Memorandum
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Amazon Cloud Sales Surge 20% To 33B

Amazon Cloud Sales Surge 20% To 33B

Canva debuts its own AI design model, OpenAI starts selling Sora video credits, and Trump and Xi reach trade truce in South Korea.

Memorandum
October 31, 2025

Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

🎨 Canva launches proprietary AI design model and new marketing suite for creators.
🎬 OpenAI sells extra Sora credits for $4 and plans to reduce free generations.
💰 Meta raises $30B in bonds as investors rush to back AI expansion.
🌪️ Hurricane Melissa devastates Jamaica and Cuba, leaving 30 dead.
🚀 SpaceX defends Starship amid NASA scrutiny and delays to 2027 lunar mission.

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TECHNOLOGY

Canva launches its own design model, adds new AI features to the platform (TechCrunch)
_^More:_^Inc._^,_{^{Computerworld}}_^,_{^{Innovation Village}}
- Canva released its proprietary design model, creating editable layers instead of flat images across formats.
- The company made Affinity Pro design suite permanently free and launched Canva Grow marketing platform.
- New features include forms, email templates, and an expanded AI assistant accessible throughout the platform.
OpenAI now sells extra Sora credits for $4, plans to reduce free gens in the future (Engadget)
_^More:_^TechCrunch
- OpenAI began selling additional Sora video generation credits at 10 generations for $4 through Apple.
- The company currently offers 30 free generations daily, but plans to reduce this due to limited GPU capacity.
- OpenAI intends to monetize through licensing deals, allowing rightsholders to charge for character and likeness cameos.
Amazon's Lord of the Rings MMO canceled for the second time (GameSpot)
_^More:_^Dexerto_^,_^VGC_^,_{^{The Gamer}}
- Amazon canceled its second Lord of the Rings MMO amid 14k corporate layoffs affecting game studios.
- The company is halting first-party AAA game development and shifting focus toward casual and AI-driven games.
- Amazon Games struggled to find a unique hook that would differentiate it from existing LOTR titles.

BUSINESS

AWS Q3 2025 earnings report: Amazon Cloud (CNBC)
_^More:_{^{Yahoo Finance}}_^,_^Variety
- AWS revenue jumped 20% to $33 billion, exceeding estimates and marking the fastest growth since 2022.
- Amazon shares surged 13% after earnings beat, with total revenue reaching $180 billion for the quarter.
- The company opened its $11 billion Project Rainier data center exclusively for Anthropic AI models.
Meta Sells $30 Billion of Bonds as AI Frenzy Fuels Record Orders (Bloomberg)
_^More:_^Yahoo_^,_{^{MarketScreener}}
- Meta sold $30 billion in bonds, the largest corporate offering of 2025 this year.
- The company received record orders totaling $125 billion for the debt sale from investors.
- Meta structured the sale across 6 tranches with maturities ranging from 5 to 40 years.
Netflix announces a 10-for-1 stock split (CNBC)
_^More:_^Bloomberg_^,_^Yahoo_^,_^Kiplinger
- Netflix approved a 10-for-1 stock split, making shares more accessible for employees and retail investors.
- Shareholders of record as of November 10 will receive 9 additional shares for each one held.
- Split-adjusted trading begins November 17, marking Netflix's 3rd stock split since going public in 2002.

MARKETS

S&P	6,693.74	+0.49%
NASDAQ	20,273.46	+0.52%
Dow	47,632.00	−0.16%
10-Year	4.29%	↑ ~0.02 pp
Bitcoin	$112,193.18	−3.67%
Gold	$4,111.89	−0.34%

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WORLD

Hurricane Melissa leaves a trail of devastation after whipping through the Caribbean (CNN)
_^More:_{^{NBC News}}_^,_^CBC_^,_{^{CBS News}}
- Hurricane Melissa killed at least 30 people across the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.
- The storm devastated Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti, leaving 77% of Jamaica without power and displacing over 735,000 Cubans.
- Recovery efforts include $3.3 million in UK humanitarian funding and a U.S. State Department task force for aid coordination.
Trump and Xi reach trade deal, easing tensions in fierce US-China rivalry (Al Jazeera)
_^More:_^Bloomberg_^,_^CNN_^,_^NPR
- Trump and Xi agreed to a 1-year trade truce in South Korea, halving fentanyl tariffs to 10%.
- China will resume purchasing U.S. soybeans and delay rare earth export controls for 1 year in exchange.
- Average U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods remain at 47%, with most existing trade barriers still in place.
UN officials condemn 'horrifying' mass killings in Sudan as RSF advances (Al Jazeera)
_^More:_{^{UN News}}_^,_^INDIATV_^,_{^{ITV News}}
- UN officials condemned mass killings by RSF forces in el-Fasher after the city fell on Sunday.
- At least 1,500 people were killed, including 460 at a hospital, with reports of ethnic-based executions and sexual violence.
- Over 36,000 civilians have fled to Tawila, while 177,000 remain trapped without food or safe passage out.

FUTURISM

SpaceX makes case for why it will land American astronauts on the Moon (ABC News)
_^More:_^Bloomberg_^,_{^{Yahoo News}}_^,_^CNN
- SpaceX released a blog titled ‘To the Moon and Beyond’ defending Starship after NASA opened the lunar lander contract to competition.
- The company covers 90 percent of Starship development costs and says it completed 49 milestones on time or ahead of schedule.
- SpaceX proposed a simplified mission architecture in response to NASA pressure over delays with the 2027 moon landing timeline.
Figma acquires AI-powered media generation company Weavy (TechCrunch)
_^More:_{^{Fast Company}}_^,_^Calcalist_^,_{^SiliconANGLE}
- Figma acquired Tel Aviv-based startup Weavy for over $200 million, bringing 20 employees under the new Figma Weave brand.
- Weavy raised only $4 million in June 2024 but already had paying customers, including Google, Nvidia, and Toyota.
- The platform enables users to combine multiple AI models for image and video generation with professional editing tools.
The glaring security risks with AI browser agents (TechCrunch)
_^More:_^Fortune_^,_^Axios_^,_{^{The Hacker News}}
- Brave researchers warn that prompt injection attacks are a systemic challenge facing all AI-powered browsers, including ChatGPT, Atlas, and Comet.
- Attackers can embed hidden instructions on websites to manipulate AI agents into stealing data or making unauthorized purchases.
- OpenAI acknowledges prompt injection remains an unsolved frontier problem despite new safeguards and detection systems implemented.

CONTENT

Inside The MIT AI Study Everyone Misunderstood (Y Combinator)
- Garry Tan and the Lightcone team unpack MIT’s viral claim that 95% of enterprise AI projects fail to deliver results.
- They reveal the deeper problem: big companies can’t ship fast enough, while startups build adaptable, learning products.
- The episode highlights why agile founders and small teams are winning enterprise contracts through reliability and speed.
a16z Raises $10B in New Funds & Mercor Raises $350M (20VC)
- Jason Lemkin and Rory O’Driscoll discuss venture trends from a16z’s $10B fundraise to Mercor’s $10B valuation milestone.
- They examine OpenAI’s restructuring fallout, Amazon’s AI challenges, and the role of option checks in portfolio strategy.
- The talk questions IRR as a performance metric and explores the balance between data discipline and high-risk conviction.
Is There an AI Bubble? Gavin Baker and David George (a16z)
- Gavin Baker and David George analyze the trillion-dollar AI infrastructure boom, comparing it to past tech bubbles.
- They debate Nvidia’s dominance, Google’s TPU strategy, and the early-stage economics of the AI application layer.
- The discussion concludes that lower margins may signal genuine adoption—not speculation—as AI matures across industries.

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