Claude Code in Slack, Microsoft's big bet & more (December 9, 2025)

Hey friends,

Big drops today across AI infrastructure, policy, and product land. Anthropic sneaks into Slack, Trump greenlights NVIDIA exports, Microsoft goes big in India, and an FDA first quietly unlocks a new era of AI in drug development.

Let’s get into it.

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🤖 AI Power Plays

🛠️ Claude Code comes to Slack

Claude Code is coming to Slack and this is way bigger than just another integration. Embedding Claude’s coding agent directly inside Slack means engineering teams can debug, generate, and ship faster without switching tools. It also signals Anthropic’s strategy to make Claude the default AI layer inside workplace systems where developers already live.

🇮🇳 Microsoft commits 17.5 billion dollars to India

Microsoft will invest 17.5 billion dollars in India, with a heavy focus on cloud, AI talent, and data center expansion. Satya Nadella framed India as a future “AI superpower,” accelerating an already massive push in the region. The investment underscores how global AI capacity is shifting toward emerging markets.

🇺🇸 Nvidia gets approval to sell H200 chips to China

Trump says Nvidia can resume selling H200 AI chips to China, but only to “approved customers,” easing months of tension between the White House and the chipmaker. The move gives Nvidia a lifeline in a massive market where restrictions have been tightening. It also highlights how geopolitical policy is being shaped in real time by the global AI compute race.

🌍 Global AI Shifts

⚖️ Google faces fresh EU antitrust scrutiny

Google Zero is under EU investigation over whether its synthetic AI-generated answers unfairly disadvantage publishers. Regulators want to know if Google is diverting traffic and value away from news sites as its AI chat results become more dominant. This continues Europe's pattern of aggressively regulating foundational AI platforms first.

🥑 Meta’s ‘Avocado’ AI strategy hits turbulence

Meta’s internal Avocado strategy is reportedly struggling, facing unclear goals, overlapping product teams, and slow internal adoption. Employees describe the plan as ambitious but chaotic, with competing visions across divisions. These issues raise fresh questions about Meta’s ability to execute at the scale of its rivals.

🧬 FDA approves first AI tool for liver drug development

The FDA just qualified the first AI tool to accelerate clinical development for liver disease treatments. The tool can predict progression and response patterns, allowing drug companies to design faster and more precise trials. It’s a milestone that validates AI as a formal part of the regulatory pipeline.

🧰 Tools of the Day

→ Z.ai, collaborative AI workspace for teams
→ Kerno, automated compliance and audit workflows
→ Cosmic, AI-powered content creation and publishing engine

💬 Prompt of the Day

Look at my schedule, habits, and current responsibilities. Suggest three tiny 1 percent improvements I can make today that would meaningfully reduce stress, save time, or improve my health. Keep them super practical and tailored to a normal busy person, nothing extreme, nothing idealized. Then give me one sentence explaining why each small upgrade matters.

⚡ Quick Hits

→ Google’s Try-On adds a shoppable discovery feed for creators
→ Bill Gates says AI competition will intensify sharply
→ Sequoia leads funding that pushes FAL to 4.5 billion dollars
→ Accenture partners with Anthropic on enterprise AI transformation
→ Pollo AI raises 14 million dollars in a strong seed round

📝 TLDR

Anthropic embeds Claude Code directly into Slack, Nvidia gets partial approval to sell advanced chips into China, and Google faces new EU pressure over AI-generated results. Microsoft bets huge on India, Meta battles internal AI confusion, and the FDA approves its first AI tool for drug development. The AI ecosystem is rapidly globalizing, consolidating, and getting regulated all at once.

Best,
David