The ongoing bidding war between Paramount and Netflix for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery had some significant news this week that could change the outcome:  

• Things kicked off Tuesday, when WBD said in a statement it would resume talks with Paramount Skydance to consider its best and final offer after Netflix allowed a seven-day waiver. The WBD board continues to “unanimously recommend” the merger with Netflix, while the streaming service will retain its rights to match or exceed any forthcoming offer from Paramount. The negotiation period ends on February 23.

• IndieWire reporter Brian Welk talked to a few experts about whether the new developments bring clarity to the ongoing bidding war. One professor said without Paramount offering its “best and final offer,” the company loses credibility, while another professor said it makes Netflix look even more confident. 

• Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield said on his podcast that Paramount will have to raise its offer to as high as $36 to $37 per share. (The company has stuck to $30.) In comparison, Netflix’s initial offer is for $27.75 a share to buy the studio and streaming service, while Paramount is bidding to buy the whole company. 

• Semafor reported Thursday morning that some Democratic senators are “unhappy” with the fact that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison refused to attend a hearing two weeks ago, and could launch an investigation into the deal if they retake the Senate.

• Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Netflix has “ample cash” and could increase its offer for WBD if Paramount beefs up its own offer, according to sources. 

• Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently appeared on a recent episode of “The Town with Matthew Belloni” to reiterate that he doesn’t plan on ruining WBD’s theatrical business model and promised to keep the 45-day theatrical window for WBD films, which could appease opposition from theater owners.

• Variety reported that there’s been a shift among WBD employees who now support Netflix’s acquisition, though there’s still some skepticism among others.

WBD shareholders are still set to vote on the proposed Netflix merger next month, on March 20. Despite the renewed talks with Parmount, as of Friday at 12:45 p.m. ET, prediction markets speculating on who will ultimately come out on top have recently flipped to give the edge back to Netflix, pricing in a 46% chance over Paramount’s 44% odds. 

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Nvidia is close to investing $30 billion in OpenAI as part of its long-discussed funding round, per the Financial Times.

Bloomberg had previously reported that Nvidia would be investing $20 billion in this round.

The FT says that this investment will effectively be replacing a bigger planned pact between the two companies. The Wall Street Journal had originally reported in late January that Nvidia’s investment of up to $100 billion in OpenAI, which was announced in September, had “stalled” amid private criticisms of the ChatGPT maker by CEO Jensen Huang.

As Microsoft, SoftBank, or Oracle could tell you, being viewed as overly exposed to OpenAI has not been a boon for stocks in recent months.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF slipped to premarket lows after underwhelming economic data.

Core inflation surprised to the upside in December, while the initial read of economic growth in the final three months of 2025 was weak.

Core PCE inflation rose 0.4% month on month to end the year, while economists had anticipated a rise of 0.3%. Q4 GDP rose just 1.4% quarter on quarter at a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate, while analysts thought growth would be twice as strong.

The implied odds of any Federal Reserve action at its April or June meetings was little changed in the immediate aftermath of these releases.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The PCE is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, with the core gauge that strips out volatile food and energy prices used to get a better sense of the underlying trend in price pressures.

AppLovin began to surge late in Thursday’s session, with the gains accelerating after the close thanks to an unconfirmed report suggesting the ad tech company had a nascent business relationship with OpenAI.

Market chatter about the potential partnership was sparked by this X post from hedge fund manager Jonah Lupton, who has more than 550,000 followers on the social media platform:

In the post, which has since been lightly edited, Lupton discloses that he and his fund have a position in AppLovin.

Neither OpenAI nor AppLovin has issued any press release detailing any business arrangement between the two.

AppLovin and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In January, OpenAI announced that it would be rolling out ads for users of the free tier and ChatGPT Go editions of its chatbot. The company had been testing these ads earlier this month.