AI & Markets

Apple closed Oct. 30 with a market value of $5.03 trillion, passing Nvidia to become the world's most valuable company again for the first time since late July. Apple shares fell 1.2%, but Nvidia dropped 4.2% to $4.93 trillion.

Investors treated Apple's far smaller AI infrastructure spending as a reason to see it as a safer bet. Apple is up 26.8% this year versus Nvidia's 9.7%. It is Apple's first time at No. 1 under CEO John Ternus, who took over in September.

OpenAI lowered its new funding target from $30 billion to $20 billion, the Financial Times reported, and cut its target valuation from $1.4 trillion to $1.25 trillion. About $11 billion has been committed so far, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The first close was set for Oct. 31, but the round is still open, and OpenAI plans to raise more from family offices and wealthy individuals over the next few weeks. Some investors reportedly scaled back after the tech selloff. Rival Anthropic plans to go public next month, which could sharpen the competition for investors.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrived in Korea on the night of Oct. 30 and met SK and Samsung in turn. He had lunch with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Oct. 30 and spoke to about 50 Samsung affiliate executives at Samsung's Yongin training center on Oct. 31. Neither side confirmed any new investment or memory pricing deal.

TrendForce expects average HBM selling prices to rise 121% next year. Samsung says its HBM supply for next year is already sold, and SK hynix says its output is effectively sold out through 2029, counting long-term contracts and deals under negotiation. OpenAI agreed with Samsung and SK last October to cooperate on the Stargate AI infrastructure project.