Latency measures the delay between an AI request and the resulting response. Interactive generative systems often track time to first token, which reflects how quickly output begins, and time to last token, which captures total completion time. Latency comes from model computation, queueing, network transfer, retrieval, tool calls, safety checks, and application logic. It varies with prompt length, output length, model size, hardware, batching, cache use, and current load. Optimizing only average latency can hide poor experiences, so teams also monitor percentile values and separate each stage of the request. The right target depends on whether the product is conversational, analytical, offline, or safety-critical.
SoftBank plans to sell about ¥60 billion of notes in Japan this month, its latest raise to fund a mounting AI bet that includes nearly $65 billion committed to OpenAI.
Chinese startup Moonshot released Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model it says rivals Anthropic’s Claude, as the US-China AI gap narrows.
Anthropic is scheduling investor meetings ahead of a potential IPO as soon as October, a move that could take the Claude maker public before rival OpenAI.
OpenAI launched Codex Micro, a $230 mechanical keypad built with Work Louder that gives developers physical controls for its Codex coding agent, its first hardware to reach market.
NVIDIA unveiled Cosmos 3 Edge and said Japan’s robotics and manufacturing leaders, from FANUC to Sony, intend to join its Cosmos Coalition to build AI for the physical world.
Microsoft is coaching its sales force to argue its AI products beat OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s on cost, security and completeness, turning on the partners whose models it long relied on.
A Reuters analysis found xAI installed 59 unpermitted gas turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center, releasing pollution near predominantly Black Memphis-area communities.
OpenAI’s first hardware, reportedly designed with Jony Ive, is a portable, screenless smart speaker built as a proactive AI companion that learns its owner and moves on its own.
Twenty-six Meta workers sued the company, alleging its AI systems used metrics like token consumption to select layoff targets, disadvantaging people on medical or family leave.
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google and 36 others formed a Linux Foundation body to steward x402, an open standard letting AI agents pay for services directly over HTTP.