The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, after the US stock market opened, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.44%, the S&P 500 edged up 0.07%, and the Nasdaq declined 0.08%. AI stocks rebounded significantly from pre-market levels post-opening, with storage and semiconductor sectors turning positive, while Neocloud and optical communication sectors narrowed their losses. Storage stocks led the gains: SanDisk (SNDK) rose 1.12%, Micron Technology (MU) up 0.84%, Seagate Technology (STX) up 0.65%; Western Digital (WDC) fell 0.06%, SK Hynix (SKHY) down 0.10%. Most semiconductor stocks turned positive: Qualcomm (QCOM) gained 0.75%, NVIDIA (NVDA) up 0.67%, Intel (INTC) up 0.53%, ASML (ASML) up 0.36%, Arm (ARM) up 0.22%. Neocloud sector declines narrowed: Cipher Digital (CIFR) down 2.46%, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) down 2.05%, TeraWulf (WULF) down 1.84%, CoreWeave (CRWV) down 1.58%, Applied Digital (APLD) down 1.52%. Most optical communication concept stocks fell: Credo (CRDO) plunged 9.65%, Coherent (COHR) down 1.26%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) down 1.16%, Astera Labs (ALAB) down 1.05%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) down 0.81%; Lumentum (LITE) bucked the trend to rise 0.22%.

Beating AI Express: Max For AI has published a disclosure that Saudi AI firm HUMAIN recently launched the HUMAIN M3, initially marketing it as the "100% Saudi model". Following questions raised, Sultan Alfaifi, the publisher, clarified that the HUMAIN M3 is developed based on the M3 model from Chinese AI company MiniMax. Both HUMAIN M3 and MiniMax M3 adopt a Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, with a total of 428 billion parameters and 23 billion active parameters. HUMAIN stated that it used over 1 trillion Arabic tokens for post-training, focusing on enhancing capabilities in Arabic language, local culture, intelligent agents, tool calling, and computer operations. The firm added that the model scored an average of 89.37% across 7 Arabic language benchmark tests, with plans to open its model weights and deploy on Saudi domestic servers later. Max For AI believes this collaboration demonstrates Chinese AI models are evolving from providing APIs and products to further serve as a technical foundation for other countries to build sovereign AI systems.

Insight Beating AI News Flash: Kimi (Chinese name: Yuezhi Anmian) has submitted the A1 form to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) confidentially this week, officially kicking off its Hong Kong IPO process. The A1 form is one of the official application forms required for companies applying to list on the HKEX. In response to the news, Kimi stated: "We do not comment on market rumors and have no information to disclose at present." Additionally, it is understood that Kimi is advancing a new round of financing at a pre-money valuation of $50 billion, which is very likely its final financing round ahead of the IPO. (Source: LatePost)

Tether AI Research has announced the launch of multiple open-source AI translation models, which can run directly on smartphones, laptops, and other edge devices, supporting offline translation without requiring users to upload data to third-party clouds. Among them, TranslatePsy-AfriSLM supports 19 African languages, AfriNano supports 8, and EuroNano covers 9 European languages; the language group covered by the former accounts for roughly half of Africa’s total population. Tether has also introduced a new quality evaluation filtering method capable of removing up to 96% of low-quality open-source training data. The related models are now available for download on Hugging Face, and the research findings have been accepted by the EMNLP 2026 conference.

The U.S. Mint has launched a $1 coin for 2026, marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. founding and featuring President Trump. Its obverse side displays a portrait of incumbent President Trump, inscribed with the phrases “Liberty,” “In God We Trust,” and the years “1776–2026.” The design was created by U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Joseph Menna, based on an official White House photograph. The reverse side features the U.S. presidential seal: an eagle holding an olive branch and arrows, a shield, and the motto “E Pluribus Unum” (meaning “Out of Many, One”). The shield is also marked with “250” to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence. The coin is produced at the Philadelphia Mint, uses circulation-grade surface finishing, and while it is not intended for general circulation, it remains legal tender. It is sold in 25-coin rolls and 100-coin bags, priced at $61 and $154.50 respectively. The rolls are limited to 150,000 units, and the bags to 50,000 units, with a purchase limit of 2 units per household. This restriction is in effect until 2:00 PM ET on September 3.

The Wyoming Stablecoin Committee announced it has adopted Chainlink Proof of Reserve to provide near-real-time on-chain reserve verification for the state’s official stablecoin FRNT. Earlier this August, the committee fully migrated FRNT from LayerZero to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), designating it as the stablecoin’s exclusive cross-chain infrastructure. Under the new system, The Network Firm will audit FRNT’s reserves and token supply per American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) standards, while Chainlink Proof of Reserve will publish verified data on-chain in near-real time to narrow information gaps between audit reports and confirm FRNT remains fully collateralized. The committee also plans to leverage Chainlink Proof of Reserve’s Secure Mint feature, which mandates verified reserve assets equal or exceed FRNT’s total supply before new tokens can be minted, to prevent infinite minting attacks. Launched in January this year, FRNT is the first U.S. state-issued stablecoin, backed by U.S. dollars and short-term U.S. Treasuries.