AI and Tech News, 31 Oct 2026: Intel Crash, Binance, OpenAI

Here are the nineteen biggest technology and AI stories of the day, from Intel's worst day on record and a broad tech selloff to OpenAI scaling back its funding round.

1. Intel Shares Fall About 28% in Their Worst Day on Record

Investors reacted to a fourth-quarter revenue forecast of $15B to $16B, below the roughly $17B expected, and a warning of no positive cash flow, cutting about $12B from the US government's stake.

2. The Nasdaq Has Its Worst Day Since June as Tech Stocks Lose More Than $1T

Intel's slide and worries about AI spending after Amazon's results dragged down chipmakers, with AMD falling about 10% and the S&P 500 dropping close to 2%.

3. North Korean Hackers Are Blamed for the Record $6.3B Binance Theft

Blockchain firms TRM Labs and Elliptic tied the attack to North Korea, while Binance traced it to a compromised engineer's laptop, says about $3B has been frozen and will cover losses itself.

4. OpenAI Cuts Its Funding Target to About $20B at a $1.25T Valuation, the FT Reports

OpenAI had sought about $30B at a $1.4T valuation, but scaled back as AI stocks sold off, according to the Financial Times; the final terms are still being worked out.

5. Anthropic Will Likely Get a 'Junk' Credit Rating After Its IPO, Blackstone Tells Investors

Blackstone, which anchored a $63B chip financing deal for Anthropic, now expects a double-B rating, reversing its earlier forecast of investment grade, the Financial Times reports. Both companies declined to comment.

6. Amazon Sets Up a Secured Loan Facility of Up to $80B to Buy AI Hardware

Disclosed in its quarterly filing, the facility can be drawn from early 2027 through late 2028 and is secured by the equipment Amazon buys, as its capital spending outpaces cash flow.

7. Baseten Is Raising About $2B at a Valuation of Up to $30B, Bloomberg Says

The AI inference company's round has two tranches valuing it at $26B and $30B, with Sands Capital expected to lead, more than doubling its $13B valuation from June.

8. Apple Intelligence Comes to China in December, Using Alibaba's Qwen

Apple says testing starts with a developer beta on November 4, ahead of the iOS 27.3 release in December, though the new Siri AI features are not included at launch.

9. The UK's Competition Regulator Opens a Formal Investigation Into Meta's Business Terms

The CMA will examine whether terms letting Meta use content from publishers' and advertisers' websites for its own products, including AI features, are exploitative. Meta says there are no grounds for the probe.

10. OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic Back One Robots.txt Signal for Opting Out of AI Training

Publishers will be able to block AI training with a single shared token, which OpenAI plans to support in the coming months and Microsoft and Google in 2027.

11. ChatGPT Will Limit Weapons Information for Teens and End Chats Fixated on Violence

OpenAI says users it identifies as under 18 will lose access to practical weapons and security system details, with the new safeguards rolling out over the next few weeks.

12. Google Is in Early Talks to Join the Pentagon's $185B Golden Dome Program, Bloomberg Reports

Google would supply data storage, networking and cybersecurity for the missile defense effort, which would be its first known role in the program, though officials say nothing has been decided.

13. Waymo Will Test Self-Driving Toyota bZ4X Robotaxis in Japan Next Year

The Toyota vehicle is set to become Waymo's robotaxi for right-hand-drive markets such as Japan and the UK, as the two companies extend their autonomous driving partnership.

14. Salesforce Is Reportedly Buying Defense AI Startup Rune for $375M

Rune's software helps the US military forecast supply needs and manage logistics, and the reported cash-and-stock deal would expand Missionforce, Salesforce's fast-growing defense unit.

15. Google's First Data Center Satellite Runs Gemma 4 in Orbit and Writes a Haiku

The Project Suncatcher prototype, built with Planet and launched on October 1, is testing whether Google's TPU chips can handle radiation and heat in space.

16. Apple Acquires Agentic Data Engineering Startup Ascend.io

An EU filing revealed the deal for the company, which builds AI agents that automate data pipelines and is now winding down its operations.

17. CISA Says Hackers Are Exploiting a Maximum-Severity GitLab Flaw

The US cyber agency added the remote code execution bug, rated 10.0 and patched earlier this month, to its catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, so unpatched servers are at risk.

18. Drupal Warns of a Critical Commerce Core Flaw That Attackers Are Already Exploiting

The access bypass bug in the popular ecommerce module lets attackers get around authorization checks, and Drupal is urging site owners to patch immediately.

19. Trezor Investigates a Suspected Crypto-Stealing Implant in One of Its Hardware Wallets

A Trezor Safe 5 sold through a Southeast Asian reseller reportedly contained an extra board designed to leak its recovery phrase, and buyers are being told to move their funds.