Top stories today:

1. Thinking Machines said to seek new funding at $50B valuation
2. Cursor raises $2.3B in funding round at $29.3B valuation
3. Baidu unveils Ernie 5.0, rivaling GPT-5-High
4. Grayscale's 9-month net income -9% to $203M in IPO filing
5. Elon calls $15B xAI fundraising report false
6. Bitcoin sinks deeper <$100K as bear market grips crypto

0. Data and calendar

No major events today.

1. Murati’s Thinking Machines said to seek new funding at $50B valuation

• The valuation could rise to $55-$60B, as deal terms aren’t finalized and may change.

• Jul.: the startup raised a $2B seed round.

• Thinking Machines is developing Tinker as its first product, used by groups at universities including Princeton and Stanford.

• Paying business customers are also reportedly using Tinker.

• Current revenue unknown.

3. Cursor raises $2.3B in funding round at $29.3B post-money valuation

• Accel and Coatue co-led the round, with Thrive Capital, a16z, DST Global, Nvidia, and Google participating.

• $1B+ in annualized revenue and 300+ employees.

• Cursor’s in-house models generate more code than “almost” any other LLMs globally, the startup said.

4. Baidu unveils Ernie 5.0 with text-to-video capabilities, rivaling GPT-5-High, Gemini 2.5 Pro

Ernie 5.0 Preview matched or beat GPT-5-High and Gemini 2.5 Pro across benchmark results shared by Baidu:

• The new model is closed-source and available via the Ernie chatbot and Qianfan API.

• It costs $0.85/M input and $3.40/M output tokens, vs. GPT-5.1’s $1.25/$10 and Gemini 2.5 Pro’s $1.25/$10.

Ernie 5.0 also competes with Google’s Veo 3 on image and video generation

5. Grayscale 9-month revenue -20% YoY to $319M, net income -9% to $203M in IPO filing

• $35B in assets under management and 40+ products giving exposure to over 45 tokens, the IPO filing revealed.

• Digital Currency Group will retain majority voting power after the IPO.

6. Elon calls $15B xAI fundraising report false

• GPU needs at xAI were intended to be funded by the $15B round.

• Sep.: xAI was said to add $5B to its earlier $10B round, valuing the startup at $200B.

7. Bitcoin sinks deeper <$100K as bear market grips crypto

• Bitcoin fell as much as 3% to $96K on Fri. before paring losses, leaving it 23% below its Oct. 6 record high.

• Nevertheless, Bitcoin remains ~5% higher on the year and up 40%+ since the 2024 U.S. election.

Bitcoin ETFs saw ~$870M in net outflows on Thu., the second-largest daily withdrawal since launch

Bitcoin’s market depth — its ability to absorb large trades without big price swings — ~-30% from this year’s high

8. Google’s NotebookLM to bring Deep Research to all users within week

• Users will get “fast” and “deep” research styles to choose from.

• More sources can be added when choosing the “deep” style, Google said.

• NotebookLM also added support for linking Google Sheets and Drive files like PDFs via URL.

• Microsoft Word .docx files can also be added as sources as well.

NotebookLM has also added custom video overview styles generated from a user prompt

• Chat history is also rolling out to let users resume sessions later.

9. China’s factory output +4.9% YoY in Oct., missing +5.5% forecast after +6.5% in Sep.

• Retail sales +2.9% in Oct., the slowest since Aug. 2024 and down from +3.0% in Sep.

China is also struggling to lift house prices

• Fixed-asset investment -1.7% YoY in the first 10 months, worse than the -0.8% expected.

10. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

11. Other headlines

AI

• ChatGPT testing group chats.

• OpenAI leads Red Queen Bio’s $15M seed to block AI-enabled bioweapons.

• Firmus raises A$500M at A$6B on AI data center push.

Tech

• Verizon to cut about 15K jobs as new CEO restructures: source.

• Samsung hikes memory chip prices by up to 60%: sources.

• Apple’s China iPhone sales +22% in month after iPhone 17 debut: Counterpoint.

Tech & Law

• Apple, OpenAI must answer Elon’s X, xAI antitrust suit: judge.

• Google probed by EU over alleged DMA violations in news ranking.

Biotech

• WHOOP adds free lab test uploads for all users.

• KAAPA Biotech raises €9M ramp production of “functional mushrooms”.

• Family offices step up bets on longevity as niche sector goes mainstream.

Business

• Oil +1% after Ukrainian attack damages Russian oil depot.

• Stellantis to recall ~113K U.S. vehicles over engine failure: NHTSA.

Crypto

• Emory University boosts Bitcoin exposure with $52M Grayscale ETF stake.

• Czech central bank dips into Bitcoin with $1M “test portfolio”.

U.S. politics

• Tariff cuts planned by Trump in broader affordability push.

• DOJ sues to block California House map in Congress fight.

• BBC apologizes to Trump but refuses to pay.

World

• Venezuela on edge as Hegseth launches Operation Southern Spear.

• Saudi prince to meet with Trump next week after weeks of tense talks.

• France’s Macron to host Ukraine’s Zelensky in Paris on Nov. 17.

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