Qualcomm's on device AI chips, Nscale's $3bn IPO, and AstroForge's spacecraft - Daily AI Brief #546

The Block launches The Latent, an AI-focused publication offering reporting, model data and analytical tools. It debuts with more than 100 articles, a data portal with over 50 charts, and the Latent Score for comparing AI model capabilities. Read more

WisdomAI will embed its Agentic Analytics platform into Teradata's Tera agent. The planned fourth quarter 2026 release for Teradata Cloud will support natural language data queries, prompt based application creation and AI agents for KPI monitoring. Read more

Kroger describes an AI strategy that combines customer and operational data, proprietary and third party models, shared infrastructure, and governance. The retailer uses AI for forecasting, personalized savings, shopping assistance, workforce tools, and training for more than 400,000 associates. Read more

Anthropic releases Claude Opus 5.5, the first model in its Claude 5.5 family. The company says it improves coding, computer use, knowledge work and safety, while reducing typical workload costs by 40% and increasing response speed by more than 30%. Read more

Snorkel AI raises $350 million in a Series E funding round co led by Insight Partners and S32, valuing the company at $3.5 billion. The company plans to expand its AI training and evaluation data capacity, research, and enterprise AI products. Read more

Qualcomm introduces its Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 smartphone chips, adding support for local AI models, personalized agents and enhanced camera, gaming and voice features. Motorola plans to use the Extreme version in its Signature 27 smartphone later this year. Read more

OpenAI launches GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, with lower API pricing and improvements in factuality, coding, computer use and caching. The models are available through the OpenAI API, ChatGPT Work and Codex, while GPT-6 Luna also reaches Free and Go users on the desktop app. Read more

Apple retail store creator Ron Johnson says AI agents can improve online shopping but will not replace physical stores. His comments contrast with efforts by Google and OpenAI to develop agents that research and buy products. Read more

Nscale, a British AI cloud company, plans a New York Stock Exchange listing that could raise $3 billion at a $35 billion valuation. Its filing shows that Microsoft and Anthropic account for about 85% of more than $103 billion in contracted revenue, while the company reported a $1.02 billion net loss for the first half of 2026. Read more

PATEO and Arm signed a memorandum of understanding to develop physical AI systems for vehicles. The work will cover perception, in car interaction, cockpit and driving functions, combining Arm's automotive computing expertise with PATEO's software, hardware, chip and cloud capabilities. Read more

Brahma AI raises $150 million in a preferred share round, including $100 million from Multiples Alternate Asset Management. The company plans to fund research, global market expansion and a larger presence in Silicon Valley. Read more

Tencent Cloud launches DataBuddy, a managed data and AI workbench with agents for engineering, governance, analytics, and data science. It is available in China, Thailand, South Korea, and Indonesia, with wider international expansion planned. Read more

rabbit releases OS3, a cloud based agentic operating system that coordinates AI models, web services, applications and devices through one chat interface. The platform supports up to five connected devices and is available via web portals, messaging services and the r1 device. Read more

AstroForge plans to deploy its in house Solo AI control system on an autonomous spacecraft in 2027. The system will first operate in shadow mode on DeepSpace 2, expected to launch by the end of 2026. Read more

A OpenSearch Software Foundation and Linux Foundation Research report finds that 83% of organizations globally run or plan to run AI workloads. The survey identifies vendor neutrality, cost, security, compliance and interoperability as key data infrastructure priorities, while 62% of respondents already use OpenSearch for AI workloads. Read more

Lumos launches MCP Governance, a tool for security and IT teams to monitor and control AI agent tool calls at runtime. It supports Claude Code and Codex, blocking actions that violate permission policies. Read more