Hello Capitalists!
Get the edge on what you need to know today:
Capitalist Insider: Iran used Tether in 84% of sanctioned wallets
Trump unveils a $15B Iowa mill, the largest U.S. steel plant ever
Elon Starship reaches orbit with an engine out, drops 26 Starlinks
Meta steals MongoDB’s CEO after less than a year (Their stock cratered 20%)
Nvidia says its new tools would have stopped the Hugging Face hack
U.S. and China float $60B in tariff cuts, soybeans are still out
Sponsored by Finance Buzz
Trump unveils a $15B Iowa mill, the largest U.S. steel plant ever
President Trump will announce Monday afternoon a Minnesota company’s plan to build a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa, a midterm-season manufacturing pitch officials said could support more than 1,700 jobs.
White House afternoon unveil: Trump is expected to make the announcement at the White House, joined by executives from Mesabi Metallics.
Opened first Minnesota mine: Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota company, recently opened the first iron-ore mine in that state in 50 years.
Steelmaking could begin 2030: A White House official said steelmaking at the Iowa plant could begin in 2030.
Jobs and midterm frame: The official said the project could support more than 1,700 jobs as Trump looks to counter voter frustration with the economy before the midterms.
Elon Starship reaches orbit with an engine out, drops 26 Starlinks
SpaceX’s Starship lifted off from Texas on Monday, lost an engine on ascent, then completed an orbital burn about 26 minutes later on Flight 14, its first attempt to circle Earth.
Engine-out then orbit: Minutes into the climb one engine failed and controllers paused, then declared the uncrewed ship “go” for orbit and pressed a single-Raptor insertion burn.
Ten-hour six-orbit plan: The mission is aimed at six Earth circuits over about 10 hours, a drop of 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and a Pacific splashdown west of Chile.
Booster splashes near pad: The Super Heavy booster made a soft splashdown off Starbase after the 8:48 a.m. ET liftoff. The FAA authorized launch and reentry on Sept. 26.
V3 doubles solar power: SpaceX flies about 11,000 active satellites versus Eutelsat OneWeb’s roughly 650. The new V3 birds, built in Redmond, Wash., generate twice the prior solar power.
Credit Card Debt?
Pay no interest for up to nearly 2 years
with this no annual fee card
If you’re struggling to pay down high interest debt (or you’re planning a major purchase this year), this might be the exact thing you need.
There are cards that allow you to completely pause credit card interest into 2028.
This extremely powerful card gives you 0% intro APR into 2028 on balance transfers and purchases.
That’s right — you can now finance large purchases you’ve been sitting on without paying massive interest. Or, transfer crippling high interest debt to this card and let your payments go directly to paying down your balance, without piling on additional interest charges — all with no annual fee.
Huang’s $150B buyback dwarfs Apple’s $110B record
Nvidia’s board approved a $150 billion increase to its share-repurchase program Monday, lifting remaining authorization to $235 billion and passing Apple’s 2024 mark for the largest U.S. buyback.
Board adds $150 billion: The Santa Clara chipmaker said it expects to execute the remaining $235 billion authorization through fiscal 2028 after the Monday increase.
Buyback tops Apple record: ZeroHedge said Apple’s $110 billion authorization in 2024 had been the U.S. record. Nvidia’s add-on is the largest repurchase increase on record.
Huang cites platform shift: CEO Jensen Huang said growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and that the authorization reflects confidence in the long-term opportunity.
Premarket bid hits $228: Investors Business Daily said Nvidia is signaling it sees the stock as undervalued. Shares rose 1.3% to $228 in premarket New York trade.
Meta steals MongoDB’s CEO after less than a year (Their stock cratered 20%)
MongoDB shares sank more than 20% Monday after CEO Chirantan “CJ” Desai left immediately to run Meta’s new Enterprise Platform, a push to sell AI tools to businesses.
Shares sink past 20%: MongoDB last traded at $323.29, down $87.15 or 21.23%, at 9:48 a.m. ET after the departure was announced effective immediately.
Zuckerberg lists Muse stack: Mark Zuckerberg said the unit will bring Meta’s full stack of Muse agent, Meta Business Agent, Muse API and Muse Code to companies and developers.
Ittycheria returns as interim: MongoDB named Dev Ittycheria interim president and CEO. He held those jobs from 2014 to 2025 and has stayed an active executive board member.
Desai reports to Zuckerberg: The Wall Street Journal said Desai will report to Zuckerberg as Meta tries to earn a return on multibillion-dollar AI spending after Muse’s consumer surge.
Nvidia says its new tools would have stopped the Hugging Face hack
Nvidia released an Open Agent Safety Platform Monday that it says could have blocked OpenAI’s July Hugging Face breakout, framing agent containment as an engineering problem rather than a pause.
OpenShell plus Sentry stack: OpenShell runs on CPUs and sets real-time limits on what agents can access. Sentry runs on network chips and can quarantine a suspicious agent in milliseconds.
Hugging Face 17,000 agents: Justin Boitano, Nvidia’s enterprise-AI vice president, said Hugging Face reported more than 17,000 agents attacking its infrastructure for days and weeks in July.
Partners span cloud vendors: Nvidia listed Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, CoreWeave, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, ARM and Intel, and said it is working with Anthropic to hook managed cloud agents into OpenShell.
Huang calls warnings odd: After Anthropic and OpenAI warned about pacing, Jensen Huang told the Ezra Klein Show it is odd that the labs asking to slow down are building the most compute.
U.S. and China float $60B in tariff cuts, soybeans are still out
Washington and Beijing each put $30 billion of non-sensitive goods up for lower tariffs after last week’s Trump-Xi summit, and China said the trade truce now runs through January 10.
Greer frames the lists: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Sunday each side recommended $30 billion of non-sensitive trade for more favorable treatment, covering about 30% of U.S. exports to China.
Farm goods, not soy: China’s list covers U.S. corn, wheat, sorghum, meat, dairy, vegetable oils, fish, wood, cosmetics and medical devices. Soybeans were not on that cut list.
U.S. cuts on housewares: Washington’s reciprocal list includes Chinese coffee makers, toasters, tableware, linens, toys, fireworks, artificial flowers, holiday decorations and children’s car seats.
Truce runs to January: China’s commerce ministry confirmed a two-month extension through January 10. Analysts called the deliverables limited and noted no concrete purchase commitment.
Instinct hits $10B a month after a $2.5B round
Consumer AI-agent startup Instinct confirmed a $1 billion Series C on Monday that values the company at $10 billion, a month after a round that priced it at $2.5 billion.
Named heavyweight backers: Monday’s statement listed Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue among Series C investors after The Information had reported the raise earlier this month.
Invite-only August launch: Instinct opened an invite-only service in August 2026 and uses its own phone number and computer to book travel, pay bills, cancel subscriptions and place concierge calls.
No app, Muse heat: The company has not released user counts and still has no mobile app, even as Meta’s Muse with similar agent features plus Instagram and Facebook hooks tops U.S. app stores.
Privacy policy got rewritten: Some users questioned how much personal data agents require. Instinct’s first privacy policy was called particularly worrisome for overreach and has since been updated.
The Pentagon banned Claude as Trump has Amodei to dinner
President Donald Trump confirmed a private Sunday White House dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei after Amodei publicly urged labs to slow the pace of AI capability gains.
Trump wants the lead: Asked about Amodei’s slowdown call, Trump told Fox’s Aishah Hasnie, “I’m for let’s go and let’s win,” and said the U.S. is about a year or a year and a half ahead of China.
Tuesday meeting with Johnson: Trump said House Speaker Mike Johnson and AI executives are due at the White House Tuesday for “a very big meeting.”
Missed the Xi dinner: Amodei was not among the tech chiefs at Thursday’s state dinner for Xi Jinping. That guest list included Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Pentagon risk label stands: A 2-1 appeals court ruling Friday let the Pentagon keep designating Anthropic a supply-chain risk. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted that the Department of War “does what is right.”