AI Daily: Order on AI could be coming soon as Trump promises ‘One Rulebook’

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

AI EXECUTIVE ORDER: President Donald Trump stated in a post to Truth Social, “There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI. We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS. THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS! AI WILL BE DESTROYED IN ITS INFANCY! I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”

CONFLUENT ACQUISITION: IBM (IBM) and Confluent (CFLT) announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Confluent for $31 per share, representing an enterprise value of $11B. Confluent provides a leading open-source enterprise data streaming platform that connects, processes and governs reusable and reliable data and events in real time, foundational for the deployment of AI. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Confluent for $31 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of $11B. Confluent will be acquired with available cash on hand. The board of directors of IBM and the board of directors and independent special committee of Confluent have each approved the transaction. The acquisition is subject to approval by Confluent shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Confluent’s largest shareholders and investors, who collectively hold approximately 62% of the voting power of Confluent’s outstanding common stock, entered into a voting agreement with IBM pursuant to which each has agreed to vote all of their common shares in favor of the transaction and against any alternative transactions. The transaction is expected to close by the middle of 2026.

ADS TO GEMINI: Google (GOOGL) recently informed advertising clients that it intends to introduce ads into its Gemini AI chatbot, with a rollout targeted for 2026, AdWeek’s Trishla Ostwal reports. Details on ad formats, pricing, and testing remain unclear, and clients have not yet been shown prototypes or technical specifics, with the effort described as separate from ads in Google’s AI-powered search experience, Ostwal writes.

CUSTOM CHIPS: Microsoft (MSFT) is in talks to design custom chips with Broadcom (AVGO), switching its business from Marvell (MRVL), which recently tried to win more business from Meta (META), The Information’s Abram Brown reports.

NVIDIA CHIPS: The Department of Commerce will soon allow the export of Nvidia (NVDA) H200 GPUs, which are roughly 18 months behind its most advanced AI offerings, to China, a person with knowledge of the plan told Semafor‘s Reed Albergotti.  

LAWSUIT: The New York Times is suing AI startup Perplexity, claiming that its copyrights were repeatedly violated by the AI search engine maker, The Times’ Cade Metz and Michael Grynbaum report. In its lawsuit, the Times alleges that it contacted Perplexity several times over the past 18 months demanding that it stop using its content until the two sides negotiated a deal, the author say, noting that Perplexity continued to use the publication’s material.

AI GLASSES: As part of today’s The Android Show XR Edition, Warby Parker (WRBY) and Google announced that the first lightweight, AI glasses developed through their partnership are expected to launch in 2026.

PHOENIX GLASSES: Meta is delaying the release of its mixed-reality glasses codenamed “Phoenix” from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027, Business Insider’s Jyoti Mann reported on Friday. An internal memo cited the need for “breathing room” as the company wants a “fully polished” device. Meta is also developing a next-gen Quest headset and a wearable device code-named “Malibu 2,” Mann writes.