During an all-hands meeting on November 6, Amin Vahdat, the vice president of Google Cloud responsible for AI infrastructure, laid out a staggering internal mandate: the company must double its compute capacity every six months to keep pace with the voracious demand for artificial intelligence services.

In a presentation viewed by CNBC titled “AI Infrastructure,” Vahdat displayed a slide that underscored the exponential stakes of the current technology arms race.

“Now we must double every 6 months,” the slide read, projecting a trajectory that would require a “1000x” increase in capacity within the next four to five years. Vahdat described the competition in AI infrastructure as “the most critical and also the most expensive part of the AI race,” a sentiment that aligns with the company’s massive financial escalation.

The internal disclosure comes just a week after Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and raised its capital expenditures forecast for the second time this year. The company now anticipates spending between $91 billion and $93 billion in 2024 alone, with a “significant increase” projected for 2026. This aggressive outlay is part of a broader trend among the “hyperscaler” giants—including Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta—who collectively expect to pour more than $380 billion into capital expenditures this year.

However, Vahdat emphasized to employees that the strategy is not merely about brute-force spending.

“Google’s job is of course to build this infrastructure but it’s not to outspend the competition, necessarily,” he said. While acknowledging that the company is “going to spend a lot,” he clarified that the ultimate goal is to engineer infrastructure that is “more reliable, more performant and more scalable than what’s available anywhere else.”

To achieve this efficiency, Google is leaning heavily on custom silicon. Vahdat highlighted the public launch of the company’s seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), codenamed “Ironwood,” which Google claims is nearly 30 times more power-efficient than its first Cloud TPU from 2018. He also pointed to a strategic advantage provided by DeepMind, whose research offers a roadmap for what future AI models will require. The objective, according to Vahdat, is to deliver 1,000 times more capability and compute power for “essentially the same cost and increasingly, the same power, the same energy level”—a feat he admitted “won’t be easy.”

The meeting also featured Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who fielded questions alongside CFO Anat Ashkenazi regarding the sustainability of this spending spree. Addressing an employee’s question about the “zeitgeist” of a potential AI bubble and market skepticism regarding the return on investment, Pichai offered a pragmatic defense of the company’s aggressive posture. He reiterated his long-held view that in platform shifts of this magnitude, the risk of underinvesting far outweighs the risk of overinvesting.

“I actually think for how extraordinary the cloud numbers were, those numbers would have been much better if we had more compute,” Pichai said, referencing the cloud unit’s recent 34% annual revenue growth to over $15 billion, with a backlog swelling to $155 billion.

He argued that Google’s balance sheet and diverse business model make it “better positioned to withstand, you know, misses, than other companies.”

Pichai provided concrete examples of how hardware constraints are already throttling product distribution. He cited the video generation tool Veo, noting that while the launch was exciting, the company could not roll it out to as many users within the Gemini app as they wished “because we are at a compute constraint.” This bottleneck validates the urgency of Vahdat’s six-month doubling mandate.

The internal dialogue at Google mirrors the broader anxiety in the market. The bubble conversation intensified this week after Nvidia’s earnings report. Despite Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang rejecting the bubble premise and reporting 62% revenue growth with strong guidance, markets reacted negatively, with Nvidia shares sliding 3.2% and dragging the Nasdaq down 2.2%. Pichai acknowledged these external jitters, telling employees that 2026 will be “intense” and that “there will be no doubt ups and downs.”

Looking toward the financial horizon, CFO Anat Ashkenazi addressed concerns that capital expenditures are accelerating faster than operating income. She framed the spending as a critical opportunity to migrate more customers from physical data centers into the cloud, asserting that “the opportunity in front of us is significant and we can’t miss that momentum.”

With the launch of the new Gemini 3 model and the race against OpenAI tightening, Mountain View is preaching that the only way out is through—specifically, through a massive, unprecedented expansion of silicon and steel.

A punishing wave of selling washed over Asia’s technology sector on Friday, erasing billions in market value as investors reacted to a paradox that has rattled global trading floors: Nvidia, the engine of the artificial intelligence boom, posted a blockbuster earnings beat, and the market hated it.

The result was a sea of red across Asian exchanges, led by a stunning double-digit collapse in SoftBank Group, as traders priced in a harsher reality for the AI ecosystem.

The damage was most acute in Japan, where SoftBank plunged more than 10%. The drop carried a bitter irony for the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank recently liquidated its direct stake in Nvidia—securing billions in profit—yet found itself unable to escape the gravitational pull of the chip giant’s sentiment. Investors punished SoftBank for its lingering exposure to the sector through its controlling stake in Arm Holdings, the British chip designer whose architecture underpins Nvidia’s processors, and its massive capital commitments to AI infrastructure projects like the $500 billion “Stargate” data center initiative.

The bleeding in Tokyo was indiscriminate. Tokyo Electron, a bellwether for chip manufacturing equipment, shed 6.6%, while Lasertec dropped 5.2%. Even Renesas Electronics, a smaller but critical supplier in the Nvidia chain, retreated 3%.

Supply Chain Contagion

The selloff rippled rapidly through the critical supply chains in Korea and Taiwan.

• SK Hynix plummeted nearly 10%. The South Korean titan is Nvidia’s primary supplier of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), the “turbocharger” memory chips essential for AI accelerators.
• Samsung Electronics, currently playing catch-up in the HBM race, was not spared, falling over 5%.
• TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), the sole manufacturer of Nvidia’s cutting-edge GPUs, dropped over 4% in Taipei.
• Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry), the builder of the server racks that house these AI brains, dipped 4.86%.

The Nvidia Paradox

The catalyst for the panic occurred thousands of miles away during Thursday’s U.S. trading session. Nvidia delivered what looked like a perfect scorecard: a beat on third-quarter earnings and revenue, coupled with a fourth-quarter sales forecast that exceeded Wall Street’s wildest estimates. CEO Jensen Huang even declared demand for the new Blackwell chips to be “off the charts.”

Yet, Nvidia shares fell over 3% in New York. The market’s reaction signaled a shift in psychology—investors are no longer satisfied with “great” results; they demand perfection. The selloff suggests that fears of valuation ceilings and “execution risk” are beginning to outweigh raw growth numbers.

Analysts argue this isn’t just about one company. The semiconductor slump is colliding with a broader risk-off environment.

“Nvidia was a victim of a combination of a Bitcoin selloff, the possibility of a delayed Fed rate cut, and generally tighter financial conditions,” said Billy Toh, regional head of retail research at CGS International Securities Singapore.

Speaking to CNBC, Toh pinpointed the psychological pivot point: “Add in the ongoing talk of an AI bubble, which triggers a broader risk-off rotation, and naturally Nvidia becomes one of the first pressure points.”

With Bitcoin retreating and the Federal Reserve’s minutes casting doubt on a December rate cut, liquidity is tightening just as the AI trade demands massive new capital outlays.

Morgan Stanley has abruptly reversed course on its forecast that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates by a quarter-point in December, after September’s labor market report revealed resilience that caught even hawkish strategists off guard.

The bank now points to a more cautious Fed stance, shaped by complex economic data and growing political pressure.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a gain of 119,000 non-farm payrolls in September, a sharp rebound from a revised 4,000-job decline in August. Economists had expected only 50,000 new jobs, having based their forecasts on earlier, less accurate data. Despite that strong hiring, the unemployment rate climbed to 4.4%, marking a four-year high.

Morgan Stanley’s strategists said the rebound suggests that a “summertime slowdown might have been exaggerated,” pointing toward a durable labor market even as unemployment ticked up.

Morgan Stanley now projects the Fed will hold off on rate cuts until next year, estimating three reductions in January, April, and June 2026, bringing the policy rate down to 3.00–3.25%.

Trump vs. the Fed

The Fed has found itself navigating not just the data, but also mounting political heat from former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly lambasted Chairman Jerome Powell for failing to lower rates more aggressively. Trump’s pressure campaign has become a recurring flashpoint — accusing Powell of being too cautious, too “stupid,” and even calling for his ouster.

In June, Trump publicly urged Powell to slash rates by a full percentage point. He later floated replacing him with someone who would cut faster — an unusually bold statement that rattled markets and raised alarms about the Fed’s independence. He’s even threatened legal action over the Fed’s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation, casting it as wasteful amid rate policy tension.

Trump’s persistent attacks come as he signals that any successor he endorses “will be somebody that wants to cut rates.” While he has backed off on outright removal for now — saying he doesn’t plan to fire Powell before his term ends in May 2026 — his repeated criticisms have added a layer of tension to what was once a technocratic process.

Despite Trump’s pressure, Fed officials have held firm. Powell has repeatedly emphasized that monetary policy decisions will be made “based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis,” and not as a reaction to political demands. That stance reflects a broader concern inside the Fed: that overreacting to political pressure now could undermine the central bank’s credibility and its ability to fight inflation down the road.

Policymakers have also pointed to other economic headwinds: wildcards like Trump’s tariffs, which could stoke inflation, and uncertainty in trade policy. Several Fed officials argue that a hasty rate cut might reignite inflation or fuel financial instability, undermining long-term macroeconomic health.

Morgan Stanley’s pivot away from a December cut underscores just how delicate the Fed’s current path has become. The bank’s strategists now view early 2026 as the more likely window for rate reductions — not because of political appeasement, but because the data and risks support a more measured approach.

This cautious recalibration comes amid a highly politicized backdrop, where the Fed must balance fulfilling its dual mandate (stable prices and high employment) with resisting overt pressure from political actors.

In short, many Wall Street analysts believe the Fed is walking a tightrope, but the stronger-than-expected jobs report may be giving it the leverage it needs to stand its ground — even as the public battle over rates intensifies.

The team behind BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF—specifically former BlackRock executives Kevin and Wyatt, who led the engineering for IBIT the fastest ETF to hit $100B in assets—have founded HelloTrade, a platform designed to provide global, frictionless access to leveraged trading in equities, ETFs, commodities, and crypto.

Built on MegaETH, an Ethereum Layer 2 network optimized for real-time, low-latency applications, HelloTrade aims to remove barriers like geography, high capital requirements, and legacy systems that limit retail and professional investors’ exposure to global markets.

The platform leverages MegaETH’s high-throughput design to enable seamless, directional bets on assets worldwide.In tandem with this, MegaETH is kicking off pre-deposits for its native stablecoin, USDM built in collaboration with Ethena’s USDtb infrastructure to generate yield and offset sequencer costs, via a USDC bridge capped at $250 million.

Eligible participants those who completed KYC during MegaETH’s recent MEGA token sale, which saw $1.39B in bids, and aren’t in restricted countries can deposit USDC from Ethereum mainnet starting November 25, 2025.

Deposits are first-come, first-served with no individual limits, locked until mainnet launch, and convert 1:1 to USDM in verified wallets—no restrictions or lockups post-launch. Depositors also qualify for MegaETH’s rewards campaign, earning points based on activity.

This move positions MegaETH as a hub for stable, predictable costs in high-frequency trading, aligning perfectly with HelloTrade’s vision.

By raising $4.6M in a lightning-fast seed round led by Dragonfly Capital, the platform signals robust investor faith in bridging high-frequency equity trading with DeFi’s openness.

HelloTrade’s mobile-first app eliminates crypto’s typical hurdles—no wallets, no gas fees, no jargon—while delivering brokerage-like speeds via MegaETH’s 100,000+ TPS capacity.

This could unlock leveraged exposure to U.S. stocks like Tesla for Vietnamese or Indonesian investors for billions in emerging markets, bypassing geographic and capital barriers that lock out retail traders today.

US Treasury Secretary’s Visit to a Bitcoin Bar

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a surprise appearance at the grand opening of Pubkey, a Bitcoin-themed bar in Washington, DC, though the buzz has spread nationwide, on November 20, 2025.

The unannounced visit ignited the Bitcoin community, with many hailing it as a “signal” of mainstream institutional embrace—especially given Bessent’s crypto-friendly track record since his 2024 nomination.

He’s advocated for policies like the GENIUS Act, using seized Bitcoin to seed a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve without sales, and praised BTC’s “always-on” resilience during the white paper’s 17th anniversary amid a government shutdown.

Prominent voices like Strive’s CIO Ben Werkman called it a pivotal moment: “Having the Secretary of the Treasury at the Pubkey DC launch seems like a moment I could easily look back on and say ‘wow, it was all so obvious’.”

Others, including Bitcoin analysts and podcasters, echoed the optimism, viewing it as symbolic validation amid a more restrained SEC under Chair Paul Atkins with enforcement down 30% in FY2025. This comes as spot Bitcoin ETFs like IBIT face $3.79B in November outflows (IBIT alone at $2.47B), highlighting volatility even as policy winds shift favorably.

These developments underscore Bitcoin and crypto’s accelerating integration into finance—from ETF innovators building on L2s to top officials mingling at BTC spots. If you’re eyeing deposits or trades, double-check eligibility and timelines.