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Capitalist Insider: OpenAI’s Astra lights a 30% SoftBank rip and a chip-stock fire
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Mamdani taxed trophy homes. $100K rents jumped sevenfold.
Seven times as many Manhattan apartments now rent for more than $100,000 a month, while Amazon warned a Mamdani-backed delivery bill could add $664 a year for every city household.
Median rent hits record: Manhattan’s median hit $5,295 in July, up 6%, Corcoran said. The top 10% averaged $17,464 after a 35% jump, and rentals above $50,000 more than doubled.
Second-home tax arrives: The surcharge covers 1- to 3-family homes valued above $5 million and certain condos and co-ops assessed above $1 million. Mamdani said it will raise $500 million a year.
Homeowners fight City Hall: 3 owners sued after notices went to about 17,000 properties. A lower court paused the rollout; an appeals court let the process resume while the fight continues.
Amazon warns $664 hit: Intro 0518, backed by Mamdani and Council Member Tiffany Cabán, could add $664 per household, lift per-package costs 267%, and put 40-plus partners and 5,000 workers at risk.
Capitalist Insider: OpenAI’s Astra lights a 30% SoftBank rip and a chip-stock fire
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Nasdaq just forced $15.5B of buying into Musk’s SpaceX
JPMorgan says a Nasdaq-100 rebalance could force about $15.5 billion of passive buying into SpaceX this month as its index weight jumps from 1.25% toward 2.25%.
Float still thin: SpaceX is already the 7th-largest Nasdaq-100 name near $2 trillion, yet its 1.25% weight ranks only 19th because of a small post-IPO public float.
Starlink cadence holds: SpaceX completed its 80th Starlink launch of 2026 on Sunday, ahead of a rocket switch-up that should help the company cut costs.
Orbital compute waits: Musk is aiming for a late-2027 orbital data-center launch. Neuberger’s Evelyn Chow called true scale a next-decade event, citing cooling, radiation and downlink hurdles.
Texas chip factory: SpaceX and Tesla plan Terafab Texas in Grimes, a more than 100 million-square-foot plant for Optimus, Cybercab and space-data-center chips. Initial phase is about $16.8 billion.
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.
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CoreWeave and Intel are now Nvidia’s $99B problem
Nvidia disclosed about $99 billion of equity stakes as of July 26, plus $25 billion more in commitments, even as a key partner said AI compute demand may never be sated.
Intel is the test: The book includes a $30 billion Intel slice after Nvidia invested $5 billion alongside a pact to jointly develop data-center and PC products.
CoreWeave sits inside: Several billion dollars of CoreWeave equity sit in the same portfolio. Short interest was 58,859,603 shares, or 16.92% of float, as of Aug. 14.
Iren sees no ceiling: Iren co-CEO Daniel Roberts said it is really hard to see supply overtaking demand, as Iren prepares to spend up to $30 billion over the coming year.
Goldman maps the build: Goldman Sachs expects U.S. data-center capacity to double from 2024 levels by the end of 2027 and more than triple by 2030, to about 125 GW.
Apple’s $2,000 foldable is Ternus’s opening act tomorrow
New Apple CEO John Ternus hosts his first iPhone event Wednesday in Cupertino, with a foldable model widely expected after he succeeded Tim Cook on Sept. 1.
Pro lineup expected: The event is also widely expected to show iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max plus Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.
Maps says America: Apple Maps now shows Lake America for U.S. users after Trump’s Aug. 27 order updated federal GNIS, matching Google. Canadian users still see Lake Ontario.
MapQuest keeps Ontario: MapQuest kept calling it Lake Ontario and said usage hit about 50 times normal after hundreds of thousands of downloads, topping U.S. App Store navigation.
China chips tested: Apple is testing CXMT memory chips for iPhones and MacBooks sold in China and wants White House approval. Custom chips are barred, so a redesign may follow.
Trump’s DOE just loaned $1.9B to wake a dead reactor
NextEra Energy closed a Department of Energy loan of up to $1.9 billion to restart Iowa’s only nuclear plant, as New York separately pursues 5 gigawatts of new reactors.
Duane Arnold target: The 615-megawatt Linn County plant is slated to return by the first quarter of 2029, pending approvals, after NextEra announced the restart plan last October.
Financing office closed: The deal ran through the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing and is meant to add around-the-clock power to the regional grid, NextEra said Tuesday.
Hochul wants 5 GW: Gov. Kathy Hochul is pursuing 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity, with at least 1 gigawatt at the New York Power Authority and a separate 4-gigawatt track.
Pause bill pending: Sen. Kevin Parker’s legislation would impose a 30-month pause on taxpayer and ratepayer support for new or restarted nuclear plants while a task force studies costs.
Von der Leyen eyes €10T of ‘lazy’ household deposits
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told French business leaders that €10 trillion in household cash savings is sitting idle and should be put to work for European companies.
Paris speech sets target: She spoke Friday at MEDEF’s La Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France, arguing Europe has savings but those deposits remain on the sidelines of the real economy.
Debt clock is ticking: Starting in 2028, repayment of the €800 billion NextGenerationEU Eurobond program comes due, raising the political premium on mobilizing private capital.
France still deep in red: France is running new borrowing equal to 5.7% of GDP this year, with a parliamentary deadlock that rules out fiscal consolidation.
Digital euro next: A digital-euro pilot is slated in 2 years, with foreign-account limits, digital ID and crypto rules described as the next tightening tools.
Meta’s kids ruling: $567M. Zuck’s next product: you.
Mark Zuckerberg argued personal superintelligence should be broadly distributed, even as a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million and overhaul teen protections on Facebook and Instagram.
Letter sets doctrine: In a 14-page note titled “The Future is for Everyone,” Zuckerberg said invention should be AI’s purpose and a balance of power favoring individuals is the safety foundation.
Open models coming back: Meta will resume releasing some open-source models, starting with Muse Glimmer, a 30-billion-parameter model that can run on a laptop or single consumer GPU.
Community fund attached: A $1 billion Future is for Everyone Fund will back towns that host Meta data centers. In Richland Parish, Louisiana, teachers received a $50,000 bonus from tax revenue.
Judge orders teen overhaul: Judge Bryan Biedscheid found a public nuisance and added $567 million on top of a March $375 million jury award, for nearly $942 million total. Meta said it will appeal.
Seoul eyes a $22.3B Texas plant. Its ministry won’t confirm.
Korean media said Seoul and Washington agreed on about $22.3 billion for a 6.3-gigawatt gas plant in Encinal, Texas, but South Korea’s Industry Ministry called the reports inaccurate.
Edaily cites unnamed officials: The outlet said the Encinal plant would be Seoul’s first U.S. project under last year’s trade deal and is meant to power rising AI data-center demand.
Trade-deal envelope is huge: Under that pact, Seoul pledged $350 billion of U.S. investments in exchange for favorable tariffs on South Korean goods. Reports did not say Seoul would fund the whole Texas bill.
Other U.S. sites floated: The same reports said Seoul is also weighing a large nuclear plant or an LNG project in Alaska. The ministry said no U.S. nuclear decision has been made.
Ministry: talks still open: Officials said consultations continue and an announcement would come only after negotiations finish and parliamentary approval is considered.
Mamdani is totally clueless about too many things —— starting with free buses / housing/ groceries etc
No worries, it seems to me most of the people who can afford $100,000/mo rent are leaving anyways. There are - maybe were - about 8,000,000 people living in NYC. 33% are on some kind of government assistance. Most of those other people can't afford $100,000/mo. I read yesterday that the average cost to rent a 1br apt in NYC was $4624/mo. Less in low income units and much more for higher end units. To get elected Mamdani promised to make rent affordable. Yesterday he took action - he froze rent prices for 2 years. Thats not making anything more affordable it just locks in the already unaffordable rent for 2 years. With all of the people leaving NYC there should be plenty of vacancies. When the rental markets are saturated with vacancies prices drop. Landlords are forced to lower rents. Many landlords have mortgage payments to meet and they can't meet them with empty units.