OpenAI announced the launch of AI model GPT-4.5, its largest model to date – so large that CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI was forced to stagger the “giant, expensive” model’s rollout because the company was out of GPUs. “We will add tens of thousands of GPUs next week and roll it out to the Plus tier then,” posted Altman on X on Thursday. “This isn’t how we want to operate, but it’s hard to perfectly predict growth surges that lead to GPU shortages.”

Apple shared plans to make $500 billion in US investments in the next four years, including a new factory in Texas; doubling the US Advanced Manufacturing Fund, a manufacturing academy; accelerated investments in AI and silicon engineering; and US filming of TV shows and movies Apple TV+ service. “We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, days after meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office.

Bots now account for 80% of all web traffic, according to proprietary traffic data from DesignRush collected over the past three years. According to Designrush, OpenAI GPT bots now making up 13% of total traffic, while Googlebot Search has declined to 8%.

Madhive is partnering with Polk Automotive Solutions from S&P Global Mobility to create a local CTV marketplace for the US auto industry, uniting S&P Global Mobility’s automotive intelligence with Madhive’s tools for planning, targeting, activation, and measurement across premium sources from its local broadcast clients. The integration also allows advertisers to create custom audiences and target households based on vehicle status, brand loyalty, lease expirations, and when they will be in the market for their next vehicle.

BrightLine and Telescope have partnered to introduce real-time viewer participation to CTV ad experiences. BrightLine will leverage Telescope’s API-powered fan engagement technology to enable brands to activate immersive, verified, real-time audience experiences within interactive CTV ads. “Interactive advertising is evolving beyond transactional engagement – it’s now possible to create true, real-time branded experiences at scale,” said Brian Baldwin, Head of Product at BrightLine. “Integrating Telescope’s technology directly into BrightLine’s platform allows us to bring the proven, high-impact engagement formats from linear, mobile and social into interactive CTV ads, creating an entirely new way for brands to connect with streaming audiences.”

An ”Amazon moment”: Taboola announced a new focus beyond native advertising and a new technology platform called Realize, a platform that specializes in performance outcomes at scale beyond search and social. “Spending money with DSPs and CTV is great for branding but not optimized to drive performance, and running display with hundreds of advertising tech companies at low scale is simply not worth marketers’ time,” said Adam Singolda, CEO at Taboola. “Amazon started in 1994 and did a great job winning the book business by 2000, which allowed them to go into owning all of e-commerce. This is our ‘Amazon moment.’ After many years of success with native ads, it’s time to go after all of performance advertising.”

Predactiv, specialist in advanced data and technology solutions, and Affinity Solutions, the consumer purchase insights company, are partnering to integrate Affinity Solutions’ fully permissioned data from 150 million credit and debit cards with The Predactiv Data Platform, the audiences created with real-time, granular purchase data. “Our partnership marks a significant step forward in audience targeting and data monetization by addressing the critical operational challenges faced by data providers and marketers today,” said Michael Gorman, Chief Product Officer at Predactiv. “Affinity Solutions’ data scale and powerful purchase insights, combined with our technology, streamlines complex processes, simplifies data integrations, and enables cost-effective data monetization, all while improving modeling efficiency.”

Sustainable ads help reduce carbon emissions on the same scale as a car driving 86,670 miles or charging 52 million smartphones, according to a study from ad exchange Sharethrough in partnership with Horizon Media. The case study highlights the impact of GreenPMPs, Private Marketplaces designed to reduce carbon emissions in advertising. Key findings include:
– Over 300 million impressions were delivered, resulting in a 51% reduction in carbon emissions for display ads and a 57% reduction for video ads.
– Horizon Media also offset 88 metric tons of CO2e through carbon-removal projects.
– Horizon Media saw a 10% increase in display ad viewability and more than doubled click-through rates (CTR) for video ads, all while maintaining high video completion rates.

“The advertising industry has a unique opportunity to lead in sustainability, and we’re excited to see that potential in action through our work with Horizon,” said Frank Maguire, Senior Vice President Product Marketing & Sustainability at Sharethrough, an Equativ company. “By leveraging our GreenPMPs, we’re not just reducing emissions but also showing that sustainability can go hand-in-hand with improving performance. We’re looking forward to diving even deeper into these efforts at our upcoming Green Media Summit, where we’ll explore how the industry can scale sustainable solutions.”

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Music video network Vevo is teaming with AudienceProject, a provider of audience measurement and research solutions, to leverage its SaaS platform for always-on cross-media measurement, including its new integration for YouTube measurement, in the UK. Vevo can now measure the deduplicated reach and frequency of ad campaigns across its entire network, including YouTube and Vevo’s linear FAST channels on services such as Samsung TV Plus and Rakuten.