Skydance, the new Paramount and Warner Bros, thinks better tech will see off TikTok and YouTube. The harder problem is timing. YouTube has paid creators over $100bn in four years, mostly after their videos earn, while studios pay the stars before a frame is shot.

UK-listed firms issued 65 profit warnings in Q3 2026, the most since late 2024. A record 54% blamed policy change and geopolitical uncertainty, top cause six quarters running. That is VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous. Boards should be seeing a range, with triggers.

Microsoft will run Copilot on its own Maia chips from 2027. They're built for inference, the bit of AI that costs money every time someone uses it. The firm many businesses rent AI from won't leave its own running costs to a supplier. Neither should you. thenextweb.com/news/microsof…

ASML, the only maker of the machines that print the most advanced chips, says its supply as planned won't fully meet demand in 2027 or 2028. A cheque won't fix it: the optics come from one Zeiss operation at two German sites. Expect AI compute rationed by price.

Amodei, Altman and Musk have all backed slowing AI down. On 12 October Zuckerberg said Meta has caught up, will spend more and won't slow down. Catching up cost a fortune, though, and Meta's real edge is the billions of people already in its apps. substack.com/note/c-35975808…

Britain's AI minister on 12 October: if you can't control the risks, don't release the system. The UK will now look at how serious AI incidents and near misses get reported. The harder test is for every business using AI: could you say what your AI agent did last Tuesday?

The maker of CONTOUR fingerstick glucose meters has led a $36m round in Sava, a London start-up trying to end fingersticks, and will sell its sensor in Europe. Sava gets cash and a route to market in one deal. The catch: any future buyer has to deal with the distributor.

Nvidia sells the chips open-weight AI models run on, so every free download is future demand for its hardware. Now it's in early talks to buy Reflection AI, per the FT. Free always has a sponsor. brkthruleadership.substack.c…

Denmark wants to give people copyright over their own face and voice. Turing made imitation the test of machine intelligence in 1950. Now that machines pass it, trust is what businesses can't afford to lose. Tell customers when they're talking to an AI.

Oil switched off in the US Gulf of Mexico: about 9% on 6 October, more than 71% by 9 October. One hurricane, three days. War and AI fill the headlines, but the old risks still turn up, now on top of the new ones. How fast would a $10 jump in oil reach your costs?

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is reportedly seeking up to $100bn from Gulf investors for a fund that buys ordinary companies and runs them better with AI. With AI-linked firms near half the S&P 500, one of the biggest allocators is betting the returns sit with the companies using AI.

OpenAI's run rate went from "nearing $70bn" to "approaching $50bn" in ten days without losing a customer. Same business, different counting rule. If ARR can swing $20bn there, ask what it's doing in the deck in your inbox. Ask for trailing twelve months.

A tech rally put the S&P 500 at a record in early October, yet JPMorgan counts $65bn of US loans trading below 60 cents on the dollar, the most since March 2020. Tech is the largest sector, largely software that AI could replace. Credit usually spots trouble first.

Wealthy 20-somethings spent $347k each on art last year, double any older generation, over a third on family money. As older buyers retreated to safe names, 56% of them still backed unknown artists. That is your next LP's risk appetite. Is your pitch ready?

Notable Capital's Jeff Richards has stopped making new investments but kept his 14 board seats. He gave away the decisions that bind the next decade and kept the ones that need his history. Most firms do the opposite, then wonder why nobody looks ready. substack.com/note/c-35433044…

Accenture booked a record $84.5bn of new work. The growth came from long contracts to run clients' systems, while advice stayed flat. The real risk to consulting is slower: AI is very good at junior work, and junior hours pay for the pyramid. Watch price per hour.

Trustly cut a quarter of its staff, and its biggest backers have committed 40m dollars plus to build AI products. Insiders protecting a stake, or a genuine pivot? Probably both. The trick is giving them a reason to write the cheque beyond protecting it. substack.com/note/c-35411474…

Wall Street is all on one side of the AI trade. Nvidia's $500bn consortium has the world's four biggest alternative asset managers in it. Goldman backs both Anthropic's and OpenAI's consulting ventures. Same money, same bet. If it goes wrong, nobody looks stupid on their own.

Paramount is borrowing about $52bn to buy Warner Bros, and its new co-CEO comes from Mattel. Someone has to keep the old machine paying the interest while someone else builds its replacement. That leader is rarer than it sounds. brkthruleadership.substack.c…

A company founded in 2023 has just paid $6.3bn in cash for Amex Global Business Travel, a 65% premium. The bet: keep the people, put AI underneath them, and a services business is worth far more. If you own a people-heavy business, a new kind of buyer has turned up.