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Hello there.
Hundreds of investing and finance newsletters hit my (and maybe your) inbox every week. This is the best of the best of tech from the past week. Every Monday, we’ll tackle policy, and every Wednesday, we’ll recap finance.
This week, on Tech Wrapped, we’ve got…
🤖 ChatGPT Lining Up Massive IPO?
⚡️ The Tech Ticker
🧨 Insane Mag 7 Earnings Week
🤖 All Eyes on AI
😆 Meme of the Week
🎙️ Shadow Dockets and the Humanoids at Home
With how quickly the market and investment climate are changing right now, we can’t afford to fall behind. You can always read the latest and most relevant finance news & updates on Finance Wrapped.
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🤖 OpenAI to IPO at $1T, and Other Scary Tales
Big news: PayPal's ChatGPT integration makes it the first payments wallet embedded in the AI platform, giving 700 million weekly users seamless checkout for AI-recommended purchases. With PayPal shares jumping 13% on the news, we're watching the birth of what CEO Alex Chriss calls "agentic commerce": AI assistants that shop for you. Let’s hope they have good taste (GOTCHA—they’ll have your taste, so let’s hope you have good taste, dear reader 😉).
Bigger news?
OpenAI is planning to IPO at a valuation of $1T as soon as 2027. This would be one of the biggest IPOs in history. Pretty funny that OpenAI has so adamantly held on to its status as a non-profit… and makes me cringe at this clip of CEO Sam Altman declaring that he “does this because he loves it:”
Wall Street's getting its own AI makeover as Sequoia led a financing valuing banking AI startup Rogo Technologies at $750 million. The company aims to automate junior banker grunt work, while Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon insists AI won't kill jobs but will make productive people more productive. Meanwhile, Cathie Wood doubled down on her AI bets, calling humanoid robots the "biggest of all" embodied AI opportunities.
The real stinger is that OpenAI reportedly hired over 100 former investment bankers for $150/hour to build financial models that could replace entry-level analysts. So much for job security on Wall Street.
⚡️ The Tech Ticker
Nvidia became the world’s first $5 trillion company, adding $1 trillion in market value in just over 100 days.
Meta shares fell 9% after reporting a one‑time $15.9 billion tax charge, its fastest growth since early 2024.
Grubhub partnered with Instacart to add grocery delivery to its platform, allowing users to order directly through the app.
Alphabet’s third‑quarter results beat expectations with $89.6 billion in revenue, up 14% year‑over‑year, driven by strong ad sales and cloud growth.
China approved the transfer agreement of TikTok, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, expecting the deal to be finalized in the coming months.
🧨 We Made it Through Magnificent 7 Earnings Chaos
Not surprising anyone, the Magnificent 7 stocks took center stage for earnings season this week (for the most part). There were heroes, losers, and some confusing price action. Here’s a guide on how to interpret earnings reports if you’d like to learn more.
Apple (APPL): went up by about 4% after-hours on positive earnings results. Tim Cook said iPhone 17 sales are doing great (despite everybody making fun of “liquid glass” earlier this year).
Amazon (AMZN): rose 12% on better-than expected earnings results. Amazon’s cloud unit did especially great. It was said that Jeff Bezos’ bald head shone a bit brighter after this earnings call.
Meta (META): Zuckerberg did NOT have a good day. META sank 11% after its CEO defended insanely large CapEx (capital expenditure) on AI. People were especially shocked by a one-time $15.93 billion tax charge. But don’t worry… Meta plans on spending more through the rest of the year 😅
Alphabet (GOOGL): rose 2.5% on a double beat (higher-than expected earnings + revenue). Not surprising from the company that can afford offer a ton of free usage of its AI model while ChatGPT and Claude charge $20/month minimum after just a few prompts!
Microsoft (MSFT): fell by as much as 3% even though it posted stronger-than-expected results. Why? Same as Meta: Microsoft hinted at higher capital expenditure later in the fiscal year.
🤖 All Eyes on AI
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott dismissed fears that AI will replace enterprise software, arguing LLMs can’t handle the company’s systems.
Figma acquired AI‑powered media generation startup Weavy, bringing its 20‑person team under a new brand called Figma Weave.
ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski said AI audio models will become commoditized over time, predicting that competing systems will narrow.
😆 Meme of the Week
🎙️ TikTok’s Fate and the Nuclear Death of AWS
This episode of This Week in Tech dives into a chaotic Amazon outage that sent shockwaves through the internet, TikTok’s deal that could reshape global social media policy, and a major cyber breach at a US nuclear weapons facility.
📻 Tune in to:
Hear how Amazon’s massive outage exposed hidden weaknesses in the company’s cloud empire, and why so much of the web depends on it.
Get the scoop on TikTok’s US deal and how it could redefine digital sovereignty.
Learn the details on the foreign hackers who infiltrated America’s nuclear weapons plant, and what this breach says about national cybersecurity readiness.
🎧 Listen on:
⭐️ What did you think of today's edition?
That’s all for today. Write us and let us know your thoughts on the market, the newsletter, or the weather—we’d just love to hear from you.
Till next time,
— Brandon and Blake
Disclosures
The information provided in Finance Wrapped is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice, investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. Finance Wrapped is not a registered investment advisor, broker-dealer, or licensed financial planner. Always do your own research and consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. We may hold positions in or receive compensation from the companies or products mentioned. Disclosures will be made where applicable.
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