☕️ AMD hits $1 trillion market cap on AI demand

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.

In today's newsletter:

🚀 AMD hits $1 trillion market cap on AI demand

📺 Ellisons win control of media conglomerate

🇨🇳 Alibaba unveils new AI chip to rival Nvidia

🛡️ OpenAI urges Congress to set binding AI rules

🇪🇺 ECB launches Pontes to settle tokenized bonds

Plus: 🌍 9 macro news, 🏢 9 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.

📊 Before The Bell

• AMD's shares jumped 10% yesterday to a record $616, pushing the chipmaker past a $1 trillion market value for the first time and making it the fourth US chip company to reach that level.
• The gain extended a five-session run as investors shrugged off earlier fears of an AI slowdown, helped by falling energy prices and the 10-year US Treasury yield slipping below 5%, easing pressure on growth-oriented tech stocks.
• AMD is shifting from selling individual chips to complete systems combining processors and networking gear to challenge Nvidia, and gaining server-processor share from Intel, though it still trails Nvidia, whose data-centre sales hit $194 billion last year.

• David Ellison's Paramount won court clearance for its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery after settling lawsuits from 12 US states, creating one of the world's largest entertainment companies.
• The states had argued the deal would hand Paramount excessive control over movies and cable TV; the settlement adds editorial protections for CBS and CNN, a pledge to release 30 films a year, and keeps the company in California.
• The merger is now expected to close in October, though skepticism lingers, with California's attorney general, who led the settlement, saying, "I don't think these two companies should merge."

• Alibaba shares rose about 3% in Hong Kong yesterday after it introduced the Zhenwu V900, a homegrown AI chip pitched as a rival to Nvidia's processors, at its annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.
• The chip, from Alibaba's T-Head division, delivers three times the computing power of its May predecessor and can be linked in clusters of up to 500,000 units, with mass production slated for the first quarter of 2027.
• Alibaba has committed over $53 billion to AI infrastructure over three years and aims to exceed 20 gigawatts of global data center capacity by 2032, signaling heavier capital spending as CEO Eddie Wu cites surging AI demand.

• OpenAI published a proposal yesterday urging the US government to set binding global safety and security standards for the most advanced AI systems, marking a shift from the company's earlier opposition to government-imposed rules.
• The move reverses OpenAI's previous resistance to mandatory AI regulation, with the company now backing enforceable standards rather than the voluntary commitments the industry had favored.
• The proposal targets so-called frontier AI systems, the most capable and resource-intensive models, and asks Washington to shape rules that would apply globally rather than only within the United States.

• The European Central Bank today launched Pontes, a settlement bridge that lets transactions in tokenized assets like bonds be paid for in central bank money, linking blockchain platforms to Europe's traditional banking system.
• Pontes connects private distributed-ledger platforms to the Eurosystem's existing TARGET services, so that in a deal such as a €10 million tokenized bond purchase, the cash and the security transfer simultaneously to cut the risk of one side failing.
• The launch starts with limited functionality, with the ECB planning longer operating hours, multi-currency support, and full implementation in 2028, while a parallel effort called Appia studies standards, collateral, and cross-border rules for the wider tokenized market.

🌍 Macro News

• California tightens AI data-center disclosures, potentially pushing developers toward cheaper-power states. LINK
• Trump and Xi seek trade truce, but technology disputes threaten new agreements. LINK
• China's rare-earth magnet shipments to US fell 21% in August. LINK
• ECB's Lane says energy shock may prolong euro-zone inflation until mid-2027. LINK
• Goolsbee says higher unemployment may be needed to tame persistent inflation. LINK
• US diesel prices hit record $6.51, threatening broader economic disruption. LINK
• UK borrowing exceeded forecasts in August, pressuring Chancellor Healey before October's Budget. LINK
• US and China propose reporting mechanisms for national-security-threatening AI incidents. LINK
• Fertilizer stocks fell after Trump signaled a potential Belarus potash deal. LINK

🏢 Corporate News

• Oura IPO could raise $2.2 billion, mostly benefiting selling shareholders. LINK
• SoftBank seeks over $11 billion in high-yield debt to fund OpenAI investment. LINK
• US prosecutors investigate whether Binance processed Iran-linked trades violating sanctions. LINK
• Amazon blocks Meta's Muse shopping agent over alleged terms-of-use violations. LINK
• Coinbase will offer retail IPO allocations through its app, beginning with Oura. LINK
• Mastercard will sell its entire Pine Labs stake for about $100 million. LINK
• Priority Technology approved a $1.6 billion take-private deal led by Priore's group. LINK
• Tesla registered a Vietnamese entity ahead of entering the country's electric-vehicle market. LINK
• JPMorgan Asset Management and Qatar's QIA agreed a $20 billion investment partnership. LINK

📈 Stocks

📑 Research & Reports

• The AI stocks most people aren't watching yet: is a free briefing on under-the-radar AI names beyond the megacaps. Read the free briefing
• Bernstein says India's large caps offer little appeal despite rapid economic growth. LINK
• AI is shifting ERP software from record-keeping toward executing work, Bernstein says. LINK
• Morgan Stanley says Tesla and SpaceX are deepening AI and manufacturing capabilities. LINK
• Jefferies forecasts S&P 500 reaching 8,000 in 2026 and 9,000 in 2027. LINK
• Fed projections show rates staying at 4.1% through 2027 before easing. LINK
• Australia identifies AI among five forces reshaping its economy over four decades. LINK

📅 Market Calendar

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