WSJ: AI Boom Is Creating a New Capital Siphon, Pressuring U.S. Non-Technology Companies

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang held approximately 870 million NVIDIA shares as of March 23, 2026, accounting for 3.58% of the company’s total outstanding shares. Valued at NVIDIA’s early-October share price of $231.49, this stake is worth roughly $201 billion. Forbes data shows Huang’s current net worth is around $200 billion, with his personal wealth primarily derived from NVIDIA holdings. Huang is NVIDIA’s largest known individual shareholder. However, under U.S. SEC rules, individual investors holding less than 5% of shares are not required to disclose their stakes, so it is possible that undisclosed individual shareholders hold more than Huang. NVIDIA’s major institutional shareholders holding over 5% of its shares include BlackRock and Vanguard, with stakes of 7.43% and 7.31% respectively. Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993. Before NVIDIA’s first stock split in 1999, he held around 2.9 million shares, representing 9.9% of the company. Had he retained all those shares to date, adjusted for stock splits, he would hold nearly 2.8 billion shares, indicating he has since continuously sold off some of his holdings. Additionally, Huang can earn NVIDIA stock through performance awards. NVIDIA paid him a total compensation of $35.5 million in fiscal 2025, consisting of a $1.5 million base salary, a $3 million cash bonus, and approximately $31 million in equity awarded in the form of 936,800 performance stock units (PSUs).

Solana ecosystem project Stonk announced early today the launch of its "Community Coins" mechanism. Users holding specified Solana community coins will be eligible to earn holder rewards from new meme coins paired with these community coins going forward. Per the rules, each meme coin issued under "Community Mode" allocates 33% of its holder rewards to eligible community coin holders, while the remaining 67% goes to holders of the meme coin itself. The first batch of participating community coins includes USELESS, PENGU, ZCAT, ANSEM, and NEET. Stonk noted that users holding top Solana meme coins can participate in the related reward distribution.

According to WSJ, data from institutions including Goldman Sachs shows that U.S. equity CTA (trend-following quantitative fund) positions have seen sharp adjustments recently. Rubner Research notes that the Z-score of these positions has dropped from +2.35 at the end of August to -0.80, a swing of over 3 standard deviations in a month, indicating that previously accumulated long positions have been significantly liquidated. Meanwhile, U.S. companies have authorized around $1.3 trillion in stock buybacks this year, with some repurchase programs set to restart after October 15 as the Q3 earnings blackout period ends. Historical data shows that buyback activity typically intensifies further in November. On the seasonal front, Rubner data shows that since 1930, the S&P 500 has averaged a 5.6% gain in the fourth quarter of U.S. midterm election years, outperforming the 2.9% average for all years' Q4. In tech stocks, Nasdaq 100 futures are approaching the key resistance level of 31,200 points, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) has broken through near-term resistance and is closing in on its all-time high. Goldman Sachs projects that bond issuance by hyperscale cloud providers could reach $420 billion by 2027, though their interest expenses as a share of earnings remain low. Morgan Stanley data shows these companies have net leverage of around 0.4x, with cash equal to roughly 132% of their debt. Additionally, Goldman Sachs noted that previously lowered pricing expectations for traditional storage and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) are starting to recover, while JPMorgan pointed out that semiconductor hardware earnings prospects remain solid, with strong demand for TSMC's AI accelerators. Another key variable for the fourth quarter remains crude oil. Goldman Sachs believes the global crude oil inventory buffer has thinned significantly, and a $100 per barrel oil price is not inconsistent with current supply-demand balance.

Beating AI News Flash: Local time October 3, David Robinson, head of OpenAI’s Security Systems Team, has resigned. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that Robinson left the company last week. Prior to his departure, he oversaw the company’s policy planning efforts and contributed to AI security transparency work, including developing and releasing model "system cards".

According to Forbes, U.S. President Donald Trump told Time magazine in an interview that "a certain level of inflation will also pay off debt very quickly," sparking market debate over whether the U.S. can reduce its real debt burden through nominal economic growth and inflation. The outlet notes that U.S. federal debt has surpassed $40 trillion, more than doubling over the past decade, while interest payments have climbed steadily after Federal Reserve rate hikes. Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Elon Musk have all previously cited technology-driven economic growth as a critical solution to debt pressure. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price has rallied roughly 300% from its 2023 low, but remains about 30% below its 2025 all-time high of $126,000. Markets have recently refocused on the "debasement trade"—a strategy where investors hedge against fiat currency purchasing power erosion by allocating to assets like gold and Bitcoin. Forbes cited Bitfire Research’s analysis, which argues that Bitcoin’s long-term value as a hedge against fiat depreciation remains valid, though short-term prices may still be swayed by interest rate policies and U.S. dollar liquidity. Additionally, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE index, shows U.S. prices rose 3.4% year-over-year, still above the Fed’s 2% target. Markets assign a roughly 70% probability that the Fed will hold interest rates steady at its late-October policy meeting.

According to GMGN market data, meme tokens in the Robinhood ecosystem have recently pulled back broadly, with multiple popular projects seeing significant declines from their previous highs. Among them, the ecosystem’s representative token PONS currently has a market cap of approximately $429 million, down about 57% from its prior peak of nearly $990 million, and a 24-hour drop of 19.5%. Other popular meme tokens: INU has a current market cap of around $3.2 million, down 30.9% in 24 hours; NOSH at $2.8 million, down 33.2% in 24 hours; PARE at $2.7 million, down 25.4% in 24 hours; MANY at $2 million, down 20.4% in 24 hours; microduck at $1.6 million, down 21.7% in 24 hours. BlockBeats Note: Meme coin trading is highly volatile, largely driven by market sentiment and concept hype, with no inherent real value or practical use cases. Investors are advised to exercise caution regarding risks.