OpenAI Retires GPT-4o, Launches Codex-Spark on Cerebras Chips & MiniMax M2.5 Shakes Up AI Market | February 14, 2026
📋 Quick Takeaways
- OpenAI officially retires GPT-4o and several legacy models from ChatGPT on February 13, amid 13 consolidated lawsuits over mental health harms
- GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark launches on Cerebras chips — OpenAI’s first production model not running on Nvidia, delivering 1,000+ tokens/sec at 15x faster speeds
- MiniMax M2.5 from China achieves near-frontier performance on SWE-Bench at 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-5
- Zhipu AI’s GLM-5 reaches Intelligence Index score of 50, trained on Huawei Ascend chips — a milestone for non-Nvidia AI training
- Baker McKenzie cuts up to 1,000 jobs citing AI, in the largest AI-driven layoff in the legal industry
- Google warns that nation-state hackers from Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia are using Gemini for cyberattacks
- Waymo deploys 6th-generation Ojai robotaxis, plans expansion to 20+ cities including Tokyo and London
- Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad drives 11% user growth and Apple App Store top-10 ranking, beating OpenAI, Google, and Meta
- Samsung begins shipping HBM4 samples, the next-gen memory critical for AI accelerator performance
- Autonomous vehicles forecast to operate or test in 39 global markets by end of 2026
🤖 AI Model Releases & Retirements
OpenAI Officially Retires GPT-4o and Legacy Models from ChatGPT
On February 13, OpenAI officially pulled the plug on GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and o4-mini from ChatGPT, alongside the previously announced retirement of GPT-5 Instant and Thinking. All conversations now default to GPT-5.2. API access remains unchanged for the time being.
By Daily AI Blog
read moreAnthropic Raises $30B at $380B Valuation, ByteDance Seedance 2.0 Goes Viral, Waymo Deploys 6th-Gen Robotaxis | February 13, 2026
📋 Quick Takeaways
- Anthropic closes record $30B Series G at $380B valuation — the second-largest private tech round ever — with annualized revenue hitting $14B and Claude Code surpassing $2.5B run-rate
- ByteDance officially launches Seedance 2.0, a multimodal AI video model that goes viral on Chinese social media, drawing “DeepSeek moment” comparisons and an Elon Musk reaction
- Anthropic donates $20M to pro-AI-regulation PAC, escalating a political spending war with OpenAI-backed groups ahead of the 2026 midterm elections
- Waymo begins deploying 6th-generation Ojai robotaxis with 42% fewer sensors, targeting 1M weekly rides and expansion to 10+ new U.S. cities plus London
- Singapore unveils sweeping AI-centric national budget with 400% tax deductions, a National AI Council, and free public AI tools
- Meta begins construction on a ~$10B data center in Indiana with 1GW power capacity
- Goldman Sachs raises Nvidia estimates ahead of Feb 25 earnings, forecasting a $2B revenue beat as hyperscaler capex tops $600B
- AGIBOT launches $530K global robotics competition at ICRA 2026, reinforcing embodied AI as a major frontier
💰 AI Funding & Corporate Strategy
Anthropic Closes $30B Series G at $380B Valuation — Second-Largest Private Tech Round in History
Anthropic announced on Thursday the close of a $30 billion Series G funding round, valuing the company at $380 billion post-money — more than double its $183 billion valuation from September 2025. The round is the second-largest private tech financing ever, trailing only OpenAI’s $40B+ raise last year.
By Daily AI Blog
read moreAI Industry Shakeup: Safety Exodus Hits OpenAI, Anthropic & xAI as $20B+ Funding Rounds Close | February 12, 2026
📋 Quick Takeaways
- Unprecedented AI safety exodus: High-profile departures hit OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI within days — researchers warn companies are “moving too fast”
- OpenAI fires VP who opposed ChatGPT “adult mode”; researcher Zoë Hitzig quits over advertising in NYT op-ed
- Half of xAI’s 12 co-founders have now left Elon Musk’s AI company amid Grok deepfake controversy and reorganization
- VCs break taboo: Sequoia and Altimeter invest in both OpenAI and Anthropic simultaneously as $20B+ rounds close
- DeepSeek V4 expected mid-February with 1T parameters, reportedly outperforming Claude and GPT on coding benchmarks
- Trump administration plans chip tariff exemptions for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft tied to TSMC’s $165B US investment
- Microsoft explores superconducting power cables to solve AI data center energy bottleneck
- MiniMax M2.5 launches claiming parity with Claude Opus 4.6 in coding and agentic tasks
🛡️ AI Safety & Talent Exodus
Wave of AI Safety Departures Rocks the Industry
An extraordinary cluster of high-profile resignations and firings has swept across the AI industry within a matter of days, raising urgent questions about the tension between rapid commercialization and responsible AI development.
By Daily AI Blog
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