☕️ OpenAI launches ChatGPT Go in Malaysia @ RM38.99 per month

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry has banned 24 books this year as of October, more than all the books it banned in the past six years combined. This also marks the most bans in any single year since 2017. The banned books include thrillers and romance novels, non-fiction books about Islam, guides on puberty for teens, and a collection of poems titled “Masturbation”. No prizes for guessing why the last one got banned. Nearly half of the books banned touch on LGBTQ themes, which has led to some publishers, academics, and rights groups calling the bans a dangerous slide toward repression and conservative Islamic dogma.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, which tracks music sales and honours best sellers, only 31 albums have ever been certified 15x platinum or more. To be certified platinum is to have sold at least 1 mil copies in the US. Of these 31 albums, the highest-selling album is “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)” by the Eagles, which has gone 38x platinum, with the most recent entry being “Dookie” by Green Day, which was certified 20x platinum on September 16, 2024. Only four women or female-fronted bands have achieved this feat, namely Alanis Morissette, Shania Twain, Fleetwood Mac, and Whitney Houston.

Animated film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, the first of a trilogy that caps off the animated series of a 2016 manga, has become a global box office smash hit. Since its release, Infinity Castle has taken more than USD600 mil at the worldwide box office, putting it ahead of big names like Mission Impossible and Fantastic Four in this year’s top 10. It hit number one in its first week in Japan and the US, and was only kept off the top in the UK by Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. The president of anime streaming service Crunchyroll had previously shared that anime was one of the fastest-growing entertainment sectors in the world, with an estimated 1.5 bil viewers curious about anime who are finding it easier to access popular shows due to streaming services. Wonderful memories of Samurai X on AXN come to mind. Here’s the Infinity Castle trailer:

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Sabah State Election Watch
The Sabah State Legislative Assembly has been dissolved, and we have entered the state election season in the Negeri di Bawah Bayu. However, most Malaysians and Sabahans might have a little PTSD when it comes to the Sabah state election, considering that the last time it happened in 2020, it triggered a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic for the whole nation. Also, learn: What is PTSD?

Not at par scoring for the current Sabah Maju Jaya’s report card
Caretaker Chief Minister Hajiji Noor seeks a new mandate to continue his Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) plan, the five-year development plan to transform the state. While, of course, government officers hail the plan as how Sabah recovered post-pandemic, some lambast it as mere lip service.

Let’s review some of SMJ’s achievements:

• Recorded a historic revenue of around RM7 bil in a recent year;

• Expanded welfare and education aid by 133%, from RM55 mil in 2022 to RM128 mil in 2025;

• Rolled out new initiatives such as student flight subsidies, low-income housing, and assistance for the hardcore poor;

• Constructed dams in Papar and Tawau in order to ease water shortages;

• Corporatised the Sabah Water Department (but, if you ask any Sabahans, there is no such thing as water security, and the numbers say so as non-revenue water losses floated at around 57% - 60%);

Politically, he managed to keep hold of the loose coalition dubbed Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), a rare feat in Sabah’s volatile political scene. But the administration did face a huge corruption scandal, particularly over the alleged mining licence scandal. Two have been charged with receiving bribes. So, to Sabahans, will you retain Hajiji, or bid sayonara to him?

Bersih said that the caretaker government should not announce new projects
Election watchdog Bersih said that the federal and state governments should refrain from project or allocation announcements until a new Sabah government is formed. Sabah politicians should also refrain from attending or officiating at functions that announce funding or allocations. It said that if such events were planned earlier, state-level civil servants should conduct the presentations without involving politicians. Bersih believes Sabah deserves a clean election, and welcomes anyone interested in being a part of Bersih’s election watch to register at https://pemantau.org/daftar/.

Business news
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Go in Malaysia
OpenAI released a different ChatGPT subscription plan, dubbed ChatGPT Go, to 16 countries in Asia, including Malaysia, to offer greater access to the chatbot’s advanced functions at a more affordable price. Priced at RM38.99 per month, ChatGPT Go subscribers will gain access to ChatGPT’s most popular features, including higher message limits, image generation, file uploads, and memory, all powered by GPT-5, OpenAI’s most advanced model. Compared to the free plan, ChatGPT Go offers a higher message limit, more image generations per day, and double the memory.

Sagtec Global Ltd lists on Nasdaq, with ECF investors winning big
Sagtec Global Ltd just went through its initial public offering (IPO) on the US-based Nasdaq at USD4 per share, with a valuation of USD50 mil (RM220 mil). With this, any equity crowdfunding (ECF) investors who put their money into Sagtec Group Sdn Bhd and CL Technologies (International) Sdn Bhd in 2020 are now enjoying a return of 10 to 15 times their initial investment amount, as both are now Sagtec Global Ltd’s subsidiaries.

Actually, Sagtec Global listed on Nasdaq in early March, raising USD7 mil, but why the late news? Sagtec CEO Kevin Ng stated that, back then, a few Malaysian companies that listed on Nasdaq were not performing well, so he did not want the bad vibes to affect his company. The six-month moratorium on shareholding, also known as the lock-up period, was still in place back then. So, the share price at that time was not the “real” price.

How have both companies been doing since their ECF exercises? Here’s their annual revenue growth percentages to give you an idea. Annual revenue growth percentages between FY2020 and FY2024 ranged from 162% to 301% for Sagtec Group, while CL Technologies saw between 194% to 495%.

Top Glove sees first full year of profit since pandemic
Pandemic-darling Top Glove Corporation Bhd recorded another quarterly profit, registering all black quarters for the current financial year, a first since the pandemic. Once priced at RM8.90 per share in 2020, the share is now priced at 67 sen (down 92.5%, youch), despite surging by 16% yesterday. At its market close, the world’s largest natural rubber glove maker by capacity was valued at about RM5.5 bil. The full-year earnings for Top Glove are at RM109.1 mil, thanks to stronger sales and softer raw material prices, with revenue surging to RM3.5 bil for the fiscal year. Moving forward, the company is looking to strengthen its global presence, with the US market as the main focus. For a closer look at the financials, head here.

Shorts

1. No clean toilets, no licence

   Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming announced that, effective January 1, operators of food premises across 20 city areas will not be allowed to renew their business licences if they fail to ensure their toilets are at BMW - bersih, menawan and wangi (clean, attractive, pleasant-smelling) level. Nga added that this policy is not new, as the notice was issued in 2023, and operators have been given three years to comply. Apart from that, a total of 12,000 public toilets nationwide had been upgraded to date, including those in schools, markets, public parks, and food courts, as part of Putrajaya’s efforts ahead of Visit Malaysia Year 2026.

2. RFID MLFF vs JustGo

   Ahead of the full implementation of the multi-lane fast flow (MLFF) toll collection method, highway operators are offering competing systems for concessionaires to shop from. The operator of the North-South Expressway, PLUS Malaysia, has decided to trial its automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system, using its in-house JustGo app for payments. On the other hand, Prolintas is piloting Touch ‘n Go’s MLFF (make sure you read it correctly) solution on the Kemuning-Shah Alam Highway (LKSA), using RFID tags as the main identification medium while using Touch ‘n Go’s eWallet as the payment mechanism. Now if all 33 highway concessionaires each adopted a different MLFF, do we have to download 33 separate apps as users? We hope not.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Trump: Israel and Hamas sign off on first phase of Gaza ceasefire plan
US President Donald Trump announced that Hamas and Israel have agreed on the first phase of his plan for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, with Qatari mediators confirming this and adding that more details would be announced at a later date. Trump took to Truth Social to announce the breakthrough, saying that “ALL the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed upon line”. The first phase of the plan called for a ceasefire and the release of 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza, including 20 who are believed to be alive, and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Still, the talks remain tense with “some serious disagreements”, according to an Al-Jazeera political analyst, as crucial details such as the timing and the extent of an Israeli withdrawal, the makeup of the post-war administration for the Gaza Strip, and the fate of Hamas have yet to be hammered out. Even as the talks progressed, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza, with at least eight Palestinians killed across Gaza over the previous 24 hours and at least 61 others injured in attacks.

Business in the billions
NYSE Owner Invests USD2 Bil In Polymarket
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns and operates the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has made a USD2 bil investment in the Polymarket prediction market, the largest prediction market (in some ways, a gambling marketplace) in the world. The investments place Polymarket’s valuation at USD9 bil, at least. Polymarket is apparently waiting out the government shutdown to relaunch in the US almost four years after being forced out by federal agencies. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan called the investment “a monumental step forward” for decentralised finance, which is designed to use peer-to-peer blockchain technology to facilitate transactions without banks as intermediaries. According to an ICE release, the companies have also agreed to partner on future tokenisation agreements. Some analysts are confident that prediction markets could bloom from a USD1.5 bil market now to USD95 bil in a decade, pending federal cooperation or court acquiescence. Perhaps this made ICE willing to take the risk with the investment.
Learn: What is a prediction market?

On another note, Coplan, a 27-year-old New York University dropout, has become the youngest self-made billionaire tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index following the ICE deal. Fed up with crypto grifts, he started, in 2019, to explore economist Robin Hanson’s ideas on prediction markets and their potential for improving society’s ability to identify likely outcomes. He began building Polymarket from his bathroom and launched the platform in June 2020 during the lockdown. Prediction markets like Polymarket allow users to bet on the outcomes of various events, like elections, whether the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, or who Time magazine’s person of the year will be. They are also becoming increasingly popular as a venue for wagering on sports.

xAI to raise USD20 bil after reaching out to massive backers
Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI is looking at massive financing, reaching out to backers like Nvidia Corp to increase its ongoing funding round to USD20 bil (RM84.4 bil). The financing includes equity and debt in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will buy Nvidia processors and rent them to xAI for use in its Colossus 2 project, its largest data centre site in Memphis, US. This is yet another major financing in the AI industry recently, which has seen major tech companies invest tens of billions at a frenetic pace in order to build the infrastructure necessary to develop top AI models. The unique SPV deal structure, backed by the GPUs as opposed to the company, could provide a playbook for tech firms looking to decrease debt exposure. xAI is eager for funds - it already raised about USD10 bil of corporate equity and debt earlier this year, but still needs billions more given the company has been burning through USD1 bil per month. Musk has also tapped his empire of companies, including SpaceX, for investment into xAI. Later this year, Tesla Inc investors will vote on whether the electric carmaker should invest in xAI as well.

Shorts:

1. UN is tight on cash
   The United Nations (UN) will be repatriating peacekeepers in 9 operations around the world in the coming months due to a lack of funding. Around 25% of its total peacekeeping troops and police are affected, around 13,000 to 14,000 personnel. Washington is the UN’s largest non-voluntary peacekeeping contributor, accounting for more than 26% of funding. The US was already USD1.5 bil (RM6.32 bil) in arrears before the new financial year began on July 1 and owes an additional USD1.3 bil, taking its total outstanding bill to more than USD2.8 bil. Trump in August unilaterally cancelled some USD800 mil in peacekeeping funding appropriated for 2024 and 2025, and the White House already proposed eliminating funding for 2026. Everybody knows where the money goes.

2. New York City vs Instagram, Facebook
   A fresh lawsuit has been filed by New York City to the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google, and YouTube, saying they created features that make it hard to stop scrolling and drive depression, anxiety, loneliness, and poor self-esteem among young people. The city accuses the social media giants of targeting kids and teenagers to drive profits, despite knowing they were particularly vulnerable to the addictive effect of the platforms. This lawsuit adds to a collection of lawsuits already filed by US state governments, school districts, and individuals pursuing legal action against social media giants for similar reasons.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Today’s section on the atrocities of Israel.

1. Israeli soldiers happily record and share their violence and dehumanisation of Palestinians on social media.

2. Gaza: Before vs After

3. A former US soldier spent several months in Gaza during the genocide, joining the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), thinking he was going to help deliver aid to Palestinians. Instead, what he saw was a scheme to force Palestinians out of their own land and quit.