President Trump told a room of roughly 200 mining executives at the State Department on Friday that America is reclaiming its rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world. The announcement behind the line was about $3 billion in federal money spread across critical minerals and battery projects: a $1.4 billion Office of Strategic Capital loan to Sila Nanotechnologies, … [Read more...] about China’s Equipment Export Controls Are the Real Threat to America’s 2028 Magnet Timeline
Earnings Recap August 3-7, 2026: AMD, Datadog and SanDisk All Beat and All Fell
The most useful fact about this week is that Datadog beat revenue estimates by 4.3%, beat on earnings by nearly 38%, raised full-year guidance, guided the third quarter 3.2% above consensus, and lost 15% in a single session. That is close to the best quarter a software company can deliver, and the market took it apart anyway. Nothing about this week is explained by weak … [Read more...] about Earnings Recap August 3-7, 2026: AMD, Datadog and SanDisk All Beat and All Fell
July Jobs Report: The 103,000 Revised Away Matters More Than the 23,000 Lost
Nonfarm payrolls fell by 23,000 in July against a consensus looking for somewhere between 80,000 and 83,000. That is the number the wires led with, and it is the least interesting number in the release. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised May down from 129,000 to 63,000 and June down from 57,000 to 20,000, removing 103,000 jobs from a two-month window that had already … [Read more...] about July Jobs Report: The 103,000 Revised Away Matters More Than the 23,000 Lost
Big Tech Capex Reaches $1.1 Trillion Since 2023, With $745 Billion Planned for 2026
The interesting number isn't the $1.1 trillion. It's what happens when you put the two figures next to each other. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have spent $1.1 trillion on capex since the AI boom began in 2023. They plan to spend $745 billion of it this year. So one calendar year is going to come close to matching the three that preceded it, combined. That's the whole … [Read more...] about Big Tech Capex Reaches $1.1 Trillion Since 2023, With $745 Billion Planned for 2026
Amphenol’s Record Quarter Shows Where AI Capex Actually Lands
Amphenol reported record second quarter 2026 results. Benchmark reported a strong second quarter. Littelfuse and Sensata Technologies reported the same day. Four component and electronics manufacturing names, no AI accelerators between them, and collectively a better read on datacenter buildout than most of the companies that talk about it. The reason is structural. … [Read more...] about Amphenol’s Record Quarter Shows Where AI Capex Actually Lands
Paper Raises $34 Million and Figma (FIG) Has Already Lost Half Its Value on the Thesis
Paper announced a $34 million Series A on Wednesday, led by Accel and ICONIQ, with Designer Fund, Michael Grinich of WorkOS, Anton Osika of Lovable, and individual engineers and designers from Anthropic and OpenAI participating. Thirty-four million dollars is a rounding error in the current funding environment. Figma booked $333.4 million of revenue in the first quarter of 2026 … [Read more...] about Paper Raises $34 Million and Figma (FIG) Has Already Lost Half Its Value on the Thesis
Google Frozen v2 AI Chip Could Deliver 10x Efficiency Gains Over Current TPUs
Alphabet is developing a new AI server chip, internally known as Frozen v2, that would embed elements of its Gemini model directly into the hardware itself. The project, reported by The Information and confirmed in substance by multiple outlets, represents a meaningfully deeper commitment to custom silicon than Google's existing Tensor Processing Units already reflect. Where … [Read more...] about Google Frozen v2 AI Chip Could Deliver 10x Efficiency Gains Over Current TPUs
The Case for Shorting Budget Airlines as Oil Prices Rise
Ryanair just handed the market a preview of what a prolonged Iran war does to low-cost carrier economics: a 34% drop in after-tax profit, a 6% fare decline, and confirmation that even its unhedged fuel exposure — just 20% of total consumption — was enough to erase a third of quarterly earnings. If the best-hedged, lowest-cost operator in the sector takes that kind … [Read more...] about The Case for Shorting Budget Airlines as Oil Prices Rise
Morgan Stanley’s $2.3 Billion Capital Markets Haul Signals the AI Boom Is Just Getting Started
Morgan Stanley collected 2.3 billion dollars in debt and equity capital markets fees in the first half of 2026, up from 1.4 billion dollars in the same period a year earlier, and the bank's own numbers say the driver was AI infrastructure financing rather than the usual mix of corporate refinancing and opportunistic issuance. A 64 percent jump in fee income at a single bank … [Read more...] about Morgan Stanley’s $2.3 Billion Capital Markets Haul Signals the AI Boom Is Just Getting Started
Blackstone’s Futronic Deal Bets on Actuators as AI Robotics’ Physical Bottleneck
Blackstone's agreement to invest in Futronic, the Busan-based actuator maker, at a reported valuation near 675 million dollars is a small deal by the standards of the AI infrastructure trade, but the logic behind it is the same logic that has driven every AI-adjacent bottleneck trade of the past three years. If AI-driven robotics demand actually compounds the way its backers … [Read more...] about Blackstone’s Futronic Deal Bets on Actuators as AI Robotics’ Physical Bottleneck
