CNBeta — 2026-06-24#

Top Story#

OpenAI and Broadcom have unveiled “Jalapeño,” OpenAI’s first custom-designed AI inference chip. According to a cnbeta report, the ASIC took only nine months from design to tape-out, a record-breaking pace aided by OpenAI’s own models participating in the layout and circuit design. A separate deep dive notes that the chip will be deployed by late 2026, marking a major step towards OpenAI’s goal of becoming a full-stack AI company capable of driving down inference costs for its advanced models and upcoming AI agents.

Tech & AI#

A report on TSMC’s advanced process pricing indicates the foundry is raising prices by 5% to 10% across all 7nm and below nodes, driven by relentless AI demand.

A new breakdown of China’s autonomous driving national standards details strict requirements for L3 and L4 systems, including a mandate to alert drivers 10 seconds before requiring human intervention and strict rules against aggressive lane changes.

At Nvidia’s annual meeting, Jensen Huang declared that “useful AI has arrived, and it is profitable,” pointing out that clients are now building “AI factories” rather than just buying servers, as covered in this Nvidia meeting summary.

Trump administration export controls on Anthropic have caused collateral damage, severely impacting the US NSA which was heavily relying on Anthropic’s “Mythos” model for cybersecurity testing, according to a cnbeta article on the ban’s fallout. A related lawsuit by Legion shows clients suing the US government over the sudden cutoff of the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, calling the damage irreparable.

Alibaba has sued the US government for “arbitrary and capricious” actions after the Pentagon added the tech giant to a list of Chinese military-linked enterprises, which Alibaba claims has caused severe reputational harm.

Consumer & Devices#

An Omdia forecast predicts global smartphone average selling prices will surge 21% to $565 by 2026, primarily driven by skyrocketing DRAM and NAND flash memory costs.

Tesla is reportedly bringing a longer, six-seat version of the Model Y to the US market by late 2026, potentially to fill the void left by the discontinued Model X SUV.

Chinese office suite WPS faced massive user backlash and a comment from Weibo’s CEO after users discovered the software was forcing cache files onto the system’s C drive, prompting discussions about the reality of prioritizing commercial monetization over the narrative of “domestic alternatives”.

High-end gamers are frustrated with RTX 5090 quality control issues, with teardowns showing excessive thermal paste spilling over the PCB while leaving the GPU die barely covered, causing massive overheating and fan noise.

Gaming#

Rockstar confirmed that GTA6 physical editions will lack a disc to prevent early leaks, providing only a download code for single-player content. Meanwhile, retail leaks suggest the console versions will feature both performance and quality modes, though a stable 60fps remains questionable.

A Steam market study found that games disclosing the use of generative AI suffer a 40% to 60% drop in estimated sales and receive significantly fewer reviews, highlighting strong gamer resistance.

A resurfaced interview reveals Shigeru Miyamoto’s changing views on Zelda dungeons, noting that traditional linear labyrinths take massive development time and may no longer provide the immersive fun modern players expect.

Science & Space#

Following its massive $75 billion IPO, SpaceX stock has experienced wild swings, surging 67% before dropping 35%, as investors brace for the company’s inclusion in major indexes and the upcoming 13th Starship flight.

France suffered a massive power outage in Ergué-Gabéric amid a historic heat dome that pushed temperatures past 44 degrees Celsius and forced nuclear plants to cut output by 4.1 gigawatts.

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Venezuela near Montalbán, causing building collapses in Caracas and prompting tsunami warnings for the Caribbean coast.

Also Noted#

CATL partnered with Galbot to deploy the first humanoid robot powered by a CATL battery, capable of lifting 50kg, into its smart production lines.

Masayoshi Son scrapped his retirement plans, deciding to stay at SoftBank for another 10 to 15 years to push for AI and robotics dominance.

Qualcomm is acquiring AI software firm Modular for $3.9 billion to streamline AI deployment costs across hardware architectures.

Elon Musk’s net worth dipped back below $1 trillion, falling to $970.2 billion following a global tech stock selloff.

Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) reported a massive 33 billion RMB Q1 profit, wiping out a decade of losses ahead of its major IPO.