In today’s Digest, we discuss Apple’s new ‘Answers’ team aimed at enhancing AI search capabilities, OpenAI’s $8.3bn fundraising round, and Shein’s €1m greenwashing fine in Italy.

Apple builds ‘Answers’ team

Apple has assembled a new internal unit to develop a stripped-down rival to ChatGPT, aiming to help users access world knowledge dubbed the 'Answers' team. The initiative aims to deliver a native AI-powered search experience, marking a shift in Apple’s AI strategy, which previously leaned on OpenAI integrations and dismissed the need for a proprietary chatbot.

While still in its early stages, Apple is also quietly developing what it calls an “answer engine”, a web-crawling system designed to handle general-knowledge queries. The initiative includes a potential standalone app and new backend infrastructure intended to eventually enhance search features across Siri, Spotlight, and Safari.

OpenAI raises USD$8.3bn in latest fundraising round

OpenAI has raised USD$8.3bn (£6.39bn) in funding from private equity and venture capital firms, as the company pushes forward with plans for a potential IPO. The round, part of a broader USD$40bn (£30.8bn) fundraising effort, values the AI firm at USD$300bn (£231bn).

According to sources familiar with the matter, the latest tranche includes investments from Blackstone, through its private equity strategies fund for wealthy individuals, TPG, Fidelity, and T Rowe Price. Backers include Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global, and Thrive Capital.

Dragoneer Investment Group will contribute a record USD$2.8bn (£2.16bn), one of the largest single investments in startup history. SoftBank has pledged up to USD$30bn (£23.1bn) towards OpenAI’s fundraising, with USD$7.5bn (£5.78bn) already invested and the remainder expected by year-end. However, the full investment is contingent on OpenAI transitioning from its current non-profit structure to a conventional for-profit model, enabling investors to hold equity stakes.

Shein fined €1m for greenwashing

Shein has been hit with a €1m (£870,000) fine by Italy’s competition authority (AGCM), for misleading environmental claims, marking its second regulatory penalty in Europe in just over a month. 

The fine, issued to Infinite Styles Services Co, which runs Shein’s European website from Dublin, follows a greenwashing investigation launched last September. AGCM found that Shein’s sustainability and social responsibility messaging was often “vague, generic, and/or overly emphatic” and in some cases, “omitted and misleading.”

According to Italy’s competition authority, AGCM, consumers could be misled into believing that Shein’s ‘evoluShein by design’ collection was made with eco-friendly materials and fully recyclable, “a fact that, considering the fibres used and currently existing recycling systems, is untrue”.