Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities
Before Ila Kumar thinks about how to build technology, she asks a different question: What is the context that technology will operate in, and who needs to be involved in the design? For Kumar, meaningful innovation doesn’t result from engineers or designers working in isolation. Instead, she believes the best innovations emerge when the people…
Baidu Confirms Dual-Primary Listing on Hong Kong Main Board Takes Effect
Baidu, Inc. said its voluntary conversion from secondary to dual-primary listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited became effective on September 1, 2026, making the Beijing-based AI company dual-primary listed in Hong Kong and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The company announced the effectiveness in an issuer release…
Nscale Closes $3B in Term Loans
Nscale has closed approximately $3 billion in aggregate commitments across two senior secured delayed draw term loan facilities backing a pair of U.S. AI infrastructure projects, the London-based company announced on August 31, 2026. One facility supports its Ward County, Texas campus and the other its Madison, North Carolina site, and Nscale said both facilities…
Apple Tells Court OpenAI Employee Used Confidential Circuit Schematic
Apple Inc. told a federal court on August 31, 2026 that a former senior electrical engineer now working at OpenAI downloaded a confidential circuit schematic and used it in his OpenAI work, citing a forensic inspection of a MacBook his attorneys handed over on August 21, 2026. The allegations appear in a supplemental brief filed…
AWS Agent Registry Reaches General Availability
Amazon Web Services made AWS Agent Registry generally available on August 31, 2026, giving organizations a centralized catalog for registering, discovering, and governing AI agents, tools, and skills. The service, available through Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, is priced on a consumption basis with a monthly free tier. Two Planes Separate Governance From Discovery AWS Agent Registry…
MIT Quantum Initiative launches postdoctoral fellowship program
The MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT) has launched a new postdoctoral fellowship program to accelerate interdisciplinary quantum research and develop the next generation of scientific leaders working at the frontiers of quantum science and technology. Supported by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the program reflects QMIT’s vision of expanding the boundaries of quantum…
CCTV-Affiliated Account Attacks Anthropic, Sets Terms for US-China AI Talks
A social media account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV published a lengthy attack on Anthropic on August 31, 2026, accusing the US artificial intelligence company of overstepping user data boundaries and laying out two conditions it said Washington must meet before substantive US-China talks on AI safety can proceed. The commentary, titled “Anthropic Has…
What Back-to-School Shopping Reveals About the Next Phase of Retail AI
Every back-to-school season compresses months of retail behavior into a few intense weeks. Families browse across websites and apps, compare prices, respond to promotions, visit stores, join loyalty programs and make purchases across categories ranging from apparel to electronics. This year, that activity started especially early. National Retail Federation research found that 62% of back-to-school…
AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs, EPYC CPUs Power €387.8M LUMI-AI Supercomputer
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking has signed a €387.8 million procurement contract with French vendor Bull to deliver LUMI-AI, a next-generation supercomputer announced August 31, 2026 as powered by AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs and 6th Gen AMD EPYC 256-core processors. The system will be installed at CSC – IT Center for Science’s new data center in…
OpenAI Expands ChatGPT Ads Self-Service Access to India and Europe
OpenAI announced on August 31, 2026, that ChatGPT Ads has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch, and that self-service ad buying through Ads Manager would open later that day across India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Advertising is one pillar of OpenAI’s diversified business model,…