The Fed’s Flying Blind, Corporate America’s Cutting Deep, and Nvidia’s Skyrocketing

29th October 2025

The Fed is expected to trim interest rates by another quarter point this week, but policymakers are flying blind as the government shutdown delays key economic data. With limited visibility into jobs and inflation, Jerome Powell’s remarks may matter more than the move itself. Meanwhile, corporate America is in layoff mode. Amazon, UPS, PwC, and Target are all slashing thousands of white-collar roles moves many companies say will free up funds for AI investments. Despite the cuts, the broader labor market remains surprisingly steady, adding over 14,000 private-sector jobs weekly. On Wall Street, Nvidia is inching toward a $5 trillion valuation after CEO Jensen Huang’s blockbuster GTC keynote unveiled massive AI hardware plans, new partnerships, and a bold vision for “AI factories.” And in the digital arena, Elon Musk just launched Grokipedia, his AI-powered answer to Wikipedia aimed at challenging what he calls bias on the original site. Early users say the chatbot-edited encyclopedia mirrors Musk’s worldview as much as Wikipedia’s reflects its editors’. All this and more in today’s Read It and Eat! 

Major  News

• Fed ‘in a Fog’ as It Moves Toward Another Rate Cut

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, lowering its benchmark rate to the 3.75%–4.00% range. But this decision comes as policymakers navigate with limited visibility a government shutdown has halted key data releases, including September’s jobs report, leaving the Fed to rely on partial information as it weighs how the labor market is holding up under President Trump’s stricter immigration policies. Through August, the unemployment rate had edged up from 4.0% to 4.3%, with slowing hiring and fewer foreign-born workers joining the labor force tempering what could have been a sharper rise.

While officials still see a roughly balanced job market, there’s growing concern that businesses could start pulling back further amid uncertainty about economic growth. Layoffs at Amazon and rising state jobless claims have underscored that risk. On the inflation front, a White House–ordered release of September’s Consumer Price Index showed slower-than-expected price growth, as easing housing costs offset higher fuel and import prices. That mix of softer inflation but lingering labor worries has left policymakers with little reason to change course from their earlier guidance signaling gradual quarter-point cuts this fall.

Attention now turns to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who will speak after Wednesday’s decision is released at 2 p.m. EDT. Markets will be watching for any signs of dissent among officials, with Governor Stephen Miran reportedly favoring a deeper half-point cut and others pushing back amid concerns about inflation. Vice Chair Michelle Bowman may also oppose halting the Fed’s balance sheet drawdown, which still totals about $6.6 trillion. Without new economic projections, Powell’s tone and choice of words will shape how investors interpret the Fed’s outlook for the rest of the year.

For now, the central bank is effectively operating “in a fog.” The shutdown has delayed key reports on jobs, inflation, and GDP, forcing officials to lean more heavily on business surveys and anecdotal data. That’s made it harder to gauge whether the economy is stabilizing or losing steam. “The government shutdown has left the Fed in a fog about the labor market,” said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “That’s fueling support for another cut now rather than risking a bigger one later.” If the shutdown drags on, policymakers may have to rely even more on judgment and could be pushed toward another rate cut in December. Reuters

• Amazon, UPS, PwC, and Others Slash Workforces Amid Corporate Layoff Wave

Corporate America is in the middle of another sweeping round of layoffs and this time, it’s hitting white-collar offices hard. Amazon announced 14,000 corporate job cuts yesterday, with as many as 30,000 total roles expected to be eliminated in the near future roughly 10% of its white-collar staff. UPS also revealed during its Q3 earnings call that it has already cut 48,000 jobs this year, including 14,000 management positions.

The wave of reductions stretches well beyond logistics and tech. Ed-tech firm Chegg is cutting 45% of its workforce after blaming weak search traffic on AI’s growing influence. Paramount is laying off 1,000 employees as part of its merger with Skydance Media. Target just began its largest round of cuts in a decade, eliminating 1,000 positions and scrapping 800 open roles about 8% of its total workforce. Even PwC, which once pledged to add 100,000 new hires by 2026, reduced its headcount by 5,600 in the year ending June 30.

Companies are pointing to familiar reasons: cutting costs, streamlining workflows, and tightening operations. But there’s another underlying factor freeing up capital for artificial intelligence. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said he wants to transform the company into a lean, AI-driven “startup,” noting that most of its $31.4 billion in second-quarter capital expenditures went toward AI and cloud infrastructure, a trend he expects to continue.

Still, the broader job market isn’t falling apart. Despite these high-profile cuts, private-sector employers collectively added an average of 14,250 jobs per week over the last month, according to early ADP data. In other words: while the office layoffs are grabbing headlines, hiring elsewhere is still keeping the overall job market afloat at least for now. Morning Brew

• Huang’s AI Masterclass Sends Nvidia Soaring Toward $5 Trillion

Nvidia’s market momentum shows no signs of slowing. Shares of the AI powerhouse (NASDAQ: NVDA) jumped 5% on Tuesday, topping $200 for the first time, after CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote at the company’s semiannual GTC conference. The rally pushed Nvidia’s valuation closer to the $5 trillion mark as Huang confidently brushed off any talk of an AI bubble.

What really caught investors’ attention was Huang’s claim that Nvidia now has visibility into more than $500 billion in cumulative Blackwell and Rubin revenue through 2026. The numbers raised eyebrows and optimism. Wolfe Research analyst Chris Caso suggested that the guidance could point to roughly $140 billion in upside for Nvidia’s data center GPU revenue, potentially adding about $3 per share to 2026 earnings estimates.

Huang’s presentation wasn’t short on headline-worthy announcements either. He introduced an AI-native 6G wireless stack built in collaboration with Nokia, rolled out NVQLink to connect quantum processors with GPUs, and unveiled partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy to build seven new AI supercomputers including Solstice, a 100,000-GPU system at Argonne that will be the largest public scientific AI platform in existence.

Framing the future, Huang described AI factories as the next evolution of data centers powered by new chips like BlueField-4 and designed through Omniverse DSX. He also highlighted new collaborations with Foxconn, Caterpillar, Disney, and Uber, which plans to deploy about 100,000 Level-4 autonomous vehicles by 2027. The keynote wrapped up with record-setting performance benchmarks from Nvidia’s Grace Hopper Superchip, cementing the company’s expanding role at the heart of the global AI ecosystem. Finance.Yahoo

• Meet Grokipedia, Elon Musk’s Answer to Wikipedia

Elon Musk has launched the beta version of Grokipedia, his own spin on the online encyclopedia after accusing Wikipedia of harboring left-wing bias. The new platform, created by Musk’s AI company xAI, is designed as a rival to the internet’s long-standing knowledge hub, promising AI-generated entries instead of human-edited pages.

Where Wikipedia has more than seven million English-language articles written by volunteers, Grokipedia currently features around 900,000 entries all fact-checked by Grok, xAI’s chatbot. But early users have already spotted differences in how the two sites frame politically charged topics. For example, Wikipedia’s page on the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack calls it an “attempted self-coup” aimed at stopping the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Grokipedia, on the other hand, describes it as a “riot” that occurred “amid widespread claims of voting irregularities,” citing sources that dispute its classification as an insurrection.

Despite its positioning as a fresh alternative, Grokipedia isn’t completely independent from the platform it’s challenging. Many of its entries like the one for the PlayStation 5 are nearly identical to Wikipedia’s, and the site even acknowledges using Wikipedia content as a base.

Wikipedia, meanwhile, has seen an 8% drop in human traffic over the past year, which the nonprofit attributes to people increasingly relying on AI-generated summaries instead of visiting the site directly. With Grokipedia now entering the mix, Musk seems ready to test whether the future of online knowledge will belong to AI or still rest in the hands of human editors. Morning Brew

• OpenAI Becomes a For-Profit Powerhouse After Long Legal Battle

OpenAI has officially completed its transformation into a for-profit company, ending a yearlong legal and regulatory saga that reshaped the governance of one of the world’s most influential AI firms. The restructuring, approved by Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, allows the ChatGPT maker to raise money more freely and profit from its technology while still being overseen by its original non-profit parent.

As part of the overhaul, OpenAI reorganized its ownership structure and signed a new agreement with Microsoft, giving the tech giant a roughly 27% stake in the newly formed for-profit entity. The deal values OpenAI at around $500 billion, putting Microsoft’s investment north of $100 billion. The new arrangement slightly revises how the two companies collaborate but keeps Microsoft as OpenAI’s biggest outside backer.

The move brings closure to months of negotiations and scrutiny from regulators in Delaware and California, both of whom had raised questions about whether OpenAI’s non-profit mission could coexist with its commercial ambitions. The company said it worked “constructively” with both offices throughout the process. Board chair Bret Taylor called the recapitalization a step toward simplifying OpenAI’s structure while keeping its long-term goal intact: developing safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Not everyone’s convinced. Critics, including watchdog groups, argue that the non-profit’s control over the for-profit arm is largely symbolic, with few safeguards to ensure its founding mission isn’t overshadowed by financial incentives. Still, OpenAI’s new structure clears the path for massive capital infusions, deeper ties with Microsoft, and a clearer framework for how the company will operate as it races toward what it calls “the era of AGI.” The Guardian 

Minor News

• Apple and Microsoft Reach $4 Trillion Market Cap Milestone for the First Time. CBNC 

• Trump Lauds Japan, Promises Takaichi “Anything You Want” Amid New Trade and Rare Earth Deals. Finance.Yahoo

  
  

• Nvidia is on track to hit a record $5 trillion market valuation. Reuters 

  
  

•  UBS posts $2.5 billion Q3 profit, smashing analyst expectations. Reuters 

  
  

• Gaza Ceasefire Collapses as Netanyahu Orders Renewed Strikes on Hamas. BBC

  
  

• JPMorgan to use AI chatbots for drafting employee performance reviews. MorningBrew 

  
  

• Foxconn to roll out humanoid robots at new Houston AI server facility. Reuters 

  
  

• Microsoft, OpenAI finalize deal lifting fundraising limits for ChatGPT creator. Reuters