AMD

AMD acquires Taalas to hardwire AI into silicon

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has agreed to acquire Taalas, a Toronto startup that builds inference accelerators customized—or hard-wired—for a single AI model. Taalas says its specialized chips can produce outputs for specific models thousands of times faster than traditional GPUs in exchange for less flexibility. The company, founded in 2023, has raised $219 million; its current chip runs a small version of Meta's Llama 3.1 and is manufactured on an older TSMC process using on‑chip SRAM. AMD plans to integrate Taalas' technology into its roadmap and systems alongside its CPUs and Instinct GPUs, including rack-scale offerings such as Helios. The acquisition follows a wave of AI-hardware deals, including Nvidia’s purchase of Groq assets for $20 billion seven months earlier, and fits AMD’s broader buying strategy to assemble components for integrated AI systems.

Meta launches Muse Code AI coding agent

Meta released Muse Code (beta) on August 5, 2026 — a terminal-installable, single-command tool that coordinates multi-agent coding workflows across repositories while leaving the user’s working copy untouched. It runs on Muse Spark 1.2 (two variants), available inside Muse Code and via the Meta Model API with pay-as-you-go access. Muse Code launches parallel sub-agents in isolated worktrees, runs persistent background agents that resume after crashes, can access local files, GitHub and the web, and logs model calls, tool use, approvals and changes locally; integrated skills include /plan, /grill and /goal. Pricing includes a lower-cost Contributor tier (data opt-in for model training) and a private tier that disallows training, and Meta accepts zero-data-retention enterprise requests. Mark Zuckerberg announced the launches as part of a developer-tools push.

Analysts: AMD to Outperform Despite Post‑Earnings Slide

Advanced Micro Devices reported Q2 adjusted earnings of $1.66 per share versus LSEG‑polled expectations of $1.62 and revenue of $11.54 billion versus consensus $11.28 billion. Despite the beat, AMD shares fell about 8% in premarket trading while the stock is up roughly 198% year‑to‑date as the company expands into AI‑focused server CPUs and datacenter GPUs and competes with Nvidia. Multiple Wall Street firms reiterated bullish ratings and raised price targets (Wells Fargo to $700; Bank of America $620; Goldman Sachs $640; UBS $730; Barclays $665; Citi $575), while a few firms expressed more cautious stances (Morgan Stanley equal weight $465; JPMorgan neutral $550). Analysts cited strong 2027 data‑center growth expectations (server CPU growth >70% and total DC growth well over 100%) as reasons for optimism, while noting near‑term guidance and other risks could pressure the stock.