☕️ Trump forms AI Force and vows to name AI czar

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.

In today's newsletter:

🇺🇸 Trump forms AI Force and vows to name AI czar

🤖 Zuckerberg Musk and Huang back Trump's AI push

💸 OpenAI expects to burn through $278B by 2030

☁️ Nvidia-backed Nscale files for $35B IPO

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

📊 Before The Bell

• President Trump said he will create an "AI Force" modeled on the Space Force and soon name an AI czar, but his Truth Social post named no agency, budget, leader or start date, leaving the plan's scope undefined.
• The czar seat has been empty since David Sacks left in March 2026, and four tech-industry representatives said they were not told in advance, with one saying "nobody knows what the idea even is," even as Trump promised not to hinder the sector's growth.
• The move lands amid broad public resistance, with a New York Times-Siena poll of 1,503 likely voters finding 61 percent opposed to AI data centers, and disclosures show Trump has bought shares in AI-linked firms Dell, Micron and GE Vernova while holding no blind trust.

• Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang each called Trump separately last month and persuaded him to abandon a proposed national body that would test frontier AI models before release, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• The plan, floated by DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, copied FINRA, a lab-funded nonprofit writing common safety standards under federal supervision, but the three CEOs argued it would entrench OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, the labs already closest to the policy fight.
• With no federal referee, the alternative is 109 state AI laws passed in the first half of 2026 plus a Justice Department task force challenging them, leaving Nvidia, worth roughly $5.3 trillion at $219.34 on September 17, and Meta as heavily-held index-fund weights whose safety claims have only one source: the companies themselves.

• OpenAI expects to burn through $278 billion in cash between 2026 and 2030 as it pours money into computing power and infrastructure, according to a company presentation reported by the Financial Times.
• The projected cash drain, driven by about $856 billion in spending on computing and infrastructure through 2030, underscores OpenAI's funding needs as it courts investors at a valuation of roughly $1.2 trillion ahead of a possible listing.
• OpenAI forecasts revenue rising tenfold to $350 billion in 2030 from $36 billion this year, but the $122 billion it raised in March is on track to be exhausted by 2028, and CEO Sam Altman ruled out an IPO in 2026.

• Nscale, an AI-focused cloud provider backed by Nvidia, has filed for a New York Stock Exchange listing under the ticker "NSCL", seeking a valuation that could reach $35 billion, well above the $14.6 billion set in a March funding round.
• The London-based company, which rents out Nvidia chips to customers including OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft, posted a $1.02 billion net loss on $140.6 million in revenue in the first half of 2026, with revenue up 1,252% from a year earlier.
• Nscale carries more than $8 billion in debt and leans heavily on a single unnamed customer that generated over half of first-half revenue, while Nvidia has agreed to guarantee up to $860 million of its obligations on a Texas data center lease.

🌍 Macro News

• CFTC sends crypto rules to White House after Senate Clarity Act failure. LINK
• Trump signs Russia sanctions bill, rejecting Kremlin claims it harms peace prospects. LINK
• Hormuz crossings fall to 12 vessels as Saudi crude exports increase. LINK
• OCC conditionally approves three trust banks supporting stablecoin and AI payments. LINK
• Kalshi seeks perpetual futures on individual US stocks from regulators. LINK
• Bowman says Fed will overhaul opaque, unpredictable bank stress-testing rules. LINK
• Yen steadies after weekly slide as traders watch for Tokyo intervention. LINK
• Macron urges G7 to release oil reserves as Saudi supplies to Europe stop. LINK
• AI may deepen China's production-demand imbalance, central bank adviser warns. LINK
• Saudi Arabia withdraws from China's mBridge digital currency payments system. LINK

🏢 Corporate News

• Anthropic appoints Accenture to independently evaluate its AI safety. LINK
• China Rare Earth Group considers controlling stake in Shenghe Resources. LINK
• Auto stocks fall after Volkswagen cuts margins forecast and BYD faces US opposition. LINK
• Oracle's debt burden threatens neither its cloud ambitions nor AI infrastructure plans. LINK
• Lawsuit accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Google of colluding over AI development. LINK
• Apple plans India Apple Pay launch through partnership with Axis Bank. LINK
• Paramount Skydance nears settlement clearing path for $110 billion Warner takeover. LINK
• Disney appoints Character.AI's former chief as its first company-wide technology officer. LINK
• Russia seizes Nestle and three French companies' remaining local assets. LINK
• Ireland fines Google $345 million for mishandling users' location data. LINK
• Anthropic reportedly delays IPO to November to disclose third-quarter results. LINK

📈 Stocks

📑 Research & Reports

• 7 AI stocks to buy before the OpenAI IPO: is MarketBeat's free report on the AI names it thinks re-rate when OpenAI lists. Get the free report
• France, US, Netherlands and UK lead AI adoption as rollout hits hiring. LINK
• India's software services exports rose 8.2% to $221.4 billion. LINK
• Goldman says weak US consumer sentiment reflects broader global discontent, not economy. LINK
• India should build domestic chip ecosystem spanning design, manufacturing and products. LINK
• New York Fed model sees steadier growth but slower return to 2% inflation. LINK
• Jefferies identifies six India growth themes through 2030, backed by government incentives. LINK

📅 Market Calendar

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