SpaceX (SPCX.US) and NVIDIA (NVDA.US) jointly validated that AI has entered the era of Super Intelligence (SI), CLSA said in a research report, reiterating its Outperform rating on SpaceX with a target price of USD250.

The broker said discussions between Elon Musk and Jensen Huang at activities related to the US government were highly consistent with its initiation report on SpaceX and its 2024 views on the nuclear power industry.

Musk mentioned that China's power generation output is about three times that of the US, and stressed the need to ensure that the US has sufficient manufacturing capacity for logic and memory chips.

CLSA described SpaceX as the world's most technologically advanced enterprise group, possessing leading capabilities and market share across various sectors.
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This article was automatically translated by AI, the Chinese version should be considered the authoritative version. AASTOCKS.com Limited does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness and accepts no liability for any damages or losses arising from the use of this translation.

The impact of AI open-source weight models on frontier model revenue has passed a local peak, as the capability gap has widened again and usage economics are increasingly favoring the model portfolios of frontier laboratories, Citi said in a research report. Although open-source models once markedly narrowed the gap with proprietary frontier models, much of the narrowing occurred when regulatory concerns constrained the release of advanced models, while open-source developers benefited from distillation and advanced overseas computing power. As mentioned by Poolside Co-CEO Jason Warner, in the long run, the value of open-source models lies more in the control brought by customization, deployment flexibility and intellectual property protection than in pure cost advantages.

Citi cited the latest weekly data that the highest Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index score for proprietary models rose from 53 to 58, while the highest score for open-source models increased from 44 to 46, widening the gap from 9 points to 12 points. Public benchmarks may still overestimate the degree of parity between the two, while private evaluations show that leading open-source systems lag further behind in long-horizon cybersecurity tasks and production reliability. Anthropic's Opus 5.5 improved the AA intelligence frontier by 9%, while reducing costs by 40% versus Opus 5 under typical workloads. Subsequently released Grok and Gemini models also improved intelligence while maintaining broadly stable token pricing, highlighting ongoing improvements in model efficiency.

The broker expected enterprises to adopt hybrid model portfolios as a de-risking mechanism, while AI laboratories are likely to increasingly embed routing, orchestration, governance and security capabilities into the model layer, making users specify individual models only in rare or highly specific scenarios. Differences in token efficiency and accuracy imply that workload-based routing is often more economical than uniformly adopting either open-source or closed deployments. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) acquired Hugging Face for USD12.9 billion and reached a USD6 billion licensing agreement with Poolside, enabling it to strengthen its open-source weight strategy spanning hardware, inference software, CUDA and Nemotron through model discovery, collaboration, deployment platforms and open-source weight development capabilities, making it one of the major beneficiaries of improvements and adoption in the open-source ecosystem.
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OpenAI said it dismissed three researchers for allegedly improperly handling "sensitive information" and violating company policies. The incident also involved an external individual responsible for evaluating AI models.

At least two of the dismissed employees were reportedly engaged in AI Safety and Alignment research, which refers to ensuring that AI behavior and objectives remain aligned with human values, intentions and ethical standards.

The dismissals come amid intense public debate over AI safety issues and whether related technologies could pose an existential threat to humanity.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the three dismissed researchers were Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni. They were accused of disclosing confidential company information to a third-party AI safety organization, while also frequently posting about AI safety topics on the X platform in recent months.
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During IF26, investor interest in the global humanoid robotics industry remained strong, but discussions have clearly shifted from understanding the technology/industry to evaluating commercialization, value capture and investment opportunities, CLSA said in a research report. The broker maintained a highly constructive view on the long-term prospects of the humanoid robotics industry.

Investors are increasingly focused on identifying potential winners, assessing supply chain beneficiaries, and monitoring key catalysts such as the roadmap for Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) Optimus Gen3 and the industry's move toward mass production. Discussions are also placing greater emphasis on the commercialization timelines, production capacity ramp-up, and real-world deployment cases of leading US and Chinese developers, rather than debating whether the technology itself is feasible.

The broker said market expectations for catalysts are broadly in line with its views, including the listing of YUSHU TECHNOLOGY (688836.SH), the Tesla's Optimus Gen3 roadmap, and future funding rounds for leading private developers. More importantly, the transition from pilot deployments to mass production over the next 3-18 months may be the most important catalyst for boosting market confidence in commercialization.
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Chinese automakers are ambitiously expanding exports amid meager domestic sales and competition from more than 100 domestic rivals, CLSA said in a research report. At the CITIC investor forum, CLSA met with investors and mainly discussed how Japanese automakers can respond to Chinese competition outside China, the acceptance of Chinese imported vehicles across different countries, and how automakers operate under low-growth industry conditions and geopolitical pressure.

The broker noted that markets most vulnerable to penetration by Chinese automakers are countries without domestic automobile industries, such as Australia and Singapore, where Chinese automakers already have relatively high market share. This is followed by markets with domestic automobile industries, such as the US, the European Union and India, which have established high tariff barriers, while the EU Industrial Acceleration Act also poses risks.

CLSA's top picks in the global auto sector are Nissan Motor (7201.JP), Suzuki (7269.JP) and General Motors Company (GM.US). Nissan was rated High Conviction Outperform with a TP of JPY600, supported by cost reductions, attractive hybrid model launches and higher utilization at US plants. Suzuki was rated Outperform with a TP of JPY2,300, as the broker believed high growth in its India business could drive earnings above expectations.

General Motors Company (GM.US) was rated Outperform with a TP of USD105, with nearshoring production and new growth businesses expected to support re-rating. The broker rated Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) Underperform with a TP of USD320, while Toyota (7203.JP) was rated Outperform with a TP of JPY3,700.
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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD.US) CEO Lisa Su is expected to visit South Korea next month to meet with executives of South Korean semiconductor companies and government officials, South Korean media reported.

This will mark Lisa Su's second visit to S Korea in about seven months following her trip in March this year. She is considering attending a conference in Seoul on October 8, where participants are expected to include CEOs of major South Korean AI semiconductor companies.

She may also meet with South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon during the event.

The report added that Su is also arranging meetings with executives of major South Korean companies, including Samsung Electronics.
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Meta Platforms, Inc. (META.US) announced the establishment of Meta Enterprise Platform, a new business unit focused on bringing the company's AI capabilities to enterprise clients and developers, BofA Securities said in a report. CEO Mark Zuckerberg described this as the next major pillar of Meta's business. The broker maintained its Buy rating and USD810 TP on Meta.

The broker noted that the initial products include Muse agent, Meta Business Agent, Muse API and Muse Code. The company also hired MongoDB CEO Chirantan CJ Desai as Chief Enterprise Platform Officer, and the broker expects him to focus on driving product sales.

The new platform is not entirely unexpected, said the broker. Meta's launch of enterprise AI solutions could generate more sustainable monetization revenue that is less affected by macro conditions. The enterprise AI solutions market is expected to exceed USD1 trillion by 2028, while Meta's consumer data and communication applications may help it sell AI products to consumer-oriented enterprises.
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Counterpoint Research estimated Apple (AAPL.US) iPhone Duo sales to reach around 6 million units this year, close to the level of the niche foldable smartphone market in general. Final sales will hinge on Apple's progress in ramping up production capacity.

Market research firm IDC estimated that after the launch of the iPhone Duo, overall foldable smartphone shipments this year will hike 13% YoY to 22.9 million units.

Counterpoint said Apple's iPhone 18 Pro series launched this month manifested a strong start in the China market, with sales hiking 12% compared with the initial sales of the iPhone 17 Pro series.
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NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) entered talks with insurers to discuss sharing the risks of loans backed by its chips as collateral, Financial Times, citing sources, reported. Nvidia proposed various structural arrangements to insurers to transfer part of the risk of capital-intensive semiconductor financing to insurers and other investors.

One of the proposed structures would provide insurance for loans extended to emerging cloud computing companies, sources divulged. If these companies default and the resale value of NVIDIA chips pledged as collateral is insufficient to repay lenders, the insurance would provide compensation.

Nvidia's approach shows the company is leveraging Wall Street, private capital and the insurance industry to explore different financing structures to help broaden the customer base purchasing its chips.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously said chips should be viewed as an "investable asset class" similar to other expensive and durable technology equipment such as aircraft, which support sophisticated financial structures that transfer risks and costs between users and investors.
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Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) has gained broader market recognition for its cloud and software businesses, potentially driving its share price toward its best quarterly performance in nearly three decades.

Microsoft shares have leaped 36.4% so far in the third quarter, on track for their strongest quarterly performance since a 38.5% gain in 1Q98. According to market data, the stock had slipped 23.5% in 1Q26, marking its worst quarterly decline since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

StoneX analyst Yi Fu Lee said the market has recently shown greater recognition of the value of Microsoft's diversified businesses, while the company has also benefited from capital flows seeking high-quality assets. Investors seeking artificial intelligence investment opportunities are increasingly viewing Microsoft as one of the highest-quality platforms in the technology sector.
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