Flash News

TREE NEWS update: China’s customs agency said Chinese companies are providing solid support for meeting rising global demand for computing power and electricity. Vice Minister Wang Jun told a State Council Information Office briefing that the country relies on its complete industrial system and technological innovation capacity to serve that demand. He gave no specific figures or company names.

TREE NEWS update: The Securities Association of China has told brokerages to bar analysts from directly using unverified AI-generated data, opinions, market projections and research conclusions, citing risks from model hallucinations. In its 2025 statistical report on securities research business, the association said firms generally have not defined where AI may be used in research and impose no management requirements on AI-supplied material, and that some analysts publicly used unverified AI-generated errors, damaging the industry’s credibility.

TREE NEWS update: Singapore has established a Frontier AI Resilience and Security Task Force, the government announced. The body is tasked with addressing resilience and security issues raised by frontier artificial intelligence. No further details on its membership, mandate or timeline were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Doubao Phone Assistant’s 30-day public comment period for its Screen Automation Operation Declaration Protocol has ended, and the assistant will now gradually open screen automation operation permissions for third-party applications. The announcement was made by Doubao Phone Assistant. The phased rollout will grant third-party apps the ability to perform automated on-screen operations.

TREE NEWS update: A Saudi national employed by OpenAI, Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested on October 9 after a hidden recording device was found behind a television in an executive meeting room, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday. Alfozan, who joined OpenAI in July 2025 on the product team, has been fired and is in federal custody. OpenAI said it found no evidence he improperly accessed or stole model weights, source code or customer data, and reported the matter to the FBI.

TREE NEWS update: The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that Abdulrahman Al-Fozan, a Saudi Arabian national employed by OpenAI, was arrested on October 9 after a hidden recording device was discovered behind a television in an executive conference room. Al-Fozan, who joined OpenAI on the product team in July 2025, has been fired and is in federal custody. OpenAI said it found no evidence that he improperly accessed or stole model weights, source code, or customer data, and reported the matter to the FBI.

TREE NEWS reports: Retail investors net bought about $9.1 billion of US stocks through Citadel Securities’ platform last week, the largest weekly net buying in nearly 15 years, the firm’s head of equity and derivatives strategy. Flows went mainly into AI-related stocks and ETFs, with roughly $2.6 billion into semiconductor shares, the third-highest weekly level in the past year, and about $2.4 billion into AI infrastructure names. Rubner said the inflow reflected stronger directional buying rather than higher overall trading volume.

TREE NEWS update: Anthropic has asked a Washington federal appeals court to reconsider its September 25 ruling upholding the Trump administration’s designation of the company as a supply-chain risk to US national security. Anthropic argues the judges misread the law by allowing the Defense Department to act without any prior determination process, despite evidence the designation retaliated against its statements on AI safety. The dispute will decide whether federal agencies or private companies control AI safety safeguards.

TREE NEWS reports: OpenAI is in early acquisition talks with New York-based software security company Trail of Bits, people familiar with the matter said. The size of the potential deal has not been disclosed. Trail of Bits specializes in software security auditing and research.

TREE NEWS reports: OpenAI is considering acquiring cybersecurity startup Trail of Bits. No deal terms, valuation or timeline were disclosed, and it is not clear whether talks are advanced. Trail of Bits is known for security audits and research, including work on blockchain and smart-contract code.

TREE NEWS reports: Microsoft plans to expand its global data center network to more than 38 gigawatts of capacity by 2032, up from roughly 12 GW today, people familiar with the plans said. The roadmap covers Microsoft-owned and leased facilities but excludes compute rented from so-called neoclouds such as CoreWeave. The figures could change, as data center construction takes years and shifting customer preferences or new technology may overturn current assumptions.

TREE NEWS reports: Microsoft’s cloud president has told business leaders to cut their spending by 20%. The directive targets corporate spending levels at a time when cloud and AI budgets face renewed scrutiny. No timeline or scope for the reduction was specified.

TREE NEWS update: Character.AI, the chatbot app once valued at $1 billion, has filed for bankruptcy and is up for sale in a Delaware court. Disney has bid $20 million for the company. The filing comes two weeks after Character.AI launched new models. If no buyer emerges, the company will shut down, and users are being offered grief resources.

TREE NEWS update: Microsoft disclosed more than $130 billion in new data center leases in its latest quarter, signaling accelerating spending on AI infrastructure. The figure, revealed in the company’s quarterly disclosure, marks one of the largest single-quarter leasing commitments tied to artificial intelligence compute buildout.

TREE NEWS update: A Saudi citizen, Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested on October 9 and faces criminal charges after an OpenAI employee found a hidden recording device attached to the back of a television in an executive meeting room, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday. Alfozan remains in federal custody.

TREE NEWS update: Oracle asked U.S. federal regulators to expedite approval of a natural gas pipeline needed to power its large data center project in New Mexico. In a Tuesday letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Oracle senior vice president of government affairs Josh Pitcock said further delay in approving the pipeline, operated by a subsidiary of Energy Transfer LP, would threaten the operating schedule of Project Jupiter and the jobs, economic activity and community benefits it brings.

TREE NEWS update: OpenAI said it discovered a sophisticated recording device concealed in one of its offices and has referred the matter to the FBI. Analysis of the device and its provenance using the company’s models identified a specific employee who placed it there several days earlier. OpenAI said there is no indication the individual improperly accessed or stole model weights, source code or customer data.

TREE NEWS update: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the meeting. No further details of the meeting, its agenda or any agreements were disclosed. The encounter comes as France positions itself as a hub for AI investment and Nvidia’s chips power most of the world’s advanced AI models.

TREE NEWS update: A bipartisan group of US senators sent a letter to the White House urging greater attention to artificial intelligence safety issues. The letter presses the administration to treat AI risks as a priority. No specific policy measures or response from the White House were disclosed in the letter.

TREE NEWS reports: European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane said the possibility that artificial intelligence replaces part of the workforce could weaken workers’ bargaining power and thereby slow wage growth. The remark points to AI’s potential disinflationary effect on the euro area labor market.