>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 29th of January 2026

>>> Up
* Aperam Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 41.20 euros
* ASML PT Raised to 1,500 euros from 1,000 euros at TD Cowen
* ASML Raised to Overweight at Barclays; PT 1,500 euros
* ASML PT Raised to 1,600 euros from 1,400 euros at Citi
* Fresnillo Raised to Buy at Banco BTG Pactual; PT 5,400 pence
* General Motors Raised to Buy at DZ Bank; PT $98
* Lassila & Tikanoja Raised to Buy at Inderes; PT 8.80 euros
* LVMH Raised to Buy at DZ Bank; PT 650 euros
* Meta PT Raised to $825 from $750 at Morgan Stanley
* Nordnet Raised to Buy at SEB Equities; PT 332 kronor
* Schindler Raised to Neutral at Oddo BHF; PT 294 Swiss francs
* UMG Raised to Buy at ING; PT 27.20 euros
* Volvo Raised to Buy at ABG; PT 365 kronor

>>> Down
* Acerinox Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan; PT 10.50 euros
* CAF Cut to Underperform at Oddo BHF; PT 54 euros
* Consti Cut to Reduce at Inderes; PT 12.50 euros
* Helleniq Energy Cut to Neutral at Piraeus Securities S.A.
* Motor Oil Hellas Cut to Neutral at Piraeus Securities S.A.
* OMV Cut to Underperform at RBC; PT 46 euros
* Stolt-Nielsen Cut to Hold at Pareto Securities; PT 317.85 kroner
* SSAB Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 71 kronor
* Unite Group Cut to Hold at Jefferies; PT 629 pence

>>> Initiation
* Austriacard Rated New Outperform at Piraeus Securities S.A.
* Barrick Mining Rated New Overweight at JPMorgan; PT C$91.96
* Cenergy Rated New Outperform at Oddo BHF; PT 22.40 euros
* Unite Group Reinstated Buy at Deutsche Bank; PT 700 pence

>>> Call
* Exail Tech’s Preliminary Figures ‘Encouraging,’ Bernstein Says
* JPMorgan Sees Risk/Reward Improving for EU Stainless Steel
* OMV Cut to Underperform at RBC on Extended Chemicals Downcycle

FT : An AI vision of the future

An AI vision of the future


Meta made a splash in 2023 with its first AI glasses developed in partnership with sunglass brand Ray-Ban. Several generations of smart glasses later, the Facebook parent kicked the race into higher gear when it unveiled AI glasses with a built-in, full-colour display in September of last year.

Chinese companies, however, are not standing aside and letting Meta have the market all to itself, Nikkei Asia’s Cissy Zhou and Yifan Yu write.

Backed by China’s strong supply chain, sizeable domestic consumer market and abundant choice of open-source AI models, tech giants and start-ups alike in the country are racing to launch their own AI glasses while Meta struggles to keep up with demand.

Buoyed by the strong performance of Meta’s latest smart glasses, HSBC raised its forecasts for both shipment volumes and average selling prices. It now estimates the total addressable market for smart glasses could reach about $200bn by 2040, a 33 per cent increase from its previous forecast.

>>> Stoxx 600 Pre-Market Indications

  • STMicro (SGM TH) +3.8%
    • STMicro Sales Outlook Beats Estimates on Chip Recovery
  • Fresnillo (FNL TH) +3.3%
  • Swedbank (FRYA TH) +2.7%
    • Swedbank 4Q Net Interest Income Meets Estimates
  • Nemetschek (NEM TH) +2.2%
    • Nemetschek FY Ebitda EU371.1M Vs. EU301.0M Y/y
  • Siemens (SIE TH) +2%
  • Boliden (BWJ TH) +2%
  • Glencore (8GC TH) +1.7%
  • Deutsche Bank (DBK TH) +1.6%
    • Deutsche Bank Has Record Fourth Quarter in Fixed Income: TOPLive
  • Aurubis (NDA TH) +1.6%
  • Anglo American (NGL0 TH) +1.4%
  • Novo (NOV TH) -1.3%
  • SEB (SEBA TH) -3.8%
    • SEB Lending Profit Meets Estimates as Fees Offset Low Rates (1)
  • SAP (SAP TH) -3.9%
    • SAP Forecasts Cloud Revenue Growth in 2026 as Clients Switch (1)

>>> TradeGate Pre-Market Indications

DAX:
  • Deutsche Bank (DBK TH) +1.6%
    • Deutsche Bank Plans New Buyback in Results Overshadowed by Raid
  • Infineon (IFX TH) +1.6%
  • Siemens (SIE TH) +1.4%
  • SAP (SAP TH) -3.1%
    • SAP Forecasts Cloud Revenue Growth in 2026 as Clients Switch (1)
MDAX:
  • DWS (DWS TH) +5%
    • Deutsche Bank’s DWS Raises Profit Target, Plans Special Dividend
  • Nemetschek (NEM TH) +3.2%
    • Nemetschek FY Ebitda EU371.1M Vs. EU301.0M Y/y
  • Puma (PUM TH) +1.4%
    • Puma Investor Declares 33.70% Voting Rights on Jan. 26
SDAX:
  • Schaeffler (SHA0 TH) -2.1%

Variety : What Is David Ellison’s Warner Bros. Endgame?

What Is David Ellison’s Warner Bros. Endgame?
Paramount Skydance CEO is betting the regulatory tide will turn against the Netflix deal

For more than five months, Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison has tried in vain to win a deal for Warner Bros. Discovery. Nothing has worked: The WBD board of directors has rejected Paramount’s acquisition overtures eight times and remains committed to its industry-altering $83 billion pact with Netflix.

But Ellison refuses to go away. Paramount Skydance last week extended the deadline for its hostile $30-a-share all-cash offer for WBD to Feb. 20 — and officially urged Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to vote against WBD’s amended all-cash deal with Netflix at April’s special meeting of stockholders. Predictably, Warner Bros. Discovery sharply dismissed Ellison’s latest maneuvers, claiming more than 93% of its shareholders have rejected Paramount’s “inferior scheme,” the company said.

Sources familiar with the thinking of Paramount Skydance and its financial backers, which include Larry Ellison, David’s multibillionaire father, say the company isn’t prepared to go higher than $30 a share (which is up more than 50% from its first $19-a-share proposal). But at this point, more cash on the table would seem to be the Ellisons’ only option.

Is David Ellison just a rich guy trying to save face after multiple rebuffs?

Actually, he appears to truly believe Paramount has a chance to land WBD. His disrupt-and-delay strategy is engineered around the possibility that regulators in the U.S. or Europe — or President Trump — will spike the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal outright or attach onerous conditions, clearing a path for Paramount’s rival offer.

Through its tactics, Paramount is “buying time for negotiations, raising the costs for rejecting the deal and signaling commitment” to buying WBD, says Joseph Kalmenovitz, assistant professor of finance at the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.

Columbia Law School professor Reilly Steel suggests that David Ellison and Paramount Skydance are hoping that Trump will direct the Department of Justice to block the Netflix-WB merger. “It should be obvious by now that Trump does not care about traditional norms of presidential noninterference with individual enforcement decisions,” says Steel.

Apart from what the president might do to determine the outcome of the M&A fight, the Justice Department or other regulatory authorities could have a plausible case for blocking Netflix’s takeover of WB’s TV and film studios and HBO Max, given that it would reinforce the streamer’s dominance.

Paramount Skydance has claimed that Netflix and HBO Max together would hold an estimated 43% share of the global subscription streaming market, but it hasn’t provided sources for that estimate. (Netflix says the combined market share claim isn’t true — and that there isn’t any market share information available that would produce that estimate.) In any case, politicians on both sides of the aisle are wary of the power Netflix would amass by swallowing Warner Bros. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the proposed deal “an anti-monopoly nightmare.”

On Feb. 3, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery chief strategy officer Bruce Campbell are due to testify before a Senate antitrust hearing titled “Examining the Competitive Impact of the Proposed Netflix-Warner Brothers Transaction.” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, warned that there are “a lot of antitrust red flags here” and predicted in a tweet last month: “Buckle up for an intense antitrust hearing in the Senate.”

Makan Delrahim, Paramount’s chief legal officer, who headed the DOJ’s antitrust division during Trump’s first term, called Netflix “the new-age digital version” of Standard Oil given its movie-output deals with Sony and Universal (which would be augmented by WB’s sizable library). “How does that deal even make it out of the WBD or the Netflix Board room?” he asked rhetorically in a Jan. 18 LinkedIn post.


Amid the saber-rattling, Netflix and WBD say they’ve done the due diligence and are certain their pact will get the green light. In the end, David Ellison’s bet on Netflix-WB hitting a regulatory wall hinges on how broadly the combo’s competitive set is defined. And Netflix argues that it’s everything on TV — not just streaming.

Netflix’s share of TV viewing time remains less than 10% in all major markets. And it claims the addition of WB would still leave it trailing YouTube in the U.S. In a message seemingly aimed at the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission as much as its investors, the streamer said in its Q4 shareholder letter: “We relish competition and work to earn more of consumers’ attention.”

>>> US After Hours Summary: Many huge names report earnings -- IBM +7.4%, LRCX +

After Hours Summary: Many huge names report earnings -- IBM +7.4%, LRCX +7.2%, META +7.1%, TSLA +1.9% on upside; WHR -8.9%, MSFT -7%, NOW -4.4% on downside; rare earth stocks under pressure

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: DLX +10.9%, IBM +7.4%, HXL +7.3% (also increases dividend), CHRW +7.2%, LRCX +7.2%, META +7.1%, ETD +6.6%, LUV +5.8%, VIAV +5.5% (also restructuring plan, which includes a 5% workforce reduction), TTEK +5.1% (also increases dividend), ATGE +4.4%, LBRT +3.9%, FICO +3.6%, CNMD +2.6%, TSLA +1.9% (also to invest $2 bln to acquire preferred shares of xAI), NRIX +1.6%, SLG +1.4%, CP +1.3%, AXS +1.2%, BKD +0.7%, FIBK +0.6%,

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: MBIN +5.5% (authorizes new $100 mln share repurchase program), INMD +4.8% (SPLP makes bid to acquire 51% stake in INMD), TTMI +4% (supply agreement with RTX), QNCX +2.2% (presents safety data from long-term eDSP treatment), GOOGL +2% (moves to take control of dozens of web domains linked to Ipidea, according to WSJ), VZLA +1.9% (provides update on security incident), WYFI +1.7% (BTBT reaffirms its long-term investment in WYFI), AXL +1.6% (Millennium Mgmt increased passive stake to 6.2%), AMTX +1.6% (authorizes new $80 mln share repurchase program), CP +1.3% (names new Vice Chair), BTBT +0.9% (BTBT reaffirms its long-term investment in WYFI), HOOD +0.6% (wants a key role in SpaceX IPO, according to Bloomberg), AZN +0.2% (collaboration agreement with Univ of Virginia), SATS +0.2% (AMT provides update regarding its relationship with DISH Wireless), PBR +0.1% (increases proved reserves in 2025), IPAR +0.1% (signs license agreements with David Beckham and Nautica),

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: WHR -8.9%, LVS -8.1%, MSFT -7%, LC -6.7%, URI -5% (also new $5 bln share repurchase program; also increases dividend), CLS -4.8%, MTH -4.6%, MUR -4.6% (also increases dividend), NOW -4.4% (also expands relationship with Panasonic Avionics; also collaboration with Anthropic Claude), WM -2.9%, CALX -2.3% (also increases share repurchase authorization by $125 mln), CON -2.2%, SEIC -1%, PLXS -0.4%, HLI -0.3%, LEVI -0.1% (also to enter into $200 mln ASR),

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: INUV -25.4% (names new Chairman/CEO; provides guidance), LODE -11.9% (commences stock offering), JOBY -11.4% (proposed offerings of common stock and convertible notes; $1 bln in aggregate), USAR -11.4% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), UAMY -10.7% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), CRML -10.2% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), MP -9.9% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), TMC -7.7% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), TMQ -7% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), TONX -1.9% (leadership and governance actions), REMX -1.6% (rare earth stocks weak on report Trump admin stepping back from plans to guarantee a minimum price, according to Reuters), GOSS -1.2% (files mixed securities shelf offering), MSCI -0.9% (amends ETF agreement with BlackRock Fund Advisors), TEX -0.3% (TEX and REVG receive stockholder approval for merger), ARR -0.1% (amended sales agreement, increases shares that may be offered and sold by 15 mln),

The Information : Ex-OpenAI Researcher’s Startup Targets Up to $1 Billion in Fun

Ex-OpenAI Researcher’s Startup Targets Up to $1 Billion in Funding to Develop a New Type of AI

The Takeaway
  • Startup led by former top OpenAI researcher seeks up to $1 billion in funding
  • Core Automation plans new AI models with continual learning
  • Startup adds to number of neolabs seeking to overhaul core processes in AI development

The wave of so-called AI neolabs seeking breakthroughs they think incumbents like OpenAI will miss continues to rise.

Core Automation, an AI startup founded by former senior OpenAI researcher Jerry Tworek in recent weeks, aims to raise between $500 million and $1 billion in funding, according to a person who has spoken with the company.

He wants to develop AI models using methods that major firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic aren’t heavily focused on, according to materials shown to potential investors, and to create AI models that can learn on the fly from real-world experience, a capability known as continual learning, which today’s models cannot do, the person said.

The researcher’s plans for the new startup are early and his funding aims and product approach could change.

Tworek represents a small but growing group of AI researchers who believe the field needs an overhaul because today’s most popular model development techniques seem unlikely to be able to develop advanced AI that can achieve major breakthroughs in biology, medicine and other fields while also managing to avoid silly mistakes.

Tworek left OpenAI earlier this month to “try and explore types of research that are hard to do at OpenAI,” he wrote in a post on X. The materials shared with investors said Core Automation intends to use large neural networks, the brain-like math that underlies most frontier AI models. But the company will rethink most of how those models are developed, “up to and including gradient descent,” the standard method for training neural networks.

Tworek wants to develop models that require less data and fewer servers to train, the person said. It would do this by coming up with new model architectures beyond the transformer, which underlies today’s most popular models, according to the materials. Tworek also wants to merge the different steps of model training into a single process, this person said.

By pursuing continual learning, Core Automation seems to be taking a similar approach to Safe Superintelligence, another AI lab cofounded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Sutskever has similarly said that he wants to develop models that can learn from being deployed in the real world.

To be sure, major AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic are also interested in continual learning techniques. Some AI researchers believe they can tweak transformer-based AI models so they exhibit such learning attributes without a full-fledged overhaul of the model’s architecture.

Tworek’s ambitious fundraising goals highlight investors’ continued interest in backing neolabs, some of which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months, despite often lacking any revenue or a product.

These startups pursuing new approaches to AI include Humans&, which this month landed $480 million in seed funding at a $4.48 billion valuation from investors like SV Angel, Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, as well as Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, which recently was in talks to raise between $4 billion and $5 billion at a $50 billion-plus valuation. Thinking Machines Lab, however, last year released a product for customizing models and is generating some revenue.

Tworek, who joined OpenAI in 2019, envisions the startup’s research scientists working on a single model named Ceres, the name of a dwarf planet and Roman goddess, with a single algorithm. That’s a change from how bigger AI developers handle training, which usually takes place in stages: pre-training the model on broad swathes of the internet before mid-training and post-training on more curated data in fields like coding, medicine and math.

After developing the model—which Tworek aims to need 100 times less data than state-of-the-art models, the company will develop an AI agent to automate development of the company’s products. He envisions the company’s future product will first work on industrial automation, eventually building “self-replicating factories” and potentially building biomachines to automatically create custom designs—or even terraform planets, the materials said.

At OpenAI, Tworek was a vice president of research who led the company’s work with reinforcement learning, a popular model training technique that rewards a model for accomplishing certain goals and penalizes it for other behaviors. He also was a key contributor to the company’s reasoning models, coding tools and agents.

The Information : Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon in Talks to Invest Up to $60 Billion

Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon in Talks to Invest Up to $60 Billion in OpenAI

The Takeaway
  • Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft are in talks to invest up to $60 billion in OpenAI
  • Investment from Amazon could depend on separate cloud, ChatGPT deals
  • Funding would widen gap with rival Anthropic

OpenAI is lining up huge checks from some of its biggest tech partners, as it seeks to raise up to $100 billion to fund growing demand for its AI. Nvidia, an existing investor whose chips power OpenAI’s AI models, is in talks to invest up to $30 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Microsoft, a longstanding backer with exclusive rights to sell OpenAI models to cloud customers, is in talks to invest less than $10 billion. And Amazon, which would be a new investor, is also in talks to invest significantly more than $10 billion, potentially even more than $20 billion.

These investments would be in addition to existing investor SoftBank, which is also in talks to invest up to $30 billion, said two people with knowledge of the situation.

If this extraordinary funding round comes together, it would calm investors worried about the company’s cash burn. Public market investors have lately grown skeptical about OpenAI’s ability to fulfill its spending commitments to Oracle and Microsoft.

The new round could value the company at $730 billion before the financing.

The involvement by the tech giants would give OpenAI vastly more resources to pay to run and train its AI models as well as spend on other compute costs, which it estimated last summer could amount to more than$430 billion between 2026 and 2030, burning nearly $70 billion in the process. It would also significantly widen the funding gap with Anthropic, which has projected its revenue could surpass OpenAI’s in 2029.

It’s not clear which investor will pour the most money in OpenAI’s latest round.

OpenAI is close to receiving term sheets, or an investment commitment from these firms, according to the people. The round is not finalized and institutional investors besides SoftBank are also likely to eventually participate, said one of the people.

The amount that Amazon invests could depend on separate deals the two companies are negotiating, including potentially an expansion of OpenAI’s cloud server rental deal with Amazon, as well as a commercial deal for OpenAI to sell its products, such as enterprise ChatGPT subscriptions, to Amazon.

OpenAI in November said it would spend $38 billion renting servers from AWS over the next seven years, making AWS one of at least five cloud providers OpenAI uses to develop its AI.

Nvidia last fall committed to investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI, which would be spread over multiple years over tranches of $10 billion, as OpenAI deploys gigawatts of chips. However, that deal is still not finalized and would be separate from Nvidia’s discussions to invest in OpenAI’s current round, said one of the people.