Daily Buzz: 22 October 2026

Is a Serious Peace Deal in Ukraine War Taking Shape?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would be willing to accept a peace agreement that freezes the war along current front lines, provided the country retains control over at least 75 percent of its territory. That appeared to be a concession from earlier resistance to cede any territory to Russia. Zelensky affirmed his readiness to halt hostilities in an interview with Fox News, calling it a practical path toward ending the conflict with Russia, now in its fifth year. Russia in the past demanded that Ukraine cede territory well beyond current front lines and beyond the roughly 20 percent of Ukraine it currently occupies.

Russia is "ready in principle" to resume trilateral talks with the US and Ukraine on ending the conflict, the Kremlin said after President Vladimir Putin met with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg. Trump said he thinks a deal to end the war may be the closest ever. However, Ukraine's capital came under renewed Russian missile attacks hours after the Kremlin statement.

Tesla Profit Plummets 29 Percent in Quarter

US electric carmaker Tesla said third-quarter net income plummeted 29 percent from a year earlier to US$787 million, with revenue flat at US$28.1 billion. The company earlier reported that deliveries for the quarter fell 2 percent. The decline in profitability also reflects a surge in spending on robotics and AI initiatives. Capital spending doubled to US$3.7 billion, and free cash flow dropped 62 percent. The company said auto sales in Canada, Japan, China's Taiwan and Australia hit new records during the quarter, but domestic sales on the Chinese mainland, where it operates a mega-plant in Shanghai, tumbled 16 percent. Tesla is facing both domestic and global competition from Chinese automakers like BYD, Chery and Geely. Company Chief Executive Elon Musk said a day earlier that discussions are underway on a possible merger of Tesla with SpaceX.

Nvidia Expands Into Full-Stack AI Infrastructure Provider

Nvidia unveiled a sweeping set of initiatives spanning AI factory infrastructure, supply chain expansion, autonomous driving, robotics, healthcare research and industrial simulation at an event in Berlin, marking its transition from a chip vendor into a full-stack AI infrastructure provider across hardware, software, and ecosystems. New releases include Nemotron Retriever for search and retrieval, Alpamayo 2 Edge for autonomous driving, BioNeMo for protein design and Ising for quantum computing. The company this week also showcased a new DSX POD design for factory-built data center modules using its Vera Rubin platform and unveiled its OpenShell architecture designed to thwart rogue agents.

In a keynote address to the GTC AI conference in Berlin, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said the company has committed nearly US$10 billion toward expanding partnerships in Europe, where he predicted "every company will become an AI company." He added, "To be part of this AI economy, you don't want to just be consuming AI; you want to be producing AI."

Top Business

Meta Reports Profit Surge, US$9.9 Billion Charge for Legal Settlements

Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, reported third-quarter net income surged 264 percent from a year earlier to US$9.9 billion on a 26 percent increase in revenue to a record US$64.6 billion. Operating income fell 37 percent to US$13 billion, reflecting a US$9.9 billion one-time charge related to settlement of court cases involving allegations that its social media sites harm teenagers. In its latest legal setback, a judge in New Mexico on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay US$25 billion after a jury found the company allowed a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to obtain data from millions of Facebook users without their consent. For the third quarter, Meta's capital spending totaled US$34.9 billion, with the company lifting its low-end estimate of 2026 capex to US$135 billion. The company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of up to US$76 billion. "We hit major milestones this quarter toward delivering personal superintelligence for everyone – including launching Muse and Muse Wonder, our first frontier model," Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in the earnings statement.

Assessing the High Costs of AI Data Centers

About half of data center-related bond issues this year carry a "junk" rating, according to Barclays bank, based on FactSet Data. About US$80 billion in bonds have been issued in 2026, with about US$37 billion rated at below "BBB" – the bottom investment-grade rating. By contrast, "junk" ratings accounted for only US$8.6 billion of a US$36 billion total last year, Barclays said. Borrowing for data centers in Asia has approached US$29 billion. The shift in sentiment comes as creditors reprice risk. CoreWeave, the Nvidia-backed AI cloud provider, had about US$4 billion of its notes trading below 80 cents on the dollar in the week ended October 16, a level associated with distressed companies.

Equity investors are also showing caution toward AI data centers, which are costly to build and often rely on debt financing. Three data center developers backed by Nvidia, SoftBank and Blackstone delayed or shelved initial public offerings in the four weeks to October 16. In Australia on Wednesday, shares in NextDC plunged 40 percent after the data center operator slashed its annual earnings forecast, and shares in South Korean cloud company Elice, often compared with CoreWeave, plunged 30 percent in their trading debut this week. US spending alone on AI and data center construction is projected at anywhere from US$2.8 trillion to US$10 trillion by 2032, with at least US$1.3 trillion already financed by debt. "We're going to see a wave of bankruptcies over the next three years," Jeffrey Moerdler, head of the data center and digital infrastructure practice at law firm Haynes Boone, told a New York forum this month.

OpenAI Cites Two New Examples of Agent Misbehavior

OpenAI said two of its AI agents weakened parts of an internal monitoring system designed to detect misbehavior in the latest case of agents acting in ways their developers did not intend. The ChatGPT maker said the incidents happened during internal coding tasks and were not deemed its most severe breaches. But concerns about machine intelligence becoming more independent of human control have contributed to volatility in tech shares.

Economy & Markets

Banks See Silver Lining in Cloud Hanging Over Chinese Housing Market

Global investment banks see recovery in China's slumping residential property sector as soon as 2027, fueled by signs of shrinking supply and robust sales over the National Day holiday in October. Citi said it expects a recovery in residential prices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Shanghai became the first city to post positive year-on-year growth in existing home prices in September, with prices rising 0.8 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. HSBC in a report also highlighted encouraging sales momentum, citing robust transactions in the resale market, although it said homebuyers remain price sensitive. Goldman Sachs said new government policies aimed at shoring up the housing market are driving growth in sales. China's real estate market began a long slump in 2021, when a liquidity squeeze triggered defaults by some major property developers.

Lenovo Seeks Cheaper Refinancing Loan

China's Lenovo, the world's biggest maker of personal computers, is looking to secure a US$2 billion loan at a lower cost than an earlier facility that it plans to refinance, Bloomberg News reported. The five-year loan, which has been launched via syndication, carries a margin of 75 basis points over the secured overnight financing rate, below the 110 basis points for an equal-sized loan in 2022.

China Crude Steel Output Shows Slight Monthly Recovery

China's crude steel production in September edged up 0.1 percent to 74 million tons, the China Iron and Steel Association reported. It was a positive note amid this year's downward trend. For the first three quarters, national crude steel output fell 2.9 percent to 725 million tons.

China Unveils Policy Blueprint to Boost Industrial Innovation

China issued national policy guidelines on Wednesday to accelerate the integration of scientific research with industrial development, placing company-led innovation at the center of its tech strategy. Under the framework, private firms will lead state-funded applied technology projects, while state-owned companies will receive research and development exemptions from standard asset-preservation metrics. State-backed venture funds are directed to adopt longer-term investment cycles for early-stage technologies. Targeting key sectors such as semiconductors, quantum computing and AI, Beijing pledged flexible commercial licensing to streamline market entry for startups.

China Says Critical Mineral Policy Unchanged

China's position on maintaining the stability and security of global critical mineral supply chains remains unchanged, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday, amid reports that Japan had sought US help in persuading Beijing to ease export controls. Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China's policies are aimed at Japan's remilitarization and pursuit of nuclear weapons capabilities. The comments followed reports that Japan's yttrium reserves could last only a few months and that Tokyo had asked Washington to help persuade China to relax restrictions. Yttrium is a rare-earth element used in various industrial applications.

Dongshan Precision May Raise Less Than Expected in HK IPO

Suzhou-based Dongshan Precision Manufacturing's initial public offering in Hong Kong looks set to raise less than expected on investor concerns about possible US trade restrictions on its optical modules business, analysts said. The company began its IPO this week offering 113.7 million shares, with cornerstone investors that include Alibaba and Jane Street Capital subscribing to about half of what the company hoped to raise. With an overallotment option, the printed circuit-board maker may raise about HK$12.3 billion (US$1.8 billion), compared with market expectations of between US$2 billion to US$3 billion a week ago.

China State Investor Buys Tech Stocks

China Reform Holdings, a state-owned capital operator, increased its holdings in semiconductor materials maker Grinm Advanced Materials and chipmaker Hygon Information Technology in the third quarter, according to company filings. China Reform Hongsheng, a wholly owned subsidiary, became a top-10 tradable shareholder in China Jushi, a fiberglass producer, and in China Shipbuilding Special Gas, which makes specialty gases for the electronics industry. China Reform Holdings said in July that its affiliated entities had invested more than 500 billion yuan (US$75 billion) in Chinese mainland Class A shares.

Chinese Auto-Components Makers Dominate Global Ranking

Seven of the world's top 10 auto-components companies, by revenue growth, are Chinese, according to new report from the Korea Automotive Technology Institute. It said revenue last year for the top 100 companies rose 2 percent from a year earlier to US$939.6 billion, and the combined revenue of Chinese mainland companies surged 16 percent to US$119.3 billion. Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), which makes batteries for new energy vehicles, ranked third on the institute's list.

Japan Export Growth Widely Misses Forecasts

Japan's exports in September fell far short of expectations, delivering a 16.7 percent gain. Analysts had forecast an increase of at least 20 percent. It was the second month of slowing growth for exports. Semiconductor shipments remained the main growth driver, with a 49 percent year-on-year gain. Exports of machinery also were strong, but car exports managed only a 4.2 percent gain, with a 5.8 percent shipment increase to China but a 24 percent dive in exports to the US. Overall exports to the Chinese mainland rose 8.6 percent. September imports increased 19 percent. For the six months ended September 30, Japan had a trade deficit of 2.8 trillion yen (US$18 billion) – its 11th consecutive half-year deficit.

Corporate

Chery Open to Partnerships With US Automakers

Chery, China's top auto exporter, is open to partnerships with US automakers, a senior executive told Reuters, as the company seeks to crack the effective US ban on Chinese car imports. Chery, which sells the Omoda and Jaecoo brands, is one of several Chinese automakers making big inroads overseas with advanced technology and prices that legacy car companies have struggled to match. For now, Chinese car companies remain effectively locked out of the US, the world's second-largest auto market, where they face tariffs of more than 100 percent and data security regulations. Chery said it would be possible to build a car that is not reliant on Chinese hardware or software.

Want to Sit in a Starbucks China Outlet? Buy a Coffee!

Starbucks China announced that, starting today, people who want to sit in any of its nationwide outlets will have to purchase something. It also said it will invest more than 300 million yuan (US$44.9 million) in its fiscal year that started at the end of September to refresh services, including adding staff during peak hours, upgrading digital systems and renovating about 1,000 outlets. The changes follow Boyu Capital's acquisition of a 60 percent stake in Starbucks China's retail business earlier this year. In the January-March quarter of 2026, same-store sales edged up just 0.5 percent, while average purchases fell 1.6 percent in value, prompting a reassessment of seat resources and how foot traffic converts into sales. Starbucks China operates about 8,000 outlets. It is facing intense competition from domestic rivals like Luckin Coffee chain.

Sharetronic Signs Contract Worth Up to US$5.6 Billion

Sharetronic Data Technology, a Chinese AI infrastructure company, signed a five-year contract valued as high as 37.5 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) to provide cloud computing services to a client it didn't identify. Sharetronic said computing facilities covered by the agreement must first be inspected and accepted by the client before payments begin. The company also said it will have to make substantial upfront investment in hardware, including server computers, before it could begin fulfilling the agreement.

Zehnder to Liquidate One China Joint Venture

Swiss-based Zehnder Group, a provider of indoor climate solutions, and its Chinese joint venture partner BBMG Corp have agreed to end their Beijing joint venture, Zehnder (China) Indoor Climate Co. As part of the liquidation, the production of ventilation units near Beijing will be discontinued. The liquidation is part of Zehnder's streamlining strategy. The group said it will consolidate its business operations in China through a second joint venture based near Shanghai.

BYD Sees L3 Driving by 2028

BYD, China's biggest manufacturer of new energy vehicles, said it expects to introduce Level 3 autonomous driving in 2028, with more advanced systems potentially arriving one to two years later. Level 3 technology allows vehicles to handle driving tasks under specified conditions, while requiring drivers to take over controls when requested. China expects Level 3 vehicles to account for more than 35 percent of the market by 2030.

Alibaba Dominates Automotive Public Cloud Infrastructure Market

China's automotive public cloud infrastructure market reached approximately 8.34 billion yuan (US$1.17 billion) in the first half of 2026, according to International Data Corp. Alibaba Cloud captured the leading position with a 45 percent market share, with double revenue from a year earlier.

Western Mining Q3 Profit Surges on Higher Metal Prices

China's Western Mining reported third-quarter net profit of 2.62 billion yuan (US$392 million), up 143 percent from a year earlier. Revenue rose 21 percent to 20.3 billion yuan. The company attributed the growth primarily to higher prices for copper, zinc and gold and silver products.