A scuffed baseball weighing down one pan of an old brass balance scale on a dark wooden table, the empty pan raised, under a single crimson light.

Friday Brief: Congress Asks About VIP Perks, SpaceX Shops for Cell Sites, OpenAI Lines Up $30 Billion

October 23, 2026 Aaron Harme

Three members of Congress want sportsbooks and prediction markets to show what happens to a customer’s losses after the VIP invite, and SpaceX wants room on 80,000 cell sites.

Plus OpenAI’s bridge round ahead of a possible IPO, a World Series between two clubs below the payroll floor owners just proposed, and FIFA putting the 2030 World Cup up for bid.

In this Brief

Six betting and prediction market companies have until Nov. 5 to explain their VIP programs
SpaceX is in talks for access to at least 80,000 U.S. cell sites
OpenAI is close to raising up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation
Both World Series teams spend less than the salary floor in MLB owners’ proposal
FIFA opens bidding for U.S. rights to the 2030 World Cup

Congress asks six betting companies about their VIP programs

Four sportsbooks, BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings and Fanatics, and two prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket, got letters Thursday from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), Blumenthal’s office says. Each company is asked for the average loss or gain of its VIP members in the six months before enrollment and after it, and whether artificial intelligence helps single out gamblers for perks. Answers are due Nov. 5. The letters refer to Kalshi’s rewards program, Kalshi Platinum.

Fanatics said it “will respond in due course,” and DraftKings said it would respond after reviewing the letter, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Kalshi told the paper it manages top traders by volume and doesn’t “take their wins and losses into account.”

The before-and-after loss question asks Kalshi for the number behind that description, and asks the other five the same.

SpaceX wants room on 80,000 cell sites

Crown Castle is among the tower companies SpaceX is talking to as it tries to line up a minimum of 80,000 U.S. cell sites for a fourth nationwide wireless carrier, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Asked on Wednesday’s earnings call whether Crown Castle is discussing leases with SpaceX, Amazon or other satellite-based providers, chief executive Chris Hillabrant said the company is talking to “all parties.”

Elon Musk said on SpaceX’s earnings call this week that the company will be “building out our terrestrial networks.” SpaceX has already said it will send mobile signals from its home internet equipment, but research firm MoffettNathanson notes those sites sit where subscribers are, not necessarily where a network needs them for consistent coverage, Bloomberg reports.

Hillabrant’s “all parties” answer covers every company named in that question, and for SpaceX, 80,000 leased sites would be the coverage between the homes its dishes already reach.

OpenAI lines up a $30 billion bridge

OpenAI is close to raising up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation before the new money, with investors from the United Arab Emirates and Coatue leading, CNBC reports, citing people familiar with the deal. The round is being pitched as an “opportunistic” bridge ahead of a possible IPO, OpenAI wants signatures by the end of next week, and the final size is still open.

Chief financial officer Sarah Friar told employees in August that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027.” A month later, Sam Altman said “right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.”

Anthropic is reportedly seeking $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in its own IPO, CNBC adds. OpenAI is setting its private mark below that range. If Anthropic lists first and holds a number in it, OpenAI’s bankers get a reference point they didn’t have to argue for, and $1.25 trillion starts to look like the cautious price.

Both World Series teams sit below the owners’ payroll floor

MLB owners want a hard salary cap of $245.3 million, which would force payroll cuts at the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and other clubs, plus a floor of $171.2 million, which sits above the current payrolls of 12 clubs, including the Brewers and Rays, Front Office Sports reports. Those two open the World Series tonight. White Sox minority owner Mat Ishbia, majority owner of the NBA’s Suns, backed both: “I can’t pay only $70 million to just sit there… it’s really a pro-player thing.”

Management is expected to lock players out when the labor deal expires in December, FOS reports. A cap would “suffocate competition by offering owners an all-purpose excuse for inaction and mediocrity,” union interim executive director Bruce Meyer said earlier this year.

Owners are pitching the floor as the part players should like. It would raise payroll for both clubs still playing, and the low payrolls didn’t keep either one out of October.

FIFA puts the 2030 World Cup up for bid

FIFA is taking bids for U.S. and Puerto Rico rights to the 2030 World Cup, with an option on 2034, and proposals are due by midnight Nov. 19, chief business officer Romy Gai told Variety. FIFA will look at separate TV and streaming deals, combined packages and joint bids. Variety estimates NBCUniversal paid $600 million for Telemundo’s rights. The 2030 tournament is in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, and 2034 is in Saudi Arabia, both far from U.S. time zones.

Comcast’s third-quarter results show what this summer’s tournament did for NBCUniversal. Domestic ad revenue rose to $1.78 billion from $1.56 billion, but without $224 million of World Cup revenue it was essentially flat, Comcast’s earnings release shows.

Gai expects to get more this time, and he can point at a quarter where the tournament supplied nearly all of NBCUniversal’s domestic ad growth.

Also noted

Moderna lost about $24 billion of market value Thursday, falling more than 25% as detailed melanoma vaccine data from its trial with Merck set off what analysts called a “sell-the-news” reaction, Reuters reports; Aaron’s post has more.
American Airlines posted third-quarter revenue of $16.3 billion, up 19.3%, and a $269 million loss as fuel costs jumped 67.5% to $4.64 billion, CNBC reports; Aaron’s post breaks down the fuel bill.
The average price of AI tokens, the units AI companies bill by, fell to $0.96 as of Oct. 20 from a $2.07 peak on May 28, per Silicon Data, Axios reports; Aaron’s post has the details.
Counterpoint Research counted a 21% year-over-year drop in global PC shipments for the third quarter, which it ties to higher component prices, and projects a 27% decline in the fourth, The Verge reports.

Sources

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