Author: Da
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Weekly Newsletter: Jan 30th, 2026
The Fed held rates at 3.50%–3.75%, extending the pause as officials cited still-elevated inflation and solid activity. This morning, President Trump nominated Kevin Walsh as the next Federal Reserve Chair. Separately, the U.S. dollar index slid to a four-year low (around 96) as markets repriced U.S. policy risk. In commodities, safe-haven demand lifted gold more than 10% on…
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Weekly Newsletter: Jan 23rd, 2026
Markets opened on edge this week as politics, policy, and AI power struggles collided. Macro-wise, global stocks whipsawed after Trump’s renewed rhetoric about asserting control over Greenland briefly eased and then reignited trade fears, keeping volatility high, lifting gold, and leaving investors wary of EU retaliation and broader geopolitical risk. In Washington, the Supreme Court…
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Weekly Newsletter: Jan 16th, 2026
U.S. core CPI rose 2.6% in December, below consensus, with shelter, food, and recreation higher and used cars lower. In response, markets opened steady, and the base case remains a Fed hold. In D.C., Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed he is under a criminal probe tied to tensions with President Trump. Turning to tech, Oracle…
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December 2025 AI Financing Report
December extended the infrastructure buildout while frontier labs tightened product and go-to-market execution. OpenAI reportedly pursued up to ~$100B of new capital at an implied ~$800B+ valuation, alongside potential strategic deepening with Amazon and a ~$1B Disney licensing deal to support Sora-enabled video workflows. The firm accelerated iteration with GPT-5.2 under a rapid “code red”…
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The State of AI: 2025 Year in Review
Table of Contents Introduction 1. 2025 in Review: Macroeconomic Backdrop 1.1 Markets and Monetary Policy 1.2 Asset Class Performance 2. 2025 in Review: Technology Sector 2.1 Industrial Policy and Sovereign Capital 2.2 Selected Technology Transactions 2.3 Energy and Power for AI 2.4 Hyperscaler Capital Deployment 2.5 Neocloud Infrastructure Buildout 3. 2025 in Review: Frontier AI…
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November 2025 AI Financing Report
November reflected broad infrastructure acceleration and deepening capital concentration as Hyperscalers, model labs, and investors expanded long-term AI commitments. OpenAI secured a $38B, seven-year AWS cloud agreement to lock in Nvidia GPU supply, while Microsoft advanced $9.7B in partnerships with IREN and Lambda to extend multi-region training capacity. Meta and Anthropic added more than $650B…
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October 2025 AI Financing Report
October reflected the next leg of AI’s shift from narrative to realized demand, as earnings showed AI workloads driving cloud usage and revenue impact. Google Cloud grew 34% and AWS grew 20% while Apple Services hit an all-time high, signaling that enterprise AI adoption is beginning to show up in P&L and capex guidance rather…
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How Big Tech Is Rewriting M&A: The License and Acqui-hire Era
Authors: Justin Wang (Analyst), Evelyn Xie (Analyst) Table of Contents Introduction Inflection & Microsoft (Mar 2024) Adept AI & Amazon (Jun 2024) Covariant & Amazon (Aug 2024) Character.AI & Google (Aug 2024) Windsurf & Google + Cognition AI (Jul 2025) Scale AI & Meta (Jun 2025) Enfabrica & Nvidia (Sep 2025) Takeaways Introduction A new…
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September 2025 AI Financing Report
September’s activity reflected continued movement from hype to scaled execution as leading players doubled down on infrastructure and distribution. OpenAI advanced on multiple fronts, closing a $6.6B secondary sale at a $500B valuation, striking a landmark $300B compute deal with Oracle, and expanding U.S. datacenter plans, while Nvidia drove aggressive dealmaking including up to $100B…
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Reflections on China’s Tech Scene: EVs, AI, and Everyday Innovation
After a month-long trip to China this August, I found myself reflecting on the rapid pace of technological change and how much of it is shaped by China’s state-managed economy. As I rest on my flight back to the U.S., I could not help but notice how different the consumer experience felt, from transportation to…