In today’s briefing:
- OV #37 – From Chips to Ships: Markets Rattle as Trade War Escalates
- Ford’s Worst Nightmare: Novelis Plant Fire Sparks Massive Production Fears!
- GitLab Acquisition Hints Resurface— Alphabet-Backed DevOps Firm Could Be Up For Sale!
- Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)’s $2 Billion Bet On Polymarket: Is Wall Street Ready For The Prediction Market Revolution!
- Itron’s $325 Million Urbint Deal Could Reshape The Grid Forever—A Battle For Utility Supremacy!
- NVIDIA’s Web Of AI Deals Is Fueling The Boom—And A Potential Collapse?
- AMD’s OpenAI Alliance—Is This The Biggest Threat NVIDIA Will Face?
- Qualcomm Just Bought Arduino—Here’s Why It Could Be A $1 Trillion Play!
OV #37 – From Chips to Ships: Markets Rattle as Trade War Escalates
- A review of recent events/data impacting our investment themes and outlook
- Negotiations between the US and China are not going well, to say the least!
- We review the short-term outlook for some of the sectors we focus on.
Ford’s Worst Nightmare: Novelis Plant Fire Sparks Massive Production Fears!
- A recent fire at Novelis’ Oswego, New York, aluminum rolling mill has sent shockwaves through the U.S. auto manufacturing sector, with Ford Motor Co. standing out as one of the most directly affected.
- Novelis, the largest supplier of aluminum sheet to the U.S. auto industry, experienced a substantial disruption that forced the plant to temporarily halt production.
- Ford, which sources aluminum from this plant for several of its core vehicles, including the high-volume F-Series pickup trucks, is facing heightened supply chain risk as a result.
GitLab Acquisition Hints Resurface— Alphabet-Backed DevOps Firm Could Be Up For Sale!
- GitLab has reentered the takeover rumor mill after a noticeable dip in its share price, reigniting chatter across trading floors and financial media alike.
- The latest speculation was stirred by a Betavile “uncooked” alert circulated on October 7, 2025, hinting that the DevSecOps platform may once again be attracting acquisition interest.
- This follows a July 2024 report that GitLab was exploring a potential sale after drawing interest from industry players including cloud monitoring giant Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG).
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)’s $2 Billion Bet On Polymarket: Is Wall Street Ready For The Prediction Market Revolution!
- Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has confirmed a $2 billion investment in Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction platform that lets users speculate on outcomes across politics, sports, finance, and pop culture.
- The investment, announced on October 7, 2025, values Polymarket at approximately $8 billion pre-investment and marks a decisive move by ICE into decentralized finance (DeFi).
- ICE will fund the deal entirely in cash, with no expected material impact on its 2025 earnings or capital return plans.
Itron’s $325 Million Urbint Deal Could Reshape The Grid Forever—A Battle For Utility Supremacy!
- Itron has struck headlines once again, this time by signing a definitive agreement to acquire Urbint for approximately $325 million, to be funded from cash on hand.
- The closing is expected in Q4 2025.
- This move follows a strong Q2 2025 delivered by Itron—with revenue of $607 million, record margins, and free cash flow of $91 million—though the company modestly trimmed its full year revenue midpoint while raising its EPS outlook.
NVIDIA’s Web Of AI Deals Is Fueling The Boom—And A Potential Collapse?
- Two weeks ago, Nvidia announced a potential $100 billion investment in OpenAI to fund one of the largest data center buildouts in tech history, a move immediately questioned for its circular structure.
- Just days later, OpenAI inked a similarly structured deal with AMD, pledging tens of billions for chip purchases while simultaneously becoming one of AMD’s largest shareholders.
- These deals, while bold and futuristic, have sparked concern that the AI sector’s rapid trillion-dollar expansion is not entirely organic but propped up by a dense web of interlinked investments between a handful of players.
AMD’s OpenAI Alliance—Is This The Biggest Threat NVIDIA Will Face?
- In recent weeks, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has intensified its AI ambitions through a deepening strategic partnership with OpenAI, solidifying its presence in a highly competitive and capital-intensive space.
- AMD has begun supplying its MI300 and MI350 series accelerators to OpenAI, which has emerged as one of the largest and most influential customers of AMD’s Instinct GPU platform.
- The collaboration isn’t limited to hardware—OpenAI is actively assisting AMD in optimizing its ROCm software stack, significantly narrowing the gap with Nvidia’s CUDA.
Qualcomm Just Bought Arduino—Here’s Why It Could Be A $1 Trillion Play!
- Qualcomm has made headlines once again with its latest strategic move: the acquisition of Arduino, the opensource hardware pioneer boasting a 33 million-strong developer base.
- While financial terms remain undisclosed, the implications of this deal are significant.
- The acquisition aligns with Qualcomm’s push into automation, robotics, and the broader AI-enabled device ecosystem.
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