Major companies are escalating into an all-out battle over coding AI, seen as the biggest battleground in AI. Anthropic has entered a $2.5 billion annualised revenue run-rate track with Claude Code, while OpenAI is also speeding up moves focused on coding.

Elon Musk’s xAI has also taken aim directly at coding. Citing weak performance of its coding products, Musk has pushed out several more xAI co-founders and is reviewing the company overall by bringing in personnel from SpaceX and Tesla. xAI also hired Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from the AI coding app Cursor and put them to work on improving the 'Grok Code Fast' product.

ㆍBoost lagging coding AI competitiveness...Will Musk’s xAI rebuilding work?

Coding AI startups are also bulking up through additional fundraising. Cursor is discussing funding with investors at a valuation of about $50 billion, according to reports. Coding platform Replit raised $400 million in a Series D round, lifting its valuation to $9 billion.

Coding AI startup Lovable posted $100 million in revenue in February alone, taking its annualised revenue run rate above $1 billion.

ㆍCursor seeks additional funding at $50 billion valuation ㆍCoding AI Replit raises $400 million...Triples valuation in 6 months ㆍLovable tops $100 million in February revenue…ARR surpasses $1 billion

Competition among big tech companies over AI inference chips is also intensifying. Nvidia is expected to unveil new chips at its GTC developer conference starting on March 16 local time. Amazon Web Services also announced it has entered a multi-year partnership with AI semiconductor startup Cerebras and will deploy Cerebras inference chips in its data centres. Meta also unveiled four types of custom chips it developed for AI workloads. AI inference company Fireworks AI acquired real-time computing and server orchestration platform Hathora.

ㆍ'War of the stars' over inference AI chips...Nvidia’s first inference-only chip emerges ㆍAWS allies with Cerebras...Targets AI inference market ㆍMeta unveils its own AI chips after large Nvidia and AMD contracts ㆍInference AI infrastructure firm Fireworks AI acquires Hathora…Expands real-time AI processing

Other moves by companies in South Korea and abroad around AI are also summarised.

Nvidia formed a sovereign AI partnership with Palantir Technologies. Under the collaboration, Palantir will introduce 'AIOS-RA (AI OS Reference Architecture)' based on Nvidia’s enterprise reference architecture. Nvidia also announced the Nemotron Super 3 model for large-scale agentic AI systems. Nemotron Super 3 is based on 120 million parameters and a mixture-of-experts structure, with throughput improved fivefold and accuracy doubled from the previous model. Nvidia is also preparing to launch the open-source AI agent platform 'NemoClaw' for enterprise customers.

ㆍNvidia expands sovereign AI footprint...Joins hands with Palantir ㆍNvidia releases Nemotron Super 3 model for agentic AI…Performance up fivefold ㆍNvidia prepares AI agent platform 'NemoClaw'...To be provided as open source

Google unveiled Gemini AI features that automatically generate documents, spreadsheets and slides using data from Gmail, Chat and Drive. Zoom is introducing AI avatar, document, presentation and spreadsheet apps, an AI agent builder for non-technical users, and a voice translator for meetings. Adobe launched a beta version of a Photoshop AI assistant for web and mobile apps, and will also add AI-based image editing features to Firefly.

ㆍGoogle expands Gemini features…Supports automatic generation of documents, sheets and slides ㆍZoom launches AI-based office tools…AI avatar for meetings to be unveiled in March ㆍAdobe launches Photoshop AI assistant

Microsoft will sell a new enterprise subscription package, 'Microsoft 365 E7', from May that for the first time bundles Office 365 software and the Copilot AI chatbot. The price is $99 per user per month. Salesforce unveiled 'Agentforce Contact Center', a next-generation contact center as a service solution that connects voice and digital channels, customer relationship management data and AI agents on a single platform.

ㆍMicrosoft announces new AI-enabled Office pricing plan…Also developing Copilot co-work with Anthropic ㆍSalesforce unveils next-generation contact center solution…Builds collaboration environment for AI and agents

Meta delayed the launch of its next-generation AI model 'Avocado' from this month to after May. Internal performance tests reportedly showed it lagging behind flagship models from rivals including Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.

ㆍMeta delays launch of next-generation AI 'Avocado' until after May...Due to performance issues

Rimini Street, a company that provides enterprise software support and innovation solutions, is accelerating efforts to help companies using existing ERP systems use agentic AI without upgrading to new versions. Microsoft is unveiling the AI-based medical assistant 'Copilot Health'. The company said Copilot Health provides reliable answers based on data from medical institutions in 50 countries, and enables more precise analysis when users input medical information. Cloud-based data platform Databricks unveiled the AI agent Genie Code for automating data engineering and analytics.

ㆍ"We will support agentic AI innovation for companies using existing ERP" ㆍMicrosoft announces 'Copilot Health'...Supports interpretation of medical data ㆍDatabricks unveils data engineering agent 'Genie Code'

Bumble unveiled the AI-based dating assistant 'Bee'. Bee learns users’ values, relationship goals and communication styles and recommends matches. Genspark.ai launched the cloud-based AI secretary 'Clo'. Clo AI operates in a dedicated cloud environment for each user, automating work while maintaining security and data isolation.

ㆍBumble launches AI dating assistant 'Bee' ㆍGenspark launches Clo AI assistant as an alternative to OpenClo

Netflix acquired AI company InterPositive for up to $600 million. InterPositive technology helps filmmakers resolve discontinuities in editing or improve scenes.

ㆍNetflix acquires AI startup for $600 million...Upgrades editing work

Zendesk will acquire AI-based customer service startup Forethought. Forethought is an AI company that won TechCrunch Battlefield in 2018, with global companies such as Upwork, Grammarly, Airtable and Datadog as customers. South Korean supply chain management solutions firm Xionex acquired AI model development and analytics specialist BRFrame and incorporated it as a subsidiary. The acquisition is aimed at internalising core AI technologies needed to build Xionex’s autonomous SCM platform. Meta acquired the AI agent social network Maltbook.

ㆍZendesk acquires AI customer service startup Forethought ㆍXionex acquires AI specialist 'BRFrame'…Accelerates autonomous SCM implementation ㆍMeta acquires AI agent social network Maltbook

LG CNS will work with U.S. AI software company Palantir Technologies to accelerate its domestic AX business. LG CNS also made a strategic investment in U.S. robotics company Dexmate as part of efforts to strengthen its competitiveness in humanoid robot hardware optimised for industrial sites.

ㆍLG CNS partners with U.S. Palantir to target enterprise AI...Expanding starting with LG Group ㆍLG CNS invests in U.S. robotics firm Dexmate...Accelerates expansion into physical AI

Naver Cloud signed a memorandum of understanding with AI software company Konan Technology for cooperation in defence- and manufacturing-focused large language models and physical AI.

ㆍNaver Cloud-Konantechnology cooperate on defence and manufacturing-focused AI

The government is moving to fully scale up broad industrial support with the goal of becoming the world’s leading power in physical AI. At the 'Physical AI Frontier Power New Technology Breakfast Forum' held recently at the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeouido, Deputy Prime Minister Kyung-hoon Bae (배경훈) said, "To show our capabilities as a manufacturing powerhouse, we must properly prepare for physical AI." He said capabilities are needed from a full-stack perspective, including world models, physical AI foundation models and factory smartisation design, and added the government will provide as much support as possible, from national R&D to on-site deployment.

ㆍGovernment begins full-stack support for physical AI…Bae Kyung-hoon: "Foster from R&D to the field"

Prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) published its series, The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, showing which generative AI services the public uses. a16z predicted, "If AI assistants evolve beyond a simple chat window into an operating environment, competition will resemble the mobile OS wars more than the search wars, where one company took 90 percent of the market, with two platforms of very different philosophies each building $1 trillion ecosystems."

ㆍMobile OS wars rather than search...Changing global B2C AI app landscape

Tech companies are also moving faster on layoffs as they consider work efficiency gains from AI adoption. Oracle is also preparing to carry out layoffs over the coming months. Block and Atlassian earlier announced large-scale layoffs citing AI.

ㆍTech firms line up with layoffs citing AI productivity...Oracle also signals large-scale restructuring ㆍAtlassian to cut 10 percent of staff...Expands investment in AI and enterprise sales ㆍMeta considers cutting 20 percent of total workforce…Prepares for greater AI investment and efficiency