Good morning. In this edition:

• 🤖 OpenAI’s for-profit transition
• 🌀 Strongest hurricane in Atlantic history
• 🎃 Why people wear Halloween costumes

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.29-minute read (876 words).

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"Correct what you can. Learn from what you can't."

–Toni Morrison (1931-2019)

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OpenAI officially adopted a new for-profit structure yesterday following a lengthy legal saga, in a change allowing the ChatGPT-maker to operate more like a traditional company and potentially hold an IPO in the future.

Here’s the deets

Under a plan approved yesterday by Delaware’s AG, OpenAI cemented its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit business, whose $500 billion valuation ranks it as the world’s biggest private company.

The nonprofit, now called the OpenAI Foundation, holds a 26% controlling stake in the for-profit company, called OpenAI Group. It also has a chance to receive “significant additional equity” if the share price increases more than tenfold after 15 years.

• 47% of OpenAI Group is held by current/former employees and other investors.
• The remaining 27% is held by Microsoft, which has invested nearly $14 billion in OpenAI dating to 2019.

The agreement also grants Microsoft exclusive IP rights to OpenAI tech until 2032, excluding consumer hardware.

The new structure will make it easier for OpenAI to raise money, attract talent, and hold a potential IPO in the future, analysts say. It also ends a nearly year of the AI giant negotiating with state regulators, key investors, and the philanthropic community over whether OpenAI can remain true to its initial nonprofit mission of benefitting humanity under its new structure.

Not everyone is pleased

OpenAI continues to face lawsuits from Elon Musk’s xAI and other parties over its corporate status, with the suits alleging that OpenAI has strayed from its nonprofit mission by seeking to implement a more traditional company structure.

• While OpenAI says its nonprofit will retain control of the company and its future direction, some advocacy groups and critics remain doubtful.
• They argue the past two years have seen OpenAI’s for-profit arm take precedence over its nonprofit goals—and that trend is all-but-certain to continue under this new deal, since the boards are nearly identical between the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation and for-profit OpenAI Group.

Looking ahead…Many experts say OpenAI will likely seek an IPO in the months or years ahead, due to past investors seeking returns that only a public offering can raise.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you support or oppose OpenAI’s move to adopt a new for-profit structure?

• Support
• Oppose
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📦 UPS cuts 48,000 jobs across its management and operations divisions; the cuts are significantly higher than the 20,000 announced back in April.
• 📱 Nokia announces plans for Nvidia to take a $1 billion stake in the networking company; Nokia’s stock closed up ~23%.
• 🍎 Apple becomes third company in history to break the $4 trillion market value milestone.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ World Series: Blue Jays beat Dodgers in Game 4 last night to even the series at 2-2; it follows a marathon 18-inning Game 3 on Monday that set a slew of playoff records.
• 🎰 NCAA delays pending rule change that will allow student-athletes and athletic department staff to bet on pro sports; it's now set to take effect Nov. 22 instead of Nov. 1; delay comes as SEC asks NCAA to rescind the rule.
• 📺 Only Murders in the Building renewed for Season 6 at Hulu, which will be set and shot in London.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 Eli Lilly and Nvidia are partnering to build what they call the pharma industry’s “most powerful” supercomputer and AI factory to help accelerate drug discovery and development. | Department of Energy announces partnership with Nvidia and Oracle to develop the DOE’s largest AI supercomputer.
• 📸 Tiniest pixel ever made—measuring 300 × 300 nanometers—developed by German scientists; it opens new possibilities for displays in VR headsets and AR glasses.
• 🌌 Building blocks of life detected in ice outside our Milky Way galaxy for the first time.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🌀 Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica yesterday as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, featuring winds up to a record-tying 185 MPH; the storm was downgraded from Category 5 to Category 4 before making landfall in Cuba early this morning.
• 🏛️ Two dozen states sue the Trump admin seeking to maintain funding of SNAP benefits (aka food stamps) during the ongoing federal gov’t shutdown. | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces US military struck four boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean accused of carrying drugs, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor; it’s the deadliest single day since Trump started launching attacks in waters near South America.
• 🌍 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered "powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip immediately," in retaliation for what Israel says was a Hamas attack on its forces in southern Gaza. | President Trump met with Japan’s newly elected PM Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo, marking the second stop on his Asia tour; the two leaders signed a rare-earth minerals deal and recommitted to a 15% reciprocal tariff plan.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the finalists from this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards—the event that proves no matter the species, we’re all just a bunch of silly geese. The winner will be crowned in London on December 9. See all the 2025 finalists here.

🤔 Did you know? The tradition of dressing up for Halloween started as a way to hide from ghosts during the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. People believed the boundary between the living and the dead blurred on October 31, so they wore costumes to blend in with any wandering spirits.

📰 Worth a read: The robot gearing up to do your dishes

🖱️ Clickbait: The 20 friendliest cities in the world

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• 🎃 1,500 lbs: Weight of the largest ever recorded pumpkin
• 🐧 30 minutes: How long emperor penguins can hold their breath underwater
• ⚾ 4: Most consecutive World Series titles won by an MLB team

❤️ When 99-year-old Leo Valente lost nearly everything he owned in a devastating flood, his small Massachusetts town rallied to support him. Read his story here. 

1. 🎃 Over; 2,819 lbs
2. 🐧 Under; 20 minutes
3. ⚾ Over; 5 straight World Series titles (New York Yankees; 1949-1953)

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