Elon Musk Teases New "Galaxy Mind" Company

Black Friday record spending

Musk teases new company

Faceless nativity sparks outrage

Traffic to AI-driven retail sites jumped 805% from last year, according to Adobe Analytics.

Nearly half of U.S. shoppers have already used or plan to use AI to assist with holiday purchases.

AI tools helped consumers streamline gift discovery, making shopping faster and more guided.

Hot-ticket items included Pokémon cards, LEGO sets, Apple AirPods, KitchenAid mixers, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5.

Steep discounts also drove record Thanksgiving online spending of $6.4 billion, up 5.3% year-over-year.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Japan's 10-year bond yield surged to 1.85%, a 2008 peak, as analyst Shanaka Perera warned "the anchor has broken," heralding tighter global liquidity. (TRV)

U.S. home sellers delivered a record $25,000 in median cumulative price cuts in October, with 27% of listings slashed and concessions surging as inventory lingers. (FBN)

Bessent said the Treasury is advancing Trump's directive to bar illegal immigrants from federal tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. (INV)

China’s non-manufacturing activity shrank in November for the first time since December 2022. (RTS)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Roblox isn't playing games with its metaverse ambitions, as surging daily active users and ad revenue potential could propel shares up 50% to $145, analysts say. (BAR)

Seeking Alpha spotlighted Micron, CommScope, and Seagate as top AI infrastructure plays for the 2025 Santa rally, each boasting Strong Buy ratings, PEG ratios below 1, and robust growth. (SA)

Motley Fool spotlighted three growth gems for 2026—MercadoLibre, Dutch Bros, On Holding, each boasting double-digit revenue jumps in Q3 2025. (MF)

Investors eyeing long-term healthcare stability should buy and hold Medtronic for surgical robotics growth and Johnson & Johnson for diversified operations, according to Motley Fool. (MF)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Chinese firms tied to the CCP have quietly amassed stakes in U.S. solar giants, sparking national security concerns. (FOX)

Florida CEOs hail the state’s zero-income-tax edge as driving 21% GDP growth since 2019 and 503 new companies, declaring the surge of money and luxury is only the beginning. (FBN)

Kraft’s 65-box TV-shaped Mac & Cheese novelty, priced at $19.37 for a 75% Black Friday discount, sold out in seconds at Walmart. (NYP)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: U.S. coal-ash deposits from 1985-2021 hold up to 11 million tons of recoverable rare-earth elements worth $97 billion. (IDR)

U.K. incorporated nuclear energy into its green financing rules for the first time, unlocking green bond funds for projects. (TBNK)

U.S. crude production soared to a record 13.84 million bpd in September. (OP)

Silver prices soared 71% year-to-date in 2025 to a record $54.47 per ounce, fueled by a mining supply crunch and surging industrial demand. (CNBC)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Nasdaq's digital assets chief pledges to accelerate SEC approval for its tokenized-stock proposal, aiming for a regulated entry into blockchain securities. (CT)

China’s central bank vowed to reaffirm its crackdown on crypto trading, citing risks around stablecoins. (CT)

Crypto exchange-traded products notched $1.07 billion in weekly inflows, their sharpest rebound in weeks. (TB)

Bitcoin tumbled below $86,500 Sunday, erasing $144 billion in crypto market cap. (BAR)

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Musk said SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI are “increasingly” overlapping as the future moves toward AI systems powered directly by the Sun.

Musk outlined a vision of advanced AI operating on solar-powered satellites in deep space, requiring combined strengths in rocketry, energy storage, and frontier AI models.

Tesla contributes high-efficiency solar and battery engineering; SpaceX provides launch capability and spacecraft design; xAI delivers the intelligence layer.

In a tweet, Musk suggested this convergence could result in an entity internally referred to as Galaxy Mind, imagined as a unified platform for off-planet AI infrastructure.

The billionaire praised all three companies’ progress but stressed that long-term momentum points toward a single integrated mission.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: AI-fueled data-center construction is unleashing a U.S. jobs bonanza, creating 60,000 new positions nationwide with wages up 20% to $40 an hour, but a trade group warns of a 439,000-worker shortage. (WSJ)

Two 22-year-old Sapient Intelligence co-founders spurned Elon Musk's xAI multimillion-dollar bid to acquire their AI, insisting on pursuing a novel model that trounced OpenAI and DeepSeek rivals on reasoning benchmarks. (MC)

Three years after ChatGPT's launch, OpenAI confronts mounting competition, with Similarweb data revealing users spend more time per visit on Google's Gemini 3 than on ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude. (FT)

New York became the first state to mandate retailers disclose their use of AI algorithms and personal data for individualized pricing. (NYT)

HSBC deepened its generative AI push with a pact to host Mistral AI's models in-house, targeting faster financial analysis, risk assessment, and client personalization. (INZZ)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: China's military modernization drive is unraveling under rampant corruption, with top state-owned defense firms posting revenue plunges amid procurement scandals. (AT)

Turkey's Bayraktar Kizilelma drone notched the world's first beyond-visual-range air-to-air kill, downing a jet-powered target with a homegrown Gokdogan missile guided by Aselsan radar. (IE)

U.S. Army's Project FlyTrap 4.5 tested next-generation counter-drone systems, integrating sensors and interceptors for effective detection and defeat of UAS threats. (SPN)

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Databricks is negotiating a $5 billion funding round at a $134 billion valuation. (TI)

German AI startup Black Forest Labs raised $300 million in Series B funding, led by AMP and Salesforce Ventures, at a $3.25 billion valuation. (EUS)

Mixx Technologies, a deeptech startup pioneering optical interconnects for AI and high-performance computing, secured $33 million in funding led by ICM HPQC Fund. (ET)

Minitap, a startup that topped Google DeepMind’s AndroidWorld mobile AI benchmark with its open-source testing framework, raised a $4.1 million seed round co-led by Moxxie Ventures. (FOR)

Brussels replaced its traditional Nativity display with a textile version made from recycled fabrics by artist Victoria-Maria.

All figures — Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Wise Men, shepherds, and animals — were depicted without faces, using pixelated beige and brown patches to represent an “inclusive mix of all skin tones.”

Mayor Philippe Close, a secular Socialist, delegated the design to cathedral officials, who approved the modern reinterpretation despite its departure from religious tradition.

Belgian Senator Georges-Louis Bouchez denounced the display as an “insult” to Christian heritage, saying the faceless figures looked more like “zombies” than a Nativity scene.

Ghent University professor Wouter Duyck argued the design reflects political leaders’ reluctance to offend Brussels’ large Muslim population.

⭐ Editor’s Pick: Quebec seeks to ban public prayer in institutions and spaces with $1,125 fines, extending secularism rules. (TG)

Northwestern University agreed to pay the Trump administration $75 million over three years to settle antisemitism probes. (TOI)

Portland's city council ignites conservative backlash by dubbing its iconic Pioneer Square Christmas tree simply "the tree" in a bid for so-called inclusivity. (DM)