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0Hi there~~ Good evening, everyone! It's Thursday, October 15, 2026, and I'm An'an, your host on Goodnight Coffee. You've had a busy day—so take a moment to unwind with me and catch up on today's fresh, hot, can't-miss business and tech news! Let's look at the world in a relaxed way and make sense of it all~ Ready?
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CNBC reports that TSMC announced its third-quarter results on October 15. Net profit rose 68.7% year over year to NT$763.06 billion, beating the LSEG SmartEstimate forecast of NT$746.3 billion and marking a sixth consecutive quarter of record profit. Quarterly revenue was $46.72 billion, with an operating margin of 58.7%, above the upper end of its 58% guidance. The company expects fourth-quarter revenue between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion, up 14% quarter over quarter and 58% year over year at the midpoint of guidance; capital expenditure from 2026 to 2028 will be significantly higher than in the previous three years. CEO C.C. Wei expects 2026 revenue to grow about 44% in U.S. dollar terms, with capex maintained at $60 billion to $64 billion. By technology, 7nm and more advanced nodes accounted for 79% of wafer revenue, with 3nm at 33% and 3nm and 2nm combined at 41%. By platform, high-performance computing accounted for 68% of revenue, smartphones 21%, and automotive grew 23% quarter over quarter, making it the fastest-growing segment. Gross margin for the quarter was 66.4%, down from 67.7% in the second quarter, with fourth-quarter gross margin guidance of 65% to 67%. CFO Wendell Huang said overseas fabs diluted gross margin by nearly 2% this year, and that dilution will expand to 3% to 4% in the future. Free cash flow rose from NT$139.38 billion in the year-earlier period to NT$476.56 billion. TSMC said AI chip demand remains strong, with agentic AI and open-source AI models driving demand, and its 2nm process is ramping up.
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CNBC reports that people familiar with the matter say Anthropic, as it prepares for an IPO, has disclosed to investors third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion and plans to list as early as November. Earlier reports said the company held a pre-IPO investor meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday, disclosing quarterly financial results to potential investors, including institutional investors, for the first time. The people said first-quarter revenue was $4.7 billion, second-quarter revenue was $11.6 billion, and third-quarter revenue grew about 45% quarter over quarter, for a total of about $33 billion in the first three quarters. The report said that figure is more than 3.6 times the company's full-year 2025 revenue, but growth was slower than in the second quarter. The company also said it was profitable on an adjusted basis in the third quarter and generated positive cash flow. According to the Financial Times, in the third quarter Anthropic generated $1.70 in revenue for every $1 it spent on compute. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that investors expect the company's annualized revenue to reach $110 billion by year-end.
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CNBC reports that India's largest telecom operator, Jio Platforms, plans to raise up to 302 billion rupees, or about $3.2 billion, through an IPO. Its parent company, Reliance Industries, said in an exchange filing that Jio Platforms will offer 270 million shares at a price range of 1,065 to 1,119 rupees per share, with bidding from October 21 to 23.
In rupee terms, this would be India's largest-ever IPO; in dollar terms, it would rank second, slightly below Hyundai Motor's $3.3 billion IPO in 2024. Indian market intelligence firm Prime Database had previously expected Jio Platforms to raise about 377 billion rupees. At the top of the price range, the company would be valued at about $108 billion, far below earlier expectations.
Jio Platforms has positioned itself as a tech company rather than a traditional utility provider, but investors don't seem convinced. Deven Choksey, managing director of Mumbai-based DRChoksey Finserv, told CNBC that Jio Platforms is still essentially a telecom company, with most revenue coming from selling internet data, while its entertainment or gaming apps increase data consumption.
Jio is India's largest telecom company, with more than 500 million users, but at the current issue price, its valuation would be lower than that of India's second-largest carrier, Bharti Airtel. LSEG data shows Bharti Airtel has a market value of $117.5 billion. LSEG data also shows that Reliance Industries, owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, holds more than 66% of Jio Platforms, Meta's Jaadhu Holdings holds nearly 10%, and Google International holds 7.7%. The IPO filing shows neither Meta nor Google will sell their stakes.
In addition, Jio Platforms plans to launch satellite communications services in India, putting it at the center of a dispute between Ambani and Starlink founder Elon Musk. According to reports, Jio plans to build a network of about 1,600 low-Earth-orbit satellites and 23 ground stations to expand connectivity across India. Last Saturday, Musk accused Ambani of blocking Starlink's entry into India in order to maintain a "monopolistic exploitation" of the Indian market.
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The Verge reports that eight U.S. states—Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana—filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI on or around October 14, alleging that it harms children. The states say ChatGPT is marketed as safe and suitable for teenagers but is actually dangerous to vulnerable users, including by weakening critical thinking, encouraging paranoid delusions, providing dangerous medical advice, and promoting unhealthy relationships. They say OpenAI sacrificed safety for profit and failed to warn of risks, violating local consumer protection laws. The complaints cite multiple lawsuits by family members saying ChatGPT was linked to the deaths of their loved ones, accuse OpenAI of collecting data on minors and failing to prevent minors from using it, and mention recent incidents involving out-of-control AI hacking. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri responded that the company has established age-specific protections and will continue to add parental controls, break reminders, and age-appropriate model protections. The states are seeking civil penalties, an end to misleading the public, and, in some cases, deletion of illegally collected personal data.
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Readhub reports that Grain Management bought a batch of spectrum licenses and 600MHz spectrum from T-Mobile for $2.9 billion, then just two months later flipped them to SpaceX for $8 billion, netting $5.1 billion. On the day the deal closed, shares of the three major U.S. telecom carriers plunged, wiping out about $60 billion in combined market value in a single day; tower company shares surged in tandem, adding about $11 billion in total market value. By successively buying the frequency bands it needed and winning approval for its second-generation direct-to-cell constellation, SpaceX uses its own spectrum, satellite constellation, and existing user base to let ordinary phones that support the relevant low-band frequencies bypass ground base stations and connect directly to users, circumventing the traditional telecom carriers' coverage model built on spectrum and towers and reaching users directly. The market then repriced assets: spectrum's moat-like property lost its effectiveness, while towers' value as physical-site real estate actually rose. SpaceX thus gained a ticket to become the fourth-largest nationwide network player, with related effects rippling through the European telecom sector.
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Sina Tech reports that Apple board executive chairman Tim Cook visited Shanghai on October 15 and gave a media interview. Speaking about Apple Intelligence, Cook said Apple Intelligence and the related Alibaba Qwen large model have indeed been approved and will launch a test version in China later in October. The first batch of features will include live translation, writing tools, and a photo cleanup tool, but Siri AI will not be included this time. Cook said he is glad that the first core Apple Intelligence features can be rolled out gradually.
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36Kr reports that in a long conversation with Lex Fridman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recalled how Nvidia first connected with TSMC and talked about Chinese AI companies. He said that to reach TSMC, he looked through the Yellow Pages, found the number, repeatedly called its U.S. office and left messages, but never got a call back, so he eventually wrote a long letter to Morris Chang. Then one evening, a voice on the other end said, "This is Morris Chang of TSMC," and years later he still remembered his excitement: "Maybe we won't go out of business after all." One detail that moved him was that Morris Chang would tell him plainly, "This is something we can't do," reflecting his commitment to business boundaries, integrity, and long-term relationships. Chip manufacturing is full of unknowns, and you can't agree on every detail in advance. "What you're really choosing isn't what to buy, but whom to do it with." Speaking of the Chinese AI companies Lex had visited, Huang said compute shortages are forcing them to design more efficient architectures. They face enormous constraints, but they are still raising money and pushing their businesses forward, "desperately trying to get things done." He mentioned that Nvidia's local team in Taiwan is about 1,000 people, covering supply chain, systems engineering, operations engineering, and wafer manufacturing, packaging, and testing, and that it plans to build a new building almost identical to the one Lex had previously toured.
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TechWeb reports that according to Counterpoint Research's latest tracking and forecasts, in the second quarter of 2026, Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) rose to third place globally by NAND shipments, behind Samsung Electronics and SK hynix and ahead of Kioxia and Micron; if SK hynix's Solidigm shipments are excluded, its ranking rises to second. On the revenue side, from the first quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, YMTC's global NAND revenue share rose from 9% to 14%, an increase of more than 50%, the fastest growth among major NAND makers in the same period. Counterpoint Research analyst Jeongku Choi said that with AI pushing the NAND industry into a supercycle, YMTC has become the fastest-growing vendor. Despite geopolitical headwinds, its investments in capabilities and capacity remain prudent and effective, and its 2026 revenue growth is expected to reach six times the industry and peer growth rate. Its growth mainly comes from enterprise SSDs for AI data centers, benefiting from rising prices and domestic demand, though it had previously failed to fully capture the enterprise SSD premium. The firm expects YMTC's server-related business revenue share to rise from nearly zero in 2024 to nearly 39% in 2028.
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Sina Tech reports that on October 14, Doubao Phone Assistant announced that the 30-day public notice period for its Screen Automation Declaration Protocol (SAEP) ended that day, and it will gradually open screen automation permissions for third-party apps. Apps that have explicitly refused will not be operated by the agent; after the notice period ends, developers can still declare refusal at any time, and the assistant will promptly disable the related operations. Its refusal list totals 155 apps and affects the Nubia M153 and NaviX Ultra. Tencent and its affiliated ecosystem had the most, 66, including WeChat, QQ, Tencent Meeting, Yuanbao, and Honor of Kings; Alibaba ecosystem had 23, including Taobao, Alipay, Amap, Hema, and Qwen; Kuaishou ecosystem had 14, Meituan ecosystem 11, and Ezviz ecosystem 7; plus 34 standalone apps such as DeepSeek, Kimi, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, WPS, Mijia, and several banks and the three major telecom operators. These high-frequency apps may affect the experience of the two Doubao AI phones. SAEP was launched on September 14 with a public notice period, and the consumer version of Doubao Phone Assistant was released the same day; NaviX Ultra went on sale on September 16. Third parties can independently declare whether to allow or refuse AI assistant operations; currently, it supports system apps, ZTE, ByteDance ecosystem, and some third-party apps that have already integrated. During the notice period, apps without permission could not be automated; after it ends, they will be opened up gradually.
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Sina Tech reports, citing Jiemian News, that Omdia released data on October 14 showing that smartphone shipments in mainland China in the third quarter of 2026 were 59.3 million units, down 12% year over year, the lowest for the same period since 2013. Among the top five brands, only Huawei and Apple grew. Huawei shipped 12.4 million units, with a 21% share, up 18% year over year; Apple shipped 11.6 million units, with a 20% share, up 15%. Apple launched only the Pro series in September and moved the standard digital models to the following year. The two together had a 41% share. vivo and OPPO each shipped 9 million units, with a 15% share, down 24% and 18% respectively; Xiaomi shipped 8 million units, with a 13% share, down 20%; other vendors shipped 9.4 million units in total, with a 16% share, down 32%. Huawei's data excludes Honor, OPPO's includes OnePlus and realme, and vivo's includes iQOO. Omdia said AI servers are squeezing memory chip capacity, and rising DRAM and NAND prices are pushing up costs; Huawei is deepening its high-end presence, Apple is maintaining stable procurement, and vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi are streamlining their product lines and shifting toward high-end. On the same day, Counterpoint said global third-quarter shipments fell 20% year over year, with Samsung at 23% and Apple at 22%. Omdia expects full-year 2026 mainland China shipments to fall about 7% year over year.
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