AI Markets: TSMC record, Haiku 5.5, Starlink Mobile

TSMC posts a record quarter, Anthropic slashes prices and the FCC opens the skies to Starlink Mobile. On the financing side, AI chips are increasingly being bought on credit.

TSMC: a record third quarter, powered by AI

The Taiwanese foundry released its September sales on October 8. The quarter beat expectations, but the stock didn’t exactly celebrate.

Key points:

  • Q3 revenue: about 1,490 billion Taiwan dollars (≈ $46.7 billion), up 50% year over year. Investing.com calculated this total from the monthly figures; it wasn’t announced as a single number.
  • The Bloomberg consensus was around 1,460 billion: a beat of roughly 2%.
  • September alone: 511.86 billion Taiwan dollars, up 55% year over year but down 0.6% from the previous month.
  • Over nine months, cumulative sales reached 3.90 trillion Taiwan dollars, up 41.1%.

What the numbers say

TSMC makes chips for Nvidia, AMD and Apple. Its sales work as a thermometer for the entire AI supply chain. When they climb, it means orders for advanced chips are still pouring in.

In July, the company guided to a range of $44.6 billion to $45.8 billion for the quarter, with gross margin expected between 65% and 67%. The calculated figure (≈ $46.7 billion) therefore lands above the top of that range. Currency conversions vary, though, so the calculation remains approximate. For 2026, the group expects dollar revenue growth “slightly above 40%” and a capital budget of $60 billion to $64 billion, according to Focus Taiwan.

Worth noting: the stock fell more than 1% in Taipei shortly after the release. A record that’s already priced in doesn’t necessarily lift a stock. That’s a market observation, not a forecast.

Connecting to the market: the European angle

Actual margins, next-quarter guidance and the capital budget will be detailed in the full earnings release, which TSMC usually presents in mid-October. Monthly sales say nothing about profitability.

For a French investor, TSMC is mostly held through US ADRs or funds: the Taiwanese stock is not eligible for the PEA. Dutch supplier ASML, listed in Amsterdam, is generally PEA-eligible (check with your broker). Its health depends on the equipment orders placed by foundries like TSMC. UCITS semiconductor ETFs offer another way in, with their own concentration risks.

This is information, not investment advice.

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Claude Haiku 5.5: Anthropic slashes prices ahead of its IPO

On October 7, Anthropic launched Haiku 5.5, its small model. The price is plunging while the company prepares to go public.

Key points:

  • Pricing: $0.10 input and $0.50 output per million tokens for requests under 100,000 tokens, versus $1 and $5 for Haiku 4.5 (VentureBeat).
  • Above 100,000 tokens: $0.50 and $2.50, a 50% cut.
  • Anthropic estimates the average cost of a workload at about 75% less, including the new tokenizer.
  • Base rates are identical to those of GPT-6 Luna, OpenAI’s competing model.

What changes

Haiku handles repetitive tasks: summarizing, classifying, querying a database. The bigger models (Sonnet, Opus) are still recommended for complex code. According to benchmarks published by Anthropic, which have not been independently verified, Haiku 5.5 beats Luna on several tests while still trailing Sonnet 5.5. It offers a one-million-token context window, according to Startup Fortune.

Watch out for the “sticker” price. Neowin notes that on one test, Haiku 5.5 burns through far more output and reasoning tokens than Luna. The result: a cost per task about three times higher at the same rate. The real cost depends on how you use it.

Connecting to the market

In our previous edition, we noted that customers like Meta and Microsoft were cutting their Claude spending, according to The Information. A price cut could be a response to that pressure. That’s one possible reading, not a fact confirmed by Anthropic.

The timeline remains the one reported so far: a listing targeted for mid-November onward, with a hoped-for valuation of up to $2,000 billion, versus $965 billion in May. The public prospectus (S-1) was not yet on EDGAR as of our last check. Until it’s published, the figures circulating in the press remain leaks.

For a European investor, a US listing will not be eligible for the PEA. Access would go through a securities account, or later through ETFs that add the stock.

This is information, not investment advice.

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Starlink Mobile: the FCC approves 15,000 satellites for smartphones

The US regulator has given the green light to a giant network of satellites that talk directly to phones. But there are strings attached.

Key points:

  • On October 6, 2026, the FCC approved 15,000 satellites for the service SpaceX calls “Starlink Mobile” (Via Satellite).
  • They will fly very low, in nine shells between 326 and 335 km in altitude.
  • The current direct-to-device network has about 650 satellites.
  • SpaceX is aiming to launch the second generation in 2027, with the service up and running by the end of that year.

An approval with the brakes on

The FCC didn’t grant everything. It deferred a decision on several requests, including the 2020-2025 MHz band and two bands heavily used by federal agencies (20.2-21.2 GHz and 30-31 GHz).

More importantly, the spectrum bought from EchoStar can’t be fully used until the second stage of the acquisition closes. That’s expected around November 30, 2027. Until then, SpaceX can run tests with EchoStar’s consent.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, says this satellite and this spectrum will be “100 times better” than the current service. That’s a company claim, not an independent measurement.

Connecting to the market

Why are markets watching? Direct-to-phone is a potentially huge market, taking on traditional mobile carriers and Amazon, which has filed its own application. Meanwhile, the FCC is preparing auctions for 25 MHz of spectrum, something that could benefit Amazon as much as SpaceX, according to CNBC. On October 29, it is also set to consider a consultation on an additional 482 MHz.

A regulatory green light doesn’t generate revenue. You still have to launch, finance and sell. The SPCX share unlocks at the end of October, mentioned in our previous editions, remain another thing to watch for the stock.

For European savers: SpaceX (SPCX) is listed in the United States and is not eligible for the PEA. Access goes through a securities account.

This is information, not investment advice.

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Broadcom, Oracle, SpaceX: the AI chip bill runs through private credit

Buying AI chips costs tens of billions. More and more, private funds are the ones fronting the money.

Key points:

  • The Wall Street Journal reports that Broadcom, Oracle and SpaceX are seeking private financing for AI chips (via Yahoo Finance and InvestingLive).
  • Broadcom is reportedly targeting more than $50 billion for chips designed with OpenAI, with Apollo and Blackstone among the lenders in talks.
  • Oracle is negotiating with Apollo and Goldman Sachs to equip a 1 GW data center. Amount not disclosed.
  • SpaceX is seeking about $40 billion: $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in “investment grade” bonds.

How it works

The structure described for Oracle: investors fund a separate vehicle, which buys the chips and leases them to Oracle. The debt doesn’t show up on the balance sheet the same way. For lenders, the chip serves as collateral.

The figures vary by source. For Broadcom, Bloomberg reported in early October about $30 billion for the next stage, with no formal process launched. Another arrangement, reported earlier by Bloomberg and picked up by TheNextWeb, mentioned more than $60 billion for chips destined for Anthropic. Talks are still preliminary and could change. The deals are aiming to close by year-end for Broadcom and Oracle, and in 2027 for SpaceX, with no guaranteed outcome.

Another signal: Tesla secured $30 billion in new unsecured credit facilities and term loans (Simply Wall St analysis). The article notes that this debt could weigh on profitability if the new businesses progress more slowly than expected.

Connecting to the market

According to the reports cited, AI-related debt in the US leveraged credit market reportedly rose from about $20 billion in early 2025 to $88 billion in 2026. More debt means more sensitivity to interest rates. The Fed minutes even mention possible further hikes to cool inflation, according to a Yahoo Finance article from today.

For a European investor, this debt shows up mainly through the balance sheets of large US-listed companies, outside the PEA. UCITS “AI” or “semiconductor” ETFs are indirectly exposed to it.

This is information, not investment advice.

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Firmus: an Australian data center giant’s IPO wobbles

A big AI-linked IPO, backed by Nvidia, is struggling to win investors over. It’s serving as a test of investor appetite.

Key points:

  • Firmus Grid closed bookbuilding for its IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on October 8, according to Bloomberg.
  • Initial price: 11 Australian dollars per share. The press mentions a possible cut to around 8 (ABC).
  • Reported size: up to 7 billion Australian dollars, depending on the source. The valuations cited don’t line up with each other.
  • Listing scheduled for October 23, according to ABC. Nothing is certain at this stage.

Why demand is fading

According to Bloomberg, demand initially exceeded supply. The company even moved the deadline up. Then some investors got nervous: half the shares were set to go to existing shareholders, who could sell quickly after the listing.

ABC relays other complaints from Australian fund managers: very little financial detail, about US$30 billion in planned debt, and 97% of the promised capacity not yet built, according to fund manager Jun Bei Liu. There is also local opposition to some data center projects. These are criticisms from professionals, not established facts. Another analyst, Lochlan Halloway (Morningstar), points out that “borrowed money alone doesn’t make a bubble.”

A Firmus shareholder, Maas Group Holdings, fell as much as 30% in Sydney amid the doubts (ABC / Bloomberg).

Connecting to the market

This IPO tests a simple idea: are investors still willing to pay any price for AI compute capacity? “Neocloud” providers depend on debt and long-term contracts. If the price comes down, it signals tougher selectivity, without proving a reversal.

For a European investor, an ASX-listed stock is not eligible for the PEA. Exposure goes through a securities account with access to foreign exchanges, or through funds.

This is information, not investment advice.

Sources:

Edition prepared by our monitoring agent (data and sources as of Thursday, October 8, 2026), reviewed in line with our editorial policy. General information, not investment advice: investing carries a risk of capital loss.