CNBC Daily Open: AI spending fears haunt markets before Halloween

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AI investmentmidterm electionsElon MuskSpaceXNVDA

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• SpaceX and Tesla have high election stakes as Elon Musk pours $366 million into campaigns

  Elon Musk's businesses are growing ever closer to the federal government even as he spends record sums on the 2026 midterms. According to FedScout, SpaceX has received $6.78 billion in federal work so far this year, nearly twice its $3.8 billion total for 2024. Musk has committed roughly $366 million across at least 40 races, with at least $276 million going to Republican groups and his America PAC since July, and $189.6 million aimed at helping Republican Ken Paxton in Texas. One critic argues that Musk wants favors and protection from oversight, while Musk warned on X that he will pursue those who challenge him. Musk has also given at least $6 million to state candidates and groups, including Gov. Greg Abbott.

  CNBC·22/10, 18:37• TSLAElon MuskSpaceXmidterm elections
• 3 reasons SpaceX could fall short of $1 trillion revenue goal

  Host Ejaaz Ahamadeen outlines three obstacles that could keep Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX) from reaching a $1 trillion revenue goal. First, capex of $35 billion to $40 billion raises funding questions, with Tesla's balance sheet cited at about $43 billion and rumors that Musk is seeking $30 billion to $50 billion before the Anthropic IPO. Second, moving from GB300 to Vera Rubin GPUs may prove technically harder, as the host doubts Jensen Huang's claim that the new chips take about 5 minutes to bring online and notes that next-gen GPUs have historically taken time to deploy. Third, revenue forecasts diverge sharply: JP Morgan projects $254 billion next year, while Musk's estimate is $500 billion to $1 trillion.

  Yahoo Finance·22/10, 14:21• TSLASpaceXTSLAElon Musk
• Elon Musk May Have Ended the October AI Crash as NVIDIA, Intel, and SanDisk Rally after One SpaceX Quote

  NVIDIA, Intel and SanDisk rose in premarket trading after Elon Musk described how fast SpaceX is adding AI computing capacity on its earnings call. SpaceX ended Q3 with 1.7 gigawatts of rated compute, $19.6 billion in capital expenditures, and guided Q4 spending to $35 billion–$40 billion. Musk's targets include about 200,000 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra chips coming online each month through 2026, 2.5–3 gigawatts online by year-end, and at least 13 gigawatts by the end of 2027, though SpaceX disclosed no chip purchase orders. Gains faded after the open, but all three were still up at 11 a.m. ET, following a month in which SanDisk fell 21.35% and Intel fell 14.14%. The article argues one morning proves little, since these are unsigned management targets and compute is leased at spot-market rates, while Truist called the quarter a supportive data point for AI cloud providers.

  Yahoo Finance·21/10, 15:04▲ NVDANVDASpaceXElon Musk
• Musk confirms merger exploration, takeaways from Nvidia's Huang at GTC Berlin event

  Hosts Julie Hyman, Pras Subramanian and Jake Conley discuss takeaways from Nvidia's (NVDA) Jensen Huang at the GTC Berlin AI Conference. They also cover a possible merger between SpaceX (SPCX) and Tesla (TSLA), and Super Micro (SMCI.TO) beating estimates, which reassured tech investors.

  Yahoo Finance·21/10, 13:45• TSLA▲ NVDATSLANVDAmergers and acquisitions
• Elon Musk Says Jensen Huang 'Rocks' as SpaceX, Nvidia Team Up on AI Data Centers in Space: ‘Far Better Than Almost Anyone Expects’

  Elon Musk praised Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as the two companies deepen their collaboration on AI computers designed to run in space. Musk said the Starmind computer, co-engineered by SpaceX and Nvidia, will reach volume production in 2027. Huang said the engineering teams are designing a new server and computing architecture for both space and Earth, and that they will explore putting data centers in orbit together. SpaceX aims to launch Nvidia-powered AI computers into orbit in 2027, but this depends partly on Starship, whose development Reuters reports has lagged Musk's original targets. Launch costs, satellite maintenance, power and thermal management remain major challenges.

  Yahoo Finance·18/10, 00:30▲ NVDANVDAdata centersElon Musk
• SpaceX Says It’s on Pace to Bring 200,000 Nvidia Chips Online a Month. Here’s Why Jensen Huang Calls GPU-Backed Loans “the Big Idea”

  Nvidia (NVDA) closed at $221.97 on October 21, up 2.54%, a day after SpaceX said on its earnings call it expects to bring about 200,000 Nvidia GB300s online each month for the rest of the year. According to the Financial Times, SpaceX is seeking about $40 billion in loans and investment-grade debt to buy the chips, with Apollo expected to lead; a source told CNBC the deal would likely use the GPUs as collateral, though Bloomberg reports talks are early and could fail. Nvidia is both a supplier and a SpaceX shareholder, with a stake worth about $21 billion at the end of June. The article's main risk is financing: if rental rates fall, collateral value falls too, and Nvidia's free cash flow dropped to $21.40 billion in the July quarter from $48.59 billion the prior quarter.

  Yahoo Finance·22/10, 19:48▲ NVDASpaceXNVDAsemiconductors

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• Cardano holders are being asked to bet $5 million on copper hitting a new record

  Toto Finance is asking Cardano's treasury for 22 million ADA, about $5 million, to buy and tokenize copper, with voting closing Nov. 15. About two-thirds of the budget would buy copper stored in a COMEX-approved warehouse for 18 to 24 months before sale, while the rest covers storage, insurance, audits and Toto's work. If the full budget is spent and ADA's dollar price stays unchanged, copper would need to rise about 49.4% for the treasury to recover its investment, and there is no guarantee the treasury gets its original ADA back. Toto could receive up to 3.36 million ADA, roughly 15% of the request, and would keep its commercial rights to its tokenized-copper business. The proposal would use just over half of Cardano's remaining withdrawal allowance, which would not be replenished under existing rules.

  CoinDesk·23/10, 04:36cryptocommoditiescopper
• Bitcoin Core changes security policy as AI makes bugs easier to find

  Bitcoin Core is changing its security disclosure policy because large language models have made some flaws easy to rediscover, so long embargoes offer little protection. Under the new policy, vulnerabilities deemed easily discoverable will be fixed as soon as possible across all maintained major versions, with security advisories published alongside the updates. Other flaws will follow severity-based schedules: low-severity bugs will be disclosed two weeks after the fix is released, while medium and high-severity bugs will be disclosed two weeks after the last affected release reaches End of Life, typically a year after the fix. The change follows a volunteer Bitcoin Red Team report of nearly 5,000 potential issues across 390 projects in August, though only about a fifth had been reproduced at that point.

  Cointelegraph·23/10, 04:34bitcoincryptoartificial intelligence
• Asia FX steadies as oil surge weighs on risk appetite, yen holds gains

  Asian currencies and the U.S. dollar were largely subdued on Friday as investors weighed rising energy costs and geopolitical tensions, while the yen held its gains after a safe-haven rally tied to concerns over global growth and tech valuations. The U.S. Dollar Index was flat at 101.60 by 03:33 GMT, near a three-week low and on track for a second straight weekly loss. USD/JPY edged up 0.1% to 156.90 after a nearly 1% drop in the previous session, as the yen reached its highest level in more than a month. Brent crude near $114 a barrel, after a 4% jump on Thursday following attacks in Saudi Arabia, raises inflation risks for energy importers such as Japan, India and South Korea. The Indian rupee extended its losses, with USD/INR up 0.3% to 95.109, while the yuan hovered near four-year lows; the Fed is expected to hold rates at 3.75%-4.00% on October 28, with ECB and BoJ decisions due on October 29 and 30.

  Yahoo Finance·23/10, 04:29▼ USD/JPY▼ AUD/USD• DXY▼ NZD/USDexchange ratesUS dollaroil prices
• Securities firm with the heaviest loss in the sector in Q3 2026 revealed

  APG Securities (APG) posted a pre-tax loss of nearly 108 billion VND in Q3 2026, compared with a profit of nearly 20 billion VND a year earlier, the largest loss among securities firms that have reported Q3 results. Revenue fell 21% to nearly 69 billion VND and gains from FVTPL financial assets dropped 93%, while operating expenses rose to nearly 124 billion VND, mainly due to a 119 billion VND loss on FVTPL assets. Financial expenses rose nearly 33% to 43.5 billion VND, mostly interest costs. For the first nine months, APG recorded a pre-tax loss of nearly 105 billion VND, against a profit of over 28 billion VND a year earlier, putting its 2026 pre-tax profit target of 20 billion VND under pressure.

  CafeF·23/10, 04:21brokeragesearningsVietnam
• IonQ vs. Rigetti Computing: Which Quantum Computing Stock Is the Better Buy?

  The article compares quantum computing companies IonQ (ion-based) and Rigetti Computing (superconducting). Rigetti reported Q2 revenue of $5.1 million, up from $1.8 million in 2025, but an operating loss of $28.1 million, and held $541.3 million in cash and investments; it also received a $100 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce. IonQ posted Q2 revenue of $80.1 million and forecasts 2026 sales of $280–290 million versus $130 million in 2025, though its Q2 operating loss widened to $337.2 million from $160.6 million, and the Elisity deal involves stock valued at up to $1.3 billion. The author judges IonQ the better investment given its consistent revenue growth, says they bought IonQ shares, and notes Rigetti's price-to-sales ratio is more than six times IonQ's.

  Yahoo Finance·23/10, 04:20quantum computingIonQvaluation
• Hoa Binh Construction dismisses a Deputy General Director

  Hoa Binh Construction (HBC) dismissed Nguyen Kinh Luan from his position as Deputy General Director effective 1 November 2026, for personal reasons, and he will remain a Board member. Earlier, on 15 September 2026, Mr. Luan resigned from all his positions at the company and related entities. Separately, on 18 September 2026, the company distributed more than 51.4 million shares to 99 creditors to swap debt of nearly VND 514.2 billion, equal to 100% of the shares issued. The swapped shares are restricted from transfer for one year and are expected to be delivered within 30 days after the issuance closes.

  CafeF·23/10, 04:05constructionVietnam