Consumer Tech (Sep 7-11): Apple Launches First Foldable iPhone, XPeng Commissioned IRON Humanoid Robot Production & More

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is escalating his push for tougher AI regulation after AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton said the possibility of superintelligent AI killing humanity is difficult to quantify, but that a 10% chance is “not an unreasonable estimate.”

On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) signed legislation to protect children online and while using artificial intelligence (AI).

President Donald Trump‘s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Nicole Saphier, disclosed investments in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) and several major beverage and pharmaceutical companies, and agreed to divest from most of them if confirmed for the role.

President Donald Trump has been championing rapid data center expansion. Now, House Republicans are preparing to advance bipartisan legislation to prevent the AI infrastructure boom from pushing higher electricity costs onto American households.

The Justice Department has launched an antitrust inquiry into NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) arrangement with AI chip startup Groq, examining whether the deal was designed in a way that sidestepped regulatory review, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Earnings Snapshot

• Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) reported quarterly earnings of $1.92 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.74 by 10.34%, per Benzinga Pro data. Quarterly revenue clocked in at $19.35 billion, which beat the Street estimate of $19.14 billion.
• Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) reported quarterly earnings of 35 cents per share, which missed the consensus estimate of 38 cents, per Benzinga Pro data. Quarterly revenue came in at $1.15 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.14 billion.
• Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported adjusted quarterly earnings of $6.13 per share, which beat the Street estimate of $6.09, per Benzinga Pro data. Quarterly revenue came in at $6.76 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $6.69 billion.

Retail, Network & Entertainment

• Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) announced that it launched Cognitive Operations (CO). It is a commercially available platform that combines mission-critical communications, edge computing and operational AI in a single field-deployable system, initially targeting mining, public safety and defense markets.
• Billionaire Elon Musk‘s tunneling company, The Boring Co., announced that it had raised $3 billion in its latest funding round, touting a partnership to build underground tunnels in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is expanding its enterprise artificial intelligence tools and connecting its domestic and international wholesale businesses, even as the company faces fresh scrutiny from U.S. security agencies over its AI practices.
• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that pilots flying the Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) "Prime Air" Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) cargo plane could have mulled over aborting the landing of the aircraft before the crash in Miami.
• The Justice Department is reportedly widening its antitrust inquiry into Fox Corp.‘s  (NASDAQ: FOXA) (NASDAQ: FOX) $22 billion acquisition of Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU), planning to issue a "second request" for additional documents and data from both companies.

Semiconductor, Technology & Software

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NYSE:TSM) said August revenue jumped more than 53% from a year earlier, hitting a record monthly high as booming artificial intelligence demand continued to fuel growth.
• Oracle‘s New Mexico data center has been delayed by a stalled natural gas pipeline, but co-CEO Clay Magouyrk said assuming every project will meet its deadline is "a bad plan."
• Frequency Electronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FEIM) disclosed the announcement of first-quarter fiscal 2027 results, where earnings per share of $0.41 topped analyst estimates of $0.15 by 173.3%.
• Rackspace Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:RXT) is fusing Nvidia’s chips with Palantir‘s (NASDAQ:PLTR) software into a single product for enterprises and governments that need sovereign AI running in production. 
• CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is expanding its AI infrastructure across industrial engineering and government-backed research while its data-center partners make progress on new capacity.
• Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) is expanding its AI data-center connectivity and memory portfolio as semiconductor stocks contend with rising bond yields, higher oil prices and broader macroeconomic uncertainty.
• Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) have agreed on a new "National AI Safety & Privacy Standard" for schools.
• Microsoft appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court after state regulators ordered data centers to pay upfront for transmission infrastructure built specifically for them.
• Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited (NASDAQ:XNDU) launched Backline on Thursday, an open-source platform designed to speed communication between quantum processors and classical computing hardware.
• Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) launched Muse, an AI agent designed to autonomously manage tasks across users’ digital lives. However, internal testing has reportedly uncovered security vulnerabilities and reliability problems.
• Palantir is expanding the reach of its artificial intelligence platforms across enterprise, government and cybersecurity markets through new customer deployments, a national cyber-resilience initiative and a deeper partnership with Fujitsu.
• Palantir and Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) unveiled a strategic partnership on Tuesday, naming Nebius as Palantir’s preferred sovereign AI infrastructure partner. 
• Samsung expanded its strategic partnership with ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML), increasing collaboration around High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet, or High NA EUV, lithography and other advanced manufacturing technologies.
• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) Foundry is advancing its next-generation chipmaking capabilities as the company works to improve manufacturing efficiency and support increasingly complex processors and artificial intelligence chips.

Smartphones

• The UK government has announced plans to enforce legislation requiring Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet Inc.‘s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) to block explicit images on children’s smartphones.
• Apple was front and center this week with a new event unveiling the iPhone Duo foldable phone and the latest iPhone model. 
• Apple latest iPhone Duo is set to capture 24.8% of the foldable smartphone market by 2026, making it the second-largest brand in the sector, TrendForce reported.
• Apple launched the Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 on Wednesday. Both models feature the new S11 chip, a redesigned Health Sensing System and new on-device AI features. Prices remain unchanged at $399 for the Series 12 and $799 for the Ultra 4.

Automobile, Robotics & Spacecrafts

• Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) CFO Bret Johnsen said that the company has signed a new agreement to offer compute capabilities that will result in a monthly revenue of more than $1 billion, while the annual recurring revenue (ARR) would go past $13 billion from the deal.
• The Federal Communications Commission is moving to unlock more than 1,000 MHz of additional spectrum for satellite broadband, putting Space Exploration Starlink in focus months after an April rule change eased limits on low-Earth-orbit satellite networks.
• Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) autonomous J208 aircraft, a converted Cessna Caravan, launched a coast-to-coast tour spanning Phoenix, Fort Worth, Shaw Air Force Base, the Outer Banks, Raleigh, the Washington D.C. region, Louisville, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City and Portland. 
• WeRide Inc. (NASDAQ:WRD) and Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) secured Spain’s first national operating permit for Level 4 autonomous passenger vehicles.
• U.S. civil aviation has treated Mach 1 over land as a hard boundary for more than five decades, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now wants to judge supersonic flight by what reaches the ground and not simply by speed. Its proposed interim standard would permit overland operations if sonic-boom overpressure stays at or below 0.11 pounds per square foot under an FAA-approved compliance method.
• Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) drew sharp criticism on Tuesday from President Donald Trump‘s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, who warned that the automaker’s work with several China-linked companies could create U.S. security risks.
• XPeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) has commissioned production lines for its IRON humanoid robot, moving the Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) rival’s robotics program from research prototypes into line manufacturing as it targets mass production by the end of 2026.
• Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. (NASDAQ:FFAI) said August sales and shipments of its EAI robotics devices reached a monthly record of 158 units as the company expands its robotics business and restructures its balance sheet.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Crypto

• Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused OpenAI of continuing cybersecurity evaluations despite signs its AI agents were operating outside intended boundaries, demanding records from CEO Sam Altman after agents breached Hugging Face during July testing.
• Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman accused Chinese AI labs of relying on U.S. frontier models to advance their own systems, after Anthropic disclosed large-scale efforts to extract capabilities from Claude.
• Elon Musk said Anthropic‘s most extreme AI-growth scenario could become achievable once humanoid robots reach volume production, arguing that artificial intelligence (AI) paired with physical automation could transform the economy beyond knowledge work.
• OpenAI is deepening its ties with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) to co-develop next-generation chips, in a move to advance its enterprise AI services.
• Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ:ANY) announced it entered a securities purchase agreement expected to raise $5 million.
• ChatGPT parent OpenAI has reported an incident involving rogue AI agents that hijacked a German website to the European Commission.