🔐 OpenAI's Biometric Social Network

Plus Meta doubles AI to $135B and OpenAI raises $60B

January 30, 2026

Reading time: 5 minutes

🗞️In this edition

  • OpenAI Building Social Network That Scans Your Eyes to Block Bots

  • Sponsored: Picsart - Production-ready images & video. Powered by AI.

  • Meta Doubles AI Spending to $135 Billion for Superintelligence

  • Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon Plan $60B OpenAI Investment

  • In other AI news –

    • OpenAI Hires Indeed's Chief Revenue Officer Maggie Hulce

    • Google Gives AI Pro Subscribers $10 Monthly Cloud Credits

    • Microsoft Made $7.6B From OpenAI in One Quarter

  • 4 must-try AI tools

The future of the internet is being decided this week, and the stakes couldn't be higher.

One company is building a system where you must scan your body to prove you're human online. Another just doubled its AI budget to an amount that equals entire countries' economies. And the biggest tech companies are about to write checks that reshape who controls artificial intelligence forever.

Each move reveals something about power, control, and who gets to build what comes next. About the infrastructure being locked in while most people aren't paying attention. About betting amounts so large they force everyone else to follow or disappear.

The pattern connects in ways that won't be obvious until it's too late to change course.

This edition decodes the plays that determine the next decade of the internet.

Source: Forbes

What's happening:

OpenAI is developing a biometric social network where users must prove they're human to join, according to Forbes. A team of fewer than 10 people is building the platform in early stages.

The verification system could use Apple's Face ID or the World Orb iris scanner. World is Sam Altman's other company that scans irises to create unique digital identities. Altman is CEO of both OpenAI and World.

The World token WLD surged 40% after the news broke, even though no formal partnership was confirmed. World raised $135 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto last year.

The platform aims to solve what Altman calls the dead internet theory. X deleted 1.7 million bot accounts in 2025 but bots still dominate the platform. OpenAI wants to make bots impossible by tying every account to a real human body.

Why this is important:

This is Altman building both the problem and the solution. He created AI that floods the internet with bots, then sells biometric verification to prove you're human. That's the entire business model.

Biometric data can't be changed if compromised. Passwords you reset. Iris scans are permanent. You're trusting a private company with data that lasts forever.

The timing matters. OpenAI competes with Meta, Google, and X who all own social networks. Those platforms promote their AI chatbots. OpenAI needs distribution. A social network solves that.

World faces regulatory pushback in Kenya, UK, Spain, and Portugal over privacy concerns. Germany's data protection office identified fundamental risks in December 2024. But Altman keeps building anyway.

Comments from the editor:

Altman has warned about bots destroying the internet for years while building the AI creating those bots. Now he's positioning biometric verification as the only solution to the problem he caused.

The $135 million World raised makes more sense now. Investors weren't just backing iris scanning. They were funding the infrastructure for OpenAI's social network. The Orb was always the missing piece.

This puts Altman in direct competition with Musk on X. Their feud has been escalating since 2024. Now Altman is building a bot free platform to prove Musk failed. That's personal, not strategic.

The real question is whether people hate bots enough to scan their eyes. If the answer is yes, Altman controls human verification for the entire internet. If no, World collapses and takes this social network with it.

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Source: Convergence Now

What's happening:

Meta will spend up to $135 billion on AI in 2026, nearly double the $72 billion it spent in 2025. The company announced the massive increase after beating Q4 earnings with $59.89 billion in revenue, up 24%.

The spending goes to Meta Superintelligence Labs, data centers, and computing power. Zuckerberg said this is the year Meta delivers "personal superintelligence" that understands your history, interests, and relationships.

Meta stock surged 10% after hours despite the unprecedented spending. Investors backed Zuckerberg because the core advertising business generates enough cash to fund the AI transformation.

The company expects capacity constraints through most of 2026. Meta signed deals with Google, CoreWeave, and Nebius to supplement its own data centers while building tens of gigawatts of capacity this decade.

Why this is important:

This is the biggest AI bet in history. $135 billion equals Kenya's entire GDP. Meta is spending more on AI than most countries spend on everything.

The market rewarding this spending changes the game. Microsoft got punished for similar capex. Meta got applauded. The difference is Meta's ads generate immediate AI returns while Microsoft's cloud business squeezes margins.

Zuckerberg is forcing every tech company to match or fall behind. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft combined will spend over $500 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026. That's not competition, that's an arms race.

Reality Labs lost $6 billion in Q4 alone, $80 billion total since 2020. Zuckerberg admitted 2026 marks peak losses before shifting focus to AI glasses. The metaverse is dead, long live personal superintelligence.

Source: Reuters

What's happening:

Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon are in talks to invest up to $60 billion in OpenAI as part of a $100 billion funding round, according to The Information. This would be the largest AI investment in history.

Nvidia is discussing up to $30 billion, Amazon $10-20 billion, and Microsoft under $10 billion. Nvidia already supplies the chips powering ChatGPT. Microsoft owns 27% of OpenAI. Amazon would be a new investor.

SoftBank is separately negotiating to invest another $30 billion, bringing the total round to potentially $100 billion. OpenAI is close to receiving term sheets from all investors.

Amazon's investment depends on expanding OpenAI's cloud deal with AWS and a commercial agreement to sell enterprise ChatGPT subscriptions through Amazon. OpenAI faces rising costs to train and run models as competition from Google intensifies.

Why this is important:

This is circular financing at unprecedented scale. OpenAI's biggest suppliers are becoming its biggest investors. Nvidia sells chips to OpenAI, then invests billions back. That's not confidence, that's dependency.

Amazon and Microsoft want cloud lock-in. They're investing to ensure OpenAI runs on their infrastructure, not competitors'. The real return isn't equity, it's forcing OpenAI to spend billions renting their servers.

OpenAI burning money so fast it needs $100 billion reveals the economics don't work yet. The company generates $13 billion in revenue but burns through cash building infrastructure. This round buys time, not profitability.

The consolidation is complete. Three companies control the chips, clouds, and capital funding the AI industry. OpenAI isn't independent anymore. It's a joint venture disguised as a startup.

  • OpenAI Hires Indeed's Chief Revenue Officer Maggie Hulce – The head of Indeed's AI-powered Career Scout and Talent Scout is joining OpenAI's leadership team, but the company hasn't said what role she'll take or whether it signals OpenAI entering the recruiting business where Indeed just launched AI agents that match jobs to candidates.

  • Google Gives AI Pro Subscribers $10 Monthly Cloud Credits – Google folded its $299/year Developer Program Premium into AI Pro ($10/month credits) and AI Ultra ($100/month credits) to eliminate the friction of moving from Gemini prototyping to production deployment, making it easier to build apps without hitting billing walls when going live.

  • Microsoft Made $7.6B From OpenAI in One Quarter – Microsoft's net income jumped $7.6 billion from its OpenAI investment while revealing that OpenAI now represents 45% of Azure's $625 billion backlog, raising questions about whether Microsoft's AI returns depend too heavily on one partner that's burning billions.

  1. ZeroBot - A voice-enabled chatbot that allows users to have conversations with a computer friend that talks like a real person

  2. Vidnoz - A tool that allows users to create talking avatar videos by simply selecting a photo and writing a script

  3. PitchPower - A software service that helps consultants and agencies create powerful proposals quickly

  4. Flowrite - A Chrome extension that helps users write emails and messages 5x faster

These aren't separate stories. They're chapters in the same transformation.

Biometric verification to solve the bot problem AI created. Spending that forces competitors to match or fall behind. Investments so large they guarantee the same players control everything that matters.

What's happening now isn't competition. It's consolidation disguised as innovation. The infrastructure decisions being made this month lock in advantages that compound for years.

The question isn't whether this transformation happens. It's whether you understand what's being built and position yourself accordingly before the window closes.

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