AI and Tech News, 26 Oct 2026: SpaceX Debt, iPhone Duo, MacBook Pro

SpaceX just closed a $40B debt deal for GPUs, iFixit took apart the iPhone Duo, and Apple Stores are reportedly getting a new anti-fraud tool. Here are today's eighteen biggest technology and AI stories.

1. SpaceX Has Closed $40B of Debt Financing for GPUs, Musk Says

Elon Musk said on X that the mostly callable debt will pay for chips arriving in the first half of 2027. He credited SpaceX's investment-grade status and predicted a shakeout among more than 200 neoclouds.

2. The Hinge May Be Behind Cracked iPhone Duo Screens, iFixit's Teardown Suggests

iFixit gave the foldable a provisional 5 out of 10 for repairability and said reported cracks cluster near the hinge. It couldn't confirm the cause without more testing.

3. A Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro Is Reportedly Coming on Wednesday

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says 14-inch and 16-inch models with OLED touch displays and a Dynamic Island will be announced on October 28. They'll be priced above the current MacBook Pro models.

4. SK Hynix Is Reportedly Considering a Special Dividend of About $12B

South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo reported a payout of about 16 trillion won from Kioxia gains. SK Hynix said in a disclosure that it's reviewing shareholder returns but hasn't decided, and that any measures will come with its October 28 earnings.

5. Outside Tech, AI Has Delivered Zero Financial Payoff, Says Apollo's Chief Economist

Torsten Slok wrote that profit margins and revenue per worker look flat across the S&P 500 once you exclude the seven biggest tech companies. He sees no evidence yet that AI is lifting productivity.

6. Late-Delivery Penalties From AI Data Center Tenants Now Top $5M a Day

The Information reports the penalties have climbed from about $1M a day this spring. That's led insurance broker Marsh to offer delay-in-delivery coverage to developers that miss their deadlines.

7. Apple Stores Are Reportedly Getting a Device That Checks iPhones Without Opening the Box

Gurman reports the tool runs diagnostics on boxed iPhones to catch return fraud, like empty or tampered boxes. Staff would no longer have to open returns to check them.

8. A macOS Update Will Close the Gap Left by Compromised eMudhra Certificates, Apple Says

Safari, Mail and apps using Apple's frameworks have blocked the certificates since October 19. Command-line tools such as curl and git can still accept them until the update ships.

9. Elvis Presley's Rightsholders Sue Anthropic Over 274 Songs and Seek About $41M

Authentic Brands Group and other rights holders say the songs were used to train Anthropic's models without permission, and they're seeking up to $150,000 per work. Anthropic said it will defend the case.

10. Asian Chip Stocks Slip on Monday Before Samsung and SK Hynix Earnings and the Fed

In morning trade, South Korea's Kospi fell about 1% and Japan's Nikkei 0.4%. Samsung Electronics was down more than 1%, and several Japanese chip stocks were off over 3%.

11. A Zelenskyy Adviser Pushes Back on Musk's Claim That Ukraine's Military Broke Starlink's Terms

Serhii Beskrestnov said civilian Starlink terminals in Ukraine are capped at 70 to 90 km/h and don't work over Russia, so they can't be used for deep or medium-range strikes.

12. Netflix Users Open the App on Fewer Days a Month, According to Bloomberg

Citing internal data, Bloomberg says the average subscriber is also watching less. Total viewing hours still rose slightly in the first half of 2026, thanks to subscriber growth.

13. Victor Yin Takes Over Apple's Display Development as Two 30-Year Veterans Step Back

Gurman reports that Wei Chen and John Zhong are moving into adviser roles. Apple has also promoted three connectivity hardware and software leaders to vice president.

14. 11 Unpatched Tailscale Flaws Published by a Researcher, Including an SSH Route to Root

Erica Windisch's Tailworm report says one hacked device could gain root on other servers when Tailscale SSH forwarding is on. Tailscale has the report but hasn't released a fix.

15. Reddit's r/opensource Now Bans Projects That Use AI, Are Made With AI or Are Built for AI

Moderators now also require projects to be at least a year old and posters to have year-old accounts. They've turned away non-English posts too, citing concerns about AI translation.

16. Rest of World, the Global Tech Outlet, Stops Publishing as a Standalone Site in January

Founder Sophie Schmidt told donors she's looking for a new institutional home for the six-year-old outlet. Semafor says it has lost much of its search and social traffic.

17. AI Shopping Platform Glance Gets a Strategic Investment From L Catterton

The undisclosed investment will help Glance, which is also backed by Google and Jio Platforms, grow its agentic shopping service across phones and TVs, especially in the US.

18. Newpress Raises $12M and Brings In Former 60 Minutes Chief Bill Owens

Emerson Collective led the round for the creator-led journalism company. Owens will join as executive producer in March, once his noncompete with CBS ends.