The Handover
Friday 9 October 2026
The day in 7 stories, as Asia signs off and New York wakes up.
Business
Firmus pulls $43.7bn ASX float, blames market volatility
Firmus Technologies scrapped its planned $44 billion ASX listing after investors balked at the price and terms. It would have been Australia’s biggest listing since Telstra. The company will seek private funding.
Hardware & Devices
TSMC and GlobalFoundries in $2B deal to build US silicon interposer capacity
TSMC and GlobalFoundries agreed a $2 billion partnership to make silicon interposers at the US foundry’s Malta, New York fab. The capacity targets a bottleneck that sends US-made AI chips to Taiwan for final assembly.
Security
US and Allies Disrupt Chinese State-Linked Hacking Campaign Targeting Global Infrastructure
The FBI seized seven domains used by a Chinese state-backed hacking campaign. The US, UK, Australia and other allies said the operators target critical infrastructure worldwide to steal sensitive data.
AI
Arena raises $200M at $3.1B valuation as AI evaluation market booms
Arena raised a $200 million Series B at a $3.1 billion valuation, up from $1.7 billion in January. The crowdsourced AI model ranking platform said annualized run-rate revenue reached $100 million in June.
Archaeology & Origins
Drone LiDAR reveals three unrecorded ancient Indigenous shelters in Australia
A drone-mounted LiDAR survey found three previously unrecorded ancient Indigenous shelters in Australia. The University of Sydney project uses non-invasive digital archaeology to identify buried structures.
Space
NASA and DOE Sign Pact to Accelerate Nuclear Power for Space Exploration
NASA and the US Department of Energy signed an agreement to accelerate nuclear technology for deep-space exploration. It targets a launch-ready lunar surface reactor by 2030 and takes effect November 1.
AI research
Successful Agent Traces Predict Which Base Models Merit Post-Training
NVIDIA and University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers showed three verifier-based probes across 10 model pairs closely tracked eventual SWE-bench Verified pass@1 results. The approach can rank base models before post-training.
The Handover is the day in a handful of stories, weekday evenings at 8pm your time, and a thread on X at 7am in New York and in London. Get it by email or push from your account, or subscribe by email.
Also posted as a thread on X: @zotpaper.