Google builds in space, Amazon vs. Perplexity & more (November 5, 2025)

Good morning,

The global AI battleground is intensifying, from China’s tightened chip policy & Google heading to space to Amazon’s legal showdown with agentic shopping rival Perplexity AI, and Google Maps evolving into a full conversational co-pilot. Meanwhile infrastructure plays are going literal orbit and regulation storms brew overseas.

Let’s dig in👇

💰 Money Moves

👁️ OpenAI’s Sora is available on Android

OpenAI launched Sora on Android in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, expanding generative-video access to a massive audience. This matters because video creation is no longer niche but open to daily execs, creators and social apps alike. The broader implication: expect a rush of AI-video ecosystems, monetization plays and authenticity challenges.

💸 Perplexity, Amazon spar over agentic AI shopping

Amazon sent legal threats to Perplexity over its “agentic browsing” tool that navigates commerce autonomously. The immediate impact: who controls AI agents doing shopping, recommendations and checkout routines is now under dispute. Long-term: this could define the guardrails for AI in retail, data-rights and interface ownership.

🧱 China bans foreign AI chips in state-funded data centers

Reuters reports that China is banning foreign-made AI chips in government-backed data centres. The move underscores a major tech decoupling between East and West in the AI hardware supply chain. Watching ahead: this could accelerate domestic chip champions and fragment global model training ecosystems.

🚀 New Launches

📊 Google’s space-based AI data centers

Google announced plans to deploy orbital, solar-powered AI data centers, launching into low-earth orbit to scale compute and reduce terrestrial constraints. This matters because it reimagines the very infrastructure of AI, beyond traditional data centers. The broader implication: if feasible, space-based infrastructure could redefine cost structures, latency models and global compute geopolitics.

🧭 Google Maps gets Gemini for conversational navigation

Google Maps is integrating Gemini to offer a hands-free, conversational navigation experience on Android and iOS, letting users ask for places, EV chargers, traffic updates or parking without leaving the map. This matters because it shifts navigation from “map tool” to “smart companion” and brings Gemini into a mass-user domain of over 2 billion users. In context, it is a critical part of how Google positions its AI ecosystem and rethinks the user interface for mapping and mobility.

🧰 Tools of the Day

→ Context Link - Personal URLs for sharing context with AI.
→ Agora Store Builder - Vibe code an e-commerce store with distribution built in.
→ Arcitext.com - Write in your voice, then perfect it with AI.

✍️ Prompt of the Day

“You’re my global strategy analyst. Assess how new AI chip restrictions and corporate rivalries affect innovation and trade. Outline three likely scenarios for U.S.-China tech competition through 2026, and recommend one defensive and one offensive move for Western AI companies.”

⚡ Quick Hits

→ IBM cuts thousands of jobs amid a pivot toward AI-driven software.
→ Big Short’s Michael Burry bets against AI over mounting fears of an “AI bubble.”
→ Google hires economist to study how AGI might reshape the economy.
→ Harvard researcher urges better testing of LLMs in healthcare.

🧾 TLDR

AI is no longer just about smarter models, it’s about smarter infrastructure, smarter interfaces and smarter commercial stakes. Navigation apps become conversational co-pilots, shopping assistants turn into battlegrounds, and space becomes a compute frontier. The bigger story? Control: of data, of interaction, of compute, and the winners will be the ones who not only build the model but own the platform around it.

Cheers,
David