Good morning.

It’s Thursday, September 18, which means we’re inching closer to the official start of fall. The autumnal equinox—also known as the September equinox or the fall equinox—lands on Monday, September 22 at 2:19 P.M. EDT. That’s when the Northern Hemisphere officially trades in sweaty commutes for chilly mornings, and nature hits the slow-motion button. Plants, animals, and yes, even us, shift gears into a calmer rhythm.

So here’s to easing into sweater weather, letting the pace drop, and enjoying the little pause that autumn always brings. Wishing you a good day, a smooth rest of the week, and a cozy read. Thanks for being here, and for sending feedback—it keeps this whole thing alive.

Today’s stories:

• Game of Thrones spinoff premieres January 2026

• SpaceX plans direct-to-phone Starlink service

• Albania appoints AI minister to fight corruption

• Japan nails quantum W state measurement

• YouTube paid creators $100B since 2021

• Japan sets new record for centenarians

• TikTok stays alive with new U.S. owners

• China bans Nvidia’s AI chips outright

• OpenAI poaches ex-xAI finance chief

  and more…

The Dow climbed while the S&P 500 barely budged Wednesday after the Fed cut rates as expected — but Powell cooled hopes, stressing it’s not the start of a long easing cycle. The S&P slipped 0.1% to 6,600.35, the Nasdaq fell 0.3%, and the Dow rose 0.6% to 46,018.32 after briefly touching a record high.

Tech favorites including Nvidia, Oracle, Palantir, and Broadcom dragged markets lower, while rate-sensitive names like Walmart, JPMorgan, and AmEx lifted the Dow.

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TikTok Deal: Same App, New Owners

TikTok’s U.S. life support plan is here. Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake are set to scoop up a chunk of the app, while Trump and Xi do the final handshake routine this week. ByteDance’s stake drops below 20% so Washington stops screaming “national security.” The U.S. version will copy-paste the same addictive algorithm, just with a new corporate logo slapped on. Oracle keeps cashing in by storing everyone’s dance videos on its cloud, while TikTok calls the whole setup “Project Texas” to make it sound patriotic. Valuation lands around $35 to $40 billion, with teens still lip-syncing their way into corporate profit.

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YouTube paid creators over $100 billion since 2021. YouTube bragged it has paid creators, artists, and media companies over $100 billion since 2021—basically pocket change for Google. The payout spike comes from people watching YouTube on their TVs like it’s Netflix with ads. Channels making more than $100K from couch potatoes rose 45% in a year. At its “Made on YouTube” pep rally in New York, the platform also rolled out shiny AI toys: auto-editing for Shorts, voiceovers, transitions, even turning random dialogue into songs. Google’s Veo 3 video generator is sliding into Shorts too—trained, of course, on creators’ own videos. YouTube turns 20 this year with 20 billion uploads and zero shame about cashing in on everyone else’s content.

China bans Nvidia’s AI chips. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn’t thrilled with China after reports said regulators told companies like ByteDance and Alibaba to stop buying its AI chips. The RTX Pro 6000D was built for China, but now it’s off-limits. Huang said Nvidia has “contributed more to the China market than most countries” but admits the chip ban is about bigger U.S.-China politics, not tech. He told analysts to basically forget China in their forecasts because business there is a coin toss. His words: “a roller coaster.” Translation: don’t bet your portfolio on Beijing letting Nvidia cash in.

OpenAI snags xAI’s ex-finance guy. OpenAI just poached Mike Liberatore, the CFO who bailed from Elon Musk’s xAI after three months. Now he’s business finance officer at OpenAI, reporting to CFO Sarah Friar and working with Greg Brockman’s team on scaling all the compute power that keeps ChatGPT running. Liberatore helped xAI raise $10 billion in debt and equity before peacing out, and he used to be at Airbnb too. The hire lands as Musk and OpenAI are locked in lawsuits and a talent tug-of-war over who gets to own the AI future.

Japan Unlocks Quantum W: Teleportation Gets Real

Japanese scientists just pulled off a stunt that quantum nerds have been chasing for decades: measuring the elusive W state. That’s a type of multi-photon entanglement Einstein used to call “spooky” because it laughs in the face of normal physics. Until now, nobody could cleanly measure it without drowning in data. The Kyoto-Hiroshima crew built a quantum circuit that actually nails it with three photons, proving the thing works in the real world. Translation: this opens doors for quantum teleportation, faster communication, and computing that makes your MacBook look like an abacus.

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SpaceX wants to put Starlink in your pocket. Elon Musk’s space toy company is now cozying up to chip makers so future phones can talk directly to Starlink satellites. After dropping $17 billion on wireless spectrum from EchoStar, SpaceX doesn’t want you fiddling with a dish—it wants your phone itself beaming to space. T-Mobile is already a partner, but now Musk’s crew can go solo and wholesale service to other carriers. The plan: launch satellites over the next two years, test phones late next year, and pretend Mars is right around the corner. Meanwhile, Starship finally had a test flight that didn’t blow up, and the team is eyeing a “V3” version that’s supposed to be the ride to the moon and beyond.

Albania hires an AI minister to fight corruption. Albania just added an AI bot to its Cabinet. Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled “Diella,” a virtual minister in a folk costume, built with Microsoft’s help. Her job: make sure government tenders aren’t rigged and that corruption magically disappears. Rama swears she’ll bring speed and transparency, because apparently nothing fights organized crime like a chatbot in traditional dress. Diella has already been answering digital paperwork requests online, and now she’s promoted to fighting decades of Balkan corruption. Good luck to her—real ministers haven’t managed it since 1990.

Japan Breaks Its Own Record for People Hitting 100

Japan just set a new record for centenarians, proving fish and daily squats keep you ticking past a century. The country’s oldest woman, Shigeko Kagawa, is 114, still flexing from her days running a clinic until age 86, and even carried the Olympic torch at 109 like it was nothing. The oldest man, Kiyotaka Mizuno, is 111 and probably still outpacing half of us on the subway stairs. Scientists chalk it up to diets packed with fish and greens, plus endless walking and “Radio Taiso,” a three-minute workout show that makes chair yoga look lazy. But even as more people hit triple digits, Japan is shrinking fast—last year saw a million more deaths than births. Longevity record: strong. Population trend: not so much.

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Game of Thrones spinoff finally gets a date. HBO Max boss Casey Bloys says A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms lands in January 2026, meaning fans of Westeros have another reason to keep paying for subscriptions. The series adapts George R. R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, set 90 years before the main saga, back when dragons weren’t the only problem. Martin says he’s already seen all six episodes, loved them, and swears it’s “as faithful an adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for.” Translation: he’s happy this time. Meanwhile, House of the Dragon season 3 is also slated for 2026, so brace yourself—Westeros isn’t leaving your screen anytime soon.

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TikTok of the day: watch here

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