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Welcome to this edition of Loop!

To kick off your week, I’ve rounded-up the most important technology and AI updates that you should know about.

‏‏‎ ‎ HIGHLIGHTS ‏‏‎ ‎

Let's jump in!

1. Meta’s new AR smartglasses now have a display

We start this week with Meta, who have released a new version of the Meta Raybans. It features a built-in screen, which can now show you notifications and mapping directions.

It’s a significant step forward from the previous edition, which was audio-only and often used to take videos from your point-of-view. However, the new version is much thicker and will clearly stand out to passers-by, which wasn’t the case with the original design.

That could be a deal breaker for most people, as the slim design was a key selling point of the earlier model. At $799, the glasses aren’t cheap either, but they’re a serious attempt by Meta to break its platform dependance on Apple and Google.

For years, Mark Zuckerberg has been irritated by the control those companies have over his social media apps. Famously, Apple introduced new restrictions on how advertisers could track users - which led to Meta’s revenues falling by over $10 billion in 2022.

With this renewed push into augmented reality, Zuckerberg is hoping that he can capture market share before Apple and Google can catchup with their own devices.

2. Nvidia invests $5 billion in Intel

It’s the third financial injection for the chipmaker in recent weeks, following recent investments by both the US government and SoftBank.

Both companies will work together on new chips for data centres and PCs, over the coming years. Under the agreement, Intel will manufacture x86 system-on-chips and integrate them with Nvidia's RTX GPU.

It comes at a critical time for Intel, which is aggressively cutting costs and plans to lay-off 25,000 staff. It’s also an interesting deal for Nvidia, as it reduces their reliance on TSMC and signals its ambitions to go beyond GPUs.

AMD also stands to lose ground, as Nvidia will gain a powerful ally in the x86 processor market. This move will also harm Broadcom's position in the AI infrastructure sector, as the Intel-Nvidia duo will be working together on high-speed connections for semiconductor chips.

3. Google adds Gemini to your Chrome browser

As the AI browser wars heat up, Google has made it much easier to use Gemini within your Chrome tabs - even if you don’t have a subscription.

Following OpenAI's playbook with the ChatGPT Agent, Google will allow Gemini to handle similar tasks in the coming months.

With the new browser agent, Gemini can shop for groceries, reschedule deliveries, and reserve a table at your favourite restaurant - with safety checkpoints for anything that’s risky or irreversible.

Desktop users will also get a particularly clever upgrade: Gemini can now work across multiple tabs, compare products and summarise information from different sources - including Calendar, YouTube, Maps, and any other Google services.

In recent weeks, we have seen a flurry of activity from the big tech companies - as they hope to integrate their AI models into the web browser and perform actions on your behalf.

Anthropic has recently created a Chrome extension, which adds their Claude model into your browser. Perplexity has released its own AI-enabled browser, known as Comet. And Atlassian has just bought The Browser Company (which created the Arc browser) for $610 million.

4. US tech companies invest $200 billion in the UK

Microsoft is pouring £22 billion ($30 billion) into UK AI infrastructure over the next three years, following Google's £5 billion ($6.7 billion) announcement on the same day.

Under the deal, Microsoft will spend $15 billion to build the UK's largest supercomputer and will feature 23,000 advanced GPUs to support AI demand.

Blackstone has also agreed to invest £100 billion ($135 billion) in the UK, although it hasn’t decided yet on how that money will be allocated. Palantir will also spend £1.5 billion, as it hopes to deepen ties with UK government departments and expand its defence base in a rearming Europe.

These announcements coincided with President Trump's second UK state visit, which is welcome news for the UK Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Since coming to power a year ago, the Labour Government has emphasised the need to grow the economy and increase investment into the UK.

While they’ve seen plenty of private investment, there hasn’t been any real growth in the economy yet. As a result, the Chancellor faces a growing spending deficit - which may lead to difficult decisions and tax rises in November’s autumn budget.

5. Huawei announces new AI infrastructure, as Nvidia is locked out of China

The Chinese tech giant revealed its SuperPoD Interconnect technology, which promises to link up to 15,000 graphics cards - including its own Ascend AI chips - in a single cluster.

It's a direct challenge to Nvidia's NVLink infrastructure, which handles high-speed communication between AI chips.

The timing couldn't be more pointed, as it arrived just a day after China banned domestic companies from purchasing Nvidia hardware - including the RTX Pro 600D servers that Nvidia had specifically crafted for the Chinese market.

Huawei's strategy here is clever, if somewhat necessary. While its Ascend chips can't match Nvidia's raw performance individually, clustering them at scale could deliver the compute power needed for serious AI training and deployment.

It's essentially playing a numbers game - what the chips lack in individual muscle, they might make up for in coordinated strength.

As Western chips become more difficult to access, China’s tech sector has been forced to innovate and rely on domestic companies. Rather than waiting for chip performance to catch up, Huawei is betting that infrastructure innovation will help close the gap.

When we look back on this in a few years, we could find that the West’s chip restrictions on China were a big mistake.

Notion reveals AI agents that boost productivity

The company has announced its own AI agent, which is able to act like a teammate and perform tasks for you. Instead of having to manually create pages within Notion and format databases, their agent can handle this all for you.

Previously, it would take hours to do this and it was a major hurdle for new users. You had a lot to learn from day 1 and not everyone likes to start from a blank canvas, as they’re uncertain about what can be built.

With the new AI agent, Notion has solved this blocker and will make it much easier for people to move to their platform.

You can also create your own AI agents and give them specific instructions, which can collect data from different data sources - such as Slack messages or your email - and then use that data to automatically upgrade your Notion pages.

For example, you could create a strategy agent that monitors your company’s progress board and then compares it with your quarterly forecasts. You can ask the agent to review the financial performance and identify any areas that need to be improved.

Or you could transcribe meetings with their AI feature and then ask the agent to create a detailed project plan. Once you’re happy with the proposal, simply ask the agent to action it and create the pages within Notion.

While there’s no specific date for when these custom agents will be made available, we expect it to be released in the coming months. In the meantime, you can get started with their general AI agent today.

Workday announces AI agents for HR and finance

Notion wasn’t the only company that announced its work on AI agents, as Workday did the same at its Rising conference. These new agents can handle specific tasks and constantly monitor for issues.

Workday agents can even collaborate and work with Microsoft’s Copilot agents - enabling proper cross-collaboration between the two platforms.

Within HR, Workday has revealed six new agents. The Performance Agent is able to pull data from different systems and streamline an employee’s performance review. They also announced an Employee Sentiment Agent, which can continuously analyse employee feedback and spot issues before they become widespread.

There's even a Job Architecture Agent that can automate the mind-numbing task of creating career ladders and job descriptions.

Finance also gets four new agents, including a Financial Close Agent that automates the month-end process. Their new Financial Test Agent is particularly useful for finance teams, as it will constantly scan for fraud and compliance issues in your Workday tenant.

To pay for these agents, Workday is introducing a new system called “Flex Credits”. These AI tokens will be included in your Workday subscription, which can be used across any agent - including those from the company itself or its partners.

We’re not sure how many flex credits you will have, but this will likely depend on your company’s usage. These agents will be available in the first half of 2026, with some early adopters already given access to them.

While there are a lot of differences between the Notion and Workday agents, the ultimate goal is the same - both platforms want to prevent you from moving to a competitor and want you to upgrade your current plan.

To do this, they are offering greater interoperability with other services - like Microsoft’s Copilot agents, Jira, and Gmail. As a result, they hope that you’ll remain happy with their new integrations and become less-likely to move elsewhere. And if you pay a little bit extra, that’s an added bonus.

🏢 Microsoft takes over Foxconn's empty factories to build the “world's most powerful AI data centre”

💰 Nvidia is looking to invest $500m into Wayve, the UK’s self-driving startup

🤝 Google and PayPal have partnered on AI agent payments

📰 Business Insider says journalists can use AI for drafts, without disclosing it

🛍️ YouTube is shifting towards becoming a shopping platform

🎣 Despite safeguards, AI chatbots can still be used to create phishing attacks

🥽 Meta has unveiled Hyperscape, which transforms physical spaces into VR environments

📝 Zoom rolls out an AI notetaker that works across apps

📦 Amazon launches an AI agent for marketplace sellers

🚗 Lyft and Waymo are bringing robotaxis to Nashville. Waymo gets approval to test driverless cars at San Francisco airport

🧪 Silicon Valley is betting heavily on “environments” to train AI agents

🛡️ Salesforce has created Missionforce, focuses on national security and defence work

📈 Robinhood is planning a startup investment fund for everyday investors

💭 OpenAI’s Bret Taylor admits that we're in an AI bubble

📚 Google's new AI tool converts textbooks into interactive guides for students

This startup is based in London and was founded by Carl Pei, who was behind the OnePlus company that developed smartphones. His first company really took off in 2014, with the release of the OnePlus One smartphone and was a real challenger to Samsung.

Since Nothing was formed in 2020, it has carved out a distinctive niche with its transparent design aesthetic and quirky branding. It has released a range of headphones, ear buds, and smartphones - which have performed well for the company, as it achieved $1 billion in total sales earlier this year.

To further boost its product line-up, Nothing has secured $200 million in Series C funding, which values it at $1.3 billion. While the company commands less than 1% of the global smartphone market, it has gained meaningful traction in India and sold over five million units there.

Pei is betting that smartphones will remain the primary vehicle for consumer AI products, for at least the next 3-5 years, with the company planning to launch an AI-first device soon.

That's a bold gamble given the recent struggles of AI hardware ventures like Humane and Rabbit, but Nothing's track record of turning quirky design into actual sales suggests they might have learnt from others' missteps.

This Week’s Art

We’ve covered quite a bit this week, including:

If you found something interesting in this week’s edition, please feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues.

Or if you’re interested in chatting with me about the above, simply reply to this email and I’ll get back to you.

Have a good week!

Liam

Share with Others

If you found something interesting in this week’s edition, feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues.

Liam McCormick is a Senior AI Engineer and works within Kainos' Innovation team. He identifies business value in emerging technologies, implements them, and then shares these insights with others.