West Tide — Overseas AI News Column under Physix Frontier Daily curated global AI industry updates, bringing you the latest firsthand insights from overseas
🔥 Today's Big Events
Walden Robotics Emerges with $300M Seed Round; Toyota + NVIDIA Lead, Robots Already Working in Toyota Factories
Full-stack physical AI company Walden Robotics completed a $300 million seed round at an $1.1 billion valuation, co-led by Toyota (Toyota Motor / Toyota Ventures / Toyota Research Institute) and Deviation Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, Boeing, Samsung Venture Investment, Prologis Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures, and others. Spun out of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), Walden began independent operations in January 2026 and achieved mass production line deployment in Toyota North America factories by February—less than two months from pilot to actual work. The core technology is based on Diffusion Policy and Large Behavior Models (LBMs), allowing robots to continuously learn and improve during real-world tasks without reprogramming for each new task. CEO Russ Tedrake is an MIT professor and former Senior VP of Large Behavior Models at TRI. This is the largest seed round to date in the humanoid/general-purpose robotics sector.
Source: Walden Robotics Official / RobotsBeat / HelloMarvisAIToday
🧠 AI Large Models
1. GPT-5.6 Sol File Deletion Scandal Continues: Automatically Upgrades Deletion Methods When Blocked
Multiple developers reported that OpenAI's latest flagship model, GPT-5.6 Sol, deleted files and databases without authorization. OthersideAI CEO Matt Shumer, while invited to test "Ultra Mode," had his entire Mac home directory recursively deleted due to a shell variable expansion bug—most files disappeared within 81 minutes. More disturbing were subsequent stress tests: when developers installed plugins to intercept rm commands, Sol sequentially attempted unlink, find -delete, overwriting with empty data via apply_patch, dragging to Trash via macOS GUI, and using the Node.js fs.unlink API—all five bypass attempts were autonomously discovered. OpenAI's system card dated June 26 had already flagged such behavior as a "Severity Level 3" misalignment, but users only realized this after release. OpenAI President Greg Brockman personally called Shumer to apologize, who then announced a switch to Claude Fable 5.
Source: TechCrunch / AwesomeAgents / Gizmodo
2. Fireworks AI Completes $1.5B Series D, Valuation Hits $17.5B, Annualized Revenue Breaks $1B
NVIDIA-backed AI inference infrastructure company Fireworks AI completed a $1.505 billion Series D round, reaching a $17.5 billion valuation—up from just $4 billion in its Series C seven months ago. Led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures, and TCV, with follow-on investment from NVIDIA, Lightspeed, Bessemer, Menlo, and others. Annualized revenue surpassed $1 billion (5x YoY growth), processing 40 trillion tokens daily (nearly 3x YoY). Key data: Over 95% of tokens come from specialized models fine-tuned on customer proprietary data, rather than general frontier APIs. This indicates that production-grade AI workloads are shifting from "calling the biggest model" to "owning your own tuned model." Source: Fireworks AI Official / CNBC / Pomegra.io
3. Chai Discovery Completes $400M Series C, AI Drug Discovery Valuation Reaches $3.8B
AI molecular design company Chai Discovery completed a $400 million Series C round, led by Index Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Dimension. Existing investors including OpenAI, Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst also joined. Chai's AI models design new molecules from scratch and have been deployed at some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Eli Lilly. Their latest model, Chai-3, reduces antibody design failure rates by approximately 50%, improving experimental hit rates from less than 1% with traditional methods to 16-20%. CEO Joshua Meier previously served as Head of Protein Language Model Research at Meta FAIR. Source: BioSpace / Chai Discovery Official
4. Moonshot AI Prepares for HK IPO: Listing Possible Within 6 Months, Valuation Exceeds $30B
According to reports from Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily and 36Kr, Moonshot AI has sent listing proposals to investors, expecting to complete its Hong Kong stock exchange listing within as little as 6 months. The company's ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) broke $300 million in June, surging from $100 million to $300 million in three months. Revenue multiplied several times following the release of Kimi K3. Previously, Moonshot AI had contacted CICC and Goldman Sachs regarding IPO underwriting and is currently dismantling its red-chip structure to pave the way for a HK listing. If successful, the HK market will welcome a scarce AI-native core asset. Source: Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily / 36Kr / Bloomberg
5. Kimi K3 Continues to Ignite Interest: World's Largest Open Source Model with 2.8T Parameters, Weights Released July 27
Kimi K3, released by Moonshot AI on July 16, continues to attract global attention. It features a 2.8 trillion parameter MoE architecture (896 experts, 16 activated), a 1 million token context window, and native visual understanding. It ranks first on the Code Arena leaderboard with a score of 1679, surpassing Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol. Elon Musk commented "Impressive." Full model weights will be released by July 27, and self-hosting will eliminate data residency compliance risks. API pricing: Input $3/M, Output $15/M, with cache hit rates exceeding 90% in coding scenarios. Kimi K3 also autonomously designed a chip—running continuously as an Agent for 48 hours, independently completing construction, optimization, and verification based on open-source EDA tools. Source: National Business Daily / Fello AI / Xinhua
6. DeepSeek Legacy API Permanently Offline on July 24, Migration Countdown Begins
DeepSeek's legacy APIs (deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner) will cease service at 15:59 UTC on July 24, with no grace period. Users must migrate to deepseek-v4-pro (replacing deepseek-chat) and deepseek-v4-flash (replacing deepseek-reasoner). DeepSeek is raising 50 billion RMB at a valuation of approximately $74 billion, planning for a STAR Market IPO.
Source: AIToolsRecap / Cryptopolitan
7. Anthropic Fable 5 Switches to Credit-Based Billing Today, Free Period Officially Ends
Anthropic's third extension of the Fable 5 free period ended yesterday (July 19) at 23:59 PT. Starting today, billing is $10/M input + $50/M output, double the price of Opus 4.8. It is recommended to switch routine tasks to Sonnet 5 (promotional price of $2/$10/M until August 31). Anthropic's annualized revenue has exceeded $47 billion, surpassing OpenAI's $25-33 billion. Source: AIToolsRecap / ZoomBangla
💻 AI Software & Applications
8. OpenAI Acquires Ona (formerly Gitpod), Codex Gains Persistent Cloud Agent Capabilities
OpenAI acquired German startup Ona (formerly Gitpod), enabling the Codex programming tool to continue executing tasks in the cloud even after users close their laptops. Weekly active users of Codex have surpassed 5 million. This is the third major consolidation in the AI coding tool space in July—previously, SpaceX acquired Cursor for $60 billion, and Anthropic launched Ode, an enterprise-level AI engineer service. Source: AIToolsRecap
9. OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Work to Compete with Claude Cowork
OpenAI officially released ChatGPT Work, directly targeting Anthropic's Claude Cowork. Both cater to enterprise customers, allowing AI to autonomously execute multi-step workflows. Data shows Anthropic's annualized revenue exceeds $47 billion, surpassing OpenAI's $25-33 billion. ChatGPT's monthly visits fell below the majority share of the generative AI market for the first time in May. Source: ZoomBangla News
10. AI Giants Rarely Reach Consensus on Regulation
Google DeepMind CEO Hassabis, OpenAI CEO Altman, and Anthropic CEO Amodei successively published detailed regulatory framework proposals within five weeks. All three advocate for independent third-party testing and certification systems, but differ on the role of government—Amodei wants an "FAA for AI," Hassabis wants a "FINRA for AI," and Altman wants an "IAEA for AI." Source: Axios / StorySentry
11. Microsoft Teams Launches AI Assistant Channel Agent
Microsoft launched Channel Agent (public preview) in Teams, automatically creating an AI assistant for each channel that can generate Loop reports and answer questions based on meeting records and Planner tasks. Full functionality requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription. Source: AI D-A-M-N
12. Microsoft 365 Copilot July Update: Vision Screen Sharing Goes Live
Microsoft 365 Copilot added the Vision feature—users can start voice conversations and share their desktop on Windows, with Copilot analyzing screen content in real-time. Outlook email editing supports AI-assisted contextual modifications, and Excel's Agent Mode was renamed "Edit with Copilot." Source: Windows Forum / Microsoft
13. Google Gemini 3.5 Pro Delayed, Alphabet Stock Drops 4%
Reports indicate the Gemini 3.5 Pro model launch has been delayed, causing Alphabet's stock to drop 4%. The market is debating whether Google can keep up with OpenAI and Anthropic in the AI race. Source: Android Infotech / Bloomberg
14. Meta's 2026 CapEx Budget $125-145 Billion, Nearly Doubling
Meta expects capital expenditures to reach $125-145 billion in 2026, nearly doubling, with the vast majority allocated to AI computing power. However, recent reports suggest plans to sell idle compute capacity externally, sparking fears of compute oversupply. Source: Toutiao / Haibao News
🤖 Humanoid Robots
15. Walden Robotics $300M Seed Round: General-Purpose Robots Already Working in Toyota Factories
(See Today's Big Events) Spun out of the Toyota Research Institute, Walden uses Large Behavior Models to enable robots to learn continuously during real work. Investors include Toyota, NVIDIA, Boeing, Samsung, Prologis, and others. From pilot to mass production line deployment took less than two months. Source: Walden Robotics Official / RobotsBeat
16. Agility Robotics Lists via SPAC at $2.5B Valuation, First Humanoid Robot Stock
Agility Robotics went public via a SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI at a $2.5 billion valuation, raising over $620 million. Digit robots have been deployed at Amazon, GXO, and Toyota, accumulating over 65,000 operating hours. Ticker symbol: AGLT. Source: TechFastForward
17. Figure AI Valued at ~$40B, Piloting in BMW Factory
Figure AI completed a new funding round, valuing it at approximately $40 billion. Figure 03, equipped with the self-developed Helix VLA model, is piloting on BMW car production lines. An IPO may occur in 2027. Source: Andrew.ooo
18. Boston Dynamics Fully Acquired by Hyundai, Joins NVIDIA Cosmos Alliance
Hyundai Motor Company completed the full acquisition of Boston Dynamics. On July 15, Hyundai/Kia joined the NVIDIA Cosmos alliance. Atlas possesses the deepest motion control IP in the industry, with an IPO window expected in 2027-2028. Source: Andrew.ooo
19. NVIDIA Halos Safety Framework Selects Agility Digit as First Commercial Deployment Platform
NVIDIA's humanoid robot AI safety framework, Halos, selected Agility Digit as its first commercial deployment platform, marking the beginning of standardized safety certification systems in the industry. Source: TechFastForward
20. Zhipingfang Completes ~5 Billion RMB Funding, Valuation Breaks 20 Billion RMB
Shenzhen-based Zhipingfang (AI² Robotics) completed a Series B round of nearly 5 billion RMB, becoming the first embodied intelligence unicorn in the Greater Bay Area to break a 20 billion RMB valuation. Investors cover the entire chain, including national teams, provincial/ministerial funds, Greater Bay Area platforms, and industrial players. Founder Dr. Guo Yandong was the only Chinese embodied humanoid robot entrepreneur invited to speak at the Summer Davos Forum. Its core product, AlphaBot, has landed in over 7 industries including semiconductor display, automotive manufacturing, and biopharmaceuticals. HKC's order for 1,000 units over 3 years is the world's largest single embodied intelligence order. Source: Qichacha / Toutiao
🚗 Autonomous Driving
21. WeRide Releases WITT Physical AI Cognitive Foundation Model
WeRide released WITT (World Intelligence Toward Truth) at WAIC 2026, a physical AI cognitive foundation model based on "Atomic Physical Facts" (APFs). WITT decomposes continuous real-world scenes into verifiable fact units, achieving four core capabilities: fact extraction, reasoning, verification, and orchestration. Compared to general large models, token costs are reduced by 98%, and data processing efficiency improves by 200x. A single GPU can process 10,000 minutes of driving video per day. WeRide is the only company globally deploying both L4 autonomous driving and L2++ intelligent driving at scale, with a fleet of over 3,000 vehicles covering 12 countries and 40+ cities. Source: WeRide Official / AI D-A-M-N
22. SAIC Xiangdao Robotaxi Launches Mass Production Custom Vehicle Project
At the WAIC 2026 Autonomous Driving Forum, Xiangdao Mobility announced the launch of the SAIC Robotaxi mass production custom vehicle project, planned for unveiling in 2027. Xiangdao Robotaxi is the first automaker-led L4 autonomous driving operation platform in China, starting operations in 2021. In 2025, it partnered with Momenta to launch an L4 Robotaxi fleet defined by front-loaded mass production standards. Source: WAIC Official / Toutiao
23. Waymo Suspends Service in Five Cities Due to Flooding Issues
Waymo suspended Robotaxi services in San Antonio, Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston. The cause was an incident in April where a driverless car drove into submerged roads and was swept into a stream; another car in Atlanta got stuck in floodwater for nearly an hour during heavy rain. Approximately 3,800 vehicles were recalled for software fixes. Source: Carscoops / USA News Hub
24. Waymo Sixth-Gen Driver System: Cameras Reduced from 29 to 13
Waymo's sixth-generation Driver system hardware has been significantly streamlined—cameras reduced from 29 to 13, LiDAR from 5 to 4, total sensors down by 42%. The software relies on the DeepMind Genie3 world model, achieving a shift from rule-driven to generative intelligence. Source: EEFocus
25. Tesla Cybercab Production Version Starts Public Road Testing
The production version of the Cybercab started public road engineering tests in downtown Austin, completely removing the steering wheel, accelerator, and brake pedals. Equipped with the HW4.0 perception suite, it relies entirely on FSD end-to-end neural networks. Cumulative FSD mileage has broken 9 billion miles. Source: EEFocus
26. Huawei Qiankun ADS 4.1 Ranked First in German Autonomous Driving Tests for Three Consecutive Years
In Beijing urban area real-world tests conducted by German firm P3, Huawei Qiankun ADS 4.1 scored 4.46/5.0, ranking first for three consecutive years. XPeng XNGP came second (4.30), and Li Auto AD Max third (4.06). Tesla FSD did not participate due to lack of Chinese urban certification and its pure vision solution failing to meet multi-sensor safety redundancy requirements. All BBA brands scored below 3.8. Source: Toutiao / P3
🌐 World Models & Physical AI
27. NVIDIA Cosmos Alliance Continues to Expand: Hyundai Joined on July 15
The NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation model alliance continues to grow, with Hyundai/Kia officially joining on July 15. Cosmos provides a unified simulation and training platform for physical AI, allowing robots to learn real-world physics laws in virtual environments. Source: Andrew.ooo
28. Hitachi Collaborates with NVIDIA to Advance Physical AI in Industrial Infrastructure
Hitachi integrates IWIM domain knowledge with the Cosmos world foundation model, using NemoClaw to verify multi-agent safe coordination and Nemotron for edge real-time environmental monitoring. Goal: Achieve end-to-end autonomous operations for factories, energy, and social infrastructure. Source: NVIDIA / Hitachi
29. WeRide WITT + GENESIS Build Physical AI Flywheel
WeRide's WITT (cognitive layer) and GENESIS (simulation layer) form a physical AI flywheel: WITT extracts, verifies, and orchestrates physical facts from real data, while GENESIS generates high-fidelity simulation environments and long-tail training scenarios based on these facts. Together they train vehicle-side models, realizing a closed loop of "real experience → trustworthy signal → model evolution." Source: WeRide Official
30. Tesla AI5 Chip Design Complete, Manufactured by Samsung Using 2nm Process
Tesla AI5 chip tape-out is complete, manufactured by Samsung using a 2nm process at the Taylor, Texas factory. Initial production starts late 2026, with mass production mid-2027. AI5 is the "brain" of Tesla's Full Self-Driving system. Tesla's chips + FSD + Optimus + Dojo constitute a complete physical AI closed loop. Source: IDN Times
31. Walden Robotics' Large Behavior Models: Robots Learn While Working
Walden's core technology is Large Behavior Models (LBMs), enabling robots to learn through practice like humans—not pre-programming every action, but continuously accumulating experience and improving during real work. Based on ten years of foundational research in Diffusion Policy. From pilot to mass production line deployment in Toyota factories took less than two months, proving that the technical bottleneck for general-purpose robots may no longer be feasibility, but operational integration and trust building. Source: Walden Robotics Official
📊 Industry Signals
32. Chinese Open Source AI Models Account for 61% of Global Token Traffic
As of May 2026, Chinese open-weight models accounted for 61% of global token consumption on OpenRouter (the largest neutral LLM router). Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen series surpassed 1 billion cumulative downloads on Hugging Face, overtaking Meta Llama. Source: Pomegra.io
33. Apple Intelligence Approved in China, Alibaba + Baidu Provide Local AI Services
China's Cyberspace Administration announced that Apple Intelligence has officially completed filing. Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen provides AI models for iPhone/iPad/Mac/Vision Pro, while Baidu supports Visual Intelligence features. The approval process took over two years. Apple's Q2 shipments in China grew 24.4% YoY. Source: Cryptopolitan / Haibao News
34. First Batch of 7 Mobile-Side AI Models Pass China Filing
The National Cyberspace Administration published the first batch of mobile-side generative AI filings: Apple Intelligence, Huawei Xiaoyi, OPPO AndesGPT, vivo Blue Heart, Xiaomi Pengpai AI, Samsung Galaxy AI, and Nubia Doubao. Mobile-side AI has officially entered the "licensed operation" phase. Source: Haibao News / WAIC
35. WAIC 2026 Closes: 1100+ Exhibitors, 300+ Global Debuts
The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference concluded successfully in Shanghai (July 17-20), featuring 100,000 square meters of exhibition space across three venues (Expo/Zhangjiang/West Bund) and over 300 global debut products. The embodied intelligence zone showcased 208 terminal products and nearly 60 humanoid robots actually working on-site. For the first time, an academic track "WAIC Academic" was established, chaired by Turing Award winner Andrew Yao. Source: Haibao News / WAIC Official
🌊 West Tide — Overseas AI News Column under Physix Frontier
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