Supergirl opened to just $38 million domestically against a budget north of $170 million, landing below even the weakest recent superhero debuts. Meanwhile Toy Story 5 held strong in its second weekend, and the overall box office is running 15 percent ahead of last year. The contrast says a lot about where movies are right now.
8090 Labs landed a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures to build a software factory that produces production-grade code for big companies. It headlined a busy week of startup funding where nearly every check, from AI security to space finance, went to a company building on top of artificial intelligence.
South Korea unveiled an investment drive worth more than $1 trillion to dominate the future of AI and semiconductors. Samsung and SK Hynix will spend $518 billion on new chip plants, while SK Group, GS and Naver pour $356 billion into AI data centers. It is one of the largest industrial bets any nation has ever made.
US stocks roared back on Monday to start the final week of the quarter, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 52,000 for the first time ever. Alphabet jumped more than 4 percent after joining the index, and the Nasdaq led the way with a 2 percent gain. All eyes now turn to Thursday’s jobs report.
The Supreme Court blocked President Trump from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, protecting the central bank’s independence. But in the same breath it overturned a 90-year-old precedent and let him fire an FTC commissioner. Wall Street read it as a win. The fine print is more complicated.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld state laws that count mail ballots arriving after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on time. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion and crossed over to join the court’s Democratic appointees. Trump called it a tremendous loss.