Ray Blanco:

OpenAI Set To Start Mass Production of Its Own AI Chips With Broadcom

OpenAI is set to produce its own artificial intelligence chip for the first time next year, as the ChatGPT maker attempts to address insatiable demand for computing power and reduce its reliance on chip giant Nvidia.

The chip, co-designed with U.S. semiconductor giant Broadcom, would ship next year, according to multiple people familiar with the partnership.

Broadcom’s chief executive Hock Tan on Thursday referred to a mystery new customer committing to $10bn in orders.

Shares in Broadcom surged 15% in early trading on Friday following the news, pushing the Palo Alto, California-based group’s market capitalisation to $1.7tn.

OpenAI’s move follows the strategy of tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Meta, which have designed their own specialised chips to run AI workloads. The industry has seen huge demand for the computing power to train and run AI models. 

OpenAI planned to put the chip to use internally, according to one person close to the project, rather than make them available to external customers.

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Davis Wilson:

Tesla Offers Unprecedented $1 Trillion Pay Package to Musk

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) proposed a new compensation agreement for CEO Elon Musk potentially worth around $1 trillion, a massive package without precedent in corporate America.

The long-awaited proposal, designed to incentivize Musk to lead Tesla for years to come, sets a series of ambitious benchmarks he must meet to earn the full payout, including expanding Tesla’s nascent robotaxi business and growing the company’s market value to at least $8.5 trillion from around $1 trillion today. The plan spans 10 years.

The additional shares Musk could receive would push his stake in the electric-vehicle maker to at least 25%, according to the terms detailed in Tesla’s proxy filing Friday. Musk has publicly stated he wants a stake of that size.

The plan dangles a financial windfall and expanded control of the company to Musk, already the world’s richest person, after his 2018 package valued in excess of $50 billion was struck down by a Delaware court. While Tesla appeals that decision, the board is seeking other ways to compensate its CEO.

The incentives in the new plan aim to keep Musk’s focus on Tesla while it pursues growth in newer markets including robotics and artificial intelligence.

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Enrique Abeyta:

Stablecoin Giant Tether in Talks to Deepen Gold Investments Beyond $8.7B Reserves

Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is exploring deeper exposure to gold by investing directly across the metal’s global supply chain. It reportedly held talks with mining and investment groups to back ventures spanning extraction, refining, trading, and royalty finance.

The company already holds $8.7 billion in gold reserves stored in Zurich, used as partial backing for its tokens, but now appears to be eyeing physical gold investments on a much larger scale.

Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino has publicly praised gold as a foundational store of value, going as far as calling it “our source of nature.”

Tether notably runs XAUt, a token backed by physical gold, but it remains a niche product with a market cap under $900 million, far from USDT’s dominant $168 billion. The company also operates a growing commodity trade finance book, issuing short-term loans for bulk raw material shipments.

As digital assets continue to merge with traditional commodities, Tether’s gold ambitions signal a broader effort to blend blockchain-based finance with hard-asset backing.

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