This Week in Tech #60
October 1-7, 2025
Welcome to Tech Week #60! This week was absolutely packed with groundbreaking announcements from OpenAI DevDay 2025, including the ChatGPT Apps SDK and the general availability of Codex. We witnessed a historic AMD partnership for 6 gigawatts of AI infrastructure, Google's Gemini for Home launch, and GitHub Copilot CLI getting a major upgrade with Claude Sonnet 4.5 support. Plus, massive funding rounds totaling over $4 billion across AI infrastructure and enterprise software startups. Let's dive into the biggest tech stories of the week!
🚀 AI & Machine Learning
OpenAI DevDay 2025: ChatGPT Becomes an App Platform
October 6, 2025 - OpenAI hosted its third annual DevDay at Fort Mason in San Francisco, delivering several game-changing announcements that position ChatGPT as the new app store for AI.
ChatGPT Apps & Apps SDK
Sam Altman announced that OpenAI is opening up ChatGPT for developers to build real apps inside ChatGPT. The new Apps SDK enables developers to create native applications that run within the ChatGPT ecosystem, similar to how mobile apps work on iOS or Android.
Key Features:
- Build interactive apps directly in ChatGPT interface
- Access to full ChatGPT API and model capabilities
- Native integration with ChatGPT's 200M+ weekly active users
- Revenue sharing model for developers (details TBA)
Codex: Software Engineering Agent Goes GA
OpenAI's Codex, the AI software engineering agent, is now generally available to all developers. Codex can understand natural language requests, write code across multiple languages, debug issues, and even suggest architectural improvements.
Capabilities:
- Multi-language code generation (Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust, and more)
- Autonomous debugging and error resolution
- Code review and optimization suggestions
- Integration with popular IDEs via APIs
Sora 2 Now in API
Sora 2, OpenAI's advanced video generation model, is now available through the API, enabling developers to programmatically generate high-quality videos from text prompts.
Improvements over Sora 1:
- Better temporal consistency (smoother motion)
- Higher resolution output (up to 4K)
- Longer video generation (up to 60 seconds)
- Improved prompt understanding and adherence
AgentKit, New Evals, and RFT
OpenAI introduced AgentKit, a comprehensive toolkit for building AI agents, along with new evaluation frameworks and Request-For-Testing (RFT) capabilities to help developers create more reliable agent systems.
Sources:
AMD and OpenAI Announce 6 Gigawatt AI Infrastructure Partnership
October 6, 2025 - In a historic move, AMD and OpenAI announced a strategic partnership to deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs to power OpenAI's next-generation AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs.
Deployment Timeline:
- 1 gigawatt of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs starting in H2 2026
- Phased rollout of additional 5 gigawatts through 2027-2028
- Multi-generational GPU support (MI450 and future architectures)
Why This Matters: This partnership represents one of the largest AI infrastructure commitments in history. To put 6 gigawatts in perspective:
- Enough power to run a small city
- Equivalent to ~750,000 high-end GPUs
- Supports training of models beyond GPT-5 scale
- Reduces OpenAI's dependency on NVIDIA hardware
Industry Impact:
- AMD gains major validation in AI/ML market
- Creates competition in AI accelerator space
- Could influence pricing and availability for all cloud providers
- Signals maturation of AMD's AI software ecosystem
Source: AMD Press Release
Microsoft Azure AI Foundry: New OpenAI Models Rollout
October 7-8, 2025 - Azure AI Foundry announced the rollout of several new OpenAI models from DevDay, with most customers able to get started on October 7, 2025.
New Models Available:
GPT-image-1-mini
Purpose-built for rapid, resource-efficient image generation at scale. Features a compact architecture that enables high-quality text-to-image and image-to-image creation while consuming fewer computational resources than previous models.
Use Cases:
- Real-time image generation in applications
- E-commerce product visualization
- Marketing and advertising creative generation
- Game asset creation
GPT-realtime-mini and GPT-audio-mini
Designed for fast, cost-effective multimodal AI, these lightweight models are optimized for delivering real-time voice interaction and audio generation with minimal resource requirements.
Ideal For:
- Voice assistants and chatbots
- Real-time translation services
- Audio content generation
- Interactive voice response (IVR) systems
Safety Upgrades to GPT-5
Enhanced safety measures and guardrails added to GPT-5, including:
- Improved content filtering
- Better detection of harmful prompts
- Enhanced privacy protections
- Reduced bias in outputs
Availability: Rolling out to all Azure AI Foundry customers starting October 7, 2025
Source: Microsoft Azure Blog
Google Launches Gemini for Home
October 1, 2025 - Google officially launched Gemini for Home, an AI upgrade that transforms how users interact with smart home devices, replacing Google Assistant on smart displays and speakers.
Key Features:
AI Descriptions in Alerts
Instead of generic "motion detected" alerts, Gemini for Home provides full narrative descriptions of what's happening. For example: "Person with blue jacket approaching front door, delivery truck visible in driveway."
Home Brief
Automatically identifies the day's important events and summarizes hours of footage into a quick, digestible summary delivered each evening. Example: "3 package deliveries today, kids arrived home at 3:47 PM, gardener completed work at 2:15 PM."
Gemini Voice Assistant
The Gemini for Home voice assistant will begin rolling out for users in the US who join the "Early Access" program starting October 28, 2025.
Rollout Schedule:
- October 1: Redesigned Google Home app with three tabs rolls out globally
- October 28: Early access to Gemini voice assistant (US only)
- Q1 2026: General availability worldwide
Google Home App Updates: The redesigned Google Home app features three tabs for easier navigation and improved smart home management.
Source: Google Blog - Gemini for Home
Google Gemini API Updates: Robotics and Audio Models
October 7, 2025 - Google released significant updates to the Gemini API, including a new robotics model and improved audio capabilities.
New Releases:
Gemini Robotics-ER 1.5 (Preview)
A specialized model designed for robotics applications, featuring:
- Enhanced spatial reasoning
- Real-time robot control capabilities
- Integration with popular robotics frameworks (ROS, MoveIt)
- Improved safety protocols for physical systems
gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-09-2025
New native audio model for the Live API with:
- Improved function calling during voice interactions
- Better speech cut-off handling to prevent interruptions
- Lower latency for real-time conversations
- Enhanced multilingual support
Developer Benefits:
- Easier integration with voice-first applications
- More natural conversational flows
- Reduced development time for audio features
Source: Google AI Developers Blog
💻 Developer Tools & Platforms
GitHub Copilot CLI Gets Major Upgrade with Claude Sonnet 4.5
October 3, 2025 - GitHub announced significant enhancements to Copilot CLI, including support for Claude Sonnet 4.5, Anthropic's most advanced model for coding and real-world agents.
New Features:
Model Selection Control
Users now have direct control over which AI model powers their CLI sessions using the new /model slash command to quickly switch between available models. The selected model is displayed above the input box.
Available Models:
- GPT-4 Turbo
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 (New!)
- Claude Opus
- Gemini Pro
Enhanced Tool Permissions
Users can now use glob patterns in --allow-tool and --deny-tool flags to match command patterns.
Example:
copilot --allow-tool "shell(npm run test:*)" --deny-tool "shell(rm *)"
This allows any test script while keeping tighter restrictions on destructive operations.
Image Support
Using @ and mentioning images makes them available to the model as input, enabling:
- Screenshot-based debugging
- Design implementation from mockups
- Visual code reviews
Usage Tracking
The /usage slash command provides detailed insights:
- Premium requests used in session
- Session duration
- Lines of code edited
- Model-specific usage breakdown
Context Management
Copilot CLI now intelligently truncates the model's context when token limits are reached. When users are getting close to truncation (≤ 20% context remaining), a warning displays above the input box.
Rollout: Gradually rolling out to Copilot Pro, Pro+, Business, and Enterprise users
Source: GitHub Changelog
☁️ Cloud & Infrastructure
AWS Announces Major Service Updates
October 6, 2025 - AWS rolled out several significant service updates and new features in the AWS Weekly Roundup.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 in Amazon Bedrock
Anthropic's most intelligent model, best for coding and complex agents, became available in Amazon Bedrock. Developers gain access to a fully managed service with:
- Unified API for foundation models
- Complete data control
- Enterprise-grade security tools
- Cost optimization features
Amazon ECS Managed Instances (New!)
A new fully managed compute option for Amazon ECS designed to eliminate infrastructure management overhead while providing access to the full capabilities of Amazon EC2.
Benefits:
- Quickly launch and scale workloads
- Enhanced performance
- Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO)
- Automatic patching and updates
Application Map for Amazon CloudWatch (GA)
Amazon CloudWatch now helps monitor large-scale distributed applications by automatically discovering and organizing services into groups based on configurations and their relationships.
Features:
- Automatic service discovery
- Visual topology mapping
- Real-time dependency tracking
- Performance metric correlation
Source: AWS Blog - Weekly Roundup
💰 Funding & Acquisitions
Record-Breaking Funding Week: $4+ Billion Raised
October 1-7, 2025 - The tech industry saw one of the most active funding weeks of 2025, with over $4 billion raised across AI infrastructure, legal tech, and enterprise software startups.
Largest Rounds
Cerebras Systems - $1.1 Billion Series G AI supercomputing company raised a staggering $1.1 billion to scale its AI infrastructure. Cerebras builds specialized chips for AI training that are significantly faster than traditional GPUs.
Nscale - $433 Million Pre-Series C UK-based Nscale raised $433 million to build sovereign GPU data centers, addressing growing demand for localized AI compute infrastructure in Europe.
Filevine - $400 Million (Two Rounds) Legal-tech platform Filevine closed $400 million across two rounds to expand its case management and legal operations software.
Periodic Labs - $300 Million Seed (Record) Emerged from stealth with a record-breaking $300 million seed round, one of the largest seed rounds in history. The company is building AI infrastructure for scientific research.
Vercel - $300 Million Developer-favorite platform secured $300 million to expand its AI Cloud and frontend development tools.
Mid-Stage Growth Rounds
EvenUp - $150 Million Series E Legal tech leader EvenUp raised $150 million, doubling its valuation to $2 billion. The company uses AI to optimize personal injury claims.
Empower Semiconductor - $140 Million Series D Raised $140 million to supercharge energy efficiency for AI processors, addressing the growing power demands of AI workloads.
Temporal - $105 Million (Secondary) Seattle-based Temporal raised $105 million in a secondary share sale, valued at $2.5 billion. The company provides workflow orchestration for developers.
Supabase - $100 Million Series E Open-source Firebase alternative secured $100 million, doubling its valuation to $5 billion.
Einride - ~$100 Million Swedish self-driving truck startup secured approximately $100 million led by EQT Ventures.
Meanwhile - $82 Million Raised $82 million to scale Bitcoin-denominated savings, annuities, and insurance offerings, betting on Bitcoin as a store of value.
Acquisition Activity
Nine $1B+ Acquisitions in Q3
- 4 in healthcare and biotech
- 5 across cybersecurity, AI, financial services, product development, and sports betting
Market Trends:
- Continued strong investor appetite for AI infrastructure
- Legal tech seeing major growth
- Enterprise software remains attractive
- Shift toward larger seed rounds for ambitious projects
Sources:
🔒 Security & Privacy
Critical Oracle Vulnerability Exploited by Cl0p Ransomware
October 2025 - Oracle rushed a patch for CVE-2025-61882 (CVSS 9.8) after the Cl0p ransomware group exploited it in data theft attacks.
Vulnerability Details:
- Affected System: Oracle Concurrent Processing component in Oracle EBS
- Attack Vector: Network access via HTTP (unauthenticated)
- Impact: Complete system compromise and data theft
- CVSS Score: 9.8 (Critical)
Exploitation Timeline:
- August 2025: Cl0p ransomware group begins exploiting vulnerability
- September 2025: Multiple victims report data theft
- October 2025: Oracle releases emergency patch
What Organizations Should Do:
- Immediately apply Oracle's patch for CVE-2025-61882
- Review Oracle EBS logs for suspicious activity since August
- Monitor for data exfiltration indicators
- Implement network segmentation for Oracle EBS systems
Source: The Hacker News
CISA Adds Five Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
September 29, 2025 - CISA added five actively exploited vulnerabilities to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, requiring federal agencies to patch by specific deadlines.
Critical Vulnerabilities:
CVE-2025-20352 - Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software SNMP
- Denial of Service and Remote Code Execution
- Deadline: October 20, 2025
CVE-2025-10035 - Fortra GoAnywhere MFT
- Deserialization of Untrusted Data
- Deadline: October 20, 2025
CVE-2025-59689 - Libraesva Email Security Gateway
- Command Injection Vulnerability
- Deadline: October 20, 2025
CVE-2025-32463 - Sudo
- Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere
- Deadline: October 20, 2025
Recommended Actions:
- Apply vendor patches immediately
- Review systems for indicators of compromise
- Implement compensating controls if patching delayed
Source: CISA Alert
Additional Security Concerns
Rack Application Memory Exhaustion CVEs affecting Rack applications processing multipart form submissions were published in October. Attackers can send large non-file fields to trigger excessive memory usage, with impact scaling with request size and concurrency.
OpenSSH Vulnerability (Pre-10.1)
Vulnerability in OpenSSH before version 10.1 allows the \0 character in an ssh:// URI, potentially leading to code execution when a ProxyCommand is used.
Recommendation: Upgrade to OpenSSH 10.1 or later
💹 Market & Finance
Cryptocurrency Market Update
October 1-7, 2025 - The cryptocurrency market experienced notable volatility during the first week of October, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum seeing pullbacks from recent highs.
Bitcoin (BTC)
- Price Range: $114,000 - $125,000
- October 8 Price: $121,788 (down 1.8%)
- All-Time High: $126,000 (early October)
- Weekly Change: -3.4%
Analysis: Bitcoin dropped from its all-time high of $126,000 to around $121,200, representing a healthy consolidation after recent gains. Despite the pullback, analysts don't see a major correction, noting that October historically has been a strong month for Bitcoin.
Ethereum (ETH)
- October 8 Price: $4,455 (down 4.7%)
- Weekly Change: -5.2%
- Key Level: Trading below $4,500
Market Context:
- Overall crypto market cap fell 2.2% to $4.26 trillion
- Market declined by more than 3% in 24 hours around October 7-8
- Trading volume remained healthy, indicating active participation
Outlook: Despite short-term volatility, the overall market sentiment remains bullish, with analysts pointing to October's historical strength as a positive indicator for the remainder of the month.
Sources:
📊 Industry Insights
Meta AI Advertising Integration Announced
October 1, 2025 - Meta announced plans to use interactions with the Meta AI chatbot to personalize content and advertising across its services.
Timeline:
- October 7, 2025: Notifications to users begin
- December 16, 2025: AI-driven ads and content recommendations go live
What's Changing:
- Conversations with Meta AI will inform ad targeting
- Content recommendations based on AI interaction patterns
- Personalized experiences across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp
Privacy Implications:
- Users will receive notifications about the change
- Meta emphasizes that conversation content stays private
- Only interaction patterns used for recommendations
- Users can opt out of personalized ads (but not data collection)
Industry Impact: This marks a significant shift in how AI assistants and advertising intersect, potentially setting a precedent for other platforms.
Source: CNN Business
OpenAI Stargate Initiative Expands
October 1-2, 2025 - Samsung and SK joined OpenAI's Stargate initiative to advance global AI infrastructure, alongside a strategic collaboration with Japan's Digital Agency announced on October 2.
Stargate Initiative Goals:
- Build globally distributed AI infrastructure
- Reduce latency for AI applications worldwide
- Create sovereign AI compute options for countries
- Advance responsible AI deployment
Partners:
- Samsung (October 1)
- SK Group (October 1)
- Japan's Digital Agency (October 2)
- Previous partners: Microsoft, Oracle, others
🎯 Quick Hits
Google AI Pro Student Promotion Extended Students aged 18+ in the US, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil get a free one-year upgrade to Google AI Pro. Promotion extended through October 6, 2025.
Gemini Advanced Name Retiring Google is retiring the "Gemini Advanced" name. All features and benefits are now part of the Google AI Pro subscription.
Microsoft Agent Framework Public Preview Microsoft Agent Framework entered public preview in late September/early October, making it easier for developers to build, observe, and govern multi-agent systems.
📈 By The Numbers
- $4+ Billion: Total funding raised by tech startups this week
- $1.1 Billion: Cerebras Systems' record Series G
- 6 Gigawatts: AMD's AI infrastructure commitment to OpenAI
- 200M+: ChatGPT weekly active users who can now access apps
- 9.8 CVSS: Severity score for critical Oracle vulnerability
- $121,788: Bitcoin price on October 8 (down from $126K ATH)
- $4.26 Trillion: Total cryptocurrency market capitalization
- 9 Acquisitions: Worth $1B+ in Q3 2025
🔮 Looking Ahead
This Week's Trends to Watch:
ChatGPT App Ecosystem Growth - How quickly will developers adopt the Apps SDK? First apps could launch within weeks.
AMD vs NVIDIA Competition - The 6GW partnership could shift market dynamics in AI accelerators.
GitHub Copilot CLI Adoption - Will Claude Sonnet 4.5 integration drive more CLI usage among developers?
Gemini for Home Rollout - Early access starting October 28 could reveal Google's smart home strategy.
Crypto Market Direction - Will Bitcoin hold above $120K or see further consolidation?
Enterprise AI Agents - Microsoft's Agent Framework and OpenAI's AgentKit signal a race to dominate enterprise AI agents.
💡 Developer Spotlight
Must-Try This Week
GitHub Copilot CLI with Claude Sonnet 4.5 If you're a Copilot subscriber, try the new model selection feature:
# Switch to Claude Sonnet 4.5
copilot --model claude-sonnet-4.5
# Use glob patterns for safer automation
copilot --allow-tool "shell(git *)" --deny-tool "shell(rm *)"
# Track your usage
copilot /usage
Amazon Bedrock + Claude Sonnet 4.5 Experiment with Anthropic's most powerful model in a fully managed environment:
import boto3
bedrock = boto3.client('bedrock-runtime')
response = bedrock.invoke_model(
modelId='anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-5',
body={
"prompt": "Build a microservice for user authentication",
"max_tokens": 2048
}
)
📚 Resources
- OpenAI DevDay 2025 Recap
- GitHub Copilot CLI Documentation
- AWS Bedrock Model Catalog
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
- Cerebras AI Infrastructure
🎤 Closing Thoughts
This week demonstrated that we're entering a new phase of AI development—one where AI moves from impressive demos to genuine platforms and infrastructure. OpenAI's ChatGPT Apps SDK could create an entire ecosystem of AI-native applications, while the AMD partnership ensures the compute power to support it. Meanwhile, GitHub Copilot CLI and AWS Bedrock make cutting-edge AI accessible to developers everywhere.
The $4+ billion in funding this week also shows that investors believe we're still in the early innings of the AI revolution. From legal tech to robotics to Bitcoin banking, AI is transforming every sector.
Stay curious, stay secure, and keep building! 🚀
Until next week, Dillip Chowdary Tech Bytes Team
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