October 05, 2025: Investors Looking Past US Federal Government Shutdown

Last week, Dow Jones gained 1.1%, S&P 500 index rose 1.1%, Nasdaq composite was up 1.3%, despite a modest pullback Friday. AI related stocks, nuclear names, quantum computing stocks remain strong. The OpenAI employee stock tender reportedly values the company at ~US$500 billion (with OpenAI now surpassing SpaceX as the highest valued private company). H1/25 revenue grew to US$4.3 billion and cash burn was US$2.5 billion. OpenAI will also reportedly release a TikTok-like social app alongside Sora 2. The new IPO Fermi, rallied to a ~US$21.5 valuation on its NASDAQ debut, despite no revenue, underscoring the land/power-AI adjacent trade. Wealthfront, Navan, TravelPerk, and Zelis Healthcare are planning IPOs. Meta will acquire chip startup Rivos, and OpenAI taps Samsung/SK Hynix for massive High Bandwidth Memory supply. Salesforce is targeting AI developers with a new vibe coding service. Stripe is pursuing federal and NY trust charters to power client-issued stablecoins. Amazon’s ‘NBA on Prime’ streams will include FanDuel bet tracking, shopping integration, and more. Wolfspeed shares surged 33% on Tuesday, after the chipmaker successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a substantially reduced debt load. In Canada, Shopify partnered with OpenAI as ChatGPT rolls out in-app shopping and “Instant Checkout” sending its stock up ~6%. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Intermap closed its upsized bought deal for C$28.75 million, including the full shoe. Boardwalktech signed a multi-year Velocity deployment with an NYSE-listed global pro-services firm for US$70K ARR and US$40K follow-on. Plurilock made a key executive appointment to scale higher-margin federal/defence across U.S., Canada, NATO markets. Kraken Robotics, completed brand integration with 3D at Depth.

Shopify (SHOP-NASDAQ, SHOP-TSX) merchants to sell directly through OpenAI’s ChatGPT with new partnership.

Shopify will soon bring its merchants’ products into ChatGPT through a partnership with OpenAI, as the chatbot developer rolls out in-app shopping for the first time. OpenAI introduced a new “Instant Checkout” feature to its consumer chatbot today that lets users in the United States buy products from Etsy sellers without leaving the app. Shopify merchants will reach ChatGPT soon, alongside multiple-item purchases, the company said. A Shopify spokesperson told BetaKit that a select group of Shopify merchants, including Glossier, Spanx, and Steve Madden, will be allowed to sell on ChatGPT as part of an early-access program, which will then be broadened to include more merchants. Shopify’s stock jumped by six percent on the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange following the announcement. https://tinyurl.com/45aunbwm

Sophic Client Intermap (IMP-TSX, ITMSF-OTC) closes Bought Deal public offering for gross proceeds of $28,752,300, including the full exercise of the Over-Allotment option.

Intermap Technologies Corporation closed its previously announced and upsized “bought deal” public offering of 9,584,100 Class A common shares in the capital of the Company (the “Common Shares”) at a price of $3.00 per Common Share for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $28,752,300, including the full exercise of the over-allotment option granted to the Underwriters (as defined herein) (the “Offering”). The Offering was underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters led by Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc., and included Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Beacon Securities Limited (collectively, the “Underwriters”). The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, as more particularly described in the Prospectus Supplement (as defined herein). The Offering remains subject to the final approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”). Patrick A. Blott, Intermap’s Chairman and CEO, said, “The success of this Offering reflects investment from long-term, growth-oriented institutions that recognize the critical value our customers place on Intermap’s proprietary GEOINT data products. We are pleased with the strong demand, resulting in over-subscription and upsizing of the Offering. A stronger balance sheet matches our objective to increasingly embed exquisite mission-critical GEOINT in our customer workflows.” The Offering was completed by way of a prospectus supplement (the “Prospectus Supplement”) to the short form base shelf prospectus of the Company dated September 15, 2025 (the “Base Shelf Prospectus”), which supplement was filed on September 24, 2025. The Base Shelf Prospectus and the Prospectus Supplement can be found on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and contain important detailed information about the Offering. In connection with the Offering, the Company paid the Underwriters an aggregate cash commission of $1,725,138 and issued the Underwriters an aggregate of 575,046 compensation warrants (the “Broker Warrants”). Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at USD$2.1758, at any time until September 29, 2027. https://tinyurl.com/5n7349r4

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) signs multi-year contract with global professional services firm and appoints Steve Bennet as CFO.

Boardwalktech Software Corp. (“Boardwalktech” or the “Company”), a leading digital ledger platform and enterprise software solutions company, signed a multi-year contract with a leading NYSE-listed global professional services firm. The deal calls for the installation of Boardwalktech’s Velocity product for Excel data management for a group of approximately 30 users within the client’s finance subdivision. Management anticipates approximately US$70,000 of Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”) for the first year of deployment with an additional US$40,000 of follow-on ARR. “Companies continue to rely on the Boardwalktech Velocity product to aggregate, validate and provide an audit trail on mission-critical finance data,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Boardwalktech. “Our Velocity clients take what was a manual process, using email to collaborate, and move into an enterprise-wide database solution that still uses Excel and the User Interface, greatly improving processes and reducing risks. Velocity eliminates days from the legacy manual processes and delivers information so decisions can be made faster. This initial contract has the potential to scale up meaningfully over time.” Boardwalktech announces that current director Steve Bennet has taken over as the Company’s CFO. Mr. Bennet brings over 30 years of experience as Chief Financial Officer, investor, and/or board member of over 100 technology start-ups in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem, primarily in the software, Internet, and mobile sectors. Mr. Bennet is also the founder and managing director of the management consulting firm Bodega Partners. Mr. Bennet’s executive roles as CFO include Rollbar, Xenio Systems, Qvivr, Callisto Media, Revel Systems, iControl Networks (acquired by Comcast), Appstores (acquired by InMobi), Greystripe (acquired by ValueClick), Fliqz (acquired by VBrick Systems), Valchemy (acquired by IBM), GolfWeb (acquired by CBS Sportsline), Orbital Data (acquired by Citrix), TextDigger (acquired by Federated Media), and Pharmacy TV Network (acquired by RMG Networks). https://tinyurl.com/2vy2a6bv

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) appoints Cybersecurity veteran as Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of Critical Services division.

Plurilock Security Inc., a global cybersecurity systems integrator, announces that Michael Ruiz has been appointed as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and promoted to General Manager of Critical Services (“PLCS”), effective September 26, 2025. In this dual executive role, Mr. Ruiz will lead Plurilock’s margin expansion strategy by scaling its high-value Critical Services business across North America and allied international markets. He will oversee proposal and capture management for large-scale public sector and defense opportunities while accelerating expansion of Plurilock’s solutions within U.S., Canadian, NATO, and commercial markets. Mr. Ruiz brings more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, defense technology, and digital transformation, holding senior roles at Honeywell, Raytheon, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Deloitte. Earlier in his career, he served as a U.S. Army Signals Intelligence Analyst. He has conducted doctoral-level research in artificial intelligence and machine learning (“AI/ML”) for cybersecurity and malware detection and holds a master’s degree in computer and information systems security. His appointment was facilitated through Plurilock’s Board and advisory board network, leveraging their deep industry relationships. “Michael’s appointment is transformative for our Critical Services business,” said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “He brings a proven track record of winning nine-figure RFPs and leading mission-critical programs at scale. His expertise aligns perfectly with our strategy of expanding high-margin Critical Services and strengthening our position as a trusted cybersecurity partner to allied governments and global enterprises. We are confident Michael will accelerate our growth and deepen our presence in both defense and commercial sectors.” “I’m excited to step into this role at Plurilock, where the combination of cutting-edge products and mission-driven services creates real impact for customers in high-stakes environments,” said Michael Ruiz. “Plurilock’s ability to pair innovative software with deep consulting expertise is exactly what federal agencies and critical infrastructure operators need as they modernize and defend their systems. I look forward to applying my experience in federal cybersecurity and advanced analytics to strengthen our work across Canada, the U.S., and allied markets, helping clients protect what matters most while accelerating how we deliver value.” https://t.co/pS7qiSCpIS

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC): 3D at Depth is now Kraken Robotics.

Kraken Robotics Inc. announces that, following its acquisition of 3D at Depth on April 1, 2025, the 3D at Depth brand and company name have changed to Kraken Robotics. Clients can now access Kraken’s full suite of marine technology products and services—from synthetic aperture sonar and subsea batteries to LiDAR solutions and sub-bottom imaging. https://tinyurl.com/3zs3xaaz

MGX, SoftBank back OpenAI tender at US$500 billion valuation.

SoftBank, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and others funded a US$6.6 billion OpenAI employee share sale that valued the company at US$500 billion, said a person with knowledge of the deal. The share sale price is nearly double OpenAI’s US$260 billion valuation from a separate US$40 billion round of funding it’s raising from investors led by SoftBank. Dragoneer, Thrive Capital and T. Rowe Price also invested in the employee tender, said the person with knowledge of the deal. OpenAI considered allowing a tender as large as $8 billion, with the final size depending on how much stock current and former employees decided to sell. https://tinyurl.com/39pctk2u

Cerebras pulls IPO plans.

Chipmaker Cerebras Systems said in a securities filing on Friday that it was withdrawing its plans to go public. The news comes just days after the upstart looking to take on Nvidia announced it had officially closed a US$1.1 billion fundraise from private investors that it had been putting together over the summer. That round represented an apparent pivot from the earlier plan its CEO, Andrew Feldman, outlined in May, when he said the company would aim to make its public debut this year once it had secured regulatory approval to sell shares to Middle East investors. The company’s exposure to the Middle East has been a big sticking point with investors. According to its now-withdrawn IPO filing last September, Group 42 Holding, the parent of G42, accounted for the majority of Cerebras’ revenue in 2023 and the first half of 2024. https://tinyurl.com/25dd2ruy

Fermi soars to nearly US$22 billion valuation in trading debut.

Shares in Fermi America rose more than 50% to almost US$33 a piece following its listing on the Nasdaq exchange, a sign of investor exuberance for companies building data centers for artificial intelligence. Fermi, which was founded this year, is building a data center site connected to natural gas and nuclear power in Amarillo, Texas, on a more than 5,000 acre plot of land leased from the Texas Tech University System. It hasn’t made any revenue so far, though it’s signed a non-binding agreement with an unnamed tech company interested in being a tenant for the site. Fermi’s trading debut gave it a valuation of about US$21.5 billion, according to the fully diluted share count it outlined in an initial public offering prospectus. https://tinyurl.com/y5x3jzk2

Wealthfront files for IPO.

Robo-advisory startup Wealthfront on Monday filed paperwork for an initial public offering that revealed its annual revenue jumped 43% to US$309 million during the 12 months through January. The company recorded a profit of US$194 million, more than double its net income a year earlier. The fintech company, which was an early leader in the market for automated investing, is the latest in a rush of fintech firms going public, following Chime and Klarna. Wealthfront was founded in 2008 and was nearly bought by UBS for US$1.4 billion in 2022, but the deal collapsed at a time when fintech valuations crashed. Instead, UBS at the time invested in the startup at that valuation. Wealthfront has raised money from VC firms including Index Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Spark Capital. Wealthfront said it has 1.3 million customers as of July this year and more than $88 billion in assets on its platform. https://tinyurl.com/3wy5eess

Navan plans to raise US$750 million in October IPO.

Travel software company Navan is planning to raise US$750 million in its October public offering, though the actual size of the offering could still change, according to people with direct knowledge of the deal. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company showed in its IPO filings that revenue rose 30% to US$329 million for the six months ended July 31 but showed a net loss of US$100 million for the same period. Founded 10 years ago as TripActions, Navan was valued at US$9.2 billion in 2022 and its backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Navan’s listing is one of the latest travel-themed IPOs. Barcelona-based TravelPerk, which also makes software to manage corporate travel and expenses, hired investment banks for its US IPO. Klook, a Hong Kong-based online travel startup backed by SoftBank and HongShan Capital also hired investment banks for a US IPO, Reuters reported. https://tinyurl.com/4fvfxzn6

Softbank-backed TravelPerk hired banks for IPO.

Travel management platform TravelPerk hired investment bankers for an upcoming U.S. initial public offering, the latest among a string of travel-themed IPOs, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The Barcelona-based company has hired Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies, the person said. TravelPerk was last valued at US$2.7 billion in January 2025. Its backers include General Catalyst, Softbank Vision Fund, Blackstone, EQT Growth and Sequoia Capital. It builds software to help businesses manage corporate travel and expenses. https://tinyurl.com/2p8y9fs3

Payments company Zelis Healthcare hires Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan for an early 2026 IPO.

Healthcare payments company Zelis Healthcare is preparing for an IPO, Business Insider has learned. The company has confidentially filed its S-1 and hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan for its IPO push, four people with knowledge of the deal said. Zelis had previously been targeting a public offering in the fourth quarter, but is now aiming for an IPO in the first quarter of 2026, one of those people said. The company sells healthtech software to healthcare providers to manage medical claims and process electronic payments. It’s now generating nearly US$1 billion in earnings before expenses like tax and interest, the person said. Zelis is majorly owned by private equity giants Bain Capital and Parthenon Capital. Zelis’s IPO in early 2026 would follow a slow year for healthcare IPOs in 2025. Physical therapy company Hinge Health broke open the digital health IPO market in May with its listing, and diabetes care company Omada Health went public in June. AI-powered medical technology maker Heartflow hit the markets in August. The broader tech IPO market has shown more signs of life this year, notching sizable debuts like Figma and Klarna. Amid continued market uncertainties and higher standards for public market candidates, however, investors, bankers, and analysts told BI in June that most healthcare IPO hopefuls planned to wait until 2026 or later to go public. Zelis was founded 30 years ago under the name Stratose. The company focused primarily on medical claims management until 2019, when it pushed into healthcare payments tech by merging with payment platform RedCard in 2019. https://tinyurl.com/53esx92s

Investor group to buy EA For US$55 billion in cash.

An investor group including Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is buying Electronic Arts for US$55 billion in cash, or US$210 a share, a significant premium to where the videogame giant has been trading in recent years. Electronic Arts is one of the most prominent makers of mass market video games, responsible for a variety of sports-related games including Madden NFL, as well as The Sims, Battlefield and Titanfall. But its sales growth in recent years has been anemic, as Netflix-like game services have emerged. The company throws off plenty of cash, however—its free cash flow last year was just over US$2 billion—which makes it ideal for a private equity led takeover. The companies said this was the biggest all-cash take-private in history. They have lined up US$20 billion in debt, while the equity contribution will total US$36 billion. EA shares, which rose 15% on Friday on word of the deal, were trading up 5.5% in pre-market trading on Monday. https://tinyurl.com/ysmcbwjx

Meta plans to acquire chip startup Rivos.

Meta Platforms plans to acquire the chip startup Rivos, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in July said his company would spend “hundreds of billions of dollars” on expanding its computing capacity to enable its ambitions in artificial intelligence. Rivos has been designing a graphics processing unit that could be released as early as next year. Meta has also been working on its own chip for AI, called Meta Training and Inference Accelerator. Bloomberg earlier reported on Meta’s plans to acquire Rivos. “Our custom silicon work is progressing quickly and this will further accelerate our efforts,” a spokesperson for Meta said in a statement. https://tinyurl.com/3z34h4fa

OpenAI generated US$4.3 billion in revenue, burned US$2.5 billion in first half.

In the first half of 2025, OpenAI generated US$4.3 billion in revenue, putting the company on track to meet its full-year revenue projection of US$13 billion. Meanwhile, the company burned US$2.5 billion over the same time period, in large part due to its high research and development costs for developing its AI models. Other significant costs included US$2 billion spent on sales and marketing, nearly doubling what OpenAI spent on sales and marketing in all of 2024. Though not a cash expense, OpenAI also spent nearly US$2.5 billion on stock-based equity compensation in the first six months of 2025, nearly double what it spent in the same period a year earlier, reflecting an increasingly competitive market for talent. OpenAI posted an operating loss of US$7.8 billion in the first half. The company is required to hand over 20% of its revenue to Microsoft, though it has projected that percentage will fall over time, helping it save US$50 billion through 2030. As OpenAI closes out the first half of the year, it’s looking to sell employee shares in a tender offer that would value its for-profit arm at about US$500 billion, up from US$260 billion around the start of this year. It’s also beginning an effort to raise tens of billions of dollars from Nvidia and others for data centers it plans to operate. https://tinyurl.com/59b9dsx8

CoreWeave expands GPU deal with Meta.

CoreWeave signed a new cloud deal with Meta Platforms, in which it will provide as much as US$14.2 billion worth of compute capacity to the firm through 2031. CoreWeave disclosed the deal on Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The new deal extends the companies’ existing relationship and comes as Meta has signed other cloud deals to quickly expand its access to Nvidia graphics processing units. Meta signed a US$10 billion compute deal with Google cloud and is in talks with Oracle about a US$20 billion deal. The Information first reported that Meta was a major CoreWeave customer. Meta is still investing heavily in its own data centers—it recently raised nearly US$30 billion for a data center in Louisiana. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said recently that Meta plans to spend around US$600 billion on servers through 2028. https://tinyurl.com/yc5se8zf

AI Unicorn Groq charts data-center expansion plan.

AI unicorn Groq aims to establish more than a dozen data centers next year, its chief executive said, as the startup maps out its global expansion plan. U.S.-based Groq, which makes chips and software to run artificial-intelligence models, was last valued at US$6.9 billion. https://tinyurl.com/5n9y3vjm

Tesla deliveries spiked 7% in third quarter ahead of tax credit expiry.

Tesla delivered 497,000 vehicles in the third quarter of 2025, up 7% year-over-year, as the impending end of a U.S. federal tax credit for electric vehicles at the end of September contributed to a surge in sales. While sales were up, Tesla produced 447,000 vehicles in the July-to-September quarter, down about 5% from the same period last year. The lower production rate indicates the company expects sales to slow in the fourth quarter since the US$7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicle purchases has now expired. Tesla also said it installed 12.5 GWh of energy storage products in the third quarter, some of which went to Elon Musk’s xAI, which is using the batteries at its supersized data centers. Both the vehicle and energy storage delivery figures were records, according to Tesla. Tesla shares were roughly flat early Thursday but have rallied 39% over the past month as CEO Elon Musk has said he’s becoming more involved at the company and spending less time on politics. Musk purchased $1 billion in Tesla shares in September, his first significant investment in more than five years. In November, Tesla shareholders will vote on whether to approve an unprecedented pay package for Musk proposed by the Tesla board, which will grant him up to US$1 trillion in stock if he meets several ambitious goals including increasing the company’s market capitalization to US$8.5 trillion, up from less than US$1.5 trillion today. https://tinyurl.com/2wyekre

Wolfspeed shares rally after chipmaker exits Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Wolfspeed shares surged 33% on Tuesday, after the chipmaker successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a substantially reduced debt load. The move has restored investor confidence in the company’s prospects to become a leading provider of silicon carbide semiconductors, known for their energy efficiency, to electric-vehicle makers amid growing electrification and increasing chip content in automobiles. Wolfspeed had filed for bankruptcy protection in June due to deepening economic uncertainty stemming from changing U.S. trade policies and weakening demand. Since then, it has restructured, worked toward extending debt maturities and made significant leadership changes, including naming industry veteran Van Issum as its chief financial officer. The company said on Monday it had achieved its goal of reducing overall debt by about 70%. Wolfspeed, however, has canceled all legacy shares in its bankruptcy restructuring, issuing just 1.3 million new shares to existing investors at a steep exchange ratio of less than 1% per old share. This reduces prior shareholders’ stake since the bulk of the new equity goes to creditors and backstop investors, leaving legacy holders with only a sliver of ownership. Owing to analysts’ expectations of continued losses at Wolfspeed, the company carries a negative multiple. That compares with the 12-month-forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17.9 for Onsemi and 16.7 for NXP, according to data compiled by LSEG. https://tinyurl.com/3f3vhxr3

Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.5 model.

Anthropic on Monday released its latest model, Claude Sonnet 4.5, according to a blog post. The model outperforms OpenAI’s flagship GPT-5 model on a popular software engineering benchmark, and is able to work for more than 30 hours straight on complex, multi-step tasks, the blog post said. Claude Sonnet 4.5 also shows improved performance compared to older Anthropic models in specific domains like finance, law and medicine, the blog post said. Anthropic also said that its Claude chatbot will now be able to create and edit Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. These capabilities would be similar to ones OpenAI released earlier this year, and could make both companies’ business customers less dependent on productivity apps from Microsoft. Additionally, Anthropic is releasing new software that will allow developers to build agents that can conduct research, handle customer support tickets or analyze investment opportunities. https://tinyurl.com/mw3ky2wv

Salesforce targets AI developers with new vibe coding service.

Salesforce is jumping aboard the vibe coding trend, launching a new service that lets developers create applications by describing the features and functionality they want using simple text prompts. The cloud software provider says the new service, part of its Agentforce product, will include stronger security and management features than other vibe coding tools that are designed for independent developers. That echoes the messaging that rivals like Microsoft and Amazon are using to convince customers that their AI is accurate enough to use in critical business functions. Agentforce has seen slow adoption since its launch last October, in part because many Salesforce customers haven’t taken the necessary steps to use the product, like organizing their data. By offering a vibe coding service, Salesforce is now going after a part of the AI market that is already seeing rapid adoption. https://tinyurl.com/bdedcjes

Amazon unveils revamped device lineup to help boost Alexa usage.

Amazon unveiled a range of updated smart home and consumer devices at a launch event in New York on Tuesday, as the e-commerce giant tries to boost adoption of its revamped Alexa voice assistant, known as Alexa+. The latest versions of Amazon’s Ring home cameras, Fire TVs, Kindle tablets and Echo speakers all will more closely incorporate Alexa+, which is meant to be a more conversational and capable version of the voice assistant. Amazon first unveiled Alexa+ earlier this year. But Amazon for years has struggled to actually make money from Alexa, since it has historically priced Alexa devices at roughly break-even, and Alexa+ is free for Prime members. Amazon’s devices head Panos Panay said on stage during the event that early access Alexa+ users are using the voice assistant more than twice as much as before and that Alexa+ usage for tasks like shopping and streaming music has increased. https://tinyurl.com/4evwtm2e

OpenAI will reportedly release a TikTok-like social app alongside Sora 2.

In a development that should surprise no one, OpenAI is preparing to release a standalone social app powered by its upcoming Sora 2 video model, Wired reports. The app reportedly “closely resembles” TikTok, with a vertical video feed and swipe-to-scroll navigation. The catch? It will only feature AI-generated content; there’s apparently no option for the user to upload photos or videos from their phone’s camera roll. Wired adds OpenAI will limit Sora 2 to generating clips that are 10 seconds long or shorter for use inside of the app. It’s unclear what the model’s limit will be outside of the app. TikTok, following an original limit of 15 seconds, allows people to upload clips that are up to 10 minutes long. The new app is also said to include an identity verification tool. Should a user take advantage of the feature, Sora 2 will be able to use their likeness in videos it generates. In turn, that means other people will be able to tag those users and use their likeness when they go to remix one of their videos. As a safety precaution, OpenAI will push a notification to users whenever their likeness is used by someone else, even in situations where someone makes a video but never posts it to the app’s feed. As for why OpenAI would release a social media app, Wired suggests the company saw an opportunity after President Trump repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to bring TikTok’s US business under American control. By adding a social component to Sora, OpenAI may also be hoping to dissuade people from trying other models since leaving its new app would mean abandoning whatever community forms around it. https://tinyurl.com/3njdauxd

Amazon’s ‘NBA on Prime’ streams will include FanDuel bet tracking, shopping integration, and more.

Amazon is planning a number of interactive features and personalization for fans when it begins airing NBA games on Prime Video starting Oct. 24. The offerings from Prime Sports will include a personalized bet tracking experience with FanDuel, a fully-customizable multiview offering, AI-driven highlights on demand, live stats, the ability to shop within the game, and more. Amazon scored an 11-year deal with the league last year that begins with the upcoming season and includes exclusive streaming rights to 66 regular season games as well as playoff games. Amazon uses its Prime Video arm to help drive signups for its Prime membership program, which costs US$139/year and offers various benefits including free shipping and streaming. As more people cut the cord, sports leagues are increasingly engaging with tech companies as their existing deals with traditional cable providers expire. Those companies are hungry for valuable content such as live sports — one of the most-watched telecasts — to draw more subscribers to their respective platforms. Bloomberg reported that Amazon is paying US$1.8 billion annually for the NBA rights. https://tinyurl.com/4t6e5man

Cyberattack on JLR prompts £1.5 billion UK government intervention.

“The loan from a commercial bank, backed by the Export Development Guarantee (EDG) provided by export credit agency UK Export Finance, will be paid back over five years and bolster JLR’s cash reserves so it can support its supply chain which has been greatly impacted by the shutdown,” the government said. The government’s announcement points out that JLR is one of the UK’s largest exporters and is responsible for one of the largest automotive sector supply chains in the country. Roughly 34,000 people are employed directly by JLR and 120,000 in supply chain operations. Some experts believe the bailout will encourage cybercriminals to continue targeting UK companies with weak cybersecurity. “Personally I think the UK is going to be one to watch now,” said cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont, who has been monitoring this and other major cyber incidents, “if I was an e-crime threat actor, I’d zero in on the UK.” https://tinyurl.com/sfv69hr2

Stripe plans to apply for Federal Charter in Stablecoin push.

Stripe is planning to apply for a charter with a federal banking regulator to meet the requirements of new U.S. stablecoin legislation, which will allow it to keep issuing stablecoins for clients when the law takes effect. The company is preparing to apply for a national trust charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said Zach Abrams, co-founder and CEO of Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure firm that was acquired by Stripe in a US$1.1 billion deal this year. Stripe is also planning to apply for a trust license with the New York State Department of Financial Services, he said. Stripe announced a new service today to help clients launch their own stablecoins “in days.” So far, crypto wallet providers Phantom and Metamask, as well as Native Markets for Hyperliquid, are using Stripe’s services to issue stablecoins. The move could introduce more competition to Circle and Tether, the dominant stablecoin issuers whose tokens are currently used by many of Stripe’s clients. It will also add to a rapidly increasing number of stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies that are typically pegged to the dollar. Stripe will allow its clients to receive all the interest revenue generated from their own stablecoins, minus a fee that starts at 0.5% of assets. Stripe aims to make its stablecoin issuance service “as big as possible,” said Neetika Bansal, Stripe’s business lead for connect, money management and crypto. She said Stripe had no specific plans yet to issue its own stablecoin. https://tinyurl.com/2ahv23r3

OpenAI taps Samsung, SK Hynix for massive AI infrastructure project.

OpenAI signed preliminary agreements with South Korea’s largest memory chip makers to supply its ambitious Stargate datacenter project. The deals were announced during a trip by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to Seoul. The operator of ChatGPT is leading a sweeping global push to build massive new data centers for AI — a project likely to cost trillions of dollars and consume vast amounts of chips, servers, cooling systems and electricity. OpenAI said in a statement that its demand for high-bandwidth memory could reach as much as 900,000 wafers per month. SK Hynix said in a separate statement that this would be more than double the industry’s current production capacity. SK Hynix is the worldwide leader in supplying high-bandwidth memory, which is critical for Nvidia’s chips, while Samsung is working to take a larger share of the fast-growing market. The companies are the latest to support OpenAI’s global AI infrastructure buildout alongside Nvidia and Oracle. After Seoul, Altman was set to visit Taipei for meetings with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, major partners in the AI server supply chain, local Taiwanese reports said. https://tinyurl.com/3223xs3c