November 02, 2025: Busy Week, Major Indices End Up

Last week, Dow Jones gained 0.75%, S&P 500 was up 0.7%, Nasdaq composite rose 2.2%. Markets navigated a very busy week successfully, aided by an expected Federal Reserve rate cut, even as odds for a December cut were lowered. President Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Mag 7 earnings suggest the AI trade/Capex build continues to roll on. OpenAI has recapitalized into a Public Benefit Corp, clearing a path to future fundraising/IPO. Microsoft now holds 27% equity, keeps its IP access through 2032, and OpenAI has committed an additional US$250 billion in Azure spend over time. Street chatter points to a potential late 2026/2027 IPO, which if realized, would anchor AI leader multiples. Meta is preparing a ≥US $25 billion bond sale to fund AI opex/capex. Alphabet reported Google Cloud grew +34% y/y, with profitability up sharply. Amazon’s AWS growth re-accelerated to ~20%, easing share-loss fears. Apple guided to double-digit iPhone holiday growth. Nvidia’s order book shows >US$500 billion in orders through 2026, and the company announced a deal to supply 50,000 GPUs to Samsung, sending its market cap over US$5 trillion. Qualcomm stock rose on a deal to provide AI chips to Saudi Arabia. Skyworks will buy Qorvo in a US$10.6B deal. PE firm Francisco Partners will take Jamf private in a US$2.2 billion deal. Navan fell on its IPO debut. Fiserv stock fell 40%+ after a 2025 guide reset. Anduril opened an Australian plant for Ghost Shark undersea drones. UK orders next-gen naval UUV fleet for mine-clearing/infrastructure protection. Fincantieri unveiled DEEP integrated underwater drone/sensor system. In Canada, Wealthsimple announced a Series E round of up to $750 million at a $10 billion post valuation (2x since last year) after assets grew to a $100 billion goal three years early. Invest Ottawa unveiled an NCR Defence Innovation Hub targeting $3 billion in public-private investment over five year. In news pertaining to Sophic Clients, Renoworks announced key wins. Ionik sells SCS assets for US$1.2 million. Plurilock’s insiders/employees bought ~531k shares, and the company closed a $3 million debenture financing.

Wealthsimple hits $10 billion valuation in new round backed by Dragoneer, GIC, CPP Investments.

Toronto-based FinTech firm Wealthsimple has announced that it has signed a Series E round of up to $750 million at a post-money valuation of $10 billion. This represents double the company’s $5 billion valuation a year ago. It comes on the heels of significant growth for Wealthsimple, which revealed last week at its product showcase that it had doubled its total assets under administration (AUA) over the past year to $100 billion—three years ahead of schedule. Wealthsimple is profitable, caters to more than three million clients, and is poised to become Canada’s most valuable private venture-backed tech company, vaulting ahead of peers like Cohere, Hopper, and 1Password. The round is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. With the new funding, Wealthsimple is poised to become Canada’s most valuable private venture-backed tech company. The Series E includes both a $550-million primary offering and a secondary offering of up to $200 million. Existing American backer Dragoneer Investment Group is co-leading with new investor GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund. Fellow new investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) is supporting alongside existing backers Power Corporation of Canada (Power) and Power subsidiary IGM Financial, as well as US-based Iconiq, Greylock, and Meritech. Power is Wealthsimple’s largest shareholder and announced that its interest will remain “substantially unchanged” following the financing. Such a large financing with a significant secondary component could alleviate some of the immediate pressure Wealthsimple might feel to go public, giving the company similar optionality to Clio’s Series F last year. https://tinyurl.com/5bzy2z77

Ottawa pushes to become Canada’s defence innovation hub.

Invest Ottawa is making a push to transform the National Capital Region (NCR) into the “heartbeat” of Canada’s defence innovation economy. In a Tuesday presentation at Ottawa City Hall, Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe unveiled Canada’s Capital Region National Defence Innovation Hub Strategy. The initiative, spearheaded by local economic development agency Invest Ottawa, hopes to attract up to $3 billion in public-private investment in the region’s defence innovation sector over the next five years. https://tinyurl.com/ykbwbfh6

Sophic Client Renoworks Software Inc. (RW-TSXV, ROWKF-OTC) adds leading roofing manufacturer Owens Corning Roofing to expand enterprise manufacturer partner ecosystem.

Renoworks Software Inc., announces that Owens Corning Roofing (NYSE: OC), a residential and commercial building products leader, has launched Design EyeQ® Roofing Visualizer, powered by the Renoworks AI technology platform. This launch marks a new enterprise manufacturer customer for Renoworks and demonstrates the Company’s expanding momentum in AI-driven visualization and lead-generation solutions across the building-products industry. The new Owens Corning Roofing visualizer delivers a modern, interactive design experience that enables homeowners visiting www.owenscorning.com to explore roofing styles, colors, and product combinations in a hyper-realistic environment. It leverages Renoworks’ proprietary visualization and AI technologies to showcase Owens Corning Roofing products with unmatched realism and ease of use — driving homeowner engagement, brand affinity, and qualified lead generation for contractors. “Owens Corning Roofing is one of the most trusted and recognized brands in roofing, and we’re honored that they chose Renoworks to power their next-generation digital experience,” said Doug Vickerson, CEO of Renoworks. “This new partnership reflects a growing industry shift toward AI-enabled customer engagement tools and Renoworks is leading that transformation.” The Design EyeQ® Visualizer allows users to upload a photo of their home, instantly generate design options, and preview realistic renderings that simulate completed projects before making purchase decisions. The platform is built to engage homeowners and streamline project conversations across the Owens Corning Roofing network. The decision to license the Renoworks AI platform underscores the technology’s ability to enable Owens Corning Roofing to scale its digital customer experience and continuously enhance its roofing visualization program. The platform’s extensible architecture allows for future advancements such as AI-based design recommendations, integrated measurement data, and enhanced homeowner-to-contractor tools creating a powerful foundation for driving engagement, qualified leads, and conversion throughout the remodeling journey. “Homeowners today expect a digital experience that’s intuitive, personalized, and inspiring,” added Mr. Vickerson. “Together with Owens Corning Roofing, we’re redefining what that looks like and this new launch demonstrates how Renoworks AI can scale to serve major brands and their contractor ecosystems.” https://t.co/qwWaMGTQX6

Sophic Client Renoworks Software Inc. (RW-TSXV, ROWKF-OTC) expands enterprise adoption with eight new Visualizer launches.

Renoworks Software Inc., an industry leader in visualization, design, and lead-generation technology for the building products sector, announces the launch of eight new enterprise visualizers for leading North American manufacturers and distributors. The Company has also signed 15 additional enterprise customers which are expected to launch by the end of Q1 2026. These new enterprise customers further strengthen Renoworks’ position as the visualization platform of choice for the building products industry, supporting its strategic focus on expanding recurring revenue, growing its enterprise customer base, and delivering immersive design experiences that accelerate the path from inspiration to purchase. Each new manufacturer and distributor integration also adds to Renoworks’ extensive library of digital building product data, expanding the Company’s catalog of materials, colors, and configurations that power its AI-driven visualization tools. Renoworks is driving a new era of data-driven transformation in the building products industry, as leading manufacturers and distributors increasingly adopt its data science and AI technology. By leveraging these advanced capabilities, industry leaders are gaining deeper insights into customer preferences, identifying emerging design trends, and enhancing digital engagement with their audiences. New Enterprise Visualizer Launches Include: Waypoint – Launched May 24, 2025, Blackhawk Building Supply – Launched June 6, 2025, Kline Home Exteriors – Launched June 26, 2025, PCS Cabinetry – Launched June 26, 2025, Fimbel Architectural Doors – Launched August 26, 2025, WeatherGard Windows – Launched October 1, 2025, R Stone – Launched October 1, 2025, Owens Corning Roofing (previously announced). These additions span diverse segments, including roofing, siding, windows, doors, stone veneer and kitchen cabinets, illustrating the broad applicability of Renoworks’ visualization platform across the residential construction and remodeling markets. https://t.co/Vx2RTOtr7D

Sophic Client Renoworks Software Inc. (RW-TSXV, ROWKF-OTC) CEO Doug Vickerson will be at the Rivemont MicroCap Cocktail in Montreal on November 26th. Renoworks will be attending this event which is now over 50% sold out in the first day of announcing it. https://tinyurl.com/95vy8jcf

Sophic Client Ionik (INIK-TSXV, INIKF-OTCQX) announces sale of SCS subsidiary.

Ionik Corporation has completed the sale of substantially all of the assets of its wholly owned subsidiary Schiefer Media, Inc. (“SCS”), which operated under the brand name SCS, to PUSH Media USA Inc. (the “Purchaser”), pursuant to an Asset Purchase Agreement entered into on October 31, 2025 (the “Transaction”). The sale of SCS reflects Ionik’s continued evolution as a unified, data-driven marketing technology company. By streamlining its operations around its core Media Activation and Marketing Optimization platforms, Ionik is sharpening its focus on leveraging first-party data, omnichannel solutions, and AI-driven automation to deliver greater efficiency, performance, and value for customers. “The sale of SCS represents another important step in executing our strategy to simplify and strengthen our business around scalable, technology-enabled performance marketing operations,” said Ted Hastings, Chief Executive Officer of Ionik. “We’re proud of what the SCS team has accomplished and are confident that the business will continue to thrive under its new ownership.” Transaction Overview. Under the terms of the Transaction, the Purchaser has acquired substantially all of the assets of SCS, including client contracts, intellectual property, and goodwill, and has assumed certain related liabilities. The purchase price was US$1.2 million, with net proceeds of US$0.75 million payable in cash on closing after taking into account customary working capital adjustments. Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into the business to strengthen its balance sheet and support continued growth initiatives across its Media Activation and Marketing Optimization platforms. https://tinyurl.com/hxx6use5

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) announces insider share purchases.

Plurilock announces that members of its executive team, Board of Directors, and other insiders, along with certain employees, have recently purchased a total of approximately 531,000 common shares of the Company on the open market. Of this total, insiders acquired roughly 344,000 shares, while employees purchased approximately 187,000 shares. These insider and employee purchases reflect broad-based confidence in Plurilock’s long-term strategy and growth trajectory as the Company continues to focus on expanding its Critical Services business, pursuing new federal and commercial opportunities, and driving toward profitability. “We believe in the strength of our business and the opportunities ahead,” said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “Our leadership team remains deeply committed to creating shareholder value as we execute on our strategy and position the Company for sustained growth and margin expansion.” All purchases were made in accordance with applicable securities laws and the Company’s insider trading policy. Details of insider transactions are available on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI) at www.sedi.ca. https://tinyurl.com/4j83d5c3

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) announces closing of $3 million strategic investment.

Plurilock is pleased to announce that, further to its news release of October 17, 2025, the Company has closed its non-brokered private placement (the “Offering”) of $3,000,000 through the issuance of 3,000 debenture units (the “Units”) at $1,000 per Unit with a strategic investor. Each Debenture Unit comprised of (i) $1,000 principal amount of 10% unsecured convertible debentures of the Company, convertible at the option of the holder at a price of $0.23 until October 30, 2028 (the “Debentures”), and (ii) 4,000 common share purchase warrants (the “Warrants”) exercisable at a price of $0.25 until October 30, 2028, provided that if, any time following the date of issuance, the common shares of the Company (the “Shares”) are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ (each, a “US Stock Exchange”), or the Company completes an indirect listing such that the Shares are exchanged for common shares of a public company trading on a US Stock Exchange, in which the holder may, at the Company’s election, be given notice, by way of a news release, that the Warrants will expire 180 days following the date of such listing. The Debentures bear interest at a rate of 10% per annum, payable in arrears every three months from the date of issue, in cash or Shares, or a combination thereof, at the election of the Company based on the 10-day VWAP at the time of the interest payment, subject to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”). Interest shall be computed on the basis of a 360-day year composed of twelve 30-day months. The Debentures cannot be converted into Shares and the Warrants cannot be exercised into Shares if it would result in the holder having a beneficial ownership of more than 9.99% of the issued and outstanding Shares. The proceeds from the Offering will be used to accelerate Plurilock’s growth initiatives, expand its Critical Services business, and strengthen working capital. Pursuant to the provisions of the Company’s Amended Omnibus Incentive Plan, the Company has granted a total of 100,000 options to an officer of the Company at an exercise price of $0.23 per share for a period of five years, with 25% to vest one year from the grant date and 25% every 12 months thereafter. The Company has also granted a total of 1,750,000 restricted share units to certain directors, officers and consultants for a three-year term, with 1/3 to vest one year from the grant date and 1/3 every 12 months thereafter. These grants were made to appropriately reward the previous and ongoing contributions of the recipients and to encourage them to continue contributing significantly to Plurilock’s success in future. https://tinyurl.com/3cj77v5s

OpenAI lays groundwork for juggernaut IPO at up to US$1 trillion valuation.

OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at up to US$1 trillion, three people familiar with the matter said, in what could be one of the biggest IPOs of all time. OpenAI is considering filing with securities regulators as soon as the second half of 2026, some of the people said. In preliminary discussions, the company has looked at raising US$60 billion at the low end and likely more, the people said. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has told some associates the company is aiming for a 2027 listing, the people said. But some advisers predict it could come even sooner, around late 2026. With an annualized revenue run rate expected to reach about US$20 billion by year-end, losses are also mounting inside the US$500 billion company, the people said. During a livestream on Tuesday, Altman addressed the possibility of going public. “I think it’s fair to say it is the most likely path for us, given the capital needs that we’ll have,” he said. A successful offering would mark a major win for investors such as SoftBank, Thrive Capital and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. Microsoft, one of its biggest backers, now owns about 27% of ⁠the company after investing US$13 billion. The deliberations come as AI is driving a surge in public markets. Earlier this year, AI cloud company CoreWeave went public at a US$23 billion valuation and has roughly tripled since. https://tinyurl.com/jfcxmbn7

OpenAI recapitalizes as Public Benefit Corporation.

OpenAI on Tuesday said that it completed its corporate restructuring into a public benefit corp., clearing the company’s path to an eventual public offering. Microsoft, which had invested more than US$13 billion into the company, holds a 27% equity stake in the company worth US$135 billion based on the company’s recent employee share sale that values it at US$500 billion, confirming some details earlier reported by The Information. OpenAI’s nonprofit, which had previously controlled the for-profit when it was a limited liability corp., is now called the OpenAI Foundation and holds a 26% equity stake in the public benefit corp., for a stake worth roughly US$130 billion. The OpenAI Foundation also has warrants to receive additional shares if it hits a certain valuation. That mirrors the prior arrangement, which allowed the nonprofit to receive profits after early shareholders and employees were paid out a portion of eventual profits. OpenAI’s employees and investors hold the remaining 47% of the company. On Tuesday the Delaware and California state attorneys general, which needed to review the conversion because of the AI research lab’s start as a nonprofit, said they won’t oppose the recapitalization. The state attorneys general noted they had secured certain commitments, including that the nonprofit’s board will retain control and oversight over the public benefit corp. The board of the nonprofit includes most of the members of the for-profit board, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. https://tinyurl.com/hvfjp8jw

Microsoft gets 27% stake in OpenAI, access to models through 2032.

Microsoft will get a 27% stake in OpenAI valued at US$135 billion and will retain the rights to use the startup’s intellectual property through 2032, the companies announced on Tuesday. Microsoft will give up its right of first refusal over OpenAI’s compute contracts, which had meant OpenAI had to ask Microsoft first whether it could handle cloud computing needs before OpenAI could ask other cloud firms. In recent months OpenAI has got permission from Microsoft to strike deals with a variety of cloud firms, including Oracle and Google Cloud. In exchange for Microsoft giving up the right, OpenAI has committed to spend an additional US$250 billion on Azure server rentals over an unspecified period of time, the companies said. The companies also announced several tweaks to their existing agreement. Microsoft’s rights to OpenAI IP no longer include the startup’s hardware products, and OpenAI can develop new products with third parties other than Microsoft. But Microsoft will continue to get a share of OpenAI’s revenue until 2030 or until the startup develops artificial general intelligence, or AI capable of human-level thinking, the companies said. The announcement comes as OpenAI moves ahead with its plans to restructure its for-profit business, a key step in its ability to raise more money and eventually go public. https://tinyurl.com/yc6tesv4

SoftBank Board approves remainder of OpenAI investment.

SoftBank is set to complete its US$30 billion investment in OpenAI, after its board approved a US$22.5 billion second installment on the deal. The remainder of its investment is contingent on OpenAI’s corporate restructuring, which would pave the way for a public offering and transform it into a public benefit corporation. The SoftBank investment is part of a larger US$41 billion financing round, which valued OpenAI at US$260 billion. The new funds are critical for OpenAI’s escalating compute expenses, projected at US$16 billion this year and US$40 billion next year, with an additional US$100 billion budgeted through 2030 for research breakthroughs. An OpenAI IPO is still distant due to its current non-profit structure, established in 2015. Early investors and employees hold rights to future profits rather than equity. https://tinyurl.com/3y3psmeh

Meta plans to sell at least US$25 billion of bonds.

Meta Platforms is planning to sell at least US$25 billion of corporate bonds on Thursday and has received orders for about US$125 billion for the sale, Bloomberg reported. The outsized demand could give Meta leverage to increase the size of the bond issue or negotiate better terms with investors. The sale comes a day after Meta said it would continue spending aggressively on artificial intelligence next year. The company has estimated it will spend between US$70 billion and US$72 billion on capital expenditures this year. It has also said it expects “notably larger” dollar growth in capital expenditures next year, suggesting its capital expenditures could grow beyond US$101 billion. https://tinyurl.com/khzb27xj

Travel software firm Navan falls on opening day of trading.

Shares of travel software company Navan fell 18% on its opening day as a public company. Navan priced its initial public offering at US$25 a share but by late afternoon on Thursday the stock was trading around US$20. The company raised US$923 million in the IPO, which valued the company at US$6.2 billion, roughly US$3 billion less than where private investors last valued Navan in 2022. The Palo Alto, Calif,-based startup, formerly called TripActions, sells travel booking and expense management software. It’s the largest company to go through with a public listing during the government shutdown. The offering from Navan, which has been preparing for an IPO for roughly three years, was not expected to be a blockbuster and hit the market on a weak day for tech stocks. The company is growing steadily but far from profitable. Navan showed a revenue of US$329 million for the six months ended July 31, up 30% year over year but also had a net loss of US100 million for the same period. It said in its IPO filings that it “may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.” https://tinyurl.com/4ysvk3kt

BlackRock-backed Securitize to go public at US$1.25 billion valuation.

Securitize, which helps asset managers put their products on the blockchain, said it will go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in a deal that values the firm at US$1.25 billion in pre-money equity. Securitize, which is backed by BlackRock, will merge with Cantor Equity Partners II, with the deal expected to close in the first half of 2026, the companies said. Existing investors, such as BlackRock, ARK Invest, and Morgan Stanley, will roll over their interest into the combined company. It will also raise US$225 million in private placement from new and existing investors. Founded in 2017, Securitize helps asset managers such as BlackRock and Apollo bring their products onto blockchain for wider distribution. Its largest product is BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, which has amassed US$2.85 billion in assets in part because it holds reserve assets for stablecoins such as Ethena’s USDtb. In the second quarter, Securitize made US$17.5 million in revenue and US$4.2 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It expects full-year revenue to be US$69 million in 2025 and US$110 million in 2026. https://tinyurl.com/3rs937ce

Chinese EV maker Seres seeks US$1.7 billion in Hong Kong listing.

Seres Group, a major electric vehicle maker in China, is looking to raise US$1.7 billion in a Hong Kong listing, according to the company’s filing with the city’s stock exchange. The Hong Kong listing of Seres, whose shares are already listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, comes amid a market rally and a resurgence of IPO activities in Hong Kong this year. In Shanghai, Seres has a market capitalization of around US$36 billion. Driven by a surge in tech stocks including EV makers, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index has gained more than 30% since the beginning of this year. For example, major EV maker Xpeng’s Hong Kong-listed stock is up more than 90% year to date, while another competitor Nio’s stock has risen nearly 60%. In the filing submitted on Monday, Seres said it expects to receive net proceeds of about $1.66 billion from the offering, and plans to use the majority of the proceeds to invest in research and development. https://tinyurl.com/2kbj3z9j

Google Cloud boosted Alphabet revenue growth, profits in Third Quarter.

Google’s revenue from renting out cloud servers rose 34% in the September quarter compared to the same period last year, powering faster revenue growth at its holding company, Alphabet. The result, in part due to its cloud sales to artificial intelligence developers, gives the company more cover to spend on its own AI as well as to build more data centers for customers such as Anthropic. The Google Cloud growth in the third quarter was more than 2 percentage points higher than the growth it experienced in the second quarter and the unit’s operating profit rose a remarkable 84% to US$3.6 billion compared to the same period a year earlier. The company, citing its cloud growth, raised its capital expenditure projection to between US$91 billion and US$93 billion for the 2025 calendar year, 7% higher than its estimate three months ago. It spent roughly US$24 billion on capex in the quarter compared to US$33 billion of capex at Microsoft. Despite the increased spending, free cash flow rose 39% to $24.5 billion compared to the same period a year ago. While Google’s chatbot Gemini lags OpenAI, the company said the app had 650 million monthly active users, up from 400 million monthlies as of May, which suggests it also has hundreds of millions of weekly active users. OpenAI says ChatGPT has more than 800 million weekly active users and expects to generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue from the chatbot in the coming years. Overall, Alphabet revenue rose 16% in the September quarter, 2 percentage points higher than its growth in the prior two quarters. And operating profits from its core Google advertising business rose 20% from the same quarter a year ago, excluding a one-time fine by the European Commission, thanks in part to the expansion of generative AI results in Google Search. Google revenue chief Philipp Schindler said AI also boosted advertising products, including targeting ads to users and quickly generating ad materials. Overall gross margins rose 1.6 percentage points, excluding the EU fine. The results may have eased some concerns about OpenAI eating into Google’s core business. Shares rose 6% in after-hours trading. https://tinyurl.com/2er89ptk

AWS growth picks back up, boosting shares 10%.

Amazon shares jumped more than 10% in aftermarket trading Thursday, after the e-commerce giant said that Amazon Web Services revenue grew 20.2% to US$33 billion in the third quarter, the fastest rate since 2022. While competitors Microsoft and Google have much smaller cloud businesses than AWS, they are growing more quickly, pressuring Amazon to reaccelerate AWS’s growth. Amazon said overall revenue grew 13% to US$180.2 billion from the same period last year. The company reported flat operating income of US$17.4 billion, reflecting the cost of a US$2.5 billion charge related to the company’s legal settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in a consumer protection lawsuit and US$1.8 billion in severance costs related to the roughly 14,000 corporate jobs Amazon said it would cut earlier this week. Amazon’s retail business got a boost from its annual Prime Day sales event in July—online stores net sales grew 10% from the second quarter to US$67.4 billion. Amazon forecast overall sales of US$206 billion to US$213 billion for the fourth quarter, or growth of 10% to 13% from a year earlier. https://tinyurl.com/52ztbs3x

Apple forecasts strong holiday growth on iPhone 17 demand.

Apple reported an 8% jump in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter and forecast even stronger growth during the holidays, due to demand for its latest iPhones. The results were another sign of life for the company’s iPhone business, sales of which have stagnated in recent years. Apple’s new iPhone 17 lineup, which was released during the quarter, helped the business hit US$49 billion for the quarter, up more than 6% from the same period a year earlier. In a call with analysts, Apple said it expects the growth rate of iPhone revenues to be in the double-digits. Apple shares rose 3% in after-hours trading following the news. Total Apple revenues rose nearly 8% for the quarter that ended September 27 to US$102.47 billion, while fiscal full year revenue rose over 6% to US$416.16 billion. For the holiday quarter, the company said it expects total sales to grow between 10% and 12%. Services remains the company’s fastest area of growth, advancing 15.1% from the same quarter a year earlier to $28.8 billion. The company said it was aided by record sales from the App Store, cloud services, music, payment services, video and advertising. The Mac also did well, growing 12.7% annually to US$8.7 billion. However, sales were weak in China—one of Apple’s most important markets—declining 3.6% from the previous year to US$14.5 billion. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said he expects the company to return to growth in China for the current quarter. https://tinyurl.com/yybuhhcb

Microsoft revenue growth stays flat in third quarter despite cloud boost from OpenAI.

Microsoft revenue grew 18% to US$77.7 billion in the three months ending in September, the same rate of growth as the June quarter, the company said Wednesday. Revenue growth stayed flat despite Azure cloud-server rental revenue rising 40% during the September quarter—3 percentage points higher than the growth Microsoft had projected three months ago—driven largely by server spending from OpenAI, Microsoft said. Shares fell 1.5% in after-hours trading. The results didn’t include OpenAI’s recent commitment to spend US$250 billion on Microsoft’s Azure cloud over an unspecified period, a deal the companies announced Tuesday. OpenAI has projected to spend US$17 billion renting cloud servers this year, with the vast majority of that spending happening on Microsoft, but Microsoft can only recognize revenue from server rentals to power existing models and products rather than for the clusters of servers for training new AI. OpenAI projected US$6.6 billion in such inference spending in 2025. Microsoft’s capital expenditures rose nearly 35% to US$34.9 billion compared to the June quarter as it continues to spend heavily on data centers to power AI applications for OpenAI and others. Still, Microsoft’s gross margins were roughly unchanged at 65% compared to the same period a year prior, though free cash flow rose 33% to US$25.7 billion. CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement that AI demand was driving the company’s growth and that it’s “why we continue to increase our investments in AI across both capital and talent to meet the massive opportunity ahead.“ Microsoft didn’t break out how much revenue is coming from AI features in its Office 365 software, but said that corporate subscriptions from Office grew 17%, compared to 16% growth in the prior quarter. That growth was primarily driven by customers signing up for its E5 bundle, which combines Office 365 with security software and other products, and to a lesser extent from customers buying AI Copilot features in Office 365, the company said. Not including the new spending commitment from OpenAI, Microsoft said it had US$392 billion in remaining performance obligations as of the end of September, also known as a revenue backlog, up from US$368 billion in the June quarter. Those obligations take two years on average to become revenue, according to Microsoft investor relations director James Ambrose. https://tinyurl.com/2s425tr2

Meta shares sink on 32% growth in costs.

Meta Platforms reported a 26% increase in its third-quarter revenue that exceeded its own forecasts for the period. But the company also saw a 32% increase in its costs as it spent heavily to recruit superstar artificial intelligence researchers and operate its growing fleet of data centers. The huge growth in its costs—up from 12% the prior quarter—along with a warning from Meta to expect more of the same in the future rattled investors, sending its shares down more than 9% in after-hours trading. Meta reported third-quarter revenue of US$51.2 billion, better than its own forecast of US$47.5 billion to US$50.5 billion, which showed the continued strength of its digital advertising business. At the same time, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp raised its estimate for capital expenditures this year to between US$70 billion and US$72 billion, up from a previous forecast of US$66 billion to US$72 billion. Its capital expenditures last year were US$39 billion. Meta said it expected “notably larger” dollar growth in capital expenditures next year, suggesting its capital expenditures could grow beyond US$101 billion. The company attributed that growth to its plans to build more of its own artificial intelligence infrastructure and contract with cloud computing services. Meta also said it expected “significantly faster” percentage growth in total expenses next year due to infrastructure costs and employee compensation. Meta predicted that, in the fourth quarter, revenue growth could slow to 16%. The company said its augmented and virtual reality organization, Reality Labs, will see lower revenue compared to the previous year, when it introduced a new headset. https://tinyurl.com/42st5pyy

Nvidia has received more than US$500 billion in orders through 2026.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed Tuesday that Nvidia has received more than US$500 billion in orders, counting from the start of calendar 2025 through 2026, reflecting demand for its latest chips, the Blackwell and the Rubin. That’s an enormous volume of orders, more than five times the revenue generated by an earlier generation of Nvidia chips, Hopper, from 2023 to 2025, excluding sales in Asia. Nvidia stock rose 5%. Meanwhile, Nvidia also announced that it would invest US$1 billion in Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications company that provides network equipment and software. As part of the deal, Nokia will adopt Nvidia’s new telecommunications hardware that is designed for artificial intelligence. “We’re going to create, for the first time, a software-defined programmable computer that’s able to communicate wirelessly and do AI processing at the same time,” said Huang said onstage at Nvidia’s developer conference in Washington, D.C. Using AI will be able to make wireless communications more energy-efficient, he said. Nvidia announced a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and Oracle to develop two AI systems at the Argonne National Lab, one of which will include 100,000 Blackwell chips and the other of which will feature 10,000. Nvidia also announced that nine national labs and many quantum computing companies will adopt Nvidia’s new technology for connecting AI chips and quantum computers. Huang played to the patriotism of the D.C. audience, opening his talk with a video montage of U.S. inventions and closing by thanking the audience for “making America great again.” He gave shoutouts to Energy Secretary Chris Wright and President Donald Trump. https://tinyurl.com/k8rkjpzz

Nvidia’s market capitalization passes US$5 trillion.

Nvidia’s market capitalization passed US$5 trillion on Wednesday, about US$1 trillion more than the next-most valuable company, the latest testament to Nvidia’s strong position in the AI sector. After Nvidia, the most valuable company is Microsoft, which is also benefiting from its exposure to AI. Nvidia shares were up 3% to slightly above US$207, giving the company a market capitalization of US$5.04 trillion. Possibly helping lift the stock was comments from President Trump that he would discuss Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell chips with China’s president Xi Jinping, implying the administration might be willing to reverse the export ban on sale of those chips to China. On Tuesday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had given a keynote address to the company’s regular GTC conference for developers and business partners, where he gave new details of revenue expectations through 2026 and talked up Nvidia’s hopes of expanding into autonomous vehicles. https://tinyurl.com/474hzda5

Francisco Partners to buy Apple security firm Jamf for US$2.2 billion.

Private Equity Firm’s US$13.05-Per-Share Bid Comes 5 Years After Jamf Went Public. Francisco Partners agreed to purchase Jamf for US$2.2 billion just three months after the Apple management and security vendor laid off 6.4% of its workforce. The Minneapolis-based company said the US$13.05-per-share offer from the San Francisco-based private equity firm will provide Jamf with greater financial flexibility to accelerate growth and expand through innovation and M&A. Francisco Partners’ offer represents a 50% premium to Jamf’s average share price for the 90 days prior to Sept. 11, which was the last day before Reuters said Jamf was exploring a sale. The Francisco Partners transaction values Jamf at just half of what the company was worth when it first went public 63 months ago. https://tinyurl.com/ycxu4y8t

Apple supplier Skyworks Solutions to buy rival Qorvo for US$10.6 billion.

Skyworks Solutions, which supplies radio frequency chips to Apple and other smartphone makers, is acquiring its main rival Qorvo for US$10.6 billion in a combination of cash and stock. The deal comes as growth in the smartphone maker has slowed, as consumers hold onto phones longer. Both companies had also warned that sales to their biggest customer, which they previously said was Apple, were weakening because other rivals were winning business. In a statement, Skyworks CEO Phil Brace said the combination would have more ability to “bring even greater innovation to our customers.” Qorvo’s sales in the June quarter, for instance, fell 7.6%. It fell 1.3% in fiscal 2025. Skyworks reported a 5.2% decline in revenue for the nine months ending June. The price Skyworks is paying for Qorvo, of about US$114 a share based on Skyworks’ price early Tuesday, was a big premium to where Qorvo has lately been trading. It had closed on Monday at US$92.13. https://tinyurl.com/5apk7thj

iRobot stock tumbles 33% after Roomba maker warns the search for a buyer has stalled.

Shares of iRobot plunged 33% on Monday after the company warned its search for a buyer has hit a substantial roadblock and its financial condition remains dire. The Roomba maker has been vying to sell itself since March, but last week, the only remaining potential buyer withdrew from the process following a “lengthy period of exclusive negotiations,” iRobot disclosed in a regulatory filing. iRobot’s future has remained uncertain after Amazon abandoned its planned US$1.7 billion acquisition of the company in January 2024, citing regulatory scrutiny. https://tinyurl.com/4e38bdkw

Core Scientific investors vote down US$9 billion sale to CoreWeave.

Shareholders in data center developer Core Scientific voted down a US$9 billion sale to cloud provider CoreWeave, ending a deal that CoreWeave pitched as key to lowering the costs of its debt-heavy business model. Core Scientific said Thursday it terminated the merger agreement with CoreWeave after its investors rejected the offer. Hedge fund Two Seas Capital had led shareholder opposition to the deal, arguing the all-stock offer undervalued Core Scientific and it had more attractive prospects as an independent company. The deal would have given CoreWeave data centers consuming 1.3 gigawatts of power, allowing it to own the facilities housing its chips rather than leasing them. That could have helped CoreWeave raise cheaper debt by allowing it to more easily borrow from traditional infrastructure lenders. Shares in Core Scientific gained more than 6% in early trading, while CoreWeave shares fell 6%. CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator previously said the company wouldn’t raise its offering price for Core Scientific. “CoreWeave’s strategy remains unchanged,” Intrator said in a statement Thursday. https://tinyurl.com/ywjjb86p

Globalstar has discussed a potential sale with SpaceX, others.

Globalstar has talked to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other potential suitors about buying the satellite company, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg reported that Globalstar has hired an investment bank to assist it with a possible sale, though the company could decide not to move forward with such a plan. A sale of Globalstar would likely need to involve Apple, which has partnered with the company to provide emergency satellite internet connectivity to iPhone users when they’re out of the range of cellular networks. Apple has a 20% stake in Globalstar and a right to bid on the company before it sells itself to another suitor. Globalstar didn’t respond to a request for comment. For SpaceX, already the dominant player in satellite-based internet services, an acquisition of Globalstar would further consolidate its power in the market. https://tinyurl.com/yeywku79

Qualcomm shares soar on AI chip deal with Saudi Arabia.

Shares in Qualcomm soared more than 12% after the semiconductor company said it would make artificial-intelligence chips and struck a deal to provide them to Saudi Arabia’s Humain. The announcement on Monday, the first day of Saudi Arabia’s annual Future Investment Initiative conference, made Qualcomm the latest company to challenge Nvidia’s lead in the AI chip market. Intel said this month it would make a new AI chip code-named Crescent Island. Humain, a company owned by Saudi Arabia’s US$900 billion Public Investment Fund, is building data centers and planning a US$10 billion venture fund as part of the country’s push to become a bigger force in AI. It has also struck deals to import AMD and Nvidia chips, and it’s using chips from the startup Groq to power open-source AI models in the region. Qualcomm and Humain said they would build data centers containing the new chips starting next year. Shares in Nvidia briefly dipped following the Qualcomm announcement before rallying more than 2%. https://tinyurl.com/ye299rac

Payments firm Fiserv’s stock collapses 45% after 2025 outlook slashed.

Payments tech giant Fiserv’s stock collapsed 45% on Wednesday morning after the company slashed its revenue growth outlook for 2025 and announced a management shakeup. Fiserv, whose Clover payments service competes with companies such as Square, reported 1% revenue growth for the third quarter and revised its “organic revenue growth” forecast to between 3.5% and 4% from 10% in July. On an earnings call with analysts, CEO Michael Lyons said the revised guidance was “disappointing” but said the company was taking actions to allow for a “critical and necessary reset.” Lyons blamed a slowdown in Argentina, whose market had been a major driver of growth for Fiserv, for part of the revision. Lyons said Argentina had accounted for nearly half of Fiserve’s growth in 2023 and more than half last year. He also said the company had used “optimistic growth assumptions in the original guidance,” which were now being recalibrated. He added that he was deprioritizing “short term revenue and expense initiatives.” https://tinyurl.com/5n69r3kx

Amazon prepares to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs.

Amazon is preparing to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning this week, Reuters reported Monday. The cuts are meant to help compensate for overhiring during the pandemic and to cut expenses, the report said. An Amazon spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The cuts could affect as much as 10% of Amazon’s roughly 350,000 corporate employees, Reuters reported. The company previously cut around 18,000 corporate jobs beginning in late 2022 and another 9,000 roles beginning in mid-2023, and has made several waves of smaller cuts since then. CEO Andy Jassy told employees earlier this year the adoption of AI and improved productivity would likely lead to job cuts, and has overseen an anti-bureaucracy push to reduce the number of managers at the company. The planned cuts may affect divisions ranging from human resources to devices to operations, the report said. Fortune reported earlier this month that Amazon was planning layoffs for human resources teams and other parts of its consumer division. Amazon is set to report earnings on Thursday, Oct. 30. https://tinyurl.com/5yutw7ra

Education tech firm Chegg lays off 45% of staff as AI woes continue.

Online education firm Chegg announced it is laying off 388 employees—around 45% of its workforce—due to the “new realities of AI,” which includes reduced website traffic and revenue stemming from Google’s practice of including AI summaries atop search results. It’s the latest sign of trouble for Chegg, whose business was slowing even before OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022 and made some of its services almost completely redundant, including one that let students ask questions and get answers from subject matter experts. Chegg tried to get on the AI bandwagon two years ago by teaming up with OpenAI to develop an AI-powered learning service, but it hasn’t taken off. Last year Chegg switched CEOs, with executive Nathan Schultz taking over for its longtime CEO Dan Rosensweig, who moved to executive chairman. Earlier this year, Chegg sued Google for hurting its web traffic with AI summaries. In a press release, Chegg said it hired Goldman Sachs last year to help it explore a sale or take-private acquisition but has decided to remain a standalone company. Meanwhile, Rosensweig is moving back into the CEO role, with Schultz moving to an advisory role. https://tinyurl.com/5efwvfv3

US$100 billion stock swings expose ‘fragility’ beneath Wall Street rally.

Daily share price swings worth hundreds of billions of dollars are becoming commonplace on Wall Street, highlighting the risks to investors as the Big Tech companies powering the stock market’s relentless rally grow more volatile. Individual stocks have gained or lost more than US$100 billion in market value in a single day 119 times so far this year, the highest annual total on record. The rise of 12-figure stock swings partly reflects the huge size of companies such as Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple, which are all worth more than US$3 trillion each and account for the bulk of the huge moves. But even accounting for the stock market’s growth, the size of this year’s moves has been extraordinary. Bank of America analysis shows that 2025 has already punched through 2024’s record number of what it calls “fragility events” in Big Tech stocks, when share prices move well outside their usual range. Despite the big individual stock moves, overall market volatility has mostly remained muted as the S&P 500 has rebounded to a series of record highs from April’s heavy sell-off because big stocks have tended not to all swing in the same direction. This year’s tally of stock moves of US$100 billion or more is the highest on record, and compares with 84 for all of last year and 33 during the bear market of 2022 when the S&P tumbled by almost one-fifth. https://tinyurl.com/w6t68nuu

Adobe lets customers power its apps with Google’s latest AI models.

Adobe and Google have been working together as industry partners for nearly two decades, and now AI is bringing them closer. In an expanded agreement between the companies, Adobe customers will be able to use Google’s latest AI models to power applications like Photoshop and Premiere. In addition, Adobe’s business customers will be able to customize Google’s AI models with their own proprietary data to reflect the style of their company brand, said an Adobe spokesperson. The deal illustrates the growing popularity of Google AI models like Nano Banana, which lets users edit their photos, and Veo 3, which creates video from text prompts, with creative professionals. It also shows how Google’s strength in AI, which is already helping it poach cloud AI business from rivals, is helping it get a stronger foothold in other market segments. Adobe has developed its own set of AI models, known as Firefly, for tasks like image and video generation, so supporting a competing model might seem like a shift. But the expanded tie-up with Google is part of Adobe’s strategy to let customers use a variety of different third-party models to run its apps. That’s similar to the approach cloud providers have used to get customers building AI apps. https://tinyurl.com/yc6mayux

Uber and Nvidia target 100,000 self-driving cars.

Nvidia is jumping into the self-driving car technology market, unveiling a deal with Uber to partner on production of thousands of vehicles that can run as robotaxis on Uber’s service. Stellantis, maker of Fiat and Chrysler, will produce the cars. Uber said 5,000 of the cars will be delivered for use on its service, although Nvidia put the ambition more grandly, announcing it plans the Uber partnership to support 100,000 cars over time, starting in 2027. The partnership adds to the range of self-driving car options that Uber has, of which the most important is a partnership with Alphabet’s Waymo. But the significance of the announcement is more what it means for Nvidia and other rivals, including Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk has said robotaxis are a key part of its long term growth. Tesla has begun a limited robotaxi service in Austin Texas and San Francisco. Stellantis, the automaker, is collaborating with Nvidia and Uber to provide autonomous vehicles. Lucid and Mercedes-Benz will also use Nvidia’s self-driving technology, as will self-driving trucking companies Aurora, Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Waabi. Nvidia’s new technology, called Drive AGX Hyperion 10, is a computer and set of sensors that is intended to enable any vehicle to drive autonomously. Uber and Nvidia are also working on providing data to develop self-driving software using Nvidia’s Cosmos AI model, which is designed to generate realistic videos. https://tinyurl.com/2dec6652

OpenAI working on a music generating tool.

OpenAI is developing artificial intelligence to allow people to generate music using text and audio prompts. The startup is collaborating with Juilliard School students to annotate music scores, which can be used as training data for the music generating tool. The company is discussing AI that can add guitar to vocal tracks or create music for videos, potentially aiding advertising agencies in generating jingles and brainstorming lyrics. This move positions OpenAI to compete with Google, which launched its music-making model, Lyria, in May. OpenAI could face potential copyright lawsuits over the tool from music labels like Universal Music Group and Sony, which have sued other AI music generators. The startup has already taken some steps to stay out of hot water with the music industry, such as by summarizing copyrighted lyrics. https://tinyurl.com/52aypsat

Sam Altman reportedly developing noninvasive brain interface to rival Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly working on a brain-computer interface that could connect to the human brain using sound waves instead of surgery. The project, led by biomolecular engineer Mikhail Shapiro, may offer a safer, noninvasive alternative to Neuralink’s implanted approach. https://tinyurl.com/3txmnzws

Anduril opens Australian factory to build undersea ‘Ghost Shark’ drones.

U.S. defence firm Anduril Industries on Friday opened a new manufacturing facility in Sydney to produce undersea drones known as “Ghost Sharks” and deliver on its A$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) supply contract with Australia’s navy. Australia in September awarded Anduril the contract to co-develop a fleet of Ghost Shark vessels over the next five years to complement the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet. https://tinyurl.com/3u93y3k6

UK to acquire next-gen naval drones amid rising Russian threat.

The United Kingdom (UK) will invest £150 million (US$200 million) to acquire a new fleet of underwater drones designed for mine detection and protection of critical maritime infrastructure, as part of a major Royal Navy modernisation programme. According to a recently published contract by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), an initial batch of up to 24 underwater drones will be procured, though additional units may be ordered later, The Telegraph reports. The contract’s value indicates that each drone could cost around £6 million (over US$8 million). The advanced, uncrewed vessels are expected to play a central role in mine-clearing operations in conflict zones such as the Black Sea, particularly off the coast of Ukraine, as well as in protecting underwater cables and gas pipelines from potential sabotage. This shift comes as the Royal Navy plans to retire most of its traditional mine-hunting ships this decade, replacing them with faster and more precise unmanned systems. https://tinyurl.com/37mu938t

Fincantieri launches its first ‘DEEP’ underwater drone system.

On 23 October, at the Naval Support and Experimentation Center of La Spezia, Fincantieri launched its first “DEEP” underwater drone system during a demonstration mission. The event marks a fundamental milestone for Fincantieri in the field of underwater technology, confirming the Group’s leadership in the underwater sector and consolidating a clear and advanced path of industrial growth. The DEEP system is a cutting-edge integrated solution for the protection, development, and maintenance of critical underwater infrastructure and port areas, also performing monitoring and environmental protection activities. The system was designed from the outset with a dual purpose, capable of responding to both civil needs and defense and security applications. This versatility allows DEEP to operate in diverse contexts, offering high value-added solutions for environmental and infrastructure protection, as well as operational support. The platform consists of a network of underwater sensors for early warning (Early Warning System), a Command and Control Center for real-time operational management, a team of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) capable of conducting missions at different levels of autonomy, cooperation, and coordination, and an AI-based system dedicated to data analysis and processing. The launch of DEEP is part of Fincantieri’s strategy to consolidate its underwater sector, where the Group stands out for its ability to offer integrated, high value-added solutions, thanks to a unique industrial supply chain and cross-functional expertise brought together within the Underwater Technology Hub, which coordinates all activities related to civil, military, and dual-use systems through a unified management approach. Today, the underwater domain is a key area for security, energy, environmental monitoring, and underwater communications, with a global reference market estimated at around 50 billion euros per year and an accessible component for Fincantieri of about 22 billion euros annually. Fincantieri aims to be a leading player in the development of this new strategic infrastructure, leveraging its ability to integrate complex expertise and high-tech industrial assets. https://tinyurl.com/mpky4jne

Nvidia to supply Samsung with 50,000 GPUs.

Nvidia said Thursday it signed a deal to sell 50,000 graphics processing units to Samsung Electronics to help the South Korean company with its chip design and manufacturing. The deal, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, was announced during a visit by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to South Korea, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit and also met with local government and business leaders including the chairman of Samsung. Nvidia said Samsung will use Nvidia’s Blackwell chips in conjunction with popular chip design tools made by Synopsis, Cadence and Siemens to simulate and verify its chip designs. Samsung will also use the GPUs to speed up the design of its chip fabrication facilities and to make improvements to computational lithography, a method of simulating the process of printing circuit patterns on silicon wafers. https://tinyurl.com/uev2xn9x