>_ Daily Tech & AI Briefing
What matters in tech & AI today
Friday, September 11, 2026 · all items from the last 24 hours
Lead story · AI
OpenAI opens its Agents API to public beta
OpenAI put its Agents API into public beta with a managed Codex harness that handles sessions, orchestration, context compaction, and recovery — plus a new finance workspace. By taking on the agent plumbing, OpenAI pushes the platform battle from raw models toward full agent runtimes, lowering the bar for teams shipping autonomous software.
AI
Google unveils Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber
A security-tuned model with frontier-level autonomous vulnerability discovery that Google says beats rival frontier models on the task. Defensive-AI capability is becoming a key differentiator among the big labs.
Funding
Positron closes $875M Series C at $5B
The AI-chip startup raised the two-tranche round just seven months after a $230M raise, betting on its HBM-free Asimov design with up to 2.3TB of LPDDR5X per die — a credible push against incumbent accelerators.
Funding
Harvey raises $550M at a $15.5B valuation
The legal-AI startup extended one of the fastest valuation climbs in enterprise AI. Capital is concentrating in AI that sits close to regulated, high-value professional workflows.
M&A
Meta acquires Stilla
Meta is buying the multiplayer "AI teammate" startup to strengthen its business AI products — another sign platforms want collaborative, in-workflow agents over standalone chatbots.
Payments
Ant, Visa & Mastercard launch Know-Your-Agent
The three unveiled an interoperability standard (KYA) aligning three previously competing protocols for verifying AI agents in payments. As agents start transacting, the industry is racing to define trust and identity rails.
Funding
The Boring Company raises $3B Series D
Elon Musk's tunneling venture landed one of the month's largest rounds, a reminder that capital is flowing to physical-operations and infrastructure plays alongside pure software.