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Saturday Brief: AWS Says 2027 Is Largely Sold Out, Security Stocks Jump on PHP Flaws, FICO Holds at $10

October 24, 2026 Aaron Harme

Amazon says its 2027 cloud capacity is largely sold out, and security stocks jumped while website owners patched a flaw in the code behind most of the web.

Plus FICO’s price freeze for lenders who sign up, an Indian trading academy ordered to hand back its course fees, and a lawsuit aimed at Division III’s scholarship ban.

In this Brief

Andy Jassy says AWS capacity is largely sold out for 2027
CrowdStrike and Palo Alto rise as companies patch the PHP2Shell flaws
FICO holds its mortgage score at $10 for enrolled lenders
India’s market regulator orders an options trainer’s academy to refund $57.5 million
Division III athletes sue over the NCAA’s scholarship ban

Amazon says AWS capacity is largely sold out for 2027

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said AWS computing capacity is “largely sold out” for 2027 and that “a good chunk of 2028 is sold out,” speaking on a video podcast with Andreessen Horowitz’s Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg, Reuters reports. He said 2026 capacity is already gone and that Amazon “could invest a lot more and it wouldn’t be a bad use of capital.” Amazon has said it will spend about $220 billion on capital projects this year, and it reports third-quarter results Oct. 29.

The same week, CoreWeave’s credit default swap spreads, the price of insuring its debt against default, widened past 11%, a level generally viewed as distress, and CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN have each lost well over 30% in October, CNBC reports.

When capacity is sold two years out, the seller decides which customers wait.

Security stocks rise as companies patch the PHP2Shell flaws

CrowdStrike rose 8.25% Friday and Palo Alto Networks about 7%, as companies patched two critical flaws in PHP, the code language behind roughly 70% of websites, Investing.com reports. Researchers used AI tools to find and confirm the bugs, which had reportedly gone unfixed for years, and OpenAI coordinated with security providers before the disclosure.

An Evercore ISI survey of resellers, released Friday, also said security budgets are firming into year-end and named CrowdStrike and Palo Alto as the leading beneficiaries of AI security spending, Investing.com reports.

A flaw in code that runs most of the web hands a patching job to every site that uses it, and the stocks rose as investors bet that some of that work gets bought from vendors. Their next quarterly reports will show how much of this week’s scare turned into orders.

FICO holds its mortgage score at $10 for lenders who sign up

FICO will keep its wholesale mortgage score price at $10 for lenders and brokers enrolled in its Preferred Program, for a bundle of Classic FICO and FICO 10T, FICO said in a release. TransUnion sells the rival VantageScore 4.0 for 99 cents per mortgage score through the end of 2028 and includes it free with a FICO purchase, TransUnion said.

Aaron’s longer piece has the bureau pricing and where the government-backed buyers stand, and Aaron’s post has the short version.

India orders an options trainer’s academy to refund $57.5 million

India’s market regulator ordered options trainer Avadhut Sathe and his academy to refund ₹546.17 crore (5.46 billion rupees) collected from course participants for unregistered investment advice and research, plus ₹67.87 crore in interest to its investor protection fund, The Hindu BusinessLine reports. The refund is about $57.5 million, Bloomberg reports. Sathe and the academy are barred from the securities market for two years or until they pay, whichever is later, and face ₹10 crore in penalties.

The academy published some testimonial videos with false profit claims, SEBI’s order found. It collected about ₹601 crore from participants since inception.

Once the regulator classed the classes as advice, the tuition became the thing to hand back. Add the interest and the bill tops ₹614 crore, more than SEBI says the academy ever took in.

Division III athletes sue over the scholarship ban

Three current and former Division III athletes filed a proposed class action Friday against the NCAA rule that bars D-III’s more than 400 schools from offering athletic scholarships, Sportico reports. The complaint says the NCAA has fixed “the price of Division III athletic labor at zero.” One plaintiff, Connor Printz, says he quit basketball at Claremont McKenna to focus on his social media business after borrowing to cover nearly $80,000 in tuition, room and board.

A federal court in Indiana threw out similar claims in 2013. This suit was filed in California, inside the 9th Circuit, whose O’Bannon and Alston rulings helped take apart the NCAA’s limits on athlete benefits.

The ban sets one price for 400-plus schools that recruit against each other, which is the kind of agreement the plaintiffs say Alston puts under antitrust scrutiny.

Also noted

Instacart is exploring a sale and has held preliminary talks with Uber and DoorDash, according to The Information, Reuters reports; Aaron’s post compares the growth rates.
Google’s privacy policy now lets Gmail, Drive and Photos data inform ads when users connect those apps to its Personal Intelligence feature, The Verge reports; Aaron’s post has the clause.
In a survey experiment funded by the Brennan Center, showing a candidate at 84% Kalshi odds made respondents 20 points likelier to pick that candidate to win, though only 19% call election markets accurate, the Brennan Center says; Aaron’s post has the numbers.
Shein agreed to pay $100 million to settle an FTC investigation over delivery delays and other complaints, according to Reuters’ sources, The Verge reports; Aaron’s post has the math.

Sources

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