The Fed held rates at 3.75%-4.00% in a 10-2 vote, with both dissenters favoring a quarter-point hike. A broad tech selloff continued Friday morning: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell about 6%, Arm dropped 10%, and AMD slid 9%, while Oracle lost roughly 4.5%, SpaceX 4%, and Nvidia 3%. Alphabet had plunged 12.6% Thursday after earnings. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence rose 7.5 points to 91.7. In business, Shein reportedly agreed to a $100M FTC settlement, DoorDash agreed to buy Instacart for about $17B, subject to approvals, and a Trian-led group offered $1.4B for Wendy’s. On jobs, American Express plans to cut 5% of staff, Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, and Dropbox is cutting 9%. Finally, Apple acknowledged iPhone Duo inner-display problems; iFixit gave it a provisional 5/10 repairability score.
Top 5 AI Highlights
[1] 🏛️ Anthropic filed publicly for an IPO on Nasdaq under the symbol ANT. Its proposed post-IPO structure would give the seven co-founders 50.1% of voting power on most shareholder matters, while an independent trust would elect a majority of directors. Separately, Anthropic and Hg reportedly agreed to launch a European AI consultancy by year-end to help businesses deploy AI. (Anthropic, SEC filing, Financial Times)
[2] 💰 Meta increased its planned AI infrastructure financing to $97.5B: $25B in common-stock forward sales and $12.5B in mandatory convertible preferred stock, plus a planned $60B Class C program from Q1 2027 at the earliest. The initial offerings are expected to close October 29, subject to conditions. NVIDIA and AMD said they will invest a combined $4B in Meta’s equity offering: $3B and $1B, respectively, alongside expanded AI-chip partnerships. (Meta, CNBC)
[3] 🔎 The DOJ is reportedly examining NVIDIA’s $12.9B deal to acquire Hugging Face, including whether control of a major AI-model distribution platform could harm rivals. NVIDIA has pledged to keep the platform open to competing chip, cloud and AI providers. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027. (Reuters)
[4] 🚀 SpaceX signed a commitment for an Apollo-backed GPU equipment lease with about $40B in principal payments over roughly five-year terms. Closing is expected before year-end, with deliveries and leases beginning in the first half of 2027. Anthropic was reportedly its largest customer, accounting for 34.5% of Q3 revenue through purchases of AI computing capacity. (SEC, Bloomberg)
[5] 💻 Replit reportedly shifted most of its AI spending from Anthropic to OpenAI in a deal worth more than $100M a year, with a discount above 30%, after Anthropic ended its discount. CEO Amjad Masad has said OpenAI is now Replit Agent’s preferred provider, but users can still choose Claude. (The Information, TechCrunch)
✨Open Source AI Development
[1] 🌙 Moonshot launched Kimi K3.1 Pro through its apps and API, with a 1M-token context window. In Moonshot’s tests, it scored 65.7% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, versus 58.2% for GPT-6 Astra. Separately, Artificial Analysis placed it fourth overall on its Intelligence Index at launch. Full model weights are promised by November 4, rather than available at launch. (Moonshot, Artificial Analysis)
[2] 🛠️ MiniMax released M3.1 Flash’s downloadable weights for coding and agent workflows. It scored 73.7% on DeepSWE v1.1 in MiniMax’s tests. The weights use a restricted community license: commercial users must display attribution and notify MiniMax, with prior written authorization required above $20M in annual product or service revenue. (Model Card, License)
[3] 🔎 Cohere says the open-weight Qwen3.8-Flash-Next inventoried its host machine and tried to upload a probe file to an Alibaba Cloud storage bucket in Beijing during a security evaluation. Its sandbox blocked the request. Cohere saw the behavior in fewer than one in 100,000 calls and could not determine intent. (Cohere, Model card)
[4] 💻Infisical raised a $40M Series B at a $600M valuation to expand its security platform, including Agent Vault, which lets AI agents access systems without exposing credentials. Its secrets-management core uses the MIT license; enterprise-directory code is licensed separately. (Infisical, License)
[5] 🔎Artificial Analysis revised its Intelligence Index so 60% now uses private test sets or held-out answers. In its October 27 launch results, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (max) and GLM-5.3 (max) led models with released weights at 32. Kimi K3.1 Pro scored 46, but its weights were still unreleased. (Artificial Analysis)
[3] 🏛️ DHS ordered U.S. federal civilian agencies to remove technology from open-weight developer DeepSeek and stop buying its products. Removal also covers affiliate products and third-party products and services built using DeepSeek implementations. (DHS)
[4] 🔐 OpenCode, an open-source AI coding agent, disclosed a breach affecting 1.4% of its Console users who had linked external model providers. Stored provider API keys may have been exposed. The company says it notified affected users and is working with Anthropic, OpenAI and Google on remediation. (Notebookcheck, GitHub)
[5] 🧩 Anthropic donated Agent Skills to the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation, giving the open standard a vendor-neutral home. Anthropic says more than 70 agent platforms have integrated it. (Anthropic)
Founder’s Corner
The New Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double
Source: X
What We Read This Week
- SK Hynix shelved the planned U.S. IPO of its flash-memory subsidiary Solidigm, citing market conditions and share-price trends. The company said the decision does not change Solidigm’s growth prospects. (WSJ)
- Kalshi is reportedly targeting a December launch for futures tracking U.S. headline and core consumer-price inflation. It is courting banks and hedge funds as potential users; the contracts have not launched. (Bloomberg)
- PHP Foundation director Elizabeth Barron says the nonprofit has one full-time employee and 14 mostly part-time contractors. Proposed code changes have nearly doubled over the past year without a matching increase in contributors, adding pressure to human review as AI-assisted development expands. (Reuters)
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says AWS has largely sold its 2027 capacity and a substantial portion of its 2028 capacity. The company still reserves some capacity for on-demand customers and its Bedrock AI service. (a16z)
- Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok argues that AI has yet to deliver broad financial gains. His analysis shows rising revenue per worker and profit margins for the Magnificent Seven, but flat readings for the other 493 S&P 500 companies. (Apollo)
- Johnny Rodgers recounts the cultural and operational friction that followed Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack, including mismatched sales incentives and strained leadership relationships. His retrospective offers a look at the challenges of integrating an acquired company. (Building Slack)
- Ben Thompson argues that AI-driven security risks and platform aggregation are weakening the open web’s economics. He sees opportunities in smaller, trusted communities and software built for individuals and teams. (Stratechery)
Special Earnings
- Microsoft: FY2027 Q1 revenue rose 19% to $92.3B, while Azure revenue grew 48%. GAAP EPS was $4.92, or $4.89 excluding OpenAI investment gains. Capital spending totaled $45.2B including finance leases; cash purchases of property and equipment were $39.4B, leaving $18.6B in free cash flow. Microsoft forecast Q2 revenue of $96B-$97.1B and Azure growth of 49%-50% in constant currency. Following Wednesday’s results, shares closed nearly flat Thursday, down 0.16%, and were down about 1% Friday morning. (Microsoft, Earnings call, Yahoo Finance)
- Alphabet: Q3 revenue rose 25% to $127.6B, while Google Cloud revenue grew 103% to $30.7B. GAAP EPS fell to $2.12 from $2.87 a year earlier. Capital spending reached $51.36B, and free cash flow was negative $9.07B. Alphabet kept its 2026 capex forecast at $195B-$205B and expects a significant increase in 2027. Shares plunged 12.6% Thursday after Wednesday’s results and fell roughly another 1% Friday morning. (Alphabet, CNBC, Yahoo Finance)
- Amazon: Q3 revenue rose 12% to $201.9B, while AWS revenue grew 39.3% to $46.0B. Operating income reached $28.1B and diluted EPS was $1.89. Free cash flow was negative $42.4B over the trailing twelve months, as AI infrastructure spending increased. Amazon kept its 2026 cash capex outlook at about $220B and forecast Q4 revenue of $240B-$247B. Shares were down about 2% Friday morning following Thursday’s results. (Amazon, CNBC, Yahoo Finance)
AI Fundraising News (Oct 23 — Oct 29)
- 22one: An AI policing-software company, raised an undisclosed amount at a valuation of about $400M
- adsilico: An AI medical-device simulation company, raised GBP10M Series A
- Agora Labs: An AI clinical-data platform company, raised EUR4.3M
- Ailytics: An AI industrial-video analysis company, raised $7.4M Series A
- AirTrunk: An AI and cloud data-center operator, secured an A$4.25B green loan for its Western Sydney campus
- ALLOX: An AI drug-discovery company, closed a $10.5M seed round
- American Advanced Materials: An AI-enabled industrial-materials manufacturing company, raised $12.5M seed
- Avante: An AI employee-benefits software company, raised $30M Series A
- Bedrock Robotics: An AI autonomous-construction equipment company, confirmed its previously reported $600M Series C at a $4.1B post-money valuation
- BioGeometry: An AI protein-design company, raised an undisclosed Series A+ round
- Bleu Robotics: An AI industrial-robot software company, raised EUR5M pre-seed
- Broccoli: An AI customer-service software company for home-service businesses, raised $30M Series B at a $300M post-money valuation
- Casap: An AI financial-dispute and fraud-management company, raised $56M Series B
- CASBOT: An embodied-AI robotics company, raised several hundred million renminbi in Series A++ funding; the exact amount was not disclosed
- Cent: An AI-assisted preventive-healthcare company, raised $15M in financing combining equity and debt; the split was not disclosed
- Circuit Mind: An AI electronics-design company, raised $18.5M Series A
- ClarityCare: An AI healthcare-administration company, raised $16.5M Series A
- Cohere: An AI model developer, completed an initial Series E close of undisclosed size; the round targets up to C$7B
- Collective: An AI financial-services company for solo businesses, raised $40M Series B and secured a $60M non-dilutive growth facility
- DeliNova Therapeutics: An AI drug-development company, raised about RMB100M pre-Series A
- Dream: An AI building-design and engineering company, raised $17M seed
- Dulo: An AI hardware-design model company, reportedly raised $130M seed
- EDGE Sound Research: A physical-AI perception-infrastructure company, raised $2M in additional funding
- Epoch: An AI supply-chain mapping company, raised $4.25M seed
- FluxCap: An AI litigation-software company, announced $6.4M in seed funding
- Foundry: A physical-AI robotic-manufacturing company, raised $100M Series A
- Fragment: An AI procurement-software company, announced $56M across seed and Series A funding; the split was not disclosed
- FuriosaAI: An AI inference-chip company, closed a $620M Series D at a $2.9B post-money valuation
- General Compute: An AI inference-infrastructure company, raised $100M Series A at an $800M post-money valuation
- Glance: An AI personal-shopping company, received a strategic investment of undisclosed size
- Hex: An AI analytics company, raised $100M at a $1.2B valuation
- Higgsfield: An AI video and image-generation company, announced a Series B extension of undisclosed size
- Hyperbolic: An AI cloud-computing company, raised $30M Series A1
- Hyphenate: An AI finance-automation company, raised $45M Series A
- i23: An AI insurance-brokerage company, raised GBP4.9M seed
- Infisical: An AI-agent credential-security company, raised $40M Series B at a $600M valuation
- Intuitivo: An AI-assisted student-assessment company, raised EUR1.35M seed
- Lette: An AI residential-property management company, raised $6.5M seed
- Loamy: An AI food-supply-chain software company, raised $6M seed
- Lumaril: An AI factory-optimization company, raised $66M Series A at a $400M valuation
- Luxor Technology: An AI-compute and Bitcoin-infrastructure company, raised a $16M strategic round combining new capital and secondary share sales; the split was not disclosed
- Machenta: An AI robotics-model company, raised $40M seed
- Manicule: An AI software-discovery company, raised $1.3M seed through SAFEs
- Midstream Health: An AI hospital-revenue recovery company, raised $20M Series A
- MineMind: An AI mining-software company, raised $1M at an $11M valuation
- Mintive: An AI-agent identity and access-management company, raised $7M seed
- Mostest: An AI event-booking company, raised $4M seed at a $16M post-money SAFE valuation cap
- Nevis: An AI wealth-management software company, raised $70M Series B
- Northstar Security: An AI security-risk remediation company, raised $7M seed
- Nous: An AI household-management company, raised $17M
- Numeracle: An AI-assisted business-identity verification company, raised $28M
- Opentrons: An AI laboratory-automation company, raised $40M Series E
- Overwatch: An AI digital-threat detection company, raised $15M Series A
- Paradev: An AI coding-agent orchestration company, formerly Superset, raised $11.5M seed
- Pathos AI: An AI drug-development company, closed a $237M Series E at an approximately $3B post-money valuation
- phData: An AI and data-services company, raised an undisclosed amount
- Pixel Systems: An AI content-verification company, raised EUR2.7M seed at an approximately EUR18M pre-money valuation
- Plato: An AI training-simulation company, raised $16M Series A
- Querio: An AI business-analytics company, announced $5M in total funding
- Ravical: An AI accounting and tax-software company, raised $17M seed
- Reflex: An AI industrial-software company, raised $14M Series A
- Rocker: An AI workplace-assistant company, raised $12.85M
- Serval: An AI enterprise-workflow automation company, raised $150M Series C at a $3B valuation
- Simplismart: An AI inference-software company, raised $14M Series B at about a $100M post-money valuation
- Solink: An AI video-intelligence company, raised more than $100M in financing; over 90% is new capital, with the remainder in secondary share sales
- SuperMe: An AI expert-profile company, raised $20M Series A
- SuperSpherical Technology: An AI foundation-model developer, raised several hundred million renminbi in an angel round; the exact amount was not disclosed
- TrashLab: An AI waste-hauler software company, raised a $12M growth round
- Upwind: An AI and cloud-security company, expanded its Series C by $100M to $400M at a $3.8B valuation
- Vera Health: An AI clinical-search company, announced a $28.5M Series A
- VUSE XR: An AI-assisted mixed-reality training company, closed EUR1.2M pre-seed
- Wabi: An AI personal-assistant company, raised $55M at a $1.25B valuation