From center left, U.S. President Donald Trump, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson from Louisiana, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speak to media members after a meeting with technology company executives on artificial intelligence at the White House in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, September 29, 2026.
Tierney L. Cross | Washington Post | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Hui Jie from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
Rock band Green Day once begged us to wake up at the end of September, but with advances in the world of AI and markets focused on US Treasury yields, investors won’t need much help waking up this year.
What you need to know today
When government officials sign a document, the question usually comes up as to whether the document is legally binding.
Now, US President Donald Trump has introduced a vague interim measure called “moral binding.”
Amid continued calls to slow the development of frontier models in the United States, President Trump announced Tuesday that he had signed such a document with technology leaders after a luncheon at the White House.
These leaders include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and Meta Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Admittedly, this document is voluntary. House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was a “voluntary statement of principle on behalf of the industry.” He said the White House would guide the industry’s development.
“There’s tremendous self-regulation going on,” Trump told reporters, adding that his administration is considering creating a 10-person commission to oversee the AI industry.
Earlier in the day, President Trump insisted that the government would not stop AI development and promote self-regulation, but he also said that “there will be automatic regulation on the Department of Justice, the FBI, everything.”
In another rebranding attempt, President Trump also ordered all executive branch departments and agencies to use the term “superintelligence” instead of artificial intelligence.
The order requires all ministries and agencies to use the new terminology in official government communications, communications, policies and other documents, and says that “artificial intelligence” and “AI” will no longer be allowed.
Mr. Trump, along with tech giants convened for a lunch meeting, claimed the name had also been changed, but tech executives appear to have signed a separate two-page document unrelated to the name change.
Connecting the OpenAI dots
Elsewhere in the AI world, OpenAI held its annual DevDay developer conference on Tuesday, where the AI company (or should we call it a super intelligence company now?) announced a slew of new products and features.
One was Dots, a new “always-on” AI agent designed to help users complete a variety of tasks.
Separately, CNBC also confirmed that a new round of funding for the company, worth about $30 billion, could be in the works.
This year’s DevDay comes as OpenAI is under intense pressure to address growing safety concerns, with OpenAI pulling back from launching its latest Astra model due to safety concerns.
Canadian import ban
The Washington government may be taking a lenient approach to the AI industry, but it hasn’t taken any shots at Canada.
The White House on Tuesday banned imports of some Canadian automobiles, dairy products and alcohol products. According to the American Action Forum, these products are estimated to have a total import value of approximately $19.9 billion from Canada.
The import ban announced by the Trump administration earlier this month is the latest in a war of words and retaliatory tariffs between the United States and Canada.
President Trump has said he expects a “fair deal” with Canada in the coming weeks, but Ottawa has said it will only sign a deal if it is in Canada’s interests.
“We’re not waiting on the phone,” said Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
Markets wrestle with government bond yields
U.S. markets fell on Tuesday after U.S. Treasury yields hit multi-year highs, with all three indexes falling for consecutive days.
The yield on the 30-year US Treasury rose to a high of more than 5.6%, the highest level since June 2002. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note peaked above 5.29%.
Investors will be watching Wednesday’s consumer spending report for more clarity on the Fed’s future moves.
Economists expect both headline PCE prices and core PCE prices to rise by 0.3% in August. For the full year, headline inflation is expected to remain at 3.7% and core inflation at 3.3%, both well above the Fed’s 2% target.
— Lim Huijie
And finally…
Clients reportedly stick with Morgan Stanley even after trade pipeline leaks
Morgan Stanley’s accidental leak of confidential information about its Asian deal pipeline has raised questions about the potential impact on customer relationships.
The disclosures may have affected competition, the people said, but they do not necessarily mean Morgan Stanley will lose power as a result, raising questions about how much lasting damage it could cause to the bank’s deal business.
For example, one buy-side official currently working on deals with Morgan Stanley said Morgan Stanley has no plans to reconsider its mandate with the bank.
— Jenny Lee
