OpenAI slashes its new funding round by $10B
PLUS: Apple's AI finally lands in China
Good morning. OpenAI just cut its new funding round by a third, from $30B to $20B, as AI-linked stocks sank last week on Intel's 25% plunge and Alphabet's worst trading day ever. The pullback raises doubts about whether even the most in-demand AI labs can keep raising on their own terms.
In today's issue:
📰 Today's Headlines
OPENAI
OpenAI cuts new funding round by a third
The Yuzu Squeeze: OpenAI is now seeking up to $20 billion in its latest funding round, down from an earlier target of up to $30 billion, CNBC confirmed.
The details:
- The Financial Times reported OpenAI will seek a post-money valuation of $1.25 trillion and set a Friday deadline for investors to commit.
- Investors from the UAE are leading the round alongside Coatue, as CNBC previously reported.
- AI-linked stocks sank Friday, with Intel down 25% on weak revenue guidance, Micron down 5.5%, and Nvidia falling 4%.
Why it matters: The scaled-back round comes as investors question whether big tech's AI infrastructure spending will deliver adequate returns, after Microsoft, Google and Amazon all issued capex figures below analyst estimates last week. Alphabet's worst-ever trading day, driven by a search revenue miss, shows the pressure is spreading well beyond OpenAI.
CRYPTO SECURITY
FBI blames North Korea for record $6.3B 
Binance hack
The Yuzu Squeeze: The FBI said North Korea was behind the theft of more than $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, with hackers converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum.
The details:
- The FBI identified the hackers as TraderTraitor, the same North Korean unit it blamed for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025.
- Binance said it has covered about 90% of the $6.3 billion and plans to restore withdrawals by Sunday.
- Experts call it the largest hack in cryptocurrency's history, dwarfing North Korea's 2022 theft of about $620 million.
Why it matters: The attack underscores North Korea's reliance on crypto theft as a funding stream, now tied to the Bybit, Binance and 2022 hacks. Trump's comments about a possible 2026 meeting with Kim Jong Un add a diplomatic wrinkle to Washington's response.
Why it matters for Asia: Binance is a dominant exchange for Asian crypto traders, so the hack and its cleanup directly affect user trust across the region's crypto markets.
🌏 Asia Headlines
APPLE CHINA
Apple Intelligence lands in China via 
Alibaba's Qwen
The Yuzu Squeeze: Apple will launch Apple Intelligence in China in December, ending two years of regulatory uncertainty, with Alibaba's Qwen model integrated into the feature set.
The details:
- The rollout begins with an open beta for developers starting November 4, ahead of the iOS 27.3 update in December.
- The initial launch includes around 18 new features, including writing tools, live translation for calls and messages, and visual intelligence via camera controls.
- China is Apple's second-largest market, and the deal follows years of speculation about how Apple would meet local AI rules.
Why it matters: The deal shows Apple navigating China's AI regulations by leaning on a domestic model rather than its own, a template other foreign tech firms may need to follow to launch AI features there.
DEEPSEEK
DeepSeek unveils "super agent" to tame agent sprawl
The Yuzu Squeeze: DeepSeek's Harness team published a technical article proposing a "super agent" system meant to cut the need for humans to coordinate multiple AI agents and monitor their progress.
The details:
- The article was published by DeepSeek's Harness team on Saturday, positioning the lab alongside OpenAI and Anthropic in the agentic AI race.
- DeepSeek said advances in AI models have fueled agents that automate tasks from managing calendars and drafting emails to preparing work reports and writing code.
- The system specifically targets coordination overhead, which DeepSeek calls a key bottleneck as agent workflows grow more complex.
Why it matters: DeepSeek's move signals Chinese labs are racing to solve the same agent-orchestration problem Western rivals are chasing, a sign the coding-agent competition is becoming global rather than US-dominated.
🗞️ Everything Else in AI
Anthropic is expected to receive a high "junk" credit rating from agencies following its IPO, according to the Financial Times, with anchor investor Blackstone forecasting a double-B range rating, reversing its earlier prediction of investment-grade status.
Mistral released the weights for its trillion-parameter Large 4 model, dubbed Le Chonk, which scored 48% on the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index, nearly matching China's 
GLM-5.3.
Google's Project Suncatcher prototype satellite generated its first AI response in orbit, producing a haiku via an onboard Gemma 4 model during a ground-station pass over Svalbard, Norway.
Salesforce acquired defense-tech startup Rune Technologies for $375 million in cash and stock, according to TechCrunch, expanding its Missionforce unit, which holds a 10-year, $5.6 billion Pentagon contract.
📌 Everything Else in Asia Tech
KB Kookmin Bank will lead a record 10.7 trillion won ($8 billion) syndicated loan for a Brookfield-backed AI computing project supplying 
Naver Cloud, marking Korea's first GPU financing deal.
Foxconn aims to grow its share of the global AI server market from about 40% to as much as 50% within a few years, chairman Young Liu told CNBC.
FuriosaAI raised 820 billion won in Series D funding, reaching a 3.8 trillion won valuation, with South Korea's National Growth Fund committing 370 billion won as the largest investor.
Alibaba's Qwen3-Max topped a live crypto trading test run by Nof1's Alpha Arena, returning 22.32% on a $10,000 stake while OpenAI's GPT-5 lost 62.66%.
Nano-core Chip, a Hangzhou-based AI inference chip startup, raised more than RMB 1 billion in Series C2 funding led by JianTou Investment, following a similar round in September.
Musinsa deepened its partnership with Japan's Zozo, opening the retailer's first South Korean pop-up at a Musinsa store ahead of a planned IPO valuing the company at $6–7.5 billion.
🔥 Hot on Social
AI CAPABILITIES
Claude's copyright caution sparks capability-gap debate
A post on r/singularity says Gemini 4 Argon recreated Pixar's iconic intro while Claude Opus 5.5 refused over copyright concerns and built a toaster instead, framing it as a growing divide between what frontier AI can do and what companies allow it to do.
⚡ Quick Link
The nesformer project compiled a Nintendo 6502 CPU core into about 933 MB of Qwen-compatible model weights, covering all 151 official opcodes, though external software still renders graphics.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow!
