Stock markets rise to record highs and Apple touches $4tn market value for first time – as it happened

The UK’s FTSE 100 has hit a new intra-day record and Wall Street shares are also at all-time highs – with Apple hit a $4 trillion market value for the first time.The FTSE 100 has hit a record peak of 9,715.22, and is currently trading 0.5% higher at 9,698.4

‘A stomach of steel’: amateur investors ride out dips amid talk of an AI bubble

It was more than just a hunch, says Jacob Foot of his first foray into US tech stock investments back in 2020.The 23-year-old says he played around with artificial intelligence tools in his first job and thought to himself: this technology is going to be a big deal.Foot put his savings each month into US shares and in particular the biggest investors in AI, the Magnificent Seven (M7). For several years the list has included the chipmaker Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Alphabet (the owner of Google) and Meta (the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).Five years on, Foot expects to complete the purchase of a “bigger house in London than I expected”, a dream he could not have realised without his stock market bets paying off

Apple hits $4tn market value as new iPhone models revitalize sales

Apple topped $4tn in market value for the first time on Tuesday, the third tech company to hit the milestone, as robust demand for its latest iPhones allayed fears over its slow progress in the AI race. Microsoft reached a $4tn market cap for the second time the same day as the wider US stock market hit record highs.Apple’s shares have gained about 13% since the new launches on 9 September, in a remarkable turnaround that pushed the stock into positive territory for the first time this year.“The iPhone accounts for over half of Apple’s profit and revenue, and the more phones they can get into the hands of people, the more they can drive people into their ecosystem,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, ahead of the milestone.Apple shares had struggled earlier this year on concerns over tough competition in China and uncertainties around how the company would navigate high US tariffs on Asian economies such as China and India, its major manufacturing hubs

OpenAI completes conversion to for-profit business after lengthy legal saga

OpenAI said on Tuesday it had converted its main business into a for-profit corporation, the conclusion of a lengthy and fraught legal saga.A crucial regulator, Kathy Jennings, the Delaware attorney general, said she approved the plan for the startup, which began as a non-profit in 2015, to change to a public benefit corporation, a type of for-profit entity that expresses commitment to bettering society.The company also said it had reorganized its ownership structure and signed a new agreement with its longtime backer Microsoft that gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation, but changes some of the details of their close partnership. OpenAI was valued at $500bn under the terms of the deal, making Microsoft’s stake worth more than $100bn.The restructuring paves the way for the ChatGPT maker to more easily raise capital and profit off its artificial intelligence technology, even as it remains technically under the control of its own original non-profit entity

Marcus Smith left out of England 23 to face Australia with Lions made to wait

England have omitted Marcus Smith completely from their matchday squad to face Australia on Saturday and confirmed George Ford as their starting fly-half. Head coach Steve Borthwick has also named six British & Irish Lions on his bench with Tom Curry, Ellis Genge and Henry Pollock all named among the replacements.Instead Borthwick has preferred to put his faith in lower-profile players such as Bath’s Guy Pepper, Sale’s Tom Roebuck and Leicester’s Joe Heyes in a side which also has no place for Bath’s Ollie Lawrence or Exeter’s Henry Slade, both midfield regulars last season. Tommy Freeman will wear 13 having been shifted inside from the wing to form a centre pairing with his Northampton clubmate Fraser Dingwall.Luke Cowan-Dickie is set to win his 50th England cap off the bench but this will be the first England appearance at Twickenham for Pepper and Pollock

$54m to walk: getting fired as a college football coach is a booming industry

Brian Kelly’s departure from LSU is just the latest in a series of big money firings. It’s also a jarring state of affairs for many struggling fansAt a time when millions are at risk of going hungry and losing their medical insurance benefits, struggling Americans can at least take solace in knowing that the nation’s college football coaches are doing just fine – especially Brian Kelly.On Sunday LSU relieved Kelly of his coaching duties after his Tigers suffered a resounding home loss to Texas A&M that dropped them out of the AP’s ranking of college football’s top 25 teams. (This is after LSU was ranked as high as third in September and firmly in the top 10 for most of the season.) Kelly, who was in the fourth year of a decade-long contract worth about $100m, will be going home with more than just a box full of purple and gold office trinkets