DeepSeek’s $45B Surge, Perplexity’s Snap Split, and AI Sports Analysis | UpNext AI – May 7, 2026

DeepSeek is reportedly in talks that could value the company at roughly $45 billion in its first outside investment round—another sign that capital is rapidly flowing toward frontier AI challengers with strong reasoning performance and lower-cost training strategies. The broader signal: the market is repricing serious competitors to the biggest U.S. labs.  Meanwhile, Snap says its planned $400 million partnership with Perplexity has ended before a broader rollout. The deal would have integrated AI search directly into Snapchat, but the split highlights how difficult large-scale consumer AI distribution partnerships still are in practice.In research, we look at a deep learning framework for tactical football analysis built around structured tracking and reasoning instead of full end-to-end automation. The system focuses on identifying player coordination, tactical motifs, and interpretable strategic patterns—showing where AI can add value without replacing the full analytical pipeline.In the headlines: a new evaluation framework for Anthropic-style agent skills, continued debate over the term “distillation attacks,” criticism of increasingly human-like AI terminology, and new testimony from former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati in the Musk v. Altman case.SourcesTechCrunch – DeepSeek valuation talks https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/06/deepseek-could-hit-45b-valuation-from-its-first-investment-round/TechCrunch – Snap / Perplexity partnership ends https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/06/snap-says-its-400m-deal-with-perplexity-amicably-ended/Scientific Reports – AI tactical football analysis https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-48082-5GitHub – agent-skills-eval https://github.com/darkrishabh/agent-skills-evalInterconnects – “Distillation attacks” discussion https://www.interconnects.ai/p/the-distillation-panicWired – AI naming criticism https://www.wired.com/story/i-am-begging-ai-companies-to-stop-naming-features-after-human-processes/The Verge – Mira Murati testimony https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/925338/openai-musk-v-altman-mira-murati