AI Daily | October 22, 2026 Afternoon Edition: iFlytek Spark X2.6 Breaks Through on Fully Domestic Compute, OpenAI Tightens Model Gateway Controls

Published: 2026-10-22  |  Category: AI Daily  |  Read: about 8 min

Today's Afternoon Top Stories

  • iFlytek launches the end-cloud integrated Spark X2.6, the first to achieve code and agent capability breakthroughs on fully domestic compute, with training efficiency up about 4x
  • OpenAI updates its usage policy: from November 20, model routers and AI gateways must be approved, and outputs may not be used to train competing models
  • Zhipu wins a 10.58 million yuan medical AI large-model project in Xiamen, with first-half revenue exceeding all of 2025
  • MiniMax falls below its IPO price intraday, down more than 87% from its all-time high, even as first-half revenue grew 283% year over year
  • NVIDIA GTC Berlin keeps reverberating: Jensen Huang says the AI factory era has begun, with nearly $10 billion bet on Europe

1. iFlytek Launches End-Cloud Integrated Spark X2.6: A Milestone in Fully Domestic Compute Training

iFlytekSpark X2.6Domestic Compute

On October 22, at the main forum of the 2026 iFlytek Global 1024 Developer Festival, the end-cloud integrated iFlytek Spark X2.6 was officially released. This is the first large model to complete a training upgrade on fully domestic compute, marking an important breakthrough in domestic AI infrastructure.

Core technical highlights:

  • To address the memory and bandwidth limits of domestic chips, it uses long-horizon task dynamic parallel training to allocate compute adaptively by task length, improving ultra-long-context training efficiency by about 4x
  • Built on domestic clusters, its adaptive compute-storage collaborative inference technology, combined with the first four-layer KVCache technology on fully domestic equipment and distributed inference, raises inference efficiency by 4.5x
  • The on-device model Spark X2.6-4B is upgraded in parallel; in the future 60% of applications can run locally and 30% through cloud collaboration

iFlytek Chairman Liu Qingfeng said on stage: "The safety and extreme cost-effectiveness of large models must be solved through cloud-device integration." The Spark X2.6 series models are now available for trial on the official iFlytek Spark website.

Editor's note: Achieving a 4x training efficiency gain on fully domestic compute is not only a technical breakthrough but a key turning point for the domestic AI ecosystem from "usable" to "good to use". Since the open-sourcing of the Spark X2.5-4B on-device model, its downloads have entered the global top four, and the end-cloud integrated architecture may redefine large-model deployment paradigms.

2. OpenAI Updates Usage Policy: Model Gateways Must Be Approved, Outputs Cannot Train Competitors

OpenAIUsage PolicyAI Governance

On October 22, OpenAI announced an update to its usage policy, effective November 20, 2026. The main changes include:

  • Model routers and AI gateways must be approved: operating model access intermediary platforms, or services that let third parties directly access OpenAI models, requires prior review and approval by OpenAI (apps that integrate OpenAI models to deliver features are not subject to this restriction)
  • Outputs may not be used to train competing models: it is explicitly prohibited to use OpenAI models or their outputs to prepare, select or provide training data and signals for substitute or competing models, including building training tasks, reinforcement learning environments, and providing scoring, ranking and other feedback
  • Safety IDs introduced: users can provide a safety identifier during an investigation to help distinguish different end users
  • Support for strengthening California SB53: OpenAI wrote to the California governor supporting requirements that AI companies provide a shutdown mechanism for models and accept mandatory annual independent audits
Industry impact: This policy deals a direct blow to the domestic "model relay platform" model. In the future, API relay services not authorized by OpenAI will face compliance risks. At the same time, the clause banning the use of outputs to train competitors will affect every third-party service that does data labeling and fine-tuning on top of OpenAI models.

3. Zhipu Wins a Multi-Million-Yuan Medical AI Large-Model Project in Xiamen

ZhipuMedical AIGovernment Contracts

The Xiamen Health and Medical Big Data Center announced the winning bid for its "Artificial Intelligence Medical Large Model Foundation and Application Project Phase I". Zhipu won with 10.58 million yuan (project budget 10.8 million yuan). The scope of work includes:

  • A medical large-model foundational support platform (unified model management, service invocation, training evaluation and compute scheduling)
  • Data security collaboration and federated learning capabilities
  • Intelligent mental health service applications (covering screening, triage, intervention, follow-up and other scenarios)
  • Data asset management and security operations systems

As of October 22, Zhipu and its subsidiaries have won or closed at least 21 government and enterprise projects, three of which have disclosed amounts above 10 million yuan. Zhipu's first-half revenue was about 954 million yuan, up 399.7% year over year and already exceeding all of 2025.

Commercialization signal: Zhipu's revenue structure is undergoing a qualitative change—its open platform and API business accounts for 86.5% of revenue, while localized deployment has fallen from 73.7% to 13.5%. The shift from "selling projects" to "selling tokens" is becoming the core business model of large-model companies.

4. MiniMax Falls Below IPO Price: An 87% Pullback from HK$1,330 to HK$161

MiniMaxHong Kong StocksAI Valuation

On October 22, large-model company MiniMax (00100.HK) fell as much as 7% intraday to HK$161.66, dropping below its IPO price of HK$165, with a market value of about HK$57 billion. The company hit an all-time high of HK$1,330 in March this year and is now down more than 87% from that peak.

But the fundamentals are not bad:

  • First-half total revenue of about $117 million, up 283.1% year over year
  • B2B revenue up 703.1% year over year to $73.9 million, rising to 63.4% of the total
  • Gross profit up 464.8% year over year to $20.81 million
  • Net loss of $358 million, narrowed by 11% from a year earlier

Notably, on the evening of October 19 MiniMax had just released its new-generation M3.1 Flash model, with inference speed nearly 3x faster and usage costs down 70%. The share price decline was driven more by a broad selloff in Hong Kong tech—the Hang Seng Tech Index fell more than 3% that day.

5. NVIDIA GTC Berlin Aftermath: The AI Factory Era and a $10 Billion Bet on Europe

NVIDIAGTC BerlinAI Infrastructure

Although the NVIDIA GTC Berlin conference (October 20-22) has closed, its impact continues to reverberate. In his keynote, Jensen Huang announced several major initiatives:

  • DSX POD modular AI factory reference design: deployment cut from 6 months to 14 days, with global delivery in early 2027
  • Vera Rubin platform fully upgraded: Rubin nodes are 100% liquid-cooled, and assembly is cut from 2 hours to 5 minutes
  • NVIDIA has invested nearly $10 billion in Europe over the past year, with more than 12,000 partners
  • With Nokia, it completed the first commercial AI-based phone call on T-Mobile's network
  • European giants such as Porsche, L'Oréal and Vodafone have all adopted NVIDIA AI technology

Jensen Huang said bluntly: "The computer industry is at the starting point of a new industrial revolution." He sharply criticized Germany for falling behind in AI and called on Europe to move from an "AI consumer" to an "AI producer".

6. Unitree World Physical AI Conference: Embodied Intelligence's ChatGPT Moment Could Arrive as Early as Next Year

Unitree RoboticsEmbodied IntelligencePhysical AI

At the 2026 World Physical AI Conference and Unitree Partner Ecosystem Conference held on October 22, Unitree Robotics Chairman Wang Xingxing offered an aggressive timeline: the ChatGPT moment for embodied intelligence could arrive as early as next year.

He noted that for top large-model companies, internal model self-evolution has basically been achieved—models write their own programs and collect data, with humans only needing to guide appropriately. But going from a technical breakthrough to diffusion to everyone's use still takes 5-10 years.

Wang Xingxing also warned that physical AI is already showing signs of being "broken through", and the core challenge lies in aligning the inputs and outputs of AI models with real robots. Commercial deployment will precede home scenarios, and industry may become the first battleground for embodied intelligence.

Today's AI Data at a Glance

MetricFigureChange
Spark X2.6 training efficiencyUp about 4xOn fully domestic compute
Spark X2.6 inference efficiencyUp 4.5xAdaptive compute-storage collaboration
OpenAI new policy effective2026-11-20Model gateways must be approved
Zhipu contract amount10.58 million yuanXiamen medical AI project
Zhipu first-half revenue954 million yuanUp 399.7% YoY
MiniMax share priceHK$161.66Below IPO price, down 87% from peak
MiniMax first-half revenue$117 millionUp 283.1% YoY
NVIDIA Europe investmentNearly $10 billionMore than 12,000 partners
DSX POD deployment cycle14 daysPreviously about 6 months
Embodied intelligence ChatGPT momentAs early as 2027Wang Xingxing's forecast

Sources

  • TMTPost - report on iFlytek's launch of the end-cloud integrated Spark X2.6
  • D1EV - report on Spark X2.6's fully domestic compute training breakthrough
  • Guandian - report on OpenAI's usage policy update effective November 20
  • PANews - report on OpenAI model relay platforms requiring approval
  • Zhidx - report on Zhipu winning the Xiamen multi-million-yuan medical AI contract
  • Sina Finance - report on MiniMax falling below its IPO price
  • Cailian Press - report on the NVIDIA GTC Berlin conference
  • Securities Times - report on Unitree Robotics' World Physical AI Conference