Top stories for the morning: US offers Iran peace plan, OpenAI raises $10 billion, SpaceX IPO

The U.S. has offered Iran a 15-point settlement plan. Arm shares rose after announcing its own artificial intelligence chip and forecasting a six-fold increase in revenue by 2031. Elon Musk's SpaceX could file for an IPO as early as this week. And Meta is trying to retain top managers with options tied to a sharp rise in prices. About these and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of March 25.

The U.S. has offered Iran a 15-point settlement plan, Bloomberg reports, with Pakistan serving as the facilitator of the transfer. The plan comes amid growing economic pressure and Donald Trump's desire to end the conflict, the agency claims. The details of the initiative are not disclosed, but, according to sources, it involves a ban on Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and uranium enrichment.

Markets have responded to the diplomatic signals with lower oil prices and rising stocks, but fighting continues and supplies through the Strait of Hormuz remain limited. The conflict has driven up energy and various commodity prices, adding to inflationary pressures ahead of the U.S. election, the agency said.

OpenAI has raised an additional $10 billion, bringing its total record funding round to more than $120 billion at a valuation of about $730 billion, CNBC reports. Andreessen Horowitz, TPG, T. Rowe Price, MGX, D.E. Shaw and Microsoft. The company previously received $110 billion, including $50 billion from Amazon and $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank.

OpenAI is also actively growing its revenue (about $13.1 billion last year) and audience (900 million users per week), the channel notes. In addition, the company is preparing for a possible IPO amid competition with Anthropic.

SpaceX could file for an IPO as early as this week or next week, The Information reports. Consultants estimate that the company could raise more than $75 billion, which would make the offering one of the largest in history. At the same time, the share for retail investors could exceed 20%, although the final parameters have not yet been determined.

SpaceX has not officially confirmed its plans to hold an IPO and has not commented on media reports about it. If the offering takes place, it will be an important step toward Elon Musk's company's entry into the public market after years of working in private status, The Information notes.

Arm shares rose more than 8% in extended trading on Tuesday, March 24, following the announcement of its own AI chip and a revenue forecast of up to $25 billion by 2031, CNBC reported. By comparison, revenue was $4 billion in 2025.

Arm's new AGI CPU, optimized for AI inference (data output), has already received its first customer - Meta - and the company estimates that it could generate up to $15 billion in annual revenue. Against the backdrop of the development of agent-based AI, Arm expects a multiple growth in demand for CPUs, shifting the balance in favor of general-purpose computing.

Meta is increasing compensation for top executives, including stock options for the first time, to retain key executives amid increased competition in AI, Reuters reports. Mark Zuckerberg and top executives were included in the program, with the latter receiving about $170 million worth of shares that will vest gradually - in installments each quarter.

The options are tied to a significant increase in stock prices: for the minimum level, the stock must rise by almost 90% to $1116, and for the maximum - more than six times, to $3727. In this way, the company is trying to link remuneration to long-term growth in business value and strengthen its position in the race for AI talent.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 2.6 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was up nearly 3 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.45 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index was up 1.2 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 1.7% and the Kosdaq was up 3.4%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.9 percent.

- S&P 500 futures were up 0.5 percent, Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.5 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average exchange-traded contracts were up 0.6 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor