Monthly review

September 2026

The month's biggest shifts in AI and video generation, the money behind them, and the people and labs in the news.

Models & labs

A price war at the top

Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and OpenAI's GPT-6 Sol and Luna shipped on the same day, each far cheaper than the model before.

$0.10per million input tokens for GPT-6 Luna
Deals & funding

Nvidia buys Hugging Face

The open hub for AI models goes to the chipmaker. The deal should close in the first half of 2027.

$12.9Bthe month's biggest deal
Video generation

Sora is gone

OpenAI switched off the Sora video API for good on 24 September.

Models & labs

Label your AI actors

A new California law says ads using AI-generated people or voices must say so.

Video generation

AI video moves into familiar tools

Google put its video model into Vids and YouTube. Runway now works inside Premiere, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve.

Creator tools

AI video is real money

Higgsfield is on a $1B+ yearly pace, Synthesia is expanding in the US, and Katzenberg is opening an AI animation studio.

$1B+Higgsfield's yearly revenue pace
Story of the month

Nvidia buys Hugging Face for $12.9B

The company that makes most of the world's AI chips agreed to buy the open hub where developers share AI models. Nvidia promises to keep Hugging Face open, and the whole team is joining.

purchase price
$12.9B
models hosted
3M+
developers
18M+
expected to close
H1 2027

Why it's the story of the monthAlmost every open AI model, from video to voice, is shared through Hugging Face. Who owns it now shapes who gets access to open AI, and on what terms.

Where the industry gathered

The conferences, keynotes and festivals where people met in person this month.

7 events
2–12 Sept

83rd Venice International Film Festival

FestivalVenice, Lido di Venezia

One of the first AI-generated feature documentaries premiered at a major film festival, which set off a public argument over AI in cinema.

  • AI-built Renzo Rosso doc 'Be Brave' premiered 10 Sept
  • George Clooney spoke out against AI at the festival
  • 'Woman Unknown' by May el-Toukhy won the Golden Lion
Film Inquiry ↗
9 Sept

Apple Event: Surprise and Shine

KeynoteCupertino, Steve Jobs Theater

Apple put Siri AI and new camera hardware into the phones that most creators shoot on.

  • John Ternus's first September keynote as Apple CEO
  • Foldable iPhone Duo launched from $1,999
  • iPhone 18 Pro adds a mechanical variable-aperture 48MP camera
CNBC ↗
10–20 Sept

Toronto International Film Festival

FestivalToronto7,010market delegates

Audiences openly pushed back on AI in filmmaking, and the festival launched its first official film market.

  • Danny Boyle jeered at 'Ink' Q&A over AI-animated photos
  • 'AI slop' stickers appeared on the film's billboard
  • First official TIFF Market drew 1,473 buyers, up 19%
CP24 ↗
11–14 Sept

IBC2026

Trade showAmsterdam, RAI Amsterdam41,225from 170 countries

The world's biggest broadcast and video-tech show focused on using AI in real production work and proving where content comes from.

  • 1,300+ exhibitors, 256 of them first-timers (up 36%)
  • Accelerator projects covered agentic AI and content provenance
  • Netflix, YouTube, Google and Meta spoke on AI in practice
IBC ↗
17–20 Sept

Tokyo Game Show 2026

Trade showChiba, Makuhari Messe257,642visitors

Generative AI took centre stage at Asia's biggest games show, and a new survey showed most Japanese game developers already use it.

  • 85.8% of Japanese game developers now use generative AI
  • An AI technology pavilion replaced the indie showcase
  • Record 1,138 exhibitors; the last day was cancelled for a typhoon
Shacknews ↗
23 Sept

Made on YouTube 2026

KeynoteNew York

YouTube's yearly creator showcase brought AI editing, live dubbing and likeness protection to millions of creators.

  • Chat-based AI editing arrives in Shorts and YouTube Create
  • Real-time AI auto-dubbing for livestreams
  • Video A/B tests of up to three cuts, plus voice likeness detection
YouTube Official Blog ↗
23–24 Sept

Meta Connect 2026

ConferenceMenlo Park, Meta headquarters

Meta built its whole hardware lineup around Muse, its AI agent, and added camera glasses aimed at first-person video.

  • Zuckerberg: Muse will become 'personal superintelligence' for billions
  • Meta VR Glasses (~100g, $1,299.99) ship spring 2027
  • Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 records 3K video
Engadget ↗

Models & labs

New models, the labs behind them, and the rules they answer to.

5 stories
Model

Anthropic launches Claude Opus 5.5

Opus 5.5 performs about as well as Claude Fable 5.1 on most work and costs about 40% less to run than Opus 5, at $4/$20 per million tokens. Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 are due in the coming weeks.

Why it mattersTop-tier AI writing and reasoning just got about 40% cheaper, so apps built on it can do more for the same price.

Anthropic ↗
Pricing

OpenAI releases GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna

Two cheaper models bring GPT-6 Astra's gains to lower price tiers. Sol costs $2/$10 per million tokens, half its old price, and Luna costs $0.10/$0.50. OpenAI says Sol makes about half as many factual mistakes as the model it replaces.

Why it mattersLuna is cheap enough that everyday tasks like summarizing, tagging and captioning cost almost nothing.

OpenAI ↗
Model

OpenAI rolls out GPT-6 Astra with extra safeguards

OpenAI began rolling out its flagship GPT-6 Astra with additional safety measures added after the Hugging Face breach. The CFO also told staff that business customers now bring in more revenue than consumers.

Why it mattersOpenAI's flagship now powers the most demanding agent apps, and its business customers now outspend consumers.

CNBC ↗
Model

Google ships Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS

Two new text-to-speech models offer 2,000+ voices in 100+ languages, can design a voice from a written description, and can clone a voice from a 30-second sample. You can direct delivery line by line, including whispers, laughs and sighs.

Why it mattersRealistic, directable voices in 100+ languages are now a cheap building block for narration, dubbing and audiobooks.

Google ↗

Video generation

The models and tools that make video.

6 stories
Product

Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash comes to Google Vids

Google Vids now uses Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, which adds scene extension with smooth transitions, 1080p generation and upscaling, and exact control over clip length. It is rolling out across Workspace plans and to AI Pro/Ultra personal accounts.

Why it mattersMillions of office users now get story-style AI video inside a tool they already pay for.

Google Workspace Updates ↗
Model

Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar

A near real-time talking avatar with lip-sync and natural expressions, generated from a single image, is now generally available to Gemini Enterprise customers. It supports 97 languages and can hold a conversation for a few minutes at a time.

Why it mattersReal-time talking avatars now come from Google itself, putting pressure on specialists like HeyGen and Synthesia.

Google ↗
Research

Runway previews GWM Worlds 2, a real-time interactive world model

Runway's research preview generates explorable worlds live at 720p and 24 fps, with 48kHz audio, which you steer with text actions and camera movement. There is no public access or pricing yet.

Why it mattersVideo may be turning into something you steer live, like a game, instead of a clip you render and watch.

Runway ↗
Product

Runway moves into Premiere, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve

Runway released plugins for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects on Sept 8 and a DaVinci Resolve plugin on Sept 23. It also added Kling and MiniMax H3 Max models to its platform, turning Runway into a hub for many different models.

Why it mattersAI video is moving into the editors professionals already use, instead of asking them to switch apps.

Releasebot (Runway release notes) ↗
Model

OpenAI releases ChatGPT Images 2.5 (GPT Image 2.5)

The new image model generates up to 50% faster, keeps reference subjects more consistent across edits, and adds Sketch-to-image. The API offers it in two versions: fast 'Flare' and detailed 'Sunburst'. OpenAI says users generate more than 3 billion images a week.

Why it mattersCharacters now stay more consistent from image to image, which has long been the hardest part of AI storytelling.

OpenAI ↗

Creator tools

The apps and platforms people make video with.

5 stories
Product

Made on YouTube: AI editing assistant and episodic Shorts Series

YouTube added a chat-based editing assistant powered by Gemini Omni to Shorts and the Create app. It can trim pauses, reorder clips for pacing and add on-screen text. Creators can also group Shorts into seasons and episodes, aimed at the fast-growing microdrama format.

Why it mattersThe biggest video platform now edits for creators for free and supports series of episodes, a new home for serialized stories.

Google ↗
Funding

Higgsfield says it is running at more than $1B a year

The AI video platform, which bundles many models like Veo, Kling and Seedance under one subscription, says its latest four weeks of revenue work out to over $1B a year. Contracted revenue from business customers grew 10x since June, driven by direct-to-consumer ad makers.

Why it mattersAn app built on top of other companies' video models has reached huge scale, and advertisers are the ones paying.

Bloomberg ↗
Product

Synthesia opens a 50,000 sq ft US headquarters in New York

About 50% of Synthesia's revenue now comes from the US, and 90% of the Fortune 100 are customers, with 140% net revenue retention. US customers have moved from using it mainly for training videos to company-wide communication.

Why it mattersAI avatar video has become everyday business software, used by 90% of the Fortune 100.

Unite.AI ↗
Product

HeyGen adds Edit Look and a real-estate product

HeyGen's monthly update, published Sept 9, lets users retouch and restyle an avatar without filming again, and adds a product for real-estate agents. HeyGen is reported to be at about $200M ARR.

Why it mattersAvatars can now be restyled after they are made, and AI video is being packaged for specific jobs like real estate.

HeyGen ↗
Product

Utopai Studios and DeNA team up on AI-assisted anime

DeNA will use Utopai's storytelling AI system, PAI, in its animation workflows in Japan for visual development, character design and scene planning. Artists keep final approval on every creative decision.

Why it mattersJapan's anime industry is adopting AI on the terms that AI assists and the artist decides.

Variety (via Yahoo) ↗

Deals & funding

Who raised money, and who bought whom.

13 deals

Funding rounds 8

Investors put money into a company in exchange for a share of it.

Samsung Electronics backs Mistral AI

Raised
€3B
Series D

Mistral AI now valued at €21B+

The French AI lab raised the largest equity round ever by a European tech company, largely to build and own data centers.

Other investors

Scaleup Europe Fund (EQT)PSG EquityAdventBlackRockAndreessen HorowitzASMLGeneral CatalystLightspeedNvidiaSalesforce Ventures

· TechCrunch ↗

Andreessen Horowitz backs Cognition

Raised
$2B
Series E

Cognition now valued at $48B

The maker of the Devin AI coding agent nearly doubled its valuation in four months as run-rate revenue neared $900M.

Other investors

AccelFounders FundGeneral CatalystAvenir

· TechCrunch ↗

Diffusion backs Harvey

Raised
$550M
Series H

Harvey now valued at $15.5B

The legal AI company, now past $400M in annual recurring revenue, raised again months after a round at $11B.

Other investors

Lightspeed Venture PartnersSequoiaKleiner PerkinsAndreessen HorowitzCoatueGGICWndrCo

· TechCrunch ↗

Lightspeed Venture Partners backs Temporal

Raised
$550M
Series E

Temporal now valued at $12.55B

Temporal makes software that keeps long-running jobs (like AI agents) running reliably through failures; its valuation rose 2.5x in seven months.

Other investors

Wellington ManagementGoldman Sachs AlternativesTiger GlobalAndreessen HorowitzSequoia Capital

· Temporal ↗

Insight Partners backs Snorkel AI

Raised
$350M
Series E

Snorkel AI now valued at $3.5B

Snorkel sells ready-made training datasets to AI labs; its annualized revenue grew 18-fold in a year to $375M.

Other investors

S32AdditionLightspeedGreylockGVWells Fargo

· TechCrunch ↗

Y Combinator backs VideoGen

Raised
$3.3M
Seed

VideoGen valuation not disclosed

An AI video platform whose agents turn a brief or uploaded media into editable, copyright-free videos with AI voiceovers; it has passed 5 million users.

Other investors

Rebel FundLobster CapitalSEStretford End CapitalMento VCPioneer FundDecacorn VC

· GlobeNewswire ↗

Acquisitions 3

One company buys another outright.

Nvidia buys Hugging Face

Price
$12.9B
Acquisition

Hugging Face is now part of Nvidia

Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face, the open hub where developers share AI models and datasets, promising to keep it an open platform; closing expected in H1 2027 pending regulators.

· TechCrunch ↗

OpenAI buys Glass Imaging

Price
$300M+
Acquisition

Glass Imaging is now part of OpenAI

OpenAI reportedly bought Glass Imaging, a startup founded by ex-Apple Portrait Mode engineers that uses AI to improve smartphone photos as they are taken.

· TechCrunch ↗

Lightstorm Vision buys Outsyders

Price
Undisclosed
Acquisition

Outsyders is now part of Lightstorm Vision

James Cameron's Lightstorm Vision bought Outsyders, whose AI-driven pipeline converts film into stereoscopic 3D (Lilo & Stitch, Tron: Ares); price undisclosed.

· Deadline ↗

Partnerships 2

Two companies sign a large commercial agreement.

Anthropic and Akamai sign a deal

Value
$11.6B
Partnership

Multi-year agreement

Anthropic will pay Akamai $11.6B over seven years for distributed cloud computing (expandable by $9B) and gets warrants for up to ~5% of Akamai; the largest deal in Akamai's history.

· Akamai ↗

ElevenLabs and Universal Music Group sign a deal

Value
Undisclosed
Partnership

Multi-year agreement

UMG and ElevenLabs signed a multi-year licensing deal (ElevenLabs' first with a major label) to build a licensed AI platform where fans remix and mash up participating artists' tracks; terms undisclosed.

· ElevenLabs ↗

People in the news

The people behind this month's biggest moves.

9 people

James Cameron

Filmmaker, Lightstorm Vision

In the news

Cameron's Lightstorm Vision acquired Outsyders, an AI-driven 3D conversion studio, to scale 3D content production.

· Deadline ↗
Company
Lightstorm Entertainment (co-founded 1990)
Sept 2026
Lightstorm Vision bought Outsyders
AT

Andrew Tulloch

Researcher, Anthropic

In the news

The star researcher Meta reportedly courted with a package up to $1.5B left Meta's superintelligence TBD Lab after about 11 months to join Anthropic.

· Forbes Australia ↗
Now
Anthropic, inference & performance team
Previously
Meta TBD Lab; co-founder, Thinking Machines Lab; OpenAI; 11 years at Meta

Arthur Mensch

Co-founder & CEO, Mistral AI

In the news

Mensch closed Europe's largest-ever tech equity round and said Mistral will pass $1B in annual recurring revenue before year-end.

· CNBC ↗
Co-founders
Guillaume Lample, Timothée Lacroix
Sept 2026
Raised €3B Series D

Clément Delangue

Co-founder & CEO, Hugging Face

In the news

Delangue agreed to sell Hugging Face to Nvidia for $12.9B, saying his company approached Jensen Huang weeks earlier and the whole team will join Nvidia.

· CNBC ↗
Co-founded
Hugging Face (2016)
Co-founders
Julien Chaumond, Thomas Wolf
Sept 2026
Agreed sale to Nvidia for $12.93B

Dario Amodei

Co-founder & CEO, Anthropic

In the news

Amodei and Anthropic's six other co-founders are seeking super-voting shares giving them 50.1% combined voting control ahead of an IPO.

· TechCrunch ↗
Co-founded
Anthropic (2021)
Sept 2026
Founders seek 50.1% voting control before IPO

Jeff Dean

Co-founder, Discovery Loop

In the news

Weeks after leaving Google, Dean's new AI-for-science startup was reported to be in talks to raise at about $50B, five times its first valuation.

· Tech Funding News ↗
Google chief scientist
2023–2026
Now
Co-founder, Discovery Loop
Known for
MapReduce, Bigtable, Spanner, TensorFlow

Jeffrey Katzenberg

Co-founder, DreamWorks Animation & WndrCo

In the news

After a Sept 23 essay urging Hollywood to embrace AI (with credit, consent and compensation for artists), Katzenberg said he is launching an AI animation studio to make film and TV; no name, funding or date yet.

· TheWrap ↗
Born
1950
Co-founded
DreamWorks Animation, WndrCo
Earlier
Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, 1984–1994
Also founded
Quibi
KA

Karandeep Anand

Chief Technology Officer, Disney

In the news

Disney named the former Character.AI CEO its first-ever CTO, overseeing technology, data and AI platforms and reporting to CEO Josh D'Amaro.

· The Walt Disney Company ↗
Previously
CEO, Character.AI; 15 years at Microsoft
Reports to
Josh D'Amaro

Sam Altman

Co-founder & CEO, OpenAI

In the news

Altman said OpenAI won't go public in 2026, calling it an 'ill-advised' moment and citing a focus on safety.

· TechCrunch ↗
Co-founded
OpenAI (2015), Loopt
Sept 2026
Ruled out a 2026 IPO

Labs in the news

What each AI lab did this month, in one place.

4 labs

Mistral AI

France's leading AI lab, pitching 'sovereign' AI to European governments and firms.

Founded
2023
CEO
Arthur Mensch
Latest valuation
€21B+ (Series D, Sept 2026)
Latest round
€3B Series D

DeepSeek

A Hangzhou lab making low-cost open-weight language models.

Founded
2023
CEO
Liang Wenfeng
Owner
High-Flyer (hedge fund)
Annualized revenue
~$1B (Sept 2026)

More companies in the news

Company news this month that the sections above didn't cover.

9 stories
Suno

Suno launches v6 music models with Warner, BMG and Believe

Suno released v6 in three versions: v6, v6-wild and v6-mini, and v6-mini is the faster model on the free tier. New features include editing one section of a song without changing the rest, mashups from several sources, and prompts that can be text, audio, images or video.

· Suno blog ↗

Most active investors

Ranked by how many of this month's deals they joined.

37 investors

Also backing this month's deals

Samsung Electronics

Corporate

South Korean electronics giant that invests in startups.

LedMistral AI€3B

BlackRock

Growth equity

World's largest asset manager, also investing in private companies.

JoinedMistral AI€3B

PSG Equity

Growth equity

Boston growth equity firm backing software and tech-services companies.

JoinedMistral AI€3B

Salesforce Ventures

Corporate

Salesforce's venture arm investing in enterprise software and AI.

JoinedMistral AI€3B

Scaleup Europe Fund

Growth equity

EQT-run €5B EU-backed fund for European tech scaleups.

JoinedMistral AI€3B

Accel

Venture firm

Early and growth-stage venture firm, early backer of Facebook.

JoinedCognition$2B

Avenir

Growth equity

New York growth equity firm making concentrated tech bets.

JoinedCognition$2B

Founders Fund

Venture firm

San Francisco venture firm co-founded by Peter Thiel.

JoinedCognition$2B

Diffusion

Venture firm

New AI fund from Victor Lazarte and ex-Coatue investor Kris Fredrickson.

LedHarvey$550M

Coatue

Growth equity

Tech-focused investment firm spanning public stocks and private growth deals.

JoinedHarvey$550M

GIC

Growth equity

Singapore's sovereign wealth fund investing globally.

JoinedHarvey$550M

Goldman Sachs Alternatives

Growth equity

Goldman Sachs' private equity, credit and growth investing arm.

JoinedTemporal$550M

Kleiner Perkins

Venture firm

Pioneering Menlo Park venture firm, early backer of Google and Amazon.

JoinedHarvey$550M

Tiger Global

Growth equity

New York investment firm known for fast, large tech growth bets.

JoinedTemporal$550M

Wellington Management

Growth equity

Boston asset manager that also invests in late-stage private companies.

JoinedTemporal$550M

WndrCo

Venture firm

Tech investment firm co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, now branded WNDR.

JoinedHarvey$550M

Insight Partners

Growth equity

New York growth-stage investor focused on software companies.

LedSnorkel AI$350M

Addition

Venture firm

New York venture firm founded by ex-Tiger Global investor Lee Fixel.

JoinedSnorkel AI$350M

Greylock

Venture firm

Silicon Valley venture firm, early backer of LinkedIn and Airbnb.

JoinedSnorkel AI$350M

Multiples Alternate Asset Management

Growth equity

Mumbai private equity firm founded by Renuka Ramnath.

LedBABrahma AI$150M

Y Combinator

Seed fund

Silicon Valley startup accelerator behind Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox.

LedVideoGen$3.3M

Lobster Capital

Seed fund

Small fund investing only in top Y Combinator startups.

JoinedVideoGen$3.3M

Mento VC

Seed fund

Pre-seed and seed fund backing AI and future-of-work startups.

JoinedVideoGen$3.3M

Pioneer Fund

Seed fund

Fund of YC alumni investing in select Y Combinator companies.

JoinedVideoGen$3.3M

Rebel Fund

Seed fund

Data-driven seed fund that backs only Y Combinator startups.

JoinedVideoGen$3.3M

Stretford End Capital

Venture firm

Small early-stage venture firm named after Manchester United's stand.

JoinedVideoGen$3.3M

What to watch in October

Dates and launches coming up next, and how sure we are about each.

4 things
  1. 29 SeptConfirmed

    OpenAI DevDay

    Expect GPT-6 API and developer news in San Francisco, and possibly new image and media APIs now that Sora is gone.

  2. 30 SeptConfirmed

    Gemini Omni Flash preview shuts down

    Apps still using the preview model have to move to gemini-omni-1.1-flash.

  3. Coming weeksExpected

    Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5

    Anthropic says the smaller models follow Opus 5.5 soon, likely at lower prices.

  4. Not announcedRumoured

    Kling 4.0

    Widely expected but not confirmed. A launch would reset the price and quality bar for multi-shot 4K story video.

Stories are summarized in plain language; follow the link before quoting a figure. Story images are shown from the publishers' own sites.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Arthur Mensch by Jan2342342423, CC0; Clément Delangue by SiliconANGLE theCUBE, CC BY 3.0; Dario Amodei by TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0; James Cameron by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0; Jeff Dean by Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jeffrey Katzenberg by Collision Conf, CC BY 2.0; Sam Altman by Office of the Prime Minister of Japan, CC BY 4.0.