The Agent Wars Have Begun

Welcome back apprentices! 👋

Your apps are working hard. 

But lately, they’re also getting side-eyed by security. 

This week, Amazon cut a $38 billion deal with OpenAI — and in the same breath, told another AI startup to get off its lawn. 

Sound messy? 

It is. 

Let’s break down the bizarre turf war happening behind your screen — and what it means for the tools you think you control.

In today's email

• Amazon’s double-dealing in the AI game

• OpenAI’s $38B bet on cloud freedom

• Why Perplexity just got shut out

• How to keep your AI tools future-proof

• + New AI Tool

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Quick News 

🧠 Billion-Dollar Brain Transplant Incoming. After years of “umm... let me think,” Apple’s voice assistant is finally getting smarter — powered by a 1.2 trillion parameter model licensed from Google’s Gemini (but shhh, they’re keeping that part quiet). The $1B+ upgrade runs on Apple’s private cloud for privacy points, and could land as soon as next spring. Apple sees it as a temporary fix while it builds its own AI — but that’s easier said than done.

🎄Coca-Cola’s Christmas Ad? The company’s new holiday campaign swaps Santa’s elves for AI-generated animals, speeding up production from a year to just 30 days — and using only five people to create 70,000+ clips. Despite past backlash from artists and social media snark, the soda giant is doubling down on AI with a little help from studios Silverside and Secret Level. Execs say this is just the start of an AI-fueled marketing future — and they’re not apologizing for the ride.

🎧 From Cease-and-Desist to Remix-and-Resist. Universal Music Group just went from suing AI music app Udio to teaming up with it — with a new licensed platform dropping in 2026 that lets fans remix hits legally. Artists who opt in get paid for training and remixes, but Udio’s sudden download shutdown hit users like a bad bass drop. Meanwhile, UMG also linked up with Stability AI to build “responsibly trained” tools for creators.

Together with Belay

Busy Isn’t a Badge. It’s a Bottleneck..

Every minute you spend on low-value work costs you opportunities you can’t get back. That is why BELAY exists: to help leaders like you get back to what matters.

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Real freedom starts with a right partner.

Get BELAY’s Delegation Guide.

Amazon, OpenAI & Perplexity   
Amazon’s Playing Both Sides of the AI Revolution

What do you get when one of the world’s biggest cloud companies teams up with an AI heavyweight, then turns around and blocks another AI startup from using its shopping platform? 

Peak 2025, apparently. 

This week, Amazon made headlines twice: first for inking a $38 billion, 7-year deal with OpenAI to supply enough GPUs to melt the planet (or train GPT-6); and second, for sending a cease-and-desist to Perplexity AI, accusing its agent of giving customers a “bad shopping experience.”

It’s a tale of two Amazons: one building the AI future, the other slamming the door on AI agents not wearing the right badge. 

📌 Key Points

• 💰 $38B OpenAI + AWS Deal: Amazon Web Services is now OpenAI’s other sugar cloud daddy. The deal includes access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs, set to come online by 2026 to fuel ChatGPT, enterprise tools, and model R&D.
  

• 🔓 No More Microsoft Exclusivity: Microsoft recently ended its exclusivity terms with OpenAI, letting OpenAI shop around for compute. Now it’s working with Amazon, Oracle, Google, and Broadcom to build a $1.4 trillion infrastructure footprint.
  

• 🛒 Amazon vs. Perplexity: Perplexity’s browser assistant, Comet, was letting users shop on Amazon. Amazon said nope, calling it a "degraded experience" and sent legal threats. Perplexity fired back, calling Amazon a “corporate bully.”
  

• 🧱 Amazon Builds Its Own AI Agent: Meanwhile, Amazon is developing its own AI shopping tools — like Rufus and Buy For Me — while blocking AI crawlers from OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Translation: agents are fine, if they’re ours.
  

• 💼 Big-Picture Implication: The next AI war isn’t about model size — it’s about access. And the platforms hosting your content, customers, or code may soon decide which agents get in and which ones get ghosted.

The Two Faces of Amazon

Amazon is playing both quarterback and referee in the AI economy. 

On one hand, it’s selling compute to OpenAI — offering up hundreds of thousands of high-end GPUs through AWS, supporting a deal worth more than the GDP of some countries. On the other hand, it's shutting out third-party agents from its retail platform.

Quick stat check: AWS owns ~32% of the global cloud market. Amazon.com captures ~40% of U.S. e-commerce. That’s a lot of leverage — and a lot of conflicting interests.

If you're building AI tools or services, Amazon could be both your enabler and your limiter. One division may power your models, while another blocks them from reaching users. 

The kitchen’s open — but you can’t bring your own lunch to the dining room.

The Fight Has Officially Started

AI agents are supposed to be helpful little bots — browsing, buying, booking, comparing. Perplexity’s Comet was doing just that… until Amazon slammed the brakes. 

Why? Because it didn’t control the experience (or the ad dollars).

🔒 Amazon has blocked AI crawlers from OpenAI, Google, Meta. Yet it’s happily developing its own AI agents — just with 100% home-field advantage.

This isn’t about quality. 

It’s about control. 

Platforms want curated, polished, monetized user flows. Agents want autonomy. 

When they clash, guess who wins?

The web is quietly turning into gated communities — and your AI assistant might soon be locked outside.

The $1.4 Trillion AI Infrastructure Power Grab

OpenAI’s AWS deal is just one tile in a sprawling infrastructure mosaic. The company’s multi-cloud plan with Oracle, Google, Nvidia, Broadcom, and others is all about avoiding vendor lock-in and controlling its destiny.

💸 Estimated cost of GPT-4 training: $100M

🔮 Projected AI infrastructure investment from OpenAI & partners: $1.4 trillion

🧠 Why it’s smart: OpenAI doesn’t want any single company holding the plug. And neither should you.

Cloud monocultures are dangerous. 

If you’re a founder, CTO, or even a solo builder, now’s the time to rethink infrastructure strategy. Diversify your compute stack, don’t put all your models in one data lake.

What’s the Deal for You?

If you’re building with AI — or just using it to make your day easier — this is your heads-up:

• AI agents are powerful, but they’re about to face roadblocks.
  

• Platform access is becoming a privilege, not a right.
  

• Infrastructure freedom matters more than ever.

Whether you're an indie developer or a product lead at a Fortune 500, the rules of engagement are changing fast. 

And being caught unaware could mean waking up to find your AI features no longer work — or worse, are no longer allowed.

Treat the internet like a fancy nightclub. 

The cloud might sell you the outfit, but the bouncers at the door decide if your agent gets in. 

So build with backups, design for flexibility, and never assume access is forever. 

Help Your Friends Level Up! 🔥

Hey, you didn’t get all this info for nothing — share it! If you know someone who’s diving into AI, help them stay in the loop with this week’s updates.

Sharing is a win-win! Send this to a friend who’s all about tech, and you’ll win a little surprise 👀

Today’s Toolbox

From Boring to Brilliant: Training Videos Made Simple

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🧪 Test the Prompt

A playground for your imagination (and low-key prompt skills).

Each send, we give you a customizable DALL·E prompt inspired by a real-world use case — something that could help you in your business or job if you wanted to use it that way. But it’s also just a fun creative experiment.

You tweak it, run it, and send us your favorite. We pick one winner to feature in the next issue.

Bonus: you’re secretly getting better at prompt design. 🤫

👑 The winner is…

Last week, we challenged you to test GPT-4o’s visual generation skills with this prompt.

Here’s the WINNER:

Congrats to Maximilian for his creation!🥳

Want to be featured next? Keep those generations coming!

🎨 Prompt: The Aquatic Memory Core

Design a colossal underwater structure built to archive the collective memories of [a specific group or profession]. The core is surrounded by transparent data capsules, drifting like jellyfish, each pulsing with light and movement. Bioluminescent cables stretch through the deep ocean, connecting memory nodes shaped like organic coral-tech hybrids. Shafts of sunlight break through the surface far above, refracting into shifting color patterns across the seafloor.
Style: ultra-detailed cinematic underwater realism, glowing elements, fluid particle effects, deep blues and luminous contrast, wide-angle depth.

We’ll be featuring the best generations in our next edition!

Free is always better:

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