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Capitalist Insider: Jensen’s $13B Hugging Face deal is an OpenAI hedge
Trump just stuck China with Maduro’s 65 billion barrel IOU in brutal dunk
Goldman just found 5 million Hormuz barrels hiding in the dark
Goldman doubles down on Dallas as New York the cold shoulder
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Trump just stuck China with Maduro’s 65 billion barrel IOU in brutal dunk
Washington’s takeover of Venezuelan oil denies China both crude and the repayment channel on billions of dollars Caracas owed Beijing against more than 65 billion barrels of reserves.
Revenue claims are cut: The Yahoo Finance report said Beijing will have no claim on revenue from Venezuelan oil production, severing the main way Caracas serviced oil-backed Chinese debt.
65 billion barrels is the prize: The fields hold more than 65 billion barrels, the asset Washington is using to redraw who gets paid from Venezuelan crude.
Hemisphere framed as security: The United States is treating parts of the region’s economic ties with China as a security concern and using leverage to enforce those red lines.
Beijing says its rights stand: China said its “legitimate rights and interests in Venezuela must be protected” and that China-Venezuela cooperation is “protected by international law” and “doesn’t concern any third party.”
China lost Iran’s cheap barrels and is overpaying Russia
Chinese refiners paid more than $7 a barrel over Brent for November ESPO, with offers as high as $10, as buyers scramble to replace Iranian barrels blocked by U.S. naval measures.
China still takes 83% of ESPO: Beijing remained the dominant buyer in the first seven months, though its share slipped from 88% a year earlier.
India’s slice rose to 16%: Indian refiners lifted ESPO purchases as Chinese imports slumped in May and June and Middle East supplies stayed disrupted.
Kozmino loadings are up 6%: Oil exports from Russia’s Far Eastern port of Kozmino rose 6% over the first seven months.
Iranian crude is the hole being filled: Independent Chinese refiners turned to ESPO after the U.S. naval blockade squeezed Iranian flows.
Wall Street priced 53,000 jobs. August delivered 162k
Employers added 162,000 jobs in August, far above the 53,000-to-56,000 forecasts, as the jobless rate held at 4.1% and traders lifted September Fed hike odds to about 60%.
June and July get rewritten: July flipped from a 23,000 loss to a 21,000 gain and June rose to 31,000, leaving those two months 55,000 jobs higher than first reported.
Restaurants and schools did the lifting: Food services added 59,000 jobs and local-government education 42,000, while information lost 23,000 and wages rose 0.3% on the month, 3.1% over the year.
Stocks sold the hot print: The Dow was down 0.6%, the S&P 500 0.3%, and the Nasdaq 0.1% as the 10-year yield sat near 4.77% to 4.80% and hike odds jumped from roughly even money.
Trump wants cuts, not a hike: Trump called it a “great jobs number” and told the Fed to lower rates, while Morgan Stanley’s Ellen Zentner said next week’s inflation prints still decide the meeting.
Odds surge on Tesla merging with SpaceX before 2028
The odds of Tesla merging with SpaceX before 2028 have surged according to the latest data from Kalshi.
Elon’s Mega Corp: Elon Musk, fresh off the back of the SpaceX IPO has been rumored to be debating the move.
A Pattern Emerging: Prior to the SpaceX IPO several of Musk’s ventures were brought in under the SpaceX umbrella. This included the satellite internet division Starlink and the xAI division which runs the AI model Grok.
Do you think Tesla will be acquired by SpaceX?
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600,000 NYC students can’t touch classroom AI this year
Mayor Zohran Mamdani imposed a one-year generative-AI moratorium on elementary and middle schoolers in the nation’s largest district, while high schoolers get five AI programs.
Not a forever ban: City Hall framed the K-8 halt as a one-year pause, not a permanent lockout, in a district the Fox Business report called the country’s largest.
High school still gets five programs: Teenagers will study AI’s uses and risks across five separate programs because, Mamdani said, they are already growing up in an AI-saturated world.
He says no study backs early use: Mamdani said he has “yet to see a study showing that AI is beneficial for students in elementary and middle school” and that ubiquity is not the same as necessity.
Teachers-pay fight is in court: His office sued to block a teacher pay increase after City Hall approved it, arguing the bill violates state law; the United Federation of Teachers intervened.
VW doubles job cuts to 100,000 and kills half the lineup
Volkswagen’s supervisory board approved another 50,000 job cuts on top of about 50,000 already made since 2024, taking planned reductions to 100,000 as the company slashes its model range.
Four German plants lose new models: Emden, Zwickau, Hanover, and Neckarsulm get no new vehicles unless costs fall, with alternative uses under review.
Half the lineup goes in 9 years: VW plans to discontinue half its models over nine years to cut complexity after the board’s surprise restructuring vote.
Shares bid the bloodletting: Volkswagen stock rose about 5.5% on the news, even after a year-to-date drop of more than 20%.
Workers face closure risk: Barron’s said the deeper cuts open the door to factory closures and left staff reeling after the doubled target landed.
Waymo adds 3 cities as Zoox opens paid Vegas airport runs
Waymo opened public driverless rides in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa, reaching 14 U.S. cities, while Amazon’s Zoox started paid robotaxi shuttles between the Las Vegas Strip and Harry Reid International Airport.
Waymo claims a 94% safety gap: The company said its driver was in 94% fewer crashes with serious injuries or worse than human drivers over the same distance, after tens of thousands signed up in each new city.
Zoox needed a federal waiver: NHTSA granted a temporary FMVSS exemption on July 31 because the carriages have no steering wheel or pedals; paid airport service began Aug. 10.
Four-seat carriages, no driver controls: Zoox vehicles seat 4 facing each other and run to the Convention Center, Sphere, T-Mobile Arena, and major Strip resorts.
Zoox maps 10 more paid cities: After Vegas, Zoox plans paid rides in Seattle, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, and others as Waymo keeps a gradual public rollout.
Goldman just found 5 million Hormuz barrels hiding in the dark
Goldman Sachs identified a roughly 5 million-barrel-a-day “dark transit” blind spot in Hormuz, even as official tallies tout a recovery in flows through the strait.
The advertised recovery is incomplete: ZeroHedge said markets have been told Hormuz traffic is coming back, while Goldman still cannot see about 5 million barrels a day.
Dark runs are the adaptation: Tankers are moving around the conflict with transponders dark, creating a flow the official recovery story does not capture.
That gap is the tape: A 5 million-barrel-a-day miss is large enough to keep oil pricing off the official transit counts.
GPT-6 dropped and the cheap AI trade is still open
OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Astra for enterprise computer use, rolling it first to Daybreak customers, as Goldman said the model is what the AI bull case has been waiting for and AIQ threatened a breakout.
SOTA on the office stack: OpenAI said Astra is state-of-the-art on computer use, browser tasks, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work, including forms, records, calendars, and decks.
Plus and API come next: After Daybreak enterprises, the model is slated for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise, plus the OpenAI API and Amazon Web Services.
Altman calls it most aligned: Sam Altman said Astra is the company’s “most aligned model ever,” set “a new standard” for safety, and took longer to ship for that reason.
Vol is crushed as NYFANG hits highs: ZeroHedge said AIQ is threatening a multi-month breakout, NYFANG closed at a record, and tech options stay cheap while Astra refuels the spend narrative.
Goldman doubles down on Dallas as New York the cold shoulder
Goldman Sachs is building an 800,000-square-foot Dallas campus for a January 2028 opening beside the Perot Museum, consolidating its second-largest U.S. headcount hub outside New York.
Two offices become one: CAO Ericka Leslie said the new building will combine the firm’s current Dallas sites so every business unit sits in one state-of-the-art space.
NYC headcount is frozen: CEO David Solomon told CNBC New York staffing has stayed a little under 10,000 for about 20 years, while Dallas and Salt Lake City absorbed the U.S. growth.
Amenities are the pitch: The campus is slated for a wellness center, gym, backup daycare, cafeteria spaces, a coffee bar, underground parking, and a 1.5-acre park.
Dallas crews caused a slight delay: Leslie said the project is mostly on time, with small slips from the city’s construction boom, and called Dallas a “really bright future.”