Ritchie B. Tongo/Shutterstock |
Let the chips fall where they may |
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American kitchens are divided along partisan lines too: a YouGov survey said that conservatives prefer to snack on Pillsbury treats while liberals opt for Ben & Jerry's. Liberals also prefer LaCroix, Subarus, and Instagram, while conservatives go for A&W, Ford, and X. The S&P 500 continued to slip yesterday after news that job openings hit a 3-1/2-year low in July. All eyes are on tomorrow's August jobs report, the last major piece of labor data ahead of the Fed's rate-decision meeting this month. |
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Playing DOJ-ball… On Tuesday Bloomberg reported that the US Justice Department had sent subpoenas to Nvidia (and other companies) in an escalation of an antitrust probe into whether the AI chip leader violated competition laws to stay dominant. Yesterday, though, Nvidia said it had not received a subpoena from the DOJ, but that it had been in contact with the agency. Nvidia stock plunged on Tuesday after the initial subpoena report, wiping out nearly $280B in market value — the biggest-ever daily market-cap decline for a US company. |
- Subpoena or not: Regulators are said to be looking into complaints that Nvidia makes it difficult to switch to competitors and that it punishes customers who don't use its AI chips exclusively.
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Chip outta luck?… Nvidia shares haven't been faring well since the company reported earnings last week. Its quarterly growth was feverish as the AI spree raged, but it wasn't quite as strong as usual (tough comparisons). Another issue for Nvidia: growing competition. Rivals like AMD, Intel, and even its biggest customers (like Google and Amazon) are cookin' up their own AI chips. |
- Lonely at the top: Companies are desperate for alternatives to Nvidia's pricey processors to help them keep up in the AI race. Still…
- Like "Super Mario" in the '90s, Nvidia's the biggest game in town. It's estimated to control between 70 and 95% of the AI-chip market ($30B in sales last quarter alone).
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Winners draw attention… and it ain't always good. Nvidia's explosive success has attracted investors (the stock has more than 2x'd in the past year). But it's also started to attract attention from regulators, who are reportedly asking questions about its acquisitions and biz practices. Nvidia joined the exclusive $2T club in March, and now it may be attracting the type of scrutiny that's been focused on other trillion-dollar techies (like Apple, Microsoft, and Google). |
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Weight loss that fits you. |
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Weight loss that fits you. |
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Baitin' the hook… with a DeFi worm. The X accounts of Lara and Tiffany Trump were reportedly hacked this week, posting links to a purported scam site that encouraged folks to connect their crypto wallets and purchase tokens. (FYI: Lara is the cochair of the RNC and Donald Trump's daughter-in-law; Tiffany is his daughter.) The posts highlighted World Liberty Financial, an apparently real DeFi project that's been promoted by Trump's sons and even former Prez Trump himself. |
- WLF? World Liberty Financial is said to be an ethereum-based lending project that includes a new crypto token, WLFI, that would let users vote on how the project is run.
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Reelin' 'em in… Social-savvy crypto scammers have long hacked prominent X (fka Twitter) accounts to ensnare victims. In July, artist Doja Cat said her X account had been taken over to push a fake celeb coin. Even the SEC's X account was hacked in January, in what may've been an attempt to move the price of bitcoin. Crypto-analytics co Chainalysis said hackers bulk-sell stolen social accounts, which are later used to scam folks out of crypto. In the first half of this year, the total value of stolen crypto funds hit $1.5B+ — up 84% on the year. |
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Playing coy can backfire… The Trump family's tried to drum up excitement for WLF with breezy social-media teasers. That may've left the door open to scammers looking to rip off Trump supporters. It wouldn't be the first time: in May, the Trump presidential campaign said it'd accept crypto donations, but confusion around the donation process led to scammers stealing from supporters. Still, it goes both ways: Trump's broad and generic embrace of crypto has gained him support from the industry. |
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In Brazil, Elon Musk finally has a case worth fighting — but he has to do it in the courts. Read more. |
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The next AI disrupter is here. The numbers and traction tell the story… |
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The next AI disrupter is here. The numbers and traction tell the story… |
RAD AI is the tech startup helping Fortune 1000 brands win, with a proven track record of delivering up to 3.5X branded content ROI. RAD AI's investor upside: |
🤝 Booked revenue up 3X in the last 12 months.
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- Reposted: Brazil's recent ban of X is boosting the platform's rivals. Bluesky gained nearly 3M users in about a week, and it's now Brazil's most popular iPhone app. No. 2 is Meta's X competitor, Threads.
- Cents: Dollar Tree shares plunged 20%+ after the low-cost chain cut its annual forecast (Dollar General did the same last week). Both discounters pointed to squeezed customer budgets.
- Foam: Beer maker Molson Coors will roll back some diversity efforts, joining companies including Harley-Davidson, Ford, Lowe's, and Deere in cutting DEI initiatives after conservative pushback.
- Scootin': Lyft will lay off some staff and shrink its bikes-and-scooters biz, which logged record rides in big cities last quarter. Upkeep costs for e-bikes are high, and Lyft's trying to stay profitable.
- Discount: The Nordstrom family offered $3.8B to take their namesake chain private. Department stores have dealt with takeover attempts as they struggle to hang on to sales in the face of online rivals.
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- ADP employment data for July
- Weekly jobless claims
- NFL season kicks off
- Earnings expected from Nio, Toro, Lands' End, Broadcom, DocuSign, and Rent the Runway
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Alphabet, Amazon, AMD, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia |
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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more |
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