Narrowing

• OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and over 100 other organizations, including Visa and CrowdStrike, issued an open letter warning that the window to defend against AI-enabled cyberattacks is rapidly closing. • The signatories urge AI labs to grant hospitals and critical infrastructure providers access to their most advanced models to help these entities develop robust defenses. • The group calls on governments to take a leading role in coordinating and funding cyberdefense efforts to mitigate the risks of a coming wave of AI-driven threats.

• Chinese AI firms are rapidly launching new models to close the technological gap with Silicon Valley competitors. • Moonshot AI has introduced Kimi K3, a 2.8 trillion-parameter model that currently stands as the world’s largest open AI model. • Despite this progress, a significant disparity remains in perceived quality, with Anthropic holding a 93.5% "best model" rating compared to Alibaba's 0.2% as of August 2026.

• The AI-driven investment rally in Asia is shifting from a narrow focus to a broader range of opportunities as investors seek better entry points and specific earnings drivers. • Taiwan and South Korea have emerged as critical "toll booths" of the digital economy, benefiting heavily from the global surge in AI infrastructure. • Goldman Sachs Global Institute projects a massive increase in annual AI capital expenditure, rising from US$765 billion in 2026 to US$1.6 trillion by 2031.

• The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reports that Chinese AI models, including DeepSeek, are rapidly narrowing the performance gap with leading U.S. systems. • Chinese models are becoming more competitive globally because open-source releases drive down costs, making them more accessible to developers and governments than expensive U.S. closed systems. • While U.S. firms maintain a lead in frontier capabilities, cloud platforms, and enterprise products, the affordability and openness of Chinese AI are shifting the global competitive landscape.