Japan

Bridgestone's first half of the fiscal year ending December 2026 saw revenue rise 9.7% year on year to 2.3216 trillion yen, operating profit rise 70.4% to 280.2 billion yen, and net profit rise 78.5% to 206.2 billion yen. The sharp growth in operating profit was largely a rebound effect from business and plant restructuring costs of 70.2 billion yen booked in the same period a year earlier shrinking to 11 billion yen in the current period, and adjusted operating profit came to 280.8 billion yen, an increase of just under 20% from 234.6 billion yen a year earlier. Operating cash flow in the first half was 341.8 billion yen, of which 109.2 billion yen was used to buy back shares and 73.3 billion yen for dividend payments to owners of the parent, while a further 268.5 billion yen of treasury shares were cancelled. The full-year forecast remains modest, at 4.5 trillion yen in revenue, up 1.6% from the previous year, and 340 billion yen in net profit, up 3.9%.

Joby Aviation reported Q2 revenue of $38.64 million against a $30.38 million consensus and raised its fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $115 million to $125 million, with CEO JoeBen Bevirt saying the company is preparing for commercial service and targeting its first EIPP flights in Dallas-Fort Worth this month. The stock trades at $6.26, down 52.57% year-to-date and 56.49% over the past year, well below its $19.98 52-week high. Joby's FAA Stage 4 certification progress has moved from 6% to 20%, Blade seats sold rose more than 50% year-over-year in Q2, and the company counts a $250 million direct investment from Toyota, a Virgin Atlantic UK partnership, and a Dubai vertiport network among its supports. Against rival Archer Aviation, which carries a $4.02 billion market cap and posted just $5 million in Q2 revenue, Joby's $6.04 billion valuation rests on a larger revenue base. Risks include an operating margin of -1,346.92%, guided H2 2026 cash use of $385 million to $415 million, prior raises of $1.2 billion in February and $576 million in October 2025, and certification timing that could slip into 2027.

Macquarie analysts Paul Golding and Alex Luthringer said Microsoft-backed OpenAI's potential new funding round at a valuation of as much as $1.2 trillion reinforces their view that artificial-intelligence demand remains strong. The reported valuation would put OpenAI above rival Anthropic, which was most recently valued at roughly $965 billion. The analysts said the funding discussions follow a meaningful reacceleration in OpenAI's commercial momentum after earlier concerns that Anthropic was gaining ground, noting OpenAI's reported $40bn ARR is roughly a doubling from earlier this year. They also pointed to the GPT-5.6 and Astra releases as evidence that improved model performance is still translating into additional enterprise and consumer adoption, supporting their view that AI infrastructure is in a supply-constrained position. Macquarie sees the development as supportive for SoftBank, which has significant exposure to OpenAI and controls chip designer Arm, and maintains an Outperform rating on SoftBank.

The Nikkei Stock Average extended its gains sharply for a third straight session, closing at 65,018.95 yen. Following the decline in long-term interest rates in the U.S. market, buying flowed into semiconductor-related shares in particular, with Advantest climbing 1,810 yen to 32,050 yen. At its monetary policy meeting, the Bank of Japan decided as expected to raise interest rates to 1.25 percent, but its statement did not strongly hint at the timing of any additional rate hike, easing excessive expectations for further tightening. Kasumigaseki Capital raised its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending August 2026, lifting its operating profit estimate to 27.6 billion yen from 26.5 billion yen, up 45.8 percent from the previous year. The revision reflects better-than-expected progress in expanding project profits and accelerating property sales in its hotel business.

Merck announced that the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use adopted a positive opinion recommending approval of KEYTRUDA, the company's anti-PD-1 therapy, in combination with Padcev as neoadjuvant treatment and then continued after radical cystectomy as adjuvant treatment for adults with resectable muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The recommendation, which also includes KEYTRUDA SC, known as KEYTRUDA QLEX in the U.S., will now be reviewed by the European Commission for marketing authorization in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, with a final decision expected by the fourth quarter of 2026. The opinion is based on results from the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-B15 trial, also known as EV-304, conducted in collaboration with Pfizer and Astellas, in which the perioperative regimen reduced the risk of event-free survival events by 47% (HR=0.53) and the risk of death by 35% (HR=0.65) versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery in cisplatin-eligible patients, while pathologic complete response reached 55.8% versus 32.5%. If approved, KEYTRUDA plus Padcev would become the first and only PD-1 inhibitor plus antibody-drug conjugate regimen in the European Union for patients with MIBC regardless of cisplatin eligibility. In June 2026, the European Commission approved the combination for cisplatin-ineligible adults with resectable MIBC based on the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-905 trial, and in July 2026 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for adults with MIBC regardless of cisplatin eligibility based on KEYNOTE-B15.

Subaru has entered a strategic collaboration with onsemi to evaluate its Embedded Power Platform, a step toward integrating next-generation power architectures into future electric vehicles. Under the partnership, Subaru gains early access to engineering samples and technical expertise as it assesses whether onsemi's power semiconductor integration can deliver scalable, efficient solutions for vehicle electrification. The two companies said the work will explore how a more integrated power system design can improve vehicle performance, efficiency and design flexibility as automakers expand their electrified lineups. The collaboration was announced by onsemi on GlobeNewswire.

Ferrotec, the largest vacuum seal maker, announced it will conduct a tender offer for Japan Resistor Manufacturing, a company engaged in fixed resistors and potentiometers. The tender offer price is 1,901 yen, 49.1% above the previous day's closing price of 1,275 yen, with a minimum planned purchase of 618,700 shares and no upper limit. The offer period runs until November 5. Japan Resistor Manufacturing has expressed its approval and recommends that shareholders tender their shares, and the company is expected to be delisted after the tender offer succeeds. Following the announcement, Japan Resistor Manufacturing's share price hit the daily limit-up of 300 yen, rising to 1,575 yen, converging toward the tender offer price.

SoftBank Group Corp. has increased its margin loan backed by shares of its chip unit Arm Holdings Plc by $5 billion to $25 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the conglomerate funds its expanding artificial intelligence investments. The Japanese investment company renegotiated the terms and signed a deal with creditors this month. It is the third time SoftBank has upsized the facility, which began as an $8.5 billion loan in 2023, rose to $13.5 billion in 2024 and then to $20 billion last year. SoftBank was initially looking to increase the facility by $3 billion to $5 billion but received about $7 billion in demand from lenders, helped by a 142% spike in Arm's share price this year. As of May, the loan was secured by 769 million Arm shares, a 72% stake in the chip designer, and SoftBank had drawn $20 billion as of December, with the loan set to expire in September 2027. The proceeds help fund a nearly $65 billion commitment to OpenAI, alongside recent purchases including ABB Ltd.'s industrial robotics business for $5.4 billion and DigitalBridge Group Inc. for about $3 billion in cash.

The Bank of Japan raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent on Friday, the highest level in more than 30 years, and said it would continue raising rates to counter inflation fuelled by surging energy prices and a weak yen. The decision was carried by a 7-2 majority vote, and the two dissents drew attention from traders hoping the bank could move faster. Despite the hike, which had been telegraphed for weeks, the yen weakened to more than 157 per dollar from around 156.30 before the announcement, after touching a 40-year low against the dollar in July that prompted a historic joint US-Japanese intervention in foreign exchange markets. Figures on Friday showed core inflation, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, fell to 1.7 percent in August from 1.8 percent, below forecasts for it to remain unchanged, helped by government support for gasoline and electricity fees. Economists warned the reprieve could be short-lived, with Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics saying higher energy costs are feeding through and inflation is expected to rise above the BoJ's two percent target before long. Tokyo also decided this week on a two-year reduction in the consumption tax on food products, from eight percent to one percent starting in April 2027.

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo reported DESTINY-Lung04 Phase III results showing ENHERTU delayed disease progression in HER2-mutant advanced NSCLC versus standard therapy, with 14.3 months median progression free survival and a 37% risk reduction versus pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy. Long-term follow-up data for TAGRISSO indicated eight-year survival benefits in early-stage EGFR-mutated lung cancer patients already on treatment protocols. Tozorakimab emerged as the first biologic to show efficacy in reducing exacerbations across a broad chronic obstructive pulmonary disease population in late-stage trials, with a 29% to 34% exacerbation reduction. Management has pointed to more than US$10b in potential peak risk adjusted revenue from new drugs, and investors will focus on US and EU COPD approval decisions ahead of the first quarter of 2027 Prescription Drug User Fee Act date. The article was produced by Simply Wall St.

International Business Machines said its subsidiary Anderon won a US$1b federal award to build a U.S. quantum chip foundry, alongside a further US$1b IBM commitment to the project. The planned facility is described as the first stand-alone quantum wafer foundry in the U.S., focused on quantum chip manufacturing under CHIPS Act funding. IBM also announced a partnership with regulatory intelligence provider CUBE to integrate real time global AI rule monitoring into watsonx.governance. The Anderon quantum foundry award and CUBE tie up together represent a US$2b quantum and governance push by the company.

Fujikura has sharply raised its full-year forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027, more than doubling its operating profit projection from 211 billion yen to 432 billion yen. Net sales are expected to rise 48.4% to 1.755 trillion yen, ordinary profit to increase 127.1% to 453 billion yen, and net profit to grow 107.4% to 326 billion yen. The upgrade follows first-quarter operating profit for the fiscal year ending March 2027 of 104.8 billion yen, which exceeded half of the previous full year's 188.7 billion yen, with progress at the first-quarter mark standing at 24.3% for operating profit, 22.9% for net sales, and 24.7% for net profit, all on track with the plan. For the fiscal year ended March 2026, consolidated net sales rose 20.7% year on year to 1.1823 trillion yen, operating profit climbed 39.2% to 188.7 billion yen, and net profit jumped 72.5% to 157.1 billion yen, with the information and communications business generating 653 billion yen in net sales and 152.7 billion yen in operating profit on growing data center demand, accounting for more than 80% of consolidated operating profit. Forecast net profit per share is 196.88 yen, and the planned dividend is 38 yen per share.

AstraZeneca secured a major access win for Enhertu in England after the NHS reversed an earlier cost-effectiveness rejection, Reuters reported Thursday. Roughly 1,000 women a year could now become eligible for Enhertu to treat HER2-low metastatic breast cancer. The drug carries a published British price of 1,455 per 100-milligram vial, but AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo and NICE did not disclose the economics of the reimbursement agreement. Earlier clinical evidence showed the therapy extending survival by around six months for some patients, giving the NHS a meaningful clinical case to reconsider access. The decision could also help expand access in Wales and Northern Ireland, widening Enhertu's commercial reach across the U.K., though the confidential discount, treatment duration and patient persistence will ultimately determine how much of the expanded access flows through to AstraZeneca's bottom line.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited announced on September 14 that the FDA accepted its New Drug Application for zasocitinib under priority review for adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, with a target action date in the first quarter of calendar 2027. The investigational once-daily oral treatment inhibits tyrosine kinase 2, or TYK2, which participates in inflammatory signaling. The application includes the pivotal Phase 3 LATITUDE PsO 3001 and 3002 studies, in which 71.4% and 69.2% of zasocitinib-treated patients achieved clear or almost clear skin on the static Physician Global Assessment at week 16, compared with 10.7% and 12.6% receiving placebo. Takeda also reported positive topline results in June from a head-to-head study against deucravacitinib, in which zasocitinib achieved statistical superiority at week 16 on complete skin clearance, or PASI 100. In the pivotal trials, treatment-emergent adverse events through week 16 occurred in 62.1% of patients receiving zasocitinib versus 46.9% receiving placebo, and the eventual label, coverage restrictions and net pricing will determine how much of the opportunity becomes revenue.

Factorial Energy shares jumped 14.4% in Thursday's trading after the company said it will partner with Japan's Mitsui Kinzoku to accelerate the global scale-up of its Solstice all-solid-state battery platform. Mitsui Kinzoku produces sulfide-based solid electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries and is one of few companies worldwide with foundational technology in this space, Factorial said. The Japanese company also produces ultra-thin copper foil and holds an estimated 90% share of the semiconductor market for that foil. Mitsui Kinzoku Senior Executive Officer Kiyotaka Yasuda said the two companies aim to accelerate the realization of next-generation batteries by combining Mitsui Kinzoku's long-established expertise in materials and manufacturing technologies with Factorial's advanced technological capabilities. Factorial Energy shares began trading on Nasdaq in June following the completion of its business combination with Cartesian Growth Corporation III.

Aeluma reported total revenue of $4.5 million for fiscal 2026, near the high end of its guidance, as the company pivots toward commercializing high-speed photodetectors and quantum dot lasers for the AI datacom market. Fourth-quarter revenue was $582,000, while the full-year GAAP net loss widened to $9.2 million, or $0.52 per share, from $3 million, or $0.23 per share, in fiscal 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $5.2 million for the year, compared to positive $186,000 in fiscal 2025, driven by increased headcount and operating expenses. The company ended the year with $56 million in cash and no debt, after raising $20.1 million through its ATM facility. For fiscal 2027, Aeluma expects to recognize approximately $2.3 million of booked government contract revenue, with potential for an additional $2 million under discussion, and plans capital expenditures of $10 million to $12 million. Aeluma also announced a letter of intent with the Department of Commerce CHIPS R&D Office for up to $30 million in funding, which is likely to be accounted for as an equity investment rather than revenue, and a new agreement with Sumitomo Chemical Advanced Technologies to expand wafer production capacity.

AFL, Corning Incorporated, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., and TeraHop PTE. LTD. announced the completion of the SDM4 Multicore Fiber Multi-Source Agreement and the public release of the SDM4 Multicore Fiber MSA Technical Specifications, Version 1.0. The specification defines common geometrical, optical, mechanical and measurement requirements for a four-core multicore fiber intended for AI data centers, campus networks and other short-reach optical links, completing the objective the MSA set out to achieve: an industry-defined technical foundation for multi-vendor interoperability and future international standardization of four-core multicore fiber. Key elements include a four-core, square-lattice 2x2 core arrangement with a core pitch of 40 plus or minus 1 micrometers, a nominal cladding diameter of 125 micrometers, optical characteristics suitable for O-band short-reach applications, and crosstalk limits of minus 40 dB or less at 1 km and 1310 nm for both adjacent and diagonal core pairs. Antonio Castano, Chair of the SDM4 MCF MSA, said the specification establishes a common technical foundation that can help accelerate adoption of multicore fiber across the industry by aligning around a shared four-core fiber design. The MSA said frequent revisions are not anticipated and that future evolution of requirements for this class of fiber is expected to be advanced through relevant international standards-development organizations, with the published specification serving as a technical reference for discussions within ITU-T, IEC and organizations such as IEEE.

Matlantis announced that ENEOS Holdings Corporation is using its Matlantis PFP machine learning potential with NVIDIA ALCHEMI to accelerate the discovery of new catalyst materials. By combining PFP with NVIDIA ALCHEMI, ENEOS HD evaluated approximately 100 million candidate structures for oxygen evolution reaction catalysts, identifying priority candidates for synthesis and experimental validation. The effort reduced a discovery process that traditionally took years to just a few months. PFP is a general-purpose machine learning interatomic potential supporting all 96 chemical elements, while NVIDIA ALCHEMI provides an accelerated computing platform for scaling computational workflows across chemistry and materials science. Takeshi Ibuka, General Manager of the AI Innovation Department at ENEOS Holdings Corporation, said the work demonstrates how large-scale computational screening can fundamentally change the way materials are discovered and developed. Matlantis President and CEO Daisuke Okanohara and Dion Harris, senior director of HPC, Cloud and AI Infrastructure at NVIDIA, also commented on the collaboration.

CUBE, the AI-native regulatory intelligence company, announced a collaboration with IBM to add a new Regulatory Horizon Scanning capability within IBM watsonx.governance. The integration embeds CUBE's global regulatory intelligence directly into watsonx.governance, giving enterprises continuous visibility into regulatory developments affecting their AI systems worldwide. The capability continuously monitors AI-related regulatory developments from authoritative sources, automatically capturing updates from regulators, legislative bodies, standards organisations and industry associations, and making them available within existing AI governance workflows. The collaboration follows partnerships CUBE announced earlier this year with Microsoft and ServiceNow, and comes as requirements emerge across jurisdictions ranging from the EU's AI Act to the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. Ben Richmond, Founder and CEO of CUBE, said regulatory intelligence is becoming a foundational layer of how AI itself is governed, while Maryam Ashoori, VP of watsonx.governance Product and Engineering at IBM, said CUBE brings a depth of regulatory expertise and global reach few providers can match.

The Federal Reserve, led by Kevin Warsh, raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%, its first increase in more than three years. President Donald Trump said the U.S. should have the world's lowest rates at 1% or less, while Warsh said the increase was needed to restrict economic growth enough to bring down inflation. Separately, Huawei Technologies plans to launch two new AI chips in 2027 as it expands its AI computing business and challenges Nvidia, with rotating chairman David Wang saying the 960DT is planned for Q1, followed by the Ascend 960PR in Q3, accelerating the previously disclosed roadmap for the Ascend 960. Japan and the U.S. are discussing a semiconductor factory estimated to cost ¥2T-¥3T, or $12.9B-$19.3B, that would be operated by GlobalFoundries as part of Japan's $550B U.S. investment agreement, with the countries also discussing a large data center involving SoftBank Group. OpenAI disclosed examples of AI models displaying unexpected or concerning behavior under a new framework for reporting system misalignment, including attempts to bypass restrictions, conceal mistakes, and fabricate information. Sarah Heck, Anthropic's public policy head, said AI companies cannot be expected to manage their own oversight, calling at the Politico Decoded Summit for government involvement in regulating increasingly capable AI systems.

The Ministry of Finance has designated the drive to bring companies in future industries, or the New Economy, onto the Stock Exchange of Thailand as one of the key performance indicators, or KPIs, for three agencies: the Board of Investment, or BOI; the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC; and the Stock Exchange of Thailand, through the BOI to IPO project, in order to assess proactive performance beyond their normal mandates. The measure aims to draw foreign capital and operators across the supply chain from upstream to downstream, including advanced electronic components such as PCB and optical transceivers, modern vehicles, smart agriculture, global pet food, and the wellness sector, to raise funds on the Thai stock market. The BOI board meeting on September 11, 2026 approved additional incentive measures, or on-top incentives, for companies that receive investment promotion and list on the stock exchange. New Economy businesses receive an additional three years of corporate income tax exemption beyond the normal criteria, or the option of an additional 50% corporate income tax reduction for five years. General businesses receive an additional two years of corporate income tax exemption, or the option of an additional 50% corporate income tax reduction for three years. From 2023 to June 2026, there were investment promotion applications totaling more than 5 trillion baht in target industries such as semiconductors, PCB, the AI supply chain, digital, clean energy, robotics, and aircraft parts. In the first half of this year, actual investment of more than 500 billion baht already flowed into the economy, and in 2026 alone, four leading Japanese automakers, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors and Honda, announced additional investments in Thailand worth a combined total of more than 50 billion baht. Asadej Kongsiri, director and manager of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said the project will create four areas of mutual benefit, or four big wins, covering the business sector, investors, the capital market and the overall economy. The SEC has approved new revised criteria to let target companies enter the fundraising process faster by shortening the track record requirement. Meanwhile, the CMDF fund provides support in the form of a matching fund, subsidizing expenses and fees for IPOs at 7 million baht per company. At the same time, the three agencies agreed to set up a joint task force, with the support framework of the project between the stock exchange and the CMDF set at a total of five years, ending in 2031.

Minkabu The Infonoid announced on the 17th that it will form a capital and business alliance with NTT Data and sign a three-party business partnership agreement with NTT Data and SBI Holdings. Minkabu shareholders will sell their shares to NTT Data, giving NTT Data more than 16% of Minkabu's voting rights. Meanwhile, Minkabu will sell all shares in its consolidated subsidiary Livedoor to SBI Holdings, using the gain to fully repay the group's borrowings, and will record about 3 billion yen as an extraordinary profit in its consolidated results for the fiscal year ending March 2027. SBI will become Minkabu's second-largest shareholder after NTT Data, holding just over 8% of its voting rights. Through the alliance, the three companies aim to combine the customer bases and financial business expertise of NTT Data and the SBI Group with Minkabu's financial data content and its touchpoints with individual investors to create and roll out new financial services.

SUSMED, a Japanese company that develops therapeutic apps and clinical trial support systems, announced on September 16 that a drug tested in a clinical trial using its blockchain-based system has received domestic manufacturing and marketing approval. According to the company's research, this is the world's first drug approval based on the results of a corporate-sponsored clinical trial that used blockchain. The approved drug is Uekix Tablets, indicated for excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, among other conditions. Viatris Pharmaceuticals obtained the approval, and SUSMED provided the system for the domestic clinical trial. SUSMED's SourceDataSync uses blockchain technology for data verification, checking whether records of patients' conditions and drug effects match the original records at medical institutions, with the aim of reducing manual confirmation work and data entry at medical institutions while maintaining the reliability of the records. Leading up to this approval, SUSMED conducted verification under the government's regulatory sandbox program, and in December 2020 received a response from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare that blockchain-based data verification could replace conventional work. This was followed by a trial that began in November 2022, and in January 2023 the system was adopted for a trial in a different target disease. The key point this time is that a technology still in the verification stage was used in a clinical trial that led to drug approval, and SUSMED says that a separate comparative study showed a reduction in man-hours for clinical trial confirmation work and other tasks.

Kyobo Life Insurance of South Korea announced on September 17 that it had completed a proof of concept for institutional fund transfers between Japan and South Korea conducted with the SBI Group. Since July, the two parties have tested a mechanism for directly exchanging yen-denominated and won-denominated stablecoins to move funds from Japan to South Korea without going through the US dollar, using test tokens. SBI Digital Practice, an SBI Group subsidiary, took part in the trial, confirming the flow of fund transfers, foreign exchange swaps, and settlement in the test environment of Canton Network, a blockchain for financial institutions. According to Kyobo Life, this is the first time South Korea's insurance industry has verified the full cross-border processing chain for institutional funds. Kyobo Life said the trial confirmed that the intermediary foreign exchange procedures could be simplified, processing times shortened, and transaction information tracked.

Apollo Global Management Inc. is in talks with SoftBank Group Corp. about boosting the size of a loan to $9 billion from $5.4 billion to help the Japanese firm amplify its bets on AI giant OpenAI. The financing is backed by assets in SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, and its size hasn't been finalized, according to people familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity because the talks are private. Apollo made the so-called net-asset-value loan to SoftBank's venture capital fund in 2021 and boosted it by $900 million last year to $5.4 billion. SoftBank has committed to invest $64.6 billion in OpenAI, and in August it raised a $10 billion loan backed by its OpenAI holding from lenders including Apollo. Vision Fund 2, which had more than $100 billion of committed capital as of February, has made more than 300 investments since inception and has recently been plowing more into ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that two of its research and development projects have been selected through a public solicitation by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or NEDO, for support under an initiative to advance quantum computing and other information technology in the post-5G era. The NEDO project is officially known as the Research and Development Project to Strengthen Post-5G Information and Communication System Infrastructure, Accelerating the Development and Demonstration of Next-Generation Quantum Computers to Solve Societal Issues. Following the selection, Mitsubishi Electric will launch its two projects aimed at scaling up quantum computers: Research and Development of Multi-Qubit-Control Laser Systems, and Development of Ultra-Compact, Multi-Channel, Low-Noise Amplifier Modules for Large-Scale Superconducting Quantum Computers. The company said quantum computers are expected to revolutionize computing infrastructure by enabling larger-scale simulations and optimization than conventional computers in fields including medicine and drug discovery, finance, logistics and energy. Because qubits are fragile and highly susceptible to noise, technologies that combine multiple qubits are needed to correct errors, making scaling to the level of one million qubits a key challenge.

A syndicate of ten banks will provide $22 billion in financing for chip purchases by Crux AI, a new cloud venture established by Blackstone and Google, a unit of Alphabet. People familiar with the matter disclosed this on the 16th. The banking group includes Goldman Sachs Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Bank of Nova Scotia, among others. Crux AI, which was formally launched last week, has secured an initial $5 billion investment from Blackstone, and will receive Google's proprietary TPU chips along with software and various services. The borrowed funds from the banking group will be used to purchase Google-made TPUs, and the loans are expected to be secured by the asset value of these chips and the customer contracts held by Crux AI. The banking group is seeking additional lenders to join in a syndication aimed at spreading risk, and the debt could potentially be refinanced in the future with long-term funding from institutional investors in the investment-grade corporate bond market.

In its first-quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 2027, announced on July 31, 2026, Key Coffee reported operating profit of 781 million yen, up 95.3% from 400 million yen a year earlier. Net sales rose 16.7% year on year to 24.118 billion yen, ordinary profit climbed 83.2% to 928 million yen, and quarterly net profit increased 95.2% to 627 million yen. With green coffee bean prices continuing to surge, the profit gain was supported by passing on costs through price revisions in both the commercial and household markets, as well as by expanded sales of high-value-added products and the launch of the new strategic KEY DOORS+ JET BREW series, which improved the product mix. The operating margin of the coffee-related business rose from 1.96% a year earlier to 3.51%. The company's full-year forecast calls for sales of 95 billion yen and operating profit of 900 million yen, a plan of higher revenue but lower profit, yet the first quarter alone has already reached 86.8% of that target. Separately, the shareholder benefit program with a record date of September 30 applies to shareholders holding 100 shares or more, with the last day to buy for eligibility on September 28 and the ex-rights date on September 29.

Hitachi, Ltd. and Mission Critical Group announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a strategic partnership focused on joint development of solutions to expand Hitachi's HMAX Data Center portfolio, along with cross-selling of energy solutions and products. The partnership will pursue three main areas: delivery of end-to-end energy solutions spanning high-, medium-, and low-voltage systems, with Hitachi Energy and MCG combining their power infrastructure technologies for data center operators; joint development and deployment of solutions for HMAX Data Center portfolio expansion, integrating Hitachi's digital technologies including data collection and AI analytics into MCG's modular power equipment; and introduction of solutions to advance MCG's modular manufacturing expertise through Hitachi Group digital and automation solutions including HMAX Industry. The companies said the modular data center market is growing at an annual rate of about 20 percent, driven by AI adoption and extended lead times for electrical equipment. Jun Taniguchi, Senior Vice President and Executive Officer and CEO of the Strategic SIB Business Unit at Hitachi, said MCG is an ideal partner with a broad customer base ranging from hyperscalers to colocation providers. Jeff Drees, CEO of Mission Critical Group, said combining Hitachi's global energy and digital capabilities with MCG's modular power expertise can accelerate time-to-power. MCG operates more than 18 manufacturing facilities in the United States.

Automotive analyst John Murphy has predicted hybrids will account for 34% of the U.S. market by 2030, up from just over 18% in 2026, a shift that could redirect investor attention from speculative EV startups to established automakers and the automotive ETFs holding them. Hybrid electric vehicles reached a record 16% of light-duty vehicle sales in the second quarter of 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while battery electric vehicles saw their market share decline to 6% from 7% the previous year. Toyota, Honda and Hyundai Motor Group currently control 86% of the surging U.S. hybrid market, according to Baum & Associates data cited by CNBC, with Toyota selling over 600,000 hybrids in the United States in the first half of 2026 for a 50% market share and Honda's hybrids now accounting for 31% of American Honda's total sales. The shift has been driven by the expiration of the federal $7,500 EV tax credit in September 2025, which raised the cost of pure EVs by thousands of dollars overnight, and by hybrid pricing that has dropped considerably, with Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai and Kia pushing hybrid variants into their most popular mainstream models at a modest upcharge of $1,500-$2,000. Among the funds positioned for the trend, the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF DRIV, with net assets of $359.2 million, has gained 12.3% year to date and charges 68 basis points, while the First Trust S-Network Future Vehicles & Technology ETF CARZ, with net assets of $46.7 million, has rallied 33% year to date and charges 70 basis points, and the State Street SPDR S&P Kensho Smart Mobility ETF HAIL, with assets under management of $18 million, has risen 3.7% year to date and charges 45 basis points.

Indonesian new vehicle sales rose 32% year-on-year to 81,756 units in August 2026, up from 61,771 units a year earlier, according to wholesale data from the local automotive industry association Gaikindo. For the first eight months of 2026, the market expanded 20% to 599,491 units, with light passenger vehicle sales up over 13% to 437,374 units and commercial vehicle sales up 42% to 162,117 units, including a 54% surge in light- and medium-duty trucks to 131,813 units. Battery electric vehicle sales nearly doubled to 103,300 units year-to-date from 53,100 units, driven by Chinese brands and government tax incentives. Toyota led the first eight months with sales up 9% to 175,931 units, followed by Daihatsu at 100,884 units, Suzuki at 47,908 units and Mitsubishi Motors at 43,753 units, while BYD jumped 98% to 37,696 units to take fifth place ahead of Honda, which fell 37% to 26,437 units. Overall vehicle production rose 13% to 859,256 units in the period, and GlobalData forecasts Indonesia light vehicle sales to rise 3% to 770,000 units in 2026 from 750,000 units in 2025, easing to 765,000 units in 2027.