Overview
- ByteDance’s Volcano Engine released Doubao 1.8 with 256K context, native API context management and stronger multimodal agent skills, and it reported over 50 trillion daily token calls in December.
- DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis cautioned that a financing bubble is forming in early‑stage AI startups with little operating history, even as he said big‑tech AI spend rests on real business foundations.
- Business Insider reported Elon Musk told xAI staff the company could reach general AI as soon as 2026 and outlined access to roughly $20–30 billion per year and an expansion from about 200,000 GPUs toward 1 million.
- Tesla closed at a record $489.88 on Dec. 16, lifting its value to about $1.63 trillion, as Wedbush’s Dan Ives projected a $2 trillion valuation by 2026 and up to $3 trillion in a bullish scenario.
- China’s ecosystem accelerated with Muxi’s STAR Market debut surging on day one, Xiaomi elevating its Leica partnership with the 17 Ultra’s new 1‑inch sensor and APO telephoto, Huawei’s Zunjie S800 reaching 10,000 units offline with 5,000–6,000 monthly sales aims, and 36Kr reporting Li Auto is building a Silicon Valley AI R&D center; supply‑chain reporting points to a foldable iPhone targeted for H2 2026 with likely early shortages.