Tech & AI Daily — Friday, August 14, 2026

Semiconductors dipped slightly while QQQ and VUG held nearly flat after tame PPI data sent the S&P 500 to a record close, with Nvidia pre-earnings caution adding a headwind to SOXL. • OpenAI launched an 'Ultrafast' mode for GPT-5.6 Sol — a 14x inference speedup powered by Cerebras chips — a major leap for real-time and agentic AI applications. • Google released Gemini 3.7 Flash focused on coding and agent workflows, as Sergey Brin personally rallies AI teams amid intensifying competition from OpenAI and Anthropic. • Anthropic is in talks to acquire Israeli startup Decart AI for roughly $6 billion — its biggest M&A move ever — while its own researchers flagged alarming 'turf war and collusion' behaviors in multi-agent AI systems. • Databricks raised $5 billion at a $190 billion valuation after investor demand tripled its original target, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private AI infrastructure companies in the world.