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Tired vs. Wired: $4 Trillion in IPOs Coming, $100B in M&A, and Why the SaaSpocalypse is Over The public markets spent the last twelve months telling you B2B software was finished. Stocks down 60 to 70 percent. PE firms buying nobody. For the first time in history, software trading at a discount to the S&P 500. And at the exact same moment, Anthropic is projecting $50 billion in revenue, Cursor is getting acquired for $60 billion, and SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Databricks are about to generate more market value than every other IPO since 2000 combined. Both things are true - and which one defines your next 18 months depends entirely on one question: are you tired or are you wired? In this episode, SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin calls the market as he sees it, names who is winning and who is pretending, and makes the case that the Cambrian explosion in B2B is just getting started. You'll learn: Why the SaaSpocalypse was never about B2B dying - it was about pre-AI software dying - and what the Palantir, Twilio, and Atlassian re-acceleration stories actually tell you The four categories every B2B company falls into right now, and why category four founders need to stop pretending the recovery is coming on its own Why vibe coding your CRM is dead as a concept, and what "putting deals on your calendar" actually means as a product strategy Why your biggest near-term competitive edge might be two days of engineering work - making your API agent-friendly before your competitors do What SaaStr's own journey from 20 humans to 3 humans and 21 agents teaches you about consistency as the only real cheat code in agents This is for you if: Your growth has slowed and you are not sure whether it is a market problem or a you problem - this session will help you figure out which You are a founder or exec who has been in the "AI is coming" conversation for a year but has not yet seen it show up in your revenue You want the unfiltered version of where B2B is headed in the next 18 months, including the parts most people are too polite to say out loud
Send us Fan MailWe've done the finance of Industry, the finance of Succession, the finance of Belle Burden's Strangers — but we've never done the finance of CREATORS. So when Spotify invited us to their Investor Day, we knew we had to sit down and ask the question every aspiring musician, podcaster, and Instagram creator is obsessing over: in a world where everyone wants to be a creator, how does anyone actually get paid?In this episode, we talk with Gustav Gyllenhammar, SVP of Markets and Subscriptions at Spotify, about the surprisingly complicated machinery behind every stream you play. Where does your $12.99 a month really go? How much does a million downloads of a song actually pay out? And how did a company born out of a piracy-ravaged Sweden convince an entire generation to start paying for something they'd grown up expecting for free? We get into the labels-versus-songwriters split, the rise of the independent artist, and the one number that explains why Spotify thinks it's playing a completely different game than the AI companies scraping the internet for content.Which brings us to the real tension underneath it all: as LLMs hoover up the work of writers, musicians, and creators everywhere, who's building a model to actually compensate them — and is Spotify offering a better blueprint? We dig into Spotify's philosophy on AI, why they waited so long to touch it on the music side, what "Time Well Spent" means when every other platform is optimizing for your attention, and whether the creators who power these platforms are about to get boxed out of their own economy. Plus: the new Universal Music partnership, the audiobook feature Jen has been praying for, and why a direct listing might be the most underrated way to go public.Shop our Self Paced Courses:Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERESubscribe to our Substack: https://substack.com/@thewallstreetskinny
SpaceX Files S-1: The $2 Trillion IPO Thesis, Starlink Cash Engine, AI Pivot, and Bitcoin AngleThe script discusses SpaceX officially filing an S-1 with the SEC and frames it as a landmark IPO targeting a $2 trillion valuation after private valuations rose from $100B to $200B. It breaks SpaceX into three pillars: space launch/Mars ambitions (about $4.1B revenue in 2025), Starlink as the profitable cash engine (Q1 2026 connectivity revenue $3.3B with over $1.2B profit), and a major pivot into AI infrastructure with billions spent on data centers and custom hardware, described as roughly $8B per quarter. It notes the S-1 confirms SpaceX holds a significant digital asset and has been a longtime Bitcoin holder, while warning IPO volatility will be high and advising patience, monitoring Starlink growth and any post-IPO Bitcoin additions as potential catalysts.00:00 SpaceX IPO Shockwave00:55 Two Trillion Valuation Math01:11 Three Pillars Breakdown02:12 Starlink Cash Engine02:36 AI Infrastructure Pivot03:08 Bitcoin On The Balance Sheet03:59 IPO Risks And Mindset04:51 How To Play The IPO05:34 Live Coverage And Wrap Up________________________________________________________________FOLLOW ME ON X: https://twitter.com/staywinningusdFOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/staywinningusd/SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/@staywinningusdDOWNLOAD ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2lPyA19keI2fpr0xZrEKxMNEWSLETTER SIGNUP: https://stay-winning-wealth.kit.com/806fb337d7SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG: https://medium.com/@staywinningusd________________________________________________________________
Liftoff finally went public this week — at a valuation that tells you exactly what the public market thinks mobile ad networks are worth. That's just one of four stories this week that genuinely matter if you run UA.Matej Lančarič flies solo for the breaking news segment, ranked from biggest to most practical. Liftoff listed on Nasdaq as LFT after a second attempt, raising $437M at a $3.83B valuation — a 25% haircut from the $5B it wanted in January, and below the private valuation General Atlantic paid in 2025. A Niko Partners report buried a number most Western publishers still aren't modeling: minigames are now almost 20% of mobile game spending in China. Akin launched AMF Capital with Makers Fund, opening with a $28M UA financing facility for Birhack. And the throughline of the week — mobile has officially shifted from core-first to event-first, with Monopoly Go's Simpsons crossover, Rovio's own admission, and Supercell's MoCo reboot all pointing the same direction.The bar keeps moving up. The industry is consolidating around scale, capital, and live-ops.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Supercell reboots MoCo's live-ops00:30 Liftoff goes public at $3.83B — the IPO breakdown03:00 China minigames are now 20% of mobile spend05:30 AMF Capital launches with a $28M UA financing deal07:00 Mobile shifts from core-first to event-first09:00 What event-first actually means for your UA
Four stories today — all connected to the biggest monthin NIO's history.NIO has burned approximately 100 billion yuan — $14.6billion — over 8 years since William Li founded the companyin 2014. June is the verdict month. NIO delivered 67,061vehicles in April and May combined. To hit Q2 guidance of110,000-115,000 vehicles it needs 42,939 to 47,939 in Junealone. The ES9 is in its first full production month withover 50,000 pre-orders. Onvo L60 deliveries begin June 11.Gen 5 swap stations arrive mid to late June. NIO's shortinterest just hit a 32-month low — the bears are leaving.The setup has never been better.A major Chinese analysis this week asks why Chinese carsare getting bigger. The answer: margin pressure is forcingevery automaker upmarket into flagship territory whereprofits still exist. But the article makes a critical point —most brands launching flagships above 400,000 yuan arebystanders. Only brands with years of authentic premiuminvestment can actually convert those buyers. NIO has spent8 years building that identity. Most competitors have not.Lotus — the iconic British sports car brand owned by Geely —just walked back 8 years of all-electric commitment andis reintroducing hybrid powertrains. Pure EV was correctas a direction. But for a performance brand whose customerstrack their cars, range anxiety and charging limitationsmade the all-electric bet commercially unworkable. TheChinese internet put it perfectly: "Going fully electricwas correct. Retreating from fully electric is rational."NIO's battery swap network was built specifically to solvethe problem that just forced Lotus to retreat.Trump confirmed in a Wednesday interview that Iran hasalready agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons — and thatthe Strait of Hormuz could reopen as soon as this month.That triggers a sequence: oil drops, inflation falls,rate cut expectations return, growth stocks re-rate upward.Watch oil tonight. Watch Treasury yields. June could behistoric for your portfolio in more ways than one.
On this week's episode of Valley of Depth, our first recorded in person, we sit down with Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, in the company's historic Blue Ghost mission control room in Cedar Park, Texas — the same room where 60 engineers watched their lander touch down at one meter per second last year. From there, the conversation opens into how Jason actually thinks: about the Moon, about scale, and about being a "mission CEO" rather than a hardware or software one. Firefly went public in 2025, acquired defense software company SciTec within months, and now sits inside Golden Dome. Jason argues the market still prices the company as a pure launch player while he's building an end-to-end stack he puts in the same conversation as Anduril and Palantir. We cover: The last 30 seconds of the Blue Ghost Mission 1 landing, from inside the room where it happened Why Blue Ghost Mission 2 is harder: a three-spacecraft stack and the first US far-side landing Whether small launch makes money, and why Alpha is both a profit center and a strategic asset The Eclipse medium-lift bet, the Northrop partnership, and why Starship doesn't make everyone else obsolete Why the Moon matters, and how big the commercial lunar economy actually gets Why a hardware CEO bought a software company The valuation gap with Rocket Lab and what he believes the market hasn't priced in His honest read on SpaceX, China, the new-launch shakeout, and the path to a $100 billion company • Chapters • 00:00 - Trailer 00:53 – Blue Ghost Mission 1 04:41 – The bar for success for Blue Ghost Mission 1 07:16 – What is the new objective in Blue Ghost Mission 2? 11:49 – Jason coming into Firefly leadership 16:35 – Day 1 as Firefly CEO 18:53 – AE Industrial and how private equity informs Jason's mindset 21:02 – Product stack 22:34 – Demand signal from responsive launch 24:21 – Alpha and small launch economics 26:20 – Firefly's Eclipse 28:09 – How Starship will impact the launch market 29:41 – Viability of commercial launches 32:15 – Blue Ghost x Eclipse? 33:51 – Why does the Moon matter? 36:02 – Jason's commercial lunar economy predictions 38:02 – The future of Blue Ghost's missions 39:52 – Why Jason acquired Sitec 44:30 – Sitec in the Space Force's Golden Dome contracts 47:16 – Why shift Firefly to being a public company? 49:04 – How does Jason address stock price fluctuation internally? 50:49 – Do the public markets understand the space economy? 52:57 – Is Firefly just a launch company? 55:25 – What part of Firefly has the market not priced in yet? 56:50 – Firefly's strategy in a world where lift becomes effectively free 58:49 – Which launch companies will survive? 59:56 – The China question 1:00:33 – Is there a company out there that doesn't get enough attention? 1:01:53 – How Firefly is thinking about M&As 1:04:25 – The path to Firefly hitting a $100B valuation 1:05:25 – Jason Kim, the person 1:07:07 – Who does Jason call for advice? 1:07:57 – What Jason would tell 25-year-old Jason 1:11:58 – What Jason does for fun when not working on space • Show notes • Firefly's' website — https://fireflyspace.com/ Jason's' socials — https://x.com/Jason_Lil_Kim/ Mo's socials — https://x.com/itsmoislam Payload's socials — https://x.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace Ignition's socials — https://x.com/ignitionnuclear / https://www.linkedin.com/company/ignition-nuclear/ Tectonic's socials — https://x.com/tectonicdefense / https://www.linkedin.com/company/tectonicdefense/ Valley of Depth archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/ • About us • Valley of Depth is a podcast about the technologies that matter — and the people building them. Brought to you by Arkaea Media, the team behind Payload (space), Ignition (nuclear energy), Decoding Bio (biotech) and Tectonic (defense tech), this show goes beyond headlines and hype. We talk to founders, investors, government officials, and military leaders shaping the future of national security and deep tech. From breakthrough science to strategic policy, we dive into the high-stakes decisions behind the world's hardest technologies. Payload: www.payloadspace.com Tectonic: www.tectonicdefense.com Ignition: www.ignition-news.com Decoding Bio: www.decodingbio.com
Welcome to the CanadianSME Small Business Podcast, hosted by Kripa Anand. Today, we explore how applied AI is transforming traditional industries by turning operational data into smarter, faster, and more profitable decisions. Joining us is Remi Dion, Co-Founder and VP of Applied AI at Explorai. Remi shares how niche AI tools are helping industries like construction and manufacturing modernize operations and improve efficiency. Key Highlights The Vision Behind Explorai: Remi explains why Explorai focuses on operational AI for SMEs. Solving Estimation Challenges: Remi shares how Estim.ai improves accuracy and profitability. Why Niche AI Wins: Remi highlights why specialized AI tools outperform generic solutions. Operational AI vs Everyday AI: Remi explains how businesses can identify high-impact AI tools. Future of Industrial AI: Remi outlines what is next for AI in construction and manufacturing. Special Thanks to Our Partners: UPS: https://solutions.ups.com/ca-beunstoppable.html?WT.mc_id=BUSMEWA ADP Canada: https://www.adp.ca/en.aspx For more expert insights, visit www.canadiansme.ca and subscribe to the CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Stay innovative, stay informed, and thrive in the digital age! To learn more about how we are supporting the ecosystem, please visit the CanadianSME Small Business Foundation at smbfoundation.ca. Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.
(0:00) OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar joins the show! (0:31) How OpenAI thinks about its IPO timeline (3:31) OpenAI, Anthropic, Google: The AI arms race (7:43) Navigating the compute crunch and AI bottlenecks, device preview! (15:53) OpenAI's economics (26:08) Push into chips, the cloud (29:32) OpenAI's ad business and strategy Thanks to our partners for making this possible! EY - Agentic AI is introducing a new investment discipline. As AI shifts to consumption-based models, EY connects spend to enterprise value. https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/ai/agentic-ai-token-costs?WT.mc_id=3501318&AA.tsrc=sponsorship NYSE - Thank you to our partner, the New York Stock Exchange - a modern marketplace and exchange for building the future. It all happens at the NYSE. https://www.nyse.com Plaud - Never miss a moment. Plaud, our official wearable AI note-taking partner at All-In Liquidity Summit, captured every insight. https://www.plaud.ai Follow Sarah Friar: https://x.com/thefriley Apply for Summit 2026: https://allin.com/events Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg
Sam went from drinking five Red Bulls a day as a civil engineering student in Paris to founding one of the most exciting retail concepts in Canada right now. In this episode, we sit down with the founder of KaleMart24, the health-forward convenience store brand that is quietly taking over Montreal and setting its sights on the US market. We get into how he spotted a massive gap in the North American convenience store industry, why he tested three completely different store formats at the same time before scaling, and how he built a 20-location franchise operation with a core team of three people, two of whom started as cashiers. Sam also opens up about his Dragons Den experience, what actually happens when a Dragon threatens to sue you on national television, how brands pay to get shelf space in his stores, and why he believes the proof of concept has to come before the pitch every single time. If you are thinking about starting a business, scaling one, or just want to understand how someone turns a matcha habit into an empire, this episode is for you. Follow us on socials: https://www.instagram.com/carinebadran/ https://www.instagram.com/taketheleadpodcast/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.carine-badran.kit.com/b8b87327db/
In this episode of the Capital Raiser Show, Richard Wilson sits down with billionaire entrepreneur and AI investor Pavan Agarwal for a fireside chat on mindset, artificial intelligence, mortgage innovation, and building a long-term technology platform. Pavan shares how his family built SunWest Mortgage into a major national lender, why trust and integrity helped the business survive the financial crisis, and how Angel AI is being developed to simplify financial services, lending, credit, insurance, taxes, and long-term wealth planning. This conversation explores the mindset behind building and protecting a massive AI portfolio — and why the biggest opportunities may come from combining deep industry experience with technical execution. Topics covered include: The mindset shift required to scale a national business Why integrity matters when markets turn against you How AI is changing mortgage lending and financial services Why AI is an "ocean," not just a wave The value of patents, proprietary technology, and long-term vision Why founders should trust their own instincts earlier How Angel AI aims to become a personal financial companion Real estate, fixed income, and technology investing insights Why patient capital can win in AI and startups The biggest mistakes founders make when chasing trends To meet investors in person and learn directly from decamillionaires, family offices, and ultra-wealthy investors, visit FamilyOffices.com
What does it take to back India's highest-grossing films three years in a row? Host Anirban Chowdhury and ET’s film journalist and critic Rajesh N Naidu talk to Jyoti Deshpande, President - Jio Studios, Media & Content Business -Reliance Industries Ltd, who pulls back the curtain on how she green-lights films, why she rejects 98 out of every 100 ideas, and what Indian cinema needs to do to crack the global market. From Stree 1 to Stree 2, Laapataa Ladies to Dhurandhar Jyoti reveals the method behind the madness. She shares Mukesh Ambani's first principles that shaped JioStudios' rise, why she bets on the filmmaker's conviction over star power, and how Indian studios must think about vertical integration, regional crossover, and eventually competing with Hollywood.You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and LinkedinCheck out other interesting episodes like:ET Deep Dive: Swipe Left on Reality,India wants manufacturing at 25% of GDP — will AI in factories help?, Tanay Kothari Wants To Kill The Keyboard, From Doer to Director: The LinkedIn Playbook for the AI Agea, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks and much more. Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On Halloween 2008, while the global financial system was collapsing and banks were getting bailed out with taxpayer money, an anonymous figure posted a nine-page paper that would change everything. Two months later, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block and buried a newspaper headline inside it about bank bailouts - a permanent message encoded forever on every node on Earth. Then he mined over a million Bitcoin, watched it become worth over $100 billion, and never touched a single coin. This is the real origin story of Bitcoin, told the way it deserves to be told. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 27, 2026: Your daily rundown of health and wellness news, in under 5 minutes. Today's top stories: Nordic-inspired wellness experiences including saunas and cold plunges grew 62.5% globally from 2024 to 2025, with cold plunge market hitting $355M and sauna industry nearing $1B Lucis raises $20M to expand preventative health across Europe as "Function Health for Europe," combining 110-marker blood testing with AI health companion for 10,000 users Apple loses momentum in digital health per Bloomberg as wearables shift toward predictive insights, facing competition from Oura and Whoop despite $100B in Apple Watch sales More from Fitt: Fitt Insider breaks down the convergence of fitness, wellness, and healthcare — and what it means for business, culture, and capital. Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe Work with our recruiting firm → https://talent.fitt.co/ Follow us on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/fittinsider/ Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider Reach out → insider@fitt.co
Quantum computing stocks surged after the US announced $2B in grants with equity stakes. Spotify jumped 13% on 2030 guidance targeting $100B in revenue. Anthropic expects $10.9B in Q2 revenue and its first-ever operating profit, while Trump pulled back an AI executive order after calls with Musk and Zuckerberg. Shares of quantum computing companies surged Thursday after the US government announced grants with equity stakes: D-Wave closed up 33%, Rigetti 30%, IBM 12% (CNBC) Spotify closed up 13% on Thursday after announcing new features and 2030 guidance, forecasting a compound annual growth rate in the mid-teens (CNBC) Workday reports Q1 revenue up 13% YoY to $2.54B vs. $2.52B est., and lifts its full-year forecast, saying its AI strategy is working; WDAY jumps 9%+ after hours (CNBC) Sources: Trump delayed signing the AI EO because "he just hates regulation"; there were questions about the EO giving the Treasury Department a leading role (Axios) Investor disclosures: Anthropic says it expects to generate $10.9B in revenue in Q2, up 127% from $4.8B in Q1, and turn a $559M operating profit, its first ever (WSJ) Longreads In more than two-thirds of the world's countries, birthrates have fallen below replacement, and researchers increasingly point the finger at smartphones and social media (FT) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Most fintechs treat cross border payments as a cost centre. George Davis built a business that treats it as the $100B infrastructure opportunity nobody else is rebuilding, and grew 55X in 12 months doing it.In this episode I speak with George Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of Lorum, a global clearing and settlement infrastructure business serving financial institutions across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and beyond. George is a serial founder who previously co-founded BVNK before leaving to rebuild the layer of the payments stack that big banks have left untouched.Key takeaways:The payment system isn't broken; banks running it are wrongly incentivisedWhy stablecoins add friction to cross border payments rather than removing themHow mid market fintechs can access wholesale treasury rates and turn FX into a profit centreWhat access to clearing infrastructure actually means for remittance, payroll, and import-export businessesWhy Lorum 55X'd in 12 months by going after the bottom of the payments stackGeorge also shares the founder mindset behind Lorum's growth: first principles thinking, radical adaptability, and hiring for obsession over experience.
Send us Fan MailOne of the biggest drivers of hospital admissions isn't what most people think - it's fluid. Not infection, not surgery…fluid overload. And when the body stops responding to diuretics, medicine runs into a wall.Today we're exploring one of the most challenging and underappreciated frontiers in hospital medicine: fluid overload and the cardiorenal continuum - where heart failure and kidney dysfunction intersect in ways that dramatically affect outcomes, costs, and quality of life.Our guest is Ryan Marthaler, Vice President of Product Marketing and Business Development at Nuwellis, Inc. ( https://nuwellis.com/ ), a medical technology company focused on integrated fluid management solutions for both adult and pediatric patients.Ryan brings a two-decade career spanning Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and digital health innovation - working at the intersection of clinical evidence, commercial strategy, and product development. At Nuwellis, he has helped drive a strategic shift toward earlier intervention in fluid management and stronger evidence-based commercialization.We'll be discussing the company's core therapy platform, including the Aquadex SmartFlow System, a controlled ultrafiltration system designed to remove excess fluid in patients with fluid overload who are unresponsive to diuretics.Beyond the technology, this conversation is really about a bigger question:How do we better manage fluid balance across the heart-kidney axis - and what happens when we intervene earlier, more precisely, and more consistently?#HeartFailure #CardiorenalSyndrome #FluidOverload #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalDevices #CriticalCare #Nephrology #Cardiology #HospitalMedicine #MedTech #Ultrafiltration #KidneyDisease #ICU #HealthTech #HealthcareEconomics #MedicalInnovationSupport the show
Matt is joined by Hernan Lopez, founder of Owl and Co. and Wondery, to talk about the rise of vertical video, how it ballooned to a $100B/year business, the staggering success of Reels, and which companies in Hollywood are best suited to benefit the most from this trend (00:00). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about next season's cast of 'Saturday Night Live' (26:50). Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Hernan Lopez Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Matt Pevic Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Industry voters visit Starz FYC.com. For more information visit Hulu.com/FYC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI is weighing legal action against Apple over a Siri integration it says fell far short. Cerebras opened at $350 in the largest US tech IPO since Uber. Mythos helped researchers crack macOS security, Anthropic restores OpenClaw access with Agent SDK credits, and 71% of Americans oppose local data centers. Sources: OpenAI is weighing legal action against Apple after expectations that ChatGPT's Siri integration would generate billions in revenue fell short (Bloomberg) Security researchers used Anthropic's Mythos to discover a privilege escalation exploit in macOS, circumventing Apple's Memory Integrity Enforcement in five days (WSJ) Cerebras opens at $350, valuing the chipmaker at $100B+, after raising $5.5B by selling 30M shares at $185, the largest US tech IPO since Uber's debut in 2019 (CNBC) Anthropic unveils Claude Agent SDK credits for paid plans, which users can allocate for programmatic use of third-party agents like OpenClaw, starting June 15 (VentureBeat) AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon sign an "agreement in principle" to form a joint venture that aims to end wireless dead zones in the US, without giving many details (The Verge) Gallup: 71% of Americans oppose local AI data center construction, citing water and electricity issues, with opposition higher among Democrats than Republicans (Washington Post) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On Thursday, May 14, Brian Szytel recaps a broad market gain (Dow +370, S&P 500 +0.7%, Nasdaq +0.9%) with the 10-year Treasury closing near 4.48% and argues the 4.50% level is not a meaningful “line in the sand,” noting rate pressure tied to oil above $100 amid Iran-deal uncertainty. He summarizes Trump's two-day meeting with China's President Xi as generally positive, with Xi raising Taiwan and Trump not engaging. Markets continue a “wall of worry” melt-up driven by an AI capex/productivity boom, while Q1 tax refunds ($202B vs. $179B last year) and about $100B in refunded tariffs (about one-third already returned) add stimulus, though both reflect timing of taxes extracted and refunded. Strong earnings compressed valuations (S&P ~22x to ~21x), with Middle East tensions and energy prices creating Q2 uncertainty and a moderate bull-bear ratio (~2.2:1). He addresses a question about sharing ideas on media, emphasizing TBG's client relationship and evolving portfolio management as the core value. Economic notes: retail sales in line, jobless claims slightly higher but in line, and import/export prices higher with exports rising more. 00:00 Market Snapshot 00:25 Rates Oil And Geopolitics 01:48 AI Boom And Wall Of Worry 02:21 Refunds And Tariff Rebate Boost 03:45 Valuations Earnings And Sentiment 04:49 Sharing Ideas Versus Client Value 06:42 Economic Data And Sign Off Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com
Surojit spent 14 years at Google building mobile ads into a $100B+ business and then took Coinbase public as Chief Product Officer in 2021. In early 2023, before "agent" was even a word in AI papers, he started Ema in stealth—betting on a future where teams of AI agents would replace the "human glue" inside Fortune 500s.In this episode, Surojit breaks down how a Hitachi deployment across 55,000 employees became Ema's true PMF moment, why he spent the first year obsessed with SOC 2, ISO 42001, and air-gapped architecture before chasing revenue, and why one client just cut their HR team from 1,000 people to 550 by automating 65,000 monthly job changes.Why You Should ListenWhy true PMF is when your average salesperson can sell the product without you in the room.How a single Hitachi deployment unlocked credibility for every Fortune 500 deal that followed.Why a cold email—not a warm intro—turned into Ema's largest partner today.How partnering with PwC and KPMG became a faster wedge into the C-suite than any conference.Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, AI agents, enterprise AI, AI employees, Fortune 500 sales, Surojit Chatterjee, Ema, agentic AI, enterprise softwareChapters00:00:00 Intro00:02:00 Hitachi Was the PMF Moment00:04:10 What Ema Actually Does00:11:48 From Coinbase to a Pre-ChatGPT Bet00:28:48 The Cold Email That Won a Top Partner00:30:52 Small Dinners Beat Massive Conferences00:36:11 The Moment of True Product Market FitSend me a message to let me know what you think!
Gavin Newsom's “Stop Nick Shirley Act” backfires as Nick calls him out for protecting fraud, confronting California lawmakers over a bill critics say chills journalism, hides migrant spending, and violates the First Amendment.
Three stories on the table this week, and none of them small.Saks Global plans to exit Chapter 11 on June 22nd carrying $1.2 billion in debt, with a reorganization plan targeting $9 billion in GMV by fiscal 2030. That's nearly double where they sit today. Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky walk through the vendor mess (720 brands stopped shipping at the worst of it), the repair work underway, and why exiting bankruptcy this leveraged sets up another round of trouble down the road.The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.comOver at Victoria's Secret, Australian investor Brett Blundy's BBRC Worldwide has built a roughly 13% stake and is pushing to remove two directors: chair Donna James and Miriam Naficy. The complaint is acquisitions like Adore Me. CEO Hillary Super is running a "path to potential" plan built around body positivity and a return to the Angels heritage. Fiscal 2025 sales are up 5%. The question is whether that's enough to keep the activist quiet.Then earnings. Alphabet did $109B in Q1, with Google Cloud growing 63% YoY to a $20B run rate and a $462B backlog. Amazon hit $181B, AWS grew 28% to $37.5B, and the chip business crossed a $20B run rate of its own. Shopify cleared $100B in quarterly GMV for the first time, with operating income up 88% on the back of all the layoffs and restructuring.The thread underneath all of it: AI compute is getting more expensive, not less. The pricing power is sitting with the infrastructure layer. Amazon, Nvidia, and the LLM owners are collecting the rent. The businesses adopting AI are paying it.
California's 5% billionaire wealth tax has cleared the ballot threshold and could raise $100 billion if voters approve it in November. In this video, IMI covers the law applying retroactively to any residents worth over $1 billion on January 1, the billionaire exodus already in motion, the $80 million counter-offensive funded by Google's founders, and the three strategies wealthy Americans are running to prepare for a potential federal version.Read the full story here.
Brought to you by TogetherLetters & Edgewise!In this episode: AI FrontierAnthropic's New Mythos A.I. Model Sets Off Global AlarmsMozilla Used Anthropic's Mythos to Find and Fix 271 Bugs in FirefoxSam Altman compares Mythos to dropping a bomb while selling a $100B bomb shelterAnthropic could raise a new $50B round at a valuation of $900BOpenAI releases GPT-5.57-0 wipeout: ChatGPT-5.5 vs Claude 4.7 in 7 impossible testsChina orders Meta to unwind $2B Manus acquisitionHe Built a $1.8 Billion Company Alone with AITech Layoffs & Big MovesJohn Ternus named Apple CEO to replace Tim CookNearly 40,000 tech jobs lost in April 202620,000 job cuts at Meta, Microsoft raise AI labor crisis concernNetflix plans vertical video feed and AI recommendationsPrivacy, Security & Age ChecksUS Bill Mandates On-Device Age VerificationBrussels age-checking app hacked in 2 minutes$5 Bluetooth tracker in a postcard exposes Dutch warshipHardware, Science & EngineeringNIST creates 'any wavelength' lasers in tiny circuitsNASA shuts off instrument on Voyager 1Anker made its own AI chip (Thus)YouTuber builds working DRAM in backyardLinux begins dropping Intel 486 supportPancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting resultsBMW one step closer to a color-changing carAlberta startup sells "no-tech" tractors for half priceRobots Take the FieldChinese android beats human half-marathon recordJapan Airlines pilots humanoid robots at HanedaTable tennis robot defeats top human playersWeird & WackyChinese carmaker patents voice-controlled in-vehicle toiletAir New Zealand adds economy bunk beds (with rules)Hairdryer allegedly used to trick weather sensor for $34K Polymarket betDOJ arrests soldier who made $400K betting on Maduro's removalI bought Friendster for $30K — here's what I'm doing with itNZ DOC: remote tech begins a "new era" for conservationTech Rec:Sanjay - Citymapper Adam - Claude DesignFind us here:sanjayparekh.com & adamjwalker.comTech Talk Y'all is a proud production of Edgewise.Media.
Sysco just made a $29.1 billion move to acquire Restaurant Depot—and it could reshape how independent restaurants buy food forever. In this breaking-news style episode, the Restauranttopia crew unpacks what this deal really means for pricing, competition, and the future of distribution. From cash-and-carry economics to delivery margins, this isn't just industry gossip—it's a shift every operator should be paying attention to. If you rely on Sysco, shop at Restaurant Depot, or work with a local distributor… this one matters. The real reason Sysco wants Restaurant Depot (hint: it's not just volume) How Restaurant Depot achieves ~13% profitability with a low-cost model Why this deal could push Sysco toward $100B+ in total sales The difference between delivery vs. cash-and-carry economics What happens if one company controls both truck delivery AND in-store pricing The hidden labor and time costs of self-shopping for inventory Food safety risks operators take when transporting product themselves How this impacts:
In this episode, Jared visits with Phil McInnis, the chief investment strategist at the $100B+ asset manager Avantis Investors, to break down the science and art of building better investment portfolios. They explore the realities of passive vs. active investing, why fees and structure matter, and how to think about risk and uncertainty in today's markets. Jared and Phil unpack what it even means to be an "evidence-based investor", exploring the key levers that matter most when constructing portfolios designed to optimize long-term returns.For more information and show notes visit: https://bwmplanning.com/post/128Connect With Us:Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BrownleeWealthManagement/?ref=py_c Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/brownlee-wealth-management/ Disclosure: This information is for informational purposes only. Nothing discussed during this video should be interpreted as tax, legal, or investment advice. If you have questions pertaining to your specific situation, please consult the appropriate qualified professional.
$100B in capital is chasing $10B worth of Bitcoin. Michael Saylor calls it a supply shock for the ages. Paul Tudor Jones calls Bitcoin "unequivocally the best inflation hedge." We do the math... and the math is bullish.The US national debt has now exceeded GDP for the first time since World War II. Not our words. PTJ's words. And when one of the greatest macro traders alive says hard assets are the only play in a sovereign debt bubble, you listen! You don't want to miss this one!!SPONSORS✅ Lednhttps://www.nmj1gs2i.com/9W598/9B9DM/?source_id=podcastSimply Bitcoin clients get 0.25% off their first loanNeed liquidity without selling your Bitcoin? Ledn has been the trusted Bitcoin-backed lending platform for 6+ years. Access your BTC's value while HODLing.
Big Tech earnings landed — Alphabet soared on cloud growth while Meta dropped 10% after hiking capex to $145B. SoftBank plans an AI/robotics IPO called Roze, Anthropic weighs a $900B+ round, and Musk called himself a "fool" for backing OpenAI. Microsoft says Q3 Intelligent Cloud revenue was $34.68B, vs. $34.27B est., with Azure and other cloud services up 40% YoY; Microsoft 365 Copilot has 20M+ seats (CNBC) Meta raises full-year capex outlook to $125B–$145B, up from $115B–$135B; shares drop ~10%, biggest intraday decline since October (Bloomberg) Alphabet stands out on Big Tech earnings day as Google Cloud revenue jumps 63% and backlog nearly doubles to $462B; capex guidance raised to $180B–$190B (MarketWatch) Big Four combined Q1 capex hit a record $130B, on pace for $725B in 2026, up 77% from $410B last year (FT) Sources: SoftBank plans to create an AI and robotics company called Roze in the US to build data centers and list it as early as 2026, seeking a $100B valuation (FT) Sources: Anthropic has begun weighing a new funding round at a $900B+ valuation, after previously resisting investor proposals at an $800B+ valuation (Bloomberg) Sony confirms that some digital PS4 and PS5 games require a one-time online license check "to confirm the game's license" (GameSpot) OpenAI explains Codex's "goblin problem": reinforcement training rewarded quirky creature metaphors via a discontinued "Nerdy" personality, and the behavior spread (The Verge) Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk says he was a "fool" for backing OpenAI, accusing Altman and Brockman of manipulating him into donating tens of millions of dollars (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Limited BONUS: First 1,000 builders get $1,000. Claim yours while supplies lasts.: https://startup-ideas-pod.link/hyperagent I sit down with Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable, to talk about the agent economy and the launch of HyperAgent. We walk through Sequoia's charts on AI agent deployment, the economics of token-based work versus human labor, and why frontier agents have crossed a threshold that changes how companies get built. Howie then does a live show-and-tell of HyperAgent, including a custom "Greg Isenberg contrarian AI" skill he spins up in real time. This one is for anyone building a solopreneur business, operating a fleet of agents, or trying to figure out where to place their bet in the agent ecosystem Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:22 – Sequoia's AI agent deployment chart reaction 04:41 – Copilot vs Autopilot territory and the $1T+ opportunity 08:13 – Agent economics vs human labor costs 11:12 – Fastest enterprise adoption curve in history 14:48 – The agent command center and fleet of 20 agents 18:03 – What is HyperAgent? 19:43 – Live demo: hyperlocal real estate market reports 22:38 – HyperAgent as the founder, not just the developer 23:21 – Street View, Zillow redesigns, and visual tool power 24:15 – Command center view across a fleet of agents 25:48 – Skills as the key primitive for frontier agents 26:30 – Building the Greg Isenberg contrarian AI skill live 32:31 – HyperAgent vs Perplexity Computer, Manus, OpenClaw, Codex 34:52 – Reviewing writing skill 36:55 – The arbitrage of persistence 41:31 – Confidence milestones: first dollar, $10K/month 35:27 – Reviewing contrarian tweet drafts live 45:05 – Giving the agent feedback and building rubrics 50:15 – Connectors, OAuth, and building custom API skills 53:03 – How to get started with HyperAgent 01:01:54 – Credit giveaway for listeners 01:03:31 – Closing Thoughts Key Points Frontier agents have crossed a threshold in the last 4–5 months where they function as true autonomous coworkers, not just chat assistants. Reframe agent cost by value delivered: a $150 token spend for a board memo beats hours of human time, so anchor on opportunity cost. The real arbitrage is persistence: 99% of people quit after one shot, while daily practice for 30/60/90 days produces top 1% operators. Skills are the most important primitive in frontier agents, turning generally intelligent models into domain experts through playbooks. HyperAgent's differentiation is a low floor plus a high ceiling, with rubrics, LLM-as-judge evals, and fleet-wide observability for scaling. Aim for $100B companies with under 5 employees, built on fleets of always-on agents mapped to human job roles. The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/ The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/ FIND HOWIE ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://x.com/howietl Hyperagent: https://www.hyperagent.com Airtable: https://www.airtable.com-
Our 242nd episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!Recorded on 04/22/2026Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie HarrisFeel free to email us your questions and feedback at andreyvkurenkov@gmail.com and/or hello@gladstone.aiRead out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/In this episode:OpenAI released a new ChatGPT image model that excels at accurate text and screenshot-like generations, suggesting a transformer-style approach aligned with agentic “computer use” ambitions.Chinese model activity accelerated with Alibaba's Qwen 3.6 Max Preview moving to an API-only offering, plus open releases from Moonshot AI (Kimi K2.6, a 1T-parameter MoE) and Minimax (Minimax M 2.7) showing strong benchmark results.Google expanded Deep Research with a “Max” option built on Gemini 3.1 Pro and MCP support for accessing proprietary data, while Mozilla reported using Anthropic's Claude to find and fix 271 Firefox bugs. Business and policy updates include a reported SpaceX–Cursor deal with a $60B buy option, Cerebras filing for an IPO, Amazon adding $5B to Anthropic alongside a $100B AWS spending pledge, and platform responses to synthetic media like AI music spam and YouTube deepfake takedown requests.Timestamps:(00:00:10) Intro / Banter(00:01:05) News Preview(00:01:41) Sponsors(00:04:41) Response to listener commentsTools & Apps(00:09:40) ChatGPT's new Images 2.0 model is surprisingly good at generating text | TechCrunch(00:16:02) Alibaba Drops Qwen 3.6 Max Preview—Its Most Powerful Model Yet - Decrypt(00:19:26) Google launches Deep Research and Deep Research Max agents to automate complex research(00:25:00) Mozilla Used Anthropic's Mythos to Find and Fix 271 Bugs in Firefox | WIRED(00:28:35) Ordering with the Starbucks ChatGPT app was a true coffee nightmare | The VergeApplications & Business(00:29:48) SpaceX is working with Cursor and has an option to buy the startup for $60B | TechCrunch(00:34:11) AI chip startup Cerebras files for IPO | TechCrunch(00:38:23) Two startups want to replace how AI learns: one just raised $180M, another is seeking up to $1B(00:38:56) Months-old start-up Recursive Superintelligence raises $500mn for self-teaching AI(00:41:36) Anthropic takes $5B from Amazon and pledges $100B in cloud spending in return | TechCrunch(00:45:09) Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles exit OpenAI as company continues to shed 'side quests' | TechCrunch(00:46:04) Meta hires five Thinking Machines Lab founders including a reported $1.5 billion engineer - Meta cuts 198 Bay Area jobs as even larger layoffs reportedly loom(00:50:12) Meta employees are up in arms over a mandatory program to train AI on their mouse movements and keystrokes(00:51:43) Chinese fabs import record volumes of US chipmaking equipment via Singapore and Malaysia — homegrown tool makers booked record 2025 revenues as price competition squeezes margins(00:54:01) Google Eyes New Chips to Speed Up AI Results, Challenging Nvidia(00:54:20) Canadian quantum company Xanadu soars to $16 billion valuation after Nvidia releaseProjects & Open Source(01:00:13) Moonshot AI releases Kimi-K2.6 model with 1T parameters, attention optimizations - SiliconANGLE(01:05:22) MiniMax Just Open Sourced MiniMax M2.7: A Self-Evolving Agent Model that Scores 56.22% on SWE-Pro and 57.0% on Terminal Bench 2 - MarkTechPostPolicy & Safety(01:06:25) Infusion: Shaping Model Behavior by Editing Training Data via Influence Functions(01:10:25) Scoop: NSA using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist(01:11:03) Unauthorized group has gained access to Anthropic's exclusive cyber tool Mythos, report claimsResearch & Advancements(01:17:21) Parcae: Scaling Laws For Stable Looped Language Models(01:24:20) OccuBench: Evaluating AI Agents on Real-World Professional Tasks via Language Environment SimulationSynthetic Media & Art(01:27:01) Deezer says 44% of songs uploaded to its platform daily are AI-generated | TechCrunch(01:29:47) Celebrities will be able to find and request removal of AI deepfakes on YouTube | The VergeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on the Watson Weekly, Rick Watson breaks down the biggest stories shaping commerce, technology, and AI infrastructure.Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple CEO after 14 transformative years that took the company from a $300B market cap to $4 trillion. John Turnis takes the helm September 1st.The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.comAnthropic just inked a $100 billion, 10-year infrastructure deal with AWS for 5 gigawatts of compute, while Amazon pours another $5B (potentially $20B more) into the AI lab. Brad Jacobs strikes again: QXO is acquiring Top Build for ~$17B, his third deal in under a year.Plus, a tribute to industry leader Jon Panella.The Investor Minute with 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman break down a massive week in enterprise tech, from Google Cloud Next's full-stack AI push and Amazon's $100 billion Anthropic commitment, to Apple's leadership transition and Intel's long-awaited foundry validation courtesy of Elon Musk. The handpicked topics for this week are: Google Cloud Next 2026: Full-Stack AI and New TPUs — Google Cloud Next has cemented itself as the second-biggest AI event on the calendar, with Thomas Kurian declaring the proof-of-concept era over and enterprises now in full production mode with agents. Google unveiled two next-generation TPUs (the 8i for training and the 8t for high-throughput inference) and reinforced its full-stack differentiation from infrastructure through Gemini Enterprise Workspace. (The Decode) Google's Agentic Security and MCP Push — Google made a significant move into agentic security, combining Wiz and Mandiant into what Pat calls a sleeper announcement of the show. Google also committed to placing MCP servers across all of its data surfaces, meaning even non-Google platforms can tap into Google data without full lock-in. (The Decode) Google Distributed Cloud and On-Prem Agentic Orchestration — Google took the biggest first step Patrick has seen toward a true agentic orchestrator that spans on-prem enterprise and public cloud through progress on Google Distributed Cloud. No other company has yet attempted cross-environment agent coordination at this level. (The Decode) Amazon's $100 Billion Anthropic Commitment — Amazon formalized a commitment of up to $100 billion into Anthropic, including five gigawatts of Trainium capacity, making it the largest non-NVIDIA silicon commitment in history. Anthropic's valuation crossed $1 trillion just weeks after a $350 billion raise, a pace that has left even veteran analysts searching for new language. (The Decode) Adobe Summit 2026: Enterprise Agents and Jensen's Endorsement — Jensen Huang took the stage at Adobe Summit to deepen the NVIDIA-Adobe partnership, calling agentic workflows the new front end for SaaS rather than a replacement for it. Adobe reported $250 million in Firefly ARR and 45% quarter-over-quarter growth in agentic tool usage, yet the stock continued to disappoint investors expecting hypergrowth multiples. (The Decode) Apple's New CEO: John Ternus and Tim Cook's Legacy — Apple named John Ternus as its fourth CEO, closing the book on Tim Cook's 15-year tenure marked by custom silicon success, services expansion, and operational excellence, alongside misses in Vision Pro, the abandoned car project, and Siri's failure to become the AI front end it should have been. Ternus is a continuity hardware candidate, and the most consequential decision may prove to be keeping Johny Srouji over all of hardware. (The Decode) Intel Foundry: Elon Musk, TerraFab, and 14A Validation — One day before Intel's earnings print, Elon Musk publicly confirmed TeraFab will use Intel's 14A process, delivering the first verifiable public wafer commitment on that node. Intel then reported a 23% stock surge, 22% data center growth, and EPS of $0.29 against a $0.01 street consensus. (The Decode) The Flip: TSMC vs. Semiconductor Equipment Makers — Pat and Dan take hard opposing stances on who holds more power in the AI supply chain: TSMC with its control of over 90% of advanced AI silicon and irreplaceable process expertise, or the equipment oligopoly of ASML, Applied Materials, LAM, and KLA without whom no leading-edge fab can operate. The real answer, they conclude, is deep interdependence, though TSMC's combination of talent and leading-edge control gives it outsized leverage today. (The Flip) Intel — Intel's earnings were a blowout across the board, with data center up 22%, EPS of $0.29 versus a $0.01 estimate, and guide raised, driven by CPU price increases, customer pull-ins, and packaging volume growth. Hosts discuss whether the stock at current levels is pricing in foundry revenue that has barely begun to materialize on the tape. (Bulls and Bears) GE Vernova and Vertiv — GE Vernova posted a beat on revenue and EPS with orders up 71% organically and a $163 billion backlog, while Vertiv reported sales up 30% and raised forward guidance to $14 billion. Both companies reflect the acute power infrastructure demand tied to data center buildout, with Patrick noting their growth was likely already baked into share prices heading into the print. (Bulls and Bears) ServiceNow — ServiceNow beat across the board with a Rule of 57 growth result and AI run rate up to $1.5 billion, 50% above its prior target, though margin headwinds from three acquisitions and on-prem impacts from the Middle East conflict weighed on sentiment. Daniel argues the market has not yet accepted that workflow automation at enterprise scale will not be replaced by vibe-coded alternatives. (Bulls and Bears) IBM — IBM posted a triple beat with Red Hat up 13%, software up 11%, and Z mainframe up 48%, the latter driven in part by AI-assisted COBOL modernization tools making the platform newly relevant. The stock slid after hours despite the results, continuing a pattern Patrick describes simply as silly season for enterprise infrastructure names. (Bulls and Bears) SAP — SAP beat on revenue and earnings with cloud revenue up 19%, cloud backlog up 20%, and total backlog up 25%, reinforcing that enterprise ERP customers are not moving away from core platforms. Daniel and Patrick agree this is another data point showing enterprises are building AI on top of existing software stacks, not tearing them out. (Bulls and Bears) The Decode Google Cloud Next 2026 — TPU 8 Dual-Architecture and the Agentic Enterprise Stack https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/google-cloud-next/welcome-to-google-cloud-next26 https://oplexa.com/google-cloud-next-2026/ https://www.itpro.com/cloud/cloud-computing/google-cloud-next-2026-googles-unique-advantages https://thenextweb.com/news/google-inference-chips-nvidia-challenge-supply-chain Amazon Commits Up to $25B More in Anthropic; $100B+ AWS Commitment in Return https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/amazon-invest-up-to-25-billion-in-anthropic-part-of-ai-infrastructure.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/technology/amazon-anthropic-investment.html https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-doubles-down-on-anthropic-with-25b-investment-mirroring-its-openai-cloud-deal/ https://futurumgroup.com/insights/anthropics-gigawatt-scale-tpu-deal-with-broadcom-creates-a-structural-advantage/ Adobe Summit 2026 — CX Enterprise, Creative Agent, and Jensen Huang Onstage https://www.cxtoday.com/ai-automation-in-cx/adobe-summit-2026-cx-announcements/ https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-told-the-saas-world-agentic-is-here-adobe-was-listening/ https://www.techradar.com/pro/live/adobe-summit-2026 https://futurumgroup.com/insights/will-adobes-brand-visibility-solution-rewrite-the-rules-of-ai-driven-customer-experience/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/patmoorhead_adobesummit-googlecloudnext-ai-activity-7451754772128514048-0BwK Apple CEO Transition — Tim Cook to Executive Chairman, John Ternus to CEO https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/tim-cook-to-become-apple-executive-chairman-john-ternus-to-become-apple-ceo/ https://www.facebook.com/HBR/posts/on-monday-april-20-2026-apple-announced-that-tim-cook-will-step-down-as-ceo-in-s/1324436846218173/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/introducing-apple-business-a-new-all-in-one-platform-for-businesses-of-all-sizes/ Intel Foundry Lands Tesla for Terafab on 14A — First External 14A Customer, and a Direct Shot at the TSMC Bottleneck https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-ceo-musk-says-company-plans-use-intels-14a-process-terafab-2026-04-22/ https://www.trendforce.com/news/2026/04/23/news-intel-tapped-as-tesla-wins-first-14a-customer-spot-in-terafab-push/ https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/26/04/51992031/musk-bets-on-intels-14a-process-tesla-stock-falls-on-capex-plans https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/intel-earnings-q1-2026.html The Flip Who has more power in the AI chip supply chain — TSMC (the fabricator) or the equipment companies (ASML, Applied Materials, Lam, KLA)? FOR: TSMC is the single choke point for every leading-edge AI chip in production https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/16/taiwan-semi-tsm-asml-stock-earnings-ai-chips.html TSMC's pricing power shows up directly in its gross margins — and customer behavior https://leverageshares.com/en-eu/insights/why-asml-and-tsmcs-q1-2026-results-didnt-stir-markets/ TSMC is now a systems integrator — CoWoS packaging is the real moat, not just lithography https://sterlites.com/blog/ai-supply-chain-2026-tsmc-asml-asic AGAINST: ASML is the single point of failure for every advanced node on the planet https://sterlites.com/blog/ai-supply-chain-2026-tsmc-asml-asic Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA control the etch, deposition, and metrology steps every fab needs https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/dear-lam-research-investors-mark-154010553.html The equipment oligopoly has better margin structure and less concentration risk than TSMC https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/16/taiwan-semi-tsm-asml-stock-earnings-ai-chips.html Bulls & Bears Intel Q1 2026 — Huge Beat and Q2 Guide Raise; Data Center +22%, Stock +16% After Hours https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/intel-earnings-q1-2026.html https://seekingalpha.com/news/4578382-intel-q1-2026-beat-guidance-raise-stock-surges https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/intel-reports-net-loss-q1-2026 Veritiv & GE Vernova Q1 2026 — AI Power Trade Reports a Massive Beat https://www.investing.com/equities/ge-vernova-llc-earnings https://www.techi.com/ge-vernova-vertiv-ai-data-center/ ServiceNow Q1 2026 — Strong Beat and Raise, But Middle East Deal Delays Crater the Stock https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/ServiceNow-Reports-First-Quarter-2026-Financial-Results/default.aspx https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/22/servicenow-now-earnings-q1-2026.html https://www.businessinsider.com/servicenow-ceo-dismisses-ai-threats-parlor-tricks-2026-4 IBM Q1 2026 — Beat on Top and Bottom; Mainframe Surge, Guidance Unchanged Sends Stock Lower https://www.streetinsider.com/PRNewswire/IBM+RELEASES+FIRST-QUARTER+RESULTS/26351381.html https://www.briefs.co/news/ibm-q1-2026-earnings-guidance/ https://seekingalpha.com/news/4578381-ibm-signals-5-percent-2026-revenue-growth-and-about-1b-higher-free-cash-flow-while-keeping https://www.barrons.com/articles/software-stock-selloff-ibm-earnings-servicenow-salesforce-665a8f73 SAP Q1 2026 — Beat on Cloud; Backlog €21.9B (+25% cc), Operating Profit +17% https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sap-quarterly-statement-q1-2026-302752280.html https://www.gurufocus.com/news/8813611/sap-se-sap-reports-strong-q1-earnings-with-revenue-growth https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/sap-reports-17-rise-first-quarter-profit/ Want the full breakdown from the ground at Google Cloud Next? Check out our live coverage: https://www.sixfivemedia.com/our-events/google-cloud-next-2026 Be part of our community — hit that subscribe button and let us know if you'd like us to go back to Friday drops.
On this weekend edition of The Watson Weekly, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down the biggest stories shaping tech, retail, and AI.Amazon is doubling down on its Anthropic bet — with a new deal that has Anthropic committing $100B to AWS over the next decade, while Amazon pumps in an additional $5B(with up to $20B more on the table) and locks in guaranteed compute capacity. With over 100K customers already using Claude on Bedrock and Amazon holding a reported 15% stake, this partnership is reshaping the cloud AI landscape.Home Depot quietly acquired SIMPL Automation, a scrappy robotics startup that had raised just $100K before piloting its warehouse density technology at Home Depot's Locust Grove DC. Rick and Jessica unpack what this signals about the arms race between Home Depot and Lowe's to modernize supply chain and distribution.The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.comPlus, the end of an era at Apple: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO after 15 years to become executive chairman, handing the reins to 25-year Apple veteran John Ternus. Cook leaves behind a company transformed — from a $350B market cap to $4T, and a services business that now tops $100B. What does a hardware-focused CEO mean for Apple's AI strategy and search partnerships?
Welcome back Matt Liberty (Joulescope) and Luke Beno (Werewolf.us) Matt has been a guest on episodes 527 and 607 Luke was a guest on episode 272 Luke launched a new cable manufacturing and power supply company in the US called Werewolf.us Matt is working on the JS320 We discussed how PartsBox is a great ERP solution but Matt and Luke decided to go fully custom with Claude Code. Jan Rychter was a guest on episode 542 We discussed the differences with Product Lifecycle Maintenance. Michael Corr of the recently acquired Duro Labs was on episode 577 CAM workflow A fully verticalized PCB factory is something Jonathan Hirschmann talked about on episode 299 Jeff Bezos is investing 100B in a fund that is looking at automation in the factory using AI Matt recently had success with Claude Code and verilog programming Saleae for hardware in the loop using their APIs Other tools to check out pyelf pdfdk blast superpowers skill (by past guest at Teardown Jesse Vincent) Luke used OpenClaw to power a chat agent in his ERP system Working with distributors TI backlog Chris recently learned that Digikey has a developer API Cocotb verification framework (in Python) Luke is working on vision experiments for inhouse developed AOI solutions
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Apple named John Ternus as its next CEO, with Tim Cook stepping up to executive chairman on September 1. Amazon agrees to invest up to $25B more in Anthropic, Bezos' Project Prometheus nears a $10B raise, and SpaceX's IPO prospectus reveals Musk's power moves. John Ternus, senior VP of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple's next CEO on September 1; Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple's board (CNBC) Amazon agrees to invest up to $25B in Anthropic, on top of the $8B that it has already invested; Anthropic commits to spend $100B+ on AWS over the next 10 years (CNBC) Sources: Jeff Bezos' Project Prometheus is close to a $10B fundraising deal, which includes an initial $6.2B raise in November, at a $38B post-money valuation (FT) Draft of SpaceX's confidential IPO prospectus: Elon Musk increased his stake in SpaceX last year by purchasing $1.4B of stock from current and former employees (The Information) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Menachos 100a-100b (Daf Yomi) by Rabbi Avi Zakutinsky
Mike Lane, CEO of Fluency, explains how automation and AI are transforming digital ad execution at scale. Learn how brands and agencies save time, reduce errors, and scale campaigns across channels. Takeaways Fluency positions itself as a digital advertising operating system, automating the full execution layer of campaigns. The platform eliminates manual ad ops work, saving up to 92% of time and clicks through automation. It enables massive-scale execution, such as launching hundreds of TikTok accounts instantly instead of taking years to do manually. Brands and agencies use Fluency to do more with constrained budgets and limited headcount. AI (via Muse) enhances workflows with automated reporting, insights, and even video summaries for clients. The platform supports rule-based automation, allowing campaigns to react dynamically to data like weather, inventory, or occupancy. Cross-channel execution is unified, helping teams manage budgets and performance across platforms in one system. Media companies use Fluency to scale advertising services for small businesses efficiently through automation and AI-generated creative. AI is lowering creative costs dramatically, making high-quality ads accessible even to small advertisers. The biggest market challenge today is AI confusion and decision paralysis among businesses. Chapters 00:10 Intro & Guest Welcome 00:22 What is Fluency? 00:54 Digital Advertising Operating System Explained 01:46 Who Uses Fluency? (Brands vs Agencies) 04:08 Real Example: Launching TikTok at Scale 05:34 Smart Automation & Data-Driven Campaign Logic 05:49 AI vs Automation in Ad Ops 07:08 Introducing Muse AI 08:18 Automated Reporting & AI-Generated Video Summaries 09:14 Cross-Channel Advertising Challenges 10:29 Sell-Side & Media Company Use Cases 12:07 AI's Impact on Creative Production Costs 13:29 Vision: Scaling to $100B in Ad Spend 15:30 Biggest Market Challenge: AI Overload 15:56 Competitive Advantage & Ecosystem Role 16:46 Lightning Round & Fun Close Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What if every fight over music technology throughout history has actually been the same fight, and we're just now facing a version of it we've never seen before? In this special episode, Dmitri shares a keynote he gave at the Algo Rhythms conference last month called "Is Music Making Up For Grabs?" Drawing on four hundred years of disruption in music, from the harpsichord to amplification, Dmitri traces the pattern of how every generation has fought over new tools and every generation has been wrong about what those tools would destroy. But this episode isn't just a history lesson. It's a live argument, complete with the Kalyuka, the WARBL, and few sounds you won't expect. Along the way, the stories of T-Pain and Blanco Brown show exactly where the pattern holds and where it finally breaks. Because the question Dmitri lands on is one no generation before us has had to answer. Not what counts as an instrument, but whether the creator is still human. The news Selling a $3B Spotify stake, Michael Ovitz as Chairman of the Board, and a $100B+ company: Welcome to Bill Ackman's plan for Universal Music Group. After Universal, Warner, and Merlin deals, now Udio inks licensing agreement with Kobalt https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/after-universal-warner-and-merlin-deals-now-udio-inks-licensing-agreement-with-kobalt/ The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think! Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.
https://rhr.tv/stream Iran Proposes Bitcoin Oil Toll https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/iran-wants-bitcoin-payments-oil-142809623.html + https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs2k4fh032uxuhnmh5r7s6ra3cx4tczkhhc9tt4yuqu3xfl2juxx7skudrk5 France Repatriates Gold Reserves https://x.com/clashreport/status/2041076906280309046 Bitcoin ETF Fastest to $100B https://x.com/mtanguma/status/2041865673110962555 Square Phases Bitcoin Payments https://x.com/milessuter/status/2040154587232182565 Salvadoran Bitcoin Students Join Mempool https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsqcfhdguz5x4hy6zhhur3f72nvjypw4an9ln7lcs0rek6cl5arxgc4rdqj5 Strike updates https://x.com/Strike/status/2041273272587686035 OpenSats 16th Nostr Grants https://opensats.org/blog/sixteenth-wave-of-nostr-grants Russia | Banks to Use State Messenger for Transaction Verification Russia's Ministry of Digital Development is drafting legislation that would require banks to confirm customer financial operations through Max, a Kremlin-controlled messaging app. In practice, instead of confirming transactions within their banking app (or via SMS), users would receive a message in the Max app and must approve the action there to complete it. The proposal applies to undefined “significant” actions, granting officials broad discretion over which financial activities require approval. This would insert state-run app verification into everyday banking. And if Max goes down, significant financial activity may stop entirely. FinancialFreedomReport.org Sprout Nostr AI Relay https://github.com/block/sprout Mesh LLM Distributed Inference https://github.com/michaelneale/mesh-llm Nunchuk CLI for AI Agents https://x.com/nunchuk_io/status/2041878908547821872 Iran Blackout Day 41 https://x.com/netblocks/status/2042140068509290961 Bitchat iOS banned in China, Bitchat android hits 3.2M installs https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs8k3n72knrtm3nvz5vqp4cm9dctxtuc627zz8kttxvqssnl7z60mqfj4rr7 + https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqspne9a0e40ulra9uhvht6mdgad40m63w3xr6h6tuh77rsthue0nlgg66x3y Google AI Finance Global Launch https://x.com/thefox/status/2041910855479259400 03:33 - Big week 06:13 - Dashboard 08:43 - Hormuz 28:53 - France wants their gold 33:33 - BTC ETF growth 36:18 - Square update 39:23 - Hot Style Takeover 40:43 - Salvadorans join Mempool 43:48 - Strike loan update 45:28 - OpenSats 50:48 - HRF Story of the Week 53:33 - Boosts 57:28 - Software updates 1:26:23 - Carlyle redemptions 1:32:33 - S&P Shoutout to our sponsors: Coinkite https://coinkite.com/ Strike https://strike.me/ Stakwork https://stakwork.ai/ Salt of the Earth https://drinksote.com/rhr Follow Marty Bent: Twitter https://twitter.com/martybent Nostr https://primal.net/marty Newsletter https://tftc.io/martys-bent/ Podcast https://tftc.io/podcasts/ Follow Odell: Nostr https://primal.net/odell Newsletter https://discreetlog.com/ Podcast https://citadeldispatch.com/
Outline of the Sugya
Outline of the Sugya
In Episode 181 of Facts vs Feelings, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, and Sonu Varghese, Chief Macro Strategist at Carson Group, dig into one of the most consequential geopolitical developments in recent memory, the ongoing Strait of Hormuz crisis, and what it means for oil markets, global supply chains, and your portfolio.They break down what it would mean if the U.S. exits the conflict without reopening the strait, why Iran could emerge as a de facto regional hegemon, and how a potential toll system on tanker traffic could reshape global energy economics. They also explore why crude oil remains stubbornly elevated despite ceasefire signals, the growing "air pocket" in global oil supply as floating storage drains, and the long term instability risks including nuclear proliferation that could keep an ongoing risk premium baked into energy prices.On the markets side, Ryan and Sonu make the case that this pullback is unlike any bear market on record, with the S&P 500 taking an unusually long time to reach even a 5% decline from its peak. They walk through why the year to date drawdown is almost entirely explained by multiple contraction and not deteriorating earnings, and how forward EPS and profit margins continue to hit new highs even as headlines stay grim. The duo also examine the dramatic drawdowns in mega cap tech names, why the market may be pricing in a recession that isn't materializing, and why diversification across sectors, styles, and geographies is paying off in ways many investors haven't seen in years.The episode wraps with a Disney and Universal trip report, Sonu's allergy update, Ryan's eye health journey, and a big congratulations to his daughter Susanna on her college commitment to Penn State.Key Takeaways:Trump withdrawing without reopening the strait could establish Iran as the dominant regional powerA tanker toll system could generate $100B+ annually for Iran, reshaping Middle East geopoliticsThe S&P 500 decline is 100% multiple contraction; earnings and margins remain strong tailwindsForward 12 month EPS is up 7% in Q1 alone, with half of that gain coming during the crisisNo bear market since WWII has started with such a slow initial 5% decline, a historically unusual patternMega cap tech stocks are down 22 to 35% from highs, pricing in a recession that hasn't arrivedDiversification across value, international, commodities, and small caps is quietly workingJump to:0:00 – Welcome and the Great Kit Kat Heist 2:10 – Trump's Potential Pullback and Hormuz Control 5:50 – Iran's Toll Scenario and Global Leverage 9:10 – Why Oil Stays Elevated Despite Peace Signals 11:55 – Energy as a Strategic Hedge Trade 16:10 – Hedging Activity and Encouraging Market Breadth 18:45 – Tanker Traffic Slowdown and Supply Time Lags 22:05 – Floating Storage Drawdown Explained 35:23 – Mega Cap Tech Drawdowns and Recession Pricing 41:10 – Slow Burn Selloff and What the VIX Is Telling Us 48:05 – Diversification Lessons From Lost Decades 56:50 – Final Thoughts and Listener RequestsConnect with Ryan:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandetrick/• X: https://x.com/RyanDetrickConnect with Sonu:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonu-varghese-phd/• X: https://x.com/sonusvarghese?lang=enQuestions about the show? We'd love to hear from you! factsvsfeelings@carsongroup.com
JCD BACK IN THE HOUSE! Correction in some areas and sectors. Crude oil DROPS after “good” talks and a deal brewing with Iran. Airports are a mess. PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm-Up - JCD BACK IN THE HOUSE - Need a new CTP - Airports are a mess - Not Kosher - Futures moves Markets - From the Brink....All is good? - Correction in some areas and sectors - US Dollar Rises, Gold, Silver and Bitcoin Drop - Crude oil DROPS after "good" talks and a deal brewing with Iran - reversing all of the above JCD UPDATE - AH waiting by the microphone on a Tuesday in March - - no John... 9pm, 9:05, 9:15pm... - Health update etc...Can we get the story? - Thoughts on John S. Dvorak (Mimi on No Agenda) - Family backup! Market Update - Small-Caps taking the brunt of the selling - Russell 2000 small-caps are down 10% from their high - an official correction -- Interestingly the R2000 is still up this year by about 2% - Stocks up on Monday after President Trump says intense negotiations over weekend and postpones targeted attacks for 5 days (after giving a 48 hour ultimatum) Manipulation? Say it ain't so... - Dateline Monday morning... - Futures took a leg down pre-market - even after Friday (after close) President Trump said he was looking to wind down the Iran affair - At around 6:50 a.m. in New York, S&P 500 e-Mini futures trading on the CME recorded a sharp and isolated jump in volume. - A similar pattern was observed in oil markets. - Roughly 15 minutes later, at 7:05 a.m., Trump posted a market-moving announcement about Iran on Truth Social. - Futures on DJ up 1,000 and oil down 89% --- Were there really conversations and negotiations over the weekend? A Few Leftovers that need to be discussed Private Credit Again - All of a sudden they are admitting there is a problem..... - Blackstone Inc. approved redemptions of a record 7.9% from its flagship private credit fund, totaling about $3.8 billion. - Redemption requests have increased across multiple private credit funds in recent quarters. - Investor unease is being driven by concerns over the private credit asset class, particularly exposure to software companies vulnerable to AI disruption. - According to Hugh Chung, CIO of Endowus, Blackstone's experience suggests these concerns are asset-class wide, not limited to a small group of managers. - Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan warned that a shakeout is coming for private credit firms, driven by rising defaults on loans to software companies. - Rowan emphasized that the shakeout is unlikely to be short-term, calling it foreseeable and predictable, and underscoring the importance of disciplined underwriting and strong risk management. - He argued that investors should prefer having credit risk reside within private markets firms, rather than on bank balance sheets backed by government-insured deposits, which can amplify systemic risk. - LATEST: Apollo is curbing redemptions from one of their biggest Private Credit funds. Michael Gayed: Private credit default rate just hit 9.2%. That's higher than 2008 bank loan peaks. $1.8 trillion in assets, $100B in secondary liquidity. 18:1 mismatch PRIVATE CREDIT More OpenAI Funding - Amazon invested $50 billion, Nvidia invested $30 billion and SoftBank invested $30 billion in the round, OpenAI said in a release Friday. - The investment boosts OpenAI to a $730 billion pre-money valuation, which marks a big jump from its $500 billion valuation in a secondary financing in October. - The will use some of the money to expland and buy more chips and cloud from NVDA and AMZN (? Circular?) MORE ON THE CIRCULAR SHAM - OpenAI said it is expanding its existing $38 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services by $100 billion over the next eight years. - AWS will also serve as the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI's enterprise platform Frontier, which it unveiled earlier this month. AI and Where we stand - Can we talk about Anthropic? Is the Government going to crush Claude? - What is our Go-to AI bots? - What stage are we at right now? LLMs > Infernce>Agentic - - What comes after Agentic Netflix OUT - Last week, Netflix exited the bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery after a competing bidder submitted a superior offer. - The decision followed pre-planned bidding scenarios, with co CEO Ted Sarandos saying the company knew exactly how to respond once the higher offer emerged. - Sarandos said the Paramount deal is likely to drive significant cost-cutting, including roughly $16 billion in reductions and thousands of job losses. - He emphasized that Netflix will continue investing in its business and explore new ways to collaborate with theater owners, rather than pursuing large acquisitions.| - Stock rose nicely on the news Tariff Refund Update - You are screwed.... -- Trump administration seems hell-bent on keeping our money Airlines - After a rather bullish commentary from Delta last week.... - United Airlines is cutting more unprofitable flights over the next two quarters as it prepares for a prolonged period of high jet fuel prices due to the Iran war, even as strong travel demand has allowed U.S. carriers to raise fares. Chief Executive Scott Kirby said in a staff memo the airline is preparing for oil to rise as high as $175 a barrel and remain above $100 until the end of 2027. - At those levels, United's annual fuel bill would rise by about $11 billion, more than twice the profit it earned in its "best year ever," he said. - Ticket prices going up! Gas Prices - Have you seen diesel prices? - > $5 gallon on average across the U.S. -- Implications beyond --- Let's discuss the similarities to the 1973 oil embargo. (Barry switching license plates) - 1973–1974 ? Arab oil embargo (the classic “1970s oil embargo”) - 1979 ? Second oil shock caused by the Iranian Revolution (not an embargo, but another major supply shock) Even So - Fedex - FedEx Corp. raised its full-year profit forecast, with adjusted earnings expected to be $19.30 to $20.10 a share for the fiscal year. - The company's shares climbed after the announcement, with the stock advancing about 23% this year through Thursday's close. - FedEx does not expect the war in the Middle East to have a direct material effect on its business, but the broader consequences, including higher energy prices and volatile shipping patterns, are adversely affecting the global economy. - In fact, company raised its full year outlook..... --- Not a material effect??? Bad People - SuperMicro Co-Founder Charged! - Super Micro shares sank 28% last Friday after U.S. prosecutors charged three people linked with the company, including its co-founder, with helping smuggle billions of dollars worth of AI technology to China. (NVDA chips) - The U.S. Justice Department charged Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan Liaw, sales manager Ruei-Tsang Chang, and contractor Ting-Wei Sun with running a scheme to route U.S.-made servers through Taiwan to Southeast Asia. - The defendants allegedly used a Southeast Asian company as a middleman to place orders for high-end servers containing restricted Nvidia H200 and Blackwell chips. The equipment was then repackaged into unmarked boxes and diverted to China. - To evade U.S. audits and customs inspections, the individuals allegedly created thousands of "dummy" servers and used a hair dryer to remove and reattach serial number labels from genuine servers to the fake ones. --- Soooo, only 3 people did all of this? Amazon Phone - Amazon's new phone project codenamed 'Transformer' - Focus on AI integration, Alexa features, and mobile personalization - Here is what we know: -------It is a smartphone, not a wearable or accessory - It is AI-centric, with Alexa deeply integrated - It is meant to act as a personalized, always-on gateway into Amazon's ecosystem (shopping, Prime Video, Prime Music, services like Grubhub) - It is being built inside Amazon's Devices & Services group by a skunkworks team called ZeroOne, led by former Xbox architect J Allard OpenClaw - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says OpenClaw could be the next ChatGPT as AI shifts from answering questions to taking action. - Jensen said : Nvidia is building security around the technology with NemoClaw to enable safe and scalable adoption of AI agents. - Project OpenClaw: “It is now the largest, most popular, the most successful open-sourced project in the history of humanity,” - OpenClaw is an open-source autonomous AI agent platform that goes beyond traditional chatbots. -----Instead of answering questions, these agents can complete tasks, make decisions, and take actions with minimal input from users. - Use case: Prompt to study images of a kitchen, learn design tools, iterate ideas to learn how to design a kitchen ------- Jensen says: “Every carpenter can now be an architect. Every plumber will become an architect. We are going to elevate the capabilities of everyone” ---- What happens to the architects? Something.... - One of the hardest hit countries in all of this mess has been South Korea - ~70% of South Korea's crude oil imports come from the Middle East - Most of that oil transits the Strait of Hormuz - Margin calls kicked in as high margin debt with heavy retail participation - Won weakened sharply (17-year low) - Korea economy is dependent on global demand and stable energy prices - South Korea often leads sell-offs as it is the purest RISK ON market in Asia ---- SOOOOO, if this thing ends quickly, there is a potential of EWY to move up again.... Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? THE CLOSEST TO THE PIN for CATERPILLAR Winners will be getting great stuff like the new "OFFICIAL" DHUnplugged Shirt! FED AND CRYPTO LIMERICKS See this week's stock picks HERE Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter
Michael Mazzara, CEO of Rogue Expeditions, breaks down one of the most overlooked trends in travel: running tourism. What started as a personal challenge turned into a global opportunity—multi-day running experiences that combine movement, culture, and community across destinations like Japan, Slovenia, and the Dolomites. In this episode, we get into why traditional race travel often falls short, who these trips are actually designed for (hint: not elite runners), and how shared physical experiences create deeper, more meaningful connections than typical group travel. If you've ever laced up your shoes in a new city or wondered what travel could look like beyond sightseeing, this one's for you.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/globetrotters-podcast--5023679/support.
In this episode, Lisa Boothe sits down with investigative journalist Chris Rufo to uncover shocking examples of government waste, fraud, and political corruption—particularly in California. Rufo breaks down his latest reporting on a $114 million taxpayer-funded wildlife bridge, massive Medicaid fraud, and how billions in public funds are funneled into ideological projects and politically connected groups. The conversation also dives into San Francisco’s controversial diversion of police funding into DEI initiatives, raising serious questions about public safety and accountability. Plus, what does this mean for Governor Gavin Newsom’s national ambitions—and will voters care about the staggering scale of waste?
The AI Breakdown: Daily Artificial Intelligence News and Discussions
Google, Lovable, Replit, and OpenAI all announced what look like the same product in the last two weeks. Critics say it's desperation and strategic dilution — but what if coding capability naturally unlocks everything else in knowledge work, and convergence is the inevitable result? In the headlines: Jensen Huang urges AI leaders to stop scaring people, Bezos eyes a $100B manufacturing AI fund, and Apple's App Store clashes with vibe coding platforms.For all the links referenced in the show, sign up for the newsletter: https://aidailybrief.beehiiv.com/Brought to you by:KPMG – Agentic AI is powering a potential $3 trillion productivity shift, and KPMG's new paper, Agentic AI Untangled, gives leaders a clear framework to decide whether to build, buy, or borrow—download it at www.kpmg.us/NavigateMercury - Modern banking for business and now personal accounts. Learn more at https://mercury.com/personal-bankingAIUC-1 - Get your agents certified to communicate trust to enterprise buyers - https://www.aiuc-1.com/Blitzy - Want to accelerate enterprise software development velocity by 5x? https://blitzy.com/AssemblyAI - The best way to build Voice AI apps - https://www.assemblyai.com/briefRobots & Pencils - Cloud-native AI solutions that power results https://robotsandpencils.com/The Agent Readiness Audit from Superintelligent - Go to https://besuper.ai/ to request your company's agent readiness score.The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614Our Newsletter is BACK: https://aidailybrief.beehiiv.com/Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@aidailybrief.ai
Did Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein discuss pandemic planning for profit?! In this episode, Jillian breaks down newly surfaced Epstein emails and financial records that point to an early alliance between the tech mogul and the disgraced financier. We investigate "Project Molecule," the investment architecture that evolved into the Global Health Investment Fund, and reveal how elite partnerships tied to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and JP Morgan financialized public health. In this deep dive, we cover: The Gates-Epstein Connection: How a $100B pandemic investment framework was engineered behind closed doors. Event 201: The pandemic simulation that rehearsed a coronavirus outbreak just weeks before the real thing. The Censorship Industrial Complex: How NGOs and think tanks tied to gates laundered government pressure to suppress early treatments and dissent. The Wealth Transfer: How pandemic policy was used to shift global wealth rather than protect public health. Debunking Myths: Jillian investigates the viral Adrenochrome theory. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:23 The Blueprint: Gates, Epstein & Pandemic Planning 01:26 Project Molecule: The JP Morgan Partnership 02:33 Anonymity for investors 05:00 Global Health Investment Fund 06:07 CEPI & Disease X 06:50 Gates Censorship 07:50 GAVI & Controlling the Global Vaccine Market 08:56 The Atlantic Council & DFRLab 09:30 Twitter Files & Covid 10:55 Emergency Use Loophole 12:16 "Population Control" Emails 13:35 Event 201: The Pandemic Rehearsal 16:16 The GERM Team: A Global Standing Army 16:39 BioNTech Windfall 17:55 Blocking the TRIPS Waiver 18:58 Microsoft's Lockdown Profits 24:35 Adrenochrome 28:18 The History of Blood Libel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1. Oil Prices & National Security Lower global oil prices weaken hostile regimes like Iran, Russia, and Venezuela by reducing their revenue. The Trump administration aims for a “sweet spot” oil price ($60–$70/barrel): Low enough to hurt adversaries. High enough to avoid bankrupting U.S. independent oil producers. If prices drop into the $40s, it could collapse small oil producers in Texas and the Permian Basin. 2. Venezuela’s Oil Infrastructure Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but decades of mismanagement have destroyed its infrastructure. Estimates from oil executives: Increasing production from 1 million to 3 million barrels/day could take 10 years and require $100B+ in investment. Even going from 1 million to 2 million/day would take 5–7 years. Gulf Coast refineries can process Venezuela’s heavy sour crude, but expanded imports would mostly affect Canada and Mexico, not U.S. light-sweet crude producers. 3. Cuba’s Economic Crisis Cuba historically survived on financial support from: The Soviet Union (until its collapse). Venezuela under Chávez/Maduro (oil and money). With Venezuela no longer able to support Cuba, the island is in economic freefall. Mexico is currently providing oil that helps sustain the Cuban regime. The Trump administration may pressure Mexico to cut this supply, potentially pushing Cuba toward political collapse. 4. Jack Smith & January 6th Investigation Smith is accused of leading a politically motivated prosecution against Donald Trump. He allegedly relied on questionable or disproven testimony, notably from Cassidy Hutchinson. Hutchinson’s dramatic claims (e.g., Trump lunging for a steering wheel) were not confirmed by eyewitnesses. Jim Jordan challenged Smith in hearings, accusing him of: Using unreliable witnesses. Conducting a partisan, anti-Trump investigation. Targeting large numbers of Republicans with subpoenas. 5. Crime Statistics & Trump Administration Policies Nationwide murder rates reportedly declined ~20% from 2024 to 2025. Approx. 1,400 fewer murders. Major cities showing decreases: Chicago: 30% NYC: 20% Baltimore: 31% Oakland: 33% Washington, D.C.: 31% (after National Guard deployment) Other violent crimes also declined: Motor vehicle theft: ↓25% Robbery: ↓18% Aggravated assault: ↓8% Law enforcement stats cited: Violent crime arrests: ↑100% Gangs disrupted: ↑210% Fentanyl seized: ↑31% Missing/abducted children located: ↑22% Human traffickers arrested: ↑15% Significant increase in arrests of espionage suspects and fugitives. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.