AI Dominates Investor Focus Amid Geopolitical Noise

This is Katie Foley writing to you from London. Welcome to today's edition of the Daily Open newsletter.

Geopolitics generates noise, but AI keeps producing signal.

We spent the last 12 hours parsing Iran headlines, trying to determine whether President Donald Trump's latest comments and Iranian state media reporting indicate anything concrete, or just another turn in a negotiation that seems perpetually 'close'.

At the same time, Anthropic moved closer to a public listing and Sam Altman, the CEO of bitter rival OpenAI, discussed the "race" to go public with CNBC, while SoftBank's Masayoshi Son told us we're still in the early innings of a technological revolution measured in trillions of dollars.

Investors may not know where oil will trade next. But they seem increasingly convinced they know where capital spending, infrastructure investment and corporate attention will be directed for the next decades.

Anthropic said it confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, setting up a potentially historic share sale for investors ready to jump into artificial intelligence. "This gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review," Anthropic said in a statement on Monday. "The proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors."

Meanwhile, CNBC's David Faber sat down with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for a wide-ranging interview. When asked if there is a race to be the first to go public, Altman said no, that the true race was to deliver the best technology and "we'll do it when we think it makes sense."

Alphabet said it plans to sell $80 billion in stock, including through a $10 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway. The Google parent company said in a statement that the capital will "fund investments in its world-class AI compute infrastructure to meet its unprecedented customer demand." For Berkshire, the transaction adds to a position it has been rapidly building over the past three quarters, marking one of the conglomerate's largest recent equity investments.

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son has identified physical AI and robotics as the next trillion-dollar opportunities. Asked by CNBC's Arjun Kharpal what sectors excite him most, Son said "both" humanoid and industrial robotics, "with physical AI as a core."

In geopolitics, President Donald Trump shrugged off the possible collapse of peace negotiations with Iran, telling CNBC, "I don't care if they're over, honestly." Trump told CNBC's Eamon Javers in a phone interview he thought the protracted discussions had "started to get very boring." Oil jumped more than 4 percent on the news, after Iranian state news outlet Tasnim reported that Tehran was halting negotiations and clamping down on the Hormuz Strait.

That move in oil has moderated this morning, and European futures are relatively buoyant, bucking the downtrend in Asia. Although futures are pointing to losses stateside.

— Katie Foley

NBA star Stephen Curry partners with Chinese sportswear giant Li-Ning

NBA star Stephen Curry has entered into a partnership with Chinese sportswear and equipment company Li-Ning, which would involve product development as well as sports culture initiatives.

There are also plans to launch Curry Brand stores in the U.S. and China, the Golden State player said in a letter, adding that the partnership will help his brand have a wider range of resources and a global footprint.

"I knew that Li-Ning could be the right partner that can deliver on the innovation and design that I want Curry Brand to stand for," he said, noting that "the future of Curry Brand is with Li-Ning." The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

— Justina Lee