💸Musk’s Colossus Gets $5B Cash

Today we will discuss:

• Musk raises $5B for xAI—Debt sale led by Morgan Stanley will fund AI infrastructure as Musk refocuses on business

• Don’t miss this week’s Workflow Wednesday—save time with AI using Guidde to turn slides into narrated videos, plus faster scripting with Jasper and auto-summaries via GPT + Slack; now available at only $20/month! 

• Microsoft unlocks free access to Sora—Microsoft integrates Sora into bing, letting users create short videos from text using OpenAI's model for free

• In other AI news—Top music labels negotiate AI licensing deals for training on songs, Microsoft is investing $400M to expand its AI cloud infrastructure in Switzerland, Meta plans to roll out AI-generated ads across Facebook and Instagram by late 2026, and IBM acquires data startup Seek AI while launching a new AI accelerator in NYC

• Saved the best for last—10 must-try AI tools

Elon Musk’s xAI taps debt markets to fund Colossus data center

Key Points 

• Elon Musk is raising $5 billion in debt through Morgan Stanley to fund xAI’s AI infrastructure projects.

• The move follows Musk’s public shift away from politics and signals renewed focus on his core businesses.

📰News - Elon Musk is back in business mode  and he’s looking to raise $5 billion in debt for his AI startup, xAI. 

Morgan Stanley is leading the charge, offering the package at eye-catching double-digit interest rates to help finance xAI’s massive new data center, “Colossus,” in Memphis.

The debt structure includes floating and fixed rate term loans plus senior secured notes, with early pricing discussions hinting at a 12% yield on the latter. Demand is already hot, reportedly topping $3.5 billion.

This comes just days after Musk said he’s stepping back from politics. Now, Musk appears to be re-centering on his companies. In addition to xAI’s debt round, he raised $650M for Neuralink and is selling $300M in xAI stock through a secondary offering. 

😲Big bets again - Notably, Morgan Stanley has history here. It backed Musk’s $44B Twitter acquisition in 2022, then spent years offloading $13B in related debt. But this time, the bank stands to profit and is riding the renewed wave of AI hype and Musk’s Washington clout.

Read the full story here.

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Microsoft makes OpenAI’s Sora video model free inside bing app

Key Points 

• Microsoft is offering free access to OpenAI’s Sora video model through the Bing mobile app for the first time.

• Users can generate up to 10 short videos for free, with more available using Microsoft Rewards points.

👾News - Microsoft just rolled out Bing Video Creator, a new feature in its Bing mobile app that lets users generate videos from text prompts powered by OpenAI’s Sora model.

This marks the first time Sora is being made available to the public for free. Until now, OpenAI limited access to Sora’s powerful video generation tool to paying customers.

🤔How it works - Anyone with a Microsoft account can now create up to 10 video clips at no cost using the Bing app. After that, it’ll cost you: each additional video will require 100 Microsoft Rewards points. These points can be earned by using Bing for searches (5 points per PC search, capped at 150 daily) or by shopping on the Microsoft Store.

The tool isn’t available on desktop yet, and even the “fast” mode can take hours to render a clip. Users are currently limited to three queued videos at a time, each lasting only 5 seconds with no option to adjust the duration. For now, videos are only in vertical 9:16 format, ideal for TikTok and Instagram; but horizontal support is coming soon.

🧠Why it matters - This is Microsoft’s latest push to make AI content tools more accessible, while giving Bing a fresh edge in the search wars.

Read the full story here.