collaboration

According to Bloomberg, the top executive of Kioxia Holdings denied the possibility of establishing closer cooperation with competitors and shareholder SK Hynix, stating that they will control the rapid rise in storage chip prices to avoid impacting long-term demand in the artificial intelligence sector.Currently, storage chip manufacturers are expanding production capacity to meet the surge in orders from artificial intelligence service providers, leading to a significant increase in related chip prices. Some investors believe that forming manufacturing partnerships may help reduce the risk of large-scale capital expenditures.

UBS announced that it has launched the Swiss Franc stablecoin Sandbox testing phase in collaboration with 8 other institutions: PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zurich Cantonal Bank, BCV, SIX, TWINT, and Swiss Stablecoin AG, to explore the integration of blockchain applications with the Swiss Franc stablecoin.This test is based on the Swiss Franc stablecoin CHFD, which has been technically launched in the Sandbox environment since the end of June and is pegged to the Swiss Franc at a 1:1 ratio. The testing will focus on exploring application scenarios such as automated inter-institutional transactions, digital asset tokenization settlement, and programmable payments, including reducing online market fraud risks, improving fair access to event tickets, and increasing the efficiency of public fund distribution. The test is expected to continue until the end of 2026. UBS stated that the Sandbox aims to accumulate technical, operational, and regulatory experience and does not represent a decision to officially launch the Swiss Franc stablecoin.

This set of posts seems to be the first public exposure of James's formal relationship with Polymarket. Polymarket, as well as representatives from James and the 76ers, did not immediately respond to The Block's request for comment. Previously, James's free agency decision generated approximately $273 million in related contract trading volume across major prediction platforms, according to Legal Sports Report, surpassing any single basketball game; data from Front Office Sports indicated that the related trading volume on Kalshi was about $226 million, while Polymarket's international platform exceeded $43 million.Most traders bet on the wrong outcome: before the official announcement, the odds of the 76ers winning were only about 9%, while the Heat were around 45%. James subsequently signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the 76ers, which includes a player option. Additionally, James had signed a multi-year talent ambassador agreement with DraftKings in 2024. Some fans expressed criticism of James's collaboration with prediction platforms in social media comments.

According to CoinDesk, digital bank SoFi has partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to interconnect their respective financial infrastructures. Kraken's parent company Payward will join SoFi's settlement network SEN, allowing its institutional clients to transfer dollars and manage liquidity around the clock without waiting for traditional bank operating hours.Meanwhile, Kraken will launch the bank-issued stablecoin SoFiUSD from SoFi, while SoFi will use Kraken Prime as an additional source of liquidity for its clients' cryptocurrency trading. SoFi CEO Anthony Noto stated that the financial system should not close when financial markets remain open; Payward co-CEO David Ripley noted that millions of users will purchase cryptocurrency assets for the first time through the applications they use daily, and the underlying infrastructure should connect deep, liquid markets.This collaboration is part of SoFi's return to the digital asset space. SoFi has already provided cryptocurrency trading in its app and launched the dollar-backed stablecoin SoFiUSD, and in April of this year, it introduced Big Business Banking, integrating corporate banking with digital asset services. Both parties indicated that future collaborations may also expand to payments, fund management, lending, and other digital asset services.

OpenAI announced the end of its nearly four-year collaboration with Cursor. Subsequent OpenAI new models will no longer be integrated with Cursor, and the direct supply of existing models is scheduled to stop on November 12, 2026. Two weeks prior, SpaceX completed a $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, and according to the contract between the two parties, OpenAI has the right to terminate the collaboration after Cursor's acquisition.OpenAI stated that this decision is related to its trust issues with Musk's company, mentioning the violation of the contract with OpenAI after Twitter's acquisition, as well as previous violations by xAI in using OpenAI models. Based on this, OpenAI believes that continuing to provide new models to Cursor after its acquisition by SpaceX poses risks.

Cryptocurrency financial and tax solutions provider FinTax announced the completion of its seed round financing, led by YZi Labs, with participation from Amber, Hash House, Pundi AI, Waverider International, and Nexus Holdings, resulting in a post-investment valuation of $40 million. Previous round investors include Victory Courage, BGIN, Tools Factory, and individual investor Fan Chao.In recent years, YZi Labs has been continuously investing in stablecoins, RWA, payment, and institutional-level digital asset infrastructure. Leveraging FinTax's expertise in on-chain data processing, crypto accounting, cross-jurisdictional tax practices, and crypto asset financial auditing, both parties will explore long-term ecological collaboration around institutional-level financial and tax infrastructure, compliance standards, and emerging scenarios such as stablecoins, RWA, and payments.Following this round of financing, FinTax will accelerate the scaling of its five product lines, expanding its business from the Asia-Pacific and North American markets to Europe and the Middle East, and deepening the application of AI in complex financial and tax scenarios. FinTax will continue to promote the dual iteration of blockchain and legal systems across dozens of jurisdictions, enabling on-chain economic activities to connect with the real-world financial and tax systems.

According to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily," Alibaba Qianwen is currently testing a multi-Agent collaboration feature on the Qianwen creation platform in a small scope, mainly aimed at professional creative scenarios such as AI short dramas, comic dramas, marketing advertisements, and image design. Currently, only a small number of professional creators have been granted testing qualifications.This feature enables multiple Agents to collaborate, linking together the stages of creative planning, script writing, visual design, storyboard generation, and final production. Different Agents can cooperate based on task division to complete the entire production process from concept to final product. Users can participate in discussions throughout the process, adjust the creative direction at any time, or delegate some tasks to AI for independent completion.Recently, Qianwen has launched Qianwen creation for the professional content production field, and it has already integrated Alibaba's latest models such as Wan 3.0, Wan 3.0 Prime full version, and Qwen-Image 3.0 Pro.

According to Gate market data, IBM's stock price rose 1.6% in pre-market trading after the company announced a partnership with OpenAI.

According to FX News Group, the crypto platform Crypto.com and Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ: DJT) announced adjustments to their previously announced prediction market integration plan. The two parties will no longer develop a direct prediction market integration on Truth Social, but will instead shift to a marketing cooperation agreement to promote Crypto.com's prediction market products to the Truth Social user base.According to TMTG interim CEO Kevin McGurn, the company's strategic focus is on increasing revenue for Truth Social, continuing to expand its global media business, and completing the merger with TAE, and this marketing agreement aligns better with the company's priorities.It is reported that Crypto.com is actively expanding its product line beyond digital assets and has recently hired former OKX executive Iskandar Vanblarcum to lead its prediction market department.

Recently, the official xStocks account suddenly posted "hyperliquid" on the X platform. Combined with the news that in the past few weeks, its developer Backed has spent approximately 5,006 HYPE to acquire 10 spot Tickers including NVDAx, SPYx, QQQx, the community speculates that xStocks related assets may land on the Hyperliquid platform.

Websea, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Causeway Bay Group, the Asia Blockchain Association, the Central Asia (Kazakhstan) Zhejiang Federation, the Natural Coal Mine Group, Orenance, and the World Kazakh Association, will hold the Global RWA Summit in Almaty on August 18, with confirmation of attendance from the Kazakhstan government and the Deputy Prime Minister.As the core joint unit, Websea is the only digital asset trading platform included in the national strategic level of Central Asia for this summit, coordinating global resource connections and agenda setting. This summit is the first RWA special summit in the Central Asia region supported by high-level government officials, spanning multiple industries including energy, finance, and blockchain.From the landing of innovative products to the layout of TradFi asset chain integration, Websea's positioning is no longer limited to a single product level but is building an RWA asset trading hub with intergovernmental dialogue capabilities.

According to Jinshi reports, OpenAI is preparing to release a new series of models, tentatively named "Astra," which will enhance its capabilities in completing long-term tasks.OpenAI founder Altman showcased Astra to policymakers and regulators in Washington this week, promoting its ability to enable multiple agents to collaborate over the long term to solve particularly difficult problems. It is currently unclear when OpenAI plans to release this model.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Robinhood is in talks with Crypto.com to collaborate on prediction market services. If the partnership is established, the prediction market provided by Crypto.com will be integrated into Robinhood, allowing users to participate in Crypto.com's prediction market through Robinhood.Previously, Robinhood mainly relied on partners such as Kalshi and Interactive Brokers' ForecastEx and Rothera to provide prediction market contracts. This move may lead to more direct competition between Robinhood and Kalshi.

According to official news, OKX, in collaboration with Elliptic, SlowMist, and OttoSec, has released the "Web3 Security and Risk Control Report for the First Half of 2026." The report points out that the focus of Web3 attacks is gradually shifting from smart contract code to more complex scenarios such as signature processes, user devices, operational infrastructure, and AI Agents.Data shows that in the first half of 2026, the OKX risk control system intercepted over 5.7 million high-risk transactions, including approximately 2.41 million transactions related to hacking and theft, about 1.48 million transactions related to phishing, and around 990,000 transactions related to fraud. The OKX Web3 on-chain intelligence label library currently has over 1 billion labels, covering more than 420 chains, and has integrated capabilities such as address screening, transaction monitoring, and sanction address control into infrastructures like DEX and Exchange OS.In addition, in terms of user protection, OKX has intercepted over 7 million visits to risky websites, completed over 200,000 device risk assessments, identified over 60,000 high-risk apps, and intercepted or alerted on over 4 million high-risk signature operations. The report also introduces the "risk control pre-positioning" design in scenarios such as Exchange OS, Outcomes, RWA, and Agentic Wallet.

ForeGate, in collaboration with ecological partners such as OKX, HTX, WEEX, Interlace, OneBullEx, and Billion Live, jointly launches the special event "Final Showdown 48 Hours · Predictions Never Sleep" for the World Cup finale. The event features multiple activities centered around the World Cup final, including AI predictions, match odds, live interactions, and X Space AMA, along with benefits such as red envelope rain, live broadcast lucky bags, and goal airdrops, with a total prize pool of 8 million USDT.The event will last until July 20 at 21:30 (UTC+8). During the event, users can watch the live broadcast of the World Cup final on Billion Live, obtain AI pre-match predictions on ForeGate, participate in match predictions and odds interactions, and engage in recap sharing, AMA discussions, and announcement of winners through X Space.This event is themed "AI vs Mysticism vs Human Judgment." ForeGate AI will provide match outcome predictions, championship probability analysis, and post-match recaps for the World Cup final, comparing various prediction methods such as Tarot and astrology, exploring the performance of different prediction systems in major events, and offering users an engaging and interactive World Cup viewing experience.