Haze is now a regional crisis, with Malaysia offering aircraft to fight Indonesia's fires. AI infrastructure debt is under scrutiny, and Malaysia unveiled its first six homegrown chip designs.
AI#
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Google shows 'magic state cultivation' working on its Willow quantum chip
Google Quantum AI reported in Science that the technique cuts errors about 40-fold and reaches 99.99% logical fidelity. Magic states are needed for general-purpose quantum computing but are very costly to produce, so this tackles one of the main barriers to practical machines. Larger-scale demonstrations are still needed.
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DeepSeek ships V4.1-Flash-1017 update
DeepSeek released an updated model that it says is faster and leaner than its predecessor, with stronger benchmark scores and shorter outputs.
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OpenCode breach may have exposed users' OpenAI, Anthropic and Google API keys
Anomaly Innovations, maker of the OpenCode coding agent, says unauthorised access to a legacy system hit about 1.4% of OpenCode Console users who had external providers linked. Some users report unexpected bills. Affected users should revoke and reissue keys directly in each provider's dashboard and set spending limits.
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Anthropic consulting law firms on how AI agents should negotiate deals
According to sources, Anthropic is consulting law firms as it builds agents that negotiate with other AI systems on people's behalf. This is part of a wider effort to set norms for machine-to-machine dealmaking.
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Disney to hire 60+ Character.AI staff for about $180M
A filing shows Disney agreed to hire more than 60 employees from the struggling Character.AI and pay them about $180M over three years, plus $30M in retention awards. A bankruptcy judge still has to approve the deal.
Tech#
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AI debt worries grow as CoreWeave bond yields top 15%
CoreWeave's bond yield is above 15%, insuring SoftBank debt is getting more expensive, and some Oracle debt trades at 80 to 90 cents on the dollar. The question is whether this signals wider strain in the data centre build-out.
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47+ large US data centre projects delayed, withdrawn or blocked this year
Tracker RegLayer counts more than 47 big US data centre projects stalled in 2026. Bernstein estimates only about 35% of the planned US pipeline is credible.
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Microsoft pulls out of Nscale's Essex AI data centre deal
Microsoft cancelled its deal to be anchor tenant and rent about 23,000 Nvidia AI chips at Nscale's planned UK site, which may not get grid power until the 2030s. It's a setback for the UK's AI infrastructure push.
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GTCR and Elliott to take CCC Intelligent Solutions private for $4.6B
The buyout values the Nasdaq-listed car insurance software provider at $6.1B including debt.
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MapQuest adds a map layer showing licence plate readers and cameras
The new Surveillance Layer in MapQuest's mobile app shows cameras from more than 10 companies, including Flock, using OpenStreetMap data.
Malaysian News#
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Malaysia offers aircraft to fight Indonesia's forest fires as haze worsens
Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Malaysia will offer helicopters and water-bombing aircraft, though visibility under 50m could endanger pilots and deployment needs Cabinet approval. The API in Kalimantan has hit 1,000, and Johor schools stay closed until 23 October. Pasir Gudang currently has the country's worst air.
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Malaysia unveils six homegrown chip designs worth RM300m
The chips were launched under the Semiconductor IC Design Park and include SkyeChip's MARS1000 AI processor, MaiStorage's aiDAPTIV+ storage and SiliconX's FPGA. Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah credited Arm IP access for the roughly two-year development time but gave no timeline for the RM300m sales target.
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Melaka polls: Wawasan wants to defend the seats it won under PN
Wawasan president Hamzah Zainudin says his party will defend its seats and is open to seat swaps with BN. Nomination is 31 October, early voting 10 November and polling day 14 November.
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Finance Ministry: no service charge on QR payments from 1 November
The ministry dismissed a viral poster claiming QR transactions would start carrying fees, saying no such announcement has been made.
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Five arrested over Iskandar Puteri luxury home allegedly used to scam Singaporeans
Police say the house was used as a scam call centre targeting victims across the Causeway.
Malaysian Telco#
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CelcomDigi wins extra 900MHz and 2600MHz spectrum for RM381.75m
MCMC awarded CelcomDigi an extra 50MHz of paired spectrum (2x20MHz at 2600MHz, 2x5MHz at 900MHz) to improve 4G capacity and coverage. The assignments are still subject to pending conditions.
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U Mobile hits 90% 5G population coverage, nine months early
U Mobile's ULTRA5G network now covers 90% of populated areas, ahead of its July 2027 deadline. It also has more than 250 in-building 5G sites. CGS International warns U Mobile could undercut rivals on price once it reaches scale.
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DNB secures RM5.2b financing as ownership moves to the telcos
DNB's syndicated Islamic term financing, led by Maybank IB, refinances its expired government-guaranteed facility. MOF Inc exits as an ordinary shareholder but keeps a special share, leaving CelcomDigi, Maxis and YTL as equal owners from early Q4.
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U Mobile launches SIM-based number verification to replace SMS OTPs
Built with Telenor Linx and available to developers through Google Firebase, the service lets apps verify a user's phone number via the SIM without sending an SMS code.