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Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.
In today's newsletter: 💰 OpenAI in talks to raise at $1.2T 🪙 Crypto's regulatory clarity stalls as Senate rejects bill 🛒 Atome deal pushes Grab deeper into fintech 🏭 SK Hynix in talks to make memory chips at Intel 📈 US 10-year yield hits highest since 2007 Plus: 🌍 10 macro news, 🏢 9 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.
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📊 Before The Bell
 | Change over the last 24 hours · as of Sep 16, 2026, 5:56 AM ET |
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Your agents work while you sleep
Give a Skydive agent an ongoing responsibility and they’ll handle it on schedule, every time.
Have them prep your morning report, research new leads, monitor customer feedback, or keep projects moving overnight. You wake up, the work is already done.
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💰 OpenAI in talks to raise at $1.2T
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- OpenAI is in early talks with investors on a new funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at more than $1.2 trillion, a step ahead of its planned initial public offering.
- The talks, started by investors, hinge on IPO timing, with the cash giving OpenAI room to delay its listing by one or two quarters and to fund more acquisitions after buying startups like Jony Ive's io and developer-tools maker Astral.
- The raise could vault OpenAI past rival Anthropic, valued at $965 billion in May, as Anthropic prepares its own Nasdaq IPO as soon as October seeking to match or beat SpaceX's record $86.3 billion June offering.
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🪙 Crypto's regulatory clarity stalls as Senate rejects bill
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- The US Senate voted to block the Clarity Act, stalling the crypto industry's bid for comprehensive rules after the motion drew just 50 votes for and 49 against, well short of the 60 needed to advance.
- The setback rippled across crypto markets, with bitcoin down 3%, Coinbase shares off 8% and stablecoin issuer Circle down 10%, as the failed vote likely pushes clearer rules into next year amid the broader sell-off.
- The bill would have split oversight between the SEC and CFTC and set registration and anti-money-laundering rules, but stalled after Democrats said Republican ethics concessions failed to address crypto profits by President Trump and his family.
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🛒 Atome deal pushes Grab deeper into fintech
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- Grab is buying a controlling stake in Singapore-based buy now, pay later firm Atome Financial in a $1.49 billion deal, folding its lending business into Grab's financial services arm to expand credit across Southeast Asia.
- Atome operates in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand and serves 25 million cumulative users, adding its AI-based digital lending and merchant network to Grab's payments, digital banking and insurance operations alongside ride-hailing.
- Grab framed the deal around profitability in its financial services segment, noting 68% of its driver-borrowers accessed formal credit for the first time last year, with half saying they did so to avoid "predatory" lenders.
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🏭 SK Hynix in talks to make memory chips at Intel
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- SK Hynix is in talks with Intel to manufacture its memory chips in the U.S. for the first time, Reuters reported yesterday, lifting both companies' shares in premarket trading.
- Options under discussion include SK Hynix leasing part of Intel's Ohio plant or forming a joint venture with Intel and major cloud firms, though sources described the talks as exploratory with no decisions made.
- A deal would hand Intel a marquee customer for its foundry business under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, but manufacturing advanced high-bandwidth memory could draw opposition from South Korea, which treats the technology as sensitive; SK Hynix's Seoul-listed stock is up 400% over the past year.
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📈 US 10-year yield hits highest since 2007
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- The interest rate on 10-year US government debt touched 5.04%, its highest since 2007, before easing, as a fresh jump in oil prices deepened worries that inflation is set to accelerate.
- The move tracks Brent-style wholesale oil climbing above $109 a barrel from around $86 in late August, after concerns over Saudi Arabia's ability to export, stoking bets the Fed under Kevin Warsh will raise rates.
- Heavy borrowing by tech giants funding data centres is adding pressure, lifting yields; the Treasury has been buying back bonds to push rates down, an intervention Secretary Scott Bessent called "successful."
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Don't Get Left Behind.
Ever get to the end of your workday and wonder what happened in the business world while you were busy building your empire? We got you! Max's CEO Report is the short, easy-to-read end-of-business-day recap CEOs & Founders rely on to stay ahead.
🌍 Macro News
- BOJ expected to raise rates to 1.25%, highest level in three decades. LINK
- UK inflation likely rose to 3.1% in August, driven by fuel and electronics. LINK
- ECB has opened applications for positions, with submissions closing in October. LINK
- Commerce ordered Kalshi to withdraw its AI-compute tracker over national security concerns. LINK
- Brent jumped to $109.39 as Saudi pipeline closure tightened supply concerns. LINK
- BOE expected to halt long-dated gilt sales after prices hit 1998 lows. LINK
- House committee released a crypto tax bill ahead of Wednesday’s markup. LINK
- US urges Mexico to tighten origin rules for AI servers under USMCA. LINK
- ADNOC buys discounted Iraqi crude, freeing domestic oil for exports bypassing Hormuz. LINK
- Thune is open to banning diesel exports as US prices hit records. LINK
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🏢 Corporate News
- Altera confidentially files for a US IPO potentially raising over $2 billion. LINK
- Factory raises $200 million at a $5 billion valuation, tripling since April. LINK
- Goldman raises $11.7 billion, anchored by a $9.6 billion buyout fund. LINK
- Revolut wins a Colombian banking license, its sixth full license globally. LINK
- DOJ charges two Robinhood engineers over alleged insider crypto-listing trades. LINK
- Enova abandons its $369 million Grasshopper takeover, citing political pressure during approvals. LINK
- OpenAI buys Glass Imaging for more than $300 million. LINK
- DoorDash invests $425 million in Marc Lore’s Wonder through acquisition and funding. LINK
- Meta launches paid Meta One subscriptions across platforms, priced $2.99-$499 monthly. LINK
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📈 Stocks
| ▲ Biggest winners | | Skyworks Solutions rose 14% after Apple launched its foldable Duo iPhone and CEO confirmed the $22 billion Qorvo merger will close this calendar year. LINK | | Forgent Power Solutions rose 10% after reporting fiscal Q4 revenue of $462 million, up 94% year-over-year, and raising FY2027 revenue guidance to $2.4–$2.6 billion. LINK | | Qorvo rose 9% after Skyworks CEO confirmed at Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference that their $22 billion merger cleared U.S. regulatory hurdles and is on track to close by year-end. LINK |
| ▼ Biggest losers | | Circle Internet Group fell 11% after the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act's approval probability plummeted to 16-19% ahead of a critical Senate cloture vote. LINK | | Coinbase Global fell 10% after the SEC sued Coinbase for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities exchange. LINK | | BitMine Immersion Technologies fell 8% after announcing a $500 million at-the-market equity offering. LINK |
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📑 Research & Reports
- Aleph's finance career playbook: maps how finance roles are changing and which skills now carry a premium. Download the free playbook
- Data-center moratoriums delay only 2.3 gigawatts of planned US capacity, study says. LINK
- BofA raises its 2030 global chip-sales forecast to $3.2 trillion amid AI optimism. LINK
- BIS finds Bitcoin blockchain value estimates vary sixfold based on transaction counting. LINK
- Experian says 54% of consumers would let AI agents apply for credit. LINK
- Standard Chartered targets Arbitrum’s ARB at $10 by 2030, citing tokenization growth. LINK
- Citi says companies prioritize releasing trapped cash as supply-chain disruption persists. LINK
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📅 Market Calendar
 | Earnings · Economic events |
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