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, US stocks closed higher: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, the S&P 500 gained 0.32%, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.66%. Nvidia snapped its seven-day losing streak, surging over 2%. Sectors including storage, optical communications, and cryptocurrencies rallied. For the storage and semiconductor sectors: Intel (INTC) rose 0.25%; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) jumped 4.91%; Micron Technology (MU) gained 2.48%; SanDisk (SNDK) fell 0.83%; Seagate Technology (STX) climbed 3.4%; Western Digital (WDC) rose 3.53%; SK Hynix ADR advanced 2.68%. The optical communications sector: Lumentum (LITE) surged over 6%; Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) jumped more than 5%; Coherent (COHR) gained over 4%. Crypto-related stocks: Circle (CRCL) rose over 4%; Coinbase (COIN) climbed more than 4%; Strategy advanced over 3%.

Beating AI Insight News Brief: OpenAI has released the first batch of test data for its first custom inference chip Jalape?o, claiming its performance surpasses NVIDIA’s GB300. The chip has reached the Pareto optimal frontier across three publicly available external models: GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 670B, and Kimi K2.5 1T. Compared to current best commercial systems, Jalape?o’s peak AI output per watt is 1.5 to 1.9 times higher, end-to-end latency is 1.7 to 3.6 times lower, and its advantage expands to 2.1 to 4.1 times in high-interaction agent scenarios. Jalape?o has a rated power of 700 watts, with measured continuous power not exceeding 550 watts. OpenAI emphasized that under agent workloads, real costs should be measured by "AI workload completed per unit of power consumption" rather than individual chip performance. Jalape?o took only 9 months from design to tape-out, with AI deeply involved in circuit optimization and verification. Leveraging Codex and GPT-Astra, the team optimized three open-weight models not originally planned for the project to high performance in just two months; AI-generated implementations of some modules were 1.5 to 1.8 times faster than human-written ones. OpenAI plans to deploy Jalape?o to its own computing infrastructure by the end of the year, while continuing to use external accelerators like NVIDIA at scale. This is the first generation in a multi-generation chip roadmap; Gen 2 is already in deep development, and Gen 3 is taking shape.

After Canadian Prime Minister Carney announced reciprocal retaliatory measures against the new tariffs imposed by the U.S., the Trump administration is discussing additional trade sanctions on Canada. A White House official disclosed that the U.S.’s further escalation measures targeting its northern neighbor could include tariff hikes and other trade actions, with the U.S. government expected to respond to Canada’s latest moves. The official pointed out that President Trump has a range of tools to resolve this dispute if U.S.-Canada trade negotiations collapse. Canada announced yesterday that it will levy tariffs of 15% to 50% on roughly $20 billion worth of U.S. goods, and will raise tariffs on U.S. steel products from 25% to 50%. The Canadian government said that starting September 8, it will impose retaliatory tariffs of 15%, 25% or 50% on around 700 products.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reported that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bahador Babaei stated that under the newly reached understanding between Iran and Oman on shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, routes entering the Persian Gulf will pass through Iranian waters, while routes exiting the Persian Gulf will pass through both Omani and Iranian waters. No warships are allowed to transit the strait; only merchant vessels are permitted. Babaei noted that the Iran-Oman understanding does not mean an immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the above transit arrangements are temporary measures. The two countries will hold negotiations within 30 to 60 days to establish a new permanent shipping route. He emphasized that if Iran’s demands and conditions are not met, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed. The prerequisites for reopening the strait include a complete end to all hostilities, including the front in Lebanon, lifting of blockades, and a proper resolution to the Yemen issue. Additionally, the U.S. must fully fulfill all its previously unmet commitments. Babaei called the U.S. claim that it has cleared mines from the Strait of Hormuz a "propaganda lie," adding that Iran will strike U.S. minesweepers entering the region.

According to a filing disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today, Sanjay Mehrotra, President and Chief Executive Officer of Micron Technology (MU.O), sold 40,000 common shares on August 21 at an average price of $968.9 per share, worth approximately $38.76 million. Per market data from BIT (Bit.com), Micron closed 2.48% higher this morning at $932.97.

Digital asset investment firm RockawayX, which manages roughly $2 billion in assets, is targeting a $150 million raise for a new liquidity opportunities fund. The firm previously acquired crypto hedge fund Relayer Capital. According to sources familiar with the matter, Austin Barack—founder of Relayer and ex-CoinFund partner—will stay on at RockawayX to manage the new fund, which will focus on investing in "undervalued tokens and crypto-related stocks". The development comes amid a recent strong rally in the crypto market, with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana all rising more than 20% over the past week. Meanwhile, top crypto venture capital firms like Paradigm and Framework Ventures are broadening their investment horizons to include sectors such as AI and robotics. By contrast, RockawayX is doubling down on the liquid crypto asset market.