Thursday 16 July 2026
Top stories today:
Thinking Machines debuts Inkling, top U.S. open-weight AI model
Anthropic, Blackstone launch Ode with Anthropic AI services venture
Apple eyes chip acquisitions to boost AI server efforts
OpenAI unveils $230 Codex Micro desktop keypad for AI agents
Elon Musk buys APR Energy for ~$1B to power AI infrastructure
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 todayās newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. Thinking Machines debuts Inkling, top U.S. open-weight AI model
Inkling scored 41 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, surpassing Nemotron 3 Ultra and Gemma 4 31B:
It costs $3.74/$9.36 per 1M input/output tokens with a 256K context window, vs. Nemotron 3 Ultraās $3.32/$9.96 and Kimi-K2.6ās $5.15/$15.40 with 128K context.
The model has 975B parameters, with 41B active.
Text, image, and audio (text output) inputs are supported.
Available via Tinker API (256K context) and Hugging Face (1M context).
Inkling has not been among the top overall AI models, though
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3. Anthropic, Blackstone launch Ode with Anthropic AI services venture
Ode will work with Anthropicās Applied AI team to build tailored AI systems.
H&F and Goldman Sachs are among the ventureās other participants.
May: the $1.5B AI implementation company was announced.
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5. Apple said to eye chip acquisitions to boost AI server efforts
Apple has reportedly held talks with bankers about potential deals.
Semiconductor startups have also been approached to gauge acquisition interest.
Appleās in-house M2 Ultra chips have not proved sufficient for advanced AI workloads.
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7. OpenAI unveils $230 Codex Micro desktop keypad for AI agents
Backlit keys, a rotary knob, and a tiny joystick are included.
The keys are customizable, with a push-to-talk option and a dial to adjust reasoning settings.
OpenAI has partnered with Work Louder, a maker of customizable mechanical keyboards.
