OpenAI goes global with Stargate

PLUS: Figma adds AI across its design suite

AuthorAuthor

Zach Mink & Rowan Cheung
May 08, 2025

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. OpenAI is quickly evolving from tech company to geopolitical force, with a new initiative set to bring its massive Stargate project to nations worldwide.

With a goal of fostering AI on ‘democratic rails’ and building out infrastructure across U.S. allies, the tech is starting to shape the new global power structure — and OpenAI is looking to be at the head of the table.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • OpenAI takes its Stargate project global

  • Figma adds AI across its design suite

  • Speed through your emails with Superhuman

  • Mistral’s cost-efficient AI and enterprise platform

  • 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

Image source: o3 / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI just launched "OpenAI for Countries," a new global initiative to help nations build out their AI infrastructure and customize AI tools for local needs — while also extending its $500B Stargate project's ambitions worldwide.

The details:

  • The initiative will partner with governments to build in-country data centers and tailor OpenAI’s products for specific languages and cultural contexts.

  • OpenAI plans to create custom versions of ChatGPT for citizens in partner countries to improve areas like healthcare, education, and public services.

  • Funding will be collaborative between OpenAI and participating countries, with an initial goal of 10 international projects in democratically aligned nations.

  • OpenAI said the partnerships will further the “continued US-led AI leadership” and act as a “global, growing network effect" for democratic AI.

Why it matters: OpenAI is going global with its massive Stargate initiative, positioning itself as an ambassador for the U.S. and a shepherd of building AI on ‘democratic rails’. The move goes far beyond business, with the startup now potentially shaping both international relations and power structures with the most important tech in history.

TOGETHER WITH QWIET

The Rundown: As development cycles accelerate, security often struggles to keep up. Qwiet AI developed the first Agentic AI solution that works alongside developers to detect, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities — enabling security to keep pace with rapid code creation.

With Qwiet AI, you can:

  • Identify vulnerabilities the moment they appear with faster, more accurate analysis

  • Focus on what matters with smart prioritization based on reachability and exploitability

  • Let AI handle remediation by automatically generating secure code fixes

Get a demo today and see why Qwiet AI just won the SC Award for Best Application Security Solution.

FIGMA

Image source: Figma

The Rundown: Figma announced a flurry of AI-infused products across its design suite at its Config 2025 event, broadening its platform with AI-powered coding, website publishing, advanced vector drawing, and marketing asset creation.

The details:

  • Figma Make introduces prompt-to-code capabilities, allowing users to transform designs into interactive prototypes using natural language and AI.

  • Figma Sites lets designers publish working websites directly from designs with a single click, with upcoming AI-powered code generation for animations.

  • Figma Draw integrates AI-assisted capabilities within its vector editing environment, making complex illustration tasks more accessible.

  • Figma Buzz offers a dedicated space for teams to create on-brand marketing assets, featuring AI tools for image editing, generation, and copywriting.

Why it matters: The design giant has entered the “vibe coding” space, now competing with the wave of AI coding platforms — while also taking on Canva, Adobe, WebFlow, and Framer in the process. With AI upgrades that bring an entire web of design needs under one already widely used ecosystem, Figma just made a BIG move for the AI era.

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to transform email management with Superhuman, which offers a clean interface, keyboard shortcuts, and AI features that help you process emails faster and reach inbox zero.

Step-by-step:

  1. Sign up on Superhuman's website and connect your Gmail or Outlook account.

  2. The setup wizard will help you synchronize labels and clean up your initial inbox view.

  3. Process emails quickly by pressing “E” to archive them or set reminders (Command K → "Remind me") to deal with them later.

  4. Use AI to write responses faster - press Command J and enter a few bullet points to generate complete, personalized email drafts.

Pro tip: Check out our exclusive hands-on experience workshop on using Superhuman’s AI to draft, label, and follow up emails here. Additionally, full Rundown University members enjoy a free month of Superhuman Pro.

PRESENTED BY TELNYX

The Rundown: Telnyx gives you a single platform for building natural, context-aware AI assistants across voice and messaging channels without stitching together multiple tools or vendors.

With Telnyx, you can build AI assistants that:

  • Respond in real time with ultra-low latency

  • Personalize and continue conversations with built-in memory

  • Deploy across voice and messaging channels from one platform

MISTRAL

Image source: Mistral

The Rundown: French AI startup Mistral released Medium 3, a new AI model that delivers high-end performance at drastically lower costs — alongside a new Le Chat Enterprise platform designed specifically for business environments.

The details:

  • Medium 3 matches or surpasses models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet, GPT-4o, and Llama 4 Maverick across a variety of benchmarks despite 8x lower costs.

  • Enterprise integrates with corporate tools like Google Drive and SharePoint, with features like custom agent building, document libraries, and more.

  • The platform also supports flexible deployment options, including both public and private virtual clouds and on-premises hosting, with strict privacy controls.

  • Mistral also hinted at a potential open-source release of its Large model in the coming weeks, despite Medium being closed (for now).

Why it matters: Mistral’s cost-effective Medium shows strong benchmarks, though still a step down from the top models — making the upcoming Large release one to watch. The enterprise platform could appeal particularly to those with strict security requirements, especially those concerned about data governance under EU regulations.

QUICK HITS

  • 🤖 Gemini 2.5 Pro - New update with SOTA coding capabilities

  • 🗣️ Avatar IV - Generate lifelike characters from just one image and voice script

  • 🎥 LTXV - Lighttrick’s video model with fast generations

  • 📢 Google AI Max - Optimize and expand the reach of search ad campaigns

  • 🎨 The Rundown - Designer (Brand & Platform)

  • 🌍 Hebbia - Regional Sales Leader

  • 🦙 Meta - Director, Llama Marketing

  • 📊 Databricks - Strategic Account Executive

Apple is exploring a pivot to AI search to power Safari, with senior VP Eddy Cue saying options like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic will replace traditional search.

Anthropic unveiled a web search API, enabling developers to build applications where Claude can search the web for up-to-date info and provide answers with citations.

Google pushed an update to its Gemini 2.0 Flash image generation model, increasing output quality with better text rendering and reduced content restrictions.

Netflix introduced a UI update that includes a new OpenAI-powered natural language search feature for easier content discovery on the platform.

LinkedIn announced a new AI-powered job search tool allowing users to find career opportunities that match their dream roles using natural language commands.

Ace Studio released ACE-Step v1-3.5B, an ultra-fast, open-source music model capable of creating four-minute clips in just 20 seconds with structure control.

COMMUNITY

Join our next workshop this Friday, May 9th, at 4 PM EST with Dr. Alvaro Cintas, The Rundown’s AI professor. By the end of the workshop, you’ll you’ll be equipped to prompt with precision and creativity across any AI tool and improve AI responses.

RSVP here. Not a member? Join The Rundown University on a 14-day free trial.

We’ll always keep this newsletter 100% free. To support our work, consider sharing The Rundown with your friends, and we’ll send you more free goodies.

That's it for today!

Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today's newsletter to help us improve The Rundown experience for you.

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team

Reply

or to participate.