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Report: SpaceX Competing to Produce Autonomous Drone Tech for Pentagon 

The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)
The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)
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Report: SpaceX Competing to Produce Autonomous Drone Tech for Pentagon 

The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)
The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Elon Musk's SpaceX and its wholly-owned subsidiary xAI are competing in a secret new Pentagon contest to produce voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

SpaceX, xAI and the Pentagon's defense innovation unit did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Texas-based SpaceX recently acquired xAI in a deal that combined Musk's major space and defense contractor with the billionaire entrepreneur's artificial intelligence startup. It occurred ahead of SpaceX's planned initial public offering this year.

Musk's companies are reportedly among a select few chosen to participate in the $100 million prize challenge initiated in January, according to the Bloomberg report.

The six-month competition aims to produce advanced swarming technology that can translate voice commands into digital instructions and run multiple drones, the report said.

Musk was among a group of AI and robotics researchers who wrote an open letter in 2015 that advocated a global ban on “offensive autonomous weapons,” arguing against making “new tools for killing people.”

The US also has been seeking safe and cost-effective ways to neutralize drones, particularly around airports and large sporting events - a concern that has become more urgent ahead of the FIFA World Cup and America250 anniversary celebrations this summer.

The US military, along with its allies, is now racing to deploy the so-called “loyal wingman” drones, an AI-powered aircraft designed to integrate with manned aircraft and anti-drone systems to neutralize enemy drones.

In June 2025, US President Donald Trump issued the Executive Order (EO) “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” which accelerated the development and commercialization of drone and AI technologies.

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Technology

OpenAI Says Working with Samsung on Next-Generation Chips, Deepening Cooperation

The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)
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OpenAI Says Working with Samsung on Next-Generation Chips, Deepening Cooperation

The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. (Reuters)

OpenAI is deepening cooperation with Samsung Electronics as the ChatGPT maker develops its own chips, expanding ties with the South Korean technology giant across semiconductors and enterprise AI services.

"One of the areas where we have made the most progress and gained the most recognition with Samsung Electronics is our joint production and research on the next-generation chips we are developing," Harrison Kim, General Manager of OpenAI Korea, said at a press ‌conference in Seoul ‌on Wednesday, without elaborating.

Kim also said Samsung Electronics was "one ‌of ⁠the largest-scale deployments of ⁠ChatGPT globally," saying the company's employees in Korea and overseas use ChatGPT for work across research and development, marketing and sales.

Samsung Electronics said in a statement that it could not confirm information related to customers.

In June, OpenAI unveiled its first custom artificial intelligence chip designed with Broadcom. OpenAI's engineers designed the chip, called Jalapeno, together with Broadcom for a task known as AI inference, the ⁠process of crunching data to answer queries in applications ‌such as ChatGPT.

OpenAI at that time said that ‌Taiwan's TSMC would manufacture the chips.

Last year, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed letters ‌of intent to supply memory chips for OpenAI's Stargate data center project.

Kim ‌said demand for memory chips would continue to grow as more advanced chips were needed to enable faster and more complex computing, making cooperation with South Korean semiconductor suppliers a priority for OpenAI's local office.

The cooperation comes as Samsung broadens its ‌use of generative AI. The company said in June that workers in its Device eXperience division, which oversees mobile ⁠phones, televisions and home ⁠appliances, would be allowed to use ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude internally.

OpenAI said the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users at South Korean companies and institutions had surged about 28-fold as of the end of August from a year earlier, as businesses broadened their use of artificial intelligence from individual tasks to company-wide operations.

Companies were increasingly using AI across functions including legal, sales, finance, marketing and operations, OpenAI said. The company declined to provide absolute user numbers.

South Korea had the largest number of paying ChatGPT subscribers outside the United States as of late last year, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI expects adoption to accelerate following the September 4 launch of GPT-6 Astra, its latest model, which it said offered improved performance in computer use, professional work, science, coding and cybersecurity.

Technology

Communications Minister Discusses Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s AI Partnerships in Silicon Valley

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)
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Communications Minister Discusses Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s AI Partnerships in Silicon Valley

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha's meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies. (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha held a series of meetings with leaders of global technology and investment companies during the first day of his visit to Silicon Valley in California, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday.

The meetings focused on strengthening investments and partnerships in artificial intelligence (AI), computing capabilities, and deep technologies, as well as supporting the growth of Saudi startups and their expansion into global markets.

Alswaha met with Co-Founder and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz Ben Horowitz to discuss expanding the firm’s investments in the Kingdom and in Saudi startups. The meeting also addressed connecting companies within its investment portfolio with HUMAIN’s computing capabilities to support their expansion in the Kingdom and the region, while enabling Saudi companies to access global markets.

He met with Partner at Sequoia Capital Alfred Lin to discuss increasing the firm’s investments in Saudi AI and deep-tech companies, connecting companies within its investment portfolio with HUMAIN’s computing capabilities, and supporting the growth and global expansion of Saudi companies.

In the field of advanced technologies, Alswaha met with CEO and Co-Founder of TenX Semi Dr. Suk Hwan Lim to discuss the use of AI agents in chip design and verification, accelerating development cycles, and applying autonomous design technologies to support the development of advanced semiconductor design capabilities in the Kingdom.

These meetings are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to expand its international partnerships and attract high-value investments in AI and advanced technologies, while supporting the growth and global expansion of Saudi startups, reinforcing the Kingdom’s position and boosting the competitiveness of its digital economy globally.

Technology

Apple’s Ternus Faces AI Test as Foldable iPhone Takes Center Stage

Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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Apple’s Ternus Faces AI Test as Foldable iPhone Takes Center Stage

Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)

When new CEO John Ternus unveils Apple's latest products on Wednesday, Wall Street expects him to show that the company can still deliver breakthrough hardware and a Siri virtual assistant capable of competing in the AI race.

Analysts expect Apple to announce at its Cupertino, California, headquarters a new iPhone that folds open like a passport. They said it could quickly emerge as the category leader in the nascent folding phone market, despite an expected price of more than $2,500 and having cameras and processors that may not lead the market.

The company has already announced a deep overhaul of Siri — in part by tapping Google's AI tech behind the scenes — and that may prove to be Ternus' first big success after years ‌of delays. A successful ‌revamp by the end of this year could give Apple a good chance ‌of ⁠pulling even with ⁠longtime rival Google's Gemini assistant, analysts said.

Investors have largely looked past Apple's slow start in generative AI because of the company's billion-plus device installed base and loyal customer base. Ternus now faces pressure to convince consumers that Apple's devices are the best way to use AI, which could determine whether he inherits former CEO Tim Cook's momentum or plays catch-up.

NEW PREMIUM IPHONES

Apple is expected to update its premium iPhone Pro and Pro Max devices but hold off on refreshing the iPhone Air and the base and budget lines until spring. The aim is to drive interest in the real ⁠star of this week's show, the folding phone.

"Even with a $2,500 price tag, the ‌Apple foldable is going to fly off the shelves, especially because ‌Apple is excellent at creating an aura of exclusivity, luxury, and scarcity," Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, told Reuters.

Popal expects the phone to generate more than $45 billion in revenue for Apple by the end of next ‌year, even as foldables overall remain a single-digit share of the phone market.

The main appeal of a folding phone is the sheer newness after nearly two decades of candybar-style phones.

While Samsung , Google and China's Huawei have sold folding phones since 2019, analysts expect Apple to benefit from entering late by solving key engineering challenges, such as a hinge that feels sturdy over ‌thousands of uses and minimizing any crease in the screen when the device is open.

"They've seen what has worked and what hasn't worked with their competitors," ⁠said Anshel Sag, an ⁠analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy who has tested many folding devices.

NEW SIRI'S BIG MOMENT

Ternus' key challenge will be persuading customers to adopt the new Siri and convincing them and third-party developers that Apple can keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI, which roll out big improvements every few weeks, while Apple has traditionally moved more slowly.

"If Siri still sucked, then he would have a much more difficult Wednesday," said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. "Now they can comfortably say Siri is delivering and has value, but they need to just continue to work and make it better and keep up."

Analysts say Ternus, who kept a low profile as hardware engineering chief for five years, is likely to focus on delivering powerful devices as a base to expand on-device AI.

But he faces a steep regulatory challenge, said Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management: Apple's Siri update might take until 2028 to win approval in China and won't initially be available in Europe due to a regulatory dispute.

"It matters a lot that they get the US out in time because it builds the confidence that they can do something in Europe," he said.