Corporate Partnerships in Vogue at OpenAI

Every day, we handpick the 5 Top Stories stock market investors need to know. In 5 minutes, you’ll learn the stocks, CEOs, and money managers moving markets.

Corporate Partnerships in Vogue at OpenAI

OpenAI has agreed a deal with Condé Nast to display content from its titles, which include Vogue and the New Yorker, in its products. Reuters reports that these will include ChatGPT and OpenAI’s search engine prototype, SearchGPT. OpenAI is also launching a new feature allowing corporate customers to customize its most powerful model, GPT-4o, using their own data.

Walmart Jettisons JD

Walmart [WMT] has sold its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com [JD] for $3.6bn, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. JD’S Hong Kong-listed shares fell 12% on Wednesday, leading falls across China’s technology and e-commerce sectors, with the economic environment in the country still challenging for these industries.Alibaba [BABA], JD’s largest rival, revealed last week that its commerce business had shrunk in the most recent quarter.

Musk’s Lenders Hung Out to Dry

Tesla [TSLA] CEO Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter (now X) has become the worst merger-finance deal since the 2008 financial crisis for the banks that lent him $13bn to complete it, according to the Wall Street Journal. The lenders, including Morgan Stanley [MS] and Bank of America [BAC], have been unable to sell the debt due to X’s poor performance. The loans have now been stuck (or ‘hung’ in industry parlance) on balance sheets, accruing interest but losing value, for longer than any such deals since the crisis.

China-EU Trade War Electrifies

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) has criticized the European Commission’s proposal for 36.3% tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), saying it brings “enormous risks and uncertainty” for the country’s investment into the bloc. The Commission argues that Chinese EV makers are at an unfair advantage thanks to Chinese government subsidies, but CAAM warns that the punitive tariffs could seriously dent the EU’s own industry. Beijing has responded by launching an investigation into European dairy imports.

Microchip’s Down Following Cyberattack

Microchip Technology [MCHP] shares fell 2% in extended trading Tuesday after a cyberattack knocked out parts of its business operations. The attack continues a theme of chipmakers being targeted by cybercriminals against a geopolitical backdrop of nations competing for dominance in the increasingly critical technology. Elsewhere, Wedbush Securities Senior Vice PresidentMatt Bryson has called Advanced Micro Devices’ [AMD] acquisition of ZT Systems “both strategic and opportunistic”.