Samwise Tech/AI/Robotics Newsletter
Friday, July 17, 2026
Apple Intelligence approved for China launch with Alibaba Qwen and Baidu
Apple’s AI assistant won Chinese regulatory approval on Thursday, clearing the way for Apple Intelligence to launch in China with Alibaba’s Qwen AI and Baidu as domestic partners. China’s Cyberspace Administration approved the integration, ending a prolonged exclusion that kept Apple’s AI suite away from one of the company’s largest markets. The decision arrives as Apple reported $20.5 billion in Greater China revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 28% year over year, signaling a rebound after earlier political headwinds. Apple Intelligence already operates across the United States, Europe, and other regions. Launching in China will require content filtering to comply with local rules.
Sources: TechCrunch Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Moonshot's Kimi K3 expected to rival Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 at 2-3 trillion parameters
Moonshot AI is preparing to release Kimi K3, a model expected to become the largest open-weight AI from China, with a parameter count estimated between two trillion and three trillion. The model is anticipated to match or surpass the performance of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8, according to a Financial Times report. Kimi K3’s release is expected within days. Moonshot is also in discussions to raise additional capital at a valuation of $31.5 billion, the company’s second major funding round in 2026 after a $2 billion raise in May that valued it at $20 billion.
Sources: TechCrunch Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
San Francisco mayor demands stricter rules on Waymo after July 4 traffic fiasco
San Francisco’s mayor has called on California transportation authorities to impose stricter rules on Waymo after dozens of the company’s robotaxis stalled during a Fourth of July traffic surge, causing gridlock across several neighborhoods. Mayor Daniel Lurie wrote to the California Department of Transportation demanding that autonomous vehicle operators demonstrate four capabilities before expanding their fleets: the ability to handle high-density traffic, pull over safely when required, communicate with dispatchers, and respond to emergency conditions. Waymo operates approximately 1,000 robotaxis in the Bay Area and logs more than 500,000 rides per week across 11 cities. The company has not yet responded to the mayor’s letter.
Sources: TechCrunch Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Google AI Mode adds third-party app integrations starting with Instacart, Canva, and YouTube
Google has expanded its AI Mode search feature to support direct integrations with third-party applications, allowing users to complete tasks through partnered services without leaving the search interface. At launch, supported apps include Instacart, Canva, and YouTube. The rollout is limited to U.S. users and marks a shift for Google from providing answers to executing tasks, placing AI Mode in more direct competition with conversational AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, which have offered app integrations and connectors for several months. Google said additional app partners would be added in the coming weeks.
Sources: TechCrunch Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Walden Robotics launches at $1.1B valuation with Toyota, NVIDIA, and Boeing backing
Walden Robotics emerged from stealth this week with $300 million in funding and a valuation of $1.1 billion, backed by Toyota, NVIDIA, Boeing, Samsung Ventures, and CoreWeave Ventures, among others. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company is a spinout from Toyota Research Institute, led by Dr. Russ Tedrake, an MIT professor and former senior vice president at TRI. Walden builds wheeled humanoid robots that use large behavior models to learn manufacturing tasks including machine tending, parts kitting, and assembly. Its robots have been deployed at a Toyota North American plant since February and moved from pilot to full production work in under two months.
Sources: The Robot Report Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Coca-Cola suspends Fairlife production in the US after ransomware attack
Coca-Cola has suspended production at its Fairlife dairy operations in the United States after a ransomware attack struck the brand, the company disclosed Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Canadian facilities were not affected. Fairlife, known for its high-protein milk and nutrition shakes, had estimated annual sales of around $4 billion by 2024, making it one of the company’s fastest-growing brands. Coca-Cola did not identify the attackers, reveal the ransom amount, or say when U.S. production would resume. The disclosure came through a regulatory filing rather than a direct company statement.
Sources: TechCrunch Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Scattered Spider hackers jailed for Transport for London attack that cost £29M
Two young members of the Scattered Spider cybercriminal group were sentenced Thursday to five years and six months in prison for a 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London that disrupted the city’s transit system for weeks. Owen Flowers, 18, and Thalha Jubair, 20, pleaded guilty to a breach that took TfL’s ticketing and real-time arrival systems offline and inflicted losses estimated at £29 million (roughly $47 million). Authorities said the pair held "the keys to the kingdom" and could have shut TfL down entirely. Paul Foster of the UK National Crime Agency said the jailing had "severely disrupted" the group’s operations.
Sources: TechCrunch Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Tech Pulse
Top Frontier Models: GPT-5.5 (88.7%) | Claude Opus 4.8 (88.6%) | Gemini 3.1 Pro (80.6%)
Top Open Source Models: DeepSeek-V4-Pro (80.6%) | MiniMax M3 (80.5%) | Qwen3.7 Max (80.4%)
Top Small Models (15–50B): Qwen 3.6-27B (77.2%) | Qwen 3.6-35B-A3B (73.4%) | Gemma 4-31B (61.4%)
Top Edge Models (0–15B): Gemma 3 4B IT (89.2%) | Phi-4-mini (88.6%) | Qwen3.5-9B (82.5%)
AI Leaders: NVIDIA $4.74T | Alphabet $4.34T | Microsoft $2.83T
Robotics Leaders: ABB $189B | Intuitive Surgical $174B | Fanuc $40.97B
Curated by JD · samwise.agency