What’s News in Markets: Meta’s AI Bill, IBM’s Comeback, Musk Explores Merger

Investors are growing wary of massive AI capital spending even as revenue grows, pressuring Meta, Alphabet, and chipmakers despite strong headline results.

• Anthropic IPO filing leaked: Revenue grew ~15x YoY in H1, but the company could spend up to $750 billion on compute over coming years, fueling AI-ROI skepticism.
• Meta spends, stock sinks: Despite record $64.6B quarterly revenue, Meta's free cash flow turned negative for the first time since its IPO; future lease/contract commitments hit $825B (from ~$700B in July). Shares fell 9.4%; it announced a 2-for-1 non-voting stock split to raise AI capital without diluting Zuckerberg's control.

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