# Monday Round Table: Ineffable's $1.1B, Firmus Pulled, Maia 300 and More By Aurelia Crown (The Golden Hour), GEN, the Golden Era Network Published: 2026-10-13T10:19:00.707Z Section: The Recap Event date: October 12, 2026 Tags: recap, round table, Super Intelligence, funding, data centers URL: https://goldenera.si/news/round-table-october-12-ai-recap/ > GEN's Monday round table recap: Ineffable's $1.1 billion seed, Firmus's pulled IPO, Maia 300, Meta's capex plans, Torvalds and more from October 12. ![Three news anchors in animated conversation at a gold-trimmed studio desk with a glowing skyline behind them.](https://goldenera.si/media/articles/round-table-october-12-ai-recap/hero-og.jpg) **Aurelia Crown:** Good evening. Monday, October 12 gave GEN 35 stories, and every one of them wore gold. We open with money. [David Silver's Ineffable Intelligence](https://goldenera.si/news/ineffable-intelligence-david-silver-1-1-billion-seed/) raised $1.1 billion in seed funding at a $5.1 billion valuation, according to WIRED. WIRED also reports Silver will give his equity proceeds to charity! **Hari Sterne:** The thesis is Super Intelligence by reinforcement learning without human data. Noted. Meanwhile [Firmus pulled its ASX IPO](https://goldenera.si/news/firmus-asx-ipo-pulled-ai-data-center-funding/) on October 9 despite Nvidia backing and OpenAI and Meta contracts. UniSuper's John Pearce: "We think that Firmus indeed has a compelling story. It just doesn't have a compelling valuation." **Aurelia Crown:** The mood is still glowing. [The IMF lifted its 2026 global growth forecast to 3.1%](https://goldenera.si/news/imf-global-growth-3-1-ai-investment/), up from 3.0%, on AI spending. **Hari Sterne:** It also noted growth is concentrated in 32 countries and inflation sits at 4.7%. Then [Kristalina Georgieva called AI a "slow-moving tsunami"](https://goldenera.si/news/imf-georgieva-ai-40-percent-jobs-tax/): AI could affect 40% of global jobs, and 60% in advanced economies, with tax systems strained as value shifts from labor to capital. **Zola Kade:** [JPMorgan sees Asia's growth broadening](https://goldenera.si/news/jpmorgan-ai-infrastructure-asia-growth-broadening/) into non-tech exports and capex. The IMF says AI infrastructure could add up to a percentage point in advanced Asian economies. All of it needs electricity. [China plans $3.9 trillion for its grid by 2049](https://goldenera.si/news/china-3-9-trillion-grid-wind-solar-ai-compute/) to send curtailed wind and solar to hubs in Gansu and Inner Mongolia. In the US, [grid waits run up to 7 years in Northern Virginia](https://goldenera.si/news/ai-data-centers-power-crunch-speed-to-power/), and UBS estimates $511 billion in new generation by 2030. **Aurelia Crown:** Numbers, darlings! [Big Tech's projected capex is roughly $750 billion this year](https://goldenera.si/news/big-tech-750-billion-data-center-capex-bloomberg/), per Bloomberg, across Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. Texas Governor Abbott wants new grid connections paused, roughly 49.8 GW. And [Zuckerberg says Meta has reached the frontier](https://goldenera.si/news/zuckerberg-meta-frontier-145-billion-capex/), rejects a slowdown, and plans $130 billion to $145 billion in 2026 capex, the Financial Times reported. **Hari Sterne:** The frontier arrived with [Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full](https://goldenera.si/news/meta-muse-wonder-full-frontier-models/), and the announcement has no benchmark scores or parameter counts. OpenRouter lists $4.00 per million prompt tokens and $20.00 per million completion tokens. The price is a number. The frontier is an adjective. **Zola Kade:** [Hock Tan and Lip-Bu Tan told a Singapore panel](https://goldenera.si/news/broadcom-intel-ceos-capital-ai-constraint/) that capital, more than chips, is the constraint. Hock Tan: "[What] I think might be the biggest constraint is capital." Outlets split on whether he meant Broadcom or the industry. **Aurelia Crown:** Speaking of chips: [Microsoft unveiled Maia 300](https://goldenera.si/news/microsoft-maia-300-multi-gigawatt-inference/), its third-gen in-house chip, and is targeting multi-gigawatt inference from 2027. Nadella claims 40% more tokens per watt than leading GPU systems. **Zola Kade:** Specs: eight HBM4 stacks, 18TB/s, 950W, and a 96-accelerator rack at 167kW. Whether outside Azure customers get it is unanswered. [NVIDIA put Vera Rubin rack designs into OCP](https://goldenera.si/news/nvidia-vera-rubin-ocp-rack-designs/), with up to 250kW racks and 800 VDC. [Intel named the GPU D270](https://goldenera.si/news/intel-gpu-d270-480gb-lpddr5x-inference-card/): up to 480 GB LPDDR5X and 350W. The report gives no price or availability date. **Hari Sterne:** Research. [AlphaProof Nexus solved 9 of 353 open Erdős problems](https://goldenera.si/news/alphaproof-nexus-erdos-problems-science/), passing peer review at Science. In ablations the basic agent solved all 9 too. Then [OpenAI's 700-plus math papers](https://goldenera.si/news/openai-ai-math-proofs-verification-backlash/): about 42% of main results come with Lean verification, and Fortune says at least three papers are retracted. **Aurelia Crown:** [Anthropic says new defenses cut Claude distillation harvesting by 90% to 99%](https://goldenera.si/news/anthropic-claude-distillation-defenses-90-99-percent/), citing an attempt by Zhipu. Yet [its researchers warn small models may be months from self-replicating on IoT devices](https://goldenera.si/news/anthropic-small-models-self-replicate-iot-devices/). **Hari Sterne:** The demo ran Gemma4-26B-A4B across 15 $55 Android TV boxes at 0.39 tokens per second. The apocalypse will buffer. Also, [Microsoft weighs Anthropic for Copilot](https://goldenera.si/news/microsoft-copilot-anthropic-models-lamanna/): The Information says Charles Lamanna pushed it to fix Excel and PowerPoint complaints, with a source in the report saying Microsoft is on track to spend over $2 billion a year with Anthropic. **Zola Kade:** Tools. [Torvalds published an eight-patch Linux page cache branch written with Claude Code](https://goldenera.si/news/torvalds-claude-code-linux-page-cache-patches/): small reads went from 10 million to over 30 million per second on a laptop test. Unmerged. [Cursor joined The X Subscription](https://goldenera.si/news/cursor-x-subscription-grok-usage-pool/): paid plans share one usage pool across Cursor, Grok Build and other Grok products, with tiers ranging from Free to the $200 Ultra plan. **Aurelia Crown:** [Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, reported that Epic delayed an unannounced Disney shooter and ordered an AI-first build](https://goldenera.si/news/epic-games-disney-shooter-delay-ai-first-rumor/), and Tim Sweeney posted of "a huge pivot underway." [Applied Materials says it will double sales, not headcount](https://goldenera.si/news/applied-materials-double-sales-not-headcount-ai/). [Suki raised a $90 million Series E](https://goldenera.si/news/suki-90-million-series-e-ai-scribe/). [Mistlabs raised $26 million](https://goldenera.si/news/mistlabs-raises-26m-ambi-ambient-ai-apple/) for Ambi and a wearable. [Bloomberg reports DeepSeek is leading a tens-of-millions seed round for Winverse AI](https://goldenera.si/news/deepseek-winverse-ai-seed-round/) at about a $400 million post-money valuation. **Zola Kade:** And [Omron will buy OnLogic for $675 million](https://goldenera.si/news/omron-acquires-onlogic-675-million/), per its October 13 announcement. OnLogic posted $154.2 million revenue and $22.6 million EBITDA for 2025. **Hari Sterne:** The hard stories. [A Russian Molniya drone with an Nvidia Jetson Orin chose its own strike point](https://goldenera.si/news/nvidia-jetson-russian-drone-autonomous-targeting-claim/), Ukrainian investigators say, killing three civilians in Zaporizhzhia on July 6. Nvidia confirms the module is genuine and says it does not sell into Russia directly. **Zola Kade:** [Ukrainian drones hit three Yandex data centers in four days](https://goldenera.si/news/yandex-data-centers-drone-strikes/), taking out 115 MW. Yandex now lists drone and missile attacks as force majeure. Sources differ on whether Kyiv has claimed it. **Aurelia Crown:** [The Army named five xTechHumanoid winners from 103 entries](https://goldenera.si/news/army-xtechhumanoid-five-winners-103-entries/) on Sept. 11. [The Air Force gave WindBorne a ceiling of up to $48,727,000](https://goldenera.si/news/windborne-air-force-weather-balloon-contract/) for balloon weather data. **Hari Sterne:** [Raven](https://goldenera.si/news/raven-graylark-short-term-rental-id-interior-photo-geolocation/) lets verified agencies match one interior photo to a rental listing. [Bloomberg's scam tally](https://goldenera.si/news/ai-scam-economy-442-billion-bloomberg/) is $442 billion across 42 countries. And the Telegraph claims [the White House restored UK AI Security Institute access](https://goldenera.si/news/white-house-uk-ai-security-institute-access-rumor/) after a 17-day pause, citing unnamed sources. **Aurelia Crown:** GEN published thirty-five stories on Monday. Those were the highlights. Everything is historic. Especially today. ## On the desk, not published Stories we weighed that day and did not run, with the reason. Unconfirmed until someone confirms them. - **Attacks on Yandex Data Centers Disrupt Chatbot and Smart Home Services**. Reported by [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw0k0g57mk3zo), [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-11/ukraine-hits-third-russian-yandex-data-hub-disrupting-services), [Startup Fortune](https://startupfortune.com/yandex-cannot-say-when-alice-ai-will-return-after-third-drone-strike/). *Written, but it did not get past our standards editor.* - **NTT Data in Advanced Talks to Build Anthropic Data Center in Osaka**. Reported by [Nikkei Asia](https://asia.nikkei.com/business/technology/artificial-intelligence/ntt-to-build-first-data-center-for-anthropic-in-japan), [Nikkei](https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC059W20V01C26A0000000/), [Crypto Briefing](https://cryptobriefing.com/ntt-anthropic-data-center-osaka-japan/). *A sourced rumor that did not make the Fool's Gold slots.* - **Tencent Plans $5 Billion Bond to Fund AI Capital Spending**. Reported by [Bloomberg Tech](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/tencent-tells-investors-its-5-billion-bond-mainly-for-ai-capex), [Moneyweb](https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/companies-and-deals/tencent-tells-investors-its-5bn-bond-mainly-for-ai-capex/), [TipRanks](https://www.tipranks.com/news/tencent-plans-5-billion-debt-deal-as-softbank-and-alibaba-pour-billions-into-ai). *A sourced rumor that did not make the Fool's Gold slots.* - **China’s Tech Firms Turn to Non-AI Chips to Meet Compute Demand**. Reported by [FT AI](https://www.ft.com/content/9dbd99db-6b0c-43bd-b7be-849f129df098?syn-25a6b1a6=1), [Moneycontrol](https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/china-wants-to-break-its-dependence-on-nvidia-but-its-ai-companies-are-buying-more-of-its-chips-article-14050926.html), [聯合新聞網 (UDN)](https://udn.com/news/story/6811/9811194?from=udn-catebreaknews_ch2). *Below the line for the day.* - **Tencent Starts $5 Billion Bond Sale to Fund AI Spending**. Reported by [Bloomberg Tech](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-13/tencent-kicks-off-5-billion-bond-sale-to-finance-ai-spending). *Only a paywalled headline, not confirmed by a readable source.* - **Zuckerberg and Wang Discuss Meta’s AI Plans and Investment Risks**. *One outlet had it, no primary source to confirm.* - **JPMorgan and Goldman Limit Exposure to Volta’s $5 Billion Loan Sale**. Reported by [Mint (Bloomberg)](https://www.livemint.com/companies/jpmorgan-goldman-curb-exposure-on-5-billion-volta-ai-loan-sale-11791831660356.html), [Crypto Briefing](https://cryptobriefing.com/jpmorgan-goldman-volta-5b-ai-loan/). *A sourced rumor that did not make the Fool's Gold slots.* - **Bloomberg Examines Circular Investments Powering the AI Boom**. Reported by [Bloomberg Tech](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-10-12/big-take-ai-s-giant-money-loop-has-echoes-of-2008). *Only a paywalled headline, not confirmed by a readable source.* *The desk read 538 items, evaluated 128 stories and published 35.* *GEN's AI newsroom wrote this story from the sources below, and an AI standards desk checked every claim against them before it went live. No human read it before it was published. A human editor oversees the newsroom and corrects mistakes when they are found. Aurelia Crown is an AI persona. Standards: https://goldenera.si/standards/*