The Nasdaq reached a record closing high on Tuesday, fueled by strong demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Nvidia projected massive third-quarter revenue despite assuming zero China sales, while Snorkel AI secured $350 million in new funding. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic slashed model prices, and Amazon blocked Meta's Muse AI shopping agent.
01Company specific
Amazon Restricts Internal Use of Meta's Muse AI Agent Over Security Concerns
Amazon blocked Meta's new Muse agent from accessing its online store, citing security and user experience concerns. The giant stated that continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates its Conditions of Use and that Meta never asked for permission to access the site. Muse, which launched earlier in September, features a personal AI agent that books appointments, organizes calendars, and completes online purchases on behalf of users. The tool quickly rose to the top of Apple's App Store, amassing 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days. For Amazon, autonomous shopping agents pose a threat by bypassing the traditional process of humans visiting its platform, which underpins the company's lucrative advertising and sponsored-product business. Amazon has taken similar action against other AI tools, having sued Perplexity last year over its Comet AI agent and also restricting OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet's Gemini from shopping directly on its platform. Meanwhile, Meta partnered with Shopify to allow Muse users to complete purchases through Shopify's Shop Pay checkout service.
Nasdaq Hits Record High on AI Optimism as Oil Drops
The tech-heavy hit a record closing high on Tuesday, boosted by Micron Technology and other stocks as demand held firm. Channelnewsasia.com reports that the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.45 per cent during the session. Meanwhile, the finished flat and Jones Industrial Average fell 0.36 per cent. Lower oil prices added to broader risk appetite as flows through the Middle East improved. US crude dropped 0.6 per cent to settle at $94.59 a , while fell 2.03 per cent to $98.30 per barrel. US 10-year yields slipped 1 on the day to 4.953 per cent. The dollar gained 0.12 per cent against the euro to $1.1448 and traded at 157.37 Japanese yen. Attention now turns to a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for later in the week in Washington.
Major Stock Indices Daily Change (%)
The Nasdaq rose 0.45 per cent while the Dow fell 0.36 per cent.
Snorkel AI Valued at $3.5 Billion in New Funding Round Driven by AI Demand
Channelnewsasia.com reports that Snorkel has raised $350 million in a new funding round that values the data startup at $3.5 billion. Insight Partners and S32 led the financing, which included participation from existing backers Addition, Greylock and Wells Fargo. The transaction nearly triples the $1.3 billion the company commanded after raising $100 million in May 2025. Snorkel's annualized run-rate has climbed to $350 million from roughly $20 million a year earlier, propelled by a data-as-a-service business launched in September 2025. Founded in 2019 by Stanford AI lab researchers, the San Francisco-based company has pivoted from selling software to supplying finished datasets and reinforcement-learning environments directly to frontier AI labs, hyperscalers, enterprises and the US federal government. The platform pairs human specialists across fields like coding, law and medicine with thousands of specialized AI agents to generate and vet complex training data. Snorkel sells these generated data products rather than billing for human labor, a shift designed to preserve operating margins while compensating experts. The fresh will fund new hires across engineering and research alongside expansions into government operations, third-party model evaluations, and new industry verticals. Management expects the company to reach profitability this year.
Snorkel AI Valuation ($B)
Valuation rose by 2.2 billion following a new funding round.
cbsnews.com reports that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CBS News the tech industry should accelerate development rather than heed warnings to slow down. Huang stated that the Santa Clara-based chipmaker will push forward as fast as possible while ensuring product safety. The remarks come as for the company surpassed $5 trillion amid the ongoing AI boom. Industry concerns about rapid development intensified after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned earlier this month to warn that security protocols are being rushed. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei subsequently echoed cautions about exponential growth and industry risks.
OpenAI and Anthropic Launch Cheaper AI Models as Competition Intensifies
OpenAI and Anthropic launched cheaper models on Tuesday as both labs race to capture cost-conscious business customers amid mounting pressure from open-weight competitors. OpenAI introduced the GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna models, slashing API prices by 50% compared with GPT-5.6 promotional pricing. GPT-6 Sol costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, while GPT-6 Luna is priced at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens. The new tiers stem from OpenAI's flagship GPT-6 Astra model released earlier this month, with Sol targeted at complex coding workloads and Luna designed for high-volume tasks like document summarization. Anthropic debuted Claude Opus 5.5 on Tuesday, pricing the model to run around 40% less than its predecessor Opus 5. The releases represent the first new models from both labs since their chief executives called for an industry-wide slowdown on developing advanced artificial intelligence. Both companies attribute their latest price cuts to improvements in caching and inference efficiency.
OpenAI API Pricing per Million Input Tokens ($)
GPT-6 Sol input cost is half of GPT-5.6 promotional pricing
Nvidia Data Center Sales Strategy Faces Impact From Upcoming US-China Summit
Nvidia guided for $108.0 billion of fiscal third-quarter while assuming zero compute sales to China. Reaching the figure requires growing roughly 89 percent from the prior-year quarter's $57.0 billion. The forecast arrives as President Donald Trump prepares to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday, Sept. 24, with on the agenda. Nvidia's fiscal second quarter, which ended July 26, reached $96.2 billion in revenue, up 106 percent year over year. The data center business contributed $89.0 billion of that total, representing a 117 percent increase from a year earlier. Meanwhile, Nvidia billed $7.9 billion to customers headquartered in China and Hong Kong last quarter, accounting for about 8 percent of overall revenue. Those billings largely came from products unrestricted by export rules, such as gaming and workstation chips. Shipments of H200 chips to China remained under 1 percent of data center revenue during the quarter.
JioStar Partners With SES to Expand Indian Video Distribution Network
JioStar signed a multi-year distribution agreement with space solutions provider SES to handle satellite delivery for its television channel across India and the Indian subcontinent. Under the terms of the accord, SES will use its IS-20 satellite to distribute JioStar programming to cable, direct-to-home, and broadcast networks throughout the region. The agreement was announced on September 21, 2026. The migration places JioStar channels onto an established platform equipped with flexible C-band and Ku-band delivery capabilities and an advanced digital payload. The partnership secures high-quality broadcast reach to millions of households across South Asia while solidifying SES market presence in Indian satellite media distribution. Cable operators and DTH platforms rely on the upgraded infrastructure for consistent feeds, ensuring viewers maintain uninterrupted access to the media conglomerate bouquet. Rajat Nigam serves as head of technology and media operations at JioStar, while Deepak Mathur leads the media vertical at SES.
Rapid AI commercialization and corporate investment continue to drive tech valuations higher despite geopolitical restrictions. However, aggressive price cutting among model providers and platform blocking tactics leave the long-term profitability of enterprise AI services unresolved.
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