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SpaceX turned a profit on massive Starlink and AI growth, Musk's Terafab is targeting 2028 for volume chip production, Tesla and SpaceX formed a special committee to discuss a merger, Musk predicted $1T in SpaceX revenue by 2028, and Anthropic revenue was just $16B in H1.

What if you knew who was preparing to sell months before everyone else? Grata Intelligence uses proprietary Seller Intent data to spot companies preparing to sell up to 12 months early, giving dealmakers a head start on the competition.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 10/20/2026 market close.

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Markets

  • US stocks inched slightly upwards yesterday as investors digested the first batch of major Q3 earnings 

  • Japan's 20Y bond auction saw the strongest demand ever with yields at 3.7% 

  • Canadian dollar had its best day in a month to hit a one-month high after Alberta voters rejected a secession from Canada

  • Euro fell to a 17-month low versus pound on French fiscal concerns  

Earnings

  • SpaceX smashed Q3 revenue estimates and posted a profit as sales surged 160% on the back or Starlink and AI (CNBC)

  • Netflix beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates but gave a downbeat outlook as it struggles to retain viewership amid intense content competition from rivals (CNBC)

  • RTX issued a Q3 beat-and-raise on strong demand for missiles and air travel (BBG)

  • GM beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates and raised FCF guidance as strategic investments in new products and services keep momentum high despite growing inflationary pressures (CNBC)

  • 3M issued a Q3 beat-and-raise on growing sales of chipmaking machines and ​materials as a result of the AI boom, including an expanded data center partnership with Amazon (RT)

  • What we're watching this week: 

    • Today: Tesla, Meta, IBM

    • Thursday: Blackstone, American Airlines, Bloom Energy, Lockheed Martin

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • The entire economy will come to a halt the day GTA VI is released. Can't be so certain though because we literally got flying cars before we got GTA VI

  • Trade this market on the Polymarket US app with code LIT and they'll send you a $25 bonus

Headline Roundup

  • HSBC reviews Palantir exposure in $9B Islamic global equity index (FT)

  • Trump says Mexico and US are close to trade deal (RT)

  • Hedge funds are raising risks of a bond market shock (CNBC)

  • Top-rated junk debt becomes sweet spot as investors flee risk (BBG)

  • AI neoclouds lose luster as IPOs stall and stocks sink (BBG)

  • Hyperscalers likely have more AI debt than known (RT)

  • AI debt worries spark surge in default insurance trading (FT)

  • 100 London macro traders have blown up as Europe yields surge (EFC)

  • Stock pickers burned by AI boom see their moment arriving (WSJ)

  • Brokers gear up for compute futures ahead of CFTC approval (BBG)

  • Barclays freed up cash for hedge fund lending as it hit loan limits (BBG)

  • Musk's Terafab targets 2028 for volume chip production (RT)

  • JPMorgan's national security initiative financed $230B in first year (WSJ)

  • Larry Ellison went on borrowing spree to bankroll son's Warner bid (WSJ)

  • Micron's Taiwan workers will strike as bonus dispute escalates (RT)

  • ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent placed $35B of Nvidia chip orders (RT)

  • Anthropic revenue was just $16.3B in H1 with an $80.7B net loss (WSJ)

  • Anthropic may spend $750B on compute (WSJ)

  • Walmart takes on Amazon Prime with Sam's Club bundle (BBG) 

  • Dubai luxury home sales fall from record as war drags on (BBG)

A Message from Grata Intelligence

See the deal coming. Months before anyone else. Most dealmakers only find out a company is for sale when a formal process kicks off. But by then, it's too late to be the first one at the table. Grata Intelligence gives you a head start.

Our proprietary Seller Intent data detects sale preparation signals up to 12 months before a deal goes to market, That's months to prioritize the right opportunities, build the relationship, and shape the deal before anyone else knows it exists.

In 2025 back-testing, Seller Intent flagged 98% of U.S. and 89% of EMEA mid-to-large-cap deals, months before they were publicly announced.

Knowing where to focus sooner is just the beginning. Grata Intelligence helps you turn that advantage into action across the complete deal lifecycle, so you can get more, better deals done.

Get ahead of the market →

Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

  • Tesla and SpaceX formed a special committee to discuss a $3.5T merger

  • Egypt and local real estate giant Talaat ​Moustafa Group ‌signed a deal worth $202B to develop, build, and ⁠operate four ​major mixed-use real-estate projects

  • Legendary Entertainment revived talks to acquire $3.6B-listed blockbuster film producer Lionsgate Studios

  • Blackstone and Warburg Pincus are exploring a $10B sale of banking infrastructure fintech IntraFi 

  • Salesforce agreed to buy marketing platform Braze for $5.7B, including debt, at a 58% premium

  • French insurance group ‌CNP Assurances will acquire the Brazil and Mexico units of Prudential Financial for $4.03B cash

  • Logistics giant Maersk signed a $3.5B agreement with Vietnamese conglomerate Hateco to develop a railway freight terminal network in Vietnam

  • Family office Eldridge Industries is in advanced talks to acquire the insurance software ​and services unit of IT services company DXC Technology ​for $2.4B

  • Trading infrastructure fintech Tradeweb Markets will buy bond-trading platform Trumid for $1.97B in a mostly cash deal 

  • UK PE firm Centerbridge Partners and Gulf SWF Mubadala are in exclusive talks to acquire the UK wealth management business of Canadian financial services firm Canaccord Genuity for $1.3B 

  • Gulf Keystone Petroleum will merge with Norway's ShaMaran Petroleum ‌in a $601M all-stock 50-50 deal

  • Italian lender UniCredit re-acquired its Italian securities-services unit from French lender SocGen

  • Investment bank William Blair acquired debt advisory Armentum Partners

  • French private credit firm Tikehau Capital is seeking a strategic investor

VC

  • OpenAI is seeking to raise a pre-IPO round at a $1.4T valuation before Anthropic's IPO

  • Aerospace AI startup ASI raised a $325M Series C at a $3B valuation led by Spark Capital

  • AI meeting note-taker company Otter.ai raised $320M in growth financing from General Catalyst

  • French AI company and Microsoft-rival Pigment raised a $250M funding round at a $2.3B valuation led by Scaleup Europe Fund

  • SendCutSend, a custom metal parts manufacturer, raised a Series B at a $2.1B valuation led by Spark Capital  

  • Arda, an AI manufacturing software startup, raised a $160M Series A at a $1.5B valuation led by Altimeter Capital, Accel, and Khosla Ventures

  • Eka Robotics, a physical AI robotics startup, raised a $150M Series A at a $1.45B post-money valuation led by a16z and F-Prime

  • Reliable Robotics Corporation, an autonomous aviation startup, raised a $115M of its Series D extension at a $1B valuation led by Nimble Partners

  • Blackwall, an Estonian web traffic management platform, raised a $100M Series C at a $2.2B valuation led by Atlantic Vantage Point

  • Daytona, an agentic cloud startup, raised a $60M Series B at a $1B valuation led by FirstMark

  • Qualitate, a continuous intelligence primary-research startup, raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners

  • AuxoAI, a forward-deployed enterprise AI company, raised a $20.7M Series A led by NTTVC 

  • Skyfly Technologies, an eVTOL/personal aircraft developer, raised a $10M seed round led by HICO Investment Group

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Activist hedge fund Starboard Value built a stake in Solstice Advanced Materials after it scrapped a planned $14.5B merger with rival Element Solutions

  • Mynt, the company behind Philippine fintech GCash, closed flat in its trading debut after raising $840M for a $7B valuation in Philippine's biggest IPO ever

  • Egyptian fintech unicorn MNT-Halan gained 6.6% in its training debut after raising $150M Egypt's biggest IPO since 2021

  • Singapore internet giant Sea is weighing an IPO of its fintech unit and will also launch a new cloud business

SPAC / SPV

  • Battery startup Sakuu will merge with Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp. II at a $600M pre-money equity valuation

Debt

  • ICG-backed network service provider Circet postponed a $3.4B cross-border debt refinancing

  • AV product company AVI-SPL pulled a $690M deal from syndication

  • Bain Capital-backed wealth management software firm Envestnet sweetened terms on a $625M loan to help it fund its takeover of Vestmark 

  • Accounting firm Grant Thornton Advisors replaced a $500M euro-denominated loan with a bond sale to fund its acquisition of CBIZ 

  • PE-backed Radiology Partners pulled a $485M loan offering to help fund an acquisition and will sell junk bonds instead

  • CRE advisory Newmark arranged a discounted sale of a $290M loan backed by the Wells Fargo Center South tower in LA

  • Coachella-area Ontario International Airport is selling $175M of munis

  • Derby Lane Partners provided a $145M refinancing loan package to KSL Capital Partners-backed luxury camping operator Under Canvas

  • JPMorgan ‌helped Syria issue its first letter of credit in more than a decade for it to execute a commercial agreement for fuel products from Saudi Aramco 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Bankrupt Korean media and newspaper company JoongAng Ilbo is nearing a $377M sale after it picked a consortium including Daou and CJ Group, one of its top shareholders, as the preferred bidder

  • Struggling Turkish home appliance maker Vestel Elektronik is seeking a 45% haircut or six-year extension on $500M of 2029 bonds

Funds / Secondaries

  • Ex-Coatue stock-picker Daniel Senft raised $2.5B for his equity L/S tech hedge NX1 Capital in January

  • Jeff Wang, an ex-stock-picker at Sequoia's public portfolio, became only the second to raise over $1B for new tech hedge fund Augnition Global Investors 

  • Japanese investment firm Polaris Capital is seeking to raise $630M for one of Japan's biggest private credit funds

  • VC Inspired Capital raised $450M for its fourth fund

  • Ayesha Arora-Hughes, the daughter of Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, is seeking to raise a $100M debut fund for her new VC Permanent Partners Collective

  • Growth investor NewView is raising its fourth VC secondaries fund  

  • NFL's investment arm 32 Equity formed a JV with growth equity giant General Atlantic to invest in the sports industry

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • BlackRock is pushing to bring tokenized assets into TradFi and banking

  • JPMorgan predicts Bitcoin will outperform US stocks, gold, and real estate over next decade

  • Webull will debut crypto-linked perps next month

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.

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