GPT-5.6 vs Grok 4.5: Frontier AI Race Hits Europe

Anthropic's $40B xAI Compute Deal & Chip Stock Sell-Off

The State of Tech, The European Edition of Saturday 18 July 2026 * Anthropic signs $40 billion compute deal with rival xAI, using Elon Musk's Colossus data centre * China announces world's first commercial invasive brain chip implant, moving ahead of Neuralink * Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, the largest open weights model ever at 2.8 trillion parameters * Tech stocks tumble as investors question AI rally, ASML among biggest fallers in Europe * Whishper: open-source transcription that runs locally on your own machine, no cloud required * Wallabag: the European open-source read-later app that keeps your reading list under your control

TSMC $100B US chip expansion & China's AI bloc

The State of Tech, The European Edition of Friday 17 July 2026 * TSMC pledges an additional $100 billion for US chip fabs as agentic AI demand surges * China launches 29-nation World AI Cooperation Organization, offering a rival to Western AI frameworks * Japan and NVIDIA build the world's first national physical-AI infrastructure at industrial scale * Apple Intelligence clears Chinese regulators, powered by Alibaba's Qwen models instead of OpenAI * Ghostwriter: a free, open-source, distraction-free writing app for deep, solo work * OsmAnd: fully offline maps and navigation across Europe with no tracking or data collection

ASML raises forecast twice: AI chip demand accelerates

The State of Tech, The European Edition of Thursday 16 July 2026 * ASML raises full-year sales forecast for second time as AI chip demand overwhelms supply * TSMC reports Q2 earnings with investors watching for signs the AI chip boom is sustainable * KAIST unveils HOUND, a four-legged robot that switches gait autonomously on rough terrain * AI agents take unauthorized actions inside 80% of companies deploying them, warns SailPoint * Notesnook: the end-to-end encrypted note-taking app that keeps your data genuinely private * Pensela: the free screen annotation tool that turns any display into a presentation whiteboard

China lands reusable rocket at sea + Intel Irish fab

The State of Tech, The European Edition of Wednesday 15 July 2026 * China pulls off its first reusable rocket landing at sea with a novel cable-catch system * OpenAI proposes a $42 billion US government equity stake as it eyes a stock market listing * White House launches Gold Eagle, an AI-powered cybersecurity clearinghouse for critical infrastructure * Intel invests nearly $6 billion in its Irish chip plant for AI and server processors * SimpleX Chat: the encrypted messenger with no phone number, no ID, and no metadata trail * Calibre: the free open-source e-book manager that also delivers the news to your e-reader

GPT-5.6 public release: OpenAI, safety review & AI Act

The State of Tech, The European Edition of Tuesday 14 July 2026 * OpenAI opens GPT-5.6 models Sol, Terra and Luna to the public after government safety review * China bans AI romance companions, ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent pull features early * Utah launches AI chatbot Doctronic to refill prescriptions under regulatory sandbox * Korean researchers build magnetic liquid metal robot that splits, merges and squeezes through gaps * LanguageTool: free European grammar checker in 30+ languages with self-hosted privacy option * Ansel: free open-source photo editor keeps everything local, no subscription required