OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic have unified the signal for opting out of AI training data collection into one, and the Nasdaq 100 has entered correction territory amid concerns about AI spending. Here's a roundup of Anthropic's $63 billion chip financing and post-IPO credit rating debate, the U.K. competition authority's investigation into Meta's terms, Samsung Electronics' record quarterly results and Sam Altman's visit to Samsung, and New York State's bill to strengthen AI safety regulation.
🤝 OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic Unify AI Training Opt-Out Signal
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic said on October 30 that they will support a shared signal allowing website operators to opt out of AI training collection by all four companies with a single line in robots.txt. The signal, written by Anthropic's Kevin Kelly and submitted the same day as an IETF draft, uses the policy token 'usage_ai-training'; it does not block search visibility and does not remove content already used for training. Anthropic has already begun applying it, while OpenAI plans to adopt it within months, Microsoft on February 1, 2027, and Google sometime in 2027.
📉 Nasdaq 100 Enters Correction… Intel Plunges 29% as Worries Spread Over AI Spending Payoff
The Nasdaq 100 fell more than 10% from its October 6 high on October 30, entering its third correction of the year, and Intel's shares plunged about 29% on a disappointing fourth-quarter outlook, marking its worst day in decades. Nvidia and Reddit also fell sharply, as investors grew doubtful about when the huge AI infrastructure spending would pay off after Amazon guided 2026 capital expenditure to about $220 billion and Alphabet to $195–205 billion.
💸 Anthropic Closes $63 Billion Chip Financing… and Faces 'Junk Rating' Outlook After IPO
Anthropic closed a $63 billion 'Project North Star' financing deal in which a special-purpose entity buys and leases 1.5 gigawatts of Google custom chips, with Broadcom reportedly guaranteeing more than $42 billion in senior loans and Blackstone investing $9 billion in the junior portion. Meanwhile, Blackstone reportedly told investors that Anthropic is likely to remain below investment grade and in the upper junk tier even after its November IPO, a factor that could raise financing costs for a computing infrastructure spending plan of more than $800 billion through 2045. Anthropic filed its listing documents (S-1) on October 26, formally starting the IPO process.
🇬🇧 U.K. CMA Opens Formal Investigation into Meta's Terms… Dispute Over Publisher Content Use for AI
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on October 30 opened a formal investigation into whether Meta's business terms, which allow the company to use publishers' and advertisers' website content to develop AI features and more without giving them a real choice, amount to an antitrust violation. Meta had postponed the terms change originally set for October 30 to November 20, then suspended it on October 28 pending industry consultation, and pushed back, saying there are no grounds for the investigation. There is no finding of a violation yet, and the first phase of evidence gathering is scheduled through January 2027.
🇰🇷 Samsung Posts Record 107 Trillion Won Quarterly Operating Profit… Predicts Memory Shortage Through 2028
Samsung Electronics confirmed on October 29 third-quarter revenue of 195.25 trillion won (up 127% year over year) and operating profit of 107.44 trillion won (up 783%), becoming the first global tech company to enter the era of 100 trillion won quarterly operating profit. The semiconductor division accounted for 106.5 trillion won of operating profit — about 99% of the total — and memory revenue surged 427% to 140.7 trillion won, while the smartphones and home appliances division posted an 800 billion won operating loss. Samsung said next year's HBM volume is already sold out and the tight memory supply will continue through 2028, and it confirmed a third-quarter dividend of 30 trillion won (4,601 won per common share).
🇰🇷 Sam Altman Visits Samsung Again After a Year… Discusses 'AI's Next 10 Years' with 50 Executives
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met about 50 Samsung affiliate presidents on October 31 at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, giving a lecture on 'The Next 10 Years Changed by AI: The Choices Companies Face' and discussing AI cooperation. Altman's visit to Samsung comes about a year after the last one, following a June trip postponed for personal reasons. Since signing a letter of intent for AI infrastructure cooperation in October last year, the two companies have been widening their partnership beyond AI chip supply into data center construction, enterprise AI services, and joint development of offshore data centers.
🏛️ New York State Proposes Bill to Strengthen AI Safety Regulation… Independent Audits and Computing Limits
New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Jordan Wright introduced a bill on October 29 to supplement the RAISE Act passed last year, requiring large AI developers to report their share of AI-automated research quarterly and disclose any sharp rise in risk within 72 hours. The bill would give a newly created agency for digital innovation, governance, and trust (DIGIT) the power to limit computing for model training, and require annual audits by independent 'frontier examiners' licensed by the state and catastrophic-risk assessments every 90 days. It illustrates the divide between the federal government's light-touch approach to AI development and the tougher stance of state legislatures.