Plus, Starlink is getting more competition in Europe. And a new clean-energy fund gets investments. Shara Tibken hosts.
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[00:00:30] Today, March 11th. I'm Shara Tipkin for The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI is letting businesses build their own artificial intelligence agents. Its new platform will allow its customers to design bots that can independently perform tasks on behalf of humans. So far, AI agents can do simple things like order office supplies. Businesses generally don't trust them for hiring workers or other high-stakes transactions. OpenAI hopes that will start to change as its AI improves.
[00:01:00] It has called 2025 the year of agents. OpenAI now has 2 million paying business users, doubling from this past fall. An Italian aerospace and defense group plans to launch more satellites to compete with SpaceX. Leonardo aims to put nearly 40 satellites in orbit by 2028. They can be used for military and civilian purposes, and they cost about $1.5 billion.
[00:01:26] The low-orbiting satellites would give European governments an alternative to SpaceX's Starlink. In January, Italy's Prime Minister lamented the lack of, quote, public alternatives to Elon Musk's satellite company. Starlink has more than 7,000 satellites orbiting Earth. And, Aligned Climate Capital has raised $85 million from investors to make clean energy bets.
[00:01:51] The firm plans to make early-stage investments in businesses that help reduce carbon emissions. They could include renewable power, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and carbon capture. The new fund is twice the size of Align's first fund. It includes investments from the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Aligned Climate Fund 2 arrives despite uncertainty about the Trump administration's clean energy policies.
[00:02:19] For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out tomorrow's Tech News Briefing podcast.