August 2026 Community Updates

This month, AI kept moving fast, new capital, new infrastructure, new ways to learn. Markets also found some relief. Here’s a breakdown of what happened in August - for the AI/crypto ecosystem, OAX and GMAsia.

Crypto found its footing

Bitcoin fell for most of the summer. Then it turned around fast. From a low near $65,000 in late July, BTC broke past $80,000 by late August. At its strongest point, it gained about 23% in one week. Over $2.7 billion in short positions were liquidated in a single session. This rally was not led by retail traders. Spot ETF inflows (almost $2 billion in one week) and large investors closing short positions drove most of the move. A White House meeting between regulators and crypto industry leaders also helped, signaling support for clearer rules. Whether this move holds will likely depend on the Fed’s tone at Jackson Hole, and whether the Senate moves on crypto legislation in September.

Bullish sentiments also regained momentum when Strategy announced a purchase of 4,603 Bitcoin worth $369 million, setting back fears of additional Bitcoin selling from Strategy and adding to the positive rally.

Bond markets are now funding the AI buildout

The more interesting story this month is in bonds, not tokens. Data center operators are borrowing at yields normally seen on junk debt even when the bonds are rated investment-grade. This is part of a bigger shift: AI infrastructure has raised over $450 billion in debt since 2024. Corporate bonds are now the fastest-growing source of funding for data centers, ahead of private credit. Investors are essentially betting on the credit quality of the big tech companies renting this infrastructure, separate from stocks or digital assets.

Capital keeps flowing into the AI value chain but not the same way everywhere

In the US, the AI value chain is being funded by private capital: hyperscalers, bond markets, and equity investors. The largest US hyperscalers are on track to spend $600–700 billion combined on AI infrastructure this year, most of it on compute, power, and networking. Gartner expects AI infrastructure spending to rise nearly 42% globally in 2026.

China is taking a different route. Beijing is directing an estimated $295 billion, potentially $740 billion once power-grid infrastructure is included into a national AI data center network, state-funded rather than market-funded. The plan requires new data centers to run on at least 80% domestic chips, largely from Huawei’s Ascend line, built by SMIC.

This locks out Nvidia and AMD from most new capacity, but it comes with real limits: SMIC’s most advanced stable process is roughly equivalent to 7nm, chip yields on Huawei’s Ascend 910C are reportedly only 20-40%, and analysts estimate China’s best chips remain years behind the US frontier on raw performance.

The contrast is clear: one side is racing on private capital and open competition, the other on state direction and self-sufficiency, both moving at speed but from very different starting points.

Bitcoin Asia returned to Hong Kong

Bitcoin Asia 2026 ran on 27 and 28 August at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the third straight year the conference has been held in the city since its 2024 debut. The agenda leaned institutional rather than retail: corporate treasury strategy, digital asset regulation, mining, open-source development, and AI infrastructure all had a place on the programme, alongside a dedicated enterprise track built around Deal Day and the Bitcoin for Corporations Symposium. Speakers included Balaji Srinivasan, Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich, macro investor Hugh Hendry, and CZ.

(Photo source: SCMP)

Organizers also used the event to confirm that Bitcoin Hong Kong 2027 will return to the same venue on 27 and 28 August next year, a fourth consecutive edition in the city. The through-line is the same one visible in the price action this month: the activity that matters in Bitcoin right now sits with balance sheets, funds, and regulators, not retail traders. Hong Kong’s own positioning, spot Bitcoin ETFs approved in 2024 and the Stablecoins Ordinance since, is a large part of why the event keeps landing here.

AI Tinkerers: Supporting Hong Kong’s AI Community

OAX was pleased to support the AI Tinkerers Hong Kong August Meetup this month, alongside GMAsia and Prompt in Progress. It was a chance for OAX to introduce how it supports Hong Kong’s AI community and development more broadly, and to showcase GMAsia, one of the key projects OAX supports, to a room of active builders. What an excellent turnout and event, with over 50 AI builders and community members who popped by and participated!

We invited the community to ask questions and take part in live polls during the session, and the answers gave us valuable insight into what builders in Hong Kong actually need and want right now. Feedback on GMAsia was also encouraging - most community members acknowledged the need for upskilling in an evolving ecosystem, and gave us useful insights on what topics they’d be interested in for us to cover in our courses.

We were also pleased to see strong demos from the community, including MatchCat, Carpenter and an interesting session on Cybersecurity. We’ll be posting more highlights on the event on OAX and GMAsia’s X accounts, so give us a follow there.

OAX looks forward to keeping this connection with the ground going - staying close to fellow builders, and doing our part to help Hong Kong’s AI development thrive.

Disclaimer: The above is an opinion piece written by an authorized author, but in no way represents the official standpoint of OAX Foundation Limited, nor should it be meant to serve as investment advice.