TL;DR

Meta, OpenAI, and Apple escalate AI investment; Lyten acquires Northvolt assets; Solana expands tokenization.

Highlights

• Lyten, a California lithium-sulfur battery startup, acquires $5B in European gigafactories and R&D assets from bankrupt Northvolt 1.
• Meta Platforms, Inc. Class A Common Stock acquires WaveForms AI (emotion-detecting audio), integrating its team into Meta’s Superintelligence Labs 2.
• Meta Platforms, Inc. Class A Common Stock selects Pimco and Blue Owl Capital Inc. to arrange $29B in debt and equity for a major Louisiana data center expansion 3.
• OpenAI launches GPT-5, cuts API prices, retires older models, and rolls out multi-million-dollar retention bonuses to stem talent attrition 46.
• OpenAI targets a $500B secondary share sale valuation, with annual recurring revenue on track to surpass $20B 6.
• Apple Inc. faces analyst pressure to accelerate AI via acquisition (Perplexity AI) and partnerships; confirms GPT-5 integration in September OS updates 57.
• Alphabet Inc. Class C Capital Stock pilots an AI-driven Google Finance with chatbot and advanced charting features for U.S. users 8.
• Animoca Brands, Standard Chartered, and HKT form Anchorpoint Financial to pursue a Hong Kong stablecoin issuer license under new regulations 9.
• Binance partners with Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. for off-exchange crypto custody, allowing institutional clients to hold collateral with a regulated bank 11.
• Solana launches PreStocksFi (tokenized private equity) and Exodus stock tokens, expanding real-world-asset tokenization on-chain 12.
• El Salvador announces plans for the world’s first Bitcoin - United States dollar bank, expanding its national crypto strategy 13.
• Tesla, Inc. Common Stock shuts down its Dojo supercomputer project, pivots to Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices chips, and loses key engineers to startups 15.

Commentary

Capital deployment into AI infrastructure and talent remains a defining theme. Meta Platforms, Inc. Class A Common Stock ’s $29B data center financing—arranged with Pimco and Blue Owl Capital Inc. —highlights the scale of private capital now chasing AI infrastructure, while its acquisition of WaveForms AI underscores ongoing competition for specialized teams in generative and multimodal AI 23. OpenAI’s GPT-5 launch, aggressive API price cuts, and significant retention bonuses reinforce the escalating cost of staying competitive in AI, with the firm’s $500B secondary share sale and $20B+ ARR further raising the bar for late-stage private valuations 46.

Apple Inc. ’s position in AI is under scrutiny, as analysts urge bolder M&A (specifically Perplexity AI) and deeper partnerships to avoid lagging behind peers 5. The confirmed integration of GPT-5 into Apple Intelligence in September signals a willingness to adopt best-in-class models but also increases pressure on early-stage AI startups to demonstrate clear differentiation or unique data assets to attract acquisition interest 7.

In digital assets, institutionalization and regulatory clarity are driving activity. Solana’s expansion into tokenized private equity and stock tokens 12, Binance’s custody partnership with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. 11, and the Anchorpoint Financial stablecoin license bid in Hong Kong 9 all point to increased demand for compliant, on-chain products. These moves may support new fintech and blockchain startups focused on regulatory-grade infrastructure and tokenization, but also raise the bar for compliance and partnerships with established financial institutions.

Tesla, Inc. Common Stock ’s decision to shelve its Dojo supercomputer and shift to external chip suppliers signals a retreat from custom AI hardware, freeing up engineering talent for startups like DensityAI 15. This could create new opportunities for VCs in AI chip design and edge compute, as displaced teams seek funding for specialized hardware or software solutions.

VCs should monitor: (1) continued M&A and acqui-hire activity in AI, (2) late-stage secondary liquidity and valuation resets, (3) regulatory developments in digital assets, and (4) talent migration from Big Tech to startups, particularly in AI and compute infrastructure.