tech

OpenAI acquires Astral, adding talent to Codex team

OpenAI has acquired open-source Python tool developer Astral, bringing aboard additional coding talent for its Codex team.

The company said the acquisition will help Codex “expand beyond coding” by helping address a wider range of development tasks, such as planning, testing, and code maintenance.

OpenAI said Codex has seen “3x user growth and 5x usage increase” since the start of 2026, and has over 2 million weekly active users.

Software development is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds where OpenAI is competing for market share with Anthropic, which has been enjoying success with its Claude Code product.

OpenAI said it will continue to support Astral’s open-source software projects.

OpenAI to acquire Astral

OpenAI to acquire Astral

OpenAI said Codex has seen “3x user growth and 5x usage increase” since the start of 2026, and has over 2 million weekly active users.

Software development is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds where OpenAI is competing for market share with Anthropic, which has been enjoying success with its Claude Code product.

OpenAI said it will continue to support Astral’s open-source software projects.

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Elon Musk gives an estimate for Tesla’s AI6 chip timeline... while the AI5 is still unfinished

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said yesterday that the company’s AI6 chip could, with “some luck and acceleration using AI,” be finalized and sent to manufacturing by December. For those paying attention, Tesla hasn’t confirmed that its previous chip, the AI5, has reached tape-out, with Musk saying only that the design is in “good shape” and “almost done.” Still, Musk is already talking about subsequent chips AI6, AI7, AI8, and beyond.

Here’s a roundup of when these chips are expected, what they’re supposed to do, and what Musk himself has said about them.

While the AI5 and AI6 will be made by TSMC and Samsung, respectively, Musk has said Tesla eventually aims to manufacture its future AI chips at Tesla’s upcoming Terafab factory in Austin.

tech

NHTSA expands Tesla FSD probe, focusing on whether system can detect when cameras can’t see the road

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is expanding its probe into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system into an engineering analysis covering about 3.2 million Teslas, a majority of its vehicles that are on the road in the US, Reuters reports.

The agency is focusing on Tesla’s “degradation detection system,” which is meant to recognize when its camera-based technology cannot reliably perceive the road and prompt drivers to intervene:

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants. In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long argued that the company’s self-driving approach does not require the expensive lidar sensors used by rivals such as Waymo.

NHTSA deepens probe into Tesla's driver-assistance system

NHTSA deepens probe into Tesla's driver-assistance system

The agency is focusing on Tesla’s “degradation detection system,” which is meant to recognize when its camera-based technology cannot reliably perceive the road and prompt drivers to intervene:

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants. In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long argued that the company’s self-driving approach does not require the expensive lidar sensors used by rivals such as Waymo.

Apple is behind the rest of Big Tech when it comes to developing its own AI, but that hasn’t stopped it from cashing in on the AI boom. The iPhone maker stands to bring in more than $1 billion in App Store fees this year from other companies’ generative-AI apps, mostly from ChatGPT, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing data from App Magic.

Unlike rivals pouring hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure, Apple’s spending has been relatively modest, with its overall capital expenditure actually declining last quarter. Its lucrative App Store model lets Apple profit from AI as a gatekeeper without fully joining the expensive race to build it.

Multicolor Sticks

OpenAI is shipping everything. Anthropic is perfecting one thing.

The two AI titans are in a race to grow revenues, but they have very different strategies for releasing products. And one approach appears to be winning out.

Rani Molla3/18/26

Here’s another sign Anthropic’s enterprise tools are killing it: the AI firm now captures 73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, Axios reports, citing data from Ramp, a fintech company that provides corporate cards and expense management software. That’s up from 50% in January, when it was tied with OpenAI.

As we’ve noted, Big Tech is pivoting from experimentation to revenue — and enterprise is where that shift is playing out.

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