Anthropic and OpenAI Release New Models as Qualcomm, OPPO and Beats Unveil Hardware

Anthropic launched Claude Opus 5.5 on Sept. 22. Shaoshupai reported it scored 66.4% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, 81.8% on OSWorld 2.0 and 67.7% on Humanity's Last Exam with tools, set an automated behavior audit record, cut out-of-bounds attempts about 85% from Opus 5, and enforces Preserved Thinking anti-distillation protection and EU AI Act watermarking. Output speed rose over 30% and typical default workloads cost 40% less. Pricing is $4 per million input tokens, $20 output, $0.20 cache reads and $5 cache writes; fast mode up to 2.5 times faster costs $8 input and $40 output. It is on Claude Platform, AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

OpenAI released GPT-6 Sol and Luna the same day. On AutomationBench 1.0.6, Sol in xhigh effort mode scored 33.2% at $0.27 per task, above Claude Opus 5 at 26.9% and Claude Fable 5.1 at 31.4%; Luna improved 5.4 points over its predecessor and cut per-task cost 58%. On Agents' Last Exam V1, Sol scored 56.4%, exceeding Claude Opus 5 with 60% lower per-task cost. On DeepSWE 1.1, Sol and Luna scored 68.8% and 66.6%. On offline OSWorld 2.0, Sol scored 60.5%, matching Opus 5's 60.3% at about 80% lower cost. GPT-6 adds explicit cache breakpoints and dynamic reasoning compute without invalidating cache, with a 90% cache input read discount. Rollout began Sept. 22 to ChatGPT Work, Codex and desktop, with Luna open to Free and Go users, and on API. Sol costs $2 input and $10 output per million tokens; Luna costs $0.10 and $0.50.

OpenAI announced Sept. 21 an independent Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study. Initial members are François Charles, Camillo De Lellis, Timothy Gowers, Martin Hairer, Nikhil Srivastava, Ulrike Tillmann, Ravi Vakil, Edward Witten and Melanie Matchett Wood. They will not be paid by OpenAI and will advise on reviewing and disseminating new results, academic norms and tools, and mathematics research and teaching, but not on internal R&D pace. Shaoshupai reported that since Aug. 28, 2026, OpenAI-trained internal models had solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem and more than 100 long-standing open problems across most areas of mathematics.

At the 2026 Snapdragon Summit on Sept. 23, Qualcomm introduced the sixth-generation Snapdragon 8 Super Ultimate Edition and Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition, focusing on on-device AI, gaming, imaging and connectivity. Xiaomi, vivo, Red Magic, REDMI, OPPO, OnePlus, Motorola, iQOO and Honor will be among the first to launch products. The Super Ultimate Edition adds Adreno Neural Fusion for AI game rendering and AI imaging with the APV codec and smart pixel control. The Ultimate Edition uses a 2nm process, custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU, new Adreno GPU and Hexagon NPU, targeting broader flagships with many shared features.

OPPO launched the Find X10 series on Sept. 22, with Find X10 Pro Max, Find X10 and Find X10 E. The Pro Max debuts MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro at up to 4.55GHz, the standard model uses Dimensity 9600M at up to 4.21GHz, and the E version uses Dimensity 9500s at up to 3.73GHz. All use LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1; the Pro Max and standard model offer up to 16GB+1TB, while the E version offers 12GB+256GB and 16GB+512GB. The series uses flat displays, with the Pro Max at 6.78 inches and 2772×1272, the standard at 6.59 inches and 2768×1272, and the E at 6.59 inches and 2760×1256. The Pro Max and standard model have 8000mAh typical batteries and the E has 7025mAh; all support 80W wired, 80W UFCS and 50W wireless charging. They include under-display ultrasonic fingerprint, infrared remote, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.2, and run ColorOS 17.0. Preorders opened Sept. 22 and sales start Sept. 24. Prices start at 4,999 yuan for the E, 5,499 yuan for the standard and 6,799 yuan for the Pro Max.

Apple-owned Beats released the Beats 360 over-ear headphones on Sept. 22 for 2,999 yuan. Shaoshupai reported they use a new acoustic architecture with active noise cancellation up to 1.75 times stronger than the Studio Pro and 12 decibels higher output. Eight microphones analyze internal and external acoustics, and the headphones support transparency, adaptive EQ and personalized spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. They are Beats' first IPX4 over-ear headphones. Each side is an independent wireless unit with its own battery, antenna and processing circuits, while the headband contains only a power cable; one USB-C port charges both. Battery life with ANC is 32 hours, and Fast Fuel gives one hour from a five-minute charge. The fourth-generation platform works with Apple and Android, including one-touch pairing, iCloud switching, audio sharing, Find My and Android location features. Colors are black, cloud white, pink and sky blue. Replacement knit ear cushions normally cost 320 yuan but are available for as low as 79 yuan in China during a limited launch promotion; soft cushion kits are also offered. Sensors detect the cushion type and adjust tuning. Preorders opened immediately and sales start Sept. 24.

Microsoft's Xbox announced 268 layoffs affecting Halo Studios, first-party studios and Xbox Game Studios management and central functions. Shaoshupai reported the cuts are part of a reorganization announced earlier this year, with about three-quarters complete. Activision's remit expands to World's Edge and Rare, and a new independent team will develop the next Halo game without sharing staff with Call of Duty. Halo Studios will keep a small team for existing Halo operations and community maintenance. Bethesda will take over Obsidian, which will continue Grounded and work with Bethesda on a new Fallout project. King will take over Microsoft's casual games division and merge casual teams. Playground and Turn 10 will merge into one studio responsible for Forza and Fable.