I’d like to share that I’ll be leaving Bandai Namco at the end of 2025. With the TEKKEN series reaching its 30th anniversary—an important milestone for a project I’ve devoted much of my life to—I felt this was the most fitting moment to bring one chapter to a close. My roots lie in the days when I supported small local tournaments in Japanese arcades and in small halls and community centers overseas. I still remember carrying arcade cabinets by myself, encouraging people to “Please try TEKKEN,” and directly facing the players right in front of me. The conversations and atmosphere we shared in those places became the core of who I am as a developer and game creator. Even as the times changed, those experiences have remained at the center of my identity. And even after the tournament scene grew much larger, many of you continued to treat me like an old friend—challenging me at venues, inviting me out for drinks at bars. Those memories are also deeply precious to me. In recent years, I experienced the loss of several close friends in my personal life, and in my professional life I witnessed the retirement or passing of many senior colleagues whom I deeply respect. Those accumulated events made me reflect on the “time I have left as a creator.” During that period, I sought advice from Ken Kutaragi—whom I respect as though he were another father—and received invaluable encouragement and guidance. His words quietly supported me in making this decision. Over the past four to five years, I’ve gradually handed over all of my responsibilities, as well as the stories and worldbuilding I oversaw, to the team, bringing me to the present day. Looking back, I was fortunate to work on an extraordinary variety of projects—VR titles (such as Summer Lesson), Pokkén Tournament, the SoulCalibur series, and many others, both inside and outside the company. Each project was full of new discoveries and learning, and every one of them became an irreplaceable experience for me. To everyone who has supported me, to communities around the world, and to all the colleagues who have walked alongside me for so many years, I offer my deepest gratitude. I’ll share more about my next steps at a later date. Thank you very much for everything. 【Postscript】 Although I will be leaving the company at the end of 2025, Bandai Namco has asked me to appear at the TWT Finals at the end of January 2026, so I expect to attend as a guest. For 30 years I kept saying, “I’ll do it someday,” and never once performed as a DJ at a tournament event. So instead, I will be releasing—for the first and last time—a 60-minute TEKKEN DJ-style nonstop mix (DJ mix), personally edited by myself, together with this announcement. Listening to it brings back many memories. Thank you again, sincerely, for all these years. ‘TEKKEN: A 30-Year Journey – Harada’s Final Mix’ by Katsuhiro Harada 1 is on #SoundCloud# December 8, 2025 - The Final Day of TEKKEN’s 30th Anniversary - Katsuhiro Harada [日本語版 (Japanese version)] このたび、2025年末をもちまして、私はバンダイナムコを退職することにいたしました。 長く携わってきた『鉄拳』シリーズが30周年という大きな節目を迎え、ひとつの区切りとして最もふさわしい時期であると考えたためです。 私の原点は、日本のゲームセンターや、海外コミュニティの小さな講堂やコミュニティセンターで、まだ小規模なトーナメントをサポートしていた時代にあります。 アーケード筐体を自ら運び込み、「鉄拳もぜひ遊んでみてほしい」と声をかけながら、目の前の参加者と向き合った日々。 あの場で交わした言葉や空気が、私という開発者の核を形作りました。 時代が変化しても、あの経験が自分の中心にあります。 そしてトーナメントシーンが大きく成長した後も、皆さんは旧知の友人のように私に声をかけ、会場で対戦したり、バーで『一緒に飲もう』と誘ってくれました。 それらもまた、大切な思い出です。 ここ数年間、私生活においては友人達との死別があり、仕事においては、私が尊敬する多くの先輩方の引退や逝去に触れてきました。 そうした出来事の積み重ねが、私に『開発者として残された時間』について考える契機を与えました。 その過程で、私がもう一人の父親のように敬愛する久夛良木健さんにも相談し、貴重な助言と励ましのお言葉をいただきました。 この言葉もまた、今回の決断を静かに後押しするものとなりました。 そして、この4〜5年をかけて私の担ってきたすべての業務やストーリーや世界観、そして責務をチームに段階的に引き継ぎ、今日に至ります。 振り返れば、VR作品（サマーレッスンなど）や『ポッ拳』、ソウルキャリバーシリーズをはじめ、自社他社問わず数多くのプロジェクトに携わる機会に恵まれました。 いずれのプロジェクトも新しい発見と学びに満ち、かけがえのない経験となりました。 これまで支えてくださった皆様、世界中のコミュニティの皆様、そして長年ともに歩んできた仲間たちに深く感謝申し上げます。 次の歩みについては、改めて皆様にお伝えいたします。 これからも、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。 +あとがき 2025年末をもって退職致しますが、2026年1月末のTWT FINALには顔を出してほしいと会社からお願いされていることもあり、FINALにはゲストとして顔を出すと思います。 これまで30年間『いつかやるよ』と言い続けてやってこなかったトーナメントイベントでのDJですが、その代わりとして“最初で最後のDJ風60分ノンストップ鉄拳ミックス（私による初編集DJ mix）”も、今回のポストに合わせて公開します。 ‘TEKKEN: A 30-Year Journey – Harada’s Final Mix’ by Katsuhiro Harada 1 is on #SoundCloud# 様々な思い出が蘇ります。改めて皆さんありがとうございました。 2025年12月8日 - 鉄拳30周年最終日 - Katsuhiro Harada

Countries by Crude Steel Production (in Million Metric Tons) 1. 🇨🇳 China - 960.8 2. 🇮🇳 India - 164.9 3. 🇺🇸 United States - 82.0 4. 🇯🇵 Japan - 80.7 5. 🇷🇺 Russia - 67.8 6. 🇰🇷 South Korea - 61.9 7. 🇹🇷 Turkey - 38.1 8. 🇩🇪 Germany - 34.1 9. 🇧🇷 Brazil - 33.3 10. 🇮🇷 Iran - 31.8 11. 🇻🇳 Vietnam - 24.7 12. 🇮🇹 Italy - 20.7 13. 🇮🇩 Indonesia - 19.0 14. 🇹🇼 Taiwan - 17.1 15. 🇲🇽 Mexico - 13.5 16. 🇪🇸 Spain - 11.9 17. 🇨🇦 Canada - 11.5 18. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia - 10.8 19. 🇪🇬 Egypt - 10.6 20. 🇫🇷 France - 9.8 Source: World Steel Association (2025/2026 Data)

In 2023, more than 5,000 attended the 30th Annual "OWN IT!" Baron Conference at New York's iconic Met Opera House. The 2024, 31st Annual "Building Legacy" Baron Conference on November 15th at The Met… features exceptional executives of SpaceX...MSCI...Arch Capital...and Red Rock Resorts...the Baron Capital team...incredible entertainment...and an ice cream cone served by former ice cream truck driver Ron... Oh yeah...good luck winning one of three awesome Tesla Y door prizes. All expenses, including door prizes...are paid by @BaronCapital...not our clients... Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the investment carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectuses contain this and other information about the Funds. You may obtain them from the Funds’ distributor, Baron Capital, Inc., by calling 1-800-99-BARON or visiting Please read them carefully before investing. Portfolio holdings as a percentage of net assets as of June 30, 2024 for securities mentioned are as follows: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - Baron Asset Fund (2.9%), Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (0.9%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (10.3%), Baron Global Advantage Fund (6.1%), Baron Opportunity Fund (2.8%), Baron Partners Fund (13.2%*); Tesla, Inc. - Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund (3.2%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (8.6%), Baron Global Advantage Fund (3.3%), Baron Opportunity Fund (3.5%), Baron Partners Fund (28.9%*), Baron Technology Fund (2.5%); MSCI Inc. - Baron Asset Fund (0.5%), Baron Durable Advantage Fund (2.1%), Baron FinTech Fund (2.5%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (3.1%), Baron Growth Fund (9.8%), Baron Partners Fund (1.8%*); Arch Capital Group Ltd. - Baron Asset Fund (4.8%), Baron Durable Advantage Fund (2.1%), Baron FinTech Fund (3.0%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (6.4%), Baron Growth Fund (12.7%), Baron International Growth Fund (2.8%), Baron Partners Fund (9.5%*); Red Rock Resorts, Inc. - Baron Discovery Fund (1.6%), Baron Focused Growth Fund (3.9%), Baron Growth Fund (1.5%), Baron Partners Fund (1.5%*), Baron Real Estate Fund (1.7%), Baron Small Cap Fund (3.6%). *% of Long Positions. Portfolio holdings are subject to change. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. All expenses associated with this conference are paid by Baron Capital, Inc. No conference expenses are paid by Baron Funds. BAMCO, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Baron Capital, Inc. is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA).

U.S. export prices rose 8.6% year over year in August, up from an 8.1% increase the previous month. Prices for nonagricultural exports increased 8.9% and agricultural exports ticked up 5.8% from a year prior, per the @BLS_gov release. See FRED for a breakdown of the latest data:

Last wk, SPX/Nas/R2K +0.5%/+0.8%/-1.5% w/ oil -4%. But a hawkish Warsh on Friday led to a bear flattening of the yield curve. Despite $NVDA guide of 70% CY27 rev growth vs consensus of 47%, SOX Index -2.3% while software $IGV +5.9% on solid earnings. In general, many AI investors have been bullish on semiconductors and bearish on software on the belief that AI will displace many point solution software companies. This is why the SOX index is up 62% YTD and IGV is still only up 4% YTD versus the S&P +13%. Situational Awareness was the poster child for this type of positioning. But since the unwinding of the Momentum trade which started on 6/22 (I wrote about these concerns on 6/20), IGV has rallied 25% while the SOX Index has declined 22% through 8/28. For perspective, the Morgan Stanley Momentum index (momentum long performance minus momentum short performance) from 6/22-8/28 is down 36% while their more concentrated TMT index is down 54%. But a bullish twist on AI for the software sector introduced recently is that AI agents will access software tools ~10-100x more often than humans. On 8/6, $TEAM, which was in the bucket of software names widely considered at risk of being replaced by AI, rallied 35% the next day in reaction to solid earnings & outlook. Then on 8/13, $WDAY rallied 18% on the news that private equity firm Silverlake might be pursuing an acquisition which I wrote probably put a floor underneath software. Workday was also supposed to be in the AI crosshairs and private equity has higher bars to clear given their use of leverage and holding period than a typical investor. Then on 8/26, $CRM reported solid results, guidance and a deal with Anthropic (in which they also first invested in May of 2023.) The stock was up 23% in reaction the next day. This seemed to be a strong counterpoint to the SaaS-pocalypse worries. This strategic alliance allows users to execute actions natively inside Claude without needing to open traditional software screens. Salesforce also seems to be changing how they charge customers with fees more related to customer use and benefits to their business. Then on 8/27, Workday reported results which were good enough but arguably acquisition prospects drove more of the stock reaction of +6% the next day from the slightly down opening price. Historically, system of record, security and gaming software have been the only three areas I have liked within software. I now wonder whether the fundamental implications of Atlassian, Workday and Salesforce are supportive of the technical reactions in the software stocks as a group as agentic AI continues to ramp. So how do I square this with my concerns that the rapidly escalating amounts spent on AI by corporations has to come from somewhere? Annualized revenue run-rates for Anthropic and OpenAI have ramped from $29B to start the year to $105B just 7 months later. Software spending globally excluding AI was roughly $1 trillion in 2025. But IT services at $1.7 trillion is a bigger category which I believe still has risk. And finally, knowledge worker compensation is an even bigger category where disruption would be even less noticeable at an estimated $35-50 trillion in 2025 or roughly 30% of the global workforce. Looking forward, the deal on Friday for Venezuelan oil fields that hold the largest crude reserves in the world at 17-18% should get us off to a positive start to the week with declining oil prices. But a bit further out: 1) “Don’t Fight the Fed” given I believe a hike is likely on 9/16 because the 10/28 mtg is right before mid-terms, 2) September has the poorest seasonality of all months, 3) there is even worse seasonality than normal during mid-term election years (see prior posts for more detail) and 4) recent bipartisan pushback against datacenter expansion (one of the few things both sides seem to agree on though I believe this is wrong and hope it will change with more education) puts pressure on the AI infrastructure names. As Warren Buffett says, the market has to keep pitching but you do not need to swing.

Kufi Asare is a migrant in Oklahoma. Here is his criminal record so far: 8/12/26: Rape (1st degree) 8/6/26: Sexual battery in a park 8/1/26: Sexual battery in a park 3/5/26: Breaking and entering 10/3/25: Breaking and entering 2/23/25: Trespass + obstruction 8/27/23: Retail larceny + trespass 8/21/23: Larceny + injuring officer 1/2/23: Trespass + obstruction 12/31/22: Larceny + trespass

Top 10 worst performers among the top 100 coins, ranked by 7-day loss (Sat-Fri): $PUMP: −13.8% $CC: −9.2% $ENA: −9.1% $WLFI: −8.6% $BCH: −6.2% $SKY: −6.1% $STABLE: −5.0% $FLR: −5.0% $RAIN: −4.7% $ASTER: −4.3% Source: @CoinGecko.

World Currencies vs. the U.S. Dollar One-Year Change As of June 30, 2026: 🇨🇴 Colombian peso: +19.2% 🇮🇱 Israeli shekel: +13.2% 🇭🇺 Hungarian forint: +8.9% 🇿🇦 South African rand: +8.1% 🇲🇽 Mexican peso: +7.7% 🇨🇳 Chinese yuan: +5.6% 🇦🇺 Australian dollar: +5.2% 🇧🇷 Brazilian real: +5.2% 🇲🇾 Malaysian ringgit: +3.1% 🇳🇴 Norwegian krone: +1.8% 🇨🇱 Chilean peso: +1.0% 🇪🇬 Egyptian pound: +0.8% 🇭🇰 Hong Kong dollar: +0.1% 🇦🇪 UAE dirham: 0.0% 🇶🇦 Qatari riyal: 0.0% 🇸🇦 Saudi riyal: -0.2% 🇷🇺 Russian ruble: -0.4% 🇨🇿 Czech koruna: -1.1% 🇸🇬 Singapore dollar: -1.7% 🇨🇭 Swiss franc: -1.8% 🇹🇭 Thai baht: -2.3% 🇸🇪 Swedish krona: -2.4% 🇪🇺 Euro: -3.0% 🇩🇰 Danish krone: -3.1% 🇬🇧 Pound sterling: -3.4% 🇨🇦 Canadian dollar: -4.1% 🇵🇱 Polish złoty: -4.2% 🇳🇿 New Zealand dollar: -6.8% 🇹🇼 Taiwan dollar: -8.2% 🇵🇭 Philippine peso: -8.2% 🇮🇩 Indonesian rupiah: -9.3% 🇮🇳 Indian rupee: -9.4% 🇯🇵 Japanese yen: -11.3% 🇰🇷 South Korean won: -12.6% 🇹🇷 Turkish lira: -14.6% 🇦🇷 Argentine peso: -18.9% Source: Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg Finance LP.

$SKHY closed down 3.89% in Seoul on Friday. Its Nasdaq ADS, $SKHY, is up 1.67% as I write, on the same calendar day. Same company, 5.6 percentage points apart, and neither tape is wrong. What Seoul was pricing: KOSPI down 1.8% to 6,909.91, under 7,000 for the first time in three sessions. Samsung Electronics 005930 KS down 4.09%, SK Hynix 000660 KS down 3.89%, SK Square 402340 KS down 5.20%. The Korean press put the blame on the overnight Wall Street session, on Brent at $107.95, and on a US ten-year approaching 4.97% while the Middle East conflict dragged on. Then about twelve hours passed. US August CPI came in on consensus, 3.4% headline unchanged and core down to 2.4%. Crude gave back 2.8%, with Brent at $104.57 as I write. The ten-year sits at 4.95%, roughly flat on the day. Seoul closed before any of that existed. It priced the fear version of Friday. New York got to price the resolution version of the same Friday, and the two versions are 5.6 points apart on one company. This is not an arbitrage. The time difference is structural, the ADS only listed on Nasdaq in July, and it trades nothing like the depth of the Seoul line. But it is the cost of information arrival, and it is unusually legible today because we can see both quotes on the same date. The rest of the New York session ranks cleanly in one direction. Semiconductors $SMH +2.10%, technology $XLK +1.58%, industrials $XLI +1.23%, Nasdaq 100 +1.14%, S&P 500 +1.05%, small caps +0.62%, software $IGV +0.31%, cybersecurity $CIBR +0.02%. Hardware that ships this quarter at the top, cash flows that arrive later at the bottom. The curve says the same thing from the other end. $SHY down 0.08% at the front, $IEF down 0.04% in the belly, $TLT up 0.27% at the long end. Short end sold, long end bid. That is the shape of a market pricing a hike, and futures have the 16 September move at about 71%, up from 61% before Thursday's producer prices. Which makes Friday two different trades stacked on one date. Asia traded the macro at its worst reading of the week. America traded it after the print that settled it, and after crude broke. And in memory specifically, the split inside New York is its own story: $SIMO +9.42% and $SNDK down 3.16% on the same afternoon, controller silicon and the flash itself moving opposite ways. What would change my read: Monday in Seoul. If Korean memory gaps up to catch what New York did on Friday, this was purely the clock. If it keeps falling, then the Korean tape was pricing something New York is not, and the candidates there are the won, domestic policy, or a view on memory pricing that the US names do not share yet. One session is one session, and I would not build a position on a single day's dislocation.