Tesla Accelerates Robotaxi Testing
This week was packed with thrilling developments in the AI world! From NVIDIA's latest moves and OpenAI's groundbreaking ChatGPT Agents to Tesla's advancements in autonomous driving, and hot topics from Scale AI and McDonald's, the tech sphere was abuzz. Plus, we saw significant news from Astronomer, UBTECH, Isambard-AI, TSMC, Thinking Machines Lab, Windsurf, and Meta. Let's dive into the highlights!
1. NVIDIA The U.S. government approved NVIDIA to resume selling H20 AI chips to China. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited China for the third time this year on July 16, attending the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing. NVIDIA's stock is estimated to continue its record-breaking climb this week, potentially surpassing $170.
2. Astronomer Astronomer's CEO Andy Byron was caught on camera embracing the company's HR at a concert. Astronomer announced on Twitter that Andy Byron's CEO position was terminated. Astronomer completed a $93 million Series D funding round in May 2025, led by Bain Capital Ventures, with a valuation exceeding $1.2 billion.
3. ChatGPT Agents OpenAI unveiled its most powerful ChatGPT Agents to date, integrating Operator and Deep Research functionalities. More human-like features are also here, including automatic PPT generation, schedule management, shopping assistance, and code execution, with connections to apps like Gmail and GitHub.
4. Tesla This week, Tesla is intensively testing more Robotaxis in remote areas south of Austin. This aggressive and rapid testing pace signals a disruptive change on the horizon. Meanwhile, Tesla launched the Model Y in India, with a cash price of 6 million rupees (approx. $70,000) for the standard model and 6.8 million rupees (approx. $79,000) for the Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive variant.
5. UBTECH UBTECH unveiled the world's first hot-swappable autonomous battery swapping system for humanoid robots. This technology allows the Walker S2 to perform ultra-fast, 3-minute autonomous battery changes without human intervention or shutdown, enabling the Walker S2 to work continuously.
6. Isambard-AI The UK launched its massive "Isambard-AI" supercomputing system, ranking 11th globally. Valued at approximately £225 million, it deploys 5,400 NVIDIA chips and is primarily powered by nuclear energy.
7. TSMC TSMC released its Q2 2025 financial report. Revenue reached approximately $30.07 billion, a 38.6% year-over-year increase. Quarterly operating profit grew by 61.7% to about $15.756 billion, and net profit also surged by 60.7%.
8. Thinking Machines Lab Thinking Machines Lab announced the completion of approximately $2 billion in funding, bringing its total valuation to $12 billion and cementing its status as a rising star in the AI sector.
9. Scale AI Scale AI plans to lay off about 14% of its workforce, affecting 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors. This reduction is part of a business restructuring aimed at focusing on five core teams.
10. McDonald's McDonald's adopted Paradox.ai's AI chatbot, Olivia, to collect job applicants' personal information, including sensitive data like names, phone numbers, emails, and addresses. However, the AI tool reportedly used "123456" as a password, making 64 million applicant data "transparent," once again raising concerns about AI security.
11. Windsurf AI startup Cognition AI agreed to acquire Windsurf. Despite experiencing high-level staff attrition, Windsurf has maintained hundreds of enterprise clients and over 100,000 daily active users.
12. Meta Meta's super AI lab plans to invest over $14.3 billion to develop Llama-5. CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized his ambition to surpass OpenAI and Google.
13. Intel Intel announced another round of layoffs, affecting approximately 5,000 employees, bringing the total to over 20,000 people laid off this year. Recent reports indicate Intel plans to cut nearly 2,000 jobs in its Folsom and Santa Clara facilities in California, and around 2,500 in Hillsboro and Aloha, Oregon. These layoffs primarily target non-core departments like HR, marketing, and back-office support, with hardware developers currently unaffected.
That wraps up this week's top AI news! For more AI updates, please visit https://iaiseek.com/