☕️ Apple just dethroned Nvidia as No. 1

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.

In today's newsletter:

🍎 Apple overtakes Nvidia as world's most valuable firm

🇰🇵 FBI blames North Korea for $6B Binance hack

📉 S&P cuts Meta outlook to negative on AI spending

💸 OpenAI cuts funding target by $10B amid AI jitters

💳 CD&R in talks for $40B Global Payments buyout

Plus: 🌍 11 macro stories, 🏢 10 corporate stories, and 📑 6 research & reports.

📊 Before The Bell

• Apple reclaimed its spot as the world's most valuable public company on Friday, closing at a $5.03 trillion market value and narrowly overtaking Nvidia at $4.93 trillion as investors soured on heavy AI spending.
• The switch came as a 4.2% drop in Nvidia outpaced Apple's 1.2% dip, part of a broader tech retreat after Intel and Amazon updates deepened worries over near-term returns on record AI infrastructure outlays.
• Apple's lighter spending made it a haven within the Magnificent Seven, up 27% this year, while rivals burn cash: Amazon posted negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion over the past twelve months as infrastructure deployment accelerated.

• The FBI has confirmed that North Korean hackers, a group it calls "TraderTraitor," were behind last week's theft of more than $6 billion from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.
• The thieves are already laundering the money, moving over $500 million on the Tron network through more than 1,000 addresses before shifting funds across chains like Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana; stablecoin issuer Circle has frozen a chunk of the stolen USDC.
• Binance says it has raised $6 billion from its treasury and emergency funds to cover the losses and will absorb the hit rather than pass it to users; as withdrawals reopened, net outflows came to roughly 2.1% of its reserves.

• S&P Global Ratings cut its credit outlook on Meta to negative on Friday, warning that the company's heavy spending on artificial intelligence is straining its balance sheet.
• S&P said Meta's ability to turn its AI investments into revenue looks "more limited" than that of rivals, with no clear timeline for when the payoff will exceed the rising costs.
• The move landed as investors question whether Big Tech's AI outlays will pay off, with the Nasdaq 100 falling 3.5% on Friday, briefly touching a 10% technical correction amid disappointing tech earnings.

• OpenAI has lowered the target for its current funding round by $10 billion to $20 billion, while also cutting the valuation it is seeking, as investors grow wary of the AI market, the Financial Times reported.
• The company has so far secured about $11 billion in commitments, less than half its original goal, after some large investors showed what one report called "tepid interest," and it now plans to court family offices and wealthy individuals to close the gap.
• The retreat came as the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 3.5% on Friday in an AI-share selloff, with the broader Nasdaq having shed more than $1.2 trillion in value since early October on doubts over whether AI spending will pay off.

• Buyout firm CD&R has teamed up with private equity group GTCR, Global Payments' largest shareholder, on a joint bid for the card processor, which carries an enterprise value of about $40 billion, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
• A leveraged buyout at that size would rank among the largest ever; the target currently has a $23 billion stock-market value plus $17 billion of net debt, with shares near their lowest level in a decade after investors panned its 2025 purchase of Worldpay.
• William Blair told clients a deal looks plausible given the widening gap between public and private valuations, and could trigger another wave of mergers that leaves the market without publicly traded traditional FinTechs; talks are ongoing and may not produce a deal.

🌍 Macro News

• Goldman expects a second BoE rate hike in February, citing inflation. LINK
• The BOJ signaled a December hike to 1.5%, with further tightening uncertain. LINK
• Three Fed officials said rates must rise further, but disagreed on timing. LINK
• Gold edged higher near one-year lows as Fed hike bets weighed. LINK
• French borrowing costs held steady despite Fitch's negative outlook. LINK
• Tesla and Samsung oppose Vietnam tariffs as a US trade probe nears completion. LINK
• The US and Russia discussed restoring European gas flows through Ukraine. LINK
• German gas storage is 61.2% full, below target as cold approaches. LINK
• Hong Kong expands tokenized settlement pilot to 24/7 and adds stablecoin trials. LINK
• Fifty companies, including Nvidia and Costco, oppose a tokenized stock venue. LINK
• The Bank of Korea is surveying 31 institutions on crypto exposure. LINK

🏢 Corporate News

• OPay postponed its NYSE debut amid an inquiry by an unnamed regulator. LINK
• BP raised $6 billion selling a majority stake in Castrol to reduce debt. LINK
• The UK watchdog is investigating Meta's terms for using publishers' content. LINK
• Nvidia may guarantee billions in Nscale debt for an Anthropic data center. LINK
• Re:Build raised $2.1 billion to expand manufacturing and launch industrial startups. LINK
• Reddit fell 29% after blaming Google's AI summaries for a shrinking US audience. LINK
• Apollo launched a European private-credit platform with over €10 billion in lending capacity. LINK
• India's Affle will buy Perion in a $420 million all-cash deal. LINK
• Alstom forecasts €1.5 billion in cash outflows and sharply cuts its margin target. LINK
• Reliance shares surged 8% on earnings, adding Rs 1 lakh crore in value. LINK

📈 Stocks

📑 Research & Reports

• Aleph's finance career playbook: maps how finance roles are changing and which skills now carry a premium. Download the free playbook
• Midterm results could shape 2028 data-center construction, putting 43.5 gigawatts at stake. LINK
• Hedge funds sold AI stocks for five sessions, reversing all 2025 net purchases. LINK
• Magnificent Seven debt rose 45% to $578 billion amid AI spending. LINK
• Deutsche Bank warns an AI-driven selloff could weaken the dollar's safe-haven role. LINK
• Private credit funds owed banks $349 billion at end-2025, Fed data show. LINK
• Dealer balance-sheet use may exceed auction inventories, Fed research finds. LINK

📅 Market Calendar

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