Top Stories This Morning: OpenAI and Anthropic Have Made Their AI Models More Affordable; Qualcomm Unveiled a New Chip

OpenAI and Anthropic have unveiled new, more affordable AI models amid growing competition. Meanwhile, Qualcomm unveiled its flagship 2-nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips for AI processing directly on smartphones. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of September 23.

OpenAI and Anthropic have introduced new, more affordable AI models amid competition from open-source solutions, according to CNBC. OpenAI has expanded the GPT-6 family with the Sol and Luna models, lowering API prices by 50% compared to the promotional rates for GPT-5.6. Sol is designed for complex tasks, including programming, while Luna is intended for high-volume operations such as information retrieval and document summarization.

Anthropic has released Claude Opus 5.5, which, according to the company, uses tokens more efficiently and is approximately 40% cheaper than Opus 5. Companies are striving to reduce the cost of using AI amid pressure from Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek, the TV channel explains.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday amid hopes that supply disruptions would ease following talks between the U.S. and Iran, according to CNBC. November Brent futures fell 1.2% to $98.1 per barrel, while WTI futures dropped 1.8% to $88.9.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that American negotiators held a “very good” meeting with the Iranian delegation that lasted about three hours. Market participants cited Pakistan’s mediation efforts as an additional factor in easing tensions, the television channel reports. Over the past five trading sessions, oil prices have fallen by nearly 12%, retreating from levels above $100 per barrel.

Qualcomm has unveiled its new flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips for Android smartphones, designed to handle AI processing directly on the device and compete with the Apple A20 Pro, according to CNBC. The chips will be manufactured using TSMC’s 2-nm process and will be featured in premium smartphones from Motorola, Xiaomi, and ZTE. The company will release two versions of the processor, including the more powerful Extreme variant.

Qualcomm is positioning smartphones powered by its new chips as “AI hubs” capable of running models and performing tasks without relying on the cloud, the TV channel notes. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 will be able to handle models with up to 30 billion parameters, and its built-in NPU will support AI agents running in the background.

Royal Caribbean is close to finalizing a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Sandals Resorts International, which could value the resort company at more than $6 billion, the Financial Times reports, citing sources. The deal would be the largest in Royal Caribbean’s history and would give it control over 20 Sandals hotels in the Caribbean. Some members of founder Gordon Stewart’s family will retain stakes, and Royal Caribbean may eventually buy out the business entirely.

The agreement could be finalized in the coming days, though the negotiations could still fall through. The acquisition is part of Royal Caribbean’s strategy to expand its land-based leisure offerings to complement its cruise business. Following the FT report, the company’s stock fell nearly 6% on Tuesday and has declined 16.7% since the start of the year.

Cisco shares fell nearly 5% on Tuesday after Piper Sandler lowered its price target on the stock to $125 from $132, according to CNBC. Analysts cited concerns that the industry’s growth is nearing its peak, leading to more conservative P/E ratio expectations. The stock closed at $106.44, although it has risen 57% over the past 12 months amid the AI boom.

In August, Cisco reported quarterly revenue of $17.25 billion, compared with the expected $16.8 billion, and issued a strong forecast for fiscal year 2027. The company expects revenue growth of nearly 15%, with revenue from hyperscalers rising to approximately $7.5 billion from $4 billion a year earlier. However, some analysts believe that sales growth could return to single-digit rates.

— The Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed for a public holiday.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.9%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 0.5%.

— In South Korea, the Kospi rose 0.4%, and the Kosdaq rose 0.8%.

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

— Nasdaq 100 futures were unchanged, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.1%.

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