Friday 4 September 2026
Top stories today:
OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra launches as its latest frontier model
Hugging Face to be acquired by NVIDIA for $12.9B
Anthropic to expand revolving credit facility to $15B ahead of IPO filing
Tesla launches Cybercab rides in limited areas of Austin
Thinking Machines Lab to raise $5B-$6B at $46B+ valuation
0. Data & Calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra launches as its latest frontier model, touted as ushering in “AGI era”
GPT-6 Astra tied GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index and matched Fable 5 on the Coding Agent Index:
Costs $10/$50 per 1M input/output tokens (≤272K input tokens), vs. GPT-5.6 Sol at $4/$20 and Fable 5.1 at the same $10/$50.
Initially limited to customers in OpenAI’s Daybreak program.
Over the coming days: it’ll be available to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users and through the OpenAI API, Azure, and Bedrock, OpenAI said.
Built on OpenAI’s largest-ever training run using 100K+ GPUs at the Stargate Texas site, the company said.
Booked DMV appointments and searched job listings faster than the average person in early tests.
GPT-6 Astra scored 62.7% on ARC-AGI-3 using the standard harness, vs. Opus 5 at 30.2% and GPT-5.6 Sol at 7.8%
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3. Hugging Face to be acquired by NVIDIA for $12.9B, its second-biggest deal ever after Groq
NVIDIA stock closed Thu. +2% on the deal:
The deal includes an equity-based retention program worth up to $1B for Hugging Face employees joining NVIDIA.
The Hugging Face platform will remain open, NVIDIA vowed.
Hugging Face’s CEO said he approached NVIDIA this summer about a potential deal.
The deal raised concerns about concentration of power in AI, with NVIDIA already dominating the industry.
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5. Anthropic said to expand revolving credit facility to $15B ahead of IPO filing
Morgan Stanley is reportedly leading the process, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup also playing prominent roles.
Anthropic is reportedly seeking to raise as much as SpaceX, or potentially more, in its IPO.
SpaceX expanded its revolving credit facility to $5B from $1.5B in May, just a month before its IPO.
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7. Tesla launches Cybercab rides in limited areas of Austin
Tesla has 45 Cybercabs among 420 registered AVs in Texas, state records showed.
“NHTSA is in contact with Tesla and is evaluating the situation,” an agency spokesperson said.
Tesla is also gauging interest from businesses in buying and operating Cybercab fleets.
