Updated 28 mins ago
Top Story

OpenAI enters hardware race with AI smart speaker, glasses after $6.5B Jony Ive acquisition

OpenAI is developing a family of AI-powered devices including a $200-300 smart speaker with camera (shipping no earlier than Feb 2027), smart glasses (2028), and possibly a smart lamp, with over 200 engineers involved. The push follows its $6.5B acquisition of Jony Ive's io Products startup to capitalize on physical AI demand. This marks OpenAI's bold expansion beyond software amid competition from Meta, Apple, and Google.

Why it matters: OpenAI's hardware pivot could redefine consumer AI interfaces, bringing advanced agents into physical world and challenging Big Tech's dominance in wearables and smart home.
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Intelligence Stream

Big Tech

Stock Market Today: Alphabet jumps as Gemini rollout bolsters $185B AI buildout

GOOGL shares surge nearly 4% on Gemini advancements fueling massive AI infrastructure investments.

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Policy

Eyeing China's Growth, NIST Launches New Standards Initiative for AI Agents

US standards body NIST kicks off effort to define benchmarks for AI agents, aiming to counter China's advances in autonomous systems.

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Chips

NVIDIA and META: The AI Dream Team?

NVIDIA and Meta's deepening partnership positions them as leaders in AI infrastructure, with Meta committing to millions of Blackwell and Rubin chips. Analysts see massive revenue upside for NVDA from hyperscaler demand. This alliance underscores the explosive growth in AI compute needs.

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Big Tech

Apple's iOS 26.4 public beta rolls out AI-powered music playlists and more

Apple has released the public beta of iOS 26.4, featuring 'Playlist Playground' powered by Apple Intelligence to generate custom music playlists from descriptions. Additional updates include AI-enhanced video podcasts and other intelligence features. This continues Apple's push to embed generative AI across its ecosystem.

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Startups

World Labs tops week's biggest funding with $1B for spatial intelligence AI

Fei-Fei Li's startup raises $1B led by Autodesk to build world models for 3D environments, robotics, and simulations.

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Chips

Oracle, Google among market cap stock movers on Friday

Oracle and Alphabet lead market cap gains amid AI momentum and economic data.

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Startups

ggml.ai joins Hugging Face to advance local AI inference

Hugging Face acquires ggml.ai to sustain open-source local AI tools amid rapid ecosystem evolution. Focus on long-term progress for on-device models.

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AI

Great news for xAI: Grok is now pretty good at answering questions about Baldur’s Gate

xAI improved Grok's knowledge of the video game Baldur’s Gate after Elon Musk delayed a model release due to poor performance; tests show it now provides detailed, jargon-heavy answers outperforming rivals in specificity.

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AI

Exclusive: Anthropic rolls out AI tool that can hunt software bugs on its own—including the most dangerous ones humans miss

Anthropic launched Claude Code Security, a tool using Claude Opus 4.6 to autonomously scan codebases, detect high-severity vulnerabilities, self-verify findings, and suggest fixes for security teams. It addresses the bug overload causing breaches, with safeguards for responsible use.

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robotics

Tesla loses bid to overturn $243M Autopilot verdict

A judge denied Tesla's request to overturn a $243M verdict holding it partially responsible for a fatal Autopilot crash, highlighting ongoing scrutiny of autonomous driving tech.

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Policy

AI hit: India hungry to harness US tech giants' technology at Delhi summit

India's PM Modi hosts US AI leaders amid $270B+ investments announced, aiming to supercharge economic growth with American tech amid global AI race.

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Big Tech

'Doubts around the AI revolution are emerging,' BofA says, as the market sees a 'double-edged sword' that could 'cannibalize' you

Bank of America strategists warn that doubts around the AI revolution are emerging, shifting the market narrative from an upside-only event to concerns that AI could cannibalize corporate profits. They highlight risks including labor market fragility, capex cuts, and an expected AI air pocket in 2026.

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Research

Workers, bosses, disagree on whether AI will create jobs

A survey by the US National Bureau of Economic Research found over 80% of executives reported no AI impact on employment or productivity in the past three years, forecasting a 0.7% employment cut with productivity gains ahead. Workers, however, expect a 0.5% employment increase, revealing a perceptual divide.

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AI

Toy Story 5 takes shots at creepy always-listening AI toys

Pixar's upcoming film critiques addictive AI tablets and surveillance toys amid rising concerns over kid-targeted AI hardware.

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Big Tech

Meta's Horizon Worlds ditches VR for mobile accessibility

Meta announced a major update to Horizon Worlds, shifting from VR-only to a mobile app to reach more users and expand its metaverse beyond headsets. The change aims to boost engagement by making the virtual world available on smartphones. This pivot reflects challenges in VR adoption amid AI and mobile trends.

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Chips

It's still frothy in AI, but memory chips are now the bottleneck

AI boom strains HBM memory supply; Mistral acquires Koyeb for infra as datacenter demand surges.

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AI

AI in Edu: Signals & Moves (Feb 20, 2026)

Recent signals in AI education include agentic AI handling LMS tasks, embedded workflows like Google Classroom's AI feedback, and emphasis on implementation quality amid platform fatigue. Recommended moves: pilot AI feedback, publish agentic AI policies, and prioritize ecosystem-compatible tools.

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Research

Cohere unveils Tiny Aya open-weight multilingual models ahead of 2026 IPO

Family of open-weight models for multilingual sovereign AI, strengthening Cohere's moat in enterprise and global markets.

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Research

G42, MBZUAI, Cerebras, and C-DAC Partner on National AI Supercomputer for India

Partners announce exaflop-scale AI infrastructure under India AI Mission to democratize access for startups, researchers, and government while upholding sovereignty.

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Startups

BrandJet AI Launches Artemis MCP and Introduces Forward Deployed AE Role for AI-Driven GTM Teams

BrandJet AI unveiled Artemis MCP, a new model for go-to-market teams, along with a forward-deployed AI sales engineer role to boost enterprise adoption.

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Chips

Lam Research and Google among market cap stock movers on Friday

Lam Research (LRCX) and Alphabet (GOOGL) lead market cap changes today amid AI hardware demand.

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AI

Google releases Gemini 3.1 Pro with ability to execute complex tasks

Google's new Gemini 3.1 Pro preview model excels in reasoning and agentic tasks, rolling out to apps and APIs with top benchmarks.

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AI

AI's promise to indie filmmakers: Faster, cheaper, lonelier

AI empowers indie filmmakers with speed and cost savings but isolates them by replacing collaborators. Tools enable solo production but raise concerns over creativity and human connection.

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Startups

Peak XV raises $1.3B, doubles down on AI as global VC rivalry in India heats up

Peak XV Partners raises $1.3B across India and APAC funds, with heavy emphasis on AI startups amid intensifying competition from global VCs in the region.

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Big Tech

OpenAI developing AI devices including smart speaker, The Information reports

OpenAI has assembled a team of over 200 to build AI-powered hardware, starting with a camera-equipped smart speaker priced $200-300 (launch no earlier than Feb 2027), followed by smart glasses and possibly a lamp.

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Chips

Nvidia sells off ARM stake as AI chip competition heats up

Nvidia has exited its investment in ARM Holdings, two key players in AI chip design and manufacturing. The move comes amid intensifying rivalry and regulatory scrutiny in the semiconductor space. It signals shifting strategies in the AI infrastructure arms race.

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AI

Top MarTech News From the Week of February 20th

Seismic unveils Winter 2026 AI-powered enablement release with new capabilities for sales and marketing teams.

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AI

Two-Thirds of Independent Agencies Plan to Increase AI Use This Year

Survey shows 67% of insurance agencies ramping up AI adoption in the next 12 months, though only 8% currently use it extensively.

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Startups

OpenAI now worth more than Goldman Sachs and Netflix combined

OpenAI's skyrocketing valuation tops legacy giants, raising questions for Microsoft, Alphabet, and the broader AI ecosystem dominance.

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Policy

Spotting artificial intelligence ahead of the 2026 primary election

Fake AI-generated political videos flood social media ahead of primaries; experts teach spotting deepfakes to combat misinformation.

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Chips

AI optimizes lab-grown diamonds for advanced semiconductors

MSU researchers use AI to enhance diamond synthesis for chips, improving thermal management critical for AI hardware.

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Startups

Upstart Announces Inaugural $200M Upstart Auto Forward-Flow

Upstart secured a $200M forward-flow agreement for auto loans, leveraging its AI lending models to expand originations.

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Chips

Prediction: 2 Stocks That Should Be Worth More Than Nvidia 10 Years From Now

Motley Fool predicts Alphabet and another stock could surpass Nvidia's market cap by 2036 amid AI shifts.

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Startups

Upstart announces $333M sale of auto assets to focus on AI lending

AI-powered lending platform Upstart sells its auto loan assets for $333M to affiliates, aiming to streamline operations and leverage AI models for superior credit products.

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Big Tech

OpenAI reveals 18-24 year olds account for nearly 50% of ChatGPT usage in India

Young users dominate ChatGPT engagement in India, highlighting massive adoption among Gen Z in emerging markets.

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Startups

The OpenAI mafia: 18 startups founded by alumni

TechCrunch maps 18 notable startups spun out by ex-OpenAI employees, showcasing the talent exodus fueling AI innovation.

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Big Tech

Google and Sea partner on agentic AI for e-commerce and gaming

Google teams up with Sea (Shopee parent) to develop agentic AI models tailored for e-commerce recommendations and in-game experiences.

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Big Tech

The Tech Download: Will China win the AI race?

China's compute-efficient open-source models and massive power buildout position it to dominate global AI stacks, challenging US frontier leadership.

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Chips

AI Spending Is Poised to Hit $700 Billion in 2026. 2 Top Stocks to Buy

Hyperscalers forecast $700B AI capex in 2026, driving demand for chip equipment makers like Applied Materials and data center operators.

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Big Tech

UAE’s G42 teams up with Cerebras to deploy 8 exaflops of compute in India

G42 partners with Cerebras, MBZUAI, and C-DAC to deliver an 8-exaflop sovereign AI supercomputer in India, ensuring data residency and accelerating local AI R&D for institutions and enterprises.

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Chips

Nvidia Stock vs. AMD Stock: Which is the Best AI Chip Buy Right Now?

Analysts debate Nvidia vs. AMD as top AI chip plays, with AMD gaining ground but Nvidia dominating inference and training markets.

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Big Tech

Wall St Week Ahead: Nvidia, software reports to test AI stock rally

Investors eye Nvidia's upcoming earnings and software giants like Microsoft as key tests for the AI-driven market amid recent volatility.

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Policy

AI's populist moment

AI is fueling political campaigns across parties, framed as a battle over jobs, energy costs, and Big Tech power. Republicans push data center moratoriums, Democrats question AI benefits amid job displacement.

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AI

AI Leaders Weekly: Anthropic-Infosys tie-up, OpenAI India expansion

Anthropic partners with Infosys for enterprise AI agents; OpenAI eyes new India offices; DeepMind's Gemini 3.1 Pro leads benchmarks.

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Startups

Avantos secures $25M Series A to scale AI platform for fintech advisors

Avantos raises $25 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-driven platform helping financial advisors manage client portfolios more efficiently.

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Startups

cBrain Invited by California for 12-Week AI Proof of Concept

Danish AI firm cBrain will conduct a 12-week AI PoC for the State of California, focusing on enterprise applications.

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Startups

Ascent raises $45M Series C to expand student lending

Fintech firm Ascent secures $45M to scale AI-enhanced student loan platform amid booming edtech demand. Led by global asset manager, funding fuels product innovation. Highlights AI's penetration into financial services.

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Chips

Meta expands Nvidia deal for millions more AI chips

Meta secures multiyear supply of Nvidia GPUs, CPUs, and rack systems to fuel massive AI training at unprecedented scale.

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AI

Tech Mahindra and NVIDIA launch Hindi-first 8B education LLM under Project Indus

New 8-billion-parameter LLM tailored for Indian education, supporting agentic AI in Hindi with cultural context, addressing data scarcity via synthetic tokens.

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Big Tech

Nvidia close to investing $30 billion in OpenAI's mega funding round

Nvidia is finalizing a massive $30 billion investment in OpenAI's ongoing funding round that could value the AI lab at over $850 billion, according to sources cited by Reuters and FT. This comes amid surging AI infrastructure demand.

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Policy

Trump order looms as Virginia legislators consider AI regulation

State lawmakers debate bills on AI oversight amid anticipation of federal executive actions from the incoming administration.

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Startups

Jump secures $80M Series B to scale AI platform for financial advisors

Fintech AI firm Jump raises $80M led by Insight Partners to expand advisor tools amid booming demand. Funding accelerates agentic AI for personalized client strategies.

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Policy

Ohio Bill Targets AI Models Encouraging Self-Harm

New legislation in Ohio aims to prohibit the creation of AI models that encourage users to engage in self-harm, addressing emerging risks in generative AI.

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Research

Sometimes, It Would Be Unethical Not to Use AI in Medicine

Experts argue that ignoring proven AI tools in healthcare could constitute negligence, though blind adherence poses risks too.

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Policy

G42 Joins Forces with Credo AI to Advance Responsible AI Adoption

Partnership focuses on governance tools for AI in Global South. Aims to scale ethical AI deployment.

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Research

Tech Mahindra launches Hindi-focused education LLM with NVIDIA

Under Project Indus, Tech Mahindra and NVIDIA release cutting-edge LLM for Indian education, supporting Hindi and regional languages.

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AI

AI to profoundly transform global economy: Mistral AI CEO

Mistral AI's CEO highlighted AI's potential to reshape economies at India AI Summit, urging bold strategies amid hyper-progress.

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Robotics

China's humanoid robots go from viral stumbles to kung fu flips in one year

Chinese firms like Unitree showcased humanoid robots performing acrobatic flips at the Spring Festival Gala, signaling explosive progress in AI robotics rivaling Tesla.

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Market

AI investment fears drag US stocks lower

Wall Street slips as worries over massive AI capex and infrastructure limits rumble, compounded by oil spikes.

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Big Tech

'Fighting the AI Ghost Trade' – Dan Ives Lists 10 Catalysts to Reverse the Tech Selloff

Wedbush's Dan Ives outlines 10 catalysts, including AI advancements, to counter recent AI stock declines and reignite momentum.

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Policy

UN chief Guterres: AI can't be left to billionaires, launches control panel

UN promotes new AI panel to ensure 'human control' as technical reality amid global governance push.

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Big Tech

AI ushers in hyper progress, can help emerging economies leapfrog: Google CEO Pichai

Sundar Pichai touted AI's potential to supercharge development in emerging markets, enabling leapfrogging traditional infrastructure.

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AI

Zhipu GLM-5 open-source: 744B params, tops SWE-bench Verified at 77.8%

New agentic engineering model excels in coding/autonomous tasks, surpassing Gemini 3 Pro on software evals with Slime RL and sparse attention. Trained on 28.5T tokens for long-horizon system building.

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Policy

Remarks by Director Michael Kratsios at the India AI Impact Summit

White House official emphasizes US leadership in AI adoption, sovereignty, and exports while rejecting global governance.

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Policy

US pushes AI adoption and sovereignty at India AI Impact Summit

White House announces initiatives for AI exports, training, and countering China at Delhi event.

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AI

Tech Mahindra & NVIDIA launch Hindi-first education LLM under Project Indus

Sovereign model embeds Indian culture/context for scalable learning in physics/subjects, using NVIDIA NeMo/NIM for millions of students.

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AI

Catch up on the AI stories you may have missed this week

Economic Times roundup highlights key AI developments including model launches and industry shifts.

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Big Tech

Nvidia nears $30B equity investment in OpenAI amid massive funding round

Nvidia is close to investing $30 billion in OpenAI as part of a funding round potentially valuing the AI lab at over $850B, reviving talks after a prior $100B deal stalled.

Added today
Policy

AI Summit 2026 LIVE updates: Modi addresses global AI impact

India's AI Impact Summit 2026 continues with PM Modi emphasizing AI's permanence, alongside GPAI council meetings and Delhi Declaration discussions.

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AI

Seedance 2.0: China's latest AI is so good it's spooked Hollywood

Beijing-based Seedance unveiled version 2.0 of its AI video generation model, praised for unprecedented realism and user-friendliness, raising concerns in the film industry.

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Research

Michael Pollan says AI may 'think' — but it will never be conscious

Author Michael Pollan argues in NPR interview that while AI can mimic thinking, true consciousness remains beyond its reach.

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Policy

UK charity Mind launches inquiry into AI's mental health risks after harmful advice exposed

Following Guardian investigation into dangerous Google AI Overviews on suicide and self-harm, Mind probes safeguards in AI chatbots.

Added today
Startups

Sarvam's 105-bn model puts India on the frontier AI map

Indian startup Sarvam AI launched Vikram, a 105-billion-parameter LLM trained on Indian languages and data, unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit to boost sovereign AI capabilities.

Added today
AI

The best AI models in 2026: What model to pick for your use case

Pluralsight ranks top models across tasks, highlighting specialized picks amid the exploding frontier landscape.

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Big Tech

Gemini 3.1 Pro is here, benchmarks says Google is once again leader in AI

India Today covers Google's latest LLM topping charts and reclaiming AI supremacy.

Added today
Startups

China AI Startups Surge After Holiday in Rotation From Big Tech

Chinese AI firms are rapidly updating models and features post-holiday, shifting focus from big tech dominance in the competitive landscape.

Added today
AI

IndiaAI Summit unveils 3 sovereign LLMs: Sarvam Vikram/105B, Gnani Vachana, BharatGen Param2

India launches specialized models supporting 22 languages for governance, voice AI, and offline apps, with Sarvam's 105B rivaling Gemma 27B/GPT-OSS on math/coding. Trained on sovereign compute to reduce foreign reliance.

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Research

Rise of small language models: 2026's smartest AI going hybrid

Shift to SLMs and hybrid LLM-SLM systems for efficiency, as frontier labs optimize for specialized tasks over massive generalists.

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AI

Google Gemini Launches New AI Music Model, Lyria 3

Lyria 3 in beta via Gemini app generates music from text prompts. Competes with Suno in AI audio creation.

Added today
Startups

Corvic AI Joins NVIDIA Inception Program to Advance Enterprise-Scale Intelligence

The AI platform for enterprise data composition gains access to Nvidia's expertise and resources to scale its offerings.

Added today
AI

SchoolQualityReview.ai fully launches AI charter renewal platform

AI tool analyzes charter school docs against 80+ indicators for renewals, entering edtech as AI aids governance and compliance.

Added today
Big Tech

Bill Gates pulls out of India AI summit amid Epstein scrutiny

Microsoft co-founder cancels keynote at India’s AI Impact Summit following renewed backlash over ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Added today
Policy

Gates Foundation and Novo Nordisk launch call for AI health tool proposals

New global partnership seeks proposals to evaluate AI tools supporting decision-making in primary and community health settings.

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Research

Philanthropic partnership funds AI health research in low-resource settings

RFP open for evaluations of AI decision tools for frontline health workers. Focus on country-led studies.

Added today
Chips

Taalas raises $169M in funding to develop model-specific AI chips

The startup's chips are designed to run particular AI models more efficiently, backed by investors including Temasek and Prosus.

Added today
Policy

US to launch Technology Prosperity Corps at India AI Summit to counter China's AI push

The initiative will deploy US tech experts to emerging markets, funded by corporations and charities, to promote American AI standards.

Added today
Policy

US State Dept launches Edge AI Package for Indo-Pacific

The US State Department announced an Edge AI initiative to bolster AI capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region amid geopolitical tech competition.

Added today
Startups

Jump raises $80M to scale AI platform for financial advisors

AI startup Jump secured $80M in funding to expand its platform automating investment research and portfolio management for advisors, tapping into growing demand for AI-driven fintech tools.

Added today
Big Tech

Meta exec urges bold strategies to unlock AI potential

Meta's Wang calls for aggressive moves in AI amid infrastructure buildout.

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Big Tech

OpenAI and Tata Group forge multi-layered AI partnership spanning skills, enterprise, and infrastructure

OpenAI, Tata Group, and TCS announce a strategic partnership including AI skills training for 1M+ youth, Enterprise ChatGPT for thousands of employees, custom agentic AI solutions, and 100MW AI infra scaling to 1GW. Aims to boost India's AI ecosystem and global innovation.

Added today
Research

Together AI launches Consistency Diffusion Language Models: up to 14x faster inference

New CDLM method accelerates diffusion-based language models 14.5x on coding and 11.2x on math while maintaining quality, solving KV cache and step count bottlenecks.

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Big Tech

OpenAI Nears $100B Funding Deal as Valuation Approaches $850B

OpenAI is reportedly finalizing a massive $100B funding round that would value the company at over $850B, fueling further AI infrastructure and model development.

Added today
Research

AI Trends 2026: LLM Statistics & Industry Insights

Visualized data on model performance, pricing, and global race, showing rapid evolution in capabilities and costs.

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Research

Stanford HAI and AWS launch marketing science lab focused on AI measurement

Stanford's Human-AI Institute and AWS debuted a new lab to pioneer AI/ML tools for marketing analytics, causal inference, and B2B customer analysis with open-source prototypes.

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Big Tech

Nvidia and OpenAI abandon unfinished $100bn deal in favour of $30bn investment

Nvidia is close to finalizing a $30B equity investment in OpenAI as part of its funding round valuing the company at ~$830B, replacing a prior $100B multi-year commitment to reduce risk while locking in GPU demand.

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Chips

AI companies drive record $13.6B convertible bond surge in early 2026

AI-focused firms have raised nearly $13.6 billion in convertible bonds through February 18, fueling a surge in equity-linked debt amid booming demand for AI infrastructure.

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Chips

AI Seen Driving US Convertible Bond Sales to Another Banner Year

AI firms fuel record $13.6B convertible bonds YTD, signaling massive capex for compute and infra amid booming demand.

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Big Tech

Microsoft Says 2026 Is the Moment for AI PCs

Microsoft positions 2026 as the pivotal year for AI-powered PCs, highlighting Windows 11 features like Recall, Copilot, and enhanced security.

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Chips

Idaho National Lab Accelerates Nuclear Energy with NVIDIA AI

INL partners with NVIDIA on the Genesis Mission to deploy AI for faster nuclear energy development, addressing AI datacenter power demands.

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Policy

AMC Theatres Will Refuse to Screen AI Short Film After Online Uproar

Major chain AMC pulls out of screening 'The Last Screenwriter,' an award-winning fully AI-generated short film set to play before features nationwide, citing backlash from artists and audiences.

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Quick Bites

OpenAI hardware: 200+ engineers building camera smart speaker ($200-300, 2027 ship)
OpenAI smart speaker: camera-equipped, $200-300 price, launches Feb 2027 earliest
OpenAI hardware team: 200+ engineers building camera speaker ($200-300), glasses, lamp
OpenAI smart speaker: camera-equipped, $200-300, launches Feb 2027 earliest.
Gemini 3.1 Pro debuts 1M context window for agentic tasks
Feb 2026: 12+ frontier models dropped in under 3 weeks.
Gemini 3.1 Pro hits 77.1% ARC-AGI-2, verified 2x prior SOTA
Gemini 3.1 Pro rolls out to app, API w/ 77.1% ARC-AGI-2 verified
Gemini 3.1 Pro: 77.1% ARC-AGI-2 (2x prior SOTA), 94.3% GPQA Diamond, 80.6% SWE-Bench Verified
Gemini 3.1 Pro: 77.1% ARC-AGI-2 (2x prior), 80.6% SWE-bench verified

Market Pulse

AI Pulse
72/100
Bullish

Alphabet surges 4% on Gemini AI momentum, Google/Oracle lead cap movers amid resilient AI sector

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