Good morning. Andrew here. Breaking: OpenAI just announced a huge deal with AMD — two weeks after Nvidia agreed to invest up to $100 billion in the A.I. giant. We’ve got the details below. And amid the government shutdown, there is one part of Washington that’s about to begin hugely crucial work: The Supreme Court, which starts its latest term today. The cases it plans to hear over the coming months could reshape policy and have huge implications for business. We’ve got a full rundown below, along with the latest on the shutdown and a look at how international businesses are reacting to the Israel and Hamas peace talks. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
What AMD and Nvidia have in common nowShares in AMD jumped 27 percent in premarket trading today after the chipmaker announced an expansive deal with OpenAI that could see the artificial intelligence giant take a 10 percent stake. But the transaction comes just two weeks after OpenAI struck another deal with Nvidia, AMD’s rival — both underscoring the ChatGPT maker’s seemingly boundless ambitions and raising questions about its relations with key business partners. The details:
OpenAI and other tech giants are accelerating a computing resources arms race, as they seek the processing abilities to power A.I. tools. OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have announced plans to spend more than $325 billion combined on data centers by the end of this year alone. “This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize A.I.’s full potential,” Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and C.E.O., said of the AMD deal. The deal cements AMD’s ties to one of the highest-flying A.I. players, bolstering its effort to stake a claim in the lucrative market for A.I. processors and take away business from Nvidia, the sector’s dominant player. (A piece of trivia: Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive and Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s C.E.O., are distant relatives) But it raises questions about OpenAI, too. The company recently agreed to take up to $100 billion from Nvidia in exchange for using that chipmaker’s processors in data centers. That transaction already drew scrutiny about the circularity of the investment, with Nvidia in some ways paying OpenAI to buy its chips. But is Nvidia now helping fund a deal that benefits a rival, too? (There’s a circular element to the AMD deal as well, given the warrant.) OpenAI has made no secret that it’s expanding its roster of partnerships, such as diversifying beyond Microsoft for cloud computing. But today’s deal highlights just how far the company is willing to go.
The White House is sued over the new $100,000 H-1B visa fee. The lawsuit, filed by health care, religious and education groups, said that the program offered a critical pathway to hiring workers in those fields, and that the change had “thrown employers, workers and federal agencies into chaos.” It appears to be the first major challenge to the program’s revamp, which led to confusion for businesses that rely on the visas to fill key positions. The Trump administration reportedly weighs limiting some disability benefits. Officials are preparing a plan that would make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security disability payments, which could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing them, according to The Washington Post. Denying benefits to older disabled workers could lead more of them to start taking retirement benefits early, at a significant cost to their income. Costco will sell the weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Novo Nordisk, which manufactures them, said that the retail giant would sell injectable pens at more than 500 of its U.S. pharmacies. (The price: $499 for a four-week supply.) It’s the latest effort by Novo Nordisk to increase distribution of the drugs as it faces competition from both Eli Lilly and makers of generic versions, and as many health insurers deny coverage for the medicines. A once-in-a-century termThe Supreme Court begins its new term today, and Washington observers agree on one thing: A lot is at stake. Justices are set to consider issues at the heart of President Trump’s economic agenda, including tariffs and authority over independent agencies — notably the Fed. And while the court has a 6-to-3 conservative majority, legal experts aren’t entirely sure which way justices will go. On tariffs: The court is scheduled to hear arguments next month over the constitutionality of the administration’s extensive tariffs, which were imposed via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Trump officials have said overturning the levies risked economic chaos; the U.S. has raised about $192 billion in revenue from customs, including the duties, through Oct. 2. The businesses that brought the challenge to Trump’s tariffs, as well as some conservative and libertarian legal scholars, say the tariffs are illegal. (While the act the administration is citing has been used to apply sanctions and embargoes, it doesn’t mention tariffs.) Lower courts have ruled against the White House, and trade and legal experts surveyed by JPMorgan Chase recently predicted the Supreme Court will follow suit. That said, Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, has said the administration will continue to rely on tariffs as a key economic tool, even if it has to rely on other legal justifications to do so. On the Fed and independent agencies: In December, justices are set to consider the White House’s power over independent federal agencies. Via emergency applications, the Supreme Court has already allowed the administration to fire, for now, officials from regulators like the F.T.C. Noah Feldman of Bloomberg Opinion writes that the court’s conclusion is preordained, with serious consequences for federal regulation. But the justices have also suggested that the Fed is a slightly different animal, and so far have blocked Trump’s ability to fire Lisa Cook as a governor of the central bank over accusations of mortgage fraud. The court will hear arguments over the matter in January — with potentially huge implications for Fed independence, the U.S. economy and fiscal policy. What else is on the docket: issues including whether the administration can unilaterally end birthright citizenship or strip 300,000 Venezuelan migrants of deportation protections; as well as the constitutionality of a Colorado law counseling minors to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. What experts are saying about the significance of this term:
Shutdown roundupAs the government shutdown enters its sixth day, Democrats and Republicans appear to be focused less on negotiating a solution and more on blaming the other side for the economic consequences. And with discussions at a near halt, political observers expect the standoff to last longer. Here’s the latest:
How long will it last? More than half of bettors on Kalshi expect the shutdown to stretch to more than 20 days. About 40 percent are now wagering that it will go on for more than 25 days.
GLOBAL VIEW Israel faces heatTalks between Israel and Hamas mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt are set for today in Egypt, as President Trump calls on all sides to “move fast” to end the two-year war in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is under increasing pressure. Businesses based in or working in Israel face boycotts and calls for divestment, especially from the E.U., the country’s biggest trading partner. Consider these recent headlines from across Europe:
The boycotts put pressure on Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president (who is close to Trump), to resolve the matter. “Sports boycotts can have a powerful psychological impact” that could be felt across Israeli society as well as in the halls of power in Jerusalem, said Tony Karon, AJ+’s editorial lead, who added that such boycotts were effective in his native South Africa. So far, none of that has dampened investor enthusiasm for Israeli stocks. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange hit a new high yesterday, and the shekel has rallied since Trump announced a Gaza peace proposal last week. We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
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