Grayscale's Zcash spot ETF (ticker: ZCSH) gained 1.83% at the US stock market open, now trading at $65.85.

News Brief from Dong察 Beating AI: OpenAI has released the latest test results of its self-developed AI inference chip Jalape?o. The chip outperformed NVIDIA’s GB200 and GB300 superchips in the InferenceX benchmark test. On models including GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1, and Kimi K2.5 1T, Jalape?o delivers 1.5 to 1.9 times the AI workload per watt of competing products, with end-to-end latency reduced by 1.7 to 3.6 times. OpenAI noted that Jalape?o uses an ASIC architecture developed in partnership with Broadcom, purpose-built for AI inference to boost throughput and lower latency. The company plans to roll out small-scale deployments of the chip by the end of this year, expand production in 2027, and continue developing its second and third-generation chips. However, OpenAI stressed that it will not fully replace chips from partners such as NVIDIA.

Beating AI Express: OpenCode co-founder Dax Raad shared a screenshot of Stripe’s backend, revealing that over the past few days, Stripe has blocked roughly $323 million in fraudulent payment attempts on behalf of OpenCode. Dax noted this amount is far higher than OpenCode’s own revenue, adding that if these transactions had been processed, they could have directly driven the company to collapse. OpenCode has been waging a battle against this group of fraudsters: some register thousands of Go accounts at once, use rotating proxies, then resell the account balances via tokens. On August 11, Dax announced he had just purged 7,013 fraudulent accounts, a move expected to save the firm $400,000 monthly. The cancellation of the first-month $5 discount is now viewed as part of the same anti-abuse offensive and defensive efforts.

According to a New York Times report, the U.S. State Department is preparing to gradually allow some diplomatic personnel evacuated earlier amid the U.S.-Iran conflict to return to its embassies and consulates in the Middle East, with the earliest possible return to posts starting as soon as this week. U.S. diplomatic missions in Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Iraq, and Kuwait will all boost staffing, while some embassies plan to restore their full authorized strength. Analysts believe this move indicates the Trump administration may judge the conflict is drawing to a close, but the continued restriction on diplomatic personnel’s family members from returning also signals that local security risks remain higher than pre-war levels. Meanwhile, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Qatar and Pakistan are still pushing for the resumption of U.S.-Iran negotiations, with officials from both countries communicating with relevant parties almost daily, and calling diplomatic negotiations the "only way out" to resolve the crisis. Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff recently visited Tehran and held talks with senior Iranian officials, focusing on preventing conflict escalation, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and ending the war. Qatar also called on Iran to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, and added that it will not reach a separate energy transport security agreement with Iran.

U.S. President Trump posted a statement saying: "I have just been notified by the U.S. Navy that all mines in the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz have been cleared and/or detonated. The U.S. has informed Iran that any vessel or warship laying new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed. We are monitoring every inch of the strait via the U.S. Space Force, as well as tracking 'Pickaxe Mountain' and three other nuclear facilities that have already been destroyed. We have a zero-tolerance policy for mine-laying, and this policy is now fully in effect."

Serenity noted in a report that photonics chip firm Sivers Semiconductors (SIVE) will release its financial results in two days. The market’s current focus is not on short-term financial data, but rather on progress in customer certifications, joint development, and order volume growth for its photonics business. Serenity added that Sivers is expected to obtain more information soon regarding photonics joint development, customer certifications, and contracts. AAOI previously disclosed that multiple clients are seeking CPO lasers, but demand cannot be met due to capacity constraints; MTSI also stated that a large number of clients are competing for continuous wave (CW) laser production capacity, with new capacity not coming online until the second half of 2027. If Sivers can disclose more details on customer demand and capacity locking, this will be seen as a strong demand signal. In terms of volume growth, Jabil’s (JBL) related business is considered a key driver of Sivers’ revenue growth in the first half of 2027, while Aeva’s (AEVA) related business is expected to contribute revenue in the second half of 2026. Additionally, joint development projects with other pluggable optical module clients are also expected to move from the certification phase to mass production. The market will also monitor Sivers’ NASDAQ listing progress, future revenue pipeline, and early bulk orders. Since the company recently completed a $70 million financing round, eliminating dilution pressure, its balance sheet issues are expected to have been alleviated. The market observer believes that Sivers’ core valuation logic remains the future volume growth potential of its photonics business. If the company can further disclose locked CW capacity, customer demand, and future revenue scale, this could prompt the market to re-evaluate its valuation.

U.S. consumer confidence declined in August to its lowest level since the start of the year, as consumers’ views on the business environment and labor market outlook worsened. Data released Tuesday by The Conference Board showed the Consumer Confidence Index fell 0.8 points to 89.4, with the prior month’s figure revised downward. Economists’ median forecast was 90.2. The report pointed out that high gasoline prices, overall rising cost-of-living pressures, and slowing hiring continued to weigh on U.S. households this month. The survey was conducted from August 3 to 16. During this period, average U.S. gasoline prices at the pump hovered above $4 per gallon amid renewed escalation of U.S.-Iran tensions that lifted oil prices. The Conference Board’s survey found consumers’ perceptions of current labor market conditions improved in August: the share of consumers who said jobs were "plentiful" rose, while the proportion who cited jobs as "hard to get" fell. The gap between these two metrics matched the largest level recorded so far this year. However, respondents grew more pessimistic about their employment and income prospects over the next six months. (Jinshi)