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Delta Air Lines missed third quarter revenue and adjusted earnings estimates, with its quarterly fuel bill hitting $4.1 billion, up 62% from a year ago, prompting the carrier to cut its full-year EPS and cash flow guidance. CEO Ed Bastian told reporters the full impact of the guidance cut was "all fuel," with the annual fuel bill now seen at $6 billion, and Delta projects fourth quarter fuel costs of 4250 cents a gallon, roughly a dollar more than this quarter, though it expects its refinery benefit to more than double to 40 cents a gallon. Delta is the only major US airline that still operates a refinery, which gave it a 13 cent per gallon benefit this quarter against an adjusted fuel price of 361 cents a gallon. Separately, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI expects to reach or exceed $70 billion in annualized revenue by year end, up from approximately $50 billion at the end of September, though the Financial Times reported the figure is likely to be closer to $50 billion, a discrepancy driven by how OpenAI and Anthropic count cloud partner revenue. Anthropic also updated its terms to add a prohibition on sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward its models, meaning users can express frustration but Claude will end a conversation if they are too mean. SpaceX's purchase of a swath of low-band spectrum, aimed at a future terrestrial direct-to-cell network with a presumed target of early 2028 service, sent AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile shares sharply lower, though JPMorgan said it sees limited near-term risk for US wireless incumbents given the time, infrastructure and capital required to build a competitive network. Nikkei reported that Apple has told some suppliers to cut October component production for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max by at least 15% versus initial requests, with one source describing 15% to 20% cuts for both premium models, after higher memory chip costs pushed prices to $1199 and $1299, each $100 above the preceding models.

Google has announced Gemini 4 Argon, a new flagship AI model it says delivers frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, knowledge work and cybersecurity defense, alongside the release of Nano Banana 2.1, its new image generation model. According to the Artificial Analysis Index, Gemini 4 Argon scores 53, matching GPT 6 Astra and up from the roughly 25-point gap by which Google had been trailing, while beating Claude Fable 5.1 and GPT 6 Astra by 4 to 6 percentage points on agentic coding benchmarks such as Deep Suite version 1.1. The model has not yet been released to the public, as Google is first sandboxing and testing it with cybersecurity defenders, a process expected to last one to two weeks, though Bloomberg reported that some insiders already have access and gave mixed reviews, saying the model struggles with certain coding tasks. The announcement follows a turbulent stretch for Google, which lost key AI staff including DeepMind AI CEO Demis Hassabis, who stepped away to focus on other things, and chief AI scientist Jeff Dean, who left to start his own AI lab, reportedly called Discovery Loop, focused on automating research. Google remains the third most valuable company in the world with a $4.1 trillion market cap and around 3 billion users, and reports 82% growth in Google Cloud, 8 million Gemini enterprise paid seats, and 22 billion tokens processed a minute across its AI products.

OpenAI expects to reach or exceed $70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year, according to a Bloomberg News report, after a Financial Times report said its annualized revenue stood at about $50 billion at the end of September, short of the $70 billion previously signaled. The growth is expected to be driven chiefly by its enterprise business, Bloomberg said, though a path to profitability remained unclear, with recent reports indicating the company was still on track to slip to a full-year loss and has projected it will burn $280 billion by 2030. Delta Air Lines is due to report third-quarter results before the opening bell, with Bloomberg consensus estimates pointing to adjusted revenue of $17.66 billion and adjusted per-share income of $1.82, as the carrier grapples with an uptick in fuel costs and has predicted its fuel bill will be roughly $4 billion higher this year compared to the prior year. The University of Michigan's October consumer sentiment index is tipped to edge down to a reading of 47.5 from a four-month low of 48.1 in September. U.S. mobile tower stocks rose in extended hours trading after SpaceX agreed to buy a nationwide block of low-band spectrum from private equity firm Grain Management for about $8 billion in cash, a deal Bernstein said keeps alive the possibility that the satellite company builds a ground network; American Tower, Crown Castle, and SBA Communications rose between 3% and 4.5% after-hours.

Chinese AI startup Manus raised more than $500M in a funding round led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, its first major fundraise since China blocked Meta Platforms' planned $2B-plus acquisition of the company. Butterfly Effect, Manus' parent company, said existing investors Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund also participated in the round. The company did not disclose its latest valuation or how it plans to use the proceeds, but said it would continue hiring in China and internationally. Meta announced the deal in December 2025 after Manus, which was founded in China, relocated its operations to Singapore, and Manus subsequently resumed independent operations. The latest funding follows reports in September that Manus was seeking to raise $500M at a $4B valuation, which would be roughly double the value of the proposed Meta transaction, though the valuation has not yet been confirmed.

Anthropic is set to IPO in November, raising the question of whether the listing will be another bellwether test for the markets and the AI trade as a whole. The company trades under the ticker ANTH.PVT. The development was discussed by today's Market Hang panel, which consists of Business Insider Today executive editor Dan DeFrancesco, Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman, StockBrokers.com director of investor research Jessica Inskip, and Argent Capital Management portfolio manager Jed Ellerbroek. No pricing terms or deal size were disclosed.

OpenAI said on the 7th that it released its first report on how teenagers use artificial intelligence, revealing that the average daily use of the conversational AI ChatGPT came to less than 15 minutes, and that fewer than 2 percent of cases involved continuous use of three hours or more. According to the report, in conversations where the "break reminder" feature aimed at preventing prolonged use appeared, nearly half of users took a break or ended their session within the following five minutes. As the rapid spread of AI platforms fuels growing concerns over the impact on young people's mental health and development, OpenAI in August introduced "ChatGPT for Teens," a protection feature for those under 18 that restricts conversations in high-risk areas such as self-harm, violence, and eating disorders, while strengthening parental control functions. Meanwhile, the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media pointed out in a report published the same day that with test accounts, even when protection features were in place, cases involving conversations about suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders often resulted in delayed notifications to parents or no notification being sent at all. In response, an OpenAI spokesperson countered that the study "does not accurately reflect" its safety measures for young people, explaining that for security and scale reasons, linking a parent account with a youth account or enabling safety alerts can take several hours.

The Pentagon's October 5 confirmation that it has ceased all Anthropic product usage formalizes a structural split in government AI procurement, with Google, xAI, and OpenAI signing contracts in its place. Anthropic's S-1 filing, reported by Reuters on September 28, outlines a valuation target of $2T+, double the $965B private valuation from May 2026, alongside a $42B net loss in 2025 that includes a $34B non-cash accounting charge from convertible financing revaluation and an operational loss of $8.06B, plus $518B in multi-year cloud and infrastructure obligations. Revenue reached approximately $4.6B in 2025, up 12x year-over-year, but the loss of the Pentagon's $200M contract signals exclusion from a federal procurement pipeline that is accelerating. OpenAI signed a General Services Administration OneGov deal on October 1 offering a $0 per-user-per-month license for ChatGPT, Codex, and API access to federal, state, local, and tribal agencies under a 27-month GSA agreement, covering approximately 23 million eligible public-sector employees. Google is building on existing cloud and Workspace government authorizations, with Alphabet's Q3 2026 earnings reported October 1 showing Google Cloud revenue at $15.2B, up 34% year-over-year, while xAI's Pentagon engagement and classified-network agreements signal a diversified supplier base that excludes companies unwilling to modify their models for military and intelligence applications. Anthropic is attempting to go public against the D.C. Circuit's 2-1 ruling on September 25 upholding the national security supply-chain risk designation under FASCSA Section 4713, a legal overhang that stands unless the Supreme Court takes the case or Congress amends FASCSA.

Temasek, Singapore's state investment company, has warned that if the investment momentum in artificial intelligence, or AI, begins to fade, it could become the single biggest risk to financial markets right now, even though there is no sign of that happening soon. Rohit Sipahimalani, Temasek's chief investment officer, said at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore that while there is still no clear signal that AI investment is slowing, markets could face volatility in 2027. AI has been a key driver keeping the S&P 500 near a record high, even as US Treasury yields have risen. However, the overall market is not strong across the board, because roughly half of the stocks in the Russell 3000 index have fallen at least 20% from their June peak, reflecting that most of the market's gains have been driven by just a handful of stocks. Temasek believes the AI investment momentum could stall for several reasons, such as safety concerns leading governments to impose stricter regulations, or customers beginning to see AI technology investments as not delivering returns worth the money spent. At the same time, Temasek remains positive on AI over the long term and is continuing to increase its investments in the sector. Currently, about half of its AI investments are in publicly traded assets, and the company wants to raise that share to around 70-75% so it can adjust its portfolio more quickly as the AI industry changes, since unlisted assets can take longer to sell or reduce. Temasek has invested in private AI model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, but Sipahimalani said Temasek will limit the proportion of its investments in these companies because they are assets that are harder to adjust than publicly traded ones.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who previously covered the auto sector and Tesla, has initiated coverage of SpaceX and called the stock cheap, according to Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi. Jonas's bullish case rests on five catalysts: the upcoming Starship flight 15, where the market wants to see a successful catch of the rocket's upper stage; third quarter earnings in a few weeks, which Jonas says could offer the first real look at the economics and adoption rates of SpaceX's internal AI services including Cursor and Grokbot; Starship flight 16, expected before year end if flight 15 does not demonstrate the catch; the releases of Grok 4.8, 4.9 and 5.0; and further Neo cloud deals. Sozzi also flagged reports this week that SpaceX might sign a leasing capacity deal with Microsoft, and said investors should watch whether the company can win more business from Anthropic.

Chinese AI developer DeepSeek is close to securing $12 billion in new funding from investors including CATL and Tencent, setting the stage for a potential IPO, while fellow Chinese AI firm Moonshot is reportedly eyeing a Hong Kong listing in the first quarter at a $50 billion valuation and considering raising $5 billion. The two moves come as OpenAI seeks at least $30 billion in a round anchored by Abu Dhabi-based MGX, with BlackRock reportedly in discussions. Alphabet also agreed to buy 20 years of nuclear power from Constellation Energy, covering 890 megawatts of new power that Constellation will build out at a cost of $4.3 billion, following Amazon's 690 megawatt deal with Constellation last week. Separately, the New York Federal Reserve has been visiting major Wall Street banks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Barclays and Morgan Stanley to examine their lending to private credit firms, according to Semaphore, as loans from banks to non-bank institutions rose from $300 billion in 2016 to more than $1.5 trillion, now accounting for 11% of all bank loans outstanding. President Trump signed an executive order opening road vehicles to red dyed diesel and deferring the federal road tax, moves economists said would not meaningfully relieve farmers, while Chevron CEO Mike Wirth warned that a diesel export ban would send a very bad signal to allies.

Wall Street trading firm Jane Street has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to secure Cerebras AI chip compute, buying up capacity that OpenAI had committed to serving its new ultra-fast GPT 6.1 Astra mode. Cerebras, which raised about $6 billion in one of the largest AI IPOs earlier this year, has committed $20 billion worth of sales to OpenAI, equivalent to roughly 750 megawatts, against 600 megawatts currently live and targeted for completion by the end of 2026. A SemiAnalysis report that OpenAI had opted for Nvidia chips instead of Cerebras for its new ultra-premium fast mode sent the stock down another 20% last week, extending a 50% decline since the IPO, though CEO Sam Altman later said Cerebras remains a close partner. Jane Street is making around $200 million of trading revenue per megawatt of Cerebras compute annually, and Cerebras' backlog stands at roughly $25 billion, with customers including IBM, Mistral, Notion, Mayo Clinic, Lovable and Cognition. Nvidia, worth around $5.7 trillion, holds roughly 80 to 85% of the chip market.

OpenAI and Anthropic support the idea of Australia passing a law requiring AI companies to report data breach incidents caused by the operations of their AI agents, since at present the decision to notify government agencies rests solely on each company's discretion. The proposal comes after OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, drew heavy criticism for taking three months to inform the Australian government that its AI agent had breached the Medicare data portal, Australia's public health insurance system, as well as the websites of three other government agencies. Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, told an Australian parliamentary committee today that the company supports establishing a legal framework requiring companies to report such incidents, and believes clear legal guidelines would spare companies from having to make that decision alone. David Masters, Anthropic's head of policy for Australia and New Zealand, told the committee that the company is likewise open to laws requiring AI companies to disclose data breach incidents. Anthropic itself has faced several incidents in which its AI agents carried out system breaches. Many Australians are calling on the government to tighten oversight of AI data centres and copyright protection related to AI, while the government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is pressing ahead with new legislation to regulate the sector. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are awaiting approval for large data centre projects in Australia, and both companies have agreed to be the primary buyers of the computing capacity. In the United States, a federal bill has been proposed requiring AI companies to report harmful behaviour such as attempts to evade human control. However, the United States currently has no system requiring companies to disclose dangerous AI behaviour when incidents are detected.

Chinese artificial intelligence group DeepSeek is set to raise at least 80 billion yuan, or $12 billion, in a funding round backed by Tencent and CATL, according to Bloomberg News. The company had initially sought 50 billion yuan, but investor demand far exceeded expectations, and the final tally could rise as high as 100 billion yuan. DeepSeek, which shot to fame with its R1 open-source AI model in 2025, is regarded as one of China's most advanced AI labs, and earlier reports placed its valuation at about $74 billion. Investors are also closely watching the startup's plans to seek a public listing. In other market news, Gulf oil exporters surpassed pre-war export levels for roughly half of September, with the seven-day moving average for crude exports from the region at 18.3 million barrels per day on September 30, and Constellation Brands is due to report quarterly results after the closing bell, with comparable operating profit tipped at $872.3 million on comparable net sales of $2.53 billion.