AI Furnace Newsroom: OpenAI is Back with GPT-5.2 Release, Disney Characters Come to AI Life, NVIDIA Chips Open Up to China

Welcome to this week’s AI Furnace Newsroom

In today’s insights we cover:

1. OpenAI Strikes Back with Swift GPT-5.2 Release

2. Disney and OpenAI Deal to Bring Disney Characters to Sora

3. Nvidia wins Trump’s blessing to sell AI chips in China

4. Enterprise Implementation Spotlight: CNH Industrial Brings AI to the Farm

5. OpenAI’s Enterprise AI Report Claims Time Savings of 1 Hour a Day from AI Usage

Read time: 5 mins

💡 Furnace Insights

OpenAI

OpenAI Strikes Back with Swift GPT-5.2 Release

OpenAI releases GPT-5.2 hot off the heels of Google’s Gemini 3 Pro release, and GPT-5.2 jumps ahead of Gemini in coding, reasoning and knowledge work. GPT-5.2 showcases advancements in:

• State of the art long-context reasoning

• Handling complex, multi-step projects

• Building spreadsheets, presentations, analysis and formatting

The Thinking model posts large gains in abstract reasoning, coding, image analysis, and tool use, beating Gemini 3 Pro on SWE-Verified and ARC-AGI-2. This matters because it shows that the foundation model benchmark race is shifting from trivia-style tests to knowledge based paid work: completing multi-step tool flows, extracting fine pieces of information from large documents, fixing real bugs, etc.

At the same time, the cost per token is rising given these advancements. However users can choose high vs low cost models based on their use case.

Disney

Disney’s OpenAI Deal brings Disney Characters to Sora 

Disney agrees to invest $1B in OpenAI in a multi-layered deal that includes Disney receiving equity in OpenAI, using ChatGPT tools internally as a customer, licensing 200+ Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar characters to OpenAI (to be usable by creators in Sora) and restricting using the likeness and voices of actors with tighter controls on character use.

Sora users will be able to generate short videos using select Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters, while Disney will gain early access to OpenAI’s technology for internal production and experimentation. This reflects a shift on the part of movie studios from defensive posturing around generative AI, towards a more controlled, first-mover adoption by major IP holders.

Nvidia

Nvidia wins Trump’s blessing to sell AI chips in China

Trump announced that he has granted Nvidia permission to sell the company’s H200 AI chip to China, giving the AI chip maker an opportunity to chase billions of dollars of demand from the new market. It is said that the chips will purportedly only go to “approved customers.”

The Financial Times reported that China on their side would also interestingly limit access to H200 chips internally, and that buyers would likely need to go through an approval process that would require them to explain why domestic providers are unable to meet their needs.

The US vs China AI war continues to develop.

CNH

Enterprise Spotlight: CNH Industrial Brings AI to the Farm

CNH Industrial, a corporate that designs, produces, and sells agricultural machinery, is rolling out a suite of AI-enabled technologies internally and across its tractors, harvesters, and precision farming systems to boost productivity, sustainability, and ease of use for growers. This is partly driven by farmers facing intense cost pressures and feeling the dire effects of climate change.

CNH’s strategy underscores how AI is becoming embedded not just in software but in physical machinery, converting traditional equipment into connected, autonomous systems that can drive measurable gains in efficiency and sustainability.

The tech has been deployed across broad corners of the business including:

• Code generation and software development to assist with developing precision agriculture tech, drafting contracts, producing R&D database queries, and content management.

• AI-enabled spraying systems that use cameras and machine learning to detect the difference between weeds and planted crops when applying chemicals in the field. Farmers who use AI in this manner can reduce the amount of herbicides they use by 80%.

• AI for LIDAR and GPS to automate steering and planting row recognition for vehicles

OpenAI

OpenAI’s Enterprise AI Report Claims Time Savings of 1 Hour a Day from AI Usage

OpenAI’s enterprise report blends anonymized product data with surveys from 9,000 employees across nearly 100 paying companies. Most users report faster work or better output, with IT, engineering, and marketing seeing the biggest gains.

According to the report, employees using AI tools save an average of 40–60 minutes per day, with power users reporting more than 10 hours of time saved per week, pointing to AI’s growing role as a force multiplier for knowledge work.

📈 AI Venture Deals of the Week

• AttiFin AI, a legal AI company, raised its £5 million Seed round.

• Mirelo, an AI video sound-sync company, raised its $41 million Seed round.

• H3D, an AI design tech company, raised its $5.8 million Series A.

• OnCorps AI, an agentic AI platform company, raised its $55 million growth funding round.

• Saviynt, an identity security company, raised its $700 million Series B.

• Port, a developer tools/AI orchestration company, raised its $100 million Series C.

⚒️ New AI Product Launches You Don’t Want to Miss 

• Zoom’s AI achieved a new state-of-the-art score on the Humanity’s Last Exam benchmark evaluating complex multi-domain reasoning.

• Nemotron 3, heavyweight open model by NVIDIA.

• Tinker, by Thinking Machines Lab, a flexible AI model fine-tuning API, with control over training while the platform handles infrastructure.

• Chat Agency AI, a AI-powered business idea and strategy platform that automates market research, business planning, and strategic documentation from idea to execution.

• Dex, a AI browser “second brain” workspace, an AI extension that turns Chrome into a context-aware workspace that manages tasks, tabs, and workflows.

• Runway GWM-1, a general, research world model for real-time simulation that builds interactive, controllable world simulations supporting environments, robotics, and avatars.

Upcoming Events 📅

• AIF Founder Supper Club @ Whiskey Club - Wednesday, January 21

• AIF Founder Supper Club @ Wine Bar - Wednesday, February 18

• AIF Founder Supper Club @ Private Room - Tuesday, March 24

Interested in meeting the Who’s Who of AI?

The AI Hot 100 Summit is back for its third edition on May 7th, 2026 in New York City. The only AI Summit built for real connections where startup innovation meets enterprise implementation. Join over 500 AI Executive Leaders, Founders and Investors for a jam packed day of enterprise AI lightning talks, innovation showcases, and curated networking.

Get ready to meet and greet speakers and attendees from OpenAI, NVIDIA, Haleon plc, Legora, Anthropic, Cursor, Eleven Labs, Adobe, Walmart, Insight Partners & more.

🗓️ May 7, 2026

📍New York City