Market Beats | AMD Strikes Landmark AI Deal With OpenAI; US Online Holiday Sales to Hit $253.4 Billion; AI Boom Spurs Bubble Fears; US Shutdown Threatens to Stall IPO Comeback; Trump to Impose 25% Tariff on Imported Medium and Heavy Trucks; Deloitte to Refund Part of Fee After AI-Generated Report Contained Errors; Aston Martin Cuts Outlook Again as Tariffs and Weak Demand Weigh on Sales

—— AMD Strikes Landmark AI Deal With OpenAI; US Online Holiday Sales to Hit $253.4 Billion; AI Boom Spurs Bubble Fears; US Shutdown Threatens to Stall IPO Comeback; Trump to Impose 25% Tariff on Imported Medium and Heavy Trucks; Deloitte to Refund Part of Fee After AI-Generated Report Contained Errors; Aston Martin Cuts Outlook Again as Tariffs and Weak Demand Weigh on Sales

1. AMD Strikes Landmark AI Deal With OpenAI

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has secured a landmark partnership with OpenAI to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, positioning the chipmaker as a stronger rival to Nvidia Corp. in the booming AI computing arena.

AMD shares surged as much as 38% following the announcement — their biggest rally in nearly a decade. Under the multiyear agreement, OpenAI will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD graphics processing units, about half the scale of a recent deal it struck with Nvidia. The partnership also opens the door for OpenAI to acquire a significant equity stake in AMD.

The pact represents a pivotal test for AMD, potentially bringing in tens of billions of dollars in new revenue and elevating its standing in the AI hardware market. But it also deepens AMD’s exposure to an industry that some analysts caution may be in a speculative bubble.

“This is certainly the largest deployment we’ve announced so far,” said AMD Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We’re embarking on a massive build-out — it’s a big deal for us, for our shareholders, and for our teams.”

As part of the agreement, OpenAI will have the option to purchase up to 160 million AMD shares for just one cent each, contingent on achieving project milestones.

That figure represents roughly 10% of AMD’s outstanding shares. The targets require the stock to keep climbing, with the final tier tied to a $600 share price. AMD closed Friday at $164.67.

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2. US Online Holiday Sales to Hit $253.4 Billion

U.S. shoppers are projected to spend $253.4billion online this November and December, up 5.3% from 2024, according to Adobe Inc., with “buy now, pay later” financing driving much of the growth.

The pace marks a slowdown from last year’s 8.7% increase. Consumers plan to trim overall holiday spending amid tariff-driven price hikes and a weakening labor market, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey released in September.

Adobe said installment-style checkout options will generate about $20.2billion in sales this season — up 11% from a year earlier and more than twice the rate of total online spending growth. Retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. offer the service through partnerships with fintech firms including Affirm Holdings Inc. and Klarna Group. The financing tool is especially popular among younger shoppers with limited credit, who are often drawn to Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.

“It appeals to people who are more financially strapped and strained,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe.

The firm also noted that influencers on TikTok and Instagram will play an increasingly important role in driving product discovery and web traffic. Meanwhile, shoppers are expected to rely more on AI-powered chatbots and browsers to find items — particularly toys, electronics, and jewelry.

Adobe found that visitors who reach retail websites via AI interfaces spend more time browsing and clicking through pages than those referred by ads or other channels.

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3. AI Boom Spurs Bubble Fears

Ever since the artificial intelligence boom took off, investors and analysts have warned of a potential bubble rivaling the late-1990s dot-com frenzy — a period that ended with a crash and widespread bankruptcies.

Tech companies are now spending hundreds of billions of dollars on advanced chips and massive data centers, not only to meet surging demand from chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, but also to prepare for a deeper economic transformation as machines take over more human tasks. The ultimate cost could reach into the trillions. The funding comes from venture capital, corporate debt, and increasingly unconventional financing structures that have raised eyebrows on Wall Street.

Even some of AI’s most enthusiastic advocates admit the market looks overheated, though they continue to insist on the technology’s long-term promise. They argue AI will reshape industries, revolutionize medicine, and accelerate human progress.

Still, never before has so much money been deployed so quickly toward a technology that remains largely unproven as a profitable business model. Many tech executives — even those skeptical of AI’s loftiest claims — feel compelled to match their rivals’ investments to avoid being out-scaled or left behind in the next phase of the AI race.

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4. US Shutdown Threatens to Stall IPO Comeback

The long-awaited revival in the U.S. initial public offering market is at risk of slowing sharply if the ongoing government shutdown drags on, putting billions of dollars in planned listings in limbo.

Companies such as travel software startup Navan Inc. and tax advisory firm Andersen Group Inc.—founded by former partners of the defunct Arthur Andersen—were among those poised to start marketing their IPOs as soon as this week. But with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission largely closed due to the shutdown, those plans are now on hold. Industry lawyers are advising clients to wait, warning that a prolonged impasse could derail tightly choreographed timelines and dampen a stock market rally that has underpinned a rebound in deal activity.

“If it’s just a couple of weeks, there’s nothing to panic about,” said Dave Peinsipp, co-chair of Cooley LLP’s global capital markets practice. “If it lasts a month or longer, or stretches into 2026, then we’ve got real problems — but we’re not there yet.”

So far, IPO activity has been strong: U.S. listings have raised $33.4billion through Oct. 5, surpassing the total for all of 2024, according to Bloomberg data. Alliance Laundry Holdings Inc. and Phoenix Education Partners Inc., the owner of the University of Phoenix, already have regulatory approval to go public this week — potentially the last major deals to proceed if the funding standoff persists.

Any extension of the shutdown could delay companies targeting IPOs before the Thanksgiving holiday, with year-end vacations leaving a narrow window for new listings. Navan, Andersen Group, and BitGo Holdings Inc., which filed in September, are among the first to be affected by the SEC’s inability to declare registrations effective.

Meanwhile, Ethos Technologies Inc., Beta Technologies Inc., and Once Upon a Farm PBC are still in the middle of their 15-day waiting period before marketing can begin.

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5. Trump to Impose 25% Tariff on Imported Medium and Heavy Trucks

President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on all medium and heavy-duty trucks imported into the United States beginning November 1, 2025 — a move that could significantly reshape the global automotive supply chain.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social on Monday, just ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to the White House. Canada, a major exporter of trucks and vehicle components to the U.S., stands to be one of the countries most affected by the new measure.

“Beginning November 1st, 2025, all Medium and Heavy Duty Trucks coming into the United States from other Countries will be Tariffed at the Rate of 25%,” Trump posted.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has rolled out a broad series of tariffs on foreign automobiles and parts, arguing that such measures will boost U.S. manufacturing. The White House has not yet released further details, leaving open questions about whether the tariff will cover parts as well as complete vehicles, or whether imports from Canada and Mexico could be exempt under USMCA content rules.

The announcement threatens to overshadow Trump’s meeting with Carney on Tuesday. Canada has been working to prevent a new escalation in trade tensions with its southern neighbor.

“Hopefully the Prime Minister can make progress toward tariff relief — that would be a welcome step,” said Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada.

Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said the group would “need to see the official paperwork or executive order” before judging the policy’s scope. “It’s unclear whether this social-media-driven announcement allows exemptions for U.S. content, like light vehicles, or for key components such as engines under USMCA,” he said. “The major automakers are pushing hard for both.”

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6. Deloitte to Refund Part of Fee After AI-Generated Report Contained Errors

Deloitte has agreed to partially refund the Australian government after admitting that portions of a report it produced were generated using artificial intelligence and contained multiple referencing errors.

Australia’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said the Big Four firm would return the final payment under its A$439,000 contract, which involved an independent review of a welfare program that automatically penalized jobseekers. The report, originally published earlier this year, was replaced on Friday with a corrected version.

In August, the Australian Financial Review reported that the document included false citations and references to non-existent academic papers from the University of Sydney and Lund University in Sweden. While the report’s findings and recommendations remain unchanged, Deloitte amended incorrect references and one summary of legal proceedings.

The episode highlights the risks facing professional services firms as they increasingly rely on AI tools — particularly the danger of so-called “hallucinations,” where AI systems fabricate information. The Big Four firms, along with consultancies such as McKinsey, have invested billions in AI development to boost productivity and outpace smaller competitors. Yet regulators have cautioned that these firms are failing to adequately monitor how automation and AI affect audit quality.

In the updated version, Deloitte disclosed that part of the report was produced using a “generative artificial intelligence large language model (Azure OpenAI GPT-4o)–based tool chain” licensed by the government. While the firm didn’t explicitly attribute the mistakes to AI, it acknowledged that errors in citations, references, and a legal summary were corrected.

“The updates in no way affect the substantive findings or recommendations,” Deloitte stated. The firm added that “the matter has been resolved directly with the client.”

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7. Aston Martin Cuts Outlook Again as Tariffs and Weak Demand Weigh on Sales

Hamas said it will release all Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7 attack and accepted parts of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, ahead of a Sunday evening deadline set by Washington.

In a statement, Hamas said it agreed “to release all Israeli prisoners — both living and deceased — in accordance with the exchange formula outlined in President Trump’s proposal, and contingent upon the necessary field conditions for carrying out the exchange.”

The group added, however, that some provisions of Trump’s 20-point proposal “require a unified national stance and must be addressed in line with relevant international laws and resolutions.”

Trump had warned that Hamas had until 6 p.m. Sunday to accept the plan he announced earlier in the week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Otherwise, he said in a social media post on Friday, “all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.”

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