AI Daily | October 22, 2026 Evening Edition: Anthropic May File IPO as Soon as Friday at a Nearly $2 Trillion Valuation, Unitree Unveils H2-X Humanoid Robot

Published: 2026-10-22  |  Category: AI Daily  |  Read: about 9 min

Today's Evening Top Stories

  • Anthropic may publicly file its S-1 prospectus as soon as this Friday, with a valuation of up to $2 trillion, first-half revenue of $16.3 billion and a net loss above $80 billion
  • Unitree Robotics unveils the H2-X humanoid robot: 8-hour battery life, able to lift a car bare-handed and land safely from 4 meters, with Wang Xingxing saying physical AI could break through in 1-2 years
  • iFlytek Spark X2.6 pricing announced: on-device model X2.6-4B inference free for a limited time, cloud MoE architecture with 293B-A30B parameters and 1M context
  • NVIDIA GTC Berlin closes: Jensen Huang unveils RTX Spark and the full DGX Spark local AI hardware line, with nearly $10 billion bet on Europe
  • OpenAI ChatGPT ads expand to 26 more countries, annualized revenue tops $1 billion, targeting $102 billion by 2030

1. Anthropic May File Its IPO as Soon as Friday: The Largest Tech IPO in History Takes Shape

AnthropicIPO$2 Trillion Valuation

According to Cailian Press citing multiple people familiar with the matter, Anthropic may publicly file its S-1 registration statement with the US SEC as soon as this Friday (October 24). The move marks a key step for a project expected to become the "largest IPO in history", with a scale expected to exceed SpaceX's IPO in June this year.

Core financials revealed for the first time:

  • First-half 2026 revenue reached $16.3 billion, with revenue up about 12x year over year
  • Net loss exceeded $80 billion, of which $72 billion came from accounting charges on convertible notes
  • Wall Street expects a valuation of up to $2 trillion, with fundraising of up to $100 billion
  • Plans to launch the formal roadshow as early as the week of November 9 and complete the listing before Thanksgiving

Anthropic already confidentially filed a draft IPO registration statement in June this year. Under SEC rules, companies must publicly file registration documents 15 calendar days before the roadshow. To train and run the Claude series models, Anthropic is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, including partnerships with Google and Amazon and renting GPU compute from SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center.

Editor's note: A $2 trillion valuation and $16.3 billion in half-year revenue—Anthropic is using numbers to prove the AI race is far from over. But an $80 billion net loss also reminds investors that large-model companies burn cash astonishingly fast. This IPO will be a key test of how much appetite the market still has for the AI boom.

2. Unitree Robotics Unveils the H2-X Humanoid Robot: Physical AI Could Break Through in 1-2 Years

Unitree RoboticsH2-XEmbodied Intelligence

On October 22, the 2026 World Physical AI Conference and Unitree Partner Ecosystem Conference was held in Hangzhou. Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing delivered a keynote titled "Believe, Believe in AI as Much as Possible" and unveiled the new humanoid robot H2-X "Kung Fu Legend Guardian".

H2-X core specs:

  • Maximum battery life of about 8 hours
  • Can lift a car bare-handed, land smoothly from a 4-meter height, and dent a car door with one kick
  • Unitree's G1 robot has produced about 10,000-20,000 units, making it the world's best-selling humanoid robot

Wang Xingxing offered an aggressive timeline: with the release of GPT-6 Astra, physical AI is already showing signs of being "broken through", with a major breakthrough in as soon as 1-2 years, or at most 2-3 years. The core challenge for embodied intelligence to pass the ChatGPT moment is aligning AI model inputs and outputs with real robots. Unitree is pre-researching a Physical AI Robot Self-Evolution V1.0 large model, and hopes robots can enter homes in 2027-2028.

The conference also launched the World Physical AI Competition, with tens of millions of yuan in prize money each year and eight tracks including free movement, track and field, combat and dexterous manipulation.

Industry signal: The humanoid robot sector surged against the market today, with Daye Shares on a five-day limit-up streak and stocks such as Zhaowei Electromechanical and Moons Electric hitting the limit up. Capital is voting with its feet—the inflection point from concept to mass production for embodied intelligence is approaching.

3. iFlytek Spark X2.6 Pricing Announced: On-Device Model Free, Cloud MoE Architecture with 293B Parameters

iFlytekSpark X2.6Pricing

At the 2026 iFlytek Global 1024 Developer Festival, the detailed specs and pricing of the end-cloud integrated iFlytek Spark X2.6 were officially announced:

  • Cloud model: 293B-A30B parameter MoE architecture, 1M context length, with code and agent capabilities at industry-leading levels
  • On-device model: Spark X2.6-4B released in parallel, the first time an on-device model achieves a step-change in agent capability
  • Inference pricing: cloud input 0.9 yuan per million tokens, cache hit 0.08 yuan, output 3.6 yuan; on-device X2.6-4B free for a limited time
  • Adaptive compute-storage collaborative inference on domestic clusters raises overall efficiency by 4.5x
  • WinWork supports a fully domestic stack and private deployment, saving 44% of token consumption through the end-cloud integrated architecture

Liu Qingfeng outlined the future distribution of AI applications: 60% completed locally (data stays local, with no inference cost), 30% through cloud collaboration, and 10% requiring standalone cloud large-model training.

4. NVIDIA GTC Berlin Closes: RTX Spark and the Full Local AI Hardware Line Unveiled

NVIDIAGTC BerlinRTX Spark

The NVIDIA GTC Berlin conference (October 20-22) closed today. In his keynote on the 21st, Jensen Huang unveiled several major products:

  • RTX Spark: personal AI agent hardware for Windows PCs
  • DGX Spark and DGX Station: a full refresh of local AI hardware, covering everything from desktop to data center
  • DSX POD: modular AI factory reference design, with deployment cut from 6 months to 14 days
  • Vera Rubin platform: 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

Jensen Huang said bluntly: "The computer industry is at the starting point of a new industrial revolution." This GTC shifted its focus from "selling GPUs" to "selling AI factories", covering accelerated computing, agentic AI, physical AI, robotics and open-source models.

5. OpenAI ChatGPT Ads Expand to 26 More Countries: Annualized Revenue Tops $1 Billion

OpenAIChatGPT AdsMonetization

OpenAI announced that its ChatGPT ads business has expanded to 26 more countries, with annualized ad revenue surpassing $1 billion. Since piloting in the US in February this year, the business reached this milestone in fewer than 200 days online.

Key figures:

  • ChatGPT weekly active users reached 1.2 billion, covering more than 40 countries
  • Annualized revenue topped $100 million within just 6 weeks of the pilot
  • OpenAI expects ad revenue of $2.4 billion in 2026, nearly $11 billion in 2027, and $102 billion by 2030
  • Ad revenue per user will rise from nearly $3.50 this year to nearly $60 by 2030
  • OpenAI's overall annualized revenue is about $50 billion, and it is seeking $30 billion in new funding

Notably, competitor Anthropic has chosen a different path—in February this year it specifically stated that Claude would remain ad-free, and even bought ads during the Super Bowl mocking ChatGPT's ad model.

Industry watch: Large-model monetization is splitting into two paths: OpenAI pursues a "traffic plus ads" model, taking share from Google search ads; Anthropic pursues a "subscription plus enterprise services" model, using its ad-free positioning to attract premium users. This route battle will profoundly shape the future form of AI products.

6. More AI News Today

HaierSichuanWanxiang

  • Haier establishes a global AI research institute: Yuan Jing serves as director, focusing on applying AI technology in smart home and industrial scenarios
  • The Sichuan AI Supermarket launch event was held in Chengdu, hosted by the Sichuan Provincial AI Office with the provincial science and technology department director attending, to promote AI adoption across southwestern China
  • Wanxiang Audimind launched in overseas markets, opening its one-stop audiobook production tool to creators worldwide
  • Hongguo Short Dramas launches the Xiaoguo AI chat assistant: supporting natural-language search of shows and tracking updates, as AI plus content consumption scenarios keep expanding
  • iFlytek launches SparkAudio 1.0, a speech foundation model, with accompanying AI recording ring hardware unveiled at the same time

Today's AI Data at a Glance

MetricFigureChange/Notes
Anthropic first-half revenue$16.3 billionUp about 12x YoY
Anthropic net lossOver $80 billion$72 billion in convertible note accounting charges
Anthropic IPO valuationAbout $2 trillionUp to $100 billion fundraising
Unitree G1 cumulative output10,000-20,000 unitsWorld's best-selling humanoid robot
H2-X battery lifeAbout 8 hoursCan lift a car bare-handed, land from 4 meters
Physical AI breakthrough forecast1-2 years (fast) / 2-3 years (slow)Wang Xingxing at the Physical AI Conference
Spark X2.6 parameter scale293B-A30B (MoE)1M context, 4B on-device free for a limited time
Spark X2.6 inference efficiencyUp 4.5xAdaptive compute-storage collaboration on domestic clusters
ChatGPT annualized ad revenue$1 billionFewer than 200 days online
ChatGPT weekly active users1.2 billion40+ countries
OpenAI total annualized revenueAbout $50 billionSeeking $30 billion in new funding
NVIDIA Europe investmentNearly $10 billionMore than 12,000 partners

Sources

  • Cailian Press - report on Anthropic's possible public S-1 filing as soon as Friday
  • The Wall Street Journal - report on Anthropic's first-half 2026 financials
  • Securities Times - report on Unitree Robotics' World Physical AI Conference
  • Eastmoney - Unitree's Wang Xingxing: physical AI will break through in the next two to three years
  • Kuai Technology - report on iFlytek's launch of the end-cloud integrated Spark X2.6
  • ChinaZ - details of the iFlytek Spark X2.6 end-cloud integrated large-model launch
  • NVIDIA Blog - GTC Berlin 2026 local AI hardware launch
  • AdExchanger - report on ChatGPT Ads reaching $1 billion in annualized revenue
  • AIHOT - report on OpenAI's annualized revenue of about $50 billion
  • AITOP100 - daily AI news, October 22, 2026