Major Players

The FTC has launched an investigation into multiple AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, citing product risks, while scrutiny of safety measures has intensified following the Hugging Face hacking incident.

• •The FTC initiated an investigation targeting OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies due to product risks.
• •This investigation is part of heightened scrutiny of AI companies' safety measures triggered by the Hugging Face hacking incident.
• •OpenAI and Anthropic face continuous security monitoring and review regarding the safety of their AI systems.

Audible launched a new feature that visualizes novel characters and settings, allowing users to interact with them using generative AI.

• •It provides a feature allowing listeners to track the movements of characters in books.
• •It includes a feature to visually explore locations and images mentioned in the story.
• •It enables users to interact directly with book characters using generative AI.

Micron's CEO predicts that memory and storage supply will be significantly tighter in 2027 and 2028 compared to 2026, as the company reports record profits.

• •Memory and storage supply in 2027 and 2028 is predicted to be significantly tighter than in 2026.
• •The company achieved a record quarterly revenue of $54.2 billion in its earnings release on September 30.
• •CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated these forecasts during the earnings call for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026.

SoftBank Group executed the final tranche of its additional $30 billion investment in OpenAI, bringing its cumulative investment to $64.6 billion.

• •On October 1, SoftBank Group executed the final $10 billion tranche of its additional investment in OpenAI.
• •This brought the cumulative investment amount to $64.6 billion (approximately 10.2 trillion yen).
• •SoftBank Group's equity stake reached approximately 13%.

Companies signed a strategic partnership agreement to significantly promote and accelerate semiconductor innovation.

• •A strategic partnership was signed between the companies.
• •The goal is to significantly promote and accelerate semiconductor innovation.
• •They signed a multi-year contract to collaborate as priority partners.

Google announced plans to introduce a 'Skills' feature to the Gemini app and Workspace, while discontinuing the existing Gems feature.

The US FTC launches a broad investigation into AI development companies, monitoring trends amid concerns about AI runaway and misuse.

• •The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun a broad investigation into artificial intelligence (AI) development companies.
• •The investigation is driven by concerns regarding AI runaway and misuse.
• •Major US media outlets reported the start of this investigation on September 30.

AWS integrates DuckDB into Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL to enable fast direct querying of Iceberg and Parquet data stored on S3.

• •The direct data lake query feature for Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL was announced on September 30, 2026.
• •Users can now execute direct queries on data in Apache Iceberg and Parquet formats.
• •The system adopts DuckDB integration to execute queries at high speed.

Samsung launched the lightweight Galaxy Tab S12 series, featuring an SoC with up to 61% improved NPU performance and a thickness of about 5.1mm.

• •It features the Dimensity 9500, which offers up to 61% improved NPU performance compared to the previous model.
• •The 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra starts at 271,480 yen, and the 12.6-inch Galaxy Tab S12+ starts at 227,480 yen.
• •The lightweight design is approximately 5.1mm thick and weighs about 692g, with a domestic release date of October 7.

US-based Figure released a video of a retired humanoid robot sinking into molten steel, explaining it originated from an exchange between the CEO and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• •US robotics company Figure released footage of a retired humanoid robot sinking into a sea of molten steel.
• •The video was inspired by an exchange between CEO Brett Adcock and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• •As a robotics developer, the company is conveying a message through this footage.