Bank of Korea warns: South Korea's chip exports could drop by $100 billion if AI capital expenditure slows down.

Beating AI News (from Dongcha) reports that robotics AI startup Physical Intelligence (π) is in talks to raise at least $1 billion in new funding, targeting a valuation of roughly $20 billion. Existing investors Avenir and Lux Capital are expected to lead the round. The startup has not yet generated revenue, but its valuation has climbed from $5.6 billion in November last year to $11.5 billion earlier this year; if the round closes, it will rise to around $20 billion. Founded in 2024, Physical Intelligence’s founding team comes from Google DeepMind, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Its backers include Jeff Bezos, CapitalG, and Thrive Capital. Rather than manufacturing robots itself, the firm develops a general-purpose AI “brain” compatible with diverse robot hardware, enabling robots to master practical tasks like folding clothes, organizing tableware, and picking strawberries. On October 13, the company launched the beta version of its Pi API, allowing external developers to upload their robot operation data; the platform handles model fine-tuning and provides cloud-based inference services. This lets robot manufacturers avoid training entire models from scratch, letting them test their machines’ ability to learn new tasks. Peer firm Skild AI raised $1.4 billion in funding in January this year, boasting a valuation of over $14 billion. Unlike Physical Intelligence, which has no revenue, Skild announced in September it had more than 60 paying clients, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding $100 million, roughly 90% of which came from robot operation-related tasks. Both companies aim to turn the robot “brain” into general-purpose software to sell to various hardware makers.

Crypto market analyst Crypto Mommy, citing data from CryptoQuant, noted that Bitcoin’s Realized Cap has resumed an uptrend after months of correction. The metric has climbed from $1.057 trillion to $1.088 trillion, an increase of roughly $31 billion, or 2.9%. Analysts say this is generally a positive sign; historically, a rebound in this indicator has marked the early stages of a bull market cycle. Realized Cap calculates the network’s overall cost basis by using the price at which each Bitcoin was last moved on-chain, and its rise typically signals inflow of new capital. However, the analyst also pointed out that Bitcoin’s price has surged 16% recently, jumping from $69,000 to $80,000, far outpacing the 2.9% growth of its cost basis. This divergence suggests the recent price rally is driven more by reluctance to sell among existing holders rather than large-scale inflow of new external funds. The analyst also warned that a rise in Realized Cap is not an absolute guarantee of price gains; at the market peak in late 2025, this metric also rose amid profit-taking by long-term holders. To confirm whether the market is entering a healthier phase, the analyst advised investors to focus on two key signals going forward: first, whether Realized Cap can sustain continuous expansion; second, whether Bitcoin’s price can successfully hold its recent gains as capital flows in.

Beating AI News Flash, October 27: Hurun Research Institute released the 2026 Hurun Rich List. 41-year-old Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, made his debut on the list, ranking 7th in China with an estimated wealth of 280 billion yuan, surpassing NetEase’s Ding Lei and the Li Ka-shing family, making him the highest-net-worth new entrepreneur on the list this year. Liang was not featured on last year’s list. Hurun noted this was mainly because he had previously advocated “no commercialization.” However, DeepSeek launched large-scale financing this year: it closed its first round in June, and its pre-money valuation for the second round reached around 500 billion yuan in August. In October, DeepSeek secured 106 billion yuan in financing, pushing its post-money valuation to over 600 billion yuan. It should be noted that the Hurun List uses September 1 as the cutoff date for wealth calculations, and the 280 billion yuan figure is only an estimated personal fortune. AI is also reshaping the entire rich list: ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming saw his wealth rise by 200 billion yuan, returning to China’s top spot with 670 billion yuan; Cambricon’s Chen Tianshi entered the top 10 with 205 billion yuan; Zhipu AI’s Liu Debin and Tang Jie made their debuts with 39.5 billion yuan and 27.5 billion yuan respectively. Hurun statistics show that over 160 entrepreneurs on this year’s list derive their wealth from the AI sector, accounting for roughly 10% of the total entrants.

WTI and Brent crude oil have dropped roughly $0.7 from their intraday peaks, now trading at $100.75 per barrel and $110.89 per barrel respectively. On the news front, Qatari mediators submitted a new draft agreement to Iran on Sunday; Iran is reviewing the proposal and is expected to respond within this week.

Per Binance Wallet’s official announcement, users holding Predict Points (PP Points) can now check their PP Points balance and select their preferred method to claim the PREDICT airdrop. There are two paths to access PP Points: 1. Navigate to the "Prediction Account" via Binance’s "Assets" section; 2. In Binance Wallet, go sequentially to "Discover" → "dApp" → "Predict" → "Assets". PP Points holders can use these entry points to verify their points and complete all necessary steps to claim the airdrop.

According to data from the BIT Stock Platform, pre-market trading in US stocks saw strength in optical communications, Neocloud, semiconductors, and most storage stocks, while crypto-related stocks were mixed. The three major index futures were mixed: S&P 500 futures rose 0.11%, Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.54%, and Dow Jones futures fell 0.21%. SpaceX (SPCX) climbed 0.81% in pre-market trading. All optical communications-related stocks advanced: Credo (CRDO) up 2.78%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) up 2.27%, Coherent (COHR) up 2.15%, Ciena (CIEN) up 1.95%, and Lumentum (LITE) up 1.79%. Most Neocloud stocks rose: IREN up 2.33%, Nebius (NBIS) up 2.14%, Astera Labs (ALAB) up 2.02%, Cipher Digital (CIFR) up 2.00%, CoreWeave (CRWV) up 1.90%, while AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) dipped 0.12%. Semiconductor stocks were broadly higher: Micron Technology (MU) up 4.40%, Arm (ARM) up 2.38%, Intel (INTC) up 2.20%, Marvell Technology (MRVL) up 2.17%, AMD up 1.91%, ASML up 1.27%, Broadcom (AVGO) up 1.24%, NVIDIA (NVDA) up 0.77%, and TSMC (TSM) up 0.43%. Storage stocks showed mixed performance: SK Hynix (SKHY) up 8.11%, SanDisk (SNDK) up 5.03%, Western Digital (WDC) up 1.21%, while Seagate Technology (STX) fell 3.23%. Crypto-related stocks were mixed: BitMine (BMNR) up 1.41%, MARA up 0.99%, Strategy (MSTR) up 0.81%, Robinhood (HOOD) down 8.42%, Coinbase (COIN) down 1.58%, and Circle (CRCL) down 0.40%.