Jalapeño Heats Up Inference

By the Orchestra editors · 4 min read

TL;DR

OpenAI's custom Jalapeño chip posts benchmarks beating Nvidia Blackwell and Rubin on inference throughput and efficiency
Anthropic gives Claude shared memory across chat and Cowork sessions
Meta confirms paid AI agent Hatch launching soon, new Watermelon model due October
Blackbird closes its second $1B fund as OpenAI distributes $5.5M in credits to Australian startups

AI · Worldwide

OpenAI Jalapeño beats Nvidia on inference benchmarks

OpenAI unveiled first benchmarks for Jalapeño, its custom ASIC built with Broadcom. Tested on SemiAnalysis' InferenceX suite, the chip posted higher tokens-per-user and better throughput-per-watt than Nvidia's Blackwell and even Rubin. SemiAnalysis CEO Dylan Patel noted first-gen chips are rarely competitive, making these results unusual.

Claude gets shared memory across chat and Cowork

Anthropic is rolling out persistent memory that spans Claude's chat and Cowork surfaces, so users no longer need to re-explain projects and preferences each session. A practical quality-of-life upgrade for teams using Claude as a daily working tool.

Meta's paid agent Hatch launching soon, Watermelon model in October

Meta confirmed its paid AI agent product Hatch will ship in coming weeks, with a new model called Watermelon slated for October. The move puts Meta in direct competition with OpenAI and Anthropic on commercial agentic products.

Apple refreshes Mac Studio and Mini for local AI workloads

Apple's new desktop lineup leans hard into on-device AI development, with unified memory configurations designed for local inference. The refresh acknowledges the growing community of developers daisy-chaining Macs for model serving.

Australian Tech

Blackbird closes second $1 billion fund

Blackbird Ventures has closed a $1.05B fund for early-stage bets, its second at that scale. The war chest spans pre-idea through to growth and comes off the back of portfolio outcomes including Canva.

OpenAI hands $5.5M in API credits to Australian startups

OpenAI has distributed $5.5 million in API credits to a growing cohort of Australian founders and entrepreneurs since setting up locally, with recipients including two high school students building on the platform.