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AI researchers have started smoking cigs because they expect AI to cure cancer anyway, McKinsey is requiring entry-level job seekers to debate with an AI, Leopold's hedge fund is getting clapped again, BofA hit a rough patch, Anthropic's Q3 revenue surged 50%, and Chinese gold diggers are flocking to SF to find rich husbands.

Introducing Grata Intelligence, Datasite's new agentic M&A workspace, built to help dealmakers focus on the right opportunities, move faster across the deal lifecycle, and get more, better deals done.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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As of 10/14/2026 market close.

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Markets

  • US stocks slumped yesterday after hot inflation data boosted odds of an October rate hike

    • Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has lost $1T in value after dropping 10% in six days for its longest losing streak since May 2025

  • Korea’s KOSPI is does 38% from ATHs but still up 30% YTD

  • Dollar advanced to its highest since May 2025

Earnings

  • Bank of America missed Q3 earnings and revenue estimates on poor fixed income and equities trading and a drop in IB revenue; the bank was also hit with a record $1.2B fine over money laundering controls (CNBC)

  • Morgan Stanley beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates on strong equities trading and slight growth in IB while rivals lagged (CNBC)

  • BlackRock beat Q3 earnings estimates as AUM rose to $15.5T thanks to stock market highs which boosted ETF inflows (RT)

  • ASML smashed Q3 earnings estimates and boosted FY guidance as it seeks to meet demand for clients placing orders through 2030 already (CNBC)

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: TSMC

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • Odds of a second Fed rate hike spiked almost 30 points after inflation data came in hotter-than-expected

  • Sign up to trade this market on the Polymarket US app with code LIT and they'll send you a $25 bonus

Headline Roundup

  • Chinese gold diggers are flocking to SF to find rich husbands in AI (NYP)

  • Woman pleads guilty for attempting to 'sextort' Wes Edens for $1.2B (BBG)

  • AI researchers have started smoking cigs because they expect AI to cure cancer anyway (FRT)

  • US CPI rose 3.7% You amid surging gas prices (CNBC)

  • Q3 earnings season faces challenge of sky-high expectations (WSJ)

  • AI boom is supercharging Wall Street's profits (WSJ)

  • Rising rates threaten to spoil the party for big banks (WSJ)

  • Goldman Sachs leads rivals in ECM in Q3 (BBG)

  • Collapse of record Australia IPO sends tremors through AI trade (WSJ)

  • Quant funds are at odds with fundamental stock investors (BBG)

  • Energy firms are set to lead European earnings growth again (BBG)

  • US private credit stress masked by growing PIK use (BBG)

  • BofA was fined a record $1.2B for money laundering violations (CNBC)

  • BofA consumer retail M&A banker Peacock becomes latest to leave (RT)

  • Norway's $2.3T SWF will overhaul ethics rules after US scrutiny (RT)

  • AI-powered funds bet bots can pick stocks faster and better than humans (RT)

  • Anthropic Q3 revenue jumped 50% to $16.8B ahead of IPO (FT)

  • Apple will debut first AI features in China in December (BBG)

  • Netflix laid off 1,000 more in biggest job cut since 2022 (WSJ)

  • Arrested OpenAI mole booked a one-way ticket back to Saudi (CNBC)

A Message from Grata Intelligence

Your data, firm knowledge, and deal context shouldn't live in four places. Meet Grata Intelligence.

Grata Intelligence is Datasite's new agentic M&A workspace, built to help dealmakers focus on the right opportunities and move faster across the deal lifecycle.

For the first time, Grata's proprietary market data, your firm's knowledge, evolving deal context, and VDR content are unified in one connected workspace, with Blueflame, Datasite's M&A agent, working across all of it to help execute complex work as deals progress.

Keep deals moving from sourcing into diligence and analysis without switching tools or rebuilding context along the way. With more dealmaking workflows running in one place, Blueflame has the context to help your team execute faster and more efficiently. In sourcing tests, Grata Intelligence delivered 84% lower costs and 29% higher quality outputs than frontier models without integrated Grata data.

Want to spend less time stitching tools together and more time getting deals done?

Discover what's possible with Grata Intelligence.

Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

  • Perella Weinberg and Piper Sandler abandoned merger talks after bankers at PWP didn't wanna associate with the Piper brand 

  • Germany is in talks to acquire a 50% stake in ​Franco-German tank maker KNDS from its German founding family after IPO plans seeking a $23B valuation flopped

  • US will take a 4% stake in GlobalFoundries in exchange for $20B in CHIPS Act funding (including investment from Japan) to build two chip plants in NY

  • Activist Oasis Management raised its stake in $18B-listed Japanese motor maker Nidec past 8% to become the largest shareholder and is pushing for a sale

  • Canadian insurance giant Canada's Fairfax Financial will acquire a 60% stake in India's $10B-listed IDBI Bank

  • Senior partners at global law firm Freshfields discussed carving out the firm's legal AI unit Freshfields Lab and opening it up to external investors to create a company worth billions

  • Deutsche Lufthansa won the bidding contest to acquire a 49.9% minority stake in the privatization of troubled Portuguese airline TAP at a $2.8B valuation

  • Nvidia announced $2B in Europe deals, including funding for French startups Doctolib, Genesis AI, Pigment, and Entalpic

  • Hongkong Land Holdings, controlled by Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson, is in talks with Hotel Properties to buy a majority stake in three buildings in Singapore's Orchard Road shopping belt at a combined $1.6B valuation

  • Ardian-backed green investor Hy24 will acquire the French and UK clean hydrogen unit of French state-owned utility EDF

  • Crypto exchange Kraken is set to acquire Lithuania-based Saldo Bank

  • Moroccan state-owned phosphate giant OCP is seeking foreign investment for some of its businesses due to supply disruptions from the Iran war

VC

  • Defense tech startup Anduril Industries is in talks to sell secondary shares at a $90B valuation

  • Nuclear energy startup Kairos Power raised $368M from GV, DCVC, and others

  • Estonian data center energy storage firm Skeleton Technologies raised $100M at a $1B valuation from Siemens

  • Spill Games, an AI-led mobile gaming studio, raised a $10.5M Series A led by Elevation Capital

  • RedOwl, an AI-powered financial intelligence and governance platform, raised a $5.3M seed round led by Tidal Ventures 

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Growth equity giant General Atlantic plans to IPO early next year at a $10B valuation

  • Nigeria's Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals picked Botswana as the host venue for the southern African portion of its record $1.6B IPO

  • Indian utility Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. picked backs for an $800M India IPO

  • Malaysia's largest pharmacy chain Big Caring plans to raise $600M in a Malaysia IPO

  • Michael Dell's family office DFO Management will buy a 1.34% stake in the holding company of Korean conglomerate SK Group worth $405M from chairman Chey Tae-won

  • Berkshire Hathaway invested $330M in Italian app investor Bending Spoons

  • Bank of America is no longer in talks to arrange the Hong Kong IPO of Chinese AI startup Moonshot

  • Hillhouse-backed luxury villa operator NOTA is planning a Japan IPO

  • State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Co. is exploring a Nigeria IPO following Dangote's success

SPAC / SPV

  • European cloud service provider Green AI Cloud will merge with Pioneer Acquisition I in a $300M stock deal with earn-out 

  • Uzbekistan's Tourism Entertainment Group became the country's first company to list in US following a reverse merger with StageWise Strategies

Debt

  • Asian data center operator Princeton Digital Group is seeking a $1.2B syndicated loan to fund its Malaysia buildout

  • Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is seeking a $1.2B dollar and local FX loan from Asian banks

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Creditors to Virgin Media O2 including BlackRock, PIMCO, and Sona Asset Management tapped Milbank for legal advice after UK's regulator said Nexfibre's expected $2.6B acquisition of Netomnia could hurt competition; the deal would generate $1.2B for Virgin

  • Real estate investor S2 Capital refinanced a $1.2B multifamily portfolio following a series of financial issues

  • Creditors to Allianz and Telefónica-backed German fiber operator Unsere Grüne Glasfaser tapped Lazard for potential restructuring talks

  • China's CNGR Advanced Material is in talks for an 80% stake in Indonesian nickel plant Gunbuster Nickel Industry, with an acquisition potentially taking place after a court-ordered restructuring ends

  • Turkey officials took over HalkTV, Turkey's most-watched opposition TV channel, following a police raid on its offices

  • Bonds of AI cloud computing firm CoreWeave plunged below 80¢ into distress

Funds / Secondaries

  • UK secondaries specialist Clipway plans to raise $1.5B fund for an infrastructure secondaries fund

  • Canadian O&G PE firm Waterous Energy Fund plans to raise $1B for its fourth fund

  • Pear VC raised $333M for its fifth fund

  • Lowe MM PE firm GenNx360 Capital Partners raised a $285M CV for catering operator Whitsons Culinary Group led by Churchill Asset Management

  • Antoine Iskandar, a Millennium PM who was in talks to spinout his pod into a his own hedge fund, will join Balyasny instead

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Robinhood Chain surpassed $100B in trading volume in just 3.5 months 

  • Interpol arrested HEX & PulseChain crypto founder Richard Heart in Turkey

  • SEC approved Cboe's KPI prediction-market bets via Robinhood

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

Exec’s Picks

  • A massive AI investment cycle has added to inflationary pressures, and record corporate profits have kept financial markets buoyant. Easy fiscal policy has also boosted demand, and the US economy, on balance, looks closer to experiencing a cyclical upswing rather than any "soft landing." Read more.

  • McKinsey has reportedly overhauled its interview process for entry-level analysts to include a debate with an AI avatar.

  • LinkedIn published its top startups list of 2026: The 50 US companies on the rise. You won't believe which firm is NOT on the list.

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.