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Top stories today:
- Thinking Machines said to seek new funding at $50B valuation
- Cursor raises $2.3B in funding round at $29.3B valuation
- Baidu unveils Ernie 5.0, rivaling GPT-5-High
- Grayscale's 9-month net income -9% to $203M in IPO filing
- Elon calls $15B xAI fundraising report false
- Bitcoin sinks deeper <$100K as bear market grips crypto
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
No major events today.
1. Muratiโs Thinking Machines said to seek new funding at $50B valuation
The valuation could rise to $55-$60B, as deal terms arenโt finalized and may change.
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.
Elon Musk is building the Tesla Smart Home.
Apple is doubling down with new Face-ID locks and smart displays.
The worldโs biggest tech giants are battling for dominance in the $158B smart home market, growing 23% each year.
Big Tech is pouring billionsโ the race is officially on.
Just like how Google acquired Nest for $3.2 Billion and Amazon snapped up Ring for $1.2 Billion, investors are hunting for the next smart home breakout.
As Tesla and Apple race ahead, one startup is riding the waveโleading a massive, overlooked category - smart shades. And RYSE is dominating it.
RYSE checks every box:
10 granted patents
Over $12M in revenue
200% annual growth
RYSE is not just another smart gadgetโitโs a prime acquisition target in a category with billion-dollar potential.
At just $2.25/share, investors can still get in earlyโbefore their next wave of growth.
The next Nest or Ring could be this.
Invest in RYSE now
*Sponsored by RYSE Inc. ($5,000 contracted). Prospective investors should review the offering materials for details, including all risk factors, before making an investment decision. Any investment involves significant risks, including the potential loss of the total investment. This advertisement is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. This Reg A+ offering is made available through DealMaker. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. Please read the offering circular before investing in RYSE.
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.
Cursorโs in-house models generate more code than โalmostโ 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-5.1โs $1.25/$10 and Gemini 2.5 Proโs $1.25/$10.
Ernie 5.0 also competes with Googleโs 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
Bitcoinโs market depth โ its ability to absorb large trades without big price swings โ ~-30% from this yearโs high
8. Googleโs NotebookLM to bring Deep Research to all users within week
Users will get โfastโ and โdeepโ research styles to choose from.
More sources can be added when choosing the โdeepโ 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. Chinaโs 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
Athyna: Save $80,000 per year on every engineering hire.*
*Sponsored.
Tech
Tech & Law
Apple, OpenAI must answer Elonโs 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 โฌ9M ramp production of โfunctional mushroomsโ.
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 โtest portfolioโ.
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.
Franceโs Macron to host Ukraineโs Zelensky in Paris on Nov. 17.
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