Bloomberg Technology
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OpenAI’s Annualized Revenue Run Rate Exceeds $40 Billion
Bloomberg’s Rachel Metz reports that OpenAI is on track to exceed a $40 billion annualized revenue run rate, roughly twice its level at the end of 2025, driven by paying ChatGPT users, growing business adoption and its Codex coding assistant. She says consumer use remains OpenAI’s largest business, but the company’s rapid growth does not resolve its central economic problem: compute is both its biggest expense and an ongoing capacity constraint.
Cerebras Cloud Growth Depends on Securing Data-Center Capacity
Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman argues that renting compute through the company’s first-party cloud has become a fast-growing, profitable business, with cloud and other service revenue rising 281% year over year to $126 million in the second quarter. He says the company’s ability to control its own data-center deployments lets it turn hardware into available capacity more quickly than its hardware customers can, even as demand and a $25.4 billion backlog build.
SpaceX Adds $500 Billion After First Lockup Expiry
Bloomberg’s Carmen Reinicke says SpaceX’s first post-IPO lockup expiry eased fears that newly tradeable insider shares would overwhelm demand: the stock rose 35% in five days, adding roughly $500 billion in market value. But she argues the event has not removed the prospect of volatility, with further scheduled share unlocks—including Elon Musk’s holdings in June 2027—still testing a valuation debate built heavily on Musk’s long-term targets.
GPU Futures Would Hedge AI Compute Rental-Rate Risk
Silicon Data, which has raised $30.5 million, is building pricing and performance benchmarks that CEO Carmen Li says could underpin a risk-management market for rented AI compute. Li said CME’s planned cash-settled GPU futures, tied initially to Silicon Data’s H100 and A100 indices, would let server owners hedge falling rental revenue and compute customers hedge rising costs. She argues that chip depreciation alone does not determine value: residual value depends on the cash flow older hardware can still generate.
Pixel 11 Raises Prices as Starting Memory Falls
Google’s Pixel 11 lineup raises entry prices while reducing starting memory, a shift the company attributes to a severe memory shortage, Bloomberg Senior Tech Editor Dana Wollman says. The phones add performance and durability upgrades and a HiLight notification feature that uses the rear flash, but retain a design Google has used for roughly three years. Google also introduced a wearable tool that estimates patterns associated with insulin resistance and directs users to consult a doctor rather than offering a diagnosis.
GameStop Keeps eBay in Play but Withholds Bid Details
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen says the company is still pursuing eBay, but would not say whether it will raise the $56 billion offer Bloomberg identified or disclose the timing and structure of any next step. In a Bloomberg Technology interview, Cohen said GameStop is “coming for eBay one way or another,” while arguing that record earnings from a smaller store base justify management’s decision to keep its strategy and transaction terms private.
RUM Group’s AI Bet Hinges on Monetizing 250 Megawatts
RUM Group’s AI strategy hinges on turning more than 250 megawatts of unmonetized power capacity, acquired through Northern Data, into a compute-as-a-service business. Chief executive Chris Pavlovski says 150 megawatts in Georgia could generate $3 billion in annual revenue, but acknowledges the company must prove it can deploy the right customers and hardware. He also argues that Rumble’s video platform could eventually supply data for robotics training, though he characterizes that opportunity as early-stage.
Premium iPhones Are Apple’s Answer to Slowing Unit Growth
Bloomberg reports that Apple’s glass-centric iPhone redesign remains on track for 2027, despite a Jefferies analyst’s claim that it had been canceled. Bloomberg Intelligence’s Anurag Rana argues the significance of such a model, and a potential foldable iPhone, lies in their ability to raise Apple’s average selling prices as memory costs rise and handset-unit growth matures. Higher-priced devices can improve the product mix, he says, but their impact depends on how many of Apple’s buyers will pay for them.
AI Agents Shift Engineers From Coding to Governing Code
Microsoft’s Charles Lamanna argues that AI agents will matter less as add-ons to existing workflows than as a reason to redesign how work is organized. He says Microsoft engineers are moving from writing code line by line to directing and evaluating agent-generated output, while sales, finance and HR teams can increasingly produce their own analysis rather than wait for central reporting groups. Lamanna’s case is that the resulting productivity is more likely to be reinvested in growth and new work than used simply to reduce headcount.
AI Ambitions Push South Park Commons Toward Larger, Longer Investments
South Park Commons co-founder Aditya Agarwal says AI is prompting founders to pursue more capital-intensive ideas, from grid infrastructure to nuclear-powered cargo ships, rather than the narrower software businesses common a few years ago. The firm’s $575 million fourth fund is designed to match that shift: South Park Commons plans to keep working with entrepreneurs before their companies are fully formed, then write larger checks and stay involved through later financings once it has conviction.
GameStop May Swap Its $56 Billion eBay Bid for a Partnership
GameStop may withdraw its proposed $56 billion bid for eBay after eBay rejected the approach and instead seek a partnership or joint venture, Bloomberg reports. Bailey Lipschultz says the companies could use GameStop’s 1,600 US stores to authenticate collectibles for eBay sellers, giving the marketplace a physical intake network without an acquisition. Spencer Soper cautions that similar efforts have struggled before, and that a store footprint alone does not establish customer demand or workable economics.
China’s AI Ambitions Face Entrenched Chip Manufacturing Moats
Baillie Gifford investment manager Paulina McPadden argues that China remains a formidable AI competitor, but its capital and innovation capacity will not quickly overcome the manufacturing advantages held by TSMC, SK Hynix and ASML. She says those advantages rest on specialized equipment and decades of accumulated process knowledge, while export controls further constrain Chinese efforts to catch up. For investors, she argues, the more durable AI opportunities may also lie in company-specific systems, citing Shopify’s product catalog and MercadoLibre’s software-development workflow.
World Cup Customers Lift DraftKings Handle 20% After Tournament
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins argues that the World Cup gave the company more than a temporary customer boost: acquisition costs ran 25% below plan, and betting handle rose 20% in July after the tournament ended. He says the retention of new and reactivated users strengthens DraftKings’ position entering the NFL season, helping investors look past a quarter in which revenue and adjusted EBITDA declined. Robins also casts the company’s growing prediction business as an adult entertainment product, rejecting marketing practices he says prioritize short-term volume over a durable brand.
Take-Two Calls GTA VI Preorder Demand Unprecedented
Take-Two Interactive says preorder demand for Grand Theft Auto VI is “unprecedented,” but has not disclosed a figure, leaving investors to infer the scale of interest from the company’s language ahead of the game’s November 19 release. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier argues that GTA VI’s launch-period sales should far exceed those of GTA V, reflecting the franchise’s growth since 2013, while cautioning that preorders may shift the timing of sales rather than determine total demand. Rockstar’s August 27 gameplay presentation is the next substantive test of those expectations.
Lyft Bets Robotaxis Will Expand, Not Replace, Ride-Hailing
Lyft CEO David Risher argues that autonomous vehicles can expand ride-hailing demand rather than simply replace human-driven trips, as riders choose between services for different needs. He is also positioning Lyft’s acquisition of Free Now and its taxi relationships as the basis for international growth, particularly in regulated European markets. Risher said the company is still deciding how to differentiate its European offering from Uber, Bolt and other established rivals.
Markets Are Pricing Resilience Before Inflation, Liquidity and AI Returns Are Tested
Markets, policymakers and lenders are pricing resilience before oil-driven inflation, liquidity stress and AI returns have been tested. Scrutiny of President Trump’s contact with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh could intensify if higher energy prices force a difficult rate decision, while Situational Awareness has resumed investing after a leverage-driven liquidity crisis without resolving questions about its future risk posture. Alphabet’s $25 billion bond offering, meanwhile, drew demand on the strength of demonstrated infrastructure revenue and cash flow, even as the wider payoff from AI remains unproven.
Figma Positions Design as the Operating Layer for AI-Built Software
Figma chief executive Dylan Field says the company is investing in AI agents and code generation on the premise that cheaper, easier-to-generate code will make design the layer where teams define and steer software. Figma is already monetizing AI but is not including unproven products in its forecast, even as it reports accelerating revenue growth and a negative operating margin. Its aim is to connect design and code in the Figma canvas, allowing teams to build from design rather than treating it as an upstream handoff to engineering.
Sequoia’s AI Strategy Pairs Concentrated Capital With Investor Autonomy
Sequoia Capital co-stewards Alfred Lin and Pat Grady say the firm’s $2.5 billion investment in Anthropic reflects a strategy of making concentrated AI-era bets from its core funds, even when it has arrived late to a company. They argue that scale should not turn Sequoia into a top-down allocator: the partnership is structured to let investors with specialist knowledge press a case through internal skepticism, as it did with SpaceX and more recently Valar Atomics.
Disney’s IP Flywheel Extends Franchise Value Beyond the Box Office
Phillips Securities analyst Helena Wang argues that Disney’s advantage is its ability to turn franchises into revenue across films, Disney+, parks, cruises and consumer products, reducing its dependence on any one box-office result. She says strong experiences cash flow and planned expansion reinforce that model, while Disney’s TikTok collaboration reflects a need to make Disney+ a more habitual destination as audiences shift time toward short-form video.
Brazil’s Food-Delivery War Diverts Two-Wheeler Drivers From Uber
Uber’s trip growth slowed in Brazil because food-delivery companies, though not direct Uber competitors there, paid enough to draw two-wheeler drivers away from its mobility network, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said. He argued that the disruption was localized: Uber’s broader business continues to grow, with more than 300 million weekly trips, 22% gross-bookings growth in the quarter and no signs that consumers are trading down.
Uber Attributes Trips Miss to Brazil Driver Supply, Not Demand
Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi says the company’s second-quarter trips shortfall reflected a localized driver-supply disruption in Brazil, not weakening consumer demand. He points to stable mobility growth, accelerating delivery and no sign that customers are trading down or reducing tips, even as Uber’s third-quarter gross-bookings forecast merely met expectations. Khosrowshahi also argues that Uber’s robotaxi strategy should aggregate demand across multiple autonomous fleets rather than rely on a single provider.
SpaceX Shares Fall as $18.4 Billion AI Spending Overshadows Revenue Beat
SpaceX’s first quarterly report as a public company beat revenue expectations and posted a smaller-than-expected AI operating loss, but its shares fell as investors focused on $18.37 billion in capital spending and management’s plan to maintain a similar pace through year-end. Bloomberg’s Danny Lee said Starlink remains the company’s profitable cash generator and that compute sales are already producing revenue, while Haidi Stroud-Watts characterized SpaceX’s longer-term plan for data centers in space as largely unproven.
Palo Alto Says AI Has Cut Patching From 55 Days to Four Hours
Palo Alto Networks is building AI agents into what CEO Nikesh Arora calls the “operating system of network security,” arguing that defenders must respond to machine-assisted vulnerability discovery at comparable speed. Arora says Palo Alto has reduced its patching process from an industry average of 55 days to four hours, with the eventual goal of producing protections in minutes or instantly. He contends that as AI makes offensive cyber capabilities more widely available, defense will depend on AI deployment at scale—and on token costs falling substantially.
Inference Demand Keeps Hyperscaler AI Spending Justified
Lazard Asset Management portfolio manager Celine Woo argues that hyperscalers’ AI spending remains justified because cloud-infrastructure demand still exceeds supply and inference workloads are becoming a larger source of growth. Woo says agentic AI is adding to demand for semiconductors and capacity, while backlog, customer visibility and long-term supply agreements give companies grounds to commit capital before the associated revenue fully appears. Her case rests on whether suppliers can expand quickly enough to prevent components such as chips and memory from becoming a constraint.