OpenAI says it will not go public in 2026
According to WuBlockchain’s WhiteLine Daily, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company will not pursue an IPO in 2026. He said this is an “inappropriate time” to list while debate over AI safety is heating up.
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is described in the report as one of the world’s largest frontier AI model companies. Altman said the company is under no pressure to go public now, and any move into the public market will wait for a more suitable time.
The report said that position stands in clear contrast to Anthropic, which is still moving ahead with IPO plans. OpenAI had also long been viewed by the market as a possible mega-cap AI IPO candidate. By explicitly ruling out a 2026 listing, Altman has pushed the company’s public-market timeline back again by at least another year.
WhiteLine Daily’s takeaway was that Anthropic is still advancing toward an IPO while OpenAI has stepped away from the 2026 listing window, showing a split in capital-markets timing among top model companies. That also means there may be fewer public-market vehicles this year for investors seeking direct exposure to frontier AI model valuations.
Ellison withdraws Oracle stock sale plan
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder and chairman, has canceled a plan that would have allowed him to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares. Based on recent share prices, the stock covered by that plan was worth about $7.5 billion.
Oracle said no shares were sold under the plan, and Ellison currently has no other plan to sell Oracle stock. He still owns about 40% of the company.
The report described Oracle as one of the world’s major database and cloud infrastructure companies. Over the past two years, it has sharply increased investment in AI data centers and signed large computing-capacity contracts with customers including OpenAI. The market has recently been focused on the company’s heavy AI capex, debt financing, and pressure on margins. Oracle’s stock has also pulled back noticeably from earlier highs.
Ellison’s original plan would have allowed him to sell as many as 50 million shares before late October, but it was withdrawn in full without any transaction taking place.
WhiteLine Daily said the more important point for the market is that a major shareholder will not add to near-term stock supply, especially given Ellison’s roughly 40% holding.
German companies raise China investment in the first half
The latest study from Germany’s IW economic institute said German companies’ direct investment into China rose by about one-third year over year in the first half of 2026. Over the same period, direct investment into the United States fell sharply.
German investment into the U.S. was only about €4.3 billion in the first half, down by nearly two-thirds from a year earlier and marking the lowest level since 2023. The report said the figures are mainly based on Bundesbank statistics.
This shift came even as the German government has continued to push a “de-risking” approach to supply chains. German automakers, chemicals groups, and machinery companies have still been expanding local production in China in recent years, with some using an “In China, for China” model to reduce cross-border supply-chain risk.
At the same time, uncertainty around U.S. tariffs and trade policy has made some German companies more cautious about new investment in the American market.
WhiteLine Daily said that, at least judging from first-half capital flows, German companies have not simply shifted new investment from China to the U.S. As policy uncertainty in the United States has risen, China has continued to attract more German corporate capital.
Another vessel hit near Hormuz as Saudi alternative pipeline remains shut
On Sept. 13, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, or UKMTO, reported that a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by unidentified projectiles and caught fire. The crew later evacuated.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline had already been temporarily shut after a drone attack. The roughly 1,200-kilometer pipeline links oil fields in eastern Saudi Arabia with the Red Sea port of Yanbu and is one of the most important alternative export routes when traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted.
The report said the pipeline had recently been carrying about 4 million to 5 million barrels of crude per day, equal to roughly 4% to 5% of global supply. Saudi officials said the attack came from drones launched from the direction of Iraq, and the pipeline is now in preventive shutdown status. At the same time, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has already fallen noticeably.
In the report’s wording, Middle East crude exports now face disruption risk across both the main maritime corridor and the land-based backup route.
Its conclusion was that shipping through Hormuz has already been impaired and Saudi Arabia’s alternative pipeline is also shut. If both routes do not recover quickly, oil above $100 becomes more likely to reflect real supply tightness rather than just a short-term war premium.
Main thread of the day
WhiteLine Daily said the main market shifts were concentrated in three areas. In capital markets, OpenAI’s decision to delay any listing and Ellison’s withdrawal of the Oracle sale plan changed short-term expectations for major AI IPO supply and Oracle share supply. In cross-border capital flows, German companies kept adding investment in China while cutting exposure to the United States. On the macro side, the key risk is energy: with both the Strait of Hormuz and Saudi Arabia’s backup export pipeline under pressure, actual export volumes matter more for oil prices than war headlines alone.