Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.
In today's newsletter:
🏦 Fed expected to hike rates this week
💰 Amazon to buy up to $60B in Qualcomm AI chips
🐻 AI CEOs urge slowdown rattling chip stocks
⚖️ Senate votes on crypto CLARITY Act today
🤝 Anthropic buys $13.7B compute from Truth Social host
Plus: 🌍 9 macro news, 🏢 11 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.
| 🏦 Fed expected to hike rates this week LINK |
- The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point this week, with futures traders pricing better than 92% odds of a hike from the current 3.50%-to-3.75% range under Chairman Kevin Warsh.
- The move follows rising fuel prices and August inflation of 3.4%, though core prices, which strip out food and energy, ran at a milder 2.4%, prompting some officials to argue tariff- and oil-driven gains are temporary and warrant patience.
- Investors will watch the vote margin for signs of committee unity and the "dot plot" for conviction on a second hike in December, with markets already pricing better than 75% odds of a follow-up move.
| 💰 Amazon to buy up to $60B in Qualcomm AI chips LINK |
- Amazon's cloud arm AWS agreed to buy up to $60 billion in Qualcomm AI data-center chips, a multi-year deal unveiled September 8 that gives the chipmaker a third major cloud customer alongside Microsoft and Meta.
- QCOM shares jumped as much as 6.9% on the news to an intraday high of $180.41, up roughly 8.71% for the month, though warrants letting Amazon buy about $4 billion in stock at $161.26 spurred some profit-taking on dilution concerns.
- The deal underpins Qualcomm's target of $15 billion in annual data-center revenue by 2029, diversifying beyond smartphones as it faces the loss of Apple's modem business; RBC lifted its target to $180 and Piper Sandler upgraded the stock.
| 🐻 AI CEOs urge slowdown rattling chip stocks LINK |
- The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3% yesterday after Anthropic chief Dario Amodei called for slowing AI development, with OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk backing the stance, unsettling investors betting on rapid acceleration.
- Chipmakers took the hardest hit as the slowdown talk cast doubt on the timeline for AI spending on infrastructure and semiconductors, with Nvidia falling and Asia's Samsung dropping more than 4% alongside SK Hynix.
- Analysts urged caution against overreaction, noting the essay stopped short of halting model development and offered no evidence spending will drop; OpenAI is delaying its IPO to 2027 on safety grounds, while Anthropic keeps its fall Nasdaq listing plans.
| ⚖️ Senate votes on crypto CLARITY Act today LINK |
- The Senate holds a preliminary vote today on the Clarity Act, a bill to create a US regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, though it is unclear whether backers can reach the 60 votes needed to keep it alive.
- Passage hinges on at least seven Democrats crossing over; leaders framed it as a "free vote" merely to advance debate, adding ethics language letting state attorneys general enforce rules on officials like Trump and his family.
- Banks, led by the American Bankers Association and nearly 80 groups, still oppose the bill over stablecoin yields they warn could drain community-bank deposits, despite a compromise directing Treasury to curb rewards if large-scale deposit flight occurs.
| 🤝 Anthropic buys $13.7B compute from Truth Social host LINK |
- Anthropic has signed a six-year, $13.7 billion deal to buy computing capacity from Rum Group, the AI-infrastructure firm behind conservative video platform Rumble and the host of President Trump's Truth Social site.
- The deal has Anthropic leasing capacity at a Georgia data center still under construction, and Rum plans to borrow to fund it after disclosing in August that it lacked the financing needed to build the facility and equip it.
- It adds to Anthropic's run of cloud deals over the past year with Google, SpaceX and smaller providers like Nscale, which together total at least 14.8 gigawatts of capacity costing up to $517 billion over the next decade as demand for its Claude tools climbs.
🌍 Macro News
- Beijing calls AI slowdown warnings fearmongering, opposing caution on development. LINK
- Europe must build AI infrastructure or risk US, China dependence. LINK
- India's consumer inflation rose to 4.82% in August, pressuring central bank. LINK
- Manhattan prosecutors seek $61 million crypto tied to Iranian oil sales. LINK
- Oil and Treasury yields show strongest correlation since June 2019. LINK
- Carney gathers global investors to pitch Canada amid strained US ties. LINK
- EPA repeals Biden emissions rules, extending coal and gas plant operations. LINK
- European gas prices jumped as Saudi pipeline closure heightened supply concerns. LINK
- SEC crypto rules will advance regardless of Senate's CLARITY Act decision. LINK
🏢 Corporate News
- Samsung joined Euclyd's $231 million funding round amid Nvidia competition. LINK
- Musk's X and xAI dropped antitrust claims against Apple, ending litigation. LINK
- Oracle cuts jobs to help finance costly AI expansion. LINK
- DeepSeek appoints first CFO as it prepares for potential listing. LINK
- Anthropic launches Claude tool for financial advisers and wealth management. LINK
- Temporal raises $550 million at $12.55 billion valuation for AI reliability. LINK
- Broadcom CEO maintains AI revenue targets despite frontier-model slowdown concerns. LINK
- S&P investment lifts Kaiko funding to $110 million for crypto infrastructure. LINK
- Dangote refinery IPO could raise over $4 billion at $50 billion valuation. LINK
- Tabby raises $233 million to expand beyond buy-now-pay-later services. LINK
- Exein raises $270 million, valuing cybersecurity startup at $1.7 billion. LINK
📈 Stocks
| ▲ Biggest winners |
| Palo Alto Networks rose 13% after Wedbush upgraded the stock to outperform. LINK |
| Samsara rose 12% after Q2 revenue of $508.4 million beat estimates by 5.2%. LINK |
| Coinbase Global rose 9% after the company and Better Mortgage launched a nationwide token-backed mortgage product. LINK |
| ▼ Biggest losers |
| Corning fell 14% after announcing a $2 billion at-the-market equity offering. LINK |
| Teradyne fell 13% after revenue dropped 21% and net loss widened. LINK |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise Comp fell 11% after cutting fiscal 2026 earnings guidance to $1.70-$1.90 per share. LINK |
📑 Research & Reports
- Bank of America sees only 2% S&P upside and warns pullback. LINK
- Fragmented regulations, rather than technology, limit stablecoins' global trade payments. LINK
- ECB seeks to shift nearly €10 trillion savings into capital markets. LINK
- Y Combinator led startup backing while Nvidia joined nine August rounds. LINK
- AI makes fraud 4.5 times more profitable, FATF chief says. LINK
- Morgan Stanley forecasts two Fed hikes in 2026 after hotter inflation. LINK