AI chips head into orbit & Compute race tightens worldwide - Tech News (Sep 25, 2026)

[0:32] AI chips head into orbit

Let's start in orbit. Google is preparing the first real test of Project Suncatcher, which means sending experimental AI hardware into space to find out whether orbital computing is practical or just an expensive thought experiment. The first mission is expected to launch on October 1, and one of the biggest challenges is simple heat. The chips can only run briefly before the satellite has to cool down. Even so, this is a serious step toward the idea of space-based data centers.

In security news, OpenAI is reportedly preparing to preview GPT-6 Cyber, a model aimed specifically at cybersecurity work. A specialized model like that could be useful for defensive analysis, vulnerability hunting, and automating routine security tasks, though the report did not come with an independent OpenAI announcement in the material available here.

That arrives just as researchers have identified a new classical attack against certain RSA signatures that does not require factoring the private key. The good news is that common padded RSA schemes are not the main target. The bad news is that some blind-signature setups may be more exposed than people expected, including systems related to Privacy Pass. So this is not the end of RSA overnight, but it is another strong push away from older cryptographic assumptions.

Autonomous driving is also starting to look more commercial and less experimental. Waymo now operates in 15 US cities and says it is delivering about 500,000 paid rides each week. Most of its fleet is still concentrated in California and Texas, and Texas is growing especially fast as Waymo adds more of its newer minivans built for higher-volume service. The scale-up suggests Waymo is now focused as much on economics as on engineering.

Tesla, meanwhile, says its Cybercab program has reached one million miles driven without human supervision. That is the kind of milestone the company wants to use to show progress toward autonomous ride-hailing, although its significance depends on safety data and regulatory validation that were not detailed in the report. So for now, Waymo looks like the clearer story in real-world service, while Tesla is still making the case with milestone claims.

A quieter but still important development came from solar. LONGi says it has set a new record for crystalline-silicon solar-cell efficiency. That may sound technical, but the practical takeaway is straightforward: better efficiency can squeeze more power out of the same panel area and improve the economics of mainstream solar. It is a reminder that even mature clean-energy technology still has meaningful room to improve.

And finally, in tech policy, the US government has moved to intervene in Elon Musk's legal fight against the European Union over a 140 million dollar fine imposed on X. The EU says X misled users around verification, had unclear ad practices, and failed to give researchers proper data access under the Digital Services Act. Washington called the EU action regulatory overreach, which means this is no longer just a platform penalty. It is becoming a wider transatlantic argument about speech, platform rules, and who gets to set the boundaries for large online services.