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OpenAI Cleared To Launch GPT-5.6 Publicly After Government Review

The Trump administration’s 30-day review lasted barely two weeks, and OpenAI says it doesn’t want the review process to become the default.

Published

3 months ago

July 8, 2026

Nour Nasir

openai cleared to launch gpt-5.6 publicly after government review

OpenAI will release all three GPT-5.6 variants — Sol, Terra, and Luna — to the public on Thursday, July 9, ending a staggered debut shaped by a new US government review process. “We’re expanding preview access globally now,” the company announced on X.

The model series launched in late June to a “small group of trusted partners,” a restriction stemming from President Trump’s AI cybersecurity order signed in early June, which asks companies to voluntarily submit their most powerful models for government review 30 days before public release. OpenAI complied, though not happily. “We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” it said at the time, adding that cooperation was the fastest route to a public launch.

The review wrapped up well short of 30 days. According to Axios, the administration cleared the wider release after the Department of Commerce’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation ran additional tests, with OpenAI sending technical experts to Washington to field questions and concerns directly.

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Of the three variants, Sol is the company’s strongest model to date, priced at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output. Terra, built for everyday use, promises performance comparable to GPT-5.5 at half the cost — $2.50 per million input and $15 for output — while Luna, the cheapest of the trio, runs $1 per million input and $6 for output.

OpenAI is not the only lab navigating the new regime. Anthropic was ordered to block foreign nationals from its Mythos and Fable models, and has since won permission to redeploy them.

Related Topics:Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT OpenAI

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News

NEOPAY Wants To Follow Merchants Across Channels And Borders

A controlling 65% stake in noon payments would give NEOPAY access to marketplace sellers, online merchants and the payment flows they generate.

Published

1 day ago

October 5, 2026

Nour Nasir

neopay wants to follow merchants across channels and borders

It’s been a long time since checkouts were single defined places. A merchant might take payments at a physical register, on its own website and through an online marketplace, sometimes in more than one country. NEOPAY wants to follow those transactions wherever they happen.

The UAE payments company has entered into an agreement to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments. NEOPAY already runs the acquiring infrastructure that lets merchants accept card payments, along with omnichannel acceptance and a merchant services platform. This new deal would add noon payments’ embedded payments platform, e-commerce gateway and merchant network across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. That would considerably expand both NEOPAY’s digital commerce capabilities and its regional reach.

For merchants, the attraction is a single provider for online and in-store payments, plus faster settlements, data and analytics, and value-added financial services.

“Payments should be simple, reliable, and built for the markets they serve,” said Faraz Khalid, CEO of noon. His counterpart at NEOPAY, Vibhor Mundhada, added: “We have built a strong payments business in the UAE, and our ambition is now to take that capability across the region”. The acquisition, Mundhada added, would “expand our footprint into Saudi Arabia and Egypt” while reinforcing NEOPAY’s position at home.

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NEOPAY is also keen to point out potential payment volume increases. The company says noon payments’ integrations with marketplace sellers and online merchants create high transaction density in some of the region’s fastest-growing digital commerce segments. It also believes control of the business would give it access to those merchant relationships and payment flows, and speed up the rollout of alternative payment methods and installment options.

The combined roadmap targets faster merchant onboarding, better payment performance, tighter fraud controls and embedded financial services. The deal could also strengthen cross-border payments and settlement along key regional commerce corridors.