The Japanese domestic multimodal foundation model development project "Noetra" officially launched on July 16. Core enterprises include Sony Group, SoftBank, NEC, and Honda, with a total of 44 companies and groups contributing to the initiative, covering a wide range of industries such as manufacturing, finance, logistics, and communications. Engineers from institutions including the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Preferred Networks will also join the R&D. This project is part of the "Multimodal Foundation Model Development Project for AI Robots and Physical AI" promoted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), officially named the FRONTia Project by NVIDIA. Its goal is to build a Japanese domestic foundation model for physical AI scenarios like manufacturing sites and robots, rather than just a Japanese-language conversational AI. At the hardware level, Noetra will collaborate with NVIDIA to build a computing platform equipped with approximately 27,500 latest Rubin GPUs and 13,750 Vera CPUs, adopting NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 racks and DSX platform architecture, with a designed power capacity of 140 megawatts. Construction is scheduled to start in April 2027 and operations to launch in June 2028, when it will become Japan’s largest AI computing infrastructure. The R&D roadmap is divided into three phases: starting from fiscal 2026, developing an inference foundation model centered on AI agents and natural language processing; achieving a full multimodal foundation model that seamlessly integrates text, images, video, and audio in fiscal 2028; and realizing real-world native AI that understands spatial and physical attributes in fiscal 2030, with final applications spanning manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and communications.

Prediction market platform Predict.fun has announced that all its Up/Down markets are now live with a Maker order rebate mechanism. Users who complete trades via limit orders will receive a 25% rebate on Maker fees. Compared to Polymarket, Predict.fun’s latest Maker rebate offers two core, more straightforward advantages: a higher rebate rate, and real-time rebate disbursement immediately after trade execution, with no need to wait for market settlement. For high-frequency traders, professional market makers, and users who regularly use limit orders, real-time rebates enable faster capital release, reducing the ongoing erosion of trading profits by fees; the higher rebate rate also means that as trading frequency and volume grow, the actual cost savings will become more pronounced. This mechanism currently covers all of Predict.fun’s Up/Down markets. Users do not need to register or submit additional applications—rebates will be automatically credited to their accounts once eligible limit orders are filled.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Apple closed 1.76% higher in U.S. stock trading, hitting a record high of $333.26 per share, and rose an additional 0.47% in after-hours trading. On the news front, on July 15, Apple Intelligence completed its first domestic generative AI filing in China. Alibaba’s Qianwen AI will be integrated into Apple Intelligence as its AI capability, providing Chinese users of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS with services including text and image understanding, content generation, and more—allowing users to experience these features directly without switching between apps. In addition to Alibaba’s Qianwen AI, Baidu’s AI capabilities will also be integrated into Apple Intelligence, marking the official implementation of Apple’s localized AI strategy in the Chinese market.

According to Bitget market data, Japanese storage stock Kioxia plunged more than 10% intraday, its market capitalization has halved from the June peak, and the Nikkei 225 index is currently down 2.18% intraday.

The first Federal Reserve official to call for a rate hike since Walsh assumed office has emerged. Earlier today, Fed official Logan said the central bank should raise interest rates to tackle high inflation – a remark signaling she may be prepared to vote against keeping rates unchanged later this month. Logan added that June inflation data released Tuesday shows price growth is moderating, but not enough to convince her inflation has returned to the Fed’s 2% target trajectory.

Sources say JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley will provide $50 billion in acquisition financing and act as advisors for the PayPal (PYPL.O) takeover. Fifteen days prior, Stripe — the world’s largest private payments company — and U.S. private equity firm Advent International jointly proposed to acquire the long-standing online payments giant PayPal at $60.5 per share, valuing the company at over $530 billion total, a roughly 28% premium over PayPal’s Tuesday closing price, backed by approximately $50 billion in financing commitments from multiple banks. Under the deal terms, Stripe and Advent will each hold a 50% stake in PayPal.