Jensen Huang's SECOND Cheating Scandal & The Details About Anthropic's Mega-IPO

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering this week’s second Jensen Huang cheating scandal, Spain’s general strike, an interesting diplomatic win for Taiwan, a Ukraine-Russia deal, U.S. inflation numbers, Anthropic’s IPO, and the honorable death of a legendary ship.

“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” ― Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

The Black Leather Jacket Saga, Act II

If you think you’re having a bad week, just remember it could always be worse – you could be Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (although he is still worth a few billion dollars). Yesterday, the New York Times reported that Huang – who’s embroiled in a controversy regarding his extramarital relationship with an alleged Chinese intelligence asset – was also involved in a second extramarital relationship, this time with an executive at Nvidia.

The Times wrote that Huang and Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, were spotted by two employees being affectionate during a Nvidia conference in March of this year. The company’s code of conduct instructs employees to “avoid situations where our actions create conflict” including “personal relationships,” and Nvidia says it “promptly investigates reports of misconduct.” When (somehow) reached on the phone by a Times reporter, Huang replied “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly” before hanging up. 

After the news broke, the Wall Street Journal published a report claiming that the Nvidia’s board is preparing to remove Huang as CEO, though his fate is still undecided. Nvidia stock dove 8% during after hours trading on that news. That’s because the company has never had a CEO besides the man in the leather jacket, and it also operates under a uniquely flat management structure, with Huang directly managing at least 36 people. At time of writing, it’s unclear who might take his place at the helm or if he’s even going to lose his job. Either way, this whole drama should make for a great TV show in a few years.

A Strike In Espáña

Yesterday, Spanish workers participated in their country’s first general strike in 14 years. More than 4 million people – roughly a fifth of the country’s entire workforce – took part in the 24-hour work stoppage, with most of the participants coming from Spain’s coastal cities. The General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) – two of Spain’s biggest organized labor groups – both backed the joint action, which was also supported by multiple tenants’ unions.

The strike was a response to Spain’s growing cost of living crisis, and also served to demonstrate the power of Spanish workers as the country prepares for a snap parliamentary election scheduled for November 29. According to Reuters, Spain has a housing shortage of roughly 750,000 homes. That shortage has harmed both potential homebuyers as well as renters – according to the Youth Council of Spain, the nation’s average rent of €1,176 ($1,315) is equal to 98.7% of the average monthly income of young people across the country. It’s also roughly 50% of Spain’s average gross monthly income of €2,460 – housing experts have found that people should spend no more than 30% of their income on housing costs.

Nationwide, protests and marches in support of the strike remained largely peaceful. Demonstrations in Madrid and Barcelona drew 120,000 and 50,000 people respectively, with protestors stating that “there were a lot of children and old people there.” Just 73 people were arrested nationwide by 10 p.m. local time, and police reported a few incidents of property damage and clashes with protestors.

Taiwan’s Time To Shine

• Early this morning local time, Taiwan’s president announced that his country would be participating in the upcoming APEC summit in Shenzhen, China on an “equal basis” with other countries. That announcement is quite interesting given the fact that China has historically refused to participate in international bodies unless they accept Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over the island – that’s why Taiwan isn’t recognized as its own country by the U.N.

• “All members interact on an equal basis, and Taiwan is participating in this year's APEC meeting on ​that same principle,” Lai said, adding, “I want to thank the many like-minded countries that, during the preparations for ​the APEC meeting, have consistently emphasised the importance of Taiwan's participation in all meetings.” The president plans to send Stan Shih, the head of computer giant Acer, to the summit, as China still refuses to hold meetings with Taiwanese government officials. China’s foreign ministry responded by stating that Taiwan’s attendance at APEC is being handled “in accordance with the one-China principle and the rules and customs of relevant APEC memorandums of understanding … As long as these practices are followed, the Taiwan region's representatives can attend meetings as normal.” 

Warming Up Those Deal-Making Muscles

• Yesterday, Russia and Ukraine came to a rare compromise during yet another round of peace talks held in Abu Dhabi. Their negotiations didn't yield much in the way of an actual end to the war, but both sides agreed to a large-scale prisoner exchange (though further details still need to be worked out today. According to U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, the deal will bring about the “biggest humanitarian release of prisoners” since the war began, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed that the scope of the exchange would be “significant.”

• In order to get the deal done, Kushner is now headed to Moscow, where he hopes to get Putin’s approval for the swap. U.S. negotiators are also planning for a next round of peace talks, with plans to bring E.U. diplomats into the conversation. “We need to have the Europeans at the table,” Kushner told reporters. “We have relayed to President Putin directly several times and to his team that the only way to get this done is to have them by our side, and I think they are receptive to it.” The U.S. envoy will also push for E.U. involvement in future negotiations during his meeting with Putin.

Additional World News

• The Kremlin can hide the death toll. It can’t hide the graves. (Politico)

• Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital kills 6 people, health authorities say (AP) 

• Chinese university bought Nvidia H200 chips despite US blacklist (Reuters)

• Iran-backed trio accused of plotting attacks on U.K. base hosting U.S. jets (NPR)

• Ukraine's power supply close to critical as Russian strikes bring darkness and cold (BBC)

• World heading for ‘irrevocable overshoot’ of global temperature thresholds, analysis warns (Guardian)

A Spooky Rise In Prices

• On Tuesday, the Labor Department released its Consumer Price Index report for the month of October. According to the data, prices rose  0.4% across the board last month, marking the third straight month of inflation rising by 0.4% or more. That consistent inflation should prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner or more aggressively than previously expected, which will prompt mortgage, credit card interest, and auto loan rates to go up as well. 

• The surge in prices was largely caused by rising prices across the energy sector, which also began filtering down into the food sector. Gas prices rose 1% in October after spiking by 9.1% in September, while diesel prices rose 2.7% last month following an 11.9% leap the month prior. Meanwhile, food prices rose 0.5% after staying mostly flat since July, with beef rising 0.9% and eggs, produce, and dairy all jumping 0.6%. “This may finally be the beginning of a pass-through of higher transportation costs to grocery prices,” said one economist. “If this is indeed happening, it could be a feature across a broad ​array of goods categories.” Sounds like it’s time to start buying Christmas presents early!

Another Month, Another Mega-IPO

• Anthropic, the AI firm behind Claude, is preparing for its IPO later this month. The company is scheduled to begin selling its shares on the Nasdaq on November 19 under the ticker “ANT,” and is reportedly eyeing a valuation of about $1.33 trillion. 

• Roughly 825 million shares will be up for grabs when Anthropic goes public. Currently, each share is currently priced in the $70-$78 range, meaning the company is set to raise roughly $61 billion from public investors, though according to the Financial Times bankers are now targeting a higher price. The company is also reportedly planning to raise a separate $26 billion through investments from a wide range of private investors.

• At the moment, Anthropic's target price means that it won’t break the record set by SpaceX’s IPO earlier this year, despite buzz about the AI firm breaking $2 trillion earlier this year. Either way, the company’s executives are going to make out like bandits: CEO Dario Amodei, President Daniela Amodei (his sister), and five of the company’s co-founders are planning to sell off roughly $250 million worth of shares each on the IPO date – they’ll each still hold on to roughly $18 billion worth of stock, which should be enough to last their ancestors until society collapses due to AI or whatever.

Additional USA News

• More and more Hill Republicans are looking at Marco Rubio for 2028 (Politico)

• Sentinel at Tomb of Unknown Soldier yells at Hegseth group to maintain decorum (Hill)

• Brooklyn building collapse kills at least two people and traps others in wreckage (Guardian)

• White House confronts Democrats over planned probes, claiming possible 'criminality' (AP)

• Democrat Scott Colom to be first Black senator elected in Mississippi since 1874 after narrow win (Guardian) 

• Trump wants an immigration deal. He could start with caregivers. (Vox): “America will need hundreds of thousands more caregivers over the next decade. Some lawmakers think immigration reform could help solve the problem.”

When I Die Turn Me Into An Artificial Reef

• Yesterday, a legendary ship was sent to a watery grave – in the most respectful way possible. The S.S. United States, an ocean liner built in 1952, was deliberately sunk off the coast of Florida’s panhandle on Wednesday afternoon. The plan is for the ship to become the world’s largest artificial reef, providing a safe habitat for a wide variety of marine life.

• The S.S. United States embarked on her maiden voyage in July of 1952, setting a trans-Atlantic round trip speed record that stands until this day. The massive ship – roughly three football fields long – hosted stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, and Duke Ellington, and even ferried the Mona Lisa across the Atlantic when the painting was exhibited in the U.S. in 1963. Eventually, airplane travel made ocean liners like the S.S. United States obsolete, and it was retired to a port in Virginia in 1969.

• The ship has exchanged hands multiple times since then, as it’s very expensive to pay the dock fees for such a massive vessel. It was eventually purchased for $1 million by Okaloosa County, Florida, which is building an underwater park made up of sunken ships off its coastline in order to attract divers to local shores. The S.S. United States will serve as the crown jewel of Okaloosa County’s Large Area Artificial Reef Site, which also features a paddle wheel boat and a casino boat.

Additional Reads

• Doomscrolling? Try Brain Stacking Instead. (NYT, $) 

• A little-known law could upend the dairy industry (Vox)

• How to help someone whose thinking seems delusional (Psyche)

• I asked every TV manufacturer 17 questions about how they spy on you (Verge)

• ‘Flying cars’ could launch in China next summer, maker of two-seat model says (Guardian)

• Makers of GLP-1 drugs ordered to add warnings about rare eye condition that can lead to blindness (BBC)

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Someone called Jensen Huang a “multithreader” online and I thought that was really funny

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