AI News: 1x Neo Robot, Extropic TSU, Minimax M2, Cursor 2, and more!

Robotics & Automation - 1X's Neo robot is available for pre-order at $20,000 or $4.99% per month, with availability expected in early 2026 [1][2] - Neo weighs 66 pounds and can lift 150 pounds, featuring 22 degrees of hand movement and operating at 22 dB [2][3] - The promise of humanoid robots is to be autonomous and run 24 hours a day [4] Computing & AI - Extropic is developing a thermodynamic computing platform (TSU) that claims to be up to 10,000 times more efficient than traditional CPUs and GPUs [7][8] - Miniax's M2, an open-source model from China, achieved a new high intelligence score with only 10 billion active parameters out of a 200 billion total [10] - IBM released Granite 4.0% Nano, a family of small language models (LLMs) with 1.5 billion and 350 million parameters, designed for edge and on-device applications [19][20] - Cursor 2.0% introduces Composer, a faster model for low-latency agentic coding, and a multi-agent interface [26][27] Semiconductor Industry - Substrate, a US-based startup, is building a next-generation foundry using advanced X-ray lithography to enable features printed at the 2 nanometer node and below [30][31] Corporate Strategy & Employment - Nvidia took a billion-dollar stake in Nokia, leading to a 22% increase in Nokia's shares, and the companies are partnering to develop 6G technology [17] - Amazon is undergoing layoffs of 14,000 corporate employees, partly attributed to efficiency gains from AI, but also seen as a correction for overhiring [34][37] - Tesla could potentially leverage the compute power of its idle cars, estimated at 1 kilowatt per car, to create a giant distributed inference fleet [23][24]