Friday, September 4, 2026 · 1:06 AM ET
Autonomy
Tesla began its first public Cybercab robotaxi deployment in Austin, letting customers book rides through its Robotaxi app; it has registered 45 Cybercabs in Texas, lifting its state robotaxi fleet to 420. The two-seat Cybercab has no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors and is not yet for sale, with federal safety rules still blocking commercial sales.
Fed & Rates
Fed Governor Chris Waller said he would back keeping rates at 3.50%-3.75% this month if upcoming inflation data keeps showing progress toward the 2% target, citing recent 'signs of disinflation.' He cautioned that if August inflation shows the improvement was fleeting, it may be appropriate to raise the policy rate.
M&A
Nvidia confirmed a $12.93B deal for Hugging Face, one of the largest open AI developer platforms, serving 18M+ developers with 3M+ models and 500K datasets. Nvidia said the platform will stay open across models, hardware, and clouds, with no requirement to use Nvidia compute.
AI Chips
Morgan Stanley said Broadcom delivered a quarter and outlook slightly better than prior guidance, with management guiding 2027 AI revenue of ~$115B and forecasting AI revenue to 'double again' in 2028 as two AI labs become its largest customers. The firm calls Broadcom, alongside Nvidia, one of the most attractively valued AI names.
AI Policy
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told President Trump in a private August call that he opposed creating a national AI regulator, per Business Insider. The White House is weighing a FINRA-style body to review advanced AI models versus a voluntary industry-led standards group backed by David Sacks.
Options Flow
The day's most active options by contracts traded were led by Nvidia (3.5M), Tesla (2.7M), SPCX (1.4M), Apple (1.3M), and Broadcom (1.0M), followed by MSTR, MU, PCG, PLTR, and HOOD.
AI
OpenAI started rolling out GPT-6 Astra, calling it a 'generational leap' trained on more than 100,000 GPUs at its Stargate site in Texas, designed to work inside software to build spreadsheets, presentations, 3D environments, and financial models. The model reached OpenAI's 'Critical' cybersecurity threshold, so its strongest cyber capabilities will initially be restricted to trusted organizations.
Earnings
Lululemon reported Q2'26 revenue of $2.4B, below the $2.46B estimate and down 4% YoY, with comparable sales off 9% and EPS of $2.92 (including an $0.86 tariff-refund benefit). It cut FY26 revenue guidance to $10.35B-$10.5B and gave weak Q3 guidance; Michael Burry called LULU his largest position.
Fintech
Robinhood had its best day in over a year, rising 15% after a Morgan Stanley upgrade and renewed attention on Robinhood Chain, which has generated $34.6B in cumulative DEX volume, 576M transactions, and 12.3M addresses since launching July 1. More than 190 tokenized stocks are now live and onchain TVL has grown past $750M.
AI Funding
Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines is reportedly in talks to raise more than $1B at a roughly $40B valuation, with Accel in talks to lead and Nvidia considering participating, per The Information. The raise follows its July model launch and is below the $50B+ level it sought late last year.
Commodities
U.S. diesel refining margins hit a record $106/barrel, topping $100 for the first time and surpassing the 2022 energy-crisis peak, as the diesel crack spread more than tripled since February. The spike reflects a severe global diesel shortage amid the Iran War, with U.S. diesel inventories at a record seasonal low.
Central Banks
The Bank of Japan is reportedly leaning toward a 25 bps hike at its September 18 meeting, which would lift rates from 1.00% to 1.25%, per Bloomberg. Officials reportedly see inflation risks skewed to the upside, with a September move marking the shortest gap between hikes under Governor Ueda.
M&A
Nvidia agreed to acquire New York-based open-source AI model-and-dataset platform Hugging Face in a deal worth roughly $13 billion, its largest acquisition to date, accelerating its push behind open-weight AI models that challenge proprietary systems from OpenAI and Anthropic as well as open models from China.
Chips
Chinese memory-chip maker Longsys is said to have priced its Hong Kong share listing at HK$236 per share, one of the year's notable chip-sector listings as investors chase exposure to AI-driven memory demand.
Funding
Cybersecurity startup Guardio raised new funding at a $1.1 billion valuation, with backing from the founder of Wiz, underscoring continued investor appetite for AI-era security companies.
AI
Rogo and Hebbia, the two most highly valued AI startups aiming to automate junior banker and analyst work, reported rising revenue and touted new products and customers, even as investors question whether Anthropic and OpenAI could ultimately overtake them.
Autos & Tech
Tesla plans to unveil its purpose-built Cybercab robotaxi at a launch event Thursday, following earlier reports that it had told staff it would launch the vehicle in Austin, a closely watched catalyst for the company's autonomy ambitions.
AI Infrastructure
AI cloud provider Nscale is investing in humanoid-robot startup Figure as part of a roughly $3.5 billion cloud computing agreement, deepening ties between AI infrastructure providers and robotics developers amid heavy demand for compute.
Earnings
Snowflake posted a strong quarterly report, sending shares higher and showing how older software firms can sell AI tools on top of their existing products. Its results underscored that beyond Anthropic, OpenAI and Cursor, a longer list of established vendors is winning enterprise AI budgets.
Funding
Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines Lab is in talks to raise billions of dollars at a valuation of roughly $40 billion, a steep markup that reflects continued investor demand for frontier AI labs despite questions about revenue.
AI Infrastructure
AI data-center and cloud provider Crusoe signed a roughly $13 billion agreement to supply cloud computing to trading firm Jane Street, one of the largest AI-infrastructure commitments of the year and a sign of how quant firms are scaling up compute.
IPO
Oura, the smart-ring health-tracking maker, filed for a US IPO revealing sharp growth, including roughly 74% revenue growth in the nine months ended in June and a recent turn to profitability, joining a reviving tech IPO pipeline.
IPO
As Anthropic moves toward a public offering, investors are focused on the AI company's revenue trajectory, compute costs and path to profitability, with the deal shaping up as one of the most closely watched AI IPOs.
AI Infrastructure
AI data-center operator Crusoe raised more than $3 billion in fresh funding at a roughly $30 billion valuation, a sharp markup that underscores continued investor demand for AI compute infrastructure separate from its recently disclosed cloud commitments.
AI Funding
Gimlet, a startup that helps divide AI workloads across different chips, is now valued at $3 billion after raising $300 million in its latest round backed by Andreessen Horowitz, reflecting continued investor appetite for AI-infrastructure software.
AI Funding
Anthropic is set to finalize an expansion of its revolving credit facility to $15 billion, clearing a hurdle before the AI firm's anticipated IPO public filing. Morgan Stanley is leading the process, with Goldman Sachs also involved.