The AI Race in August 2026: DeepSeek Beats OpenAI at 1% of the Cost, Microsoft Hits $90 Billion and AI Agents Are Taking Over Work
In August 2026, China’s DeepSeek V4 Flash launched at just $0.14 per
million tokens — outperforming OpenAI on agent benchmarks at a fraction
of the cost. Microsoft reported its largest ever single-day market cap
gain with $90B revenue and Azure up 44%. And Gartner confirmed AI agents
are now being built into 40% of all enterprise software. Three stories
that define where AI is headed next.