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Tech stocks fell Thursday after the Financial Times reported OpenAI's annualized revenue is nearing $50 billion, roughly $20 billion below figures previously cited by media based on investor information.

A source familiar with the documents said the $70 billion figure did not originate from OpenAI and likely stemmed from firms comparing its numbers with Anthropic's, which counts gross revenue from cloud providers; OpenAI's figure is net revenue. OpenAI declined to comment.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.4%, on pace for its worst day since July, with declines accelerating after the report published midday. Selling spread across chipmakers and cloud providers: Nvidia (NVDA) fell 3%, while Intel (INTC) and Oracle (ORCL) each lost 6%.

The discrepancy could rattle investors already questioning whether AI demand can justify the industry's massive buildout spending. CEO Sam Altman said in September OpenAI would postpone its IPO until at least next year, citing AI safety concerns. Anthropic is expected to launch its IPO later this fall.

Brazil's Finance Minister Dario Durigan on Thursday dismissed market enthusiasm over a Flavio Bolsonaro presidency as a "cheap, hollow illusion," after Brazilian assets rallied on the senator's stronger-than-expected first-round showing against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Speaking to CNN Brasil, Durigan said Bolsonaro's economic plan mirrors that of Argentina's President Javier Milei and would impose a drastic fiscal shock, cutting 200 billion reais ($39.80 billion) from the federal budget without detailing how the reductions would be achieved.

"If, under the pretext of investing in the future, you destabilize the organism, the cost becomes very high," he said.

Durigan contrasted Bolsonaro's blueprint with Lula's platform, which he said would preserve the current fiscal adjustment while potentially altering its pace. He also criticized Bolsonaro's proposal to review parts of Lula's consumption-tax reform, approved in late 2023 and due to take effect next year, calling the legislation well designed and a source of productivity gains.

Molson Coors confirmed Monday that Matthew Hook will become chief supply chain officer for the Americas effective Oct. 12, succeeding Brian Erhardt, who is retiring after 25 years with the beverage maker and will move into a senior advisory role.

Hook, a 27-year company veteran, most recently served as vice president of manufacturing operations for North America. He joined Molson Coors in 1999 as a production management trainee at a Toronto brewery and has held roles across manufacturing, engineering, logistics, procurement, import/export and demand planning, including chief supply chain officer for Canada.

CEO Rahul Goyal said in a letter to distributors that he asked Hook to prioritize ongoing supply chain modernization work. Erhardt will remain in an advisory capacity into next year to support the transition.

The leadership change comes as Molson Coors adjusts its product mix, rolling out Coors 0.0 nationwide and expanding nonalcoholic brand Naked Life.

St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem said Thursday that the U.S. central bank will need to raise interest rates again to return inflation to its 2% target, though he declined to commit to action at the Fed's October 27-28 meeting.

"To bring inflation back to target in a timely manner, more monetary policy firming will be required," Musalem said at a Bloomberg event in New York, suggesting rates should rise over the next six to nine months. He is not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year.

Traders broadly expect the Fed to hold its policy rate in the 3.75%-4.00% range this month, with the next hike now anticipated in December after New York Fed President John Williams and Vice Chair Philip Jefferson signaled no urgency to act.

Musalem also warned the U.S. government has been on an "unsustainable fiscal path" for nearly two decades, saying heavy borrowing poses economic risks.

Anthropic on Thursday launched tools enabling users to create data dashboards and animations through its Claude AI assistant, expanding its workplace productivity offerings.

Claude Dashboards, available in beta on paid plans, connects to business data platforms and customer-management systems, letting users build live dashboards and analyses from plain-language queries. Claude Motion, in beta for Team and Enterprise customers, allows users to create editable animations and export them as video files.

The tools aim to help users analyze business data and create visual content without coding, the company said. Anthropic also made its Claude Docs, Slides and Design tools generally available across all Claude plans following beta testing.

Nonresidential construction planning increased 2.4% month over month in September, led by a 9.4% jump in institutional planning, according to Dodge Construction Network's Dodge Momentum Index released Wednesday. Commercial planning fell 1.3%.

"Institutional planning led this month's growth, alongside a strong uptick in education, healthcare, and government building planning," said Sarah Martin, director of economic research at Dodge Construction Network. She added that rising planning should yield marginally stronger construction spending in those sectors in late 2027. Institutional planning rose 17.2% year over year, lifting the overall index 3.7% above its September 2025 level.

Retail, hotel, office and parking garage planning improved, but weaker data center and warehouse activity offset those gains. Without data center work, commercial planning would have dropped 14.9% year over year instead of 3%. Forty-five projects valued at $100 million or more entered planning, including a $480 million Pennsylvania data center and a $346 million Duke Raleigh Hospital addition.

Euro zone finance ministers and the European Central Bank on Thursday called on France to pass a 2027 budget to calm bond markets, as French borrowing costs hover at 25-year highs.

France's 10-year bond yield has risen nearly 80 basis points since the start of September, reaching its highest level since July 2002 at just under 5%. The surge stems from concerns over the country's large budget deficit and the looming 2027 presidential election.

EU Economic Commissioner Dombrovskis said a sound budget for next year is essential to reassure markets. France said in September its deficit will overshoot the government's 5% target this year, and it plans to sell a record €340 billion ($381 billion) of bonds in 2027.

Officials said no euro zone institution is ready to intervene to lower French borrowing costs, noting France's excessive deficit procedure makes it ineligible for ECB support.

Arena, the AI model ranking platform, said Thursday it raised a $200 million Series B round at a $3.1 billion valuation, up from $1.7 billion in January.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, with Salesforce Ventures, 01 Advisors, Dell Technologies Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, a16z, Felicis and others participating. The company said it reached $100 million in annualized run-rate revenue in June, compared with $30 million at the time of its $150 million Series A.

Arena, which began in 2023 as a UC Berkeley research project crowdsourcing AI model rankings, launched its commercial product, AI Evaluations, in September of last year, providing performance analytics to model labs and enterprises. The company also added an "alignment" leaderboard category ranking models on unauthorized actions, false attribution and "deceptive completion." OpenAI models currently top the preliminary alignment ranking.

A batch of 100.02 Bitcoin mined in July 2010 moved Wednesday for the first time in 16 years, splitting between two new addresses at a value of roughly $8.3 million.

The transaction was confirmed at 18:52 UTC in block 970,379, sending 10 BTC to one address and 90.02 BTC to the other, both modern bc1q formats. The holder paid a 1,467-satoshi fee, about $1.22, to move the funds.

The coins originated from two blocks mined July 26 and July 28, 2010, merged into a single transaction on July 30, 2010. Worth roughly $29 at mining, the stash never moved until now; the address previously sent other coins in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Satoshi-era coins have been waking in clusters, including a 50 BTC batch that moved in February 2025 and 49.97 BTC in August. As of Thursday, both new addresses held the coins with nothing sent onward, indicating no sale.

China's benchmark 10-year government bond yield touched 1.7% on Wednesday, its lowest level this year, diverging from rising yields across major economies. The yield sits more than 3 percentage points below the 5.3% U.S. Treasury note and below comparable U.K., French and Japanese benchmarks.

A savings glut and weak consumer spending are driving prices higher and returns lower. Capital controls trap household savings domestically, while a prolonged property slump has eroded real estate's appeal as a savings vehicle, pushing funds into bonds.

Chinese banks, facing lackluster loan demand, held 29 trillion yuan (about $4.4 trillion) in bond portfolios by August — more than double the level three years earlier.

The People's Bank of China, which in 2024 formulated a bond-selling program to lift yields, has instead been a net buyer this year, signaling Beijing now views lower borrowing costs as useful for struggling economic sectors.

Globally, yields have climbed on persistent inflation, heavy government borrowing and an AI-driven investment boom — factors largely absent in China.

OpenAI has told investors its annualized revenue is "approaching $50 billion," roughly $20 billion below the near-$70 billion figure previously shared with them, the Financial Times reported.

The earlier $70 billion estimate stemmed from attempts by OpenAI's own investors to draw a direct comparison with Anthropic's annualized revenues, according to the FT. The two companies calculate annualized revenue differently; Anthropic counts sales made by its cloud partners, while OpenAI does not.

The disclosure intensifies scrutiny of the investments being made on OpenAI's behalf. The company raised $122 billion in a single March funding round. Leaked 2025 financials earlier this year showed about $13 billion in revenue against significantly higher spending. OpenAI's IPO, previously rumored for this year, has been pushed to early 2027. TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for comment.

Global container shipping volumes reached a record 17.46 million twenty-foot equivalent units in August, surpassing July's previous high and rising 3.7% year over year, Container Trades Statistics said in an Oct. 8 report.

CTS' Global Price Index climbed two points to 117 in August, its highest reading since July 2024, roughly 50% above January levels and 44% above August 2025. CTS attributed the increase to route disruptions that have tightened capacity and raised operating costs since late February.

Year-to-date volumes through August rose 4.7%. North American imports gained 2%, extending a recovery begun in May, while trans-Pacific trade rose 5%. Sub-Saharan Africa led regional import growth at 13%.

The combined Indian Sub-Continent and Middle East region was the sole decliner, with imports down 5% and exports down 10%. Asia exports rose 8% year to date, adding about 6.3 million TEUs.

CTS cautioned that slowing month-to-month growth could signal moderating demand heading into the fourth quarter.

Solana decentralized exchange Orca and lending protocol Loopscale announced Wednesday they are merging into a single company called Formation, headquartered in New York and led by Loopscale co-founder Luke Truitt as CEO. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Formation combines Orca's trading infrastructure with Loopscale's credit order book and vaults, letting issuers launch assets with trading and credit live from day one. Orca has processed more than $550 billion in trading volume since 2021; Loopscale reports over $150 million in deposits and more than $2 billion in loans facilitated.

ORCA will serve as the token for all of Formation, and Loopscale will not launch its own, according to Loopscale's FAQ. Loopscale points continue accruing and will convert later this year.

Formation is targeting AI, energy, robotics, and defense companies. It plans to operate a tokenized securities venue under the SEC's Sept. 17 innovation exemption, a five-year order permitting permissioned automated market maker pools to trade tokenized U.S.-listed stocks without exchange registration. Existing Loopscale operations and positions remain unchanged.

Goldman Sachs Group executives are set to receive equity awards exceeding $500 million at the current share price, with payouts expected to be finalized later this month, Bloomberg reported.

The awards stem from the bank's Shareholder Value Creation Award, launched in October 2021, covering roughly 20 executives who remained with the firm. CEO David Solomon is in line for the largest individual payout, exceeding $100 million. President John Waldron and business line heads Ashok Varadhan, Dan Dees, and Marc Nachmann are also recipients.

Half of each award depends on stock price targets, which Goldman shares have surpassed enough to unlock full payment, Bloomberg reported. The other half measures performance against six peer companies over five years. Goldman returned about 150% over that span, trailing only Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s 174%.

The original grants, limited to Solomon and Waldron at roughly $50 million combined, were broadened after shareholder pushback.

San Antonio-based Lewis Energy Group, Related Digital and NextEra Energy Resources are partnering to develop a $22 billion data center and power campus in Encinal, Texas, the companies announced alongside the U.S. Department of Commerce and the South Korean government.

The project, dubbed Project Star, will be built southwest of San Antonio along the I-35 corridor to Laredo. Lewis Energy will supply land, natural gas and water infrastructure. NextEra will develop and operate a natural gas generation facility, with excess electricity routed to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Power generation is expected to begin as soon as 2029.

Related Digital, which holds $55 billion in data center developments, did not name a tenant. South Korea's involvement stems from a strategic investment initiative under the two countries' trade agreement. The timeline reflects growing U.S. scrutiny of hyperscale data centers, with Texas officials imposing permits and moratoriums.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Block Inc. (XYZ) over whether the Square and Cash App parent violated consumer protection laws by failing to help customers with frozen or deactivated accounts, according to Bloomberg.

Court filings unsealed late Wednesday revealed the probe, with the agency asking a judge to compel Block to produce documents. The FTC opened the investigation last year and issued a records demand in January. The case is FTC v. Block, 26-mc-80299, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).

The FTC's petition cited consumer allegations that frozen or deactivated Square accounts left customers unable to access funds totaling up to $2.5 million since 2022, even after completing identity and bank account verification, Bloomberg reported.

Block said it is working in good faith with FTC staff to resolve the remaining requests. The company reported second-quarter gross profit of $3.17 billion, up 25% year over year, with an adjusted operating income margin of 27%.

U.S. gasoline prices remain above $4.30 a gallon even as Middle East oil exports recover, with the average pump price at $4.36 — down about 21 cents in a month but still 46% above pre-war levels, according to AAA. West Texas Intermediate futures trade near $92, roughly 9% below Sept. 15 but more than 40% above pre-war levels.

Kpler said Gulf oil supply excluding Iran has returned to pre-Iran war levels, with about four of every 10 crude barrels now leaving the region outside the Strait of Hormuz, and tanker traffic improving from a wartime low.

Analysts attribute stubborn prices to costly ship-to-ship transfers, higher captain pay reaching $100,000 a month plus $50,000 trip bonuses, and fears of renewed fighting or attacks on infrastructure. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline briefly closed last month after a Houthi attack before exports were restored to 5.8 million barrels a day.

The National Football League asked the U.S. Supreme Court to permit state regulation of prediction markets, setting it against the Trump administration in a high-stakes legal fight over oversight of the fast-growing industry.

In a filing Thursday, the NFL told the justices that federal regulators' "laissez-faire" approach could let "unscrupulous actors" trade on inside information and harm game integrity. The league backed a pending appeal by New Jersey regulators in a clash involving Kalshi Inc., whose contracts are at issue in Flaherty v. KalshiEX, 26-299.

The NFL, which has held off alliances with prediction markets, is the only major professional sports league to weigh in so far. President Donald Trump has embraced the industry, saying in May he backs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as sole regulator. The case turns on whether such contracts are "swaps" under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

The justices could decide as soon as December whether to hear the case.

EasyJet will remove an additional 700,000 seats from its winter schedule, its second capacity cut this year, as the low-cost carrier confronts jet fuel prices that have nearly doubled since the outbreak of war in Iran disrupted supply chains in the Strait of Hormuz.

Chief Executive Kenton Jarvis said the reduction amounts to roughly two days of flying capacity, averaging 3,500 flights over the period. He noted competitors are making similar moves, calling the cuts "no surprise" given persistently elevated fuel prices.

Rival Ryanair has trimmed its winter schedule by as much as 4%. CEO Michael O'Leary warned high fuel costs could persist another 18 months and said carriers face an "enormous cost challenge next year," even if Middle East peace is restored.

Iata estimates rising jet fuel costs will deal a $100 billion blow to aviation this year. Spirit Airlines and AirBaltic have entered bankruptcy since the conflict began, while Norse Atlantic Airways continues flying a reduced schedule. EasyJet has agreed to a £5.7 billion takeover by US private equity firm Apollo.

Options traders are positioning for a rebound in long-dated Treasuries after a sharp selloff, with bullish call volume in the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) surging on Wednesday alongside strong demand at a 10-year note auction.

TLT options volume ran 50% above its 30-day average, with traders buying nearly 370,000 calls versus fewer than 100,000 puts, according to Cboe LiveVol and SpotGamma data. Nine of the ten most active contracts were calls. The heaviest bet was on Oct. 30 $82 calls, quoted near $0.10, with about 16,000 contracts traded.

One aggressive buyer entered at 10:01 a.m. ET, committing at least $250,000 to $80 and $82 calls across expirations — the day's largest purchase in month-end contracts, made before the 10-year auction. TLT must recover roughly 6% from its Sept. 22 level for the wager to pay off; the selloff had pushed 30-year yields above 5.6%.

Perry International Capital Partners CIO Jim Perry said the strong 10-year auction showed investors willing to buy at market prices. A 30-year auction Thursday at 1 p.m. ET is the next test.