Surface Ultra Launch, Gemini Skills Transition, Arc Raiders Update, and More Tech News

AI

Microsoft and NVIDIA Unveil Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark

Microsoft hosted a Surface event on October 7 in San Francisco. CEO Satya Nadella shared the stage with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to debut the Surface Laptop Ultra, powered by NVIDIA’s new RTX Spark superchip.

The Surface Laptop Ultra and RTX Spark Dev Box handle AI workloads locally rather than relying on cloud infrastructure. Microsoft framed the event around a single thesis: local AI is the next chapter for the PC.

RTX Spark is NVIDIA’s compact AI acceleration chip designed for consumer PCs. It improves power efficiency while significantly boosting local inference performance. Pricing and availability have not yet been disclosed.

Google Confirms Gemini Gems Phase-Out in Favor of Skills

Google has finalized the timeline to retire Gems in the Gemini app and replace them with Skills. Skills began rolling out to Workspace on October 5. On October 13, Gems creation and editing will be disabled. On November 17, Gems will be fully retired.

Gems are customized presets that tailor Gemini to specific tasks and workflows. Skills is the successor feature, and Google plans to auto-convert existing Gems. However, Skills are currently limited to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.

Free-tier users will lose the customization capabilities they currently have through Gems. Whether Google extends Skills access to the free tier remains an open question.

OpenAI Launches Decisions API Preview

OpenAI unveiled the Decisions API at DevDay 2026 and opened a developer preview. Built on a specialized version of GPT-6 Luna, it returns a decision from a predefined set of options in under 150 milliseconds, roughly 10x faster than a standard Luna call at 1.6 seconds.

The API suits content classification, request routing, and agent action selection. Developers define a question and a finite answer list, pass text or image context, and receive a classification result. Pricing sits at $0.042 per million input tokens with free output.

It launched in limited preview with a broader rollout promised within days. For the emerging agent ecosystem, shaving decision latency from seconds to milliseconds is a meaningful infrastructure improvement.

Big Tech

SpaceX and Google Sign $30B AI Compute Lease Deal

SpaceX signed a massive AI compute lease agreement with Google ahead of its planned IPO. Google will pay approximately $920 million per month for access to roughly 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs. Full-rate payments begin in October after a discounted ramp-up period.

The contract runs through June 2029 with a total value of about $30 billion. SpaceX is building its data centers on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform, targeting 2 GW of installed compute by the end of 2026 and approximately 10 GW by end of 2027.

A rocket company pivoting into the AI compute business is an unusual move. The deal simultaneously secures stable pre-IPO cash flow and expands GPU availability at a time when capacity remains constrained.

Budget Smartphone Shipments Plunge 60% as AI Devours Memory Supply

Surging HBM demand from AI data centers has pushed DRAM manufacturers to prioritize high-margin memory, devastating the sub-$100 smartphone market. In India, sub-$100 smartphone shipments dropped roughly 60% year-over-year.

Memory costs for budget handsets surged from $14 to $70 in a single year, a 400% increase that makes profitable manufacturing at the sub-$100 price point nearly impossible. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have all shifted production toward AI server HBM.

The roughly 173 million sub-$100 smartphones shipped last year face an existential threat. The ripple effect extends beyond market dynamics; it could meaningfully impact digital access in emerging economies.

Startups

Nous Research Hits Unicorn Status with $75M Series B

Open-source AI agent infrastructure startup Nous Research closed a $75M Series B led by Robot Ventures, reaching a $1.5 billion valuation. Union Square Ventures also participated. Combined with a previous $50M Series A, total funding exceeds $125 million.

The flagship product Hermes Agent is an open-source platform for building and deploying AI agents without token economics or protocol governance. Founded in 2023 by Jeffrey Quesnelle, Karan Malhotra, Ryan Teknium, and Shivani Mitra, the company has bet on open models with enterprise distribution.

An open-source agent platform achieving a billion-dollar-plus valuation signals growing commercial confidence in the open AI ecosystem.

Multiply Labs Raises $75M to Scale AI-Powered Biomanufacturing

Multiply Labs secured $75M in Series B funding to expand its AI robotics platform for advanced biomanufacturing. The company automates cell therapy and gene therapy manufacturing using robotics and AI.

It also signed an $85M partnership with Retro Biosciences to accelerate cell therapy production for age-related diseases. The platform integrates with NVIDIA’s Physical AI platform, connecting robotic simulation to live bioreactor operations.

Biomanufacturing remains heavily manual. The intersection of AI, robotics, and pharma manufacturing is drawing investor interest as the sector seeks consistency and scale.

Open Source

OpenCut Passes 92K GitHub Stars as an Open-Source CapCut Alternative

MIT-licensed open-source video editor OpenCut has surpassed 92,000 GitHub stars, growing at an average of 512 stars per day. It offers local video editing with no subscriptions, watermarks, or payments, with privacy as a core principle.

A platform-agnostic Rust core handles GPU compositing, effects, and masks. The web frontend uses Next.js and the desktop app uses GPUI. Plugin architecture, MCP support, and headless APIs are planned.

The growth rate speaks to strong demand for an open-source alternative to commercial editors like CapCut. The default branch is a ground-up rewrite; the classic editor remains available at opencut.app.

Open Source India 2026 Draws 7,000 Attendees in Bengaluru

The 23rd edition of Open Source India ran October 7-8 at the NIMHANS Convention Centre in Bengaluru. Over 7,000 attendees and 85+ speakers participated under the theme “Where Open-Source Communities Drive the AI Era.”

The conference featured six tracks: FOSS for Everyone, Developer’s Meet, Data and Bases, DevOps, Open Source Hardware, and AI and ML. The Linux Professional Institute co-partnered the event, showcasing open-source certification programs.

India’s open-source ecosystem is expanding rapidly in the AI era. The conference covered practical topics including GenAI applications, AI agents, RAG, LLMOps, and cloud-native infrastructure.

Gaming

Arc Raiders Ships Frozen Trail, Its Biggest Update Yet

Embark Studios’ PvPvE shooter Arc Raiders is deploying its largest update to date, Frozen Trail, on October 8. The new map set in snowy mountains is the biggest the game has shipped, featuring abandoned villages, factories, and an observatory.

Verticality is the design focus, with multi-layered structures emphasizing exploration and discovery. New ARC enemy types and a rebuilt progression system are also included.

The update demonstrates a live-service strategy of steadily expanding content after early access launch. It sets the tone for where Arc Raiders is heading in terms of scope and complexity.

Kakao Games Launches ‘도깨비의세계’ 2.5D MMORPG

Kakao Games launched the 2.5D MMORPG ‘도깨비의세계’ (World of Dokkaebi) on October 8, developed by Supercat. The game is based on the popular Naver web novel and webtoon ‘Myeolguisudojeon’ IP.

It features distinctive visuals blending pixel characters with 3D depth, created in collaboration with Red Ice Studio. The core system is “Infinite Skill Deck Building,” allowing players to freely combine 12 skills without class restrictions.

The title targets a niche within the Korean MMORPG market, differentiating itself through retro aesthetics and flexible build systems.

The Crew Motorfest Arrives on Switch 2

Ubisoft’s open-world racer The Crew Motorfest launched on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 8, with the Season 11 update applied simultaneously.

Players can explore the Hawaiian island of Oahu with over 600 vehicles and varied racing events on the portable platform. The Switch 2 version delivers the same content as the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC versions.

The launch demonstrates how Switch 2’s improved hardware enables open-world racing titles that previously required dedicated consoles or PCs.

References

Microsoft Surface Event for October 7 — Windows Central
Microsoft Surface event with Nvidia RTX Spark devices — Notebookcheck
Google outlines timeline to phase out Gemini Gems — Android Central
Gemini Gems phase-out timeline — Android Authority
OpenAI Decisions API: what it is, how it works — eesel.ai
OpenAI DevDay 2026: Dots, Decisions, Pricing — yuv.ai
OpenAI unveils Decisions API — Crypto Briefing
SpaceX signs $920M per month deal with Google — The Decoder
Nvidia growth through SpaceX partnership — Boerse Express
AI Memory Crunch Smashing Cheap Smartphone Sales — Channel News Australia
AI killing cheap smartphone DRAM memory crisis — The Next Web
AI’s Chip Appetite Squeezing The Global Smartphone Market — Yahoo Finance
Nous Research $75M round at $1.5B valuation — RuntimeWire
Nous Research in talks to raise $75M — The Block
Startup Funding News October 7, 2026 — Tech Startups
Multiply Labs and Retro Biosciences partnership — Silicon UK
Multiply Labs Physical AI with NVIDIA — Business Wire
OpenCut GitHub Repository — GitHub
OpenCut explained: open source CapCut alternative — Mervin
Open Source India 2026 — Open Source India
Open Source India 2026 at NIMHANS — Linux Professional Institute
Arc Raiders Frozen Trail Update Release Date — Beebom
Arc Raiders Frozen Trail Update — Dexerto
카카오게임즈, ‘도깨비의세계’ MMORPG — MTN
도깨비의세계 소개 — Webtoon Guide
The Crew Motorfest Switch 2 launch — Ruliweb