Top Stories This Morning: ByteDance Is Developing a Mythos-Scale AI Model; Oil Prices Are Rising

ByteDance is developing an artificial intelligence model that, in terms of performance, could rival Mythos, the cutting-edge model from the U.S.-based company Anthropic. Oil prices are rising following Iran’s announcement of plans to impose strict restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Canva has lowered its revenue growth forecast to 20% due to a sharp rise in AI expenses and a partial exodus of users to ChatGPT following the launch of OpenAI’s new model. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of August 7.

Chinese tech giant ByteDance has begun training an artificial intelligence model with up to 10 trillion parameters, sources told the Financial Times.

According to their data, ByteDance’s new model is three times larger than Moonshot’s Kimi K3, currently the largest publicly released Chinese model. The system is currently in the pre-training phase, which typically takes three to six months. The final size of the model will be determined later, one of the publication’s sources clarified.

Anthropic does not disclose the parameters of its models. According to industry estimates, the American company’s most advanced model—Mythos 5—has approximately 8 trillion parameters, while Fable 5 has approximately 5 trillion. However, the number of parameters determines only the model’s basic capacity and memory limits. The system’s actual capabilities also depend on the quality of the data and the training methods used.

ByteDance’s attempts to create one of the world’s largest AI models demonstrate the ambition of Chinese labs to not only catch up with but also surpass their American competitors, the FT notes. According to sources interviewed by the publication, several Chinese labs are simultaneously developing models comparable in scale to Fable 5, but ByteDance has the most ambitious plans. The owner of the short-video platform TikTok has invested more heavily in AI than any other Chinese tech giant. The company has focused on developing its cloud division, Volcano Engine, which sells AI solutions to corporate clients. In addition, ByteDance has plans to develop its own specialized AI chips.

Oil prices rose on Friday amid fears of supply disruptions following Iran’s announcement of proposed restrictions on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, according to CNBC. October Brent futures rose 1.6% to $83.8 per barrel, while September WTI futures rose 1.3% to $78.3.

According to the draft, Iran intends to ban the passage of U.S. and Israeli vessels and to restrict transit for countries that, in Tehran's view, have caused it harm.

The online graphic design platform Canva has lowered its revenue growth forecast for the current year to 20% after the surge in popularity of new AI models sharply increased the company’s expenses, according to The Information. An additional challenge arose because, following the release of OpenAI’s new image-generation model in April, some users began creating designs in ChatGPT instead of Canva, the publication notes.

The company announced that it is reducing its reliance on expensive models from OpenAI and Anthropic, developing its own AI models, and transitioning users to a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Canva expects this to accelerate growth as early as 2027, and has already managed to reduce the cost of performing AI tasks by nearly 90% since April.

AMD has agreed to acquire the Canadian startup Taalas, which develops specialized AI chips for inference—the execution of queries by a pre-trained AI model. Unlike general-purpose GPUs, Taalas’ solutions are optimized for specific AI models and, according to the company, are capable of performing certain tasks thousands of times faster at a lower cost. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition reflects AMD’s desire to expand its lineup of AI solutions beyond graphics processors, notes CNBC. Taalas’ technologies will be integrated into the company’s roadmap and used in conjunction with EPYC processors and Instinct accelerators, as well as in Helios server systems, which AMD is developing as a competitor to Nvidia’s integrated AI solutions.

Airbnb shares jumped 9% in after-hours trading following the release of quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations, according to CNBC. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.37, compared with the forecast of $1.25, while revenue rose 17% year-over-year to $3.61 billion. Net income increased from $642 million to $816 million.

The company also issued a forecast for the current quarter that exceeded market expectations, projecting revenue in the range of $4.69–4.77 billion. Airbnb saw the fastest growth in bookings in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, while free cash flow increased by 30% to $1.25 billion.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index rose 0.2%, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.7%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index remained virtually unchanged, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index rose 0.9%.

— In South Korea, the Kospi fell 1.2%, and the Kosdaq fell 1.4%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 remained virtually unchanged.

— Nasdaq Composite futures rose 0.1%, S&P 500 futures were virtually unchanged, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.2%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor