Radar of the Week (Sept 1–8): 4 AI Models, Xiaomi 18 Fold and Broadcom’s Record

Welcome to the Radar of the Week, DigitalRadar’s roundup of everything that mattered in tech between September 1 and 8, 2026. It was a week in which AI shipped four frontier models, Xiaomi beat Apple to the stage with a foldable running its own chip, Broadcom showed who profits from the chip race, and a fleet of robotaxis landed in the crosshairs of U.S. regulators.

Quick answer: the five signals of the week

1) Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI released models within seven days — “model fatigue” was born. 2) Xiaomi unveiled the 18 Fold with its in-house XRing O3 chip, two days before Apple’s event. 3) Broadcom booked $29.6 billion (+86%) on custom AI chips. 4) Crusoe raised $3 billion at a $30 billion valuation. 5) U.S. traffic regulators opened an investigation into nearly 1,000 Tesla Cybercabs.

Artificial intelligence: the week of four frontiers

On September 1, Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1 (75% cheaper cache reads) and Mythos 5.1 (restricted access). On September 2, Google introduced Gemini 3.8 Flash at $0.75 per million tokens and Meta shipped Muse Spark 1.3. OpenAI closed the week with GPT-6 Astra, the first model to reach the “Critical” cybersecurity threshold. CNBC named the side effect “model fatigue”: the gap between releases has fallen to 11 days. Also this week: Microsoft launched MAI-Transcribe-2 (transcription in 60 languages at $0.10 per audio hour) and Perplexity debuted Hybrid Compute, which runs sensitive steps locally on Macs.

Smartphones: Xiaomi moves first

On September 7, Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi 18 Fold in China: 5.38″ and 7.58″ displays, a 3nm XRing O3 chip, a Leica triple camera, IP68 and a starting price of ¥12,000 (~$1,650). No global date. The same event brought the Pad 9 Pro Max and the brand’s first extended-range SUVs.

Big tech: Broadcom, Adobe and Tesla

• Broadcom: $29.6 billion in quarterly revenue (+86%), ~$13.1 billion in profit and $16.7 billion from AI semiconductors alone, 73% of it custom chips.
• Adobe: Anil Chakravarthy becomes CEO on December 1; Shantanu Narayen moves to executive chair.
• Tesla: NHTSA opened a probe into nearly 1,000 Cybercabs in Austin — vehicles with no steering wheel, pedals or conventional mirrors.

Startups and money

Company	Round	Detail
Crusoe Energy	$3B+ ($30B valuation)	Tripled its value in 10 months; ~$13B contract with Jane Street
Figure AI	$3.5B in compute	Up to 100,000 Nvidia GPUs with Nscale; could reach $6B
Ultrahuman	$70M	Smart rings; ~$365M valuation; Qualcomm Ventures
Quantum Motion	Series C extension	Silicon-based quantum computing; new lab in Maryland

Computing and security

Microsoft revealed Project Zenith, a Windows configuration for local AI with a 64GB unified-memory minimum, with the first devices on AMD Ryzen AI Halo. Nvidia reaffirmed RTX Spark’s fall schedule, still without pricing. In security, Google (Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber), Anthropic (Mythos 5.1) and OpenAI (Astra) placed their cyber models behind restricted-access programs. And Trezor disclosed that a ShipMonk breach exposed data on 67,000 additional U.S. customers.

Policy and regulation

In the U.S., Senators Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar proposed the “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act,” which would prohibit superintelligence development and pause advanced AI pending federal safety rules. In China, a campaign removed 5.61 million AI-related pieces of content and hit more than 49,000 accounts.

Why this matters to you

The week showed the 2026 pattern: AI advances at a pace no one can follow, money flows to chips and power, and governments are starting to react. The practical takeaways are simple: do not switch AI models with every launch, wait for the iPhone Duo before deciding on an imported foldable, and update Windows — the September 8 Patch Tuesday was the largest in history.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Radar of the Week?

DigitalRadar’s weekly newsletter summarizing the top stories in technology, AI and innovation. You can get it by email by subscribing on the Newsletters page.

Which AI models were released between September 1 and 8, 2026?

Claude Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 (Anthropic), Gemini 3.8 Flash (Google), Muse Spark 1.3 (Meta) and GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI).

Will the Xiaomi 18 Fold launch globally?

Xiaomi has not announced a release outside China. For now, it is import-only.

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