Antfin to exit Eternal; OpenAI's mega buyback

Time of India

13 hours ago

Antfin to exit Eternal; OpenAI's mega buyback
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Also in the letter:
Antfin likely to offload entire Rs 5,368 cr stake in Eternal via block deal
Deal details:
Antfin plans to offload around 18.84 crore Eternal shares at a floor price of Rs 285 apiece, valuing the sale at roughly Rs 5,368 crore.
The offer price reflects a 5% discount to Wednesday's NSE closing of Rs 300.05.
Full exit:
Context:
Paytm exit:
OpenAI in talks to sell employee shares at $500 billion valuation: Bloomberg
Driving the news:
This marks a dramatic leap from OpenAI's $300 billion valuation, reached during a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank.
The company recently received $8.3 billion as part of the second tranche of that round.
Talent threat:
OpenAI releases open-weight reasoning models optimised for running on laptops
Jargon buster:
Tell me more:
Yes, and:
Draft data centre certification scheme raises compliance questions
Driving the news:
The draft guidelines risk saddling operators with dual compliance requirements, the IT industry body Nasscom flagged to the government.
It criticised the 'one-size-fits-all' approach and questioned whether the framework adds any real value.
The body urged that the scheme offers little benefit to firms already meeting international and existing MeitY standards.
Alternatives:
Alternatives:
Growth hurdle:
Capacity is expected to jump 77% by 2027 to 1.8 GW, according to April estimates from real estate services firm JLL.
The industry crossed the 1 GW mark in 2024, expanding at a 24% compounded annual rate since 2019.
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What's next:
SuperGaming raises $15 million in fresh funding at five times higher valuation
Deal details:
The round combines fresh capital with bridge investments made since its last raise of $5.5 million in October 2021.
The company was then valued at around $21 million, founder Roby John told us.
Global gaming and Web3-focused funds, including a16z's Speedrun, Bandai Namco's 021 Fund, and Polygon Ventures, also participated.
Tell me more:
Software productivity platform CodeKarma raises $2.5 million:
Indian cloud companies to storm local skies with low-cost advantage
Building muscle:
The opportunity is significant. An IDC study shows 15–20% of Indian companies already use sovereign cloud solutions to meet compliance and secure their core applications and data.
What's in the way:
Intel struggles with key manufacturing process for next PC chip, sources say
What's happening:
Yes, but:
Alibaba Group's Antfin is set to divest its entire stake in Eternal, its second India exit in as many days. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.■ ETtech Done Deals■ Indian cos' head in the cloud■ Intel's manufacturing blockDeepinder Goyal, CEO, EternalAlibaba Group affiliate Antfin Singapore is set to sell its entire 1.95% stake in Eternal through a block deal on Thursday, as per the terms reviewed by ET. The move comes just a day after Antfin fully exited Paytm by divesting its 5.84% stake.The Chinese investor has been steadily unwinding its Indian bets. In August 2024, Antfin sold shares in what was then Zomato through two block deals totalling Rs 4,772 crore. It held its stake via Antfin Singapore and Alipay Singapore, having pumped in about Rs 3,246 crore between 2018 and 2020.The retreat follows a broader trend. Chinese investors have been trimming their exposure to Indian companies amid heightened geopolitical tensions. Indian firms, in turn, are snapping up these stakes as the government tightens scrutiny on Chinese capital.Ant Financial's Dutch arm (Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV) recently sold its remaining Paytm stake for Rs 3,800 crore , marking a clean break from Vijay Shekhar Sharma's fintech venture.Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAIOpenAI is reportedly preparing a multi-billion-dollar share sale for current and former employees that could value the AI company at around $500 billion, according to Bloomberg.Existing investors, including Thrive Capital, are said to be in discussions to buy employee shares, the report added.Its closest rival, Anthropic, is also on the move. The AI startup is reportedly seeking up to $5 billion at a $170 billion valuation, more than double its last $61.5 billion round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.The share sale is not just about liquidity. It is a retention play at a time when Big Tech is chasing the same elite AI talent. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been actively poaching researchers for his Superintelligence team , approaching staff from OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. Offering employees a chance to cash in could help OpenAI hold on to its best people.In a separate announcement, OpenAI unveiled two open-weight language models designed for advanced reasoning and capable of running on consumer hardware (read: laptops).Open-weight models make their training parameters public, allowing developers to analyse and fine-tune them without the original training data.The larger model, gpt-oss-120b, can run on a single GPU, and the second, gpt-oss-20b, is small enough to run directly on a personal computer, the company said.The release sets the stage for GPT-5 , expected to show a leap in capabilities after GPT-4 powered the generative AI boom in 2022.India's IT ministry is working on homegrown standards for data centre operations and maintenance, unsettling companies that fear a new layer of bureaucracy Nasscom proposed a tiered, risk-based framework that focuses on incremental checks rather than blanket rules. 'Additional requirements should be context-specific, and the certification must be explicitly voluntary,' it told the government.Industry leaders warn the rules could deter both domestic and global players just as India's data centre market hits its stride.ETtech Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and employees.Interested? Reach out to us at [e-mail] to explore sponsorship opportunities.Pune-based gaming company SuperGaming has bagged $15 million in a funding round led by existing investors Skycatcher and Steadview Capital, catapulting its valuation to $100 million.Founded in 2017, SuperGaming is best known for its made-in-India battle royale title Indus, which has crossed 9 million downloads. The company intends to allocate the new capital for the game's international expansion.CodeKarma, a software productivity platform, has secured $2.5 million in its first funding round led by Dutch investment firm Prosus, early-stage investor Accel and Xeed Ventures (formerly known as 021 Capital), giving it a $10 million valuation.Founder and chief executive Ananth Vanchi told ET that the funds will be used to accelerate product development, drive expansion into the US market, and hire new talent.Indian cloud challengers are intensifying their competition against global giants by relying on sovereign solutions that retain data within India.Homegrown players like Bharti Airtel's Xtelify, Reliance's JioCloud and Tata Communications' Vayu are positioning price as their sharpest weapon. They claim savings of 30-50% compared to hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.Experts highlight limited depth in cloud technology, an immature ecosystem, and high migration costs from global providers as obstacles hindering this local push.Intel CEO Lip-Bu TanIntel's long-promised manufacturing revival is hitting a snag. A crucial chipmaking process that the company has been banking on to reclaim lost ground is stumbling on quality.Intel has spent billions developing its 18A process to challenge Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC. The company has been assuring investors it would ramp up production of 'Panther Lake' laptop processors in 2025 using this new technology. These chips promise next-generation transistors and a smarter way to deliver power, making them more efficient.Early trials in 2024, however, disappointed some customers. Intel, however, insisted 18A remained on schedule for mass production.The new process is central to Intel's plans to attract outside clients to its foundry business, as new chief executive Lip-Bu Tan pushes to restore the company's reputation as a top-tier chipmaker.Sources told Reuters that only a small percentage of Panther Lake chips made on 18A meet usable standards. This percentage figure, known as yield, means Intel may struggle to make its high-end laptop chip profitably in the near future.