The week Nvidia lost its CEO

1 · The big one

Four days from confession to resignation

Jensen Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and had been its only CEO. On Thursday he resigned, four days after admitting an affair with a woman US officials believe works for Chinese intelligence. There was no succession plan.

How it happened

Why he is so hard to replace

Huang designed Nvidia around himself. About 60 people reported directly to him, and their job was to carry out his decisions quickly. He had said he wanted to stay for decades. Bernstein's note on Monday put it in three words: “He IS NVIDIA.”

By Thursday, Bernstein had downgraded the stock and cut its price target in half, to $200. TD Cowen called the week “shocking, unprecedented, and sad.” Melius and Oppenheimer downgraded too, and Citi kept its Buy rating.

Who gained. AMD jumped 13.3% on Monday and another 5.9% on Thursday, and Broadcom rose 5.5%. Super Micro fell 11.3% on reports that the Justice Department may look into its Nvidia and China ties. Nvidia is about 6% of the S&P 500, but the index still rose almost 3% on the week.

What's next: Nvidia reports earnings on Tuesday 17 November, the first call led by Kress. Listen for whether orders are holding, what she says about China, and any hint about a permanent CEO.

From Morning Brew (9, 10, 12 Nov), Brew Markets (9, 12 Nov) and The Neuron (13 Nov)

2 · AI

Anthropic's IPO gets a price, and Claude gets a new model

Anthropic's filing values it at $1.4 trillion. That is less than the $2 trillion investors talked about this summer, and still one of the biggest stock market debuts ever.

Claude Fable 5.2

The new model came out on Monday. It is up to 30% faster and 20% cheaper ($8 in, $40 out per million tokens), and it turns down 55% fewer requests than the last version. A twin called Mythos 5.2 is the same model with fewer limits, offered only to approved security and life-science groups.

Anthropic's two showpiece demos: more than 1,000 copies of the model working together built a simple operating system that booted after eight days, and Fable wrote a machine-checked proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in 30 hours.

Also from Anthropic this week

• An office suite. Claude Meetings joins your Google Meet as a visible guest and drafts the plan while you talk. Sheets, Whiteboards and Data came with it. Microsoft's stock fell 2.2% on the news, even though Fable 5.2 also went live inside Microsoft Copilot the same week.
• Its own power. It reportedly paid $3.4 billion for gas generators, enough for about 1.4 million homes, to avoid waiting years for a grid connection. This comes from one source and is not confirmed.
• A maths result. A startup says an unreleased Anthropic model proved an 18-year-old conjecture about quantum computing, and the proof was checked by machine.

From The Neuron (9, 10, 11, 13 Nov), Morning Brew (6, 7, 11 Nov) and Brew Markets (10 Nov)

3 · Economy

A rate hike for Christmas

The US added far more jobs than expected in October, and prices rose faster than expected too. Put together, that means the Fed will very likely raise interest rates in early December.

Good news that reads as bad news. A strong job market gives the Fed room to raise rates without worrying about layoffs. Prices are the reason it wants to: food rose 0.5% in a month, baby food and formula rose a record 5.1%, and gas averaged $4.32.

How big a hike? A few hours before the inflation report, Fed governor Christopher Waller said that if core inflation came in at 0.3% or more, a half-point hike “should be considered,” and that a quarter point “would put our credibility at risk.” It came in at exactly 0.3%. Traders now treat a quarter point as settled and give a half point better than a one-in-ten chance. Before the report, that chance was zero.

Housing. Sales of existing homes are at their lowest since 2010, but prices are still rising. More Americans expect unemployment to go up than at any time since early in the pandemic.

One hopeful sign for office workers: professional and business services added 70,000 jobs, which The Neuron read as evidence that AI isn't wiping out white-collar work yet.

From Brew Markets (6, 10, 12 Nov) and Morning Brew (7, 11 Nov)

4 · AI launches

Google, Anthropic and OpenAI all shipped in one day

The pattern this week: the big labs no longer just release a smarter model. They release it inside apps you already use.

Google: Gemini 4 Carbon. Its strongest model, built for long jobs that run on their own. It is half price until 30 November ($2 in, $10 out per million tokens), then doubles. A cheaper, faster sibling called Hydrogen followed on Thursday.

Anthropic: an office suite for Claude. Meetings, Sheets, Whiteboards and Data, plus Adobe and Atlassian opening inside Claude. For paid plans.

OpenAI: Businesses in ChatGPT. A company can claim a profile, upload its product list and add an agent that answers shoppers. US online shops first.

Gemini glasses are coming to Korea

Warby Parker and Gentle Monster are launching glasses with Google's Gemini built in. They give spoken directions, translate more than 70 languages, look things up and take photos. From $395, in stores on 10 December, in the US and South Korea only. Warby Parker's stock is up more than 40%.

The rest, quickly

• DeepMind's AlphaGenome 2 predicts what a single change in DNA does in each type of cell, so it can say which cells a mutation harms and not just whether it is harmful. For research only.
• A rumor: OpenAI's next model, GPT-6.2 Sol, is said to launch next Thursday and tie Gemini 4 Carbon for first place at about a tenth of the cost per task. OpenAI hasn't confirmed any of it.
• Shops are choosing sides on AI agents. United Airlines banned outside agents from booking on its site and Amazon blocked Meta's. Walmart is letting them in, with spending limits.
• Two machine-checked proofs: a panel led by a Nobel laureate backed OpenAI's proof of a long-open physics problem, and DeepMind proved security properties of Signal's real code.
• Apple reportedly cut some engineers' daily AI budget from $300 to $200.

From The Neuron (9, 11, 12, 13 Nov) and Morning Brew (11 Nov)

5 · Politics

After the midterms: a new chief of staff, and a revolt against data centers

Democrats won Congress last week. Republicans spent this week reshuffling, and AI companies found out how unpopular their buildings are.

46 of 47. That is how many local votes on data centers went toward tighter limits this year. Alhambra, California voted 83% for a ban, and Wells, Maine voted 82% for a six-month pause. Goldman Sachs says states that might restrict them hold about 45% of the data centers planned in the US, and Texas alone has about a quarter.

OpenAI's answer is a promise to the towns that host it: it will pay for its own power and grid upgrades, publish its water, power and noise numbers, and stop asking local officials to sign secrecy agreements. It only covers sites OpenAI owns.

In Washington

• Stephen Miller replaces Susie Wiles as Trump's chief of staff. “Sometimes in life you have to make moves,” Trump said.
• Jim Jordan will lead House Republicans from January, after Speaker Mike Johnson stepped aside.
• A Republican, Thomas Massie, tried to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran. The House blocked it, 211 to 204.
• Trump offered UFC boss Dana White the press secretary job, apparently as a joke. White reportedly said no.
• Congress is back for its last weeks before the new members arrive. If it can't agree on funding by 11 December, the government shuts down.

Mississippi elected a Democrat to the Senate. Scott Colom won by less than half a point, 49.18% to 48.72%. He is the state's first Black senator since 1881 and the first Democrat it has sent to the Senate since 1982.

AI and politics

• Four nonprofits asked a San Francisco judge to freeze new top models at Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceXSI.
• AI-funded campaign groups spent about $79 million on 68 races.
• The Pope weighed in. Leo XIV wrote that an algorithm “cannot replace human discernment or a worker's value.”

From The Neuron (8, 10, 13 Nov), Morning Brew (7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Nov) and Brew Markets (9 Nov)

6 · AI money

SoftBank pays for buying early. The power companies cash in.

Everyone rushed to lock in chips and electricity for AI. This week showed who that worked for.

SoftBank lost $7 billion last quarter, its first loss in nearly two years. Of that, $3.7 billion was power equipment it paid for in advance for US data centers, including one in Ohio for OpenAI, and has now written down. It owns about 13% of OpenAI, so it needs AI valuations to hold up.

Constellation Energy rose 10.4%. America's biggest nuclear operator grew revenue 45% and signed 20-year deals to power Amazon and Google. It is still down 21% this year, because investors worry about the data-center limits in story 5.

• SpaceX announced $74 billion of AI computing sites, in Arizona and at its Texas launch base.
• CoreWeave jumped 24.7% in a day. Its rival Nebius fell 16.8% even though revenue grew 571%.
• TSMC, which makes most of the world's AI chips, had a record October with sales up about 60%.
• KKR had a record quarter and expects to hand more than $40 billion back to its clients this year, a sign that private equity is finding buyers again.

From Brew Markets (6, 9, 10, 12 Nov) and The Neuron (13 Nov)

Business, quickly

Nine company stories in a minute each

Tesla

The Cybertruck is being retired

Production ends by mid-2027. Tesla sold just under 73,000 against a goal of 250,000 a year. The factory line goes to the Cybercab, and Musk says “a lot of” deposits will be refunded.

Hims & Hers · stock −16.6%

More sales, less profit

Revenue grew 49% but the company lost money, because weight-loss drugs cost more to supply. Its plan: put podcaster Andrew Huberman on the board and start selling unapproved peptides.

DraftKings · stock −21.3%

A $700M bet on prediction markets

It cut its profit forecast to chase Kalshi, which took $2.5 billion in bets on the midterms alone.

Meta, Google, TikTok

Quiet payouts over addictive feeds

About a dozen settlements of $2 to 2.5 million each with teenagers, and 9,800 more lawsuits waiting. California bans infinite scroll and autoplay for under-16s from January.

Amazon

A security camera that flies around your house

The Ring Drone Cam costs $249.99 and takes off when an alarm goes off. It ships on 27 January if US regulators approve it.

Airbnb · stock +11.7%

Not worried about AI travel agents

Almost none of its 500,000 daily bookings come from AI agents. Its explanation: people enjoy planning trips. Revenue rose 19%.

Workplace

Beehiiv got rid of job titles

Creating one new “director” title took about 15 hours of meetings, so all 130 staff now have no rank. Experts warn that office politics just go underground.

Kraft Heinz

Protein Jell-O and round bacon

The new CEO's turnaround plan is odd new products plus $700 million of investment. He expects flat sales next year and growth in 2028.

Food

“Seed-oil-free” is now a $1 billion business

Sales rose 72% in a year, pushed by health influencers. Dietitians say seed oils are fine in moderation, and no human study links them to inflammation.

And: Take-Two rose 8% on preorders for GTA VI, out 19 November. Fox closed its $22 billion purchase of Roku. The FDA added a warning about a rare eye condition that can cause blindness to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. The two heads of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran, are stepping down.

From Morning Brew (7, 10, 11 Nov) and Brew Markets (6, 10, 12 Nov)

Around the world

The rest of the news, a line or two each

• Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi, their first talks in nine months. They agreed a large prisoner swap and nothing on ending the war.
• Iran. Oil swung between $86 and $90 on Trump's comments about the war. Treasury Secretary Bessent moved onto a military base after death threats.
• Israel. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, not Netanyahu, gets the first try at forming a government. He has six weeks.
• Poland. A gunman with far-right views killed six people in Kraków. The government called it terrorism.
• North Korea. Hackers ran fake Zoom calls using recordings of people their victims knew, and stole more than $400 million in crypto before the FBI stepped in.
• OpenAI got pranked. Three of its national-security staff spent 17 minutes on a call with “Ukraine's spy chief.” It was two Russian pranksters.
• Russell Brand was sentenced to ten and a half years for rape and sexual assault.
• The Booker Prize went to 81-year-old M. John Harrison for an end-of-the-world science fiction novel.

From Morning Brew (7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Nov) and The Neuron

Lighter stuff

Art, ships, pizza and a very famous embassy

The art market is back. A Van Gogh goes on sale at Sotheby's on 18 November and is expected to fetch more than $180 million, which would beat his record of $117 million. Auction sales are up 70% this year, though small galleries are still struggling.

Art crime

Stealing a painting doesn't pay

After a year of museum heists, the Brew looked at what happens next. Gold gets melted down, but a famous painting is in every stolen-art database, so it sells for a fraction of its value or is held for ransom.

Art and tax

Where the very rich keep their art

In “free ports”: guarded, climate-controlled warehouses like this one in Geneva. Art can sit there for decades gaining value with no sales or capital gains tax.

Florida

The fastest ocean liner ever was sunk on purpose

The SS United States, longer than the Titanic and still the holder of the 1952 Atlantic speed record, is now the world's largest artificial reef.

Internet

Finland's embassy closed for a day and went viral

A plain notice that the embassy in Canberra would shut for one day got about 11 million views on Instagram. Nobody knows why, including the ambassador.

Australia

Chef fired for refusing to put pineapple on pizza

The Italian chef called it “an insult to his culture.” It was reportedly his third refusal in four years. He lost his case, but only because he filed it late.

Italy

KFC is opening on the ski slopes

From 5 December in Cortina and Madonna di Campiglio, the first fast food on Italian slopes. One lift owner is threatening to sue over the “disgraceful” plan.

Food

Chefs are tiring of “world's best” lists

A grill restaurant in Spain's Basque Country was named number one this year. Others are skipping the awards, saying the lists now shape the restaurants they are supposed to judge.

Good news

Rain is refilling the American Southwest

El Niño storms have lifted Lake Powell more than 20 feet since September, easing a drought that has lasted years.

Americana

Route 66 turned 100

2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica. Congress wants to make it a National Historic Trail.

From Morning Brew (7, 8, 9, 10, 12 Nov)

Coming up

Dates worth knowing

Worth stealing

Three AI habits from The Neuron this week

1. Have a second chat try to break the work

In one coding test, the best AI agent met 70% of the hidden requirements but finished only 26% of tasks completely. So before you trust a result, ask for a pass/fail checklist, then open a new chat and give it this:

Your job is to prove the work wrong. For each checklist item, find evidence it fails and point to the exact part. Mark FAIL, PASS or UNCERTAIN. Only PASS if you tried to break it and couldn't.

2. Check the question it answered, not just the answer

An AI can give a perfect answer to a slightly different question, like net revenue when you asked for gross. Ask it to list every definition and assumption it used, then compare that list to what you asked for.

3. Plan with the big model, do the work with the small one

Have the strongest model write numbered steps, each with a quick way to tell it's done. Run the steps on a fast, cheap model, and send only the failures back to the big one.