TL;DR

US-UAE ink Nvidia AI chip deal; TSMC, Nvidia, and Alibaba expand; Meta delays Llama 4 Behemoth.

Highlights

• US and UAE sign deal for UAE to import 500,000 Nvidia AI chips annually and build a 5GW AI campus in Abu Dhabi, with $1.4T UAE investment planned in the US 1.
• US lawmakers introduce the Chip Security Act, requiring AI chipmakers to implement location verification to prevent smuggling to China; Senate companion bill introduced 2.
• Nvidia to open a Shanghai R&D center to support Chinese clients amid US export restrictions, aiming to compete with Huawei while maintaining compliance 4.
• TSMC announces nine new global facilities, including sub-2nm fabs in Taiwan and Arizona, to address AI chip demand; GlobalWafers and Foxconn expand US investments 5.
• Meta delays release of Llama 4 "Behemoth" model due to capability concerns; stock falls 3% 3.
• OpenAI to launch a coding agent (A-SWE/Codex SWE) integrating Model Context Protocol (MCP), expanding AI-assisted software engineering 9.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman outlines vision for a trillion-token context ChatGPT, highlighting privacy concerns as AI becomes more personalized 8.
• Alibaba releases Qwen3 open-source MoE LLMs (0.6B–32B parameters) with advanced reasoning and low latency; rapid adoption on major AI platforms 7.
• xAI discloses unauthorized prompt change led to biased Grok responses; system prompts now open-sourced on GitHub 6.
• House Republicans propose a 10-year federal ban on state AI regulation; Utah enacts targeted AI mental health rules 10.
• FBI warns of AI-generated voice and text scams impersonating US officials 11.
• Cohere Health raises $90M Series C at $5.5B valuation to expand its AI healthcare platform 12.
• China accelerates AI deployments: WeRide launches 24/7 robotaxis in Guangzhou and Abu Dhabi; 100 driverless mining trucks deployed; humanoid robots enter Shenzhen factories 1314.
• Stability AI releases a 341M parameter text-to-audio model for Arm CPUs; Cognichip raises $33M to develop AI-driven chip design 15.

Commentary

Major hardware and infrastructure moves continue to shape the global AI landscape. The US-UAE Nvidia chip agreement and Abu Dhabi’s planned 5GW AI campus signal a shift in global AI infrastructure investment, with US oversight and significant UAE capital inflows 1. TSMC ’s global expansion and sub-2nm roadmap underscore the ongoing criticality of advanced foundry capacity, especially as AI chip demand accelerates 5. Meanwhile, Nvidia ’s planned Shanghai R&D center reflects the ongoing balancing act between serving the Chinese market and complying with US export controls, as local competitors like Huawei gain traction 4.

On the AI model front, Meta ’s delay of Llama 4 "Behemoth" highlights the technical and strategic challenges facing large Western AI labs 3, while Alibaba’s Qwen3 open-source MoE models demonstrate rapid progress and adoption in the Chinese open-source ecosystem 7. OpenAI’s imminent coding agent launch 9 and Altman’s vision for a trillion-token context model 8 point to deeper AI integration in developer workflows and personal data management, but also raise new privacy and data governance questions.

Regulatory activity remains dynamic. The bipartisan Chip Security Act targets illicit AI chip flows to China, adding new compliance requirements for chipmakers 2. Simultaneously, the proposed 10-year federal preemption of state AI regulation would centralize oversight but may limit local innovation, as seen in Utah’s targeted mental health AI rules 10. Security risks are also prominent, with the FBI warning of AI-powered impersonation scams targeting US officials 11.

China’s real-world AI deployments—robotaxis, driverless mining trucks, and humanoid robots in factories—reflect both scale and state backing, with implications for labor and industrial policy 1314. On the technology front, advances like Stability AI’s on-device audio model for Arm CPUs and Cognichip’s AI-driven chip design point to growing momentum in edge AI and custom silicon, potentially lowering entry barriers for new applications and startups 15.