FT : Is Anthropic losing its Oura? The AI lab’s IPO prospectus has leaked but it

Is Anthropic losing its Oura?
The AI lab’s IPO prospectus has leaked but it faces a narrowing window to list before the end of the year

The IPO ‘risk factor’ keeping bankers up at night
Wall Street is watching closely as a possible fourth-quarter fee bonanza comes down to the wire. Reporters obtained the details of Anthropic’s IPO prospectus earlier this week but the AI lab still hasn’t officially released the document, even as it’s reportedly aiming for a November listing. 

On Tuesday yet another tech group, the smart ring-maker Oura, postponed its own planned listing, blaming “uncertainty in the IPO market”. In recent weeks SoftBank’s US data centre developer SB Energy, the nuclear energy group Holtec International, which hopes to supply power to AI data centres, and OpenAI have all delayed their own IPO plans.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley leaders and politicians are being forced to respond to growing anxiety over AI algorithms and data centres. 

Donald Trump, who has called AI safety concerns a “hoax” and a “sick conspiracy”, hosted tech bosses including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei at the White House on Tuesday to discuss AI risks. (Trump endorsed “tremendous self-regulation” of the sector after Tuesday’s lunch.) Democrats are capitalising on voter anxiety about AI and data centres as they campaign to win back Congress in the midterm elections.

For now Anthropic’s investors are confident the group can list at a valuation of more than $2tn. According to the AI start-up’s S-1 filing, the group said it planned to spend $518bn on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in the coming years to support its rapid growth.

Anthropic’s prospectus also revealed details of its prior financial performance and governance arrangements, which were first reported by Reuters and confirmed to the FT by multiple people who have seen the filing. 

Last year the company recorded an operating loss of more than $8bn as its revenue jumped 12-fold to almost $4.6bn and mounting costs for computing resources to train and run its models pushed operating expenses to almost $13bn.

This year Anthropic’s spending and revenue have both increased sharply. Revenue in the second quarter of this year was $11.5bn, and it’s on course for its second consecutive quarter of operating profit, albeit on a heavily adjusted basis.

But even more notable than the group’s heavy spending is its rather unconventional “risk factors” section, which takes up nearly a third of the filing. 

Anthropic details risks including the potential of increasingly advanced AI models to manipulate, blackmail and exhibit other unpredictable behaviours. It also warns that its technology may pose “existential risks to humanity”.

DD can’t predict whether AI will wipe out the human race. But we can warn with some certainty that if Anthropic and OpenAI don’t go public soon, it sure is going to feel like the end of the world for bankers, tech funds and private capital giants.

>>> US After Hours Summary: CNXC -9.6% lower on earnings After Hours Gainers: C

After Hours Summary: CNXC -9.6% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news:DYN +4.9% (Reported 12-month ACHIEVE data showing z-basivarsen improved multiple DM1 functional measures versus baseline, placebo and natural-history controls.), AMP +2.5% (Authorizes an additional $5.5 billion share repurchase program through September 2028.), BA +2.4% (Wins U.S. Navy contract worth over $20 billion for the F/A-XX program.), ELME +2.3% (Completed final property sales and declared a $1.74-per-share liquidating distribution after receiving $103.2 million in net proceeds.), PAA +1.7% (Appointed Dean Liollio chief operating officer effective October 2, replacing resigning executive Chris Chandler.), TLN +1.3% (Launches $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase and expands total buyback authorization to $3 billion through 2028.), BTDR +1.3% (Secured off-take commitments for over 70% of a 21.7MW Malaysia AI site, representing $1.7 billion over five years.)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance:CNXC -9.6%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news:MSOS -6.9% (DEA judge pauses marijuana rescheduling hearing.), PYXS -5.5% (Launched a public offering of stock or pre-funded warrants paired with common warrants; size and terms were undisclosed.), LRMR -1.3% (Appointed former Esperion CCO John Harlow president and COO, with inducement awards covering 850,000 shares.)

FT : Sheikh Mansour visits Riyadh in push to mend UAE-Saudi Arabia rift Meeting

Sheikh Mansour visits Riyadh in push to mend UAE-Saudi Arabia rift
Meeting is first since long-simmering tensions erupted into the open over Yemen in January

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates travelled to Riyadh for talks with Saudi Arabia in a sign that the Gulf powerhouses are seeking to ease a rift that has rippled across the Middle East and complicated efforts to resolve the region’s crises.

The meeting between Sheikh Mansour, the UAE’s vice-president, and Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman marked the first public visit to the kingdom by a senior Emirati official since a long-simmering dispute between the traditional allies erupted into the open in January.

It comes as Riyadh faces a fresh crisis after Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen reignited a more than decade-long war with Saudi Arabia, declaring a blockade on its ports, attacking tankers and firing barrages of missiles and drones at oil facilities and other infrastructure in the kingdom.

The rebels have also launched an offensive against Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, advancing southwards along the Red Sea coast and tightening their grip on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

“There is a realisation that the Saudi-Emirati rift has to be sorted out,” said Nadim Koteich, an Abu Dhabi-based media executive and policy adviser. “If the pre-existing context is that both countries are on a collision course, other states in the region will pick sides and it will complicate every single crisis, from Yemen to Sudan to Syria, Iran and Lebanon.”

The UAE was Saudi Arabia’s main military partner when Riyadh led an Arab coalition that intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to fight the Houthis and support the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

But differences over Yemen burst into the open at the end of last year when Saudi Arabia accused the UAE of backing an advance by a Yemeni secessionist faction in provinces bordering the kingdom, which Riyadh said threatened its national security.

Saudi forces then bombed a shipment of weaponry and vehicles that it said Abu Dhabi had sent to the faction, the Southern Transitional Council. Within days, the UAE pulled its remaining troops out of the country.

The rift over Yemen and other regional issues, including the civil war in Sudan and Syria, triggered the biggest rupture in years between the neighbours and undermined efforts for Arab states to put on a united front as the US-Israeli war against Iran plunged the region into crisis.

It also sparked concerns among businesses that it would spill over into trade ties between the Arab world’s two largest economies, with some companies complaining of problems receiving payments from Saudi banks to Emirati banks.

The UAE withdrew in April from Opec, of which Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader, saying the decision was based on energy policy. But analysts viewed the move as a further sign of the deepening dispute.

The renewed Houthi offensive appears to have injected momentum into efforts to repair the rift as Saudi Arabia seeks support from its allies to bolster its air defences and manage the maritime threat posed by the rebels.

Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator familiar with Riyadh’s thinking, said Prince Khalid’s invitation to Sheikh Mansour was “a big gesture and it shows there’s more co-ordination, particularly on Yemen”.

“I don’t think they [the UAE] will come back into the war, but Riyadh wants them to manage the southern factions so they don’t undermine the anti-Houthi front,” Shihabi said.

Prince Khalid is the brother of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Sheikh Mansour is a brother of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE president.

The UAE was a notable absentee when Saudi Arabia announced in August that 13 regional countries had agreed to take part in a maritime task force to protect shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb.

Koteich said Yemen was “too strategic to be left alone to fall apart again”, but added that the Emiratis would not “rush back in”.

“A clear agenda is needed . . . but this is a great step in the right direction,” he said.

WSJ : Nike Overhauls Its China Strategy to Halt Discounting and Rebuild Premium

Nike Overhauls Its China Strategy to Halt Discounting and Rebuild Premium Cachet
Plus, Meta expands beyond its core ad business with a dedicated push to sell the buzzy Muse agent and other AI tools to the enterprise market

Nike is overhauling its approach to its second-largest market, moving to reclaim its premium status by cutting off most third-party online vendors in China, Jon Emont writes in The Wall Street Journal.

Cathy Sparks, a Nike lifer who assumed her post this spring, says third-party vendors like Topsports have created a fragmented online sales experience marked by heavy discounting.

But it’s a risky decision. A large share of Nike sales in China—estimated in the high teens—come from online third-party wholesalers.

To reinvigorate demand among consumers who have defected to nimble local competitors, Sparks is touring cities to study fitness trends and dramatically expanding Nike’s local product-creation team.

“We’re going to test and learn,” Sparks said. Understanding the Chinese consumer “will get us to the right formula.”

I asked Jon for more on this key piece of Nike’s turnaround effort.

In the U.S., Nike eventually decided it had gone too far in restricting third-party retail, giving up ground to competitors in the process. Why might the situation be different in China?

In China, the company’s restrictions are limited to online retailers, so they’re still working with third parties at bricks-and-mortar stores. But of course the strategy carries the risks you allude to—that its retail partners will simply sell Adidas shoes on their online storefronts rather than Nike’s, and this will hit sales. The question is whether a decline in overall sales is worth swallowing if it means selling a higher share of goods at full price.

You report that Sparks has appointed the company’s first head of local product-creation for China at the VP level, reporting to her, and that the local product-creation team is doubling in size. What’s their plan to recapture the resonance that Nike once had?

Jon: Chinese consumers often call out foreign brands that they feel lazily pander to Chinese tastes—like adding a dragon design and calling it a “Year of the Dragon” shoe. Nike believes it must commit to localized product development if it’s going to capture the attention of young Chinese people who don’t know who Michael Jordan is.

The plan is to rev up the engine of locally designed products, including by paying homage to traditional Chinese design motifs—something that rivals like Adidas have done very successfully in China. Nike is known to have a very centralized system of product development, so it will be interesting to watch whether Sparks’s China team is able to churn out hits.

WSJ : Piper Sandler Holds Talks to Buy Perella Weinberg Deal would join two Wall

Piper Sandler Holds Talks to Buy Perella Weinberg
Deal would join two Wall Street advisory firms

  • Investment bank Piper Sandler has been in talks to combine with advisory firm Perella Weinberg Partners.
  • Piper Sandler has a market value of around $5 billion, while Perella Weinberg has a market value of around $1.4 billion.
  • Perella Weinberg’s overall revenue dropped from a record $878 million in 2024 to around $750 million in 2025.

Investment bank Piper Sandler PIPR -4.62%decrease; red down pointing triangle has been in talks to combine with advisory firm Perella Weinberg Partners PWP 12.98%increase; green up pointing triangle, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would join two Wall Street firms known for their dealmaking.

Piper Sandler, which has a market value of around $5 billion, could finalize a deal for Perella Weinberg, which has a market value of around $1.4 billion, soon, the people said. Nothing is finalized and the discussions could still fall apart, the people cautioned.

Piper Sandler was formed through the 2020 merger of Piper Jaffray and Sandler O’Neill & Partners, two investment banks known for advising smaller and midsize companies on deals. The firm is led by Chief Executive Chad Abraham and reported roughly $1.9 billion in revenue last year.

Perella Weinberg was founded in 2006 by Wall Street veterans Joseph Perella, Peter Weinberg and Terry Meguid. It went public in 2021 via a blank-check firm when such vehicles were all the rage. Weinberg stepped down as CEO in January 2023 and was replaced by Andrew Bednar.

The firm landed key roles advising on deals including BlackRock’s acquisitions of Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners, deals worth $12.5 billion and $12 billion, respectively. But its shares and shares in other boutique investment banks have been under pressure in recent months. Perella Weinberg’s overall revenue dropped from a record $878 million in 2024 to around $750 million in 2025, while peers reported higher revenue.

In its most recent quarter, Perella Weinberg’s revenues rose 1% from a year earlier. U.S. M&A volumes are up 33% so far in 2026 compared with 2025, according to Dealogic.

Perella Weinberg did a series of its own deals over the years. Earlier this year, it struck a deal for the U.K.-based advisory firm Gleacher Shacklock, and last year it agreed to acquire secondary advisory firm Devon Park Advisors. The bank previously bought the energy-focused boutique bank Tudor Pickering Holt in 2016.

FT : M&S strikes beauty deal with LVMH’s Sephora Cosmetics chain to begin openin

M&S strikes beauty deal with LVMH’s Sephora
Cosmetics chain to begin opening concessions in 100 Marks and Spencer stores next spring

Marks and Spencer has struck a deal with LVMH-owned Sephora to open beauty concessions in 100 of its stores as the UK retailer moves to take on rivals John Lewis and Boots in beauty.

The FTSE 100 retailer, which is pressing ahead with a turnaround after a costly cyber attack, said on Tuesday that a selection of Sephora products would be available in stores and online from spring next year. 

The tie-up with Sephora could help M&S attract younger consumers to its stores, adding to the success it has had in revitalising its clothing ranges.

John Lyttle, managing director of fashion, home and beauty at M&S, said the Sephora tie-up was “the next step” in its transformation and that “beauty is an important category for M&S”.

Sephora, a beauty giant operating more than 3,000 stores globally, returned to the UK to great fanfare in 2022 almost two decades after it retreated in the face of tough competition. Since then, it has opened 17 shops across the country.

Catherine Spindler, president of Europe and the Middle East at Sephora, said the tie-up with M&S is “a retail model that complements our existing formats and allows us to build on the strength of the Sephora brand in the UK”.

The companies said they would confirm which brands will be in M&S stores and online closer to the launch.

M&S is following other high street chains by investing in its beauty business as it seeks to further tap into one of the more durable corners of consumer spending.

John Lewis began revamping its beauty halls last year, while an improvement in performance at the chemist chain Boots has been driven by investments in beauty halls in recent years.

The UK beauty market is worth £5.2bn, with sales increasing 1.2 per cent year-on-year in the 52 weeks to July 19 2026, according to WorldPanel by Numerator. The research group calculates M&S’s share of the beauty market at 1.3 per cent.

M&S said in May that it expected to return to earnings growth this year after last year’s cyber attack led to it reporting a 24 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to £671.4mn.

FT : Apollo and Oaktree sue Patrick Drahi over US telco restructuring Bondholder

Apollo and Oaktree sue Patrick Drahi over US telco restructuring
Bondholders argue that restructuring at Optimum Communications was ‘brazen’ move


Creditors including Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital have sued Patrick Drahi over a debt restructuring at his US telco, arguing that the French billionaire is “personally liable” for a “brazen” plan to move the company’s most valuable cable television assets away from the reach of bondholders.  

The lawsuit from a group of bondholders is the latest salvo in a battle between Drahi and some of the biggest credit funds in the world, with both sides jockeying for control of a company that has pay-TV operations across the US.

Optimum Communications, the former Altice USA, struggled for years with debts of more than $20bn, including $6bn of bonds coming due in 2027.

“The Company is hopelessly insolvent and has been for some time — a direct and inevitable result of Drahi’s infamous business strategy, the ‘Altice Way’,” wrote the bondholders in a complaint filed in a New York State court late on Monday.

Optimum announced in June that it had moved its Cablevision business, representing millions of lucrative pay-TV customers in the New York City region, into a so-called “unrestricted holdco”, on which creditors did not have a claim.

That new entity raised $3bn of senior debt from JPMorgan Chase and $300mn of junior preferred equity from investors outside the existing Optimum creditor group. Optimum said at the time that it hoped that the restructuring would prompt settlement talks with creditors who face taking steep discounts on the face value of their debt.

The battle over Optimum is being closely watched on Wall Street because of its size and the personalities involved but also for potential precedents that could influence future fights over distressed debts.

Altice has separately sued the bondholder group for forming what it said was an “illegal cartel” over a pact among the creditors to only negotiate a restructuring with Optimum as a unified bloc. The bondholders have denied those claims and have sought to dismiss the lawsuit.

As asset owners, groups such as Apollo and Oaktree have also historically made restructuring moves similar to the ones deployed by Drahi. In the Optimum case, the creditors have argued in court filings that creditor-on-creditor violence had harmed US capital markets and should be discouraged.

The complexities of large banking groups have also been exposed in the case. JPMorgan’s asset management group is a bondholder and a plaintiff in Monday’s lawsuit, while JPMorgan’s commercial bank has been a lender to Optimum in the new “unrestricted holdco” restructuring that is being challenged by creditors.

Optimum said the bondholders’ allegations were “without merit”.

“The actions the company has taken to protect and maximise stakeholder value were conducted in full compliance with its existing debt agreements and applicable law,” it added.

JPMorgan and Drahi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters : SpaceX's Starship engine failure could impact NASA's moon mission obje

SpaceX's Starship engine failure could impact NASA's moon mission objectives

  • SpaceX designing lunar landing craft based on Starship
  • Starship competing with Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander
  • Raptor engine flaw may pose setback in NASA's Artemis program

LOS ANGELES, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The Starship engine failure that nearly foiled the orbital debut of SpaceX's next-generation spacecraft on its 14th uncrewed test flight may complicate NASA's ability to meet ​its time frame for astronaut missions to the moon.

Starship, designed in part to carry large payloads to space, is one of two vehicles vying to ‌become the first craft that NASA will use as early as 2028 to land humans on the moon and bring them safely home, a feat last achieved in 1972 at the end of the Apollo era.

While Starship accomplished a number of key objectives in its latest test launch from Texas on Monday, the mission was cut short by several hours after a malfunction of its propulsion system.

Despite the unexpected shutdown of one ​of its three main Raptor engines following Starship separation from its lower-stage booster rocket, flight controllers proceeded with sending the spacecraft to orbit for its first-ever commercial ​satellite deployment.

Determining what caused the engine glitch remains critical to SpaceX's bottom line. But the stakes are potentially higher for NASA, as a ⁠Starship moon-landing vehicle would rely on the same engine system for transporting astronauts through space to and from the lunar surface.

How big a blow to Starship's development progress the engine ​snafu becomes depends on whether it turns out to be "a one-off failure of a single part" or points to a larger design problem that requires upgrades "across the fleet," said Dean Sladen, ​an aerospace engineer for Accu Components.

"Any engine fix that holds up the next flights, including the planned attempt to catch the ship with the launch tower's arms (after re-entry), eats into that schedule," he said.

NASA and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

'THE REAL PRESSURE IS THE MOON'
A longer delay would pose not only a greater setback to SpaceX's commercial ambitions to rapidly expand its Starlink broadband satellite ​network, but its pivotal role in NASA's Artemis moon program.

"The real pressure is the moon. NASA needs Starship for Artemis III," an Earth-orbit test mission targeted as soon as next ​summer as a rehearsal flight for the program's actual first crewed lunar landing, Sladen said.

Raptor engine and propulsion-system issues have contributed to several previous Starship setbacks, including an engine that failed to ignite as ‌planned during ⁠Starship's 12th flight in May. The methane-fueled engines are among the most complex and expensive components on the rocket.

During some previous flights, SpaceX scrubbed plans to test-ignite the Raptor engine in space. But all of the engines successfully fired during ascent on Starship's 13th flight in July.

SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab, the newly public venture founded by Elon Musk near Los Angeles in 2002, is competing with Blue Origin, the rival rocket company from fellow entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, to usher in an era of lunar exploration under NASA's Artemis program.

While SpaceX was originally contracted to provide the first ​crewed lunar lander for Artemis, the head ​of the US space agency, Jared Isaacman, ⁠said in April that NASA would go with whichever lander was ready to fly first. NASA saw the added competition as healthy for progress in light of mounting delays in Starship's test flight program.

NASA officially aims to return astronauts to the moon's surface by 2028 - a ​target widely seen as overly ambitious - to get there ahead of China, which plans a crewed lunar landing by 2030.

A functioning lunar ​landing craft also will ⁠be needed for the precursor Artemis III mission, as early as summer 2027, to test rendezvous and docking maneuvers in low Earth orbit.

SpaceX is developing a Human Landing System based on its Starship vessel, a towering stainless-steel vehicle far larger than any moon lander built before. Blue Origin is building its own Blue Moon lander, relying on a more traditional design philosophy.

If ready, both landers ⁠are likely to ​participate in the Artemis III mission, demonstrating orbital maneuvers using their in-space engines.

Isaacman went public with the competing ​lander strategy days after completion of NASA's Artemis II mission sending astronauts around the moon and back in what was the first crewed launch of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab and Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), opens new tab, and the ​Orion capsule, made by Lockheed Martin