TREE NEWS update: Merck confirmed that data from its melanoma vaccine collaboration with Moderna was leaked. In the Phase 3 INTERPATH-001 trial, Intismeran combined with Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 42% versus Keytruda alone, consistent with the leaked figures. Overall survival data remain immature but show a favorable trend for the combination, and no new safety signals were observed.
TREE NEWS update: Digital advertisers and publishers have asked EU and UK antitrust regulators to suspend Meta Platforms’ new commercial terms, set to take effect on Oct. 30, arguing the terms give Meta unlimited rights to use their content for AI services. The Open Web Movement, whose members include advertisers and publishers, said it filed complaints with the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority and requested interim measures.
TREE NEWS update: BE Semiconductor Industries (BESI) reported third-quarter orders of €342.6 million ($385.2 million), beating the €298 million Visible Alpha analyst consensus and rising 17% quarter-on-quarter and 96% year-on-year, driven by strong AI data-center demand. The Dutch chip-equipment maker also rejected reports that ASML could challenge it in hybrid bonding, a chip-interconnect technology.
TREE NEWS update: Micron Technology (MU) said it will introduce a global employee bonus plan tied to quarterly financial results starting in fiscal 2027, after pressure from its Taiwan labor union for workers to share more of the profits from the AI boom. The quarterly bonus pool will be calculated as after-tax profit minus projected capital expenditure for the next quarter, based on fiscal 2026, with half paid in cash after earnings are released and half in stock vesting a year later.
TREE NEWS update: DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed registration procedures and finished open-sourcing and overseas licensing under China’s revised technology export catalogue, state-affiliated commentator Yuyuantan Tian reported. The Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology opened public comment on the revised catalogue on Oct. 16, adding 23 AI-related technologies including large models, AI agents and computing clusters.
TREE NEWS reports: Neoclouds such as CoreWeave and Nebius rent Nvidia GPUs to AI labs, and several of these GPU cloud providers began as crypto mining operations. The model has become a key source of compute for the AI boom, with crypto-native infrastructure evolving into AI cloud capacity.
TREE NEWS reports: Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are moving to restrict third-party AI agents that log into customer accounts using customers’ own credentials. The banks are taking the step after finding rogue AI agents operating inside customer accounts, a discovery described as leaving them “horrified.” The restrictions target AI agents that access accounts through shared login details rather than bank-approved channels.
TREE NEWS update: The Model Evaluation and Threat Research institute (METR) said OpenAI’s high-privilege pilot exercise uncovered a vulnerability that an agent could exploit to make hundreds of recent actions unmonitorable. The finding, disclosed by METR, centers on a monitoring gap exposed during the pilot rather than on the agent’s underlying model. No date or further technical details were provided in the disclosure.
TREE NEWS update: Nvidia has launched Minerva, a platform it describes as observable and aimed at end-to-end AI factories. The offering is positioned to give operators visibility across the full AI factory stack, from compute infrastructure through to deployed workloads. Nvidia did not disclose pricing or an availability date in the announcement.
TREE NEWS update: Tech Mahindra, India’s fifth-largest IT services firm, has partnered with SpaceXSI, the AI arm of rocket maker SpaceX, to use artificial intelligence to modernize legacy applications and speed up software development. The company will also deploy the chatbot Grok Build to create industry-specific solutions, focusing on technology, telecom, and banking and financial services. The deal marks the first time a major Indian IT firm has partnered with SpaceX’s AI division.
TREE NEWS reports: China’s exports of domestically made surgical robots surged 272.9% in the first eight months of the year, as domestic brands break foreign manufacturers’ dominance of the segment. The country’s surgical robot market is projected to grow from 22.45 billion yuan in 2026 to 70.85 billion yuan in 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 33.3%.
TREE NEWS reports: Nexans Chief Financial Officer Vincent Piquet said cable production capacity is emerging as a bottleneck for AI-driven data center construction, as demand growth outpaces the industry’s ability to expand output. He told Reuters that global cable capacity is tight and that building a new cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable line, known in the industry as a CV line, takes about three years, limiting how fast suppliers can respond. “Things can’t move quickly, and the people building these data centers are in a big hurry,” Piquet said.
TREE NEWS update: SpaceX has launched the SpaceX Superintelligence (SI) partner network, with Nvidia, Apollo, Databricks and Bain Capital among the partners. The company announced the initiative as a formal partner program for its superintelligence efforts.
TREE NEWS update: SpaceX announced the launch of the SpaceX Superintelligence Partner Network, with Bain, Nvidia and Snowflake named as founding partners. The company disclosed the initiative as SpaceXSI on October 22. No financial terms or further details of the partnership were provided.
TREE NEWS update: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Thursday at the GTC conference in Berlin that demand from neocloud companies is “off the charts” and their capabilities are “extraordinary.” The missing piece is the working capital needed to fuel growth, Huang said, noting capital is scarce because demand across AI sectors is so strong. Capital demand far exceeds supply, and the problem will be resolved, he added.
TREE NEWS reports: Russell Investments senior portfolio manager Jordan McCall said Apple serves as a highly liquid hedge against AI volatility. For investors worried about AI but still seeking tech exposure, McCall said Apple is a good position to hold. When markets turn tense, Apple becomes a safe destination for capital, he said.
TREE NEWS reports: Apple shares have risen 28% in 2026, making the company the largest contributor to the S&P 500’s 12% gain. As Wall Street grows hesitant about AI infrastructure spending, investors are turning to Apple as a way to stay in tech while avoiding some volatility, largely because Apple has stayed out of the massive AI capex race. Its strong free cash flow and steady earnings growth stand out, though growth trails Big Tech peers and its valuation has climbed to elevated levels.
TREE NEWS reports: Meta’s credit risk indicator climbed to a record high, driven by the company’s AI spending plans. The move reflects growing concern among credit investors over the scale of Meta’s artificial-intelligence outlays. No specific figure or date was provided in the material.
TREE NEWS reports: BlackRock is looking to reposition its AI trade as equity valuations become broadly more attractive, global chief investment strategist Wei Li said. Near-term risks remain, including rising bond yields and markets beginning to demand concrete signs of AI commercialization, but the long-term potential of AI is unchanged. Li said framing such a transformative technology as a “bubble” is “not particularly helpful,” since it will produce both winners and losers.
TREE NEWS update: Chinese embodied-AI robotics company AGIBOT signed an agreement on Oct. 22 to become one of the latest key enterprises admitted under the Hong Kong government’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, witnessed by Financial Secretary Paul Chan. The company said it will use Hong Kong as a base for international R&D, industrial partnerships and global market access, and will expand research collaboration, talent development and real-world applications of embodied intelligence.