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October 26 to November 1, 2026 · 10 stories · the week is still unfolding
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested using cryptocurrency to bypass potential U.S. banking sanctions ahead of October 27 elections. Over 100 economists signed a letter warning the plan would cause higher unemployment, while Russia's A7A5 stablecoin moved $102 billion during the period.
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Elon Musk confirms SpaceX raised $40 billion in debt to buy Nvidia AI chips, leveraging Starlink and rocket revenue. Apollo Global Management leads the round, with Pacific Investment Management providing $30 billion. Delivery is scheduled for 2027, potentially causing over 200 neocloud startups to face consolidation.
Meta board members prepare to resign if CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not back down from his compensation demands driven by AI spending. The company posted a negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion in the third quarter of 2026, its first deficit since 2012. This financial strain follows security failures in Meta's AI products and automation implementation issues.
US manufacturers added 72,000 jobs since December, reversing years of decline, though new roles increasingly require college degrees. While automation reduces blue-collar positions, it increases demand for engineers and analysts in sectors like aerospace and semiconductors, creating a skilled-worker shortage.
Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX admitted losing 15.99 million USDT, roughly $16 million, from retired wallets days after CEO Sumit Gupta called breach reports a false alarm. The firm stated its automated sweeping service failed, causing the loss which the company absorbed.
PHP released emergency patches on October 21 to fix two critical remote code execution flaws rated 9.2. Amazon detected exploitation attempts starting October 17, while Cloudflare deployed rules at 03:02 UTC. The PHP Foundation noted attackers studied the fix before the embargo collapsed. Ubuntu 24.04 receives a specific backport version 8.3.6-0ubuntu0.24.04.13.
OpenAI and Anthropic cut Large Language Model prices by up to 80% between June and September 2026. OpenAI reduced GPT-5.6 Luna costs to $0.20 / $1.20 / $0.02 in July, while Anthropic made Sonnet 5 pricing permanent on August 10. By September, both companies lowered rates further to compete with open-weight models like DeepSeek.
Ukrainian drones hit a Russian Ministry of Finance data center in Gorodets on Oct. 8, damaging tax databases. Subsequent strikes on Oct. 11 and Oct. 14 damaged Yandex, Sberbank, and VKontakte facilities, disrupting cloud services and banking across Russia.
SoftBank Group plans to invest $50 billion in Malaysia, focusing on artificial intelligence, new technologies, and data centers. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed the deal on Saturday, citing locations in Kuching, Sarawak, and peninsular Malaysia. This move supports Malaysia's goal to become an AI nation by 2030, following earlier framework agreements with Grab and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang invests €97.3 million in 61 European startups during his recent Europe tour. The funding covers companies like Urkwyhmc and Zlzfhpz, with specific amounts such as €594,000 for BG and €7 million for CNK, alongside other undisclosed rounds totaling the sum.