*as of 11/3/26; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Industrial real estate has been a bright spot in the commercial market over the past year, thanks in part to the AI boom increasing demand for space. Average national rents reached $9.33 per square foot in September, an increase of 5.3% year over year, although vacancy increased to 9.7%, signaling some softening in leasing conditions. Construction is accelerating, with 463.3 million square feet under development nationwide, up from 357.4 million square feet in January. Property sales remained strong, totaling $74.7 billion through September, with average sale prices rising annually by 10.3% per square foot when excluding data centers.

➨ TAKEAWAY: While the increase in rent and sales volume are encouraging signs, the increase in vacancy rate could be a sign that rental demand has started to diminish. Lower demand combined with the bigger construction pipeline could slow rental growth and put pressure on property values, particularly in oversupplied markets.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Franklin Templeton's Head of Innovation Sandy Kaul about innovations in digital assets and the future of tokenization.

🤖 Baseten doubles valuation: The AI infrastructure startup is reportedly raising a new funding round at a valuation of $30 billion, more than double its $13 billion valuation from June. This fundraise is another big round for an AI infrastructure startup, reflecting sustained investor demand for the sector.

🚘 Record-setting Ferrari: A 1997 Ferrari F50 sold for a record-breaking $18.7 million at Broad Arrow Auctions, one of ten cars to set new auction records as the sale brought in $92.8 million in total, the highest ever for the auction house in Las Vegas.

🚀 Global venture funding: Startups raised $59 billion in venture funding globally in October, a 45% annual increase, with a record-setting $15.9 billion round for the Chinese AI company DeepSeek leading the way. More than 40% of the month’s total funding came from just seven megarounds of $1 billion or more, including rounds from notable startups Ramp, Kalshi, and Tenstorrent.

💵 Apollo private credit platform: The asset manager launched a new $11 billion European private credit platform, backed by major institutional investors including the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. It will lend to middle-market and large companies, as well as infrastructure and real estate projects.

🪙 Tokenization pushback: Twelve additional companies, including Nvidia, Nike, and Costco, have objected to having their shares traded on a planned tokenized stock platform developed by crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent ICE. That brings the number of objecting companies to 50, which could pose a problem to the future of the exchange.

🎨 Abu Dhabi auction: Christie's held its first fine-art auction in Abu Dhabi, generating nearly $9 million in sales and achieving a sell-through rate of 88%. The auction established records for 10 artists, signaling growing interest among Middle Eastern investors in the art market.

The crypto market was left reeling this week in the wake of the biggest crypto hack of all-time, in which thieves were able to steal more than $6 billion from the world’s bigest crypto exchange Binance. The token that had the biggest gain of any in the top-50 by market cap was Hyperliquid, the native token of the decentralized exchange of the same name. It seems to have benefited from being an alternative to Binance, and because a partnership with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, was announced last week. Hyperliquid has been one of the few tokens to have a strong 2026, more than tripling in price since January, as the exchange continues to see growing trading volume.