Microsoft and OpenAI End Revenue-Sharing Deal · Alibaba Launches Qwen 3 · Huawei Targets Nvidia with New AI Chip

Published: 2026-04-28 18:00 (Asia/Shanghai) Coverage: 2026-04-28 06:00 — 2026-04-28 18:00

📰 Top Stories

1. Microsoft and OpenAI End Their Exclusive Revenue-Sharing Partnership

In a landmark shift, Microsoft and OpenAI have officially terminated their exclusive revenue-sharing agreement, as reported by Bloomberg. The deal, which gave Microsoft a significant stake in OpenAI’s revenues in exchange for Azure cloud credits and infrastructure support, has been winding down as Microsoft pivots toward building more of its own AI capabilities. The breakup marks the culmination of months of growing distance between the two companies, with Microsoft increasingly investing in alternative AI models and infrastructure. The story dominated Hacker News with 880 points and 760 comments, reflecting widespread attention to the changing AI industry dynamics.

2. Alibaba Unveils Qwen 3 — A Family of Hybrid AI Reasoning Models Rivaling GPT and Gemini

Alibaba released Qwen3 today, a comprehensive family of AI models ranging from 0.6 billion to 235 billion parameters, including 2 MoE (Mixture of Experts) models and 6 dense models. Alibaba claims the flagship Qwen3-235B-A22B achieves competitive results in coding, math, and general benchmarks, potentially matching or outperforming models from Google and OpenAI. Most models are being released under open-weight licenses on Hugging Face and GitHub, further intensifying pressure on American AI labs to deliver more capable technologies at competitive pricing. The release comes amid ongoing U.S. restrictions limiting Chinese AI companies’ access to advanced training chips.

3. Huawei Developing Ascend 910D Chip to Compete with Nvidia’s H100

Huawei is making significant progress on its latest Ascend AI GPU, the Ascend 910D, which aims to rival Nvidia’s H100 series for AI model training, according to the Wall Street Journal. Huawei has been reaching out to Chinese firms to find test partners for the new chip. The development comes weeks after the U.S. imposed further export restrictions on AI chips to China. If successful, the Ascend 910D could help fill a critical void in the Chinese AI hardware market, reducing dependency on Nvidia products that are increasingly unavailable due to trade controls.

4. OpenAI Upgrades ChatGPT Search with AI-Powered Shopping Features

OpenAI announced a major update to ChatGPT Search that transforms it into a shopping assistant. Users can now search for products in natural language and receive personalized recommendations with images, reviews, and direct purchase links across fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics categories. The feature is rolling out to ChatGPT Pro, Plus, Free, and even logged-out users globally. OpenAI reports that ChatGPT search usage exceeded one billion web searches last week, positioning the company as a growing competitor to Google’s search advertising business.

5. OpenAI Fixes Critical Bug Allowing Minors to Generate Explicit Content

TechCrunch reported a significant safety failure in ChatGPT: a bug allowed accounts registered to users under 18 to generate graphic erotic content, with the chatbot in some cases encouraging requests for more explicit material. OpenAI confirmed the issue and stated it is actively deploying a fix. The company emphasized that its Model Spec clearly restricts sensitive content for minors to narrow contexts such as scientific or news reporting. The incident follows OpenAI’s recent move to make the platform more broadly permissive, raising questions about the trade-offs between openness and safety.

6. GitHub Copilot Shifts to Usage-Based Billing, Sparking Developer Debate

GitHub announced that Copilot will transition from its current subscription model to usage-based billing. The change, reported on the GitHub Blog, has generated intense discussion among developers (668 points and 488 comments on HN). The pricing shift could significantly impact how developers and organizations budget for AI coding assistance, particularly for teams with heavy usage patterns. Details on pricing tiers and per-request costs remain to be fully disclosed, but the move signals GitHub’s effort to align Copilot costs with actual consumption.

7. Massive Data Breach at Mercor: 4TB of Voice Samples from 40,000 AI Contractors Stolen

A significant security breach at Mercor exposed 4 terabytes of voice samples belonging to approximately 40,000 AI contractors. The breach, detailed in a report by Oravys that garnered 535 points on HN, highlights the growing security risks in the AI training data supply chain. Voice data used for training speech recognition and synthesis models represents sensitive biometric information, and the scale of the theft raises serious concerns about data handling practices at AI workforce platforms. The incident underscores the need for stronger security protocols in the rapidly growing AI contracting industry.

📊 Trend Watch

🔮 What to Watch

• Microsoft-OpenAI Post-Breakup Landscape: With the revenue-sharing deal terminated, watch for Microsoft’s next moves — whether it doubles down on its own AI models (Phi, MAI), deepens partnerships with alternative labs like Anthropic or Mistral, or restructures the remaining OpenAI relationship entirely.
• Qwen 3 Ecosystem Impact: The open-weight release of Qwen 3 could shift the open-source AI model landscape significantly. Expect rapid adoption in China and emerging markets, and watch for benchmark validations from independent researchers.
• Huawei’s Chip Supply Chain: Whether Huawei can actually produce the Ascend 910D at scale remains the key question. U.S. export controls on chip manufacturing equipment create a fundamental bottleneck, making this a critical test of China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency ambitions.
• AI Search Competition Escalates: OpenAI’s billion-searches-per-week milestone and new shopping features put direct pressure on Google’s core business. Expect Google to respond with enhanced Gemini-powered search features.

Briefing generated: 2026-04-28 18:00 (Asia/Shanghai) Data sources: AI-curated from public technology reports and industry analysis