Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers

January 14, 2025

A low-angle view of a video camera.

4: Social media creators are selling their unused video footage to AI companies hungry for content to train their generative AI models. OpenAI, Google, and others are reportedly paying up to $4 a minute to license this footage.

300 million: The private equity giant Blackstone invested $300 million in an AI data company called DDN, valuing the firm at $5 billion. DDN provides specialized data analytics for businesses developing and running AI models, helping them process and store large amounts of data.

32 million: The defense tech startup Overland AI raised $32 million in venture capital as the Pentagon ramps up demand for artificial intelligence. The company’s OverWatch software specializes in “ground autonomy” to help unmanned vehicles navigate off-road terrains.

10,000: Adobe’s new AI suite, called Firefly, can perform edits on 10,000 images at once. For example, it can resize tons of pictures or replace their backgrounds in one fell swoop.

Hard Numbers: Ukraine’s opens the exit door, More Colombian soldiers kidnapped, South Korea bans cells in schools, Taylor Swift’s big day

A Ukrainian soldier is seen at a checkpoint at the road near a Crimea region border March 9, 2014. Russian forces tightened their grip on Crimea on Sunday despite a U.S. warning to Moscow that annexing the southern Ukrainian region would close the door to diplomacy in a tense East-West standoff.

REUTERS/Viktor Gurniak

Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers

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Hard Numbers: Cash for footage, Blackstone bets on AI data, Military tech is thriving, Adobe’s AI powers

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More from GZERO Media

In this episode of GZERO Europe, Carl Bildt delves into the escalating diplomatic tensions between Denmark and the United States over Greenland.

The campaign for Argentina’s legislative election officially launched this week, but it couldn’t have gone worse for President Javier Milei.

Sports inspire greatness, determination, and resilience—both on and off the field. Bank of America is proud to celebrate the achievements of and uplift communities through the power of sports. Learn more about how Bank of America supports athletes in life and in the game.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

In this episode of Ian Bremmer’s Quick Take, Ian breaks down escalating US actions toward Venezuela.

The Trump administration is divided over its approach to Venezuela, according to Venezuelan journalist Tony Frangie Mawad.

60: Ukraine will allow men aged 18–22 to leave the country, easing a wartime ban that kept males under 60 from crossing the border.