In today’s Digest, we cover Paramount’s late bid for Warner, Meta securing a series of AI content deals, and China’s open-source AI reaching 30% of global usage.

Paramount makes late bid for Warner Bros

Paramount has tabled a hostile USD$108.4bn (£81.5 bn) offer for Warner Bros, moving to scupper a USD$72bn (£54.07bn) acquisition agreement the media giant had struck with Netflix.

In a direct appeal to Warner Bros shareholders on Monday, Paramount put forward an all-cash proposal of USD$30 (£22.50) per share for the entire company, including its Global Networks division, urging investors to reject the Netflix transaction.

The intervention follows Friday's announcement that Netflix had agreed terms to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the entertainment powerhouse whose portfolio includes the Harry Potter franchise and HBO Max streaming service.

Meta secures series of AI content deals

Meta has announced a new wave of licensing agreements with a number of major media outlets, including CNN, Fox News and People Inc. The move will allow its Meta AI assistant to surface a broader blend of real-time updates across global news, sport, entertainment and lifestyle. Under the arrangement, users will be guided to publishers’ own sites for fuller coverage, giving participating organisations increased visibility and referral traffic. 

According to Meta, the partnerships are part of a wider effort to make its AI service more accurate, responsive and reflective of multiple viewpoints. The firm admits that rapidly evolving events can be difficult for AI systems to track, but argues that expanding the pool of authorised sources will help Meta AI deliver information that is both timely and contextually richer.

Open-Source AI hits 30% of global usage

A new study by OpenRouter, in partnership with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, shows that China’s open-source AI models have rapidly expanded their global presence, now representing almost 30% of worldwide usage. The analysis found that Chinese-language prompts generated the second-highest token volume after English. This sharp rise has been powered by domestic systems including Alibaba’s Qwen family, DeepSeek’s V3 and Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2. Although Western proprietary platforms such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5 still hold a dominant 70% share, the accelerating uptake of Chinese-built models signals a meaningful shift in the international AI market.