Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft's MAI-Transcribe-2 entered public preview on September 3, 2026, priced at $0.10 per audio hour as a limited-time promotional rate, roughly 72% below its predecessor's $0.36 price, with no post-promotion rate yet disclosed. The model ranks second by accuracy on the independent Artificial Analysis leaderboard at 2.0% AA-WER, behind Fun-Realtime-ASR-preview at 1.7%, while Microsoft's own first-place FLEURS benchmark claim and Pareto-frontier assertion remain company-reported and unverified by independent sources. Planners evaluating the model for production use should note that the preview carries no service-level agreement, and model-specific regional availability and throughput limits are not yet documented.

SK Hynix has publicly denied reviewing Intel Foundry for HBM4E base-die production, contradicting an industry-sourced Herald Business report from August 31, 2026, that described such a plan under consideration. Secondary accounts of SK Hynix's Hot Chips 2026 presentation suggest the company compared Intel EMIB and TSMC CoWoS packaging technologies, but no primary source confirms a commercial base-die agreement or active sourcing review with Intel. SK Hynix's SEC filings from June and July 2026 disclose no Intel HBM4E contract, leaving the original report unconfirmed and the denial without a located original English-language statement.