Tech News October 23, 2026: OpenAI Firings, SpaceX’s Carrier Play, and Battlefront 3 Rumors

Friday brought one of the strangest weeks in AI to a fitting close: OpenAI fired three of its own safety researchers over leak suspicions, SpaceX moved one step closer to becoming a phone company, Star Wars fans got the sequel news they’ve wanted for a decade, and Washington opened its wallet for chip research. Here’s everything that mattered.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• OpenAI fired three safety researchers after an internal probe into suspected leaks of model secrets (WSJ)
• SpaceX is negotiating access to 80,000+ cell sites to build a fourth US wireless carrier
• Star Wars: Battlefront 3 is reportedly in development at EA’s DICE and Respawn
• Kling 4.0, Kuaishou’s new AI video model, launched its API on October 22
• The US Commerce Department plans $389M in funding for power semiconductor research

1. OpenAI Fires Three Safety Researchers Over Leak Suspicions

The biggest story in AI this week wasn’t a model launch — it was a purge. According to a Wall Street Journal report, OpenAI last month summoned three safety researchers to meetings with the company’s security team and asked them to unlock their personal phones. The suspicion: they were leaking closely guarded internal details about OpenAI’s model designs. A week later, all three were out.

OpenAI says an internal investigation found they violated company policy. The researchers, in statements to the Journal, dispute that account.

The story landed amid a broader Tech News October 22, 2026 backdrop of AI agents behaving badly, and it crystallizes a tension that’s been building all year: as the AI race intensifies, the frontier labs are treating model internals like state secrets. Between the watermarking mandates, the leak hunts, and the safety-team drama, AI’s inner circle is getting smaller and more paranoid — not exactly the transparency posture the industry claims to want.

2. SpaceX Wants to Become Your Phone Company

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly negotiating access to at least 80,000 US cell sites, according to Bloomberg, as it pushes to become a fourth nationwide wireless carrier alongside AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

The numbers are serious: 80,000 sites is roughly half of all purpose-built cell towers operating in the US last year. SpaceX is said to be in talks with tower operators including Crown Castle, whose CEO coyly said the company is “talking to all parties” when asked about SpaceX and Amazon this week.

This isn’t coming out of nowhere. SpaceX recently bought low-band spectrum, got FCC approval to launch 15,000 direct-to-smartphone Starlink satellites, and Musk told investors this week that terrestrial buildout would put Starlink Mobile “on the path to become a major US carrier.” The play is clear: towers handle dense ground coverage where satellites can’t reach, satellites fill the rural gaps. Wall Street got the message instantly — carrier stocks slid 4-5% while Crown Castle and American Tower surged.

TD Cowen estimates a full terrestrial network would cost over $80 billion and take many years. So this is a long game. But if anyone was going to make “my cell carrier is a rocket company” normal, it’s this one. For more on SpaceX’s money moves, see our earlier coverage of SpaceX’s first profit in our October 21 roundup.

3. Star Wars: Battlefront 3 Is Reportedly Real — DICE and Respawn Are On It

After years of rumor-mill purgatory, the wait may finally be over: multiple outlets report that EA has paired DICE (Battlefield, the first two Battlefronts) with Respawn Entertainment (Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi) to co-develop Star Wars: Battlefront 3.

The story crystallized this week when EA, in a staff memo amid layoffs and the closure of BioWare, confirmed that DICE and Respawn are collaborating on an unnamed project. Variety, citing multiple sources, identified it as Battlefront 3. That’s a dream-team pairing: DICE has the Battlefront formula in its bones, and Respawn has the best shooter instincts in the business plus a proven Star Wars track record.

There’s baggage, of course — Battlefront 2’s 2017 launch was defined by its loot-box scandal, though the game eventually won its community back and even hit record player counts last year. Still, the appetite is clearly there. We’ll see if EA can actually land the shot this time.

4. Kling 4.0: The AI Video Wars Heat Up Again

Kuaishou’s Kling AI team launched the Kling 4.0 video-generation API on October 22, and it’s a notable step up: 30-second single takes, up to 10 keyframes per generation for shot-level control, 15 combined reference inputs across images, video, and voice, plus native stereo audio with tighter lip-sync. Platforms like SelfyzAI were already integrating it at launch, signaling how fast the AI-video ecosystem now moves.

It’s another data point in a trend we’ve tracked all month — video models are converging with professional editing workflows, not just churning out six-second clips. The gap between “AI slop” and actual production tools keeps shrinking.

5. $389M for US Chips, and ASI Hits a $3B Valuation

The US Commerce Department plans to award $389 million to four companies working on power semiconductors and critical materials, the latest move in Washington’s slow-motion chip sovereignty push. Meanwhile, AI startup ASI raised $325 million at a $3 billion valuation, and Meta shares slid after earnings in a week of AI-trade jitters.

Taken together with our recent coverage of the memory-chip crunch, the picture is clear: the silicon layer of the AI economy is where the money, the politics, and the bottlenecks all converge.

The Takeaway

One theme unites today’s chaos: the infrastructure wars. OpenAI is fortifying its internal borders, SpaceX is building its own cellular empire, Washington is buying chip capacity, and even EA is consolidating its studios around a sure thing. The tech industry’s frontier has moved from apps to atoms — towers, silicon, and secrets. Whoever owns the pipes gets to set the terms.

Check back tomorrow for the next roundup.

FAQ

What happened at OpenAI with the fired safety researchers?

The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI fired three safety researchers after an internal investigation into suspected leaks of closely guarded AI model design secrets. The researchers dispute OpenAI’s account of what happened.

Is SpaceX becoming a wireless carrier?

SpaceX is reportedly negotiating access to at least 80,000 US cell sites, per Bloomberg, as part of a plan to build a fourth nationwide wireless carrier. Combined with its direct-to-smartphone Starlink satellites and new low-band spectrum, the pieces are in place — but a full network would cost tens of billions and take years.

Is Star Wars: Battlefront 3 actually in development?

Multiple reports, led by Variety citing several sources, say EA has assigned DICE and Respawn Entertainment to co-develop Star Wars: Battlefront 3. EA confirmed the studios are collaborating on a project but hasn’t named the game.

What is Kling 4.0?

Kling 4.0 is the newest AI video-generation model from Kuaishou’s Kling AI team. Its API launched October 22, 2026, offering 30-second single takes, keyframe control, multi-reference inputs, and native stereo audio.