LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 8, 2026--
Fundamental, an AI company whose Large Tabular Model (“LTM”), NEXUS is reimagining enterprise decision-making, and AEG, the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company, today announced a new partnership spanning two of AEG’s signature Southern California properties. The agreement names Fundamental an Official Partner of the six-time MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy and L.A. LIVE, AEG's 4-million-square-foot sports and entertainment district in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, the partnership will bring NEXUS, Fundamental's Large Tabular Model (LTM), to key areas of each property’s commercial business to help generate predictive insights and inform smarter decision-making.
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Unlike Large Language Models (LLMs), which are built to understand and generate text, NEXUS is purpose-built for tabular data: the rows and columns of structured business records that sit behind ticketing, marketing, and partnership decisions at every major sports and entertainment brand. Where most organizations look at that data to explain what already happened, NEXUS is built to help anticipate what may be coming next, identifying patterns that can inform areas such as fan engagement, marketing, and partnership strategy.
Both the LA Galaxy and L.A. LIVE will put NEXUS to work across ticketing, marketing, and partnership strategy, giving each organization a live, forward-looking view of the patterns already sitting in their own data. NEXUS will also be the presenting sponsor of the Coachella Valley Invitational, the largest pre-season professional soccer tournament in the United States, featuring 20 teams from across Major League Soccer (MLS) and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
“Sports and live entertainment businesses move fast, and the organizations that win are the ones that see what's coming before it happens,” said Fundamental CEO Jeremy Fraenkel. "NEXUS was built to find the value hiding inside structured data that previously looked unpredictable. Through this partnership, we have an opportunity to work alongside the LA Galaxy and L.A. LIVE to show what a foundation model built for tabular data, not text, can do for an industry built on split-second decisions."
“We're constantly looking for new ways to deepen our understanding of our fans and set the Galaxy up for long-term growth,” said Tom Braun, President and Chief Operating Officer, LA Galaxy. " We look forward to putting NEXUS to work, and we see real potential for it to inform how we engage fans, build partnerships, and grow the club.”
“This partnership is built to deliver real value on both sides while introducing Fundamental’s technology to the global sports and entertainment industry, and it opens the door to joint thought leadership on where AI and prediction are taking this business next,” said Nick Baker, President and COO of AEG Global Partnerships. “It’s a partnership that came together through the collaboration and vision of teams on both sides, including Rashid Dadashi, vice president of AEG Global Partnerships, and Richard McBeath, head of marketing at Fundamental, and we are all incredibly excited about the impact we can create together.”
The partnership marks Fundamental's entry into professional sports and live entertainment, extending NEXUS's reach beyond the energy, shipping, and manufacturing sectors where it already runs in production today. Founded in 2024 by alumni of JPMorgan, Bridgewater, and DeepMind, Fundamental has built a growing base of enterprise contracts for NEXUS spanning demand forecasting, price prediction, and customer churn.
About Fundamental
Fundamental is pioneering the future of enterprise decision-making. Co-founded by DeepMind alumni, Fundamental has developed NEXUS - its most powerful Large Tabular Model (LTM) - purpose-built for the structured records that contain trillions of dollars in business value. While other AI companies focus on text and images, Fundamental addresses the tabular data that actually drives enterprise decisions. Backed by world class investors and trusted by Fortune 500 companies, Fundamental unlocks trillions of dollars of value by giving businesses the Power to Predict™. Learn more at https://fundamental.tech/
About AEG
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, AEG is the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company. The company operates in the following business segments:
Through its worldwide network of venues, portfolio of powerful sports and music brands and its integrated sports and entertainment districts, AEG entertains more than 100 million guests annually. More information about AEG can be found at www.aegworldwide.com.
About the LA Galaxy
The LA Galaxy are Major League Soccer’s most successful club. Based in Carson, Calif. at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy have won the MLS Cup a record six times (2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2024), the MLS Supporters’ Shield four times (1998, 2002, 2010, 2011) and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup twice (2001, 2005), and one Concacaf Champions Cup (2000) since their inception in 1996. Under the direction of LA Galaxy President of Business Operations and Chief Operating Officer Tom Braun and LA Galaxy General Manager Will Kuntz, the Galaxy are the premier club in MLS, with stars like Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Javier Hernandez, Cobi Jones, Riqui Puig and Marco Reus representing LA over the team’s 30 seasons in MLS. For more information on the LA Galaxy, visit www.lagalaxy.com.
About L.A. LIVE
L.A. LIVE is a vibrant sports and entertainment district located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Developed by L.A.-based AEG and opened in 2007, the 4-million-square-foot campus features entertainment venues, hotels, residences, restaurants and office space while hosting hundreds of community, private and corporate events annually. Adjacent to the iconic Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center, L.A. LIVE is home to Peacock Theater, The Novo, The GRAMMY Museum, Lucky Strike bowling alley and the Regal L.A. LIVE movie theater. Additionally, the 40,000-square-foot Peacock Place and 100,000-square-foot Event Deck welcome millions of guests each year for sporting and special events, award show red carpets, bold brand activations, conventions, live music, food festivals and more. L.A. LIVE also offers more than a dozen restaurants, bars and cafés and luxury accommodations and extensive meeting and event facilities at The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles and the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE hotels. For more information, visit lalive.com.
(Photographed from left to right are: Tom Braun - President and Chief Operating Officer, LA Galaxy, Gregg Delman - Head of Communications at Fundamental, Jeremy Fraenkel - Fundamental CEO & Co-Founder, Richard McBeath - Head of Marketing at Fundamental, and Nick Baker - President and COO of AEG Global Partnerships)
MIAMI (AP) — Isaias strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane as it barreled toward the U.S. Gulf Coast on Thursday, prompting orders for tourists to abandon beaches for safer spots inland, sending locals scurrying for gas and groceries and leading fishing crews to secure their boats before the potentially destructive storm’s arrival.
The first hurricane of the Atlantic season was forecast to intensify rapidly and cause dangerous conditions in the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi when it makes landfall late Friday or early Saturday. Heavy rain and flooding were possible into the weekend as far north as Tennessee and North Carolina.
“We are expecting Isaias to be a dangerous hurricane when it makes landfall,” said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
He added: “Today is the day to prepare and get ready and be in your safe place by tomorrow as conditions will rapidly deteriorate along the northern Gulf Coast as Isaias approaches.”
Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph), according to the hurricane center, surpassing the 96 mph (154 kph) threshold for a Category 2 storm.
Isaias was headed northeast at 12 mph (19 kph) and was centered about 325 miles (525 kilometers) south of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Bay-Gulf County line in Florida, the hurricane center said. A storm surge warning was in effect from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Suwannee River.
Coastal communities moved quickly to prepare, as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ordered non-residents to immediately evacuate Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Dauphin Island. Videos on social media showed traffic at a standstill on a highway leading out of Gulf Shores, where double-red beach flags signaled water access was closed.
At least four Florida school districts canceled late-week classes, while several counties announced mandatory evacuations for some coastal areas. The governors of Florida and Alabama declared states of emergency for dozens of counties, with Florida's Ron DeSantis saying about 5,000 National Guard troops were expected to mobilize by Friday.
On Dauphin Island, a 15-mile (24-kilometer) barrier island off the Alabama coast, officials encouraged voluntary evacuations, particularly on its popular western section, which is vulnerable to storm surge.
Mayor Jeff Collier said he did not anticipate substantial damage, “but at the same time, these things are very fickle and a little jog here or there, or some last-minute increase in strength — we just have to be prepared for the worst.”
Water from the storm surge and high tide could reach heights of 5 to 7 feet (1.5 to 2 meters) in parts of Alabama and Mississippi, forecasters said. Isaias also could dump up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain on coastal areas and spawn tornadoes overnight Friday into Saturday from Alabama to the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Georgia. The hurricane is expected to quickly weaken after coming ashore.
The National Weather Service warned of possible “long-duration power outages.”
Isaias developed more than four months into the Atlantic hurricane season and was one day short of tying a 121-year-old record for the area’s latest-forming hurricane. That record dates to 1905, when the year’s first Atlantic hurricane formed on Oct. 8.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year because of a strong El Niño, which disrupts storm formation over the Atlantic. Storm activity has been above average in the Pacific, where Tropical Storm Simon formed Wednesday off Mexico and was forecast to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane. Farther north, Tropical Storm Rachel was expected to reach Baja California, Mexico, and Southern California this weekend.
Isaias is expected to strike a swath of coastline that’s familiar with major hurricanes.
One of the 20th century’s worst storms, Hurricane Camille, killed more than 250 people after hitting land near Waveland, Mississippi, in 1969. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 razed neighborhoods in Mississippi, flooded New Orleans and killed nearly 1,400 people. And Hurricane Michael leveled homes and buildings near Panama City, Florida, in 2018.
Ahead of the storm, oil and gas producers shut down a significant share of offshore production in the Gulf, which accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S.
As of Thursday, about 63% of the oil production in the region had been temporarily halted, taking nearly 1.3 million barrels a day off the market, according to the Marine Minerals Administration. It said 121 of the Gulf’s 371 manned oil platforms had been evacuated.
With oil prices already high, the production cuts are steep enough to affect markets, though other Gulf hurricanes have caused larger disruptions, said Jim Burkhard, global head of crude oil market research for S&P Global Energy. More concerning, he said, is whether Isaias strikes as a powerful storm near refineries.
As it moves inland, Isaias might also disrupt Saturday’s college football showdown between rivals Georgia and Alabama, a game President Donald Trump planned to attend.
In Loxley, a small Alabama community where county officials urged voluntary evacuations, Nichole Eubanks and her husband prepared to ride out the storm on their farm, which is home to dozens of animals, including pigs, donkeys and about 20 rescued cats.
They planned to put contact information on the hooves of their goats, donkeys and pigs in case they got loose.
“It’s definitely scary, and you never really know where these storms are going to go and how bad it’s going to be until it gets there,” said Eubanks, 35.
In the Alabama fishing village of Bayou La Batre, Tony Rice and Lance Connor installed doors on their fishing boat Thursday to protect the vessel. The boat was one of many moored there, and Rice said they planned to move it to a less-crowded spot to decrease the chances of it bumping into others.
In Pensacola, Florida, officials said the airport will close to commercial flights Friday morning. Mayor D.C. Reeves urged residents to check on older adult neighbors and others who might need help.
“Obviously no need to panic at this point,” Reeves told a news conference. “This is really about preparation.”
Rico reported from Atlanta and Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Also contributing were Associated Press reporters Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Hallie Golden in Seattle; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; and Julie Walker in New York.
A flag flutters in the wind outside a home as the Gulf Coast braces for Hurricane Isaias’ expected landfall in Dauphin Island, Alabama, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
A home is boarded up with plywood ahead of Hurricane Isaias’ expected landfall along the Gulf Coast in Dauphin Island, Alabama, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Mike Howard, foreground, and Joshua Brown board up Perdido Key Sports Bar as Hurricane Isaias approaches Perdido Key, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Residents line up to refuel at Costco Wholesale Gas Station ahead of Hurricane Isaias' expected landfall along the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Alabama, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
A resident walks to his vehicle after filling up a gas container at the Costco Wholesale Gas Station ahead of Hurricane Isaias' expected landfall along the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Alabama, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Gaspar Amalla pulls his boat out of the water as Hurricane Isaias passes through the Gulf of Mexico, north of Progreso, Yucatan state, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)
Boat owner Tony Rice, foreground, and his friend Lance Connor haul doors onto his boat to secure it as Hurricane Isaias approaches Bayou La Batre, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Boat owner Tony Rice prepares to haul doors onto his boat to secure it as Hurricane Isaias approaches Bayou La Batre, Ala., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Residents pick up sandbags for storm preparation at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center ahead of Hurricane Isaias' expected landfall along the Gulf Coast, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Residents pick up sandbags for storm preparation at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center ahead of Hurricane Isaias' expected landfall along the Gulf Coast, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Isaias surging toward the U.S. Gulf Coast on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
Residents pick up sandbags at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center as they prepare for Hurricane Isaias expected landfall along the Gulf Coast, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Residents pick up sandbags for storm preparation at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center ahead of Hurricane Isaias, expected landfall along the Gulf Coast, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Residents pick up sandbags for storm preparation at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center ahead of Hurricane Isaias' expected landfall along the Gulf Coast, Thursday, October 8, 2026, in Mobile, Alabama (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Residents pick up sandbags at the James Seals Jr. Parks & Recreation Center as they prepare for Hurricane Isaias expected landfall along the Gulf Coast, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Isaias in the Gulf of Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
This GOES-19 GeoColor satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and taken at 4:57 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, shows Tropical Storm Simon, bottom center, in the Pacific Ocean, off the southwestern coast of Mexico, and Tropical Storm Isaias, upper right, east of Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Isaias off the eastern coast of Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
