Market Beats | Alibaba Shares Hit Four-Year High as AI Spending Plans Expand; Oracle Seeks $15B Debt Sale to Fund Cloud Expansion; Jimmy Kimmel Returns, Calls Trump’s Threats to Free Speech “Anti-American”; Top US Business Schools Retreat From Diversity Partnerships Amid Policy Shifts; BofA Says Expensive US Stocks Could Be the ‘New Normal’; Intel Explores Potential Apple Investment to Aid Comeback Effort

—— Alibaba Shares Hit Four-Year High as AI Spending Plans Expand; Oracle Seeks $15B Debt Sale to Fund Cloud Expansion; Jimmy Kimmel Returns, Calls Trump’s Threats to Free Speech “Anti-American”; Top US Business Schools Retreat From Diversity Partnerships Amid Policy Shifts; BofA Says Expensive US Stocks Could Be the ‘New Normal’; Intel Explores Potential Apple Investment to Aid Comeback Effort

1. Alibaba Shares Hit Four-Year High as AI Spending Plans Expand

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares surged as much as 9.7% in Hong Kong to their highest level in nearly four years after the company said it would increase artificial intelligence investment beyond its previously announced $53billion plan.

Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu projected that global AI spending could accelerate to as much as $4trillion over the next five years, making it critical for Alibaba to keep pace. He said the company will add to its February pledge to invest more than 380billion yuan ($53billion) over three years in AI models and infrastructure. Alibaba Cloud, which already operates across markets from the US to Australia, is planning to open new data centers in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands within the next year.

Wu unveiled the outlook while detailing plans to roll out Alibaba’s Qwen models and “full-stack” AI technologies, spanning services as well as the infrastructure — such as chips — that underpin them. The announcement helped boost Chinese chipmakers, with ACM Research (Shanghai) Inc. jumping 15% and Naura Technology Group Co. gaining 10%.

The bullish response underscores global enthusiasm for AI, as investors bet massive capital outlays will eventually prove profitable. While some skeptics warn of a bubble, markets currently interpret such spending as a sign of rising corporate confidence.

“The industry’s pace of development far exceeded our expectations, and demand for AI infrastructure has also surpassed what we anticipated,” Wu told a developer conference in Hangzhou. “We are actively moving forward with the 380billion yuan investment in AI infrastructure and plan to add more.”

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2. Oracle Seeks $15B Debt Sale to Fund Cloud Expansion

Oracle Corp. is preparing to raise $15billion in the US investment-grade bond market on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

The software company is marketing debt in as many as seven tranches, including a rare 40-year bond. Initial price talk for that portion is around 1.65 percentage points above comparable Treasuries.

The deal comes as Oracle ramps up spending to fulfill massive cloud infrastructure contracts with OpenAI and Meta Platforms. The company is projected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next several years on renting and powering data centers. Proceeds from the bond sale may be used for capital expenditures, investments, acquisitions, or general corporate purposes such as debt repayment.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and JPMorgan are leading the offering. Oracle last tapped the bond market in January.

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3. Jimmy Kimmel Returns, Calls Trump’s Threats to Free Speech “Anti-American”

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show Tuesday after a six-day suspension, blasting Donald Trump’s attempts to silence him as “anti-American” while clarifying that he never intended to “make light” of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.

Kimmel acknowledged that his monologue last week — delivered after Kirk was killed on a Utah college campus — may have seemed “ill-timed or unclear,” but struck a defiant note: “A government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.”

ABC, owned by Disney, suspended Kimmel “indefinitely” last week after he said Trump supporters were exploiting Kirk’s death for political gain.

Ahead of the broadcast, Trump posted on social media that he was shocked ABC “gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” claiming ABC had told the White House the show was cancelled. He accused Kimmel of being a “Democratic arm” and suggested his return was a “major Illegal Campaign Contribution” to Democrats. Trump also hinted at suing ABC, referencing a $16million settlement the network paid his presidential library last year.

The controversy also drew criticism from FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who called Kimmel’s remarks a “serious issue” for Disney. Disney CEO Bob Iger and TV chief Dana Walden faced backlash for the suspension decision, which Kimmel said he disagreed with.

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4. Trump Blasts Allies and UN in Fiery UN General Assembly Speech

US President Donald Trump delivered a 56-minute address at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, using the extended speech to lash out at US allies and the global body itself.

Trump warned that immigration and what he called “suicidal energy ideas” would spell the end of Western Europe without immediate action. He dismissed climate change as a “con job” and told assembled leaders: “It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders… Your countries are going to hell.”

He accused the UN of abetting illegal migration into the US, calling it “an assault on western nations and their borders.” Trump also said the UN had failed to support the US in what he described as successful negotiations to end conflicts such as the Israel-Iran war in June. “I never even received a phone call from the UN,” he said, adding that the body was full of “empty words” that don’t solve wars.

Trump criticized the UN’s past rejection of his early 2000s proposal to rebuild its headquarters, which he said would have provided “marble and mahogany.”

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5. Top US Business Schools Retreat From Diversity Partnerships Amid Policy Shifts

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, elite US business schools leaned on the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management to strengthen diversity commitments. Founded in 1966, the group streamlines applications and reduces fees for underrepresented minorities. Participation has grown rapidly, with 25 schools involved for fall 2024 enrollment and a record 854 students recruited.

But for the fall 2026 admissions cycle, participation fell to 24 schools. The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business said it would exit due to “changes in state and federal policies.” Soon after, the University of Virginia’s Darden School paused its involvement, citing “heightened scrutiny” of its programs. By mid-August, Chicago Booth and Northwestern Kellogg—two of the most recent additions—also disappeared from the Consortium’s website. Booth had been a member for barely a year.

The retrenchment extends beyond the Consortium. Other organizations supporting underrepresented students and women, such as Prospanica, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and the Forté Foundation, are also facing setbacks. The federal government’s tougher stance against diversity in education—part of a broader campaign targeting universities through budget cuts, restrictions on international students, and opposition to “woke ideology”—has driven schools to scale back in ways not previously reported.

Booth has dropped nearly all of its diversity partnerships, Kellogg appears to have pared back many of its own, and institutions such as Harvard Business School and Wharton have also severed ties. The shift highlights mounting pressure on US business schools’ diversity initiatives.

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6. BofA Says Expensive US Stocks Could Be the ‘New Normal’

US equities look extremely expensive by historical standards — but Bank of America Corp. strategists argue the lofty valuations may be justified.

The S&P 500 Index is trading at rich levels on 19 of 20 valuation metrics tracked by BofA, with four hitting record highs, according to a Wednesday note led by Savita Subramanian, the bank’s head of equity and quantitative strategy.

She highlighted that today’s index members carry less leverage, show lower earnings volatility, operate more efficiently, and maintain steadier margins compared to past decades — factors that support higher valuations. The view contrasts with skeptics who liken current multiples to the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s. “The index has changed significantly from the 80s, 90s and 2000s,” Subramanian wrote. “Perhaps we should anchor to today’s multiples as the new normal rather than expecting mean reversion to a bygone era.”

The S&P 500 has climbed more than 30% from its April 8 low, even as risks linger around President Donald Trump’s tariffs and their potential effects on growth and inflation. The benchmark is also set to log its 108th straight session without a decline of at least 2% — the longest streak since July 2024.

This week, the index’s 12-month forward P/E ratio reached 22.9, a level surpassed only twice this century: during the dot-com boom and the 2020 pandemic rally when the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates near zero.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged Tuesday that equity valuations are “fairly highly valued” by many measures. Still, Subramanian stressed that today’s S&P 500 has a higher-quality composition than in prior decades and may be better positioned to thrive in an environment of Fed rate cuts.

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7. Intel Explores Potential Apple Investment to Aid Comeback Effort

Intel Corp. has approached Apple Inc. about a possible investment as part of efforts to revive its struggling business, according to people familiar with the matter. The two companies have also held preliminary discussions about closer collaboration, though no deal is assured at this stage.

The talks follow a $5billion investment from Nvidia Corp. last week to jointly develop chips for PCs and data centers, and a $2billion investment from SoftBank Group Corp. in August. Intel is also in contact with other firms about potential partnerships and funding.

An investment from Apple would represent a significant endorsement of Intel’s turnaround bid. Apple, once a major Intel customer, has shifted entirely to its own processors over the past five years, with advanced chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. As such, a return to Intel chips in Apple devices remains highly unlikely.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is pursuing a comeback backed by the US government. In August, the Trump administration brokered an unusual deal that gave the federal government about a 10% stake in Intel, framing the company as essential to restoring US semiconductor leadership.

Despite government support, Intel faces steep challenges: it has lost its long-standing technology lead to rivals like Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and failed to capture much of the booming AI chip market dominated by Nvidia. The company has also cut jobs and delayed factory expansion amid financial strain.

Still, sentiment has improved since the government’s investment, with Intel shares climbing more than 50% since early August.

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