OpenAI secured $122 billion on the same day, and Oracle laid off 30,000 people to fund new data centers. Iran fought for a month, and China delivered a ceasefire proposal. Trump said, “Go get your own oil.”
1｜The China-Pakistan ceasefire plan is released; Trump tells allies the same day, “Go fight yourselves”
On Tuesday, China and Pakistan released their first major-country ceasefire roadmap since the Iran war, including an immediate ceasefire, the start of talks, the cessation of attacks on civilian facilities, and the restoration of Hormuz Strait navigation. At almost the same time, Trump posted to the UK and France on Truth Social: “Go get your own oil.” The White House confirmed that reopening the Hormuz Strait is not within the U.S. military’s pre-established objectives; the military targets listed by Defense Secretary Hegseth are missiles, drones, and the navy—the strait is not on the list. The S&P 500 rose 1.5%, and the Nasdaq rose 2%. What the market is betting on is not victory—it’s the exit.
(Source: Axios / Fortune / Middle East Eye / SCMP / Bloomberg)
2｜The IRGC lists a strike list of 17 U.S. companies; cyber warfare expands from military targets to commercial infrastructure
On Tuesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced that starting at 8:00 p.m. Tehran time on April 1, they would carry out strikes on Middle East facilities of 17 U.S. companies. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Tesla, Boeing, J.P. Morgan, Intel, Oracle, and others are all on the list. The IRGC ordered employees and civilians within 1 kilometer of the facilities to evacuate immediately, claiming that these companies’ AI and cloud computing technologies are being used to locate and assassinate senior Iranian commanders.
This is the first time, in the 2026 conflict, Tehran has publicly threatened to strike cross-border civilian technology infrastructure. On the same day, an Iran-linked hacker hijacked and injected malware into Axios’s HTTP open-source library (tens of millions of downloads per week). The Handala Hack Team leaked Lockheed Martin’s internal data and sent intimidation letters to government officials. From kinetic strikes to supply-chain attacks to psychological warfare—three lines are advancing at the same time.
(Source: Foreign Policy / CBS News / The Hill / Wired / TechCrunch / Bloomberg)
3｜OpenAI’s $12.2 billion financing closes: $2 billion in monthly revenue; retail investors enter for the first time
OpenAI completed what is reportedly the largest single-round financing in Silicon Valley history: $12.2 billion, valuing the company at $852 billion post-investment. Amazon contributed $50 billion ($35 billion depending on the IPO or achieving AGI), Nvidia and SoftBank each put in $30 billion, and Microsoft participated but did not disclose the amount. The company has $2 billion in monthly revenue; last year it generated $13.1 billion for the full year.
Most notable is the $3 billion coming from individual investors. OpenAI is opening the retail channel for the first time through banking channels, and ARK Invest is also adding it to its ETF. An unlisted company is using ETFs and retail channels to build its pre-IPO shareholder base. With a valuation of $852 billion already exceeding Meta’s market value, the real obstacle to an IPO is not valuation—it’s the shift in governance structure from nonprofit to for-profit.
(Source: CNBC / TechCrunch / Bloomberg / OpenAI / SiliconANGLE)
4｜Nvidia invests $2 billion in Marvell: a custom-chip alliance takes shape, with defense and offense moving together
Nvidia invested $2 billion in Marvell Technology and established an extensive collaboration; Marvell shares jumped more than 11%. The two sides will jointly develop silicon photonics technology (replacing copper lines to transmit data with light) and integrate the NVLink Fusion interconnect standard. Marvell provides customized XPU and extended networking, while Nvidia provides Vera CPU, ConnectX network cards, and Spectrum-X switches.
Marvell is one of the largest suppliers of custom AI chips, serving hyperscale customers such as Google and Amazon. Custom chips are the biggest potential threat to GPU dominance. Nvidia’s strategy is to pull potential substitutes into its own interconnection ecosystem. This is not a financial investment—it’s turning competitors into partners.
(Source: CNBC / Bloomberg / Reuters / Marvell official / Next Platform)
5｜The U.S. jobs market is a warm-boiled frog: no layoffs, no hiring, no resignations
The JOLTS data released by the BLS on Tuesday paints a bizarre picture of the labor market. In February, the hiring rate fell to 3.1%; only 4.8 million people were hired, the lowest since the 2020 April pandemic lockdown. Job openings fell to 6.9 million (down 358,000 quarter over quarter). But the layoff rate was only 1.1%, and the resignation rate was 1.9%—both figures stayed unchanged. Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, called it a “brutal job market.” The company is not laying anyone off, but it also is not hiring at all.
On the same day, Jim Paulsen’s Walmart recession indicator (Walmart stock price vs. the global luxury goods index) reached the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. Moody’s gave a 48.6% probability of a recession in the next 12 months, and Goldman Sachs put it at 30%. Add Oracle kicking off the same day layoffs of 20,000 to 30,000 people (about 18% of employees) to free up cash flow for AI data centers, and Microsoft ending its worst quarter since 2008 (Q1 down 23%, annualized capital expenditures of $146 billion). The market story is shifting from “AI investment is overheated” to “AI investment is crowding out everything else.”
(Source: Fortune / BLS / CNBC / TD Cowen / Bloomberg)
Also worth knowing ↓
The naval vessel company Saronic raised $1.75 billion, valuing it at $9.25 billion. Kleiner Perkins led the round. It plans to produce 20 ships per year in 2027 and has already signed $392 million in naval contracts. The founder said the goal is to restore shipbuilding speed to the pace seen since World War II. The Iran war is not only about missile strikes—it’s also a mass-production contest for unmanned vessels. (Source: CNBC / Saronic)
Stablecoin funding in a single day: OpenFX $94 million, Better Money $10 million, Latitude $8 million. On the same day, 12 European banks formed the Qivalis alliance and launched an euro stablecoin to counter “digital dollarization.” From cross-border payments to clearinghouses to euro defense, stablecoins are simultaneously penetrating three tracks. (Source: Fortune / CoinDesk / Ledger Insights)
Moody’s gave crypto-bond ratings for the first time; Bitcoin entered the public-debt market. This is the first time the traditional credit rating system has covered a bond instrument backed by crypto assets. On the same day, Bitcoin was about to equal the historical record of six straight months of declines. Institutional infrastructure is being built, while price signals are worsening. (Source: CoinDesk / Moody’s)
BP’s former CEO Bernard Looney took over the Wyoming data center developer Prometheus Hyperscale. The person who left an oil giant due to personal scandal has turned around and moved into AI infrastructure. From energy transition to AI computing power, Looney’s career trajectory is a microcosm of capital migration. (Source: Fortune)
Fujitsu plans 1.4nm AI chips, manufactured entirely in Japan for production by Rapidus. Japan is trying to close the loop for advanced process technology for the first time. Rapidus’s 2nm mass-production timeline has been delayed multiple times; its 1.4nm ambitions are running faster than capacity. (Source: Tom’s Hardware / Fujitsu)
UNDP estimates that one month of the Iran war has cost Arab countries up to $194 billion. Even if the conflict is “brief and intense,” poverty rates in Sudan, Yemen, and Lebanon will rise significantly. The bill for war isn’t only between Washington and Tehran—it lands on the poor across the entire region. (Source: Al Jazeera / UNDP)
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