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Read Full Issue Happy FRIDAY, wonderful people. The week is coming to a close on a rather busy note, both in our neck of the woods and beyond.
The future of Saudi Arabia’s fall events calendar is looking a bit more certain, even as the Houthis continue to attack airports and other infrastructure. The Kingdom is set to implement a hybrid format for its Future Investment Initiative, which runs 26-29 October, but Reuters says people are still expecting the physical rooms to be filled. The move to open up remote attendance for the event comes after a handful of execs bowed out of the WPC Energy Conference in Riyadh earlier this week.
The pressure extends to the sports calendar: The Asian Tour said it is monitoring the security situation, with its season-closer, the PIF Saudi International, due at Riyadh Golf Club from 18 to 21 November, Reuters reports. The tour is in talks with partner Golf Saudi and will announce any schedule changes once it settles on a course of action.
Debt investors are losing patience with the AI build-out. Bonds backing some of the biggest US data center projects, including Meta’s Hyperion and Microsoft-leased Project Excalibur, have slid well below par in recent weeks as investors question whether AI revenues can cover the debt, the Financial Times reports. Neoclouds have been hit hardest: CoreWeave, which has taken on more than USD 51 bn of debt and obligations, has seen its bonds fall to distressed levels, and Nvidia has lost about USD 270 bn in market value over the past week. Allianz’s CIO called it a “Darwin moment” for the weakest borrowers.
The revenue picture is mixed. At an investor day ahead of its IPO, Anthropic told prospective investors that 3Q revenue rose 45% q-o-q to USD 16.8 bn and that it turned an adjusted profit, Reuters reports. That’s strong growth, but well short of the previous quarter’s near-tripling. Anthropic is targeting a valuation of more than USD 2 tn in a listing that is likely to come after next month’s US midterms and ahead of rival OpenAI’s, which has been pushed to next year. –Salma
