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MARKETS
💰 Trump Predicts “Great Deal” with Xi Ahead of High-Stakes Meeting
(Credit: White House/Shealah Craighead)
The Scoop: President Donald Trump pledged to slash the 20% fentanyl-linked tariffs on China imposed earlier this year, signaling a thaw in trade tensions ahead of his Thursday summit with Xi Jinping in Gyeongju.
The Details:
Trump told reporters, "I expect to be lowering that because I believe they can help us with the fentanyl situation. We have to get rid of it," potentially halving the levy to 10% if Beijing commits to concrete crackdowns, per WSJ reports.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators finalized a trade framework over the weekend in Malaysia, pausing 100% tariff threats and rare-earth export curbs while boosting U.S. soybean and Boeing purchases.
At the APEC CEO summit, Trump touted a "great deal for both" nations, adding "the world is watching, and I think we’ll have something that’s very exciting for everybody."
What’s Next: With markets rallying on truce hopes, the Trump-Xi face-off could seal a landmark pact by Thursday, capping the president’s Asia tour with a trade-war-defying win.
Market Roundup
🏦 Economy
⭐ Editor’s Pick: A federal judge extended a temporary order blocking the Trump administration from firing thousands of federal employees amid the ongoing government shutdown. (CNBC)
U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rates fell to 6.30%—the lowest since September 2024. (CNBC)
The Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point Wednesday. (BBG)
Trump announced a nearly finalized trade deal with South Korea during his Asia tour's final stop. (BBG)
📈 Hot Stock Picks
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Netflix is the smartest growth stock to buy with $2,000 right now, with nascent ad business poised to double this year, according to Motley Fool. (MF)
Check Point Software trades at a discount to peers despite recent AI acquisitions and Q3 earnings beats, positioning it as an overlooked contender in the sector's hypergrowth chase, according to Seeking Alpha. (SA)
Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips offer compelling value at 15-20% discounts to fair value, bolstered by resilient free cash flows, disciplined capital returns, according to Morningstar. (MS)
The drone arms race is fueling sustained growth in unmanned systems, spotlighting investment opportunities in AeroVironment, Kratos Defense, and Unusual Machines, according to MarketBeat. (MB)
🏢 Industry
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Apple and Microsoft joined Nvidia in the $4 trillion market-cap club. (FBN)
Texas sued Kenvue and Johnson & Johnson, alleging the companies deceptively marketed Tylenol to pregnant women despite emerging evidence linking the painkiller to heightened risks of autism. (TS)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised Trump’s policies and spotlighted U.S. company partnerships in a MAGA-themed keynote speech. (WSJ)
Boerne City Council in Texas approved a downsized Buc-ee’s convenience center after a decade of negotiations, in a 4-0 vote that promises robust tax revenue. (NEWS4)
🛢️ Energy & Commodities
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Westinghouse Electric, Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management announced a strategic partnership with the U.S. government to construct at least $80 billion in new nuclear reactors nationwide. (UD)
China's state-owned COFCO purchased three U.S. soybean cargoes totaling 180,000 metric tons, signaling thawing trade tensions ahead of the Trump-Xi summit. (RTS)
The Department of Energy partnered with Nvidia and Oracle to develop Solstice, a cutting-edge supercomputer to propel breakthroughs in energy systems. (NN)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed the CDC to probe alleged harms from offshore wind farms. (TGS)
🌕 Crypto
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Polymarket plans to re-enter the U.S. market within weeks with sports-betting focus. (BBG)
Western Union announced plans to launch a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin in the first half of 2026 on the Solana blockchain. (FE)
New crypto ETFs targeting Solana staking, Litecoin, and Hedera's HBAR launched this week amid a crowded field, offering investors yields around 7% on Solana. (DEC)
Trump Media is partnering with Crypto.com to launch Truth Predict, a prediction-markets platform integrated into its Truth Social app. (GNW)
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TECH
💻 Thiel-Backed Substrate Raises $100 Million for U.S. Chip Empire
(Credit: TheDigitalArtist/Pixabay)
The Scoop: San Francisco startup Substrate, founded by Peter Thiel protégé James Proud, has raised over $100 million at a $1 billion valuation to reinvent chip lithography with a compact X-ray machine rivaling ASML, aiming to slash fab costs and restore U.S. dominance in semiconductors, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Details:
Substrate uses proprietary particle-accelerator-powered lithography with ultrashort X-ray wavelengths to etch 2nm-scale patterns on silicon wafers, skipping multi-patterning for faster, cheaper production—validated at U.S. national labs with images matching ASML’s EUV resolution.
Substrate targets U.S. fabs costing “single-digit billions” (vs. $20-50B norm), starting mass chip production by 2028 without overseas reliance.
Backed by Thiel’s Founders Fund, General Catalyst, In-Q-Tel, Valor Equity Partners; Proud, a Thiel Fellow, hired 50+ experts from TSMC, IBM, Google, and Applied Materials.
What’s Next: With Trump's administration eyeing Substrate for supply-chain sovereignty, the startup could spark a U.S. chip renaissance by 2028—unleashing affordable advanced fabs, supercharging AI and defense tech, while cementing Thiel’s most pivotal investment for the nation.
Tech Roundup
🧠 AI
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Microsoft and OpenAI inked a new agreement to advance their partnership, with Microsoft backing OpenAI's shift to a public benefit corporation and a $135 billion investment securing a 27% stake. (MS)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that its flagship Blackwell AI chips are now in full production in Arizona. (CNBC)
Eli Lilly is teaming with Nvidia to construct the pharmaceutical industry's largest supercomputer, powered by AI to expedite drug discovery and slash development timelines for treatments. (FB)
PayPal secured a deal to become the first payments wallet integrated into OpenAI's ChatGPT, enabling seamless in-chat transactions for users. (TD)
Researchers unveiled an optical chip that computes at over 10 GHz using light, shattering speed barriers for AI and signaling a leap beyond electronic processors in energy efficiency and performance. (STD)
🤖 Hardware & Robotics
⭐ Editor’s Pick: A deep dive into 1X's Neo humanoid housekeeper robot, controlled remotely by a human with a VR headset, available now for preorder, with delivery expected in 2026. (WSJ)
Uber plans to deploy a fleet of 100,000 Nvidia-powered autonomous vehicles starting in 2027. (BBG)
Granada will deploy Spain's first humanoid police robot, a Unitree Model H, to manage traffic and bolster road safety. (SNT)
Moreno Intec del Pla unveiled an AI-powered apple-harvesting robot integrated with eight drones and advanced vision systems. (FP)
🚀 Defense & Space
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Israeli startup Skyforce has unveiled a groundbreaking autonomous battlefield system that enables one operator to control up to 100 drones simultaneously. (JPOST)
NASA’s X-59, an experimental Lockheed Martin jet engineered to transform sonic booms into mere thumps, completed its inaugural test flight over Southern California. (IE)
Google and the USO have launched Beam, an AI-powered holographic video platform to enable immersive 3D calls for deployed U.S. military personnel and their families. (WPO)
The U.S. must prioritize Mars colonization to secure strategic dominance, resource independence, and national renewal in an era of intensifying great-power competition, experts say. (AM)
💰Venture Capital
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Kyle Vogt's robotics startup, The Bot Company, is seeking to raise $250 million at a valuation surpassing $4 billion, marking a bold return for the Cruise founder in the burgeoning humanoid automation sector. (BBG)
Sublime Security secured $150 million in a Series C funding round led by Georgian to accelerate AI-powered email threat detection. (SW)
CoreStory raised $32 million in Series A funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners to accelerate AI-driven modernization of legacy code. (SH)
Mem0, a startup providing a memory layer for AI apps to retain user interactions across platforms, has raised $24 million in seed and Series A funding led by Basis Set Ventures. (TC)
FREEDOM
📢 Stanford Center Held Secret Meeting With Foreign Governments To Plot Internet Censorship
(Credit: Zetong Li/Pexels)
The Scoop: The Stanford Cyber Policy Center hosted a secret September 24 dinner for top censorship officials from the EU, UK, Brazil, Australia, and California—titled “Compliance and Enforcement in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape”—to coordinate a global internet regime that could force U.S. tech giants to censor Americans under foreign pressure, Michael Shellenberger reports.
The Details:
Funded by Frank McCourt’s $500 million Project Liberty Institute (PLI), the off-the-record meeting involved 21 participants including UK’s Ofcom, Australia’s eSafety, Brazil’s regulators, and EU reps, ostensibly to “identify where data, research, and expertise can enable more effective compliance” with censorship laws.
PLI’s policy blueprint demands a “Single, Global Internet” with “regulatory interoperability” leveraging EU market power for “reciprocal guarantees,” while participants like Ofcom and eSafety denied coordination—despite Inman Grant boasting at the World Economic Forum of the network’s role in “coordinat[ing]” global enforcement.
What’s Next: As Trump bolsters U.S. free-speech firewalls, this shadowy transatlantic cabal—potentially illegal under First Amendment scrutiny—could pressure Big Tech into a unified global filter via economic leverage, but whistleblowers, congressional probes like Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH), and Elon Musk’s defiance might unravel it.
Freedom Roundup
🏛️ Policy & Culture
⭐ Editor’s Pick: The DHS is rolling out a nationwide biometric tracking program at U.S. airports, deploying facial recognition and iris scanning. (RTN)
Canada risks mirroring the U.K.'s crackdown on free speech, where social media posts like racially charged memes or emoji-laden threats have landed ordinary citizens in jail for months. (HUB)
Disney terminated its lucrative streaming partnership with the BBC for "Doctor Who," citing backlash over the show's woke rebrand. (TEL)
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DISCLAIMER: The CAPITAL newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. The CAPITAL newsletter and its owner and operator, Josh Caplan, are not liable for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on this information. The CAPITAL newsletter is solely owned and independently operated by Josh Caplan, separate from any employer affiliations.
