The Close brings you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street. Today's guests are Vanguard President & CIO Greg Davis, UBS Equity Research Analyst, Large-Cap Banks & Consumer Finance Erika Najarian, Janus Henderson CEO Ali Dibadj, CreditSights Global Head of Strategy Winnie Cisar, DoubleLine Global Sovereign & Emerging Markets Head Bill Campbell, Cisco Chair & CEO Chuck Robbins, Blackstone Global Head of Digital Infrastructure Mike Forman, Nuveen Global Head of Infrastructure Jessica Bailey, KKR Head of North American Infrastructure Brandon Freiman, Loop Capital Founder, Chairman & CEO Jim Reynolds, & Huel CEO James McMaster. (Source: Bloomberg)

Databases have traditionally been designed either for analytical data or for operational data. But database engine CedarDB supports both, and its approach has gained relevance with the rise of agentic AI.

At a forum in Beverly Hills, the discussion focused on obstacles to expanding AI data centers, including rising energy costs and weakening public support for construction. Blackstone’s Mike Forman said infrastructure supply constraints are worsening, particularly around power: utilities that once could connect projects within six to twelve months may now quote waits of up to seven years, require investments as high as $1 billion, and offer less certainty. The panel of Mike Forman, Jessica Bailey & Brandon Freiman speak to Romaine Bostick at the CAIS Summit Panel. (Source: Bloomberg)

Janus Henderson CEO Ali Dibadj said the firm is energized by its move to private ownership and is using the flexibility to invest in people, technology including AI, new products and client service. He said quarterly earnings pressures had constrained those investments, despite the firm’s growth as a public company. He speaks with Romaine Bostick on "The Close." (Source: Bloomberg)

Jio plans to use most of its IPO proceeds to repay debt as it expands beyond telecom.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Zenzap, a private messenger with AI agents that aims to replace apps like WhatsApp in the workplace, raised $44M from Bessemer, Lightspeed, and others  —  Many businesses around the world use consumer-facing chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, or iMessage to talk and coordinate with staff, and exchange documents or data.

Labelbox said on October 14, 2026, that it raised more than $100 million in Series E financing at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation, in a round led by Infinitum Partners that combines equity with a credit facility. Wipro Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), B Capital, Tau Ventures, and Snowpoint Ventures also participated, among others. Chief executive and co-founder Manu Sharma detailed the terms in a company blog post, and the company said the financing will support continued research and…

Incident hitting 700 supermarkets exploited outdated devices exposed to the Internet.

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Langley’s comments come amid mounting scrutiny of Flock from privacy advocates, including the ACLU, and members of the public who are concerned about the misuse of its technology.

<p><strong>Tool:</strong> <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/tree-appreciator">Tree Appreciator</a></p> <p>Another game experiment with Claude. This one used the default Claude iPhone app (chat mode, not Claude Code mode), where I prompted Claude Opus 5.5 Max with:</p> <blockquote> <p><code>Build a three js game called "Tree appreciator" - it shows you two algorithmically generated trees and the game mechanics is about appreciating the differences between them. Think hard about how to make sure it is both fun and beautiful.</code></p> </blockquote> <p>Somewhat embarrassingly given <a href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/27/2026-in-llms-so-far/#simon-willison-2026-in-llms.059.webp">my recent talk</a>, I've found that telling Opus 5.5 "make sure it is fun" works uncomfortably well. In this case Claude <a href="https://claude.ai/share/ee7de555-f85c-4ff0-96cb-d51ed5e479e9">crunched for 3 hours and 7 minutes</a> before retuning a cosy little spot-the-difference game with music and animation and achievements that's quite compelling to play.</p> <p><img alt="Screenshot of a mobile spot-the-difference puzzle game with a dark interface. Header reads &quot;No. 003 Acer autumnalis ‘Hid…&quot; with subtitle &quot;Autumn maple · A country lane in late a…&quot; and icons for sound, a book, and help. Two nearly identical 3D-rendered scenes are stacked vertically, labeled &quot;Fig. i&quot; and &quot;Fig. ii&quot;, each showing a dark-trunked maple tree with red, orange and pale peach leaves, leaves falling through the air, a golden grassy field with a few small rocks, and hazy hills with pine silhouettes under a pale sky. Two differences are circled in blue in both images: circle &quot;a&quot; at the base of the trunk, where Fig. i has a small red mushroom that is missing in Fig. ii, and circle &quot;b&quot; in the right side of the canopy, where Fig. i has a patch of green leaves that are red in Fig. ii. The bottom bar shows &quot;2 of 4&quot;, a reset button, a &quot;Hint&quot; button with three filled and two empty dots, and a score of &quot;1,803&quot;." src="https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026-10-14/image_crop_1320x2195_w1320_q0.7.webp" /></p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/game-design">game-design</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/javascript">javascript</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai">ai</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/generative-ai">generative-ai</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/llms">llms</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/claude">claude</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/vibe-coding">vibe-coding</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/three-js">three-js</a></p>

OpenAI previously said it used its AI models to help identify the employee who allegedly planted a recording device. Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images A former OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device had one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia booked. Federal prosecutors disclosed Abdulrahman Alfozan's travel plans in previously sealed court documents. Alfozan was arrested on October 9 and made his first court appearance on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors said a former OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device had a one-way ticket booked to Saudi Arabia. In newly unsealed court documents, it was revealed that the federal government feared its case against Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national, might be jeopardized if information about it leaked. "The defendant, his wife, and a third family member have booked one-way tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia (via Istanbul) for Monday, October 12, 2026," the prosecutors, including US Attorney for the Northern District of California Craig Missakian, wrote in an October 8 court filing. The prosecutors wrote that Alfozan had "the means—and will have an incentive—to flee the United States sooner if he learns about this case before he is arrested." On October 9, the FBI arrested Alfozan. He made his initial court appearance on Wednesday when the government unveiled its case against him. Alfozan has been charged with "use of an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications," a felony that carries a maximum of five years in prison. According to the criminal complaint against Alfozan, the company found a USB device surreptitiously placed on the back of a television located in an "executive conference room." The device was concealed in toilet paper, the complaint said. Alfozan's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. OpenAI previously said in a statement that it used "our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier." Read the original article on Business Insider

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CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity authentication bypass + RCE vulnerability, was only partially discovered and patched in July, leaving an opening for threat actors to capitalize on.

Colossal Biosciences on October 14, 2026 unveiled GenoMorph, an artificial-intelligence platform developed to identify gene-editing targets for species with limited genomic data, and reported that the system has identified an estimated 2,300 candidate regulatory DNA elements associated with avian beak size and shape in the company's dodo de-extinction program. The Dallas-based company announced the platform alongside a set of advances across its avian pipeline: a substantially improved dodo…

But the new "Preview" app "will have some bugs," Epic warns.

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch: YouTube Music rolls out labels for songs created with the help of AI; Spotify has AI labels, and Apple Music plans to add “Made With AI” labels later this year  —  YouTube Music announced Wednesday the rollout of a new labeling system aimed at improving transparency around songs created with the help of generative AI.

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Suspected Russian drones have sunk or damaged 5 ships near Bulgaria and Romania.

Colossal announced a new AI platform to help accelerate its de-extinction efforts and Peter Diamandis has launched a new fund to back startups who use it.