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Court filings reveal that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used ChatGPT to screen federal humanities grants for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content. The chatbot flagged a museum’s $349,000 HVAC grant as DEI.
The screening is detailed in a lawsuit accusing DOGE of violating First Amendment and equal-protection rights through cuts to National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants.
DOGE’s Money Saving Mandate
DOGE launched as a White House advisory group, not a formal agency, on Trump’s first day in office. Musk served as its de facto leader until leaving in May 2025.
As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025
By November 2025, DOGE had stopped operating as a centralized entity, according to Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor.
How the ChatGPT Screening Worked
According to a spreadsheet entered as evidence, DOGE staffers Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh prompted ChatGPT to judge whether NEH proposals related to DEI. They then acted on its answers.
The High Point Museum in North Carolina sought funds to replace an aging system that preserves its collections. ChatGPT said the upgrade would help more visitors and tagged the proposal DEI.
DOGE cancelled the grant. However, the museum’s director, Edith Brady, told Fortune it recovered about 70% of the award through a termination clause.
DOGE flagged only two of the 11 HVAC-related proposals it reviewed as DEI. The other came from Vermont’s Shelburne Museum, seeking help with climate-related building risks. ChatGPT tagged it for addressing environmental sustainability in heritage preservation.
Letting AI Do The Work
The pattern was not isolated. DOGE reviewed 1,163 NEH grant proposals through ChatGPT, flagging 1,057 and keeping just 42. The cuts erased roughly half the agency’s annual budget.
Meanwhile, acting NEH chairman Michael McDonald said that many targeted projects were harmless in terms of promoting DEI. That suggests deficit reduction, not ideology, partly drove the cuts.
Four scholarly and literary groups, including the American Historical Association and the Authors Guild, are suing over the cuts. The case may test whether outsourcing DEI judgment calls to an AI chatbot survives legal scrutiny.

I-Balancer (BAL) izophelelwa yisikhathi kancane kancane ngaphansi kwesiphakamiso sokubusa esihambisa amachibi afanelekayo aye ekubuyisweni kuphela (withdrawals-only) ngenyanga ezayo futhi sibuyisele inhlokodolobha ye-DAO kubanikazi bamathokheni.
Iprothokholi ihlelwe kabusha ngo-April ukuze ifinyelele inzuzo (profitability) ngokusekelwe kwesabelomali esincane. Imali engenayo iye yehla kusukela lapho, futhi umbhali uthi akaboni indlela exhaswe (funded path) eshintsha isimo.
Uhlelo Lwe-Jumpstart (Turnaround Plan) Lwe-Balancer luphelelwa Indlela
I-Balancer ivumile ukuhlelwa kabusha ngo-April okunciphise isabelomali, kwaqeda ukukhishwa kwemiklomelo (emissions), futhi kwaroute izimali zemithetho (protocol fees) zaya ku-DAO. Kulindeleke ukuthi i-Version 3 (v3) ilethe ukukhula.

The 10-year Treasury yield topped 5% on Monday, matching its highest level in three years. Bond investors kept pushing rates higher despite the Trump administration’s efforts to calm the market.
The move raises borrowing costs across the economy. It could also squeeze both stock valuations and Bitcoin (BTC), whose price already competes with higher-yielding, low-risk government debt.
Stocks Face a Valuation Test
Higher yields make government bonds more competitive with equities. Investors can lock in strong, low-risk returns instead of taking on stock market risk.
Analysts see this as a genuine threat if yields keep climbing.
“greatest near-term concern for stocks”
A new 52 week high has been reached for 10 year treasury yield. Image Source: CNBC
Antony Ghee is head of equity investments for the chief investment office at Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank. He used that description for a sustained climb past 5% on the 10-year yield, per The New York Times.
Rising yields also raise financing costs for companies themselves. That cuts into the profits that help support stock prices. Heavy government borrowing and AI-related infrastructure debt have added to the pressure on yields this year.
Bitcoin’s Opportunity-Cost Problem
Bitcoin was trading near $77,800, up slightly on the day. It has largely held steady through the yield move so far.
The logic is simple. A safe, five percent return from government debt raises the bar for riskier assets like Bitcoin to look attractive. Non-yielding assets face that pressure most directly, and higher rates make that trade-off even sharper.
That calculation could shift fast this week. Traders currently price a high chance of a Fed rate hike at its meeting. The decision could ease or extend the pressure on risk assets.
A hold or dovish signal would likely lower yields and ease pressure on stocks and Bitcoin. A hike paired with hawkish guidance would likely do the opposite.

ការប្រកាសភាគហ៊ុនការពារបានកើនឡើងកាលពីថ្ងៃចន្ទ ខណៈដែល Wall Street បានបង្វែរចេញពីឈ្មោះហេដ្ឋារចនាសម្ព័ន្ធបញ្ញាសិប្បនិម្មិត (AI)។ ការផ្លាស់ប្តូរនេះកើតឡើងបន្ទាប់ពីអត្ថបទសម្រាប់ថ្ងៃចុងសប្តាហ៍មួយ ដែលជាប្រធានក្រុមហ៊ុន Anthropic លោក Dario Amodei បានជំរុញឲ្យវិស័យនេះ បន្ថយល្បឿននៃការអភិវឌ្ឍម៉ូដែល។
S&P 500 និង Nasdaq បានស្ទុះងើបឡើងវិញពីការខាតបង់ធ្ងន់ដំបូង ខណៈដែលប្រាក់ចំណេញពន្ធរដ្ឋ (Treasury yields) បានធូរស្រាល បន្ទាប់ពីបានឡើងហួស 5% ជាបណ្តោះអាសន្ន។ អ្នកជួញដូរក៏បានពិចារណាផងដែរអំពីការដំឡើងអត្រាការប្រាក់ដែលអាចកើតឡើងនៅសប្តាហ៍នេះដោយ Federal Reserve។ ក្តីបារម្ភពីអតិផរណាបានបន្តនៅមុនពេលកិច្ចប្រជុំ ខណៈដែលឱកាសនៃការដំឡើងអត្រាការប្រាក់ឈរលើសពី 92% នៅលើឧបករណ៍ CME FedWatch។

Three listed crypto treasury companies added to their token piles last week, even as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) drifted through a soft September.
Buying continued as digital assets faced fresh uncertainty ahead of a Federal Reserve rate decision. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) was the exception, though. The firm bought back its own preferred shares and left its Bitcoin stack untouched.
BitMine and DFDV Expand Their Crypto Treasury
BitMine Immersion Technologies picked up 27,180 ETH last week, lifting its position to 5.956 million tokens. That lands at 4.9% of the circulating supply, just under the 5% supply target that chairman Tom Lee has been pursuing.
Roughly 5.07 million of those tokens sit staked. BitMine values its combined crypto and cash at $15.8 billion.
“In August, ETH moved sideways without a downside break, and the 12-day metric expired, which implies a renewal of the upside move. We believe this further supports the continuation of the prior uptrend. We expect late August’s sharp one-day rally was a likely preview of the pending advance,” Tom DeMark, founder of DeMark Analytics and a capital markets advisor to the firm, said.
DeFi Development Corp, a Nasdaq-listed Solana treasury firm, has grown its holdings by 2% to 2.39 million SOL since August 27. It also opened a $300 million at-the-market program for CHAD, its Solana-backed preferred stock.
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Strive Buys, Strategy Sits Out
Strive, the fifth-largest public Bitcoin treasury firm, bought 469 BTC between September 8 and 11 at an average of $77,954. Its treasury now holds 25,000 coins.
Strategy, the largest public Bitcoin holder, bought none. It repurchased $139 million of its STRC stock. Its stack holds at 845,050 BTC, against an average cost of $75,412.
Strategy has repurchased $139M of $STRC. As of 9/13/26, we hold 845,050 $BTC and $6.4B of USD Assets. $MSTR https://t.co/NDYaVxz2sm
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) September 14, 2026
The purchases land ahead of a decisive week for crypto. The Federal Open Market Committee delivers its interest rate decision on September 16.
Markets have swung toward expecting a hike. CME FedWatch put the odds of a quarter-point increase at 85.6% on September 11, up from 48.4% a month earlier.
Higher rates raise the cost of holding assets that generate no yield. A hike could therefore pressure crypto prices in the sessions that follow, as it has during earlier tightening moves.
That sets up the real test for these treasuries. Their buying has continued through a soft stretch for prices, and the coming weeks will show whether it survives a potential deeper slump.
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Novo Nordisk (NVO) rebranded itself as simply “Novo” on Monday, unveiling a new corporate culture framework as the Danish drugmaker tries to close a widening gap with rival Eli Lilly in the obesity drug market.
CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC the rebrand and culture shift are part of the same package for evolving the company’s strategy.
Strategy Behind the Shift
Doustdar said the company’s operating environment changed as obesity treatment shifted from a stable, insulin-like market to one that behaves more like a consumer market, where patients cycle on and off drugs.
The new culture, dubbed “The Novo Way,” is built on four principles. Those are customer obsession, competitiveness, clarity, and care and integrity. Doustdar said speed only helps once priorities are clear, adding the company still has work to do across research, manufacturing, and sales.
The rebrand also reverses the direction of Novo’s centuries-old Apis bull logo, a symbolic nod to changing course while keeping its heritage. Novo Nordisk A/S remains the company’s legal name.
Stock Reaction
Investors weren’t too taken with the news. Novo shares traded around $43.45 on Monday, down about 15.8% year-to-date and off roughly 21% over the past year. The stock has fallen more than 60% from its 2024 peak near $147, when Novo led the GLP-1 race.
The stock has ticked up slightly since Monday, but shares are generally down. Image Source: Trading View
Analysts at BMO noted that the strong launch of Novo’s oral Wegovy pill this year does not by itself signal a turnaround. Doustdar pointed to early Medicare uptake among obesity patients as an encouraging, if still early, signal for demand.
“The street and the market is always right, but with a lag.”
— Mike Doustdar, CNBC
He said continued execution should eventually restore investor trust. Novo continues to work to defend its lead over Eli Lilly’s competing oral pill.

Bank trade groups, 18 state attorneys general, and Senator Elizabeth Warren all pushed back against the revised Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, hours before the Senate procedural vote that will decide the bill’s fate.
Republicans published the updated text and described it as a final offer to Democrats. The Senate holds a cloture vote Tuesday afternoon, and the motion needs 60 votes to advance.
Banks Want the Clarity Act Text Tightened, State AGs Want It Stopped
Eight banking trade groups, including the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America, wrote to Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on September 14.
They argue that the drafting of the stablecoin yield ban leaves room for interest-like payments on balances. The groups put forward a list of recommended amendments to the crypto market structure bill.
“With the targeted changes described above, we believe that this innovation can be pursued while also protecting the ability of banks to continue providing credit for America’s consumers, small businesses, and communities,” the letter reads.
New York Attorney General Letitia James led a separate coalition of 17 other attorneys general opposing the bill outright. Their letter to Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren warns that federal preemption would strip state registration regimes and hand the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unilateral discretion over its scope.
James cited FBI data showing $11.4 billion in crypto fraud losses during 2025, up 22% from the prior year. States have brought more than 330 anti-fraud actions since 2017.
“As written, the Clarity Act would embolden scammers and potentially strip attorneys general of our authority to protect our states’ investors and their wallets. Together with my attorney general colleagues, I urge Congress not to pass the Clarity Act,” she said.
Neither objection is new. Both camps made the same arguments to the Senate in July.
Warren Attacks the Ethics Language as Democrats Counter
Meanwhile, Warren rejected the ethics provision Republicans added to the text.
“We got the details of President Trump and Republicans’ quote “final offer” on ethics, and it reads exactly like what you expect the most corrupt President in our history to bless: a weak fig leaf that will do nothing to stop him from making his next $1.4 billion in crypto profits,” she stated.
She raised two objections. According to the Senator, the provision hands enforcement power to the President’s political appointees, who can switch it off. It also carries loopholes that leave his crypto businesses, including World Liberty Financial, untouched.
Not every Democrat wrote off the text. The negotiators met in Schumer’s office on Monday evening to send back a counteroffer, Politico reported. Senator Raphael Warnock said Republicans would receive the text that night.
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It's becoming clear that some Democrats simply won't get to yes, no matter what we put in the text. President Trump has now agreed to two historic ethics provisions — provisions these very members demanded. We've given you everything you’ve asked for, yet you keep holding the… https://t.co/EecNNlmZVK
— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) September 14, 2026
Cloture needs 60 votes, so Republicans must peel off seven Democrats. Senator Cynthia Lummis has sold the text as carrying over 100 Democrat-requested changes. Tuesday afternoon will show whether that pitch survived.
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The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a civil forfeiture complaint on September 14 against $61 million in cryptocurrency tied to Binance accounts and black market sales of Iranian oil.
Prosecutors allege the funds moved through trading accounts held by Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, two China-based firms, before reaching Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organization.
Same Iran-Linked Entities Binance Called Clean
“Today’s action demonstrates our determination to deprive the Government of Iran and its terrorist proxies of the illegal money they rely on to threaten the lives and safety of the citizens of the United States and elsewhere.”
Deputy US Attorney Sean Buckley made the statement announcing the complaint on September 14.
The complaint names the same two entities at the center of a Senate probe earlier this year.
Binance pushed back against claims in March, when Co-CEO Richard Teng called the allegations “false and defamatory.”
We’ve voluntarily responded to Senator Blumenthal’s inquiry which raises false and defamatory allegations reported by the WSJ. While we take such matters seriously, it’s important for us to highlight our industry-leading compliance which we've worked hard to build and protect our… pic.twitter.com/qOZ7h1y5nu
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) March 6, 2026
Binance maintained that no funds directly touched Iranian entities. However, Monday’s complaint tells a different story.
Prosecutors allege a network of wallets, called Entity A, moved more than $1.5 billion in illicit Iranian oil proceeds. The network funneled money to IRGC-linked services and an Iranian exchange.
A Familiar Pattern for Binance
This is not the first time Binance-linked accounts have surfaced in Iran-related sanctions reporting.
Reuters reported that Shelbit, an Iran-linked exchange Dubai fined, sent $676 million onto Binance.
Historically, Binance pleaded guilty to sanctions violations in 2023, paying a $4.3 billion penalty.
The Justice Department’s complaint does not name Binance as a defendant. Therefore, the action targets the cryptocurrency itself, along with Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale’s alleged role.
Awkward Timing for a UK Return
The filing lands two weeks before Binance’s planned UK license bid opens for applications on September 30.
The exchange is seeking Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorization under Britain’s new crypto framework. That process is built around governance and compliance standards.
Meanwhile, a fresh Iran-linked laundering complaint tied to its platform is unlikely to make that case easier. Binance itself faces no charges in the filing.
How the FCA weighs this complaint against Binance’s application will become clearer once the window opens.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Supreme Court lawyer says the $11 billion penalty attached to his sentence would leave the FTX founder broke for the rest of his life, whenever he walks out of prison.
Jeffrey Fisher, who filed the petition on September 10, argues the sum breaks the Eighth Amendment ban on excessive fines. He laid out the case on CNN host Michael Smerconish’s radio program.
Why the Fine Hurts Sam Bankman-Fried More Than the Verdict
The $11 billion order is not a clawback of money the former billionaire holds. It is a money judgment for a sum he does not have.
Michael Smerconish discusses my case and Supreme Court appeal. Judge Kaplan allowed the government to (falsely) claim over $10 billion of depositor losses — and prohibited me from responding. https://t.co/6CVRAU3Qim
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) September 14, 2026
Fisher argues no realistic future earnings could ever clear it. At his peak, SBF had an estimated net worth of approximately $26 billion to $26.5 billion in early-to-mid 2022 before FTX collapsed.
The lawyer traces that protection to Magna Carta, the 13th century English charter. Its principle was that a fine should not strip a wrongdoer of any way to earn again.
“Before we take away people’s liberty and resign them to a lifetime of poverty, we better be sure that they’ve gotten a fair shake in front of a jury,” Fisher said in the interview.
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The timing helps him. In July the justices agreed to hear Jouppi v. Alaska, a fight over a $95,000 plane seized because a passenger carried a six-pack of beer into a village that bans alcohol.
The link is the clause, not the scale. A seized plane and an $11 billion judgment raise the same question about when a financial penalty goes too far.
Fisher says the two cases ask it differently, however. Jouppi tests whether a fine fits the crime. His own argument tests whether it leaves the defendant any way to earn again.
The Repayment Argument Cuts Both Ways
Fisher’s other argument, laid out in the petition filed last week, is that jurors heard customers lost billions but never heard they would be repaid. He says that gap made a fair trial impossible and demands a new one.
Takeaways from SBF’s lawyer’s interview with Michael Smerconish
FTX’s fifth customer payout in July took most customer classes to 105% of their claims. Those claims were fixed at November 2022 prices, however, so creditors missed the crypto rally that followed.
Fisher says FTX’s early Anthropic bet is part of the reason customers were repaid. Yet the estate sold the stake early, taking roughly $1.3 billion in 2024 for a holding now worth more than $30 billion, as BeInCrypto reported.
$10 Million Invested in Anthropic 5 Years Ago Would Be Worth $16.45 Billion Today"If you put $10 million in Anthropic 5 years ago, today it would be worth $16.45 billion. If you would have put $1 million, it's worth $1.5 billion dollars. If you would have put $100,000, it's… pic.twitter.com/g1BBURwdq9
— PBD Podcast (@PBDsPodcast) September 14, 2026
A federal appeals court rejected those arguments in June. Smerconish recalled trial judge Lewis Kaplan reasoning that a thief who takes stolen money to Vegas and wins is no less guilty.
The justices have not said whether they will hear the case. Most petitions never get that far.

President Donald Trump phoned Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang live on stage Monday. He told a room of investors that fear of artificial intelligence (AI) is a hoax. Nvidia shares fell anyway.
The call came during the All-In Summit, a technology conference run by a group of Silicon Valley investors. It landed hours after chip stocks opened sharply lower.
Nvidia (NVDA) Stock Price Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance Trump Turns a Phone Call Into AI Policy
Huang was midway through an on-stage interview when his phone rang. He put the president on speaker, and the audience heard the argument Trump has pushed for weeks.
“I’m telling you it’s all a hoax. The data centers are great. They make people wealthy. They make states wealthy. AI is bigger than the internet. These people are playing right into the hands of China. We’re not going to let that happen,” Donald Trump, President of the United States, speaking at the All-In Summit, via attendees.
President Trump calls NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang live on stage at the All-In Summit.“The robots will not be taking over. The AI will not be taking over the rest of the world. The whole thing is a hoax.” https://t.co/xuBTfcdOeo pic.twitter.com/IHeqc7Mly0
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) September 14, 2026
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“You’re right, we’re not going to let that happen sir,” Huang answered.
That morning, Trump had already dismissed safety warnings on social media. He argued that a capable president is the only guardrail the technology needs. He has separately claimed sweeping power over AI companies.
Why Nvidia Shares Fell Anyway
The selling started long before the call. Nvidia traded near $211.81 on Monday afternoon, roughly 3% below Friday’s close of $218.29.
Intel dropped 7% and Advanced Micro Devices lost 6%. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, an exchange-traded fund tracking the sector, slid 6%.
Investors were pricing a weekend essay from Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei. He urged developers to pace the next leap in model capability. Sam Altman and Elon Musk joined the rivals backing a slowdown.
BeInCrypto flagged on Saturday that Monday’s market open would test that pact. Chip stocks answered within minutes.
Not everyone reads the drop as real weakness. Investor Michael Burry says the slowdown push is hype tied to coming listings. Intel also fell hardest despite holding the least AI exposure. That pattern suggests crowded trades unwinding rather than shrinking demand.
Nvidia’s order book has not changed. What has changed is the distance between what the president says and what the market will pay for.

Grayscale handed financial advisors a ready-made crypto allocation on Monday, and XRP (XRP) took 26.11% of it. The token is the second-largest holding in the firm’s new Digital Assets Next Gen model portfolio.
A model portfolio is a published recipe. Grayscale picks the assets and the weights, and an advisor copies that mix into client accounts using the firm’s exchange-traded funds.
Today, Grayscale launched Model Portfolios. Four strategies built around distinct investment objectives: • Digital Assets Core Plus: Broad exposure to established assets, including $BTC, $ETH, $SOL, and $LINK• Digital Assets Leaders: Exposure to the five largest eligible… pic.twitter.com/p62Gqrlkko
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) September 14, 2026
XRP Sits Second in a Portfolio Built Without Bitcoin
The Next Gen model leaves Bitcoin out and held seven funds as of August 31. Ether leads at 42.34%, XRP follows at 26.11%, and Solana takes 21.09%.
Grayscale’s New Crypto Portfolios. Source: Grayscale
Those three fill roughly 89% of the basket. Hyperliquid, a trading-focused blockchain whose Grayscale fund listed only in June, takes 5.76%. Chainlink, Avalanche, and Sui split what is left.
Grayscale caps any one asset at 40% and resets the weights every three months. Ether has already drifted past that cap since the model started on July 27.
The Funds Behind It Have Been Losing Money
XRP trades near $1.42, up about 5% on the day and fifth by market value. The Grayscale XRP Trust ETF, however, sits 38.51% below its launch price.
BeInCrypto reported in August that the same trust sold $180 million in tokens during the first half of the year at a realized loss. Six of the model’s seven funds trade below where they started.
The model itself shows a 30.69% net gain since July 27. That is five weeks of history built on one strong August, and the rest of the return table is empty.
Grayscale Returns on Model Portfolio. Source: Grayscale
“Advisors are increasingly looking for ways to bring digital assets into client portfolios without having to build and maintain allocations asset by asset,” Laurie Katz, Grayscale’s Global Head of Distribution, framed the launch around convenience.
Grayscale charges no separate fee for the models, and the underlying funds average 0.23%. Whether advisors read Next Gen as emerging assets or as a large ether and XRP bet under a different name will decide how much money follows.

Umhlaziyi waseWall Street uxwayise ngeSonto ukuthi imakethe yamasheya ingase iphuke phakathi kwezinsuku ezingama-30. Kusukela ngoMsombuluko ekuseni, omunye umdondoshiya wawuzwise wadelela ngokuphelele.
I-Coinbase (COIN) inyuke phantse 8% futhi iyaqhubeka nokukhuphuka, ihweba iseduze no-$188.50. Iphakheji elilandela amafemu amakhulu angama-500 ase-US lehle ngo-0.8% emahoreni afanayo.
Isexwayiso savela kuMike Wilson, umqondisi omkhulu wamasheya e-US eMorgan Stanley. Tshela amakhasimende ukuthi ingozi kwakuwoyela, hhayi ubuhlakani bokufakelwa (AI).
“Ngicabanga ukuthi ezinsukwini ezingama-30 ezizayo, uma uwoyela uya ku-$120, $130, $140, lokho kuyodonsa imali yoketshezi”

Seven ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on September 10. Before the war, roughly 125 crossed every day. Four obscure funds have spent 2026 turning that collapse into money.
Only about four US-listed shipping ETFs (exchange-traded funds) exist. Between them they hold under $450 million, a rounding error on Wall Street.
Four Funds, Four Very Different Wars
Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET) is up more than 3,200% this year, Yahoo Finance data shows. It traded near $781.92 on Monday, against a 52-week low of $13.58. Since the war started, this particular ETF has gained 1,300%.
Shipping costs have gone parabolic since the US-Iran war started.$BWET, the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF, is up 1,300% since the war began on 28th Feb 2026, including today's 10% pre-market move.Producing and moving oil are both getting super expensive. pic.twitter.com/9goRzEb9IE
— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) September 14, 2026
While only that one went vertical, the rest are also posting gains. Breakwave Dry Bulk (BDRY) is up about 95% over the past year. SonicShares Global Shipping (BOAT) is up 69%. US Global Sea to Sky Cargo (SEA) is up 45%.
“It is hard to find something more niche than this,” said Todd Sohn, chief ETF strategist at Baird Strategas.
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Owning Bets Beats Owning Boats
BWET and BDRY own freight futures, contracts that fix the price of shipping cargo on a set route weeks ahead. When the cost of hiring a ship jumps, they jump with it. On September 10, the Gulf to China supertanker rate hit a record $862,150 a day on the Baltic Exchange.
BOAT and SEA own the shipping companies instead, names like Frontline and Maersk. Real firms carry debt and move slowly. They caught the boom, not the spike.
Iran and the US have fought since February 28. Ships stopped sailing. Insurance became unaffordable. Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline, the last way around the strait. Oman then postponed talks on reopening it. Brent crude above $100 rose 3% Monday past $110.
Spot Brent Crude Oil Price Performance. Source: TradingView
The bill lands on drivers. BeInCrypto reported record US diesel prices crossing $6 a gallon, an all-time high in 28 states.
The Trade Needs the War
Every step toward peace is a loss for anyone holding these funds. One of their architects says so.
“If there is a normalization in the Strait of Hormuz, you would expect freight rates to come down, and that would affect freight futures as well,” said John Kartsonas, founder of Breakwave Advisors.
Oman has set no new date. The freight market is not waiting for one.

Iyunithi yaseTesla eVietnam yethulwa ngemali engaba u-$3 million, okumaka ukungena ngokusemthethweni komkhiqizi wezimoto kwenye yezimakethe zezimoto zikagesi ezikhula ngokushesha kakhulu eNingizimu-mpumalanga ye-Asia.
UTesla akazange amemezele lutho. Kunalokho, ifayela lokubhaliswa kwebhizinisi laliveze ukuhambisa, futhi inkampani ayizange iphendule isicelo sokuphawula.
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Michael Burry called the AI slowdown push self-serving, arguing that OpenAI and Anthropic executives gain directly from telling the public their own technology moves too fast.
The Big Short investor posted the criticism early Monday, two days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging the industry to pace itself.
Michael Burry Calls the AI Slowdown Hype and Puffery
Burry laid out four objections. He argued first that large language models (LLMs) are not artificial intelligence (AI) and will never reach artificial general intelligence (AGI). On that basis, he sees nothing real to slow.
Second, he said rivals are closing in fast, so a pause protects whoever leads today. Third, he read the safety warnings as promotional material for coming stock listings.
A company that calls itself dangerously powerful also calls itself valuable. Burry labelled that hype and puffery.
His fourth point went further. He suggested the AI slowdown talk covers growth that is already fading, just as the listings slip.
Let's all take a moment to understand how self-serving it is for OpenAI, Anthropic and other execs of big hyperscalers to talk of slowing things down. 1. LLMs are not AI and won't be AGI. There is nothing AI to slow down. 2. Competition is coming up fast, slowing benefits…
— Cassandra Unchained (@michaeljburry) September 14, 2026
Amodei’s essay, published Saturday, asked labs to hold back capability gains and to host independent evaluators. Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed the AI slowdown plan within hours.
The IPO Timing Behind the Safety Warnings
Burry’s last point lands closest to the money. Altman ruled out a 2026 listing on Saturday and gave safety as the reason. He named no new date.
Anthropic, meanwhile, has been steering toward a listing of its own this autumn. The AI slowdown message also pulled stock futures lower ahead of Monday’s open.
Neither company turns a profit yet. Anthropic does not expect to break even before 2028, while OpenAI has guided investors toward 2030. A listing would put those numbers into an audited filing.
Crypto traders watch the same trade. Analyst Ben Cowen has warned that a giant Anthropic float could drain attention from Bitcoin.
Burry is no neutral observer either. He expanded his Nvidia short in August, then bought December calls as a hedge.
Amodei wants evaluators inside the building. Burry wants the accounts. Whichever version of the AI slowdown story holds, the S-1 filings will settle it long before the essays do.

Active exchange-traded funds are set to take a further share of adviser portfolios. MSCI surveyed 450 advisers, and 71% plan to increase their use within 2 years.
The ETF Intelligence Survey 2026 covered advisers across the United States and Europe. It found that 87% already invest in active ETFs, while 62% plan to raise their passive allocation.
Active ETFs Are Eating Mutual Fund Shelf Space
The MSCI survey points to substitution as much as new money. Overall, 58% said a new active ETF from a manager they already use would most likely displace an existing mutual fund or a UCITS holding.
The manager often stays the same. Half of the respondents would switch to an active ETF version of a strategy they already hold. Among fund selectors, 85% are open to an ETF share class of that same strategy.
Regulators cleared the path earlier this year. In March, the SEC granted the last piece of relief, letting broker-dealers trade ETF shares of multi-class funds. Asset managers can now run mutual fund and ETF share classes inside one portfolio.
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Private Markets Fail the Fit Test
Advisers drew a firmer line on structure. Nearly half (49%) would access private or less liquid assets through an ETF. However, only 16% consider private markets a good fit for the wrapper.
Liquidity explains most of that doubt. A mismatch between the ETF and its underlying assets worried 62% of respondents. Valuation transparency followed at 50%, and a lack of track record at 44%.
Pricing power has shifted as well. In contrast to core beta, which only 12% would pay up for, difficult-to-access strategies drew a fee premium from 58%. Meanwhile, 68% rank liquidity and trading efficiency among their top priorities.
Jana Haines, global head of index at MSCI, framed the change as a question of where the structure works.
“Passive ETFs remain the foundation of most adviser portfolios, but active ETFs are increasingly becoming mainstream. What we are seeing is a shift from whether advisers will use active ETFs to where the structure delivers the most value,” Haines said.
Demand is also moving beyond home markets. Some 45% expect to broaden equity allocations, and among them, 39% favor emerging markets against 24% for developed ones. MSCI did not disclose how the 450 responses were split between the two regions.
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Three central banks are about to tighten at once for the first time since 2006. The last time that happened, the assets bought with borrowed money broke first.
The European Central Bank has already raised. The Federal Reserve decides Wednesday. The Bank of Japan decides Friday. The macro risk for Bitcoin (BTC) is what that combination did to risk assets last time.
The 2006 Template for Risk Assets
The ECB moved on September 10, taking its deposit rate to 2.50%. Futures now put the Fed near 90% odds of a hike.
“The conflict in the Middle East continues to generate inflation pressures, and inflation is set to remain well above target for an extended period,” ECB Governing Council said.
In 2006 the squeeze landed on May 10. Over the next month, losses stacked in a very tight order.
The S&P 500 fell 7.7%
Europe’s Euro Stoxx fell 13.3%
Japan’s TOPIX fell 16.5%
Emerging markets fell more than 20%
That order was not luck. Cheap money had been borrowed and pushed into whatever paid most. When borrowing got expensive, the furthest-flung bets were sold first.
Then markets recovered, and the S&P 500 still finished 2006 up 15.79%. The real crash came two years later, out of mortgage debt.
Where Bitcoin’s Macro Risk Actually Sits
Bitcoin did not exist in 2006, but it has since faced an almost similar test.
In August 2024 the Bank of Japan raised rates and the yen jumped. Japan’s TOPIX index shed 12% in a single day. Bitcoin fell as much as 20%.
On the 2006 ladder, Bitcoin is not the S&P 500. It is the emerging market, and the squeeze has already begun, seeing as Japanese stocks have fallen 8.4% in a month.
What Could Save It
Something changed this month. The yen climbed 3.7% in three sessions, but even though this happened, Bitcoin held above $79,000, effectively breaking the 2024 pattern.
It had also already fallen 33% over the past year, to trade for $77,871 as of this writing. It de-rated before the squeeze, not during it.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
Then there is the buyer that did not exist in earlier cycles. US spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $3.52 billion in August. That more than reversed the $5.30 billion that left over the previous seven months.
That money is not borrowed in yen. A funding squeeze does not automatically force it out. Unless it stops buying the daily fund flows this week could cushion impacts from the rate decisions.

Elon Musk signaled on September 14 that Grok 5, xAI’s next major model, is the version he expects to reach artificial general intelligence (AGI).
The billionaire made the claim across two related posts on X, sparking immediate debate among researchers and traders alike.
That will be Grok 5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2026
What Musk Actually Said About Grok 5
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, describes AI systems capable of matching or exceeding human performance across a wide range of intellectual tasks, rather than excelling at narrow, specific functions. That distinction sits at the center of Musk’s latest comments.
Earlier that day, Musk announced that Grok 4.8, a 2.5-trillion-parameter model built on xAI’s new C++ software stack, would finish training within the week and move into reinforcement learning. When a user asked how close Grok 4.8 would come to AGI, Musk replied simply: “That will be Grok 5.”
He followed up minutes later with a clearer roadmap. Grok 4.7, he said, performs roughly on par with Anthropic’s Opus 5.0, stronger in some areas and weaker in others, with multimodal capabilities still needing work.
Grok 4.8 would deliver a noticeable improvement, while Grok 4.9 would likely reach Astra or Fable-class performance. Looking further ahead, Musk wrote: “Grok 5 maybe better than anything. We shall see.”
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Grok 4.7 should be roughly on par with Opus 5.0, not 5.1. Better in some ways, worse in others. We need to fix multimodal performance. Grok 4.8 will be a noticeable improvement. Grok 4.9 is probably Astra/Fable class. Grok 5 maybe better than anything. We shall see.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2026
xAI has pursued aggressive scaling since launch, combining massive compute clusters with distinctive data sources, including real-time information from X and specialized engineering knowledge drawn from SpaceX.
That approach has enabled the company to close performance gaps with longer-established labs in a comparatively short timeframe.
Why Does This AGI Timeline Matter Right Now?
If Grok 5 delivers capabilities at or beyond human-level performance, the implications extend well beyond chatbot benchmarks.
Musk has previously argued that advanced AI systems could dramatically expand global economic output within just a few years, accelerating progress across fields ranging from scientific research to robotics and software development.
The AI Singularity The argument goes like this:1. Humans build an AGI.2. The AGI becomes good at AI research.3. It designs a smarter AI.4. That smarter AI designs an even smarter AI.5. The cycle repeats faster and faster.Looking at the results and capabilities from the…
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) August 3, 2026
That same potential carries serious risk, however. Current concerns center on systems pursuing goals misaligned with human values, the difficulty of maintaining reliable control once models exceed human intelligence in key domains, and the possibility of rapid, hard-to-predict capability jumps.
Job displacement, concentration of power among a handful of companies, and the misuse of powerful models by bad actors round out the list that experts continue debating.
The timing adds an unusual wrinkle. Musk made these AGI comments the same day he publicly backed a separate call from Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, urging the AI industry to slow the pace of capability development, a pairing that highlights the tension between racing toward AGI and simultaneously warning about its dangers.
Whether Grok 5 ultimately fulfills Musk’s expectations remains genuinely uncertain. xAI’s trajectory nonetheless underscores two things happening at once: the accelerating pace of frontier AI progress, and the growing urgency around addressing the risks that progress brings, even according to the people building it.
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South Korea’s economy is booming on demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, with nominal GDP growing 21.9% in the first half of 2026.
Almost 70% of that expansion comes from semiconductors alone.
How the AI Chip Boom Is Powering South Korea
The KOSPI is South Korea’s benchmark stock index, dominated by semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Both companies now concentrate close to half of their market cap and most of their earnings growth in the first six months of 2026.
The Bank of Korea confirms a scale of chip revenues not seen since the 1970s. Semiconductor exports exceed 40% of the country’s total shipments in some months during 2026. Real GDP growth forecasts have been revised upward to 3.3%-3.5% for the year.
Global Stocks Rise 12% in 2026 as AI Semiconductor Boom Reshapes Market Leadership. Source: X/@econovisuals
Global demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced DRAM chips is the direct trigger of the rally. Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle all depend on Samsung and SK Hynix for AI accelerator memory. Along with Micron, they are the only large-scale global suppliers of these advanced chips.
The rally has also reshaped market structure across the region. Leveraged ETFs listed in Hong Kong tied to major Korean tech names multiplied more than 20-fold during the first half of 2026 alone, according to the Bank of Korea report published this week.
The leveraged ETF chart shows that risky bets on SK Hynix and Samsung shot up in spring 2026. Source: X/@MelvinInvests What Happens if the AI Chip Cycle Turns?
Analyst David K. Williams described the concentration bluntly after the Bank of Korea report. The trade has become so large that the central bank treats it as a financial stability issue, not merely an equity rally driven by strong fundamentals.
A slowdown in global AI infrastructure spending expected for 2027 or 2028 would hit the Korean economy systemically. Rising Chinese competition in memory chips could compound the damage. Exposure runs through supply chains, financial markets, and consumer wealth simultaneously across the country.
The Bank of Korea already flags signs of vendor financing similar to the dot-com era. Excess liquidity is flowing into real estate and leveraged products, raising bubble risk. Traditional manufacturing, youth employment, and domestic demand remain weak while chips dominate the narrative.
Structural problems compound the medium-term challenge for the country. South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate near 0.7 and an aging population profile. Household debt remains high and external shocks like oil above $100 or trade tensions would multiply the vulnerability further.
Global markets would feel the shock immediately if Korean production stumbles. Nvidia and AMD share prices track Korean chip output. AI-themed funds and semiconductor indices would face rapid repricing. A Chinese acceleration in memory production could redraw the supply chain quickly.