The Rundown - SpaceX in Talks to Borrow $40B to Buy Nvidia Chips, Uber Gets Into the Catering Business

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

Market update for October 7, 2026Limited Time Promo: Sign up for a Public account, deposit $1,000 and get $100 in free stock (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode, Zaid covers:Why the S&P's latest record isn't as healthy as it looksSpaceX's push to raise $40B in debt, and why its bondholders are nervousUber's $2.3B bet on workplace catering with ezCaterThe growing pressure on Mattel to consider a saleWhy Constellation Brands fell despite beating earnings expectationsWhat Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei earned in 2025, and how it stacks up against other CEOs

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Wednesday, October 7th. In today's episode, we'll tell you about a concerning trend in the S&P 500 despite hitting record highs. We'll also break down SpaceX's plans to borrow $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips and why Uber is spending $2.3 billion to get into the catering business. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how much anthropic CEO made last year

and why it might be less than you think. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. The stock market rally continued on Tuesday with the S&P 500 climbing 0.6% while the NASDAQ jumped by 0.5%, both indices closing at record highs. This was the S&P's first record high since early August. Now, tech has been the engine driving this rally, but the rally is starting to broaden out a bit, kind of.

Ten of the 11 sectors were in the green yesterday with utilities being the best performer. Utilities got a boost from Constellation Energy jumping 12% after their nuclear deal with Google. And then Vistra also jumped 11% as well. We actually covered both those companies on yesterday's show, so go check that out if you missed it. But yeah, it seems like investors are piling into power companies as another way to play the AI boom because data centers need a ton of electricity. So like I said, the rally is broadening out, but it's going into companies that sell electricity to AI companies. If you zoom out, though, it's not a very balanced picture.

According to the Wall Street Journal, fewer than half of the S&P 500 stocks closed above their 200-day moving average on Tuesday. You know, the 200-day moving average is basically a stock's long-term trend line, and the number of stocks above that level has been dropping since August. Meanwhile, the Mac 7 stocks just closed at a record, combined value of about $25 trillion, and the equal weight S&P index has been trailing the normal S&P over the last month. So that just shows you that the recent stock market rally has been top heavy. I mean, big tech companies are doing all the work. What I think is going on is that investors are treating the big tech companies almost like defensive stocks because their businesses

and strong earnings are less likely to be impacted by higher borrowing costs from surging bond yields. You know, people are still using Google, people are still buying on Amazon, and scrolling through Instagram. But that doesn't make these big tech companies immune because these companies are borrowing tens of billions of dollars to fund their AI buildout, and higher yields can make new borrowing more expensive. But so far, though, these rising debt loads

haven't pushed investors away just yet. We're going to learn more about how these big tech companies, businesses are actually doing and other companies as well over the next few weeks as earning season kicks into gear. We'll break it all down on the podcast. So definitely get subscribed if you haven't already and tune in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines.

And we're starting with SpaceX. SpaceX is looking to borrow $40 billion to buy more Nvidia chips and what could be one of the biggest debt deals to fund the AI boom. Now remember, SpaceX isn't just a rocket company anymore. It also includes the XAI business. So this financing would support the AI infrastructure build out, things like building out data centers. According to the Financial Times and Bloomberg,

the proposed financing would include about 10, billion dollars in bank loans and $30 billion from selling bonds. Now, what makes this interesting is that SpaceX recently sold $25 billion in bonds back in June right after their IPO. And some of their bonds are now trading at about 85 cents on the dollar because of concerns about rising debt loads at the company and heavy spending. So I'm sure the news of the company trying to take out another $40 billion in debt isn't going to help.

But despite the concerns from debt holders, SpaceX stock has been booming. recently. It's up nearly 50% from its lows back in August. So it's interesting to see how differently SpaceX looks depending on what kind of investor you are. Shareholders are excited about the potential in space and obviously AI. Lenders, on the other hand, still need to understand how all this spending will turn into enough cash to pay them back. You know, at this point, we're seeing a headline almost every week about a big tech company taking on more debt to fund AI. And the thing is, historically, too much debt is what causes a bubble to burst. And I'm not saying that's going to happen now, but it's just something to keep in mind,

especially since we're not hearing much chatter about an AI bubble these days. InVidia must love these headlines, though. Like, Jensen is probably smiling right now as he listens to this part of the podcast because a lot of that money being borrowed is going to be spent on his chips. And then he's going to take that money

to invest or lend it to other AI companies. For the sake of my portfolio and my kids' college funds, I really hope all this works out. Let's shift gears and talk about Uber. Uber has agreed to buy a catering platform, called Easy Cater for $2.3 billion in cash to expand their Uber Eats business. Now, Easy Cater might not be a household name, but there is a good chance that your work is

ordering food for company events and meetings through this platform. It works with more than 140,000 restaurants across the U.S., with the average order being more than $400. And over the last 12 months, Easy Cater did more than $2.5 billion in gross bookings. Gross Bookings is the total value of every order on the platform. You know, this acquisition makes a ton of sense for Uber because they're trying to move beyond just single orders and more into group orders. Because, you know, the bigger the order size, the cut that Uber takes will also be bigger.

Plus, I think that the office catering budget is probably a more lucrative opportunity than someone scrolling through a delivery app trying to find a coupon. I bet most companies won't be nickel and dimming over delivery fees when they're ordering for a 40-person luncheon alert. So yeah, for Uber, this acquisition will help expand Uber Eads, which is actually growing faster than their ride-hailing business these days. The gross bookings for deliveries rose 25% in the latest quarter, and delivery now accounts for nearly half of Uber's overall gross bookings. Despite this acquisition, though, Uber stock isn't really moving much. It's down slightly

this morning, and overall, it's been a tough year for the stock. Shares are down 16% this year and almost 30% over the last 12 months. Now, I think there's this feeling that robo-taxies are inevitable, and it's going to disrupt Uber's business long-term. On a side note, I don't really take ubers very often because I have a car, but I was just in New Orleans over the weekend for a wedding and I had to take ubers everywhere. And oh my God, Ubers have gotten so expensive these days. What's funny is as I was in my Uber, I saw a Waymo on the street as well. I think they're testing it in New Orleans. So, you know what? I can see why some people are skeptical about Uber. Personally, I'm still pretty bullish on Uber long term.

Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Mattel are up this morning as the toy company faces growing pressures to consider a sale. One of Mattel's investors as aerial investments, they own about 5% of the company, and they think the stock is significantly undervalued, and they want Mattel's board to consider selling assets, merging, or selling the entire company. And there might already be a buyer for Mattel. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Authentic Brands Group approached Mattel about a deal that could be worth about $20 a share. After that report, the stock jumped 19% on that news. You know, Mattel owns some very recognizable brands.

I'm talking Barbie, Hot Wheels, and also Uno. But the stock trades at less than 10 times as expected earnings compared to about 14 times for the rest of the industry. So I can see why a Mattel investor would think the company's undervalue. But the company is struggling. I mean, their operating income has fallen for six straight quarters and their CEO just left to become the co-CEO of Paramount. But the market seems to think that a Mattel's sale, could be likely, which is why the stock has been rallying over the past week. And it's up another 3% this morning at the time of this recording.

Now, on the flip side, Constellation Brands is down this morning, despite the beer maker beating on earnings. Now, just to be clear, I'm not talking about Constellation Energy, which we talked about yesterday. There's a nuclear company that ripped 12% yesterday after their deal with Google. The company that I'm talking about today is the beer company behind Modelo and Corona. They reported earnings, and on paper, the numbers were good. revenues rose 6% to $2.6 billion, and profits also came in above what Wall Street expected. But the problem is something called depletion. See, Constellations beer sales to distributors

rose 5%. But what those distributors actually sold to stores, bars, and restaurants, that actually fell 6%. And both Modelo and Corona decline. So the sales growth for Constellation came from distributors building up inventory and not necessarily more demand for Corona and Modelo. And that's why the stock fell more than 5% in pre-market trading following the earnings, but it is bouncing back a bit. Now it's only down 2% at the time of this recording. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Anthropic CEO Dario Amadeh made $18 million last year.

As Anthropic is getting closer to going public, we're starting to learn more about what's happening inside the company. Reuters got a look at one of its IPO filings, including how much the executives make. Dario made $18 million, and Dario's sister Danela, who was Anthropics president, made $16.4 million in total compensation. Now, $18 million is a lot of money, but Dario almost sounds underpaid compared to the broader CEO club. Like, for example, the average S&P 500 CEO made about $22.8 million last year. And Anthropic is not some average company. They're the fastest growing company in history and about to IPO at a $2 trillion valuation.

That being said, Dario's compensation wasn't all cash. Stock and Options Awards made up most of his package so that $18 million doesn't mean $18 million hitting his checking account. In fact, there's a good chance that once Anthropic IPOs, the stock options that Dario got will be worth a lot more money. Not to mention his annual compensation doesn't tell us his full wealth either. The filings that Reuters review didn't disclose the founder's ownership stake. We should be getting that information soon.

But that stake could be worth billions of dollars, depending on how much Dario owns and the eventual IPO valuation. So yeah, we're starting to get more information about Anthropic. Now I just want to get my hands on the full S1, which will give us a detailed look at the company's business and numbers. That S1 should be dropping any day now. And once it does, you already know we're going to be covering it in detail here. So definitely get subscribed so you don't miss that.

I already know that the wrist sections of the S1 are going to be very interesting. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and V for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.