AI is burning Big Tech's free cash flow: The combined CapEx of Amazon, $AMZN, Alphabet, $GOOGL, Meta, $META, and Microsoft, $MSFT, rose +$36.9 billion in Q3 2026, to a record $201.9 billion. This figure has more than doubled over the last 12 months and is up +356% since Q1 2024. Big Tech has now spent $1.6 trillion on CapEx over the last 3 years. Meanwhile, the combined free cash flow of these companies fell -$33.1 billion last quarter, to -$26.4 billion, its lowest on record. Free cash flow among these firms has dropped -$88.2 billion over the last year. Only Microsoft reported positive free cash flow in Q3. Looking ahead, these 4 companies plan to spend another $232 billion on CapEx in Q4, potentially lifting their combined CapEx to a record $740 billion in 2026. Big Tech is undertaking one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in history.

AI companies are turning to religion to help teach chatbots right from wrong, per AP. Anthropic says it has met with scholars, clergy, philosophers and ethicists from more than 15 religious and cross-cultural groups to help shape how Claude handles moral questions.

AI TRADE CAUTIONARY SIGNAL • $ASX (ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd.), FQ3 2026 call, reported 2026-10-29 • Speaker: Joseph Tung, management • Topic: Semiconductor Supply and Demand "I think the biggest bottleneck today is really still the space, although many different areas, we do have ourselves being constrained. But space is really one of the biggest constraints that we are facing today." • Bears on: Facility space constraint limiting ASE's ability to expand LEAP packaging and test capacity to meet demand.

AI has BROKEN the internet's traditional traffic model. Reddit’s earnings call yesterday offers a stark example. CEO Steve Huffman said: “AI mode does not drive traffic. Not for us and not to anybody as far as I know.” Search referrals to Reddit fell by more than 1 MILLION per week on average in October. $RDDT shares plunged around 25% on Friday as traffic concerns and a weaker outlook overshadowed its earnings. For decades, the arrangement was straightforward where websites created content, search engines sent them visitors, and those visits generated advertising revenue, subscriptions and sales. AI has changed that exchange - A search engine can now summarize a website’s information and answer follow-up questions without the reader ever visiting the source. The content still helps answer the question but the website may never get the click. Pew’s March 2025 study found users clicked traditional search results on 8% of visits with AI summaries, compared with 15% without them. That's nearly a -50% drawdown in clicks. Google faces its own transition. Alphabet fell 12.6% on Thursday after slower Search growth and heavy AI spending cloud investors’ concerns. Its search business is still growing, but monetization has not caught up with the changing usage. More questions can now be answered while fewer visitors reach the websites supplying the information. That leaves publishers facing a fundamental challenge in finding a way to earn from content that remains useful even when the audience never arrives.

AI CONFERENCES AND INVESTOR DAYS, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2026 YESTERDAY: INVESTOR DAY TAKEAWAYS HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO INVESTOR DAY Fri Oct 30, Taipei, Taiwan Hon Hai Technology Day (HHTD26), October 30 to 31, 2026, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1. October 30 was the invitation-only opening day; October 31 is open to the public. Replay: • Outlook: Chairman Young Liu expects double-digit revenue growth next year, driven by AI data center demand, and said the industry is not in an AI bubble • AI server share: Liu said the global AI server share, now about 40%, could reach about 45% next year and 50% within a couple of years, with production capacity fully booked for at least the next year and a half and AI infrastructure reaching 60% to 65% of revenue in three to five years • OpenAI: Liu told reporters he had met OpenAI CEO Sam Altman earlier in the day and a new collaboration is in the works, with an announcement once details are confirmed and no scope or terms disclosed. It would build on last year's agreement to co-design data center racks, components and other AI hardware • Token factory: the 7th annual Tech Day ran a record 321 exhibits, about a quarter of them in the Token Factory zone, with a first showcase of the NVIDIA DSX POD, a standardized factory-built reference design to preintegrate NVIDIA Vera Rubin rack-scale AI infrastructure in modular containers, plus co-packaged optics and NVIDIA 800 VDC power distribution • Houston and robots: Foxconn has six factory buildings in Houston, Texas making AI servers for NVIDIA and sees a need for further expansion. Foxconn Industrial Internet said more than 10 humanoid robots have been deployed at its Texas facilities for internal use, with deployment to extend beyond Texas • EVs: three new reference electric vehicles, the MODEL A+ and MODEL K+ SUVs and the MODEL K kei-class compact truck, took the reference range to 12 models, offered to automotive customers through contract design and manufacturing services • Spending: Liu said planned AI spending of $3B to $5B a year could rise with deeper vertical integration, and that overinvestment will kill the company • Stock reaction: shares closed down 1.0% at TWD 245.5 on October 30, from TWD 248.0 the prior close. Next catalyst is third-quarter results on November 12 TODAY No tracked events today. TOMORROW No tracked events tomorrow. REMAINING THIS WEEK No tracked events remaining this week. LATER • Tue Nov 3: PIC Summit Europe 2026, Eindhoven, Netherlands, Nov 3 to 4 • Tue Nov 3: DCD Connect Virginia, Leesburg, VA, Nov 3 to 4 • Wed Nov 4: DCD Connect Brasil, Sao Paulo, Nov 4 to 5 • Wed Nov 4: DCD Investment Forum Brasil, Sao Paulo • Wed Nov 4: Xcelerated Compute Show Brasil, Sao Paulo, Nov 4 to 5 • Thu Nov 5: Box Investor Day, San Francisco • Fri Nov 6: Global Unichip at TSMC 2026 Japan OIP Ecosystem Forum, Tokyo • Sun Nov 8: IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC) 2026, Denver, Nov 8 to 12 • Mon Nov 9: Entegris Investor Day, 1:00 PM • Tue Nov 10: Cohu Investor Day, New York • Tue Nov 10: Flex Investor Day, Austin • Tue Nov 10: WESCO International Investor Day, Data Center Deep Dive Day, 10:00 AM • Wed Nov 11: Munters Group Capital Markets Day, Stockholm, 8:00 AM • Thu Nov 12: Global Unichip at TSMC 2026 Taiwan OIP Ecosystem Forum, Hsin-chu • Sun Nov 15: Penguin Solutions at SuperComputing (SC26), Chicago • Sun Nov 15: Supercomputing Conference 2026 (SC26), Chicago, Nov 15 to 20 • Sun Nov 15: Vertiv at SuperComputing (SC26), Chicago • Tue Nov 17: Global Unichip at TSMC 2026 China OIP Ecosystem Forum, Beijing • Tue Nov 17: TomorrowX Summit 2026, Austin, Nov 17 to 18 • Tue Nov 17: XTI Aerospace at 2026 ElevateUAV Summit, Florida City • Thu Nov 19: KVH Industries at CSN Greece ICT Conference, Athens • Tue Nov 24: Global Unichip at TSMC 2026 Europe OIP Ecosystem Forum, Munich • Mon Nov 30: NVIDIA GTC Washington DC, Nov 30 to Dec 3 • Thu Dec 17: Methode Electronics Investor Day, New York, 8:30 AM • Thu Dec 17: Onto Innovation Capital Markets Day, New York, 9:00 AM