Evening Edition No. 9
Zipline Raises $1.5 Billion to Fly Deliveries to 300 More Walmart Sites, OpenAI Builds an AI Bug Hunter, and a Gene Editing Medicine Quiets Hepatitis B
Covers Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 6:00 PM ET to Thursday, November 5, 2026, 6:00 PM ET
Zipline raises $1.5 billion and Walmart signs on for 300 more drone delivery sites, OpenAI releases GPT-6 Cyber for approved security teams, New Glenn's return slips to January, the Pentagon offers LeoLabs $150 million to build radars that track satellites, NASA shows the X-70 Fractal research plane, a gene editing medicine for hepatitis B clears a virus marker in 11 of 12 patients, Shield AI agrees to buy radar maker Echodyne for $5.3 billion, China blocks SoftBank's purchase of ABB's robot business in China, the first tokenized U.S. stock trades under the SEC's new exemption, and Oak Ridge puts a quantum computer beside a supercomputer.
In 60 Seconds
- Zipline, which delivers packages by drone, raised $1.5 billion, and Walmart agreed to add 300 more Zipline delivery sites.
- OpenAI released GPT-6 Cyber, an AI that finds and helps fix security holes in software. Only approved security teams can use it.
- A gene editing medicine for hepatitis B made a sign of the virus disappear from the blood of 11 of 12 patients in an early trial.
- Chip company stocks fell 12% on Thursday, one of their worst days in years, and the Nasdaq fell 5.5%, as investors worried about new rules for AI and data centers.
On the Dashboard
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Lead Signal
Zipline raises $1.5 billion, and Walmart signs on for 300 more drone delivery sites
Zipline, a California company that delivers packages by drone, raised $1.5 billion on Thursday, which values it at $21.5 billion. That is about 2.8 times what it was worth in January, TechCrunch reports. At the same time, Walmart signed a national, multi-year deal to add 300 more Zipline delivery sites; the companies did not say which states or when. Zipline's newest drone does not land at your house. It hovers high above the yard and lowers a small pod on a tether, a long cord, so the package arrives quietly at your door. Around Dallas and Fort Worth, Zipline has made more than 1 million deliveries this year, and in October the typical order arrived 19 minutes after checkout, DroneXL reports from the company's figures. Zipline says its drones have flown 150 million miles on their own. Investor Matt Huang of Paradigm called it "one of the largest autonomous robotics companies in the world." Wider drone delivery still waits on The FAA rule being written to allow routine drone flights beyond what a pilot can see. In the Glossary, the FAA's rule for drones that fly beyond the pilot's sight, which is still under White House review.
The Desks
[AI] AI Models
OpenAI releases GPT-6 Cyber, an AI that hunts for security holes, only for approved defenders
OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-6 Cyber, a version of its AI trained to find weaknesses in software and help fix them, The Register reports. Only approved security teams can use it, through OpenAI's programming tools. This kind of work is called Attacking your own computer systems, with permission, to find weak spots before real attackers do. In the Glossary: attacking your own systems, with permission, to find holes before criminals do. OpenAI says researchers using the model found 81 serious, previously unknown flaws in the Firefox web browser, and in tests it turned 948 of 1,724 known Linux weaknesses into working attacks. On ExploitGym, a test of turning flaws into working attacks, it scored 48.5%, against 32.1% for the older GPT-5.6 Cyber, CyberScoop reports. OpenAI rates the model "Critical," the top level of risk in its own safety rules, up from "High" for the older model, which is why access is limited.
[LAUNCH] Launches
New Glenn's comeback slips to January, while Blue Origin shows a third stage and a new engine
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket will not fly again until January 2027, missing the company's goal of returning this year, CEO Dave Limp told staff in a memo, The Next Web reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times. New Glenn has been grounded since May 28, when it exploded during an engine test at Cape Canaveral and badly damaged its only launch pad; Limp said bad summer weather slowed the roughly six-month rebuild. Its next flight is set to carry 48 Amazon Leo internet satellites. The same day, Blue Origin showed GS3, a new The top section of a rocket, which fires last to give a spacecraft its final push to the right orbit or path. In the Glossary, the top part of a rocket that gives a final push, Space.com reports. GS3 runs on one BE-7 engine and is built to send satellites straight to high orbits or toward the Moon; a government customer has booked it for a 2028 trip. Blue Origin also showed Northstar, a The first and largest stage of a rocket, which gives the push for liftoff. SpaceX and others now land their boosters and fly them again. In the Glossary engine that burns methane and liquid oxygen, with 30% less weight and 50% fewer parts than its BE-4, and more push: 715,000 pounds of thrust. Limp said the A rocket's first launch after it was grounded for a problem or an investigation. In the Glossary "remains our top priority." Northstar has no first flight date.
[ORBIT] Satellites and Orbit
The Pentagon offers LeoLabs $150 million to build more radars that watch the sky
LeoLabs, a company that tracks satellites and Dead satellites, spent rocket parts and broken pieces left circling Earth. Even a small piece moves fast enough to wreck a working satellite. In the Glossary from the ground with its own radars, has been offered a $150 million loan by the Pentagon's A Pentagon office that lends money to companies building technology the military needs. In the Glossary, which lends money to companies building technology the military needs, Air & Space Forces Magazine reports. The loan comes with conditions: LeoLabs must meet financial, legal and technical requirements, and private investors must put in a matching $150 million, for $300 million in all. The money is meant for two large factories, due by 2028, and dozens more radars around the world by 2030. LeoLabs already runs radars in New Zealand, Australia, Alaska, Texas and Hawaii, including one that can be moved where it is needed, and its catalog follows nearly 29,000 objects in orbit. Knowing where everything in space is and where it is heading is called Keeping track of what is in orbit, where it is and where it is going. In the Glossary, and it is how satellite operators learn when to steer out of the way of a crash. The office's director, David Lorch, said the loan brings "unparalleled Space Domain Awareness capabilities." In October the same office offered a similar $150 million loan to the rocket company Stoke Space.
[AIR] Air Mobility
NASA shows the X-70 Fractal, a test plane built to try new ways of flying
NASA unveiled the X-70 Fractal on Wednesday night at the UP.Summit at Kennedy Space Center. An An experimental U.S. research aircraft built to test new flying ideas. In the Glossary is a special research aircraft the United States builds to test new flying ideas. The X-70 weighs about 10,000 pounds at takeoff, can carry up to 2,000 pounds of test equipment inside or under its wings, cruise at three quarters of the speed of sound and fly as high as 45,000 feet, with a range of more than 1,500 nautical miles. Its parts can be swapped quickly, and its flight controls can be set up in new ways to try moves no plane with a pilot has shown before. NASA did not say who built it or what it cost, and The War Zone notes that is still unclear. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, "We expect her first flight under the NASA banner within the next two years."
[MED] Medicine
A gene editing medicine makes a hepatitis B virus signal vanish in 11 of 12 patients
Precision BioSciences shared early results Thursday for PBGENE-HBV, a Tools that change a specific spot in a person's DNA, like fixing a typo in a long document. CRISPR is the best-known method. In the Glossary medicine for A virus that infects the liver, often for life, and can lead to liver scarring and cancer. In the Glossary, a virus that infects the liver for life and can lead to scarring and cancer. Gene editing changes The long molecule inside cells that holds the instructions for building and running a living thing. It is written in a simple chemical alphabet. In the Glossary at a chosen spot; here, the medicine is designed to cut and destroy the virus's own DNA hiding in liver cells, called The stable copy of hepatitis B DNA that hides inside liver cells and lets the virus come back after treatment. In the Glossary, which is why today's pills can hold the virus down but rarely cure it. In a first trial of 25 patients, a blood sign of virus activity, A copy the hepatitis B virus makes from its hidden DNA to build new virus. When it disappears from the blood, the virus's hidden DNA has gone quiet or been destroyed. In the Glossary, became undetectable in 11 of 12 patients who could be measured, including all 6 at the dose chosen for the next trial; the 12th had a 95% drop. Liver samples from 2 patients showed cccDNA down about 10 times and 35 times. A virus protein in the blood, A hepatitis B protein in the blood that doctors use to measure how active the virus is. In the Glossary, fell in all 24 patients measured. At the chosen dose there were no serious side effects across 15 doses in 8 patients, BioSpace reports. CEO Michael Amoroso said, "Patients have long desired a cure for their virus." Full results come Nov. 8 at a liver meeting in Denver, and a larger trial should start in early 2027.
[DEF] Defense
Shield AI agrees to buy drone-spotting radar maker Echodyne for $5.3 billion
Shield AI, a San Diego company that builds AI pilots and drones, agreed to buy Echodyne in a deal valued at up to $5.3 billion: $4.8 billion at closing plus up to $500 million more if Echodyne hits set goals. Echodyne, of Kirkland, Washington, makes flat radars with no moving parts that steer their beam electronically, and they are built into hundreds of Systems that find, track and stop drones, by jamming their radio links or knocking them down. In the Glossary systems, gear that finds and stops small drones, in more than 40 countries. Its new $40 million factory can build about 30,000 radars a year. Shield is also raising $2.5 billion, which values Shield at $28.8 billion, Breaking Defense reports. Echodyne CEO Eben Frankenberg said "superior sensors lead to superior systems and outcomes." The deal needs government approval and should close in early 2027; Shield says there will be no layoffs.
[POLICY] Law and Policy
China blocks SoftBank from buying ABB's robot business in China
The Swiss engineering company ABB said Thursday that China's office for reviewing foreign investments on security grounds has barred SoftBank from buying the China part of ABB's robotics business. SoftBank, a Japanese investment company, agreed in October 2025 to buy all of ABB Robotics for $5.375 billion. The robotics unit has about 7,000 workers and $2.3 billion in sales in 2024, and China is its biggest market, about 30% of the business, WHTC reports from Reuters and the Financial Times. The reported worry is that data from robots in China could leave the country and help train A computer program trained on large amounts of data to recognize patterns and produce answers, text, images or actions. Chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude run on AI models. In the Glossary, including those of OpenAI, in which SoftBank is a big investor. ABB said the two companies "are in close dialogue and working on the transaction." SoftBank shares closed down 6.8%, Unite.AI reports. It is China's second big block of a foreign tech deal this year.
[TOKEN] Tokenized Assets
The first tokenized U.S. stock trades under the SEC's new exemption
Shares of Canton Strategic Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed company, traded in token form on Wednesday, the first trades of a tokenized U.S. stock under the SEC's A conditional SEC permission, for up to five years, that lets approved venues trade tokens of U.S. stocks. In the Glossary, the September rule that lets approved venues trade A shared digital record book copied across many computers, so entries are hard to change or fake. It keeps track of who owns which tokens. In the Glossary versions of listed stocks. A tokenized stock is a share recorded on a blockchain, a shared digital ledger. The trades ran on the venue TSV through Tradecraft, an Software that sets prices and fills trades from a pool of assets instead of matching buyers and sellers one by one. In the Glossary, software that sets prices from a pool of shares instead of matching buyers and sellers one by one, Tradecraft said. The shares and the payment changed hands in a single step on the A blockchain network built for banks and financial firms that lets them share some data while keeping other data private. In the Glossary. The company created the A small piece of a word that an AI model reads or writes. A model's memory, or context, is measured in tokens. In the Glossary itself, so holders get the same rights as owners on A stock market index of the companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, many of them technology companies. People watch it to see how tech stocks are doing overall. In the Glossary, and a registered A regulated firm that keeps the official list of who owns a company's shares. In the Glossary keeps the official record. Trading runs every hour of every day, but only for checked, approved buyers, and the size and price were not shared. "Today, the first trades are done," CEO Mark Wendland said. Not investment advice.
[WILD] Wildcard
Oak Ridge puts a quantum computer beside a supercomputer to tackle quantum errors
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, IBM and AMD launched a new platform on Thursday that sets IBM's 120-qubit Nighthawk quantum processor right next to Umbra, an Oak Ridge computer built on AMD A tiny slice of material, usually silicon, carved with billions of switches that let a device compute and store information. Chips run everything from phones to AI data centers. In the Glossary. A The basic unit of a quantum computer. Unlike a normal bit, it can be in a mix of 0 and 1 at the same time. In the Glossary is the basic unit of a A computer that uses the rules of quantum physics to solve certain problems, such as breaking some codes or simulating molecules, far faster than ordinary computers. Today's machines are still small and make many errors. In the Glossary; qubits are powerful but make constant tiny mistakes. Ways of finding and undoing the constant tiny mistakes quantum computers make without ruining the calculation. In the Glossary spreads one piece of information across many qubits so the mistakes can be caught and fixed, making one dependable A dependable qubit built by spreading one piece of information across many error-prone physical qubits, so mistakes can be caught and fixed. In the Glossary, and that checking needs a fast regular computer close by. The goal set by the Energy Department is 100 logical qubits running 100,000 hard steps by late 2028, FedScoop reports; IBM says it has reached up to 70 logical qubits and 438 steps so far, IBM's blog shows. IBM's Jay Gambetta said, "The question is no longer if error A fall of at least 10% from a recent high in a stock or market index. A fall of 20% or more is called a bear market. In the Glossary will work on quantum hardware."
Watch
Play video: Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, episode 308: Big Tech's $3 trillion AI bet, Anthropic's filing saying Claude writes 90% of its code, and AIs editing other AIs.
Play video: All-In (Oct. 29), in case you missed it: WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed on 50 billion hours of health data and his company's fight with the FDA.Disclosure: Singularity Nightly is drafted with help from Anthropic's Claude. We cover Anthropic like any other company.
Voices
- Dave Blundin, on Moonshots episode 308, on Big Tech's $3 trillion bet on AI A building full of computers that store data and run online services. Data centers for AI use large amounts of electricity. In the Glossary: "There's no doubt that it's the right thing for humanity to make this investment." source (opinion)
By the Numbers
- $1.5 billion: Zipline's new funding, at a $21.5 billion value. Zipline Not investment advice.
- 300: new Zipline drone delivery sites Walmart agreed to. TechCrunch
- 81: serious, previously unknown Firefox flaws researchers found with GPT-6 Cyber. The Register
- 12.25%: Thursday's drop in the A stock market index that tracks 30 large companies that design, make or sell computer chips. In the Glossary; the Nasdaq fell 5.52%. Fox Business Not investment advice.
- 60: the top score on the A combined score from Artificial Analysis, an independent testing company, that ranks AI models across many reasoning, knowledge, math and coding tests. Higher is better. In the Glossary, Gemini 4 Carbon (High), unchanged. Artificial Analysis
- 1: orbital launch worldwide in the window; 257 so far in 2026. Launch Library 2
- 215 kilowatts: the space station's power capacity now that all 8 roll-out arrays are in place, up from 160. NASA
- $150 million: the Pentagon loan offered to LeoLabs, to be matched by private investors for $300 million in all. Air & Space Forces Magazine
- 11 of 12: patients whose hepatitis B pgRNA became undetectable on PBGENE-HBV. Precision BioSciences
- $5.3 billion: the most Shield AI could pay for Echodyne. Shield AI
- 120: qubits in IBM's Nighthawk processor at Oak Ridge. IBM
- 47: novel drugs approved by the FDA in 2026, unchanged. FDA
- $39.70 billion: tokenized In blockchain finance, a traditional asset that exists outside the blockchain, such as a Treasury bill, a loan or a building, represented by a token on one. Often shortened to RWA. In the Glossary, excluding A digital token designed to stay worth a fixed amount, usually one U.S. dollar, backed by cash and safe assets such as Treasury bills. In the Glossary. RWA.xyz Not investment advice.
Tomorrow's Watchlist
- Fri Nov. 6, 8:30 AM ET: the October jobs report.
- Fri Nov. 6: American Heart Association meeting continues (to Nov. 9); Ceres-2 launch from China, about 6:35 PM ET; Falcon 9 USSF-432 from Vandenberg, 7:46 PM ET (date may move).
- Sun Nov. 8: Precision BioSciences presents its hepatitis B results at the AASLD liver meeting; Vir presents hepatitis delta results at 4:15 PM ET; Long March 12 launch from Wenchang, about 3:25 PM ET.
- Mon Nov. 9: Archer results; Falcon 9 USSF-627, 10:03 PM ET.
- Tue Nov. 10: China's pause on rare earth export controls is due to end; astronauts answer Florida students' questions from the space station, live on NASA's YouTube.
- Coming up: Vulcan returns with Amazon Leo satellites Nov. 13, 12:54 PM ET; Electron's 100th flight Nov. 14; the FCC open meeting on drone The range of radio frequencies used by phones, TV, Wi-Fi and drones. MHz, or megahertz, measures where a band sits and how wide it is. In the Glossary Nov. 19.