Bitcoin keeps climbing, and Michael Saylor stays winning. Bitcoin hit a new all-time high over the weekend, breaking $80,000 for the first time on Sunday and climbing as high as $82,000 on Monday morning.
One of the biggest winners of bitcoin’s “Trump pump"? Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy. Saylor’s tech-company-turned-bitcoin-acquisition-vehicle bought another 27,000 bitcoin for almost $2 billion between October 31 and November 10 for an average price of $74,463. The company now holds 279,420 bitcoins, acquired for an average price of $42,692.
SoftBank is up 4% in premarket trading on Thursday as the Japanese conglomerate announced a net profit of ¥248.6 billion ($1.6 billion) in its fiscal third quarter, buoyed by a $4.2 billion valuation gain in its OpenAI investment.
SoftBank marked its fourth consecutive quarter of profits, swinging from a ¥369 billion ($2.4 billion) loss in the same quarter the year before.
The Masayoshi Son-led firm has invested a total of $34.6 billion in OpenAI so far, amounting to an ~11% stake in the startup, per its earnings presentation. The company is also reportedly looking to invest as much as $30 billion more in the ChatGPT-maker in a funding round that would value it at up to $830 billion.
SoftBank is accumulating more dry powder to fund its investments in OpenAI and other AI-adjacent ventures. Management shared on Thursday that they sold $12.7 billion worth of T-Mobile shares between June and December 2025, offloading an additional $2.3 billion in January of this year. In addition, they borrowed another $400 billion via a margin loan that uses SoftBank Corp. shares in December.
Since SoftBank started investing in OpenAI through the end of 2025, the company has enjoyed a $19.8 billion investment gain in total. The OpenAI investment, alongside other investments in its second tech-heavy Vision Fund, drove a $6.5 billion increase in fair value for the quarter — helping to outweigh a $4.1 billion loss in its first Vision Fund, “primarily due to share price declines of Coupang and DiDi.”
Source: Company filing
BTIG analyst Jesse Sobelson estimates that the ChatGPT maker now represents 30% of SoftBank’s net asset value. The company’s stock has also almost doubled in the past year as retail investors piled into SoftBank to get pseudo-exposure to the now-private OpenAI.
AST SpaceMobile has slumped 8% in pre-market trading after the company unveiled a trio of financing moves aimed at raising fresh capital to expand its satellite network while paying down existing, costlier loans.
After Wednesday’s close, the satellite network company said it intends to raise $1 billion througha private offering ofconvertible senior notes due 2036 to qualified institutional buyers. Initial purchasers may also buy up to $150 million in additional notes by February 20, 2026. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including accelerating AST’s global satellite deployment, investing in US government space opportunities, and reducing higher-interest debt, per the release.
In a separate press release, AST also said it intends to repurchase up to $300 millionof its existing convertible senior notes due 2032, including $50 million of its 4.25% notes and $250 million of its 2.375% notes. The buybacks will be funded through concurrent issuances of class A common stock.
All transactions were “subject to market conditions and other factors,” the company added.
Earlier on Wednesday, AST shares had briefly climbed after the company announced it had successfully completed the “unfolding of its next-generation BlueBird 6 satellite.” However, the multi-layered financing plan announced later in the day appears to have spooked investors, pushing the stock lower in after-hours trading and into today.
Cisco is dropping in Thursday’s premarket, down 8% at 4:45 a.m. ET, after a middling Q3 margin forecast offset sales and earnings beats in its second-quarter results yesterday.
For the fiscal second quarter of 2026, the computer networking equipment giant reported:
Non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.04 vs. the $1.02 expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.
Sales of $15.35 billion vs. the $15.11 billion consensus expectation.
AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers of $2.1 billion vs. $1.3 billion in the previous quarter.
Revenue guidance for fiscal Q3 of between $15.4 billion and $15.6 billion vs. $15.19 billion consensus estimate.
Adjusted gross margin guidance for fiscal Q3 of 65.5% to 66.5%, compared with analysts’ forecasts for 68.2%.
Fiscal year 2026 sales guidance of $61.2 billion to $61.7 billion vs. previous guidance of between $60.2 billion and $61.0 billion.
Along with other companies like Lumentum, Corning, and new S&P 500 member Ciena, which provide things like the wiring and networking equipment needed to connect server racks, Cisco shares had been enjoing a strong start to 2026 as the AI data center boom continues to roll.
McDonald’s reported Q4 results on Wednesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, which the company attributes to its “value leadership.”
For the last three months of 2025, the fast-food giant reported:
Adjusted earnings per share of $3.12, compared to the $3.05 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.
Revenue of $7 billion, higher than the $6.8 billion analysts were penciling in.
Global comparable-store sales growth of 5.7%, compared to the 3.9% growth analysts were expecting. In the US, comparable sales grew 6.8% versus the 5.4% that was expected. The company said this was “driven by positive check and guest count growth primarily from successful marketing promotions.”
McDonald’s has emphasized discounts and promotions, such as its $5 meal deals. “McDonald’s value leadership is working,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a statement.
Shares were little changed in after-hours trading.
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