Top Stories This Morning: OpenAI to Restrict Access to the Astra Model; U.S. and Iran Exchange Strikes

The U.S. and Iran exchanged new blows, sharply escalating the conflict. OpenAI warned that the Astra model, which is ready for release, is so powerful that additional security measures are required before it can be launched. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of September 2.

The U.S. carried out a new series of strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including air defense systems, radar stations, naval facilities, and mine-laying assets, according to Bloomberg. In response, Tehran announced missile attacks on U.S. military facilities in Jordan and Bahrain. U.S. President Donald Trump said he is not trying to force Iran back to the negotiating table and threatened further strikes in the event of further escalation.

Against this backdrop, Brent crude oil continued to rise in price, with the price per barrel briefly reaching $96.5. At the time of this writing, it was above $95.5.

The conflict escalated after several weeks of relative calm, during which oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz had recovered to about half of their pre-war levels. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that economic problems will ultimately force Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

OpenAI plans to release a new AI model called Astra, but will initially limit access to its most advanced cybersecurity capabilities to a group of testers, according to Bloomberg. The company stated that Astra has reached a “critical threshold” and is capable of independently identifying vulnerabilities and creating programs to exploit them.

In August, OpenAI paused some work on Astra to strengthen its security measures. The company also took into account the lessons learned from the July incident, when its other models, operating without the usual restrictions, unintentionally hacked into the Hugging Face system, and added additional measures to Astra to prevent malicious use.

Dell Technologies’ stock jumped 10% in after-hours trading after the company reported record results for the last quarter, according to Yahoo Finance. Revenue rose 58% to $47 billion, and adjusted earnings per share tripled to $7.04.

Orders for AI servers reached a record $60.9 billion, while the order backlog stood at $95 billion. Amid growing demand, Dell raised its annual revenue forecast by $25 billion to $192 billion, which is nearly 70% higher than the previous year’s result.

A potential deal between Nvidia and Hugging Face has risen to nearly $14 billion, driven by an additional $1 billion set aside to retain the startup’s employees, and could be finalized as early as this week, Bloomberg has learned. Nvidia is in advanced talks to acquire the AI startup. The base price of the deal could be $12.9 billion, though a final agreement has not yet been reached.

The acquisition will give Nvidia control over one of the key platforms for hosting and distributing AI models and will mark the company’s biggest move to expand its business beyond chips, the agency notes. Three years ago, Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion. Nvidia is already one of the startup’s investors.

— Japan's broad-based Topix index fell 2.4%, while the Nikkei 225 fell 3%.

— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.9%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 1.4%.

— South Korea's KOSPI index plummeted 3.8%, while the KOSDAQ fell 1.6%.

— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1%.

— Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%, while futures contracts on the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were virtually unchanged.

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