Tech Express | August 23, 2026 NVIDIA Spends $7 Billion on the Strongest Open-Source AI Model

1. NVIDIA Spends $7 Billion to Build the Strongest Open-Source AI Model

Source: Mydrivers

On August 23, US media reported that NVIDIA has reached a cooperation deal with AI startup Poolside, investing $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation while spending another $6 billion to acquire the company's technology rights and some of its R&D personnel. The roughly $7 billion deal will help NVIDIA build its own open-source large language model.

About 100-plus Poolside employees will join NVIDIA to work on its in-house Nemotron model, with the goal of making the model family among the world's strongest. NVIDIA has long been a supporter of open-source models and has previously praised China's DeepSeek and Kimi, but its own Nemotron has yet to match the level of Chinese open-source models such as DS V4 and Kimi K3.

Original article

2. US Legal AI Firm Harvey Ditches American Models for Kimi K3

Source: Guancha.cn

A US legal AI startup has abandoned American models in favor of China's Kimi K3. On August 20 local time, San Francisco-based Harvey announced that it had built its first in-house model, Harvey Tenet, based on Kimi K3. The company had previously relied mainly on closed proprietary models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.

Harvey said the new in-house model achieved "state-of-the-art" performance on complex legal work, outperforming Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol on a series of long-horizon legal agent tasks. Founded in 2022 and backed by OpenAI and Sequoia Capital, Harvey was valued at $11 billion in a March funding round. Harvey Tenet reportedly used about 150 NVIDIA B300 GPUs and took two months to train.

Original article

3. DeepSeek Adjusts API Billing, Weekends Now Off-Peak Pricing

Source: Cailian Press

Starting at 00:00 on August 23, the DeepSeek API platform will optimize its peak/off-peak billing rules, with weekends (Saturday and Sunday) no longer split into peak and off-peak periods and instead billed uniformly at off-peak prices. Charges incurred before the new rules take effect will still be settled under the original standard.

Earlier, after the official release of the full DeepSeek V4 model series, DeepSeek sharply raised prices using peak/off-peak pricing, with peak hours double the off-peak rate and deepseek-v4-pro output reaching up to 27 yuan per million tokens during peak hours. A Morgan Stanley report shows China's average API input price rose to 4.9 yuan per million tokens in Q2 2026, with output at 21.9 yuan, up about 48% and 80% respectively from Q1 2025.

Original article

4. YMTC's STAR Market IPO Accepted, Q1 Net Profit 33.4 Billion Yuan

Source: East Money

On August 21, China's 3D NAND flash leader Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) had its STAR Market IPO application accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, officially starting its A-share listing process. The prospectus shows the company plans to issue 1.98 billion to 2.43 billion shares, raising up to 33 billion yuan, a record for the STAR Market.

The prospectus shows YMTC posted revenue of 47.042 billion yuan and a net profit of 33.379 billion yuan in Q1 2026, ranking first in China's memory sector and surpassing Changxin Technology. YMTC has no controlling shareholder or actual controller; before the offering, Hubei Changsheng is the largest shareholder with 26.54%.

Original article

5. NVIDIA AI Server Prices Set to Rise Over 15%

Source: Cailian Press

On August 23, the latest reports indicate the wave of electronics price hikes has finally reached servers carrying NVIDIA chips. According to people familiar with the matter, several of NVIDIA's "biggest customers" have been told that servers equipped with NVIDIA AI chips will rise in price due to soaring memory chip costs, with increases exceeding 15% in many cases.

The price hike will apply to systems shipping early next year, including servers with Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chip combinations. Based on earlier quotes this year, a Blackwell-based NVL72 GB200 rack sells for $2.8 million to $3.4 million, while Vera Rubin NVL72 VR200 systems have reached $5 million to $7 million each. NVIDIA is scheduled to report earnings next Wednesday after the US market close.

Original article

6. iPhone 18 Pro May Launch in 4 New Colors

Source: Forbes

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are expected to be unveiled on September 9, keeping the previous design language (aluminum frame, part-aluminum back and full-width camera panel). But the colors will change — reports say there will be four colors this year, one more than the three currently on shelves (Cosmic Orange, Silver and Deep Blue).

The new hero color is expected to be a quieter, darker shade, predicted by media to be a dark cherry color, possibly named "Plum." The traditional dark gray/black will return, Silver will remain but likely in a different shade, and the fourth color is likely a light blue. Reports also note the iPhone 18 Pro is the same size as the iPhone 17 Pro.

Original article

7. Apple Watch Ultra 4 Rumors: Thinner Body + Touch ID

Source: Geeky Gadgets

Rumors around Apple's Watch Ultra 4 are drawing attention. The next-generation smartwatch may feature a thinner chassis while retaining its titanium case and flat sapphire crystal glass, balancing durability with comfort. It is also rumored to integrate Touch ID, possibly in the side button or action button, for unlocking and payment authorization.

On health monitoring, the Ultra 4 may feature a redesigned sensor array with up to eight sensors. The display could use an always-on Retina panel with LTPO3 technology at up to 3,000 nits of brightness. Battery capacity may stay the same, but chip advances could extend battery life. Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring may be absent due to technical limits. The watch is expected to launch with Watch OS 27 and AI-powered health features.

Original article

8. NASA to Launch Roman Telescope on Aug 30, Could Find 100,000 New Worlds

Source: Space Daily

On August 30, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy is scheduled to carry NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope away from Kennedy Space Center, with NASA listing liftoff at 7:26 am EDT (11:26 UTC). The telescope's primary mirror is 2.4 meters across, the same diameter as Hubble's.

Roman's Wide Field Instrument combines 18 infrared detectors into a 288-megapixel focal plane, capturing more than 100 times the sky of Hubble in each exposure. NASA expects Roman could reveal around 100,000 exoplanets, far exceeding the nearly 6,300 currently confirmed. After launch, the telescope will head to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, for a five-year survey mission.

Original article

9. Musk Shares Video of Chinese Robot's 9.32-Second Record

Source: Ifeng

On August 23, during the robot games in Beijing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a video of Honor's robot "Lightning" running the 100-meter dash. The post read: Chinese smartphone maker Honor's humanoid robot "Lightning" ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds, while Usain Bolt's record is 9.58 seconds.

Impressively, "Lightning" reportedly crashed into the safety wall at full speed after crossing the line, with its waist neither falling apart nor sparking. From breaking the human record to earning praise from global tech leaders, China's robotics strength is again in the spotlight.

Original article

10. China Achieves First Rocket Land Recovery, Musk Responds

Source: Guancha.cn

On August 19, the Suzaku-3 Yao-2 rocket developed by LandSpace lifted off and successfully completed a land recovery. Following the sea-net recovery of the Long March 10 Yao-2 first stage on July 10, this marks China's first successful controlled land recovery of a reusable rocket first stage using landing legs, a major breakthrough in reusable rocket technology.

Reuters reported that LandSpace has become the third private company in the world, after SpaceX and Blue Origin, to successfully recover an orbital-class booster. Musk reshared the discussion and replied: "China is also the strongest competitor in the field of artificial intelligence right now."

Original article