I have written about Robotics a few times on WealthWise and often the investments I have recommended have looked like Tesla, Amazon & Apple, Tesla again and obviously the most detailed article I wrote about Robotics, Tesla again:

Tesla because it is building the Optimus Humanoid Robot, Amazon because it has the best use case to use robots in an industrial setting and one that I think is most likely to do so most efficiently and profitably, and Apple, because Apple will eventually make a robot and people (mostly Americans) are eventually gonna buy it.

As I have shared in the articles above, I think robotics is the single most transformational tech that humans have built, so far. Everything we have built so far, every tech, every new innovation, every new discovery, has led us to this moment. We are standing on the shoulders of giants! But the time for Robotics is now and nothing will ever be the same again. I have written in relatively more detail on why I am so bullish on Robotics in the articles shared above. For this article, I want to focus on my stock picks for this sector.

Last week, in a meeting between the partners of our closed end fund (yes! We are in the early days of testing a fund, which we might eventually bring to the market), one of my partners lamented that Robotics is not getting the love it deserves. I told him 2 things. 1. Nothing on the AI application side is getting the love today, it’s all about infrastructure. 2. No humanoid robotics pure-play company is public right now. Like there are a lot of ways to get Robotics exposure and we will talk about those towards the end of this article, where I share my entire Robotics playbook but the upside is not that crazy.

However, everything changed last week.

When I first invested in Rocket Lab, I had been following it for about 6 months before they announced their SPAC with $VACQ. I had been tracking ‘Made In Space’ which was acquired by Redwire for nearly 6 years before they went public. This robotics company that I am going to talk about today, I have been following for nearly a year now and I have not felt this excited about a small cap tech stock, since Rocket Lab!!!

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

[News] U.S. to offer $17.5B in loans for utilities to finance Westinghouse nuclear reactors

The Trump administration has conditionally committed funding for $17.5B in loan facilities to support the long-lead equipment necessary to construct up to 10 large-nuclear reactors being built by Westinghouse Electric, the company said Tuesday.

Westinghouse said the conditional financing package will enable eligible utility and energy company partners to purchase long-lead items and help accelerate construction and commercial operations of Westinghouse reactors by up to three years, with the aim of having 10 reactors under construction by 2030.

Westinghouse Electric CEO Dan Sumner told The Wall Street Journal that he hopes new AP1000 reactors can come online starting in 2035.

Westinghouse is owned by Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) and Canadian uranium producer Cameco (CCJ).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

#AGLT

[News] Agility Robotics to go public via $2.5B merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI

Agility Robotics and Churchill Capital (CCXI) have entered into a definitive business combination agreement, the companies said on Wednesday. Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company is expected to operate as Agility and be listed on a major North American exchange under the ticker symbol “AGLT.”

The business combination values Agility at a pre-money equity value of $2.5B, providing an attractive entry point into Agility for Churchill XI shareholders and new investors. The transaction is expected to provide more than $620M of gross proceeds to Agility.

Agility Robotics is supported by strategic investors and partners across the AI, technology, VC, and industrial ecosystem, including DCVC, NVIDIA (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (SFTBY), Foxconn, Schaeffler, Abico, and Playground Global.

Strong commercial momentum with more than $300M of multi-year contracted Digit v5 orders secured to date.

Proceeds will support fulfillment of existing customer orders, expansion of commercial deployments, scaling of Digit v5 production, and continued investment in Agility’s integrated platform.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

[News] Silver plunges to a fresh 6-month low, Gold ​dips below $4,000

Gold futures plunged below $4,000 on Wednesday for a fourth consecutive losing session and its lowest close since early November, pressured by a firming U.S. dollar and growing expectations of interest rate hikes.

Spot silver (XAGUSD:CUR) extended its decline at the Wednesday open, sliding more than 4% as selling pressure intensified across the precious metals complex. Prices have now fallen to their weakest level since December 9, 2025, marking a fresh six-month low.

The move reflects a broader downturn that has erased a significant portion of recent gains, with silver now down more than 50% from its January 29 peak of $121.61 per ounce. It has also dropped 23.6% from its June 2 high of $76.97, underscoring the severity of the ongoing correction.

Technical indicators continue to deteriorate as well. Spot silver is currently trading below its 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, signaling sustained bearish momentum across multiple time frames.

Meanwhile, the relative strength index has fallen to 29.31, placing the metal in oversold territory and suggesting that downside momentum may be nearing extreme levels. Despite these conditions, buyers have yet to step in meaningfully to stabilize prices.

Overall, the trend points to sustained bearish sentiment, with traders watching for potential stabilization signals or a technical rebound, though momentum remains firmly negative in the near-term trading environment, ahead of now.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

#OpenAI

[News] Broadcom and OpenAI heat up AI chip market with inference processor Jalapeño

Broadcom (AVGO) and OpenAI (OPENAI) revealed the fruits of its partnership today with Jalapeño, a new chip designed specifically to run inference for large language models.

OpenAI designed the chip, while partners Broadcom (AVGO) and Celestica (CLS) helped industrialize the platform through chip implementation, board, rack system integration, high-performance networking, and scalable production systems.

“Based on early testing, Jalapeño will efficiently execute our most important workloads close to the hardware’s theoretical limits,” said Richard Ho, who leads OpenAI’s hardware program.

Broadcom plans to deploy racks of AI accelerator and network systems targeted to start in the second half of 2026 and to be completed by the end of 2029.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

[News] Micron Non-GAAP EPS of $25.11 beats by $4.83, revenue of $41.46B (+345.8% Y/Y) beats by $6.21B

Looking to the upcoming fourth-quarter, Micron said it expects adjusted earnings between $30 and $32 per share, above the $25.72 per share estimate. Sales are forecast to be between $49B and $51B, well above the $43.58B estimate.

“Our fiscal Q4 gross margin outlook reflects a meaningful moderation in the rate of price increases,” Executive VP & CFO Murphy said.

“Results and guidance were far ahead of pre-call Street and buy side expectations, but to us the even more meaningful development was MU’s substantial expansion of its Strategic Customer Agreements (SCAs) from a single 5-year contract (announced last qtr) to 16 signed agreements, a step-change that in our view fundamentally transforms MU’s business model from cyclical commodity producer to multi-year contracted supplier with significant downside protection on both revenue and margins,” said J.P. Morgan analysts led by Harlan Sur.

The analysts noted that their view is consistent with Micron’s management, that AI will keep Dynamic Random Access Memory, or DRAM, demand well above supply beyond 2027. Micron’s quarter was consistent with that, with material upside to the quarter and guidance, the analysts added.

“Micron again beat Street expectations for the reported quarter, while guiding handily above consensus for the forward period. The surprise, in our view, rather was the level of detail that Micron was able to provide around the forward contracts it has negotiated for a significant portion of its forward bit output, with the new deals seemingly providing unprecedented revenue, margin, and earnings certainty for an elongated period,” said Wedbush analysts led by Matt Bryson.

The analysts noted that while these agreements moderate what they believe might have been peak cyclical earnings power over the next couple of years, they also create an elongated (and unprecedented) period of visibility with Micron talking to $18B in current Remaining Performance Obligations, or RPOs, that should grow to over $100B assuming the company succeeds in locking down about 50% of its capacity within SCAs.

Bryson and his team said that Micron, and they believe its peers, not only have unprecedented certainty around future cash flow (tied to a significant portion of their business), but this visibility arguably provides Micron with the ability to use this cash flow in a more shareholder friendly manner with the company taking advantage of its newfound financial stability to announce a plan to return 100% of FCF to shareholders starting in December of this year (post the expiration of CHIPS Act provisions restricting certain uses of cash).

“There is no AI without memory,” America Securities senior semiconductor analyst Vivek Arya explained, noting that the recent earnings surge—which far exceeded even whisper numbers—reflects a permanent shift rather than a typical cyclical upturn.

The supply-demand imbalance in AI memory is projected to persist at least through the end of next year.

“The forward price to earnings multiple for Micron (MU) is basically unchanged since the start of the year,” Arya observed, noting that the three largest semiconductor companies he covers—NVIDIA (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), and Micron (MU)—all trade below the S&P 500 (SP500) multiple, with Micron (MU) at a sub-10x forward multiple.

Looking ahead, Arya predicts AI infrastructure deployment will continue through the end of this decade as a new “intelligence layer” is established.

While growth may not sustain 60%-70% annual rates indefinitely, the structural buildout should persist.

“The only thing that stops it is, will the end customers have the imagination to create new applications that drive more user adoption? Will they be able to monetize these applications?” Arya said, suggesting the semiconductor industry’s trajectory ultimately depends on downstream innovation and commercialization.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[News] NASA selects Rocket Lab to launch Sun, Earth Sciences missions

Rocket Lab (RKLB) announced on Thursday that it has been selected by NASA to provide three Electron launches for two separate NASA missions — PolSIR and TSIS-2— from early next year.

The firm said it will fly two back-to-back Electron launches for NASA’s PolSIR mission from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand no earlier than June 2027. Additionally, a separate Electron launch for NASA’s TSIS-2 mission will take place from the same launch site in early 2027.

Alongside PolSIR and TSIS-2, other upcoming NASA missions to be launched by Rocket Lab include the agency’s Aspera mission. Later this year, Rocket Lab is also scheduled to deploy its Photon spacecraft on Electron for NASA’s LOXSAT mission.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[News] Pentagon is said to open door to greater AI role in military targeting

The Pentagon has updated its classified targeting doctrine to envision a future in which artificial intelligence takes a far more active role in combat decisions, marking another step toward automating battlefield operations, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

The revised guidance, approved in April, describes an evolution from today’s model, where humans initiate military actions, to systems in which AI can recommend or initiate actions while commanders monitor the process. The document argues that the speed of future warfare may eventually require fully autonomous capabilities as rival nations rapidly expand their own military AI programs.

The updated doctrine also highlights AI’s ability to compress the “sensor-to-shooter” timeline by processing intelligence from multiple sources faster than humans can. Beyond identifying potential targets, the technology could improve data quality, fill intelligence gaps and automate information flows across military networks.

At the same time, the Pentagon acknowledges that greater reliance on AI raises significant legal and ethical questions. The guidance warns against overreliance on algorithmic recommendations, emphasizing that commanders remain responsible for decisions involving the use of force and compliance with the law of armed conflict.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[News] Starlink mobile plans set SpaceX up as potential competitor to Verizon, AT&T: report

Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX) has told investors that it plans to launch a new Starlink mobile service for U.S. consumers, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell told investors during an IPO roadshow that the group was considering launching a Starlink retail product. The company could build its own terrestrial US mobile network.

The move would require Starlink to sell mobile contracts to individual customers, the report said. It also positions the satellite company as a potential competitor to Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), and other traditional telecom providers.

TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams wrote Thursday that SpaceX could buy T-Mobile in pitch to turn Starlink into a global connectivity platform.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 26, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 26, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

Trump calls Iran deal ‘unconditional surrender,’ says his power has ‘no limits’: Axios

U.S. President Trump denied that the Iran war revealed the limits of his ability to exert power, telling “The Axios Show” he still believes there are “no limits,” and insisted the deal reached with Iran amounts to “unconditional surrender” by Tehran.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 19, 2026

Iran closes Strait of Hormuz citing ceasefire violations

Iran on Saturday said that it is sending a team of negotiators to Switzerland for talks with the U.S., even as the country’s joint military command said that a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will resume due to alleged ceasefire violations.

The closure of the vital shipping route is in response to what it called violations of a ceasefire ​deal by the U.S. and Israel.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 20, 2026

Iran oil exports poised for return under new U.S. deal, but recovery faces hurdles

Under the deal, sanctions on Iranian oil sales would be eased, allowing the country to market crude and refined products with support from international shipping, banking and insurance providers. However, implementation remains uncertain amid continued regional tensions and disputes involving Israel and Hezbollah.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 21, 2026

Iran suspends U.S. talks after Trump threatens new strikes

Negotiations between the United States and Iran were thrown into doubt Sunday after Tehran halted participation following new warnings from President Donald Trump over Hezbollah’s actions in Lebanon.

The high-level discussions, involving U.S., Iranian, Qatari and Pakistani officials, were intended to address issues including Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief and regional security concerns. Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were among the participants.

The latest setback came after Trump warned on social media that the U.S. could launch additional military action if Iran failed to restrain Hezbollah. He also warned Tehran against disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global energy shipments.

On Sunday, Trump said on Truth Social: “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”

In a telephone interview with Fox News, Trump also made additional threats saying: “We may take over the strait, if we have to.” and “You close it and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your fucking country.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 21, 2026

WealthWise Research - Jun 21, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Robinhood CEO says, “AI Trading” tops 50K users

CEO and Co-Founder Vlad Tenev said that in the first few weeks of “agentic trading,” over 50K customers have already opened accounts and are trading millions of dollars per day in equities and options.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 19, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Google adopts Nvidia-style approach to grow TPU business - report

In western New York, near Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls, the tech company is backing an AI data center project called Lake Mariner. Google (GOOG) provided a $3.2B financial guarantee for the project. The facility’s developers will lease computing power generated by thousands of Google’s (GOOG) AI chips to AI startup Anthropic (ANTHRO), according to a WSJ report that cites people familiar with the matter.

The tech conglomerate is leveraging its cloud infrastructure to encourage customers and large enterprises to shift their AI workloads to Google’s (GOOG) proprietary Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 19, 2026

U.S. energy regulator orders overhaul of data center grid rules

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week approved orders to remove bottlenecks that had risked slowing the AI boom, aiming to handle requests for connecting large-load facilities such as data centers to the power grid within 90 days, a dramatic acceleration of a process that can take years.

The top energy regulator directed the six federally regulated organizations that operate the bulk of the U.S. electric grid — PJM Interconnection, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, California Independent System Operator, Southwest Power Pool, New York ISO, and ISO New England — to justify or overhaul their process for powering large energy users, aiming to speed up the connection of data centers while minimizing the impact on grid stability and power bills ​for Americans.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 20, 2026

China hits back: Slaps trade restrictions on U.S. entities including MP Materials and USA Rare Earth

In a retaliatory move on Monday, China slapped trade restrictions on dozens of U.S. companies after Washington added more Chinese firms to a Pentagon military-aid blacklist.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce placed 10 American industrial suppliers on its export control list, including rare earth miners MP Materials Corp (MP) and USA Rare Earth (USAR), and drone makers Teal Drones and Jaia Robotics — barring exports of any dual-use items originating in China to the companies.

The Pentagon also recently expanded its 1260H blacklist, which targets Chinese tech firms suspected of supporting Beijing’s military. High-profile giants like Alibaba Group (BABA), Baidu (BIDU), and EV manufacturer BYD (BYDDF) were among the latest additions.

However, the Trump administration has reportedly delayed adding Chinese AI startup DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK), memory chipmaker CXMT, and more than 100 other companies identified as national security risks to a trade blacklist as Washington seeks to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Chinese AI stocks rally as Beijing signals expanded policy support for AI

The primary catalyst for the market surge was a statement from Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai. The announcements aim to fast-track technological self-sufficiency through what Beijing calls “new productive forces,” introducing sweeping regulatory reforms targeted at the tech-heavy STAR Board in Shanghai and the ChiNext Board in Shenzhen.

The new measures aim to boost industry growth through two main areas. First, regulatory changes will ease IPO standards for AI developers and support advanced sectors like quantum computing. They will also encourage Hong Kong tech companies to dual-list in mainland China. Second, the government will implement initiatives to promote next-generation AI devices and integrate technology more deeply in consumer markets and logistics.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

#Zimmermann

Nextpower to buy Zimmermann PV-Steel for $378M

Nextpower (NXT) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zimmermann PV-Steel Group, a Germany-based solar technology provider with more than 20 gigawatts (GW) deployed and deep market presence in Germany, one of Europe’s largest solar markets.

The business is expected to contribute approximately €300M in revenue and €45M of adjusted EBITDA on an annual run-rate basis following transaction close, and is expected to be accretive.

The total consideration for the transaction is comprised of cash and stock of up to €330M, or approximately $378M based on exchange rates as of June 20, and is subject to customary closing conditions including required regulatory review.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of Nextpower’s fiscal 2027.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Fervo Energy to partner with Nvidia, PNNL on geothermal digital twin

PNNL researchers will use field data from Fervo (FRVO) to train AI models on Nvidia (NVDA) infrastructure, with the trained models to be integrated into Nvidia Omniverse libraries, helping geothermal operators more quickly identify and respond to subsurface changes, optimize power generation, and strengthen the scalability of enhanced geothermal systems.

PNNL will develop workflows and data pipelines using high-performance computing, including U.S. Department of Energy supercomputing resources, to run large-scale simulations.

The team will use field data from Fervo’s (FRVO) Nevada and Utah sites to train the digital twin, with the platform scheduled for implementation by 2029.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

$CRBS

Cerebras sees bullish views maintained at Wedbush ahead of Q1 results

The analysts believe Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) capacity is Cerebras’ primary pinch point. TSM, in their view, likely provides at least modest upside to expected wafer output in 2026 and 2027. As such, the analysts believe Cerebras probably realizes some wafer/system upside versus expectations.

“And with accelerator availability tightening, and memory sourcing becoming even more challenging (less an issue for Cerebras given the chip relies on SRAM rather than HBM), we see several reasons to believe that Cerebras should be able to realize financial upside from any incremental output,” said Bryson and his team.

In addition, the analysts said that Cerebras has not provided formal insight into the timing of WSE-4, nor is any benefit from the upgrade baked into Wedbush’s forward numbers. However, the analysts noted that general speculation is that WSE-4 will be launched and ramped in late 2026/early 2027, and they believe the new design’s improved performance should benefit Cerebras’s financial model (both margins/ revenue). As such, any update around Cerebras’s execution/plans on this front will likely be positive in nature, according to the analysts.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Lemonade introduces autonomous car insurance product in Colorado

Lemonade (LMND) said on Monday that it is expanding its autonomous car insurance product to Colorado.

The product gives Tesla (TSLA) owners 50% off every mile driven using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) technology.

“This first-of-its-kind insurance product cuts Tesla’s cost of ownership by slashing insurance prices in half for miles driven with FSD (Supervised),” said Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade.

“Tesla’s safe FSD (Supervised) tech reduces the chances of getting into an accident,” said Wininger.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Nvidia launches full-stack safety system Halos for robotics

Nvidia (NVDA) said it is bringing Halos for Robotics, the industry’s first full-stack safety system for robotics and physical AI that unifies AI compute and safety.

Agility is integrating Nvidia IGX Thor and Halos Core into its proprietary safe human detection system for its humanoid robot Digit, which is designed for industrial work in logistics, manufacturing, and warehouse operations, according to Nvidia.

For Digit, Nvidia IGX Thor delivers industrial-grade AI compute with built-in safety capabilities, while Halos Core supports the software layer for safety-related operating functions, the company added.

Before robotics, Halos had been available for autonomous vehicles.

The company noted that Halos enables companies to rely on a standardized, unified safety architecture that connects AI compute, system software, sensor data, safety applications, and inspection for robotic systems.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

#Anthropic

[Newsletter Exclusive] Micron rises on collab with Anthropic to develop and supply AI memory and storage infrastructure

“Our compute strategy depends on getting every layer of the stack right, and memory and storage are central to how efficiently we can train and serve Claude,” said Tom Brown, co-founder and chief compute officer at Anthropic. “Partnering with Micron means we collaborate closely on optimizing these systems for our workloads and secure the supply we need. As demand for Claude grows, this is how we scale our compute for the long term.”

The companies will research how memory and storage subsystems perform across varying workloads. They will utilize Micron’s portfolio of HBM, DRAM and SSDs and how they affect performance, energy efficiency and total cost of ownership across AI training and inference. These efforts are expected to create improvements across the aforementioned areas, as well as enhance token economics.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

#Cred

Meta buys 20% stake in Indian fintech Cred, hires founder to lead WhatsApp

Meta Platforms (META) has acquired a 20% stake in Indian fintech firm Cred and moved the company’s founder into a new role as head of WhatsApp.

Cred founder Kunal Shah will assume the role from Will Cathcart, who is moving to a new AI-focused role at Meta (META)

Cred operates an app that rewards users for paying credit card bills on time. The $900M investment from Meta (META) now values the platform at $4.5B.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Japan’s Sakana AI launches “Fugu system”; says it beats GPT-5.5, Gemini, Opus

Sakana AI, a Japan-based frontier R&D company, announced on Monday the launch of “Sakana Fugu,” a new AI system that takes a different approach from the industry’s race to build bigger and bigger models.

According to the company, instead of relying on a single model, Fugu can coordinate multiple AI models through a single API to solve complex tasks.

Fugu itself is a language model that can decide whether to answer a request itself or assign parts of the work to specialized models, verify the results, and combine them into a final response.

The company said the approach helps reduce operational and geopolitical risks tied to relying on a single AI provider, especially amid recent export controls affecting Anthropic-backed models as an example.

Moreover, the company launched two versions: Fugu for coding, chat, and other everyday tasks, and “Fugu Ultra” for more difficult work such as AI research, paper reproduction, cybersecurity analysis, and patent investigations.

Both Fugu and Fugu Ultra are now available through a unified API, with subscription plans for regular users and pay-as-you-go pricing for enterprise customers.

Officially, the Japanese startup said Fugu Ultra performed on par with Anthropic (ANTHRO)’s Fable 5 and Mythos Preview on key engineering, science, and reasoning benchmarks.

The company also said its tests showed Fugu models outperformed Alphabet (GOOGL)’s Gemini 3.1 Pro, OpenAI (OPENAI)’s GPT-5.5, and Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 in tasks such as automated research, mechanical design, Japanese handwriting analysis, one-shot chess, Rubik’s Cube solving, and financial time-series prediction.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Credo Technologies is likely to keep benefiting from AI: BNP

“We continue to view Credo as a key beneficiary of hyperscalers adopting innovations in copper and optical interconnects for both scale-out and scale-up backend networks, as well as frontend network deployments driven by agentic AI,” BNP analyst Karl Ackerman wrote in a note to clients. “Indeed, we believe [active electrical cables], ZF optical transceivers, silicon photonics, Active LED Cables (ALCs), and OmniConnect gearboxes expand Credo’s [total addressable market] to over $10B, or 3x from Credo’s opportunity just 18 months ago.”

“We believe Credo is increasingly diversifying its customer base with 3-4 10% hyperscale customers expected in FY27,” Ackerman added. “We also expect Neoclouds could approach 20% of sales over time. Credo indicated that they are involved with 5 of 6 hyperscalers which we believe are Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, and Oracle.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Interactive Brokers expands agentic trading capabilities with ChatGPT, Grok integration

The addition expands IBKR’s AI platform integrations that began with Claude.

The expansion also extends the selection of products available for order instructions to include support for options, futures, and futures options in addition to equities and ETFs.

The expansion enables clients to link their existing IBKR account to ChatGPT, Grok, or Claude using their login at no extra cost, with no new account required, and no passwords or API keys ever shared with the AI provider.

The connection allows clients to use natural language to explore their portfolio, analyze markets, and generate order instructions.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

#Anthropic #OpenAI

Coinbase launches pre-IPO perpetual futures tied to Anthropic, OpenAI after SpaceX

Earlier this month, the crypto exchange was letting traders make risky bets on SpaceX’s (SPCX) future share prices through the so-called ‘pre-IPO perpetual futures’, Reuters had reported.

The derivatives did not have a direct link to the underlying shares but were priced with reference to SpaceX’s latest disclosed pre-IPO valuation, the newswire had said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Infleqtion launches “Quantum Space Initiative” to boost U.S. space-tech edge

The initiative brings together founding partners including Voyager Technologies (VOYG), Monarch Quantum, Armada, and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Through a new Quantum Space Hub, the group plans to connect companies, researchers, and government agencies to help move quantum technologies from the lab into real-world space applications.

According to Infleqtion, quantum sensing, timing, navigation, communications, and computing technologies could support future lunar infrastructure, deep-space exploration, and defense systems.

The initiative builds on the company’s earlier work with NASA, including contributions to the Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station and the Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder mission, which is expected to become the world’s first quantum gravity sensor in space.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

#A24

Google invests in movie studio A24 for DeepMind R&D collaboration

As part of a greater push into Hollywood’s use of artificial intelligence, The Wall Street Journal reports that Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) has invested ~$75M in independent studio A24, enabling further engagement of Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) DeepMind AI unit with A24’s filmmaking.

A24 is the studio behind hits like Backrooms, Marty Supreme, The Brutalist, and Eddington.

The deal does not give Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) access to A24’s library but does give the tech company access to its roster of artists to bridge the gap between technology and entertainment, creating new tools for movie production and distribution and to “expand what is possible in the future of entertainment.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

SpaceX lands another cloud computing deal as Reflection signs up for potential $6.3B contract

The agreement calls for Reflection to gain access to Nvidia’s (NVDA) GB300s for training and running AI models from Colossus data center infrastructure for $150M per month, according to CNBC, which viewed some contract details. The contract begins on July 1, 2026, and runs through 2029. Similar to other deals inked by SpaceX, either company can end the contract with a 90-day notice after the first three months.

If the agreement runs through its full potential term, it would generate $6.3B in revenue for SpaceX.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Apple’s WWDC is a ‘material positive reset’ for its AI ambitions: BofA

Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan said the third generation of Apple’s foundation models, known as AFM 3, is a core architectural change. It moves to a hybrid stack, as inference will take place on the device, while private cloud compute and Google Cloud (GOOG) (GOOGL) — with Nvidia (NVDA) GPUs — will handle the most demanding workloads.

“AFM 3 Core Advanced is the most important on-device disclosure, in our view, because its 20bn-parameter sparse architecture activates only 1bn–4bn parameters per request, helping Apple scale local model capability,” Mohan explained.

Aside from the models, there is an “underappreciated debate” from Apple’s tokenomics, where request volume, effective workload, and cloud cost may diverge “meaningfully,” Mohan added.

“In our illustrative 2030 framework, we model 50% on-device & 50% PCC request mix, with 5% of requests routed to AFM 3 Cloud Pro,” Mohan wrote. “However, after adjusting for larger context packages, reasoning burden, image compute, and model cost intensity, Cloud Pro rises to 33% of workload units and 67% of weighted cloud cost (using our own estimates and assumptions). This highlights why Apple’s margin sensitivity depends more on how often workloads escalate to image generation or high-intensity agentic reasoning.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

U.S. authorizes Iranian oil sales for 60 days, dismantling sanctions imposed on Iran’s oil industry

The Trump administration has issued a temporary license allowing Iran to sell some of its energy exports through August 21 following “productive talks” between the U.S. and Iran, Treasury Secretary Bessent said Monday, opening the door for eventually ending many sanctions programs as part of negotiations between the two countries.

The waiver allows the U.S. to import Iranian crude oil and other petrochemical and petroleum products, which the U.S. has not done on any meaningful level since imposing measures after the 1979 revolution, and that Iran can be paid in dollars, a boon for the country which is in desperate need of foreign exchange.

Shipowners, traders, and buyers will now have to evaluate whether they have time to source, finance, and complete such purchases after years of not dealing with Iran because of sanctions.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Instagram on TV: Social media app branching out into alternative content

Instagram for TV launched Monday on Samsung TV devices, extending its reach from Amazon Fire (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) TV options. Besides widescreen options, Instagram is also experimenting with longer-form videos, live TV, and episodic series.

Besides leveraging its stable of creators—both professional and amateur—Instagram (META) is looking to capitalize on the emerging genre of “microdramas” and low-budget “YouTuber” movies like Backrooms and Obsession, both of which are shattering box-office records. Rival TikTok is now making its own microdramas through its PineDrama app and signed a deal with Issa Rae’s HOORAE production company to produce content. And with YouTube (GOOG) emerging as the most-watched video provider in the U.S., it’s gotten the attention of streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) which recently signed Pete Davidson, Bill Simmons, and Charlamagne Tha God for video podcasts and even lured popular YouTube (GOOG) podcaster Jay Shetty with a $100M deal.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Bond markets are pricing in two interest rate hikes this year – analyst

Seeking Alpha analyst Damir Tokic warns that interest rates will continue to rise, driven by real yields, with traders now pricing in two Fed rate hikes in 2026—a development he says is “consistent with the late-cycle overheated economy,” despite falling oil prices that may be “overreacting to the downside.”

The decoupling between Treasury yields (US10Y), (US2Y), (US30Y), and oil prices (CL1:COM), (CO1:COM) has caught the attention of multiple market observers.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, described the situation as a “market configuration that seems strange,” attributing it primarily to “the markets looking at the prospect of large and growing corporate and government bond issuance.”

Tokic warns that the pressure extends beyond bonds into equities, stating that “the AI trade is starting to collapse with selling in hyperscalers and semiconductors.”

According to the analyst, the selloff stems from concerns over “the broken token-based business model and the worries about ROI on AI capex,” which he believes will “continue to put pressure on the S&P 500 (SP500).”

Analysts at Renaissance Macro Research explain that for Fed hawks, “the rationale for rate hikes is not about oil.”

They note that the 75 basis points of “insurance cuts put in place last year to support the labor market” are “no longer required” given that inflation remains above target and labor markets are reviving.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Rocket Lab completes end-to-end VICTUS HAZE mission; sets new TacRS record

Rocket Lab (RKLB) announced on Monday that it successfully launched its Electron rocket and deployed its Pioneer spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS HAZE mission.

The company completed the launch in less than ~17 hours after receiving the order, setting a record for rapid-response space missions.

The Rocket Labs became the first contractor to deliver a complete TacRS mission package, including spacecraft design, manufacturing, launch, and on-orbit operations, showing the strength of its in-house capabilities.

The Pioneer spacecraft was fully activated in 37 hours and 36 minutes, well ahead of the mission’s 72-hour target, and is now carrying out operations in low Earth orbits to simulate threat-response scenarios.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Fatal crash in Texas investigated for potential involvement of Tesla Autopilot

On Friday evening, a 44-year-old man driving a Tesla (TSLA) Model 3 in a residential area of Katy failed to make a right-hand turn, left the roadway at high speed, and crashed straight into a brick house. The impact drove the car through an exterior wall and into a room where 76-year-old Martha Avila was inside her home. She was airlifted to a hospital by helicopter but was later pronounced dead from her injuries.

The driver told Harris County sheriff’s investigators that the Tesla (TSLA) was operating on its automated driver-assistance system when it failed to navigate the turn and continued directly into the house. According to the initial reports, authorities said the vehicle was travelling at a “high speed,” and the driver showed no signs of intoxication when evaluated after the crash. The driver was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Local law enforcement and federal safety officials are now examining whether Tesla’s (TSLA) driver-assistance technology was actually engaged and, if so, whether it functioned properly or was being misused at the time of the collision. Investigators have noted that they have not yet confirmed the vehicle’s Autopilot status from data logs, and the precise role of the system in the crash remains under active investigation at the moment.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it has opened a special crash investigation.

CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X that the incident “makes no sense,” he argued “FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!”

Tesla (TSLA) VP of Autopilot Ashok Elluswamy said, “In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area,” Elluswamy added in response to Musk. “They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.”

Unfortunately for Tesla (TSLA), this defense has been tried before and failed to absolve Tesla completely of responsibility. Last summer, a Miami jury found Tesla 33% responsible for a fatal 2019 crash in which a Tesla (TSLA) with autopilot engaged ran through an intersection at a high speed, killing a 22-year old woman and injuring her companion. While the driver shared the majority of the responsibility, Tesla (TSLA) was ordered to pay $243M to the plaintiffs. Tesla (TSLA) appealed but the judgement was upheld by a federal judge.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has also opened an investigation into the crash and is working with the Harris County, TX sheriff’s office.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 22, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

Trump signs orders to accelerate quantum adoption, boost cyber defense

The first order launches a national effort to develop a quantum computer capable of performing significant scientific calculations. White House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they believe such a system could be developed by 2028.

The order also directs federal agencies to develop plans for deploying quantum-enabled sensors and networks within the next five years, the officials said, while strengthening cooperation with allies to protect quantum intellectual property and secure critical supply chains.

A second executive order seeks to speed the adoption of post-quantum cryptography, requiring federal agencies to transition high-value assets to encryption standards resistant to quantum-powered cyberattacks by no later than 2031.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

Energy Fuels to buy magnet manufacturer VAC in $1.9B cash-and-stock deal

VAC is an advanced magnetics company with more than 400 patents, over 1,000 customers, and operating magnet production facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, including a state-of-the-art facility in South Carolina with capacity to produce 2K metric tons/year of permanent magnets and scalable to 12K tons/year; VAC has produced and shipped more than 1B rare earth permanent magnets during the last decade.

VAC’s legacy business generated $29M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025 and has experienced more than 20% Y/Y growth in its order book for 2026; the South Carolina plant is expected to generate $65M-$75M of annual run-rate EBITDA once its production reaches current capacity of 2K tons/year.

Under the deal terms, Energy Fuels (UUUU) will acquire 100% of VAC for $718M in cash and ~65.85M newly issued Energy Fuels common shares, which at Energy Fuels’ closing share price of $16.12 as of June 22, implies an equity value of $1.9B for VAC.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Firefly Aerospace set for $110M EXIM loan to expand Texas production

Firefly Aerospace (FLY) is poised to receive a $110 million loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank that would help finance an expansion of the company’s spacecraft manufacturing operations in Texas, underscoring Washington’s growing effort to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic space industry, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The loan is expected to come before EXIM’s board for approval on Tuesday.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

Iran, Oman move to assert control over Strait of Hormuz

The governments of Iran and Oman said Tuesday they are studying the future administration of the Strait of Hormuz, including costs to be charged for services provided.

The two countries bordering the strait emphasized in a joint statement “their sovereignty and sovereign rights over their territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz” and said they will begin discussions on the future administration of navigation in the strait and related services, including “the costs associated with them in accordance with international standards.”

Iran said last week that ships need its permission to cross the waterway and would require an insurance policy to do so, which is free for now but could potentially pave the way for fees down the line.

U.S. allies are pushing the Trump administration to not accept or normalize Iran’s efforts to introduce fees to pass the strait, which would set a dangerous precedent that could be duplicated in other waterways.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] AI data centers hit a new bottleneck: Optical interconnects

As AI data centers scale to handle larger workloads, the physical infrastructure connecting chips inside those facilities has become a limiting factor. Optical interconnects, which use light rather than electrical signals to move data, are increasingly seen as the solution to bandwidth and power constraints at scale.

The shift toward co-packaged optics and silicon photonics is not just a design challenge. It is a manufacturing and testing challenge. Equipment suppliers, test solution providers, and contract manufacturers all play roles in determining how quickly optical interconnect technology can reach high-volume production.

Key publicly traded companies in this supply chain include ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) and Lam Research Corporation (LRCX), both core semiconductor equipment suppliers whose tools are used in advanced chip fabrication. ASM International NV (ASMIY) and Tokyo Electron Limited (TOELY) are also major equipment players in the space. On the components and connectivity side, Credo Technology (CRDO) and MaxLinear (MXL) are among the companies reporting direct revenue exposure to optical data center ramps. Fabrinet (FN) serves as a contract manufacturer for optical and datacom products.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Congress sets Clarity Act hearing on July 17 but Catholic groups warn of risks

The CLARITY Act has advanced through Congress but still faces key hurdles, including securing 60 Senate votes, reconciling differences between committee versions, and final approval by both chambers before reaching the president’s desk.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

$CRBS

Cerebras Systems tumbles as margin worries outweigh OpenAI deal

Cerebras Systems Inc. press release (CBRS): Q1 GAAP EPS of -$0.22 beats by $0.07.

Revenue of $193.41M (+94.4% Y/Y) beats by $12.57M.

Hardware revenue rose 59% year-over-year to $110.6M, while cloud and other services revenue surged 178% year-over-year to come in at $82.8M.

Looking to the fiscal second quarter, Cerebras expects core gross margins to be between 36% and 38%, down from the 47% it generated in the first quarter. Revenue for the second quarter is expected to be $194M, up 88% year-over-year.

The weak guidance overshadowed the aforementioned deal with OpenAI. The multi-year agreement will see OpenAI deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras’s high-speed inference over the next several years. The value of the deal is worth more than $20B, Cerebras explained.

Looking to the rest of fiscal 2026, Cerebras expects revenue to be between $855M and $865M, up 69% year-over-year at the midpoint.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 23, 2026

#SKHY

SK Hynix targets $29.4B raise in historic U.S. listing

The South Korean memory-chip maker expects its shares to begin trading on July 10, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

It plans to apply to list the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SKHY.”

The company reported record first-quarter operating profit of KRW 37.61T ($25.4B), topping analysts’ average estimate of KRW 35.7T. Revenue nearly tripled year over year to KRW 52.58T.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

Uber Eats expands U.S. retail offerings with new brands across multiple categories

The company said consumers can now purchase products from Kiehl’s, FedEx Office, Blick Art Materials, Academy Sports + Outdoors and Choice Pet through the Uber Eats, Uber, and Postmates apps.

Uber (UBER) said the expansion builds on its effort to move beyond food delivery and position Uber Eats as a broader on-demand retail platform offering products including skincare, shipping supplies, sporting goods, and everyday essentials.

Uber (UBER) said the marketplace also includes other major retailers such as Sephora, The Home Depot and Best Buy, with thousands of retail locations added since the start of 2026.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Gold’s central bank takeover is mostly a mark-to-market story

The precious metal’s share of world foreign-exchange reserves has been climbing sharply this year. But a counterfactual line—assuming market prices and no change in gold holdings since March 2009—tracks the actual series closely, according to a JPMorgan Asset Management chart shared by Daily Chartbook.

Notably, the line assuming actual holdings with no change in the gold price since 2009 sits nearly flat below 10%.

The takeaway undercuts a popular narrative around central-bank strategy. While talk of de-dollarization and gold (GLD) accumulation has dominated global finance discussions, the reserve-share move is largely a mark-to-market effect.

As such, Gold’s (GLD) weight in the system has risen because gold got much more expensive, jumping 21% from a year earlier and 130% from five years ago.

Still, that’s not to say that central banks are not buying. China’s monthly gold (GLD) imports reached their highest in more than two years in May, as the world’s biggest buyer continued to show a strong appetite for bullion as prices fell 25% below their early 2026 highs.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

AMD, Arm set to take advantage of CPU rack demand in wake of agentic AI growth: UBS

“We are incrementally more constructive on AMD as standalone CPU racks gain traction, given its advantage in core count, multithreading, and x86’s historically strong software ecosystem for traditional software workloads that are now increasingly part of the agentic AI workloads,” said UBS analysts, led by Timothy Arcuri, in a Wednesday investor report. “We now assume x86/ARM split for standalone segment of the market at 60%/40% x86 vs. ARM and think AMD is in position to capture an outsized share of the incremental demand in light of INTC’s roadmap and supply challenges.”

UBS significantly increased its price target on AMD to $670 from $455. It also increased its CPU revenue estimate for calendar year 2027 to $23B from $21B and 2028’s figure to $29B from $27B.

Meanwhile, UBS substantially hiked its price target for Arm to $470 from $260.

“We maintain the view that ARM architectures will represent ~70% share of a ~20MM unit TAM for head-nodes by C2030 – the real investor debate, in our view, is revenue potential for ARM’s standalone CPU,” Arcuri added. “Following a series of expert calls and industry discussions, we emerge slightly more optimistic about its standalone prospects and are raising our estimates for ARM’s internal CPU slightly from ~$13B to ~$14B in C2030. ARM’s core competency lies in latency and efficiency—which aligns well with hyperscaler needs; however, current limitations in core count/throughput will limit the use of ARM’s internal Gen1 AGI for standalone AI racks because for this application, workloads need to scale across as many cores on a single machine as possible.”

In addition to Arm’s standalone CPU opportunity, UBS finds that Arm’s royalty component for head node applications is also expected to increase.

“We expect royalty rates per device to increase driven by higher core count and royalty per core (the latter likely increasing 2x+ or even 3.5x in our bull case),” Arcuri noted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Worried about U.S. market concentration? Look at rest of world

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

#Anthropic

[Newsletter Exclusive] Anthropic notifies White House that Alibaba attempted to ‘harvest’ US AI capabilities: report

Anthropic (ANTHRO) sent a letter to the White House officials and several U.S. senators this week alleging that Alibaba (BABA) was waging an industrial-sized effort to illictly access its Claude models, according to Bloomberg.

Anthropic explained that between April and June, operators linked to Alibaba’s Qwen AI lab conducted 28.8M exchanges with Claude through about 25,000 fraudulent accounts. It said Chinese labs are attempting to use the mountain of results to develop competing AI models. This tactic is known as adversarial distillation, the report said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 24, 2026

AST SpaceMobile Announces BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13 Orbital Launch in the First Half of August

BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13 feature commercial communications arrays measuring approximately 2,400 square feet, matching the scale of the BlueBird satellites currently operating in orbit. These next-generation satellites are expected to deliver nearly double the peak data speeds of AST SpaceMobile’s initial Block 1 BlueBird satellites, which recently achieved peak download speeds of 98.9 Mbps directly to standard smartphones.

The satellites leverage AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation stackable satellite architecture, including advanced composite carbon structures designed to support efficient multi-satellite launches and accelerated constellation deployment. Combined with the company’s multi-provider launch strategy, the architecture is designed to provide flexibility in deploying AST SpaceMobile’s global constellation.

Link to Businesswire News Article - Jun 23, 2026

#Quantisimo

[Newsletter Exclusive] WISeKey, SEALSQ set up Quantisimo SPV for $575M merger deal

WISeKey International (WKEY) and its subsidiary SEALSQ (LAES) Thursday announced that their jointly established special purpose vehicle, Quantisimo Corp, has entered into a non-binding LOI with GigCapital8 (GIW) to explore the establishment of a Nasdaq-listed strategic quantum technology platform.

The proposed transaction contemplates a business combination between Quantisimo and GigCapital8.

Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company is expected to have a pre-money enterprise value of approximately $575M, subject to customary closing conditions. The parties intend to increase this initial valuation to reach $2B through build-up consolidated acquisitions of up to an additional five quantum companies.

The transaction is currently expected to close during the first quarter of 2027.

Quantisimo was created by WISeKey and SEALSQ to establish a Trusted Quantum Pure-Play platform designed to provide investors with direct exposure to the rapidly emerging quantum economy.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

IBM surges after unveiling new sub-1 nm chip technology

IBM (IBM) unveiled what it called the world’s first sub-1 nanometer, or nm, chip technology, featuring a revolutionary transistor architecture at the 0.7 nm, or 7 angstrom, node.

The new sub-1 nm chip packs nearly 100B transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail, nearly twice the density of IBM’s 2 nm chip, unveiled in 2021.

IBM noted that the new sub-1 nm chips are 70% more efficient, or 50% more powerful, than the 2 nm node chips.

“Today’s popular AI accelerators can produce about 1,500 TOPS (or trillions of operations per second), and IBM researchers estimate one using 7 angstrom technology could deliver about seven times more, or 7,000 TOPS. If 7 angstrom chips were used to train today’s massive, frontier model LLMs, we could drastically cut training time from around three months to a couple weeks,” said IBM in a separate blog post.

The company said that to produce this chip, its researchers developed an entirely new transistor architecture called nanostack, the industry’s first known three-dimensional, nanosheet-based design. Nanostack represents a major advance beyond nanosheet technology, the industry’s current leading-edge architecture, invented by IBM, the company noted.

IBM said that with the expectation of the earliest adoption of nanostack technology at the sub-1 nm node, it sees a path to production in as early as the next five years.

In addition, in new research presented at VLSI 2026, IBM researchers showed that the nanostack architecture provides 40% scaling in Static Random-Access Memory, or SRAM, unlocking the ability of chip designers to create more efficient chips while also supporting the high-bandwidth data demands of advanced AI workloads.

The world’s largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) currently has started volume production of 2 nm chip technology, which features first-generation nanosheet transistor technology. The company is working on A16 and A14 technologies.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] China unveils measures to boost green power use by data centers

China will encourage the direct connection of green power to data center projects as part of its blueprint for building a new energy system between 2026 and 2030.

China has set a new medium-term renewable energy target, aiming for new energy sources to account for 30% of the country’s electricity generation by 2030, according to the “15th Five-Year Plan for Building a New Energy System” jointly released on Thursday by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration.

The plan outlines China’s energy transition roadmap through 2030, with the power ⁠grids expected to have the capacity to integrate ​900M kilowatts of new ​energy.

It targets non-fossil energy to account for 25% of total energy consumption by 2030, while wind and solar power are expected to exceed 50% of installed electricity generation capacity.

Charging infrastructure will be expanded significantly, with the number of charging facilities projected to reach 40M units by 2030, roughly double current levels.

China will support direct green power connection projects for emerging industries, including data centers, energy-intensive sectors subject to green electricity consumption requirements, and export-oriented companies.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Nvidia in focus as banned Blackwell GPUs see price increases in China: Wedbush

Wedbush Securities analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a note to clients: “Sustained willingness to pay 2x for banned Blackwell rather than adopt domestic parts underscores how wide the capability and software-stack gap to Huawei remains, supportive of the broader NVIDIA platform moat even with the China channel formally closed.”

The Financial Times reported that the DGX B300, which contains eight Blackwell GPUs, has seen its price double on the black market since the start of 2026 to roughly $1.1M, compared to $400K stateside. Additionally, the 96GB RTX 6000 PRO Blackwell has seen a rise of more than 2.5 times, to around $14,500 from $5,580 at the start of the year.

Nvidia’s older A100-class parts and modified gaming GPUs have also firmed up in price in China, the news outlet added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

Doncasters prices $919M IPO above range as aerospace supplier bets on defense, AI power

Doncasters (DPC) will make its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after raising approximately $919 million in an initial public offering priced above expectations, marking another milestone in the British aerospace supplier’s turnaround.

The nearly 250-year-old company priced 27.9 million shares at $33 each, topping its marketed range of $28 to $32 per share. The Derby, England-based manufacturer will trade under the ticker symbol DPC (DPC).

For investors, Doncasters (DPC) offers exposure to two of the market’s strongest industrial themes: rising defense spending and surging demand for power generation equipment driven by AI data centers. The company also represents a classic turnaround story, having restructured its balance sheet, modernized its factories and more than doubled revenue over the past several years.

Founded in Sheffield in 1778 as a manufacturer of metal files, Doncasters (DPC) has evolved into a global supplier of precision-engineered components for aerospace engines and industrial gas turbines. Its products include blades, vanes and other high-performance parts designed to withstand extreme temperatures and operating conditions.

While aerospace remains a core market, Doncasters (DPC) is also benefiting from a boom in demand for industrial gas turbines as utilities and technology companies seek additional electricity generation to support the rapid expansion of AI data centers. Those turbines require regular replacement of critical components throughout their operating lives, creating a recurring source of aftermarket demand.

Analysts say the company’s long operating history lends credibility, but its investment appeal is increasingly tied to operational improvements rather than its heritage.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

#NSTR

NorthStar Earth & Space moves toward NYSE listing through SPAC deal

NorthStar Earth & Space (NSTR) has taken another step toward becoming a publicly traded company, filing a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned merger with special purpose acquisition company Viking Acquisition Corp. I (VACI).

The filing advances a previously announced business combination that assigns NorthStar a pre-money equity valuation of $300 million. The transaction also includes a fully committed $30 million private investment in public equity financing led by Cartesian Capital Group.

Once the merger is completed, the combined company is expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NSTR.

NorthStar specializes in Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) — tracking, cataloging, and monitoring objects in orbit to detect threats and enable collision avoidance. More specifically: ZoomInfo

It offers services like maneuver detection and pattern of life analysis, and has demonstrated full custody tracking for the U.S. government — tracking an object as small as 10 cm in orbit over a 26-hour period. Satellite Today

NorthStar integrates ground-based and space-based data to monitor orbital activity and detect threats.

The main commercial SSA players are LeoLabs, Slingshot Aerospace, ExoAnalytic, and NorthStar — all competing in a market historically dominated by defense primes like L3Harris, Lockheed, and RTX.

Key differentiator NorthStar claims: space-based sensors vs. the ground-based radar/optical approach of competitors like LeoLabs (pure radar) and ExoAnalytic (pure optical). Space-based sensors can in theory observe orbital regimes that ground systems view at poor geometries. But with only 4 satellites vs. a planned 96, this is currently aspirational.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

WealthWise Research - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Canadian Solar rises as e-STORAGE secures Florida utility deal

e-STORAGE will deliver a complete, integrated BESS solution, combining its 5 MWh SolBank 3.0 battery packs powered by battery cells manufactured at Canadian Solar’s (CSIQ) facilities, along with the power conversion systems and energy management system.

Once operational, the 426 MWh project will dispatch stored energy during peak demand periods, helping the utility lower energy costs; battery installation is planned for H2 2027 with commercial operation targeted for early 2028.

Earlier this week, Canadian Solar (CSIQ) announced an e-STORAGE supply deal for a 75 MW/381 MWh battery energy storage system for a project in Michigan.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

Firefly Aerospace bets on AI-powered navigation with Space-ng acquisition

Firefly Aerospace (FLY) announced on Thursday the acquisition of Space-ng, an AI-powered navigation firm, to strengthen its capabilities in autonomous space operations for lunar, Martian, and deep-space missions.

The deal adds Space-ng’s vision navigation software, high-resolution spacecraft cameras, and AI compute hardware to Firefly’s portfolio, supporting navigation, docking, and proximity operations without relying on GPS or GNSS.

Firefly plans to deploy the technology across its Blue Ghost lunar landers and Elytra orbital vehicles to support upcoming NASA and defense missions.

Space-ng co-founder and CEO Ethan Rublee will join Firefly as Chief Engineer of Software and lead the company’s spacecraft software development.

Following the transaction, Space-ng will be fully integrated into Firefly, while its navigation and autonomous guidance technologies will continue to be offered to government and commercial customers.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Adobe to acquire Topaz Labs

Adobe (ADBE) announced on Thursday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Topaz Labs, an AI company specializing in video and image enhancement models.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026. After the transaction closes, Topaz Labs CEO Eric Yang will continue to lead the Topaz Labs team.

Adobe highlighted that Topaz Labs provides a broad array of advanced AI models for video and image enhancement that analyze and improve existing visual content by sharpening detail, removing noise, restoring footage, and increasing resolution, making them essential for any workflow that combines real-world capture with AI-generated imagery.

With Topaz Labs, Adobe will expand its video and image model offerings with state-of-the-art AI enhancement models in Adobe Firefly, Firefly Services, and Creative Cloud apps, giving creators, designers, video professionals, photographers, and enterprises the tools to achieve exceptional quality across every format and workflow. Topaz Labs and its AI technology will be integrated across Adobe’s creative AI portfolio.

Adobe added that Topaz Labs customers can expect continued support and investment in future innovation, and Topaz Labs products will remain available as standalone offerings through the company’s website.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

US to ease brake pedal rules for driverless vehicles

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to propose changes to federal vehicle safety standards. This would exempt fully driverless vehicles from requirements for manual brake controls, according to a notice reported by Bloomberg on Thursday.

The proposal would apply only to vehicles built exclusively for autonomous operation. Conventional vehicles would still be required to have brake pedals, while existing standards for vehicles that combine automated driving systems with human driving controls would remain unchanged.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] AI capex cycle signals healthy capital markets funding rather than a late-cycle ‘big top’ – SG’s Manish Kabra

The AI capex cycle has coincided with a significant shift in equity supply dynamics, with the S&P 500 (SP500) share count rising approximately 2.6% since 2023, according to Manish Kabra, head of U.S. equity strategy at Société Générale.

This marks a clear reversal from the 2010s, when the share count declined by roughly 9%, providing a strong tailwind through shrinking equity supply.

The strategist noted that buyback growth is moderating alongside increasing primary and secondary issuance, meaning financial engineering is no longer supporting valuations to the same extent.

Despite the uptick in equity supply, Kabra argues that current issuance levels are not yet a constraint on the bull market. The current pick-up in issuance is more moderate than previous cycles, with share growth stabilizing closer to 1%, he said.

This compares favorably to the 1990s TMT build-out, when share growth ran at approximately 3% annually alongside strong equity returns, according to the strategist.

Kabra points to the 1990s tech cycle as evidence that elevated issuance can persist without signaling a market top. During the late 1990s TMT build-out, IPO (IPO) activity remained elevated for several years, with major listings such as Netscape, Yahoo, Amazon (AMZN), and eBay (EBAY) coming to market alongside sustained equity price gains.

“This phase was defined by strong capital formation and investor demand rather than exhaustion,” according to his analysis.

The turning point in the 1990s only emerged with the rise of large-scale M&A, most notably the AOL–Time Warner deal in early 2000, according to Kabra.

He noted that equity market tops have historically aligned with surges in M&A activity, reflecting peak confidence and late-cycle dynamics. The current environment lacks such a signal, the strategist said.

While IPO activity is recovering, M&A remains subdued with no comparable surge in large or concentrated transactions, according to Kabra.

Both issuance and deal volumes have rebounded from post-2022 lows but remain well below prior cycle peaks in both absolute terms and relative to market capitalization, he said.

This suggests the recent pick-up reflects a reopening of capital markets rather than late-cycle overheating, with conditions still consistent with an ongoing expansion phase rather than a “big top,” according to the strategist.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Samsara has ‘clear AI moat,’ says BNP after key takeaways from Investor Day

“Clear AI moat for Samsara. Management effectively laid out why the company is insulated from the potential disruption posed by AI labs: 1) Lack of appetite by the likes of Anthropic for displacing software in certain markets like physical operations: 2) Advantages posed by its data collection/analysis, which leverages its ability to gain insight from data collected across millions of vehicles; and 3) The accuracy (and likely only mechanism) of ingesting data (hardware collected),” said DeGasperi.

The analyst noted that Samsara announced several new products that will generate consumption revenue.

Firstly, new agents (spanning maintenance, safety, and dispatch). In particular, the company’s new maintenance agent can deliver meaningful Return on Investment, or ROI, to customers through preventative maintenance and warranty cost savings (ROI was mentioned as 8-10x), the analyst noted.

DeGasperi added that their conversations with some executives/customers post-investor day were very bullish on this opportunity. A pricing framework is established but is being fine-tuned post-customer conversations in the last few days, according to the analyst.

Secondly, Bluetooth-powered printable shipping labels. DeGasperi believes this could see meaningful adoption as it tracks shipment of sensitive assets and is relatively low-cost to customers (think AI supply chain components), the analyst added.

In addition, DeGasperi said that innovation is expanding Samsara’s Total Addressable Market, or TAM.

“Management highlighted that $130bn of its $175bn TAM is driven by emerging products. Two were specifically highlighted: Waste Intelligence, which can help companies overcharge by providing insight into customer/driver behavior; and Ground Intelligence, which is leveraging its dash cams to help the public sector leverage that data to fix potholes for example. We would note that both appear to be a result of leveraging previously developed product (AI cameras). We would highlight that multi-cam, a somewhat high ARPU [Average Revenue Per User] product, is seeing meaningful traction in new markets, particularly in theft-prevention/recovery of asset/vehicles,” said DeGasperi.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

Southwest flies first aircraft equipped with Starlink

Southwest Airlines (LUV) flew its first aircraft equipped with Starlink (SPCX) inflight Wi-Fi connectivity on June 22 on a flight between Dallas and Albuquerque.

“This ultra-fast WiFi brings an at-home experience to the air and redefines how customers can stay connected, be productive, and make the most of their time while flying at 35,000 feet,” said Southwest Chief Customer and Brand Officer Tony Roach.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

SpaceX expands into energy infrastructure with Texas pipeline plan

SpaceX (SPCX) plans to begin construction next month on an eight-mile natural gas pipeline that will feed its Starbase launch complex in South Texas, highlighting Elon Musk’s drive to dramatically increase the launch cadence of the company’s Starship rocket, Reuters reported Thursday.

Regulatory filings indicate the pipeline, known as Starpipe, is scheduled to enter service in late January. The project would replace the labor-intensive process of trucking liquid methane to the launch site, giving SpaceX a more efficient fuel supply as it scales Starship operations.

The pipeline also appears to be part of a broader effort by SpaceX (SPCX) to control more of its fuel supply. Company filings and land records show SpaceX (SPCX) has acquired more than 100 oil and gas leases in Texas since 2023, while earlier engineering plans outlined a methane liquefaction facility at Starbase. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has also discussed the possibility of eventually processing, and even producing, the company’s own natural gas.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Lithium producers warm to demand for battery storage as focus shifts from EVs

The lithium industry is growing more optimistic about a market recovery as accelerating demand for battery storage systems helps offset a slowdown in electric vehicles, leading producers said this week at a key industry conference, Reuters reported.

Top producer Albemarle (ALB) said it is seeing steady growth for battery storage, in contrast to lumpy EV demand.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 25, 2026

Infleqtion’s neutral atom quantum approach prompts Outperform initiation from Wedbush

Infleqtion (INFQ) has emerged as the only publicly traded neutral atom play, and the analysts at Wedbush believe it is a compelling way to gain exposure to quantum computing.

“Assuming we are correct in our view that neutral atoms are a viable modality, we see INFQ as meaningfully mispriced: it carries the second-largest revenue base in the public quantum group yet ranks sixth in valuation, a steep discount to several peers that command market values many times INFQ’s despite more modest revenue expectations,” said Wedbush analysts Antoine Legault and Matt Bryson in an investor note.

Wedbush believes the stock is undervalued compared to its peers due to neutral atoms being a less-proven approach compared to trapped-ion and superconducting modalities. Furthermore, many investors perceive Refleqtion as a sensing-only quantum company despite having a full-stack quantum platform.

However, Infleqtion holds high-end partnerships and should benefit from government involvement in the sector.

“The roster is anchored by a deep NVDA relationship (NVQLink, CUDA-Q, both Ising models) and extends to Safran, NASA, Voyager, and DARPA. We expect additional marquee logos, with each acting as a potential catalyst,” Legault said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 26, 2026

Applied Materials’ event focuses on DRAM, and advanced packaging: analysts

“In our view, these insights reflect broader tech trends reshaping the entire semi supply chain,” Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini wrote in a note to clients. “The rising complexity of next-gen DRAM architectures—alongside greater functionality integrated at the system-in-package (SiP)—is driving higher capital intensity. Yet the resulting gains in performance and throughput make these advances incrementally attractive on a cost-benefit basis for end customers. This value creation, in our opinion, supports higher incremental revenue opportunities for the semi-capital equipment (SCE) industry. In short, we see the path toward a $300B WFE being driven not only by higher system shipments but also by rising system prices—a departure from prior cycles, where growth was primarily volume-driven, and in turn, justifying multiple expansion for the SCE sector.”

“We continue to see AMAT as [an] outperformer with strong exposure to leading-edge [foundry/logic] and DRAM,” Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis wrote. “DRAM is increasingly adopting foundry logic technologies (FinFET, CMOS Bonded Array), driving higher process intensity and expanding AMAT’s served market per wafer with the [serviceable address market] rising from $6B at 6F² to $6.5B at 4F² and $7.5B at 3D DRAM per 100k wspm. Incremental revenue opportunities scale to $4B+ or capacitor patterning and $6B+ for periphery/interconnect over the next five years.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 26, 2026

Stock market stays ‘very solid’ thanks to strong earnings amid ‘AI fatigue’ – Ed Yardeni

Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, says the stock market (SP500), (COMP:IND), (DJI) looks “very solid” from an earnings standpoint, pointing to what he calls FEMO—fabulous earnings momentum—as the driving force behind his bullish outlook.

Despite his optimism, Yardeni acknowledged that markets are experiencing what he describes as a “June swoon” in certain sectors.

He attributed this temporary pullback to “AI fatigue,” as investors grow weary of trying to determine how artificial intelligence investments will ultimately pay off. Concerns about Chinese competitors releasing cheaper, open-source AI models have added to the uncertainty.

Yardeni introduced a compelling framework for understanding the long-term value of these investments, arguing that data has become a “fourth factor of production” alongside land, labor, and capital.

“We’re never going to run out of data,” he said. “The more data we can process, the faster we can do it, the cheaper we can do it, the more data we’re going to process.”

Looking ahead, Yardeni expressed confidence that data centers and technology infrastructure will continue to drive economic growth despite periodic bouts of AI fatigue.

“We need these technologies because we’ve discovered that all this data we’ve been sitting on is very, very valuable and can really increase productivity and profitability,” he concluded.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 26, 2026

FuelCell Energy surges as Jefferies upgrades to Buy on data center power upside

Jefferies upgrades shares to Buy from Hold with a $24 price target, raised from $16, pointing to the company’s first contracted order tied to U.S. data center power through its recently announced Fit Energy deal that shifts the investment thesis from speculative to executable on visible backlog.

The 380 MW power supply deal includes an initial 30 MW firm deployment backed by an immediate non-refundable deposit, which at ~$3K/kW pre-ITC implies $90M in near-term revenue and marks FuelCell’s (FCEL) first tangible conversion of pipeline into backlog, Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin Smith says.

The analyst notes that FuelCell (FCEL) trades at ~8x estimated 2030 EV/EBITDA, a steep discount to Bloom Energy’s (BE) 19x multiple, a valuation gap that allows investors to “own a player set to capture meaningful data center market share at a fraction of peer valuations.”

FuelCell’s (FCEL) 5 GW pipeline and 500 MW Torrington expansion materially raise the ceiling, and combined with the recent data center conversion, allow for the upgrade to Buy, confident in the company’s ability to continue to convert further pipeline into actionable backlog, Dumoulin-Smith said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 26, 2026

YouTube:

[The Compound | The Compound and Friends] Too Early to Get Off the Wave | TCAF 248

On episode 248 of The Compound and Friends, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Batnick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Downtown Josh Brown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are joined by Ryan Detrick and Sonu Varghese,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of Carson Group, to discuss the biggest questions facing investors right now: the Fed, inflation, market rotation, Micron’s incredible run, semiconductor demand, small caps, gold, Bitcoin, regional banks, and whether the Mag 7 slowdown is actually bullish for the market.

They also discuss Alan Greenspan’s legacy, Fed transparency, crowded trades, equity issuance, emerging markets, and why this bull market may have more room to run than investors think.

Link to Full Video (01:04 Hours) - Jun 26, 2026

Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

#Anthropic

[News] Anthropic takes latest AI models offline after government directive

Anthropic (ANTHRO) is disabling access to its artificial intelligence models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for all customers after the Trump administration issued a directive to prevent foreign nationals from accessing the latest AI systems on national security grounds.

The export control directive received at 5:21 pm ET applied to any foreign national, including its employees with overseas nationalities, the Amazon (AMZN)-backed AI startup said, adding that access to its other AI models will not be affected.

Discussions between the Trump administration and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy prompted the U.S. to issue a directive preventing foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) latest AI systems, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The CEO said that following a series of prompts, researchers at Amazon (AMZN) managed to get Fable 5 to generate information that could potentially help criminals conduct cyberattacks, and that was supposed to be restricted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 13, 2026

$RYCEY $RYCEF

[News] Rolls-Royce tops GE Vernova as supplier for new small modular reactors in Sweden

Sweden’s state-owned energy company Vattenfall said it selected the U.K. company over GE Vernova (GEV) as the supplier for new small modular reactors to help meet surging power demand in the coming decades.

Borg said Rolls-Royce (RYCEY) (RYCEF) offers an efficient, industrialized concept that reduces the risk of delays, and is based on proven pressurized water reactor technology.

The project includes three reactors of 470 MW each, to be built simultaneously in part, with construction on the second starting before the first is completed, Borg said.

Rolls-Royce (RYCEY) (RYCEF) has said each of its SMRs ‌would ⁠generate enough electricity to power 1M for more than 60 years.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

[News] “This was not easy”: U.S.-Iran peace deal signed in Versailles

U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have signed an MoU aimed at ending hostilities between the countries and includes commitments on Iran’s nuclear program, oil exports, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump signed the long-awaited agreement during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G7 summit at the Palace of Versailles in France. Moments before signing it, Trump said, “This was not easy,” and later raised the document and displayed it to attendees in the room.

The document, formally titled the “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” was signed digitally earlier and was moved up from a Friday ceremony in Switzerland, a diplomatic source told Axios.

As part of the 14-point plan, the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions on Iran, enabling Tehran to increase its oil revenue and access the international banking sector, among other things.

The deal includes Iran’s commitment not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons, an immediate cessation of military operations across all fronts, including Lebanon, and steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial lane for the world’s energy business.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 202

[News] Key details of 14-point plan signed by U.S. and Iran

1. End to conflict on all fronts

The U.S. and Iran, along with their allies, agreed to an immediate and permanent end to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. Both sides pledged not to threaten or use force against one another while preserving Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

2. Respect for internal affairs

Washington and Tehran agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.

3. 60-day deadline for final deal

Both countries committed to negotiating a comprehensive final deal in a maximum of 60 days. The deadline is extendable with mutual consent.

4. U.S. blockade to end

The U.S. will begin removing its naval blockade immediately, with a full withdrawal within 30 days. During this period, vessel traffic will be gradually restored in line with pre-war traffic overseen by Iran. U.S. forces deployed near Iran will also be removed within the same timeframe.

5. Strait of Hormuz reopening

Iran pledged to use its best efforts to ensure the safe, toll-free passage of commercial vessels between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman for 60 days. Commercial shipping will resume immediately, but a full return to normal traffic will take up to 30 days as Iran clears technical and military obstacles. Iran to begin discussions with Oman and other Persian Gulf states on a future framework for managing maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with international law.

6. $300B reconstruction plan

The U.S. and regional partners agreed to support at least $300B in funding for Iran’s reconstruction and economic development. Implementation details are expected to be finalized within 60 days.

7. Lifting of sanctions on Iran

The U.S. committed to removing sanctions imposed on Iran, including U.N. Security Council measures, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors resolutions, and unilateral U.S. sanctions, in a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final deal.

8. Iran’s no-nuclear-weapons pledge

Iran pledged not to procure or develop nuclear weapons. Both sides agreed to resolve “the disposition of stockpiled enriched material, pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon” under a mechanism supervised by the IAEA. Additional discussions on uranium enrichment and Iran’s nuclear requirements will be included in the final agreement.

9. Status quo during negotiations

Until a final agreement is reached, Iran will maintain its current nuclear commitments, while the U.S. will refrain from imposing new sanctions and deploying additional military forces near Iran.

10. Waivers for Iranian exports

The U.S. Treasury Department will issue waivers covering exports of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products, and derivatives, along with associated transportation, insurance, and banking services among others.

11. Unfreezing Iran’s assets

The U.S. will release Iran’s frozen or restricted assets. Both countries will determine the mechanism for releasing the funds during negotiations. The U.S. will issue all necessary licences and authorizations required for the same.

12. Deal implementation mechanism

An executive mechanism will be established to oversee implementation of the memorandum and monitor compliance with the future comprehensive agreement.

13. Start of final negotiations

Formal negotiations on the final agreement will begin once implementation of points 1, 4, 5, 10 and 11 of this memorandum starts and continues.

14. U.N. Security Council endorsement

The final agreement between the U.S. and Iran will be endorsed through a binding United Nations Security Council resolution.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

[News] BWX agrees to license nuclear reactor design to Applied Atomics after activist push

BWX Technologies (BWXT) has agreed to license its previously shelved mPower small modular reactor design to nuclear developer Applied Atomics.

Applied Atomics secured exclusive rights to deploy BWXT’s reactor technology for land-based power generation applications, allowing the company to advance commercialization efforts without BWXT directly developing and operating nuclear plants itself.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

Iran disputes claims of an imminent U.S. peace deal

The United States and Iran appeared to move closer to a framework agreement that could end months of conflict, although Tehran signaled that key issues remain unresolved and hardline factions continue to oppose a deal, Reuters reported Sunday.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissed the idea that a deal will be signed tomorrow but added that it could happen in the coming days.

“We will have to wait and see about the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, although it will not be tomorrow,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, according to Iranian state media.

As part of the deal, the U.S. would release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets while Iran would commit not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons, Reuters reported Sundayt, citing sources familiar with the draft terms.

Despite the diplomatic progress, military tensions remain high. U.S. forces said they intercepted several Iranian drones near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.

Israel also expanded military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they personally ordered the strike, declaring that Israel would not tolerate attacks on its territory.

Under the draft terms, Washington would begin releasing frozen Iranian assets and ease sanctions on Iranian oil exports in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.

The agreement would also launch a 60-day negotiating period focused on Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials said Tehran would maintain current nuclear activities without expanding enrichment or facilities while talks continue.

On Sunday, Trump urges Israel to halt Lebanon strikes as Iran deal talks continue.

“There should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel,” Trump said in a social media post. “This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!”

Several versions of a proposed memorandum of understanding circulated among negotiators, according to reports. While the drafts share common elements, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz, easing restrictions on Iranian oil exports and launching broader talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, key financial provisions remain unresolved.

The draft proposals generally envision an immediate ceasefire, the reopening of commercial shipping routes through the Persian Gulf and the start of negotiations on a longer-term settlement covering Iran’s nuclear activities. The plans also include varying forms of sanctions relief and access to Iranian funds currently restricted abroad.

The most contentious issue appears to be the scale and timing of economic concessions. Some reported versions would provide substantial access to frozen assets and financial support for Iran’s economic recovery, while others tie relief more closely to progress in future negotiations.

A draft reviewed by Bloomberg News included a proposal for a long-term reconstruction and development program worth at least $300 billion if a final agreement is reached. Other reports suggested Iran is seeking the release of tens of billions of dollars in frozen funds as part of the process.

For now, negotiators appear aligned on a framework to halt hostilities and begin broader talks, but significant gaps remain before a final agreement can be completed.

President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to commercial shipping on Friday following the formal signing of a U.S.-Iran peace agreement.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also confirmed that an agreement had been reached, signaling public support from Tehran for the diplomatic breakthrough.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 14, 2026

#Anthropic #Zcash

AI finds critical flaw in Zcash, raising new security fears for crypto investors

A critical vulnerability discovered in the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC-USD) is raising concerns that artificial intelligence could dramatically increase security risks across the crypto industry, Bloomberg News reported Sunday.

The flaw, uncovered with the help of Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) Claude AI model, had remained hidden for more than four years and could have allowed an attacker to create an unlimited number of Zcash (ZEC-USD) tokens. Although the vulnerability was found by a security researcher and patched before it could be exploited, the disclosure triggered a sharp selloff in the cryptocurrency.

The threat is particularly significant in crypto because many blockchain projects rely on open-source software, allowing anyone to inspect the underlying code. Researchers say AI may make it easier for attackers to analyze those systems at scale.

As AI systems become more powerful, investors may need to view cybersecurity risk as an increasingly important factor in evaluating cryptocurrency projects. A protocol’s ability to withstand AI-assisted attacks could become as important as its technology, user growth or token economics.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 14, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] USA Rare Earth commissions hydrometallurgical demonstration facility

USA Rare Earth (USAR) up 5.7% pre-market Monday after announcing the commissioning of its hydrometallurgical demonstration facility in Colorado, with first production of separated oxides targeted for Q3.

USA Rare Earth (USAR) said the opening will position it as one of the few companies outside China capable of producing separated heavy rare earth oxides including dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium, and expand its integrated platform of proprietary technology and capabilities spanning mining, processing and separation, metals, alloys, and magnets.

The facility has launched an initial campaign to de-risk three processing flowsheets in parallel, the company says: ore from Round Top in Texas; third-party mixed rare earth carbonate feedstock, including material from Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine in Brazil; and rare earth magnet swarf recycling.

The company said it expects insights from the campaigns will underpin the Round Top definitive feasibility study, on track for Q4 2026 completion and Q1 2027 publication, and to guide commercial engineering of the planned on-site Round Top processing facility and the anticipated third-party mixed rare earth carbonate processing and magnet swarf recycling facility.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

Generac acquires Illinois facility to expand generator capacity

Generac Holdings (GNRC) said on Monday it acquired a facility in Belvidere, Illinois, to expand packaging capacity for large-megawatt generators amid rising demand from data centers and other critical industries.

The new site will support enclosure assembly and final packaging operations, complementing Generac’s February acquisition of Enercon Engineering.

The facility is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

Robinhood downloads surge with SpaceX IPO

U.S. downloads of the Robinhood (HOOD) app hit 44,259 on Friday, or 65% higher than the app’s highest single day over the past six weeks, according to consumer mobile data analytics firm Apptopia. That figure is also about double its April-through-May daily average.

Total sessions on Friday hit 27M, a third higher than any day in that baseline, Apptopia said. Young users drove the activity. The 18-to-25 cohort ran 7.6 sessions per active device on Friday, up 109% from its six-week norm. Other age groups, by comparison, weren’t nearly as enthusiastic. The 26-to-35 group rose 22%, the 36-45 cohort barely moved, and the 46-plus group was roughly flat, the analytics firm said.

Individual investors poured a record $118M into SpaceX (SPCX) on its first day of trading, marking the largest retail-driven IPO in recent history, according to data from Vanda Research.

SpaceX is the most bought stock by individual investors on Friday, according to VandaTrack data, with net buying running at more than 3.5 times the level of Nvidia (NVDA), which is second, the report said. Retail turnover in SPCX had already reached $453M, representing roughly 4% of all single-stock retail turnover on the day.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

KeyBanc turns bullish on Rocket Lab, Firefly after SpaceX IPO shakeout

According to KeyBank analyst Michael Leshock, the factors driving growth across the space economy have strengthened rather than weakened. These include rising demand for satellite constellations, a shortage of launch capacity, expanding U.S. defense spending on space systems, growing NASA activity and increasing national-security investment in orbital infrastructure.

The firm’s analysis suggests the launch market could remain undersupplied for more than a decade, even if SpaceX’s Starship program achieves its ambitious goals. KeyBanc believes much of Starship’s future capacity will be used internally by SpaceX while Falcon 9 is gradually retired, creating opportunities for competing launch providers.

Rocket Lab seen as SpaceX’s closest challenger

KeyBanc described Rocket Lab (RKLB) as the clear No. 2 player in the commercial space sector and said the company could follow a growth trajectory similar to SpaceX (SPCX) over time. The firm highlighted Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle, its upcoming medium-lift Neutron rocket and the company’s extensive vertical integration.

Leshock noted that Rocket Lab has completed roughly 90 successful Electron missions and said recent visibility into the Neutron program has improved after a testing issue earlier this year was resolved.

The analyst also pointed to Rocket Lab’s growing backlog, which exceeded $2.2 billion at the end of the first quarter, and cited potential upside from future contract awards, including NASA’s Mars Telecommunications Orbiter program.

Another near-term catalyst could arrive later this month when Rocket Lab joins the Nasdaq-100 Index on June 22.

Firefly gains leverage to lunar ambitions

KeyBanc also upgraded Firefly Aerospace (FLY), citing the company’s growing role in NASA’s lunar exploration efforts and its expanding launch business. The firm raised revenue forecasts after Firefly secured a recent $75 million NASA MoonFall contract.

A key attraction is Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, which KeyBanc said remains the only commercially developed lander to complete a fully successful Moon landing. The analyst said Firefly could benefit if NASA follows through on plans to increase lunar mission cadence beginning in 2027.

The report also highlighted Firefly’s SciTec missile-tracking software business, which supports Pentagon programs and tracked approximately 1,000 missiles during the first month of the Iran conflict, according to the company.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

D-Wave Quantum jumps as Mizuho ups price target after analyst day

Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh said there were four key takeaways at the analyst day: an updated gate roadmap, that goes out to include 10 logical qubits by 2030 and could hit 100 by 2032; an annealing and superconducting roadmap that addresses a total addressable market of $450B to $850B by 2040, with gate potentially addressing 75% of that; less than 5 quantum error correction cycle times and better scaling compared to other approaches; and a long-term gross margin target for quantum computing-as-a-service of 65% to 75%, while professional services and computing systems could be between 40% and 50% and 75% and 90%, respectively.

“With QBTS looking to increase system sales, we see potential for strong margin tailwinds above the current ~71% GM, while R&D is expected to remain the biggest driver of Opex as QBTS ramps towards 10LQ by 2030E with its superconducting roadmap,” Rakesh explained. “We also believe that QBTS expects to see $25-30M/yr per system in its QCaaS, with four systems now running in the cloud... We see QBTS leading in optimization workloads while gate-based QC is now accelerating with the QCI acquisition and dual-rail qubits, cementing QBTS as the only dual-platform QC company.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Netflix expands iHeartMedia video podcast deal with new slate of celebrity-led shows

The latest additions include “Suite 305 with Lele Pons,” “The Martha Stewart Podcast,” and “Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson,” which will be available as video shows on Netflix (NFLX) alongside new episodes and selected library content from each series.

Netflix (NFLX) and iHeartMedia (IHRT) said the partnership also includes a live video version of “The Breakfast Club,” which airs weekday mornings and features extended content, behind-the-scenes segments, and additional material exclusive to Netflix (NFLX) viewers.

Under the agreement, iHeartMedia (IHRT) retains audio-only rights and distribution for all included podcasts, which will continue to be available across iHeartRadio and other podcast platforms. The companies said the new shows will begin rolling out on Netflix (NFLX) in the coming months, as part of an effort to expand video podcast offerings and attract audiences interested in personality-driven, conversation-focused content.

The announcement comes as Netflix (NFLX) continues to broaden its non-traditional content formats, while iHeartMedia (IHRT) expands the reach of its podcast portfolio through video distribution partnerships.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

Stride falls after Texas school district decides not to renew contract

Stride Inc. (LRN) dropped 7.8% after the Texas Roscoe School district decided not to renew LRN’s contract to operate grades K-8 at the Lone Star Online Academy for the upcoming school year.

“Though data is limited, LSOA is one of LRN’s largest schools, representing roughly 5% of LRN’s FY2025’s enrollment,” BMO analyst Jeff Silber wrote in a note on Monday. Silber has a market perform rating and $102 price target on Stride.

Shares of Stride have plunged 37% over the past year. LRN has a short interest of 16%.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

AMD stock rallies after MEXT acquisition; targets AI memory bottleneck

The acquisition is aimed at solving one of the biggest pain points in modern centers—memory constraints as AI and data-heavy workloads continue to grow rapidly. Companies are struggling with limited memory access, which slows performance and increases costs.

According to the company announcement, MEXT’s technology helps make flash storage behave more like DRAM. In simple terms, this will strengthen AMD’s AI and data center portfolio.

It will help customers deploy workloads more efficiently and at a lower total cost. The addition of MEXT’s engineering talent is also expected to support the company’s future scaling needs in enterprise and cloud computing.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

HP Enterprise collaborating with companies to advance quantum computing

The collaborations will be with Intel (INTC), IQM, Qblow, Quantinuum (QNT), QuEra Computing, Quantum Machines, Rigetti (RGTI), and Riverlane, HP Enterprise added. The disclosure was made at its annual HPE Discover event in Las Vegas.

“By bringing supercomputing and quantum technologies together in a hybrid platform, we will accelerate the transition from research to real-world application,” said Trish Damkroger, senior vice president and general manager, HPC & AI Infrastructure Solutions at HPE.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Applied Materials unveils deposition, selective etch systems to advance 3D chip scaling

The new deposition and etch systems will help chipmakers extend scaling in logic and memory to deliver higher performance, improved energy efficiency, and better manufacturing yield for next-generation AI chips, the company said.

Applied said that the surge in AI compute is accelerating the industry’s transition to advanced 3D device architectures, including gate-all-around transistors and high-layer-count 3D NAND, and to help address this challenge, it has introduced Centris Spectral SiN ALD and Producer Selectra Mo Etch.

Centris Spectral SiN ALD leverages microwave plasma technology to deliver uniform silicon nitride deposition in challenging 3D structures, while Producer Selectra Mo Etch selectively removes molybdenum for wordline separation to enable 3D NAND scaling.

The company said the new systems are being used by leading logic and memory chipmakers for advanced node manufacturing.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] U.S., Iran agree Strait of Hormuz will be toll-free for 60 days, but after is unclear

Both sides appear to be in agreement that the interim deal will see “the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” as President Trump says, but Iran’s semi-official state media Tasnim News Agency reported that the country would “begin charging ships for services” after the 60-day period.

Trump said the agreement will mean the strait will ultimately be “permanently toll-free,” and a senior U.S. official told reporters Monday, according to Bloomberg, that “we’re quite explicit in [the text of the deal] that the straits will be open toll-free for 60 days, and we expect that to become part of the final agreement.”

Regardless, the Hormuz reopening will take time, with flows returning to more than 50% “maybe within a month,” Neil Crosby of Sparta Commodities said in a note, adding that price risk is skewed heavily to the upside following the day’s selloff as “a lot can still go wrong,” while there is limited extra downside if all goes according to plan.

“Even if the rest of the politics stays on track, the vessels still physically trapped inside the Persian Gulf may find it slow going to exit,” Crosby wrote. “There is also the question of sweeping for mines, which also won’t be quick.”

Nearly 300 vessels loaded with cargo are waiting to exit the Persian Gulf, with roughly the same number of empty ships waiting to head into the region and pick up goods, according to data from intelligence firm Kpler.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 15, 2026

Ballard Power lands second major 15 MW stationary power order

Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) Monday reported an order totaling 15 megawatts (MW) of fuel cell systems for stationary applications from a company specializing in renewable off-grid power generation.

The order, comprising 150 FCmove®-HD+ 100 kW fuel cell modules, marks the second order of this scale from the customer, following a similar order placed in 2024, the company said.

Deliveries are expected to start in the second half of 2026 and will be used in hydrogen gensets for applications ranging from live events, construction, and movie sets to critical infrastructure.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 16, 2026

Mobileye to launch Robotaxi service in the U.S. by 2027

Mobileye (MBLY) on Tuesday said it plans to launch its own autonomous ride-hailing service in a U.S. city in 2027, expanding beyond supplying self-driving technology to operating robotaxi fleets directly.

The company aims to deploy around 100 driverless vehicles initially, with plans to scale to about 17,000 vehicles over the following five years.

The service will combine Mobileye Drive, the company’s autonomous driving system, with mobility tools from its subsidiary Moovit, including rider apps, fleet management, and trip planning.

Mobileye said the new business will operate alongside its existing model of supplying self-driving technology to automakers and mobility providers.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 16, 2026

Eos Energy surges after starting commercial production at second Pennsylvania battery plant

Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE) up 12.2% in early trading Tuesday after saying it started commercial production at its Thorn Hill manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania following the successful completion of site acceptance testing for Battery Line 2.

Eos Energy (EOSE) said Line 2 will ramp throughout the year, with sub-assemblies coming online in early Q3 and full production targeted for Q4 2026.

Together with Line 1 surpassing its FY 2025 production in just the first 164 days of 2026, the launch of Line 2 establishes a proven blueprint for future capacity additions while advancing Eos toward its goal of reaching 4 GWh/year of manufacturing capacity by year-end 2026, the company said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 16, 2026

SpaceX stock extends post-IPO rally, up 17% on $60B Cursor merger

SpaceX (SPCX) shares jumped 17% on Tuesday after the newly public aerospace giant announced a $60B acquisition of Anysphere, the startup behind the AI coding assistant Cursor. The move significantly expands Elon Musk’s tech empire into enterprise AI, extending a stellar post-IPO rally that has already pushed the company’s market cap past $2.8T.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 16, 2026

GE Vernova signs deal to rebuild Venezuelan power grid

Venezuela’s government signed a memorandum of understanding Monday with GE Vernova (GEV) and state-owned utility Corpoelec to repair, modernize, and stabilize the country’s struggling national power grid, aiming to restore 1K MW of generating capacity over the next 24 months and more than 5K MW within 4-5 years.

The MoU, signed by Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, comes shortly after the National Assembly approved reforms to the country’s electricity law that create a new framework that allows foreign investment in the sector after 15 years of an exclusive state monopoly.

The Guri hydroelectric plant, which supplies ~70% of Venezuela’s electricity, has suffered significant wear because of a lack of original replacement parts.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 16, 2026

Uber, Stellantis team up with Wayve for L4 autonomous rides

Stellantis (STLA), Wayve, and Uber (UBER) are collaborating to develop and deploy L4 driverless mobility services.

It also builds on the companies’ existing strategic relationships, including Stellantis and Wayve’s recent L2++ agreement, and Wayve and Uber’s partnership to deploy autonomous rides in London, Tokyo, and ten other cities around the world starting this year.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

WeRide and Uber expand robotaxi service to Zurich as European expansion continues

WeRide (WRD) and Uber (UBER) announced plans on Wednesday to launch a commercial robotaxi service in the Greater Zurich Region this year, marking their second European deployment shortly after Madrid and their first joint launch in Switzerland.

Zurich will become one of five cities where the partners operate robotaxi services under their broader agreement to roll out autonomous ride-hailing in 15 cities globally by 2030.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

See the robotaxi that Uber, Lucid, and Nuro are bringing to Houston

Uber (UBER), Nuro, and Lucid (LCID) announced on Wednesday that they have selected Houston as the second planned market for their autonomous robotaxi program, following an initial launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year. The companies expect to roll out the Houston service in the middle part of 2027, with rides available exclusively through the Uber (UBER) platform and a longer-term ambition to scale the program to dozens of markets with a minimum of 35K vehicles globally over time.

As part of the planned rollout, Nuro is already running autonomous on-road tests with safety operators in Houston as part of a multi-layered validation process that includes simulation, closed-course trials, and supervised public-road testing. Nearly 100 vehicles across California and Texas currently support this engineering fleet on a 24/7 basis, and the fleet will grow as Lucid (LICD) begins building the first production validation robotaxis at its Arizona plant for further safety testing and regulatory homologation.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

Aehr jumps on receiving follow-on order from ‘major’ silicon photonics customer

Aehr Test Systems (AEHR) shares rose nearly 12% premarket on Wednesday after the company said it has received a follow-on production order for a fully automated FOX-XP wafer-level burn-in system.

The system is configured to test nine wafers in parallel and includes a fully integrated WaferPak Auto Aligner and a full set of FOX WaferPak Contactors, the company said.

The system is scheduled for delivery within the next six months.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

Citi bullish on NAND equipment demand; lifts PTs for AMAT, LRCX, KLAC

The brokerage said a widening gap between required DRAM and available supply helps adoption of complementary solutions such as KV cache off-loading.

“We now see bull case WFE of ~$145Bn/$200Bn/$250Bn in 2026/27/28, implying another solid 25% growth in 2028. We are more constructive on 2028 WFE given continued capacity constraints and expansion at both TSMC and memory makers, as well as recent progress at Intel and Samsung foundries,” said Citi analysts.

Delving deep. Citi said that the rise of agentic AI is driving a “structural increase” in NAND demand as memory requirements surge and DRAM supply tightens.

“Multi-step inference workflows are dramatically expanding KV cache footprints, pushing total memory requirements well beyond what high-cost HBM and DRAM can efficiently support, especially in an environment of constrained DRAM supply and elevated pricing… Rather than indicating weaker demand, this underscores a widening gap between required and available memory, and we are seeing companies accelerating the adoption of complementary solutions as a result, such as KV cache offloading, where intermediate model state is shifted to lower-cost, higher-capacity storage tiers.”

Coupled with ongoing innovation in high-performance NAND such as HBF and XL-Flash, we view this transition as structurally positive for NAND demand, as both cloud computing and on-device applications increasingly rely on NAND to scale capacity, manage costs, and support the growing complexity of agentic AI workloads, Citi noted.

Going forward, Citi introduced CY28 estimates for AMAT, LRCX, and KLAC and increased price targets based on CY28 earnings power.

Citi lifted PT to $710 from $550 on AMAT and said it models total revenue growth of 30%/22% Y/Y in CY27/28, including 35%/25% from Silicon and 14%/13% from AGS.

The analysts increased PT on LRCX to $450 from $315. “We total revenue growth of 28%/22% Y/Y in CY27/28, including 36%/25% from Systems and 12%/13% from CSBG.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

Eos Energy enters Germany through 750 MWh supply deal

Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE) up 5.3% pre-market Wednesday after announcing a binding master supply agreement with CAPAC Energy for energy storage system deployments in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Eos Energy (EOSE) said the agreement expands an existing customer relationship into a long-term commercial framework extending through 2031 and establishes a 750 MWh capacity commitment with potential to scale up to 2 GWh and designates CAPAC Energy as Eos Energy’s exclusive distribution partner in the Germany, Austria. and Switzerland region.

CAPAC Energy is advancing construction of its first Eos Energy (EOSE) projects in Germany with commercial operations targeted for late 2026, and the new agreement establishes a structured framework for future deployments, enabling project-by-project execution through call-off orders under the master supply agreement.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

Arm, AMD and Intel see bullish views at Bernstein as agentic AI boosts server CPU demand

The firm increased Arm’s price target to $500 from $300 while keeping its Outperform rating on the stock.

Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) price target was boosted to $600 from $525, and its Outperform rating was maintained.

“The shift from gen AI paradigm from 1.0 (chatbot) to 2.0 (agent) greatly increases server CPU demand,” said analysts led by David Dai. “Agentic AI involves heavily autonomous task orchestration and execution, which boosts the CPU workload vs. GPU. With the shift from chatbot to agentic AI, the CPU:GPU ratio for AI data center is surging from 1:4 or 1:8 to 1:1 or higher.”

The analysts noted that they have raised the server CPU TAM to $223B from $137B in 2030 in the base case, six times the 2025 TAM of $37B. This assumes $3.5T of AI data center capex and a 1:1 CPU:GPU pairing ratio for inference.

The analysts added that their previous forecast of $137B is now the bear case (assuming $3T AI capex, 1:2 CPU:GPU), while the upside now is at $330B ($4T AI capex, 1.5:1 CPU:GPU).

“Raising Arm PT to $500, as Arm is the structural beneficiary of the renaissance of CPUs for agentic AI. Arm architecture is suitable for agentic AI workload given its unparalleled power efficiency. In addition, Arm is shifting from just IP provider to CPU maker, aiming to capture $15bn revenue by CY2030, but we now forecast $22bn as we revise CPU TAM to $223bn in 2030 (from $137bn),” said Dai and his team.

In addition, the analysts said that AMD and Intel should benefit from stronger and more sustained server demand, though AMD’s products remain superior for now, and they believe it will continue their share gain trajectory.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

Amazon exec DeSantis predicts commercial quantum computing within 5-7 years

“I actually do believe, over the next five-to-seven years, we’re going to start to see the first commercially useful small-scale quantum computers,” Amazon’s (AMZN) top artificial intelligence executive Peter DeSantis told CNBC on Wednesday

“From there, we’re going to see something that looks a lot like Moore’s Law, where they’re going to get bigger and bigger every year, and they’re going to be able to tackle more and more interesting problems,” he said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

AST SpaceMobile stock climbs 6% on successful launch of BlueBird satellites

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) Wednesday reported the successful orbital launch of its BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10 satellites.

BlueBird satellites are the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit, measuring approximately 2,400 square feet, for government and commercial use, the company said.

“This first stacked launch is just the beginning,” CEO Abel Avellan said. “BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13 will ship shortly for our next launch, while next-generation BlueBird satellites through BlueBird 37 are already in active production and assembly”.

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) has agreements with nearly 60 mobile network operators globally representing more than 3 billion subscribers combined, together with strategic partnerships with AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten, Google, Bell, Telus, stc Group, and American Tower.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 17, 2026

Nvidia takes No. 1 spot in data center ethernet switching by revenue in Q1: IDC

In the first quarter of 2026, the worldwide Ethernet switch market surged 39.8% year over year to $15.4B, according to IDC’s Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker.

The research firm noted that the data center segment, which covers high-speed switching infrastructure inside hyperscale and enterprise data centers, soared 61% year over year to $10B, fueled by AI infrastructure investments for AI inferencing and training workloads at scale.

In a landmark shift, Nvidia became the number one vendor by revenue in data center Ethernet switching for the first time.

IDC data shows that with 192.7% year over year growth and $2.1B in quarterly revenue, Nvidia’s Spectrum-X platform has captured hyperscaler and enterprise demand for AI factory network infrastructure through integrated co-design across Graphics Processing Units, or GPUs, and networking. This structural shift is redrawing vendors standing across the data center networking industry, the firm noted.

Nvidia now has 21.5% share of the data center segment. The company’s Spectrum-X platform, an end-to-end AI networking solution that integrates Spectrum Ethernet switches with BlueField DPUs and NVIDIA LinkX cables, purpose-built for large-scale GPU clusters, has emerged as the preferred network interconnect for large-scale AI training, winning significant traction with hyperscalers and AI-native cloud providers building AI factories.

With 92% of its Ethernet switch revenues in the data center segment, Arista’s revenues grew 37.3% year over year in first quarter of 2026 to $2.2B. Arista holds a 14.6% share of the total Ethernet switch market and 20.7% in the data center segment, maintaining strong positioning in 400G and 800G deployments with hyperscale customers, according to IDC.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

D-Wave climbs on new error-aware quantum simulator

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) shares rose 3.5% on Thursday after the company announced its forthcoming gate-model quantum computing simulator, which is expected to be the first of its kind designed for error-aware programming.

The announcement marks the next step in D-Wave’s gate-model roadmap and comes just weeks after the Company outlined its differentiated approach to fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Built around D-Wave’s dual-rail technology, the simulator is expected to enable error-aware programming, giving developers visibility into errors so they can design applications and workflows that respond to real processor behavior.

D-Wave will offer new quantum development bundles that provide access to its forthcoming gate-model quantum simulator and systems, it said in a statement, adding pricing is available upon request.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Oklo, Centrus Energy surge after signing LOI for Aurora nuclear fuel supply

Oklo (OKLO) up 4% and Centrus Energy (LEU) up 9.6% pre-market Thursday after the companies signed a letter of intent in which Centrus would supply high-assay low-enriched uranium to power as many as five Aurora powerhouses for multiple years, with deliveries to Oklo scheduled to begin in 2029.

Centrus (LEU) would supply HALEU from its American Centrifuge Plant in Ohio to support Oklo’s (OKLO) planned 1.2 GW power campus in the region.

The LOI could include prepayments from Oklo (OKLO) to Centrus (LEU) to support fuel supply for Oklo’s planned campus buildout and will be further negotiated in a future definitive agreement.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Energy Fuels surges as Pentagon signs $725M loan to boost rare earth production

Energy Fuels (UUUU) up 16.3% pre-market Thursday after the Trump administration said it signed a $725M conditional loan commitment to scale the company’s domestic rare earth processing operations as part of its efforts to reduce reliance on China.

Energy Fuels (UUUU), which specializes in uranium production, ​will expand its operations into rare earth ​separation and metallization, the U.S. Department of ​War’s Office of Strategic Capital said.

The company must ​fulfill financial, ​legal, technical, ⁠and other due diligence requirements as part of the conditional loan agreement, the ​OSC said, without providing specifics.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Eos Energy wins first order under Frontier Power agreement; shares up 25% this week

Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE) up 9.2% pre-market Thursday after saying it received the first purchase order under the 2 GWh capacity reservation agreement supporting Frontier Power USA’s Redbird project, a battery energy storage system using Eos Energy’s Z3 technology.

Developed for the ERCOT market, the Redbird project was previously approved under a joint development agreement with Eos Energy (EOSE); Frontier Power USA and its affiliates have acquired and will provide 100% of the equity for construction of the Redbird project.

Designed as a four-hour system, Redbird is expected to provide dispatchable storage capacity in ERCOT, supporting energy shifting, ancillary services, and overall grid reliability, and is positioned to serve forecasted load growth and ERCOT market requirements, the companies said.

With the new order, the company said it has now fulfilled nearly 50% of the 1 GWh Bridgelink master supply agreement, while further advancing an additional development pipeline of 12 GWh across ERCOT, PJM, CAISO, and MISO.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Micron Technology rises as Wedbush and Stifel raise price targets on AI-driven demand

Stifel analyst Brian Chin highlighted, “Though we expect the pace of further ASP increase for conventional DRAM to moderate, we believe the key battleground/negotiation point is for HBM, which our checks suggest could be revised up meaningfully (50%+ year over year) for 2027, with increased agentic AI demand (related to CPU strength) for LPDDR5/DDR5 serving as a key leverage point for suppliers, like Micron.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Arista sees bullish views at KeyBanc on AI demand

“We are raising our ANET PT to $200 following meetings with the Company that we think confirmed exceptional demand, a key catalyst coming from XPU, and an additional catalyst coming from Inference. We think supply concerns and deferred revenue confusion have been largely addressed, and both seem more transitory debates in the context of a secular demand profile,” said analyst Brandon Nispel. “When we put it together, we think ANET’s revenue growth outlook (~28% in ‘26) appears intact, and when we think about the bull case next year, potentially in a similar range, we think the stock arguably is inexpensive.”

In addition, the analyst said that XPU scaling should benefit Arista’s AI trajectory.

XPU is a blanket term for the various types of specialized AI accelerators that are increasingly being used in data centers. While GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are the most well-known, the term “XPU” is used to refer to any compute architecture optimized for specific workloads, such as AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing including TPUs (Tensor Processing Units), NPUs (Neural Processing Units), IPUs (Intelligent Processing Units), and DPUs (Data Processing Units), as well as custom-built silicon from large cloud providers.

Nispel said that with most GPUs/accelerators being dominated by Nvidia (NVDA), and Nvidia taking a closed ecosystem full-rack approach integrating networking, they think this has proven challenging for networking vendors. The analyst thinks the rise of XPUs from the hyperscales and large language model, or LLM, providers is likely to create an opportunity for an open-networking ecosystem.

“ANET indicated it agreed with this thesis; whereas XPU capacity comes online, ANET’s will likely have a better chance to compete for business where its win-share is likely higher in XPUs compared to Nvidia GPUs. We see this as a structural tailwind likely to play out over the next several years,” said Nispel.

The analyst noted that the 1.6T switch represents the start of a new architecture and a continuation of AI growth. Arista announced the 1.6T (7060XE7) switch last week, with availability beginning in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027.

Nispel sees this announcement as providing evidence of an expanding Total Addressable Market, or TAM, through a new use case in scale-up, rack-scale system architecture, and liquid cooling. The analyst added that the product is seen as a 2027 opportunity that they think should be beneficial to Arista’s $3.5B AI revenue targets in 2026.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Synopsys rolls out ‘Multiphysics Fusion platform’ for advanced AI chips

Synopsys (SNPS) announced on June 17 the launch of its new Multiphysics Fusion platform, combining its AI-powered chip design tools with Ansys analysis technology to help customers develop advanced AI chips faster.

The platform delivers up to 3x faster timing signoff and up to 10x faster design closure. This technology has been validated by NVIDIA (NVDA), Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), MediaTek, and Cisco Systems (CSCO).

The company said growing chip complexity and challenges involving signal integrity, power, thermal effects, and multi-die architectures are increasing the need for a unified design approach.

Early users are already seeing benefits, with MediaTek reporting runtimes that were 10 times faster than before, while NVIDIA said pilot designs achieved up to 5x faster design closure and as much as 86% IR fix rates.

The first Multiphysics Fusion solutions cover timing signoff, design closure, multi-die designs, and analog and photonic workflows.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Enphase Energy upgraded at Barclays on emerging SST-driven data center upside

Barclays upgrades Enphase (ENPH) to Equal Weight from Underweight with a $51 price target, raised from $30, citing the company’s solid-state transformer initiative as representing a credible entry point into the evolving data center power stack.

As hyperscalers migrate toward 800V DC architectures to support higher rack densities, SSTs are expected to become a core component, replacing or displacing traditional transformers, UPS systems, and PDUs, and unlike legacy hardware, SSTs resemble inverters in functionality—leveraging active power conversion and control—which plays directly to Enphase’s (ENPH) technical strengths, Barclays analyst Christine Cho writes.

Such an architectural shift could disrupt dominance by Vertiv, Schneider, and Eaton—which currently comprise ~45% market share—particularly as newer entrants appear further along in development, the analyst says, adding that if Enphase (ENPH) and SolarEdge (SEDG) maintain their design lead, they could capture early share as 800V data centers begin scaling meaningfully into 2028-29, creating a foothold in a large, adjacent market.

Despite longer-term optimism, Cho says Enphase’s (ENPH) near-term core business outlook remains weak, with near-term fundamentals still challenged, driven primarily by structural changes to U.S. residential solar economics, and the elimination of the Section 25D tax credit has disproportionately impacted Enphase’s core cash and loan customer base, accelerating share losses to TPO-heavy competitors such as SolarEdge (SEDG).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 18, 2026

Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.

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[News] Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says firm approved as underwriter, eyes IPO disruption

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) has drawn attention after CEO and Co-Founder Vlad Tenev said via X that, “Robinhood Securities is now approved to serve as an underwriter.”

This move could be meaningful for the stock as it expands the company’s role from a trading platform to IPO underwriting, potentially unlocking higher-fee revenue streams and strengthening its position in capital markets.

Since IPO Access launched in 2021, retail participation in IPOs has shifted from an afterthought to a core allocation strategy, moving the debate from “why allocate to retail at all” to “how big can the allocation be.”

Tenev added that becoming an underwriter, not just a selling group member, is a natural step to better serve customers and issuers, with the company aiming to be disruptive in the space.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

[News] Solar overtakes coal in U.S. electricity mix in May

Solar has overtaken coal in U.S. electricity generation for the first month on record, according to official monthly and hourly generation data analyzed by think tank Ember.

Solar supplied a record 12.8% of U.S. electricity in May, while coal fell to 12.2% – its fourth-lowest monthly share ever. Natural gas remains the dominant electric source, accounting for 37% of the electricity mix in May.

Coal generation’s share in the U.S. electricity mix has declined 38% in the past five years, while solar power’s share has more than doubled over the same period.

Solar generated an all-time high total of 45.5 terawatt-hours (TWh), up 17% Y/Y, surpassing the previous record set in July 2025. This record could be broken again in the coming summer months, Ember noted.

The U.S. added 7.8 gigawatts of new solar capacity in the first quarter, according to a separate report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

[News] Volvo to remove safety drivers in autonomous trucks in 2027 in partnership with Aurora

Volvo Autonomous Solutions announced that it will remove the safety driver and go fully driverless on U.S. highways during the first quarter of 2027 with the Volvo VNL Autonomous integrated with Aurora Innovation’s (AUR) Aurora Driver platform.

Volvo (VOLAF) (VLVLY) (VOLVF) highlighted that it can take up to four days to travel from California to New York. However, with autonomous transport, that trip can be shortened to two days.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

[News] Tesla wins Belgium, Denmark clearance for FSD supervised software

Tesla (TSLA) has received approval to offer its Full Self-Driving supervised driver-assistance software in Belgium after completing a series of tests in the country.

The decision makes Belgium the fifth EU country to authorize Tesla’s (TSLA) FSD supervised system, following approvals in the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark. Denmark approved Tesla’s (TSLA) FSD suite on Tuesday.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

[News] U.S. becomes world’s top oil exporter, breaking Saudi-Russian decades-long grip

The U.S. has surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest oil exporter, in a sharp reversal after decades of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

Aided by disruptions in Saudi oil exports from the Iran war and Russian oil exports from Ukrainian drone attacks, the U.S. was the top global exporter for the third month in a row in May, Reuters reported Thursday, supported by data from the Vortexa ship tracking service shows.

U.S. exports of crude and fuel climbed to ~10.5M bbl/day last month amid strong production and the release of strategic reserves, while Russian exports totaled 7M bbl/day and Saudi exports slid to 5.9M bbl/day.

In 2025, Saudi Arabia exported ~8.1M bbl/day, while the U.S. shipped out 6.6M bbl/day, and Russian exports totaled ~5.8M bbl/day, according to Vortexa.

Crude and liquids output in the U.S. has nearly tripled to ~22M bbl/day since 2000, Saudi crude and liquids output has largely fluctuated in the 10M-12M bbl/day range depending on OPEC quotas between 2000 and 2026, and Russian output has largely stagnated and declined to below 10M bbl/day since 2020.

The U.S. in 2015 repealed a 40-year export ban it had maintained since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, opening the gates for its oil boom to the wider world, and now leads the world, countering skeptics who warned that the growth would be short-lived as fields deplete.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

[News] Trump says Iran deal could be signed this weekend in Europe; Tehran yet to decide

When asked by a reporter whether Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had approved the deal, Trump said, “I understand the answer is yes.”

However, Iran swiftly tempered expectations. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said no final decision had been taken on any agreement with Washington. He added that large portions of the negotiating text had been completed but said no final conclusion had been reached.

Baghaei said the matter remained under review by Iranian decision-making bodies and accused Washington of repeatedly changing its positions during negotiations.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “we have not yet reached a conclusion on this matter,” while acknowledging progress in efforts to end the conflict.

Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly touted progress toward a deal with Iran, but continued military exchanges this week have underscored the challenges facing negotiations and strained an already fragile ceasefire reached in April.

Despite reports of a potential U.S.-Iran agreement that would require a ceasefire in Lebanon and troop withdrawals, Israel has rejected the terms, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that Israel is not a party to the negotiations and will not be bound by any deal. Defense Minister Israel Katz reaffirmed that Israeli forces will remain in security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, signaling that Israel intends to continue its military operations independently of any agreement between Washington and Tehran.

The United Arab Emirates plans to provide at least $10B to Iran, according to Reuters

Citing sources, the news service said that the figure could grow to as much as $20B. More than $3B has already been released.

The deal was made in exchange for Iran agreeing not to attack the Gulf state.

The money is coming from frozen Iranian oil revenues.

Amid these broader geopolitical tensions, three Indian sailors were killed when the US military conducted a precision strike on the Palau-flagged commercial oil tanker MT Settebello in the Gulf of Oman. The United States justified the deadly strike by claiming the vessel repeatedly failed to follow directions and was violating an American naval blockade to transport Iranian oil

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

WealthWise Research - Jun 12, 2026

[News] SpaceX makes historic debut

SpaceX makes historic debut: SpaceX (SPCX) shares officially opened on the Nasdaq at $150, an 11% gain from the $135 IPO price, in what became the most valuable company ever to go public with an initial valuation of $1.75T.

Shares ended the day at $160.95, up 19.2%, after touching a high of $176.52 earlier in the session.

The offering raised $75B and was oversubscribed by a factor of four, with more than $350B in total orders placed. The debut made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, with his stake in SpaceX now worth roughly $866B.

SpaceX (SPCX) is poised to more than triple its revenue over the next two years, according to Matt Kennedy, senior IPO market strategist at Renaissance Capital.

Kennedy said the projected growth, driven primarily by artificial intelligence infrastructure and the company’s Starlink connectivity business, could ultimately justify the company’s $1.75T valuation.

While acknowledging that SpaceX (SPCX) saw only 15% revenue growth in the first quarter, Kennedy emphasized that the company is “not going public off of its most recent quarter. It’s going public off of what it can do in the next few years.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

[News] Meta to curb employees AI usage — The Information

To rein in ballooning data costs, Meta Platforms (META) will begin limiting employees use of AI tokens.

The company is reportedly building an internal platform that will track AI usage, set budgets, and establish limits on token spending, according to The Information.

The guardrails also include automated alerts for unusual spending spikes.

“This is a priority, and we’re focused on using AI to help employees with their day-to-day work,” according to a statement from the company shared with The Information.

Meta (META) joins Microsoft (MSFT) and Uber Technologies (UBER) who have also established AI spending curbs.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

Iran fires new missile barrages at Israel as ceasefire strains

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had carried out a new missile strike against Israel, citing Israeli military actions in southern Lebanon, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The statement also cautioned against further retaliation.

The latest escalation followed an Israeli strike on what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a Hezbollah command center in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Lebanese group. Lebanon’s health ministry said the attack killed two people and wounded 20 others, including women and children.

Iran has linked any broader agreement with Washington to a halt in fighting in Lebanon.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 07, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 07, 2026

Trump says Israel and Iran looking for immediate ceasefire

“Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.”

The comments came after Trump earlier urged the two countries to stop exchanging fire, writing that Israel and Iran must immediately stop “shooting.”

Crude oil futures pulled back from gains of as much as 5% earlier Monday after ‌Iran’s military said it has ceased strikes against Israel, while warning it would resume hostilities if Israel continues operations in Lebanon.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

#QSPC

[Newsletter Exclusive] Quantum Space to go public via SPAC deal with Inflection Point

Quantum Space has agreed to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. VI (IPFX), seeking a listing on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “QSPC.”

The transaction, unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder approval and customary closing conditions.

Quantum Space has a pre-money equity value of $600M. Post-transaction, Quantum Space is expected to have an equity value of ~$1.2B, assuming no redemptions by Inflection Point’s public shareholders.

Existing Quantum Space equity holders are expected to retain ~50% ownership in the pro forma company.

In addition to ~$253M held in Inflection Point’s trust account (assuming no redemptions by the public stockholders), the transaction includes commitments for a convertible PIPE at $12 per share of approximately $300M. The PIPE is being led by Inflection Point Asset Management, with participation from additional new institutional investors.

Quantum Space plans to use the proceeds to accelerate production of its Ranger platform and expand its manufacturing footprint.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

American Battery Technology wins appeal for Tonopah Flats lithium project DoE grant

American Battery Technology (ABAT) up 31.8% pre-market Monday after saying it won its appeal with the U.S. Department of Energy to reinstate its grant award supporting the $115M construction of phase one of its lithium refinery at the Tonopah Flats lithium project in Nevada.

The grant was reinstated in its entirety, with no change to funds awarded, to technical and commercial milestones, the company said.

American Battery Technology (ABAT) was selected in October 2022 for the five-year DoE grant to support the construction of the commercial-scale refinery with an initial capacity of 5K metric tons/year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, then completed the first two years of the contracted grant, and was selected by the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council for fast-track permitting as a critical mineral priority project; however, the project was of several DoE grants that received a termination notice in October 2025.

The company submitted an appeal and entered the informal dispute resolution process with the DoE; following technical and commercial reviews and a final meeting in December 2025, the DoE has concluded that “recission of the termination notice and continuation of the project is warranted,” the company said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

$CRBS

Cerebras rebounds as Wall Street starts coverage, sees ‘unique’ capabilities

Morgan Stanley (Overweight, $250 price target)

“We view Cerebras as one of the most differentiated AI infrastructure companies, built around the industry’s only commercially deployed wafer-scale processor,” Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore wrote in a note to clients. “As AI workloads become increasingly reasoning-intensive, demand for fast, low-latency inference is growing rapidly. Supported by a large contracted backlog and a 750MW committed capacity agreement, we believe Cerebras is well positioned to capture this opportunity. This is a unique chance to invest in an AI processor company with a first-mover advantage against NVIDIA, and offers substantial upside as the category evolves.”

UBS (Buy, $300 price target)

“The Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine (“WSE”) is the world’s largest compute chip and offers performance advantage over GPUs on a subset of fast inference applications that address a premium segment of the inference market,” UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri wrote in a note to clients. “Importantly, CBRS has shown strong commercial momentum with a broad engagement as the only supplier currently shipping to OpenAI under a pre-payment, a growing inference collaboration with Amazon, and a number of additional potential engagements.

Needham (Buy, $300 price target)

“Cerebras is the only supplier of Wafer-Scale Engines, which have orders of magnitude higher SRAM capacity and memory bandwidth than any other AI processor,” Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton wrote in a note to clients. “The WSE is tailored for fast inference workloads that require low latency, including real-time coding and instant research agents. In January 2026, the company announced a $20BN+ compute deal with OpenAI whereby OpenAI will deploy ~750MW of Cerebras compute capacity through 2028, with an option for an additional 1.25GW. In March, Cerebras announced a collaboration with AWS for disaggregated inference. Should OpenAI exercise its option for the additional 1.25GW of capacity or Amazon take delivery of any meaningful amount of Cerebras systems, we see significant upside potential to our current model.”

Wedbush (Outperform, $270 price target)

“Cerebras is the only company to have commercialized wafer-scale AI silicon, and it reaches the public market just as the compute cycle pivots from training to inference; the part of the market where speed, not raw FLOPs, dictates output value,” Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a note to clients. “Cerebras’s third-generation Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE-3) is the largest chip ever sold, purpose-built for the one job that defines the high-value end of inference: generating tokens fast. With a differentiated architecture, a step-change in contracted revenue from OpenAI and AWS, and a market only now learning to pay for speed, we see an asymmetric, upside-skewed setup.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Nvidia GPU demand stays strong as Blackwell becomes more difficult to acquire: Wedbush

Nvidia (NVDA) continues to see elevated demand for its Grace Blackwell systems, including the GB300 and the B300, as several customers indicated these are becoming more difficult to source, according to Wedbush.

“We do not recall availability issues this late in an NVDA accelerator cycle since Ampere/Hopper, a result that to us suggests demand is lifting at a more rapid pace than previously expected,” said Wedbush analysts Matt Bryson and Antoine Legault in a Monday investor report.

Although supply constraints, particularly around memory, remain a primary reason for availability issues, Wedbush noted that Nvidia is “the best situated of the entire technology ecosystem in terms of current supply chain positioning.” Nvidia moved ahead of its competitors in acquiring DRAM and HBM supply for 2026 and has likely already done the same for 2027.

“While we certainly aren’t suggesting that NVDA’s peers (and/or customers) haven’t also secured future supply commitments, rather we believe it is unlikely that any other silicon design house, CSP, OEM, etc., isn’t facing at least the same headwinds (if not greater) in securing incremental parts for any upside requirements,” Bryson added.

Regarding memory, Wedbush believes Everpure (P) might be one of the best ways for investors to take part in sustainable NAND and DRAM price hikes.

“With pricing already up 70% (and seemingly set to go higher as the year progresses), this outlook when translated to revenues would imply lifting sales momentum over the course of the year (in sharp contrast with management’s guidance),” Bryson noted. “And this outlook makes far more sense given P’s favorable positioning in a higher-priced commodity environment given we believe P uses less NAND (no overprovisioning), cheaper NAND (consumer grade), and less DRAM (per bit of storage) than peers.”

Nvidia (NVDA) is partnering with South Korea’s LG Group (LGEIY) on humanoid robots and next-generation data centers, underscoring Nvidia’s (NVDA) push into “physical AI” applications beyond traditional AI chips.

South Korean internet giant NAVER (NHNCF) will use Nvidia (NVDA) technology to build AI factories starting with AI infrastructure expansion at GAK Sejong.

NAVER (NHNCF) will expand its sovereign AI infrastructure using Nvidia’s (NVDA) DSX platform, beginning with a 55-megawatt deployment and planning to scale to gigawatt capacity. The platform will be used to rapidly design, build, and scale full-stack, end-to-end AI platforms that can serve enterprises, industries, and government.

Nvidia (NVDA) said SK Telecom (SKM) plans to build a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud in South Korea using the U.S. company’s DSX platform, with the first AI factory planned to come online in 2027.

Nebius (NBIS) said it is investing about £1.7B to build out capacity in the U.K. with three new deployments of Nvidia (NVDA) infrastructure.

The three new sites will also deploy the latest generations of Nvidia’s full-stack, end-to-end AI factory platform technology. Combined, the deployments will reach 65 MW when fully ramped up in 2027.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Ormat Technologies finalizes largest geothermal power plant design

Ormat Technologies (ORA) up 2.1% in early trading Monday after saying it developed a geothermal power plant design that would be engineered to deliver higher output than any other binary solution currently on the market, capable of producing 100 MW ‌of electricity from the earth’s heat.

Ormat’s (ORA) Ormega100 design would double the electrical output of its current largest operating model, CEO Doron Blachar told Reuters.

The Omega100 would use an enhanced geothermal system, a method that injects water a mile-and-a-half deep into the ground to capture heat generated from the earth’s core; traditional geothermal relies on much shallower natural underground water reservoirs, making power ⁠production more site-specific than advanced geothermal methods.

Ormat (ORA) is advancing two strategic pilot programs that combine its industrial capabilities with new enhanced geothermal system technologies to deliver potentially transformative EGS solutions focused on expanding geothermal deployment.

Once the pilot programs have been proven, Ormat (ORA) plans to begin construction of ⁠the Ormega100, a process that typically takes 18-24 months, Blachar told Reuters.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

Sandisk, Seagate and Western Digital see bullish views at Mizuho on AI-driven memory demand

Mizuho analysts led by Vijay Rakesh noted a potential more than 35M Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Tensor Processing Units, or TPU shipments in 2028E (up eight times from 2026 about 4.3M, and 2025 around 2.4M), as Google looks to scale TPU externally with Anthropic and others. The analysts noted that it is significantly above their estimates of about 7M ASIC shipments for Broadcom, implying significant upside.

Additionally, the analysts noted that Broadcom could see 50M total TPU shipments from 2026 to 2028, which provide some upside alongside accelerating demand for Meta (META) Meta Training and Inference Accelerator, or MTIA, v3/4/5 and OpenAI’s upcoming ASIC, which Broadcom will be a key partner. Given the strength around upcoming ASIC ramps, the analysts noted that they have raised their Broadcom AI revenue by customer estimates to 2027 at $122B (prior $120B) and introduced 2028 at $170B, with TPU remaining its flagship product.

“Buy the AVGO pullback; we believe investor concerns with ASIC/GPU share and MTK competition are overblown,” said Rakesh and his team. “We believe the upside scenario for TPU ASICs for 2028 and upcoming OAI/MTIA/ARM ASICs are all positive for memory (MU/SNDK) and storage (WDC/STX) attach.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 08, 2026

AST SpaceMobile sets June 17 launch for BlueBird 8, 9, and 10 satellites

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) said the launch of its BlueBird 8, 9, and 10 satellites is scheduled for June 17, 2026, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX (SPCX) Falcon 9 rocket.

Liftoff is targeted for 2:39 a.m. EDT, with a launch window extending until 4:15 a.m.

The mission will deploy three next-generation BlueBird satellites designed to expand AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-device broadband network, which enables voice, data, and video connectivity directly to standard, unmodified smartphones.

AST SpaceMobile said the new satellites are expected to deliver nearly double the peak data speeds achieved by its first-generation Block 1 BlueBird satellites, which recently reached download speeds of 98.9 Mbps directly to smartphones.

Like the BlueBird 6 satellite currently in orbit, BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10 feature communications arrays spanning approximately 2,400 square feet, making them among the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Vertical Aerospace reaches another milestone on the path toward certification

Vertical Aerospace (EVTL) announced on Tuesday that its latest and final full-scale prototype of its hybrid-electric Valo aircraft has completed its first piloted flight at the company’s UK Flight Test Centre.

The new aircraft is identical to Vertical Aerospace’s (EVTL) existing full-scale prototype and will be used to accelerate flight testing across all phases, including thrustborne, wingborne, and transition flight, while also supporting future public demonstrations. Notably, the prototype is the last to be built before the company’s “Critical Design Review,” which will freeze the certifiable aircraft configuration and pave the way for the assembly of its first pre-production aircraft.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Arista unveils new AI networking systems as demand for larger clusters grows

The company said its new 7060XE7 series delivers network speeds of up to 1.6 terabits per second per port and is designed to connect tens of thousands of AI chips used for training and running AI models.

Arista said the systems are built to support both traditional air-cooled and newer liquid-cooled data centers, which are becoming more common as AI workloads drive higher power consumption. It uses Broadcom’s (AVGO) Tomahawk 6 networking chips.

Arista’s Etherlink portfolio marks a shift from selling standalone switches to offering rack-scale networking systems for AI infrastructure.

The first air-cooled systems are expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2026, while additional air-cooled and liquid-cooled models are scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2027.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Nebius surges after launching NVIDIA-backed Physical AI Lab; eyes UK, European startups

The six-month program will give UK and European robotics startups access to NVIDIA’s physical AI tools and Nebius AI Cloud infrastructure, helping them move faster from simulation to real-world deployment.

The first cohort will begin in September 2026, with plans to expand the initiative to other regions over time.

The first phase will run on Nebius’ UK infrastructure powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, further deepening the companies’ partnership.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

AI job crisis nowhere to be found as hiring remains strong, Apollo says

Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok pointed to several key labor market indicators that remain resilient despite growing adoption of artificial intelligence across industries. One of the most closely watched measures, the ratio of job openings to unemployed workers, has recently moved higher and now sits above 1.0. That level indicates there are still more available positions than workers actively seeking employment, suggesting demand for labor remains strong.

The latest employment figures further support that view. The May jobs report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 172,000, exceeding expectations and signaling continued strength in hiring activity across the economy.

According to Slok, if artificial intelligence were causing a significant jobs crisis, labor market conditions would likely look very different, with job openings falling sharply and unemployment rising. Instead, current data continue to reflect a healthy labor market with employers actively seeking workers.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

#OpenAI #Anthropic

Gemini and Claude continue to chip away at ChatGPT’s market share: BNP

Gemini’s share of worldwide AI chatbot traffic inched up to 29.9% in May compared to 29.4% in April, while Claude visits increased to 9.8% versus 8.8% the month prior. Meanwhile, ChatGPT remained the overall leader with more than 60% of market share, but its share of worldwide visits has steadily eroded as it held more than 90% in early 2025.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Trump vows U.S. response after Iran shoots down military helicopter

On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said that a U.S. AH-64 Apache went down near the coast of Oman on Monday evening. Both crew members were successfully rescued within two hours by Navy and 82nd Airborne units.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday promised to retaliate against Iran for downing an American military helicopter, a development poised to further strain relations with the country.

The United States launched retaliatory strikes against Iran on Tuesday in response to the shooting down of an American helicopter gunship near the Strait of Hormuz.

The strikes, which the military said were “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” reportedly targeted Iranian air defenses and radars near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran reportedly targeted several Gulf countries after the U.S. launched attacks on the Middle Eastern nation earlier on Tuesday stateside.

Jordan’s military said Wednesday local time that it had intercepted five Iranian missiles, according to state media, while Bahrain sounded alarms and Kuwait activated its air defenses to intercept “hostile aerial targets.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

#Anthropic

Anthropic unveils new Claude Fable 5, Claude Mythos 5 models

The Dario Amodei-led company said Claude Fable 5 is a Mythos-class model that is “safe for general users,” amid some concerns that its Mythos models are too dangerous to be used by the public.

Despite the fact Anthropic said Fable 5 is safe for general use, there are some safeguards attached to it, including the fact that some queries will get responses from Claude Opus 4.8, released last month.

Claude Mythos 5 is essentially the same model as Fable 5, Anthropic said, but the safeguards were lifted in some areas, Anthropic explained. It will be deployed through Project Glasswing, Anthropic said.

Fable 5 and Mythos 5 are being offered at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, Anthropic added.

Fable 5 will be included as part of Anthropic’s Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans from now until June 22. Thereafter, it will be removed from those plans and require usage credits.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 09, 2026

WeRide targets European expansion with level 4 autonomous vehicle rollout in Slovakia

WeRide (WRD) Wednesday announced plans to commercialize its multi-product level 4 autonomous vehicle portfolio in Slovakia, with the first batch of self-driving vehicles scheduled to arrive in the country this month.

Testing will begin in Bratislava, before expanding to Košice and the High Tatras region. Selected models are also expected to enter public commercial operations in 2026, paving the way for fully driverless commercial deployment upon meeting all Slovak and European Union regulatory and safety requirements.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

Tesla struggles with long robotaxi wait times in Austin with less than 60 vehicles in operation

Bloomberg’s test of Tesla (TSLA) robotaxi rides in Austin did not go smoothly. Over the last few weeks, a reporter experienced wait times as long as 30 minutes and saw periods of being barred from booking rides.

Notably, one Tesla (TSLA) robotaxi failed to start after arriving for a pickup, directing the reporter to contact customer support for assistance. In addition, the pickups and drop-offs were not executed seamlessly, forcing the rider to walk to spots several buildings away despite nearby open positions.

Tesla (TSLA) only has 59 vehicles in the Austin robotaxi fleet, according to Bloomberg’s review of public filings.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

Autonomous freight trucking company Einride begins trading with a market cap over $1.3B

Autonomous freight trucking company Einride AB (ENRD) began trading on Wednesday on the Nasdaq after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition company Legato Merger Corp. III (LEGT).

Einride is a Swedish technology company focused on developing electric and autonomous freight transport solutions. Since its founding in 2016, Einride has rapidly emerged as a pioneer in the autonomous trucking industry, blending electrification, advanced AI, and data-driven logistics into a proprietary ecosystem for freight operations.

Einride (ENRD) deploys technologies that are integrated using its data-driven operating system, Saga, to enable customers to decarbonize their operations by making an immediate shift towards digitalized, electric road freight. Notably, Einride (ENRD) became the world’s first company to operate an autonomous, electric freight vehicle on a public road in 2019. Today, Einride leverages its suite of AI planning tools to match customer demand with optimized vehicle operations.

“With a current run-rate ARR of approximately $45 million and a total contracted base of $65 million ARR in signed customer contracts, Einride has achieved strong commercial validation with a customer base of blue-chip global transport buyers. Additionally, the Company has a base of more than $800 million of potential long-term ARR within its joint business plans, which are detailed scaling plans with customers for the continued expansion of electric and autonomous deployments. The company’s operational excellence is evidenced by its 99.7% on-time performance rate, which showcases both the reliability and scale of its electric freight operations,” read part of a statement from the company.

The Stockholm-based company also highlighted that it is a partner to some large companies taking the first steps together towards smart road freight, including PepsiCo (PEP), Heineken (HEINY), DP World, GE Appliances (GE), Philips, Mars, Carlsberg (CABGY), and Lidl.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

Amazon says Graviton5 CPU is now generally available to customers

The Graviton5 CPU, which was unveiled in December 2025, offers up to 25% better compute performance than the previous generation and maintains energy efficiency, Amazon said.

Since it was previewed late last year, Meta (META) inked a deal in April to use tens of millions of Graviton chips to deploy its agentic AI efforts. Financial details of the deal were not made public at the time, but it is expected to last for at least three years.

Uber (UBER) and Snowflake (SNOW) have also signed deals to deploy Graviton for their respective agentic workloads.

More than 120,000 customers have already started building on Graviton chips, Amazon added.

Each Graviton5 core has access to 2.6x more L3 cache than the Graviton4. It also has 15% to 20% more network and storage bandwidth. It is built with 3-nanometer technology, which was also used on AWS’ new Trainium3 chip.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

Midday Need to Know: CPI rises, Gold extends decline & more

U.S. consumer prices accelerate: The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% year-over-year in May, matching expectations and accelerating from 3.8% in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a monthly basis, CPI increased 0.5%, with energy costs accounting for more than 60% of the gain after climbing 3.9% during the month. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 2.9% annually, moving further from the Fed’s 2% goal.

As per the CME FedWatch tool, markets are now pricing a 96.2% probability that the Federal Reserve will keep rates unchanged at 3.50%–3.75% in the June 17, 2026, FOMC meeting, with only a 3.8% chance of a cut.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

$WLT

Walmart and Alphabet’s Wing expand their drone delivery program

As part of the broad plan to build a network of 270 locations, Wing and Walmart plan to expand to Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and Salt Lake City.

With well over one million commercial deliveries completed, Wing said it is helping Walmart (WMT) make retail drone delivery an everyday reality in cities from Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston to Atlanta.

Once drone delivery is available, customers within delivery range will see the option on the Walmart app or website based on the address associated with their account. Customers can also place a delivery directly through the Wing app.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

Crude oil spikes as U.S. launches fresh wave of strikes against Iran

U.S. crude oil surged nearly 4% after-hours Wednesday as the U.S. began launching strikes in Iran, U.S. Central Command said.

The U.S. military began strikes at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday against multiple targets in Iran, Centcom said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 10, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] ECB raises rates by 25 bps for first time in three years to fight war-driven inflation

The European Central Bank raised its key interest rates on Thursday by 25 basis points, marking its first rate hike in nearly three years in a widely expected move to combat surging regional inflation triggered by the war in Iran.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Energy Fuels expects to hit full-year uranium production target by mid-year

Energy Fuels (UUUU) said it expects to reach output of ~1.6M lbs of uranium by the end of June, which falls within its previously stated guidance range of 1.5M-2.5M lbs for the year.

The company also said permitting for planned phase 1 modifications and phase 2 rare earth expansion in Utah is proceeding on schedule, with phase 1 expected to become operational in late 2027 to early 2028.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

#SKHynix

SK Hynix Chairman says company will triple wafer capacity by 2034

“Since we’re proceeding with the plan to expand as much as possible, our calculations show that our wafer capacity will double within five years,” Chey said in an interview with Nikkei Asia. “But honestly, once all these facilities are built, it won’t just double, it will triple by around 2034. People are already saying that even this won’t be enough.”

The company is building four chip fabs in South Korea, with the first phase of one of them set to open next year. Nonetheless, construction, which was set to last until 2045, has been pushed forward due to the insatiable demand for memory, spurred on by artificial intelligence. “There is currently no way to move faster than this,” Chey added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Oklo clears regulatory hurdle for advanced Aurora reactor at Idaho National Laboratory

Oklo (OKLO) up 2.2% pre-market Thursday after saying the U.S. Department of Energy approved the Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for the company’s Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory under the DoE’s Reactor Pilot Program.

Oklo (OKLO) said the safety analysis approval is a major step under the DoE’s RPP authorization pathway and represents a detailed review of the preliminary safety basis for Aurora-INL, including the project’s hazard analysis, accident analysis, safety controls, and design commitments.

Aurora-INL will be the first of Oklo’s (OKLO) planned fast fission power plants and has been granted access to recovered fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II following a competitive DoE process launched in 2019.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

#BTC #ETH #SOL

Japan gives crypto stock-like status: New rules, ETFs, tax cuts, and more inside

The parliament is reportedly expected to approve legislation that classifies Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Solana (SOL-USD), XRP (XRP-USD), Cardano (ADA-USD), Chainlink (LINK-USD), and other digital assets as financial instruments under the same Financial Instruments and Exchange Act governing stocks and bonds.

The bill, which has already passed the Lower House on Thursday, is expected to take effect next year, reported The Japan Times.

One of the most significant changes is taxation. Capital gains on crypto holdings will fall from a maximum tax rate of 55% to a flat 20%, matching stocks and bonds, with the change expected in 2028.

Japan Exchange Group expects crypto-tracking ETFs to launch as early as next year.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Coinbase launches tool for agentic trading, payments

Coinbase Global (COIN) introduced a tool on Thursday that allows Coinbase users to connect their accounts to agents, such as ChatGPT or Claude, to trade crypto, pay for services, and operate autonomously, the company said.

Coinbase for Agents is a standalone tool built for agents to trade, pay, and operate on their own with spending limits and guardrails built in. It “brings your Coinbase account into any AI agent you already use, like Claude or ChatGPT,” it said.

Initially, the tool can trade crypto spot markets and derivatives, operating either out of its own isolated portfolio or directly from the user’s main account balance. It plans to add equities, prediction markets, and everything else available on Coinbase (COIN).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Waymo launches invite-only membership program

For $30 per month, Waymo (GOOG) (GOOGL) will give riders priority pickups, flexible cancellations, 10% cash back, and early access in new cities with its new membership program, Waymo Premier.

The $29.99 per month membership is being initially offered only to select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, but will be scaled to more cities where the Waymo app is available.

The membership program aims to capitalize on demand in its most popular cities and establish loyalty with its frequent riders as the company braces for competition from Tesla (TSLA) and other disruptors in the autonomous vehicle space.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Trump says U.S.-Iran deal may be finalized as soon as this weekend

Speaking at the start of an Oval Office event, Trump said the documents were in “pretty final shape” and that a signing ceremony could take place soon, potentially in Europe, with Vice President JD Vance in attendance.

Earlier, Trump said he canceled planned military strikes against Iran, hours after threatening more attacks because discussions with Iran “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved,” and that final points have been approved by all parties involved, although the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will remain in force until a deal is finalized.

Iranian news agency Fars reported leaders have yet to approve the text of any deal with the U.S., citing an unnamed source.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Adobe Non-GAAP EPS of $5.96 beats by $0.15, revenue of $6.62B (+12.8% Y/Y) beats by $170M

Looking to the fiscal third-quarter, Adobe said it expects adjusted earnings between $6.05 and $6.10 per share, above the $5.77 per share estimate. Revenue is forecast to be between $6.67B and $6.72B, above the $6.52B analyst estimate.

For the full-year, Adobe expects to earn between $24.35 and $24.45 per share on an adjusted basis, with the midpoint above the $23.54 per share estimate. Revenue is forecast to be between $26.5B and $26.6B, with the midpoint well above the $26.06B estimate.

On AI-first monetization signals, Narayen said “Adobe’s AI innovation has driven an impressive 3x year-over-year increase in AI first ARR to greater than $500 million” and added that the company is moving to “aggressively acquire the next generation of Adobe loyalists” even as it “lowers our second half ARR growth expectations from individual subscribers” (Chairman & CEO Shantanu Narayen).

“Adobe is prioritizing top‑of‑funnel expansion over near‑term monetization, reallocating investment toward accelerating freemium MAU growth, particularly within Firefly,” said Goldman Sachs analysts, led by Gabriela Borges, in a note.

“While this will negatively impact ARR in 2H, Adobe expects to see better lifetime value over the long term as it improves its top-of-funnel customer funnel,” Borges added. “The transition also carries increased investments toward traffic acquisition (SEO/SEM), sales capacity, and AI inference. As such, we could also see limited near‑term pressure to margins as efficiency gains are also reinvested into growth.”

“Going into the print, we viewed a modest ARR beat and raise (organic) as the base case, and believed investors needed to see consistent upticks throughout the year to underwrite sustainable DD growth,” said Stifel analyst J. Parker Lane in a note. “That’s now off the table in the near term, and it will take time to assess the success of Freemium to Paid conversion.”

“Biggest takeaway from 2Q is that FY26 organic ARR is going down by ~$480M, with half from deferral of pricing action and half from a bigger freemium strategy; this new strategy is in response to an acceleration in traffic to adobe.com, but bears will question if this is reactive versus proactive; it also might be tougher to underwrite double-digit growth next year until we see the benefits of this change,” said Barclays analysts Saket Kalia in a note.

While Adobe’s AI demand signals are encouraging, 2Q results highlighted a meaningful ARR reset driven by a more aggressive pivot to freemium routing & subsequent deferred Creative Cloud pricing action,” said Morgan Stanley analysts Elizabeth Porter and Kathleen Keyser.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Vancouver Police expands use of Axon technology, deploys integrated drones

The department has become the first police agency in Canada to deploy Skydio X10 drones integrated with Axon’s (AXON) technology platform. The drones will be used to provide aerial views during active incidents and support operational decision-making.

The department has also added Axon Fleet 3 in-car video systems equipped with automated license plate recognition cameras. Combined with body-worn cameras that can livestream video.

Vancouver police are also expanding the use of Axon Assistant’s real-time translation feature, which allows officers to communicate in more than 50 languages during interactions with members of the public.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 11, 2026

Nvidia pitches new Vera CPUs to Chinese clients, orders set for August: Reuters

Nvidia (NVDA) told clients in China that they can start placing orders for its new Vera central processors, which may be available as soon as August, Reuters reported, citing sources.

One major Chinese cloud company plans to place an order for more than 300 servers, the report said. Chinese clients plan to initially deploy Vera chips only in their overseas data centers for testing.

The company plans to deploy the systems for testing first and decide whether to place official orders based on the results, the report added.

Whether that initial interest translates into large-scale adoption ‌remains to ⁠be seen, partly due to issues involving software ecosystems and compatibility as well as the constraints of migrating workloads built around domestic AI chips, another source said.

Selling CPUs in China could prove less fraught than selling ⁠graphics processing units, which face tighter U.S. export controls. Washington has licensed about 10 Chinese firms to buy the H200, a GPU, but not a single delivery has been made.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

AMD rises as Citi upgrades on GPU potential

“While we have been constructive on the inflection in agentic AI led CPU demand and AMD to be the major beneficiary of it (see note), we now see AMD emerging as a legit second source in the GPU market with company poised to win lion’s share at Meta,” analyst Atif Malik wrote in a note to clients. “Most investors currently view AMD as a CPU stock with stock pricing in ~60% probability of AMD achieving >$50B in GPU sales by 2028, in our view. Moreover, post Computex we lift our CPU 2030 TAM model to $137B from prior $132B and still expect AMD to be the key beneficiary of the CPU renaissance due to its performance leadership, greater core counts, X86 ISA, broader SKU offerings, and support for both multithreading and single threading.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

SEALSQ sets first QSOC satellite launch in Q4, but shares are still in red zone

SEALSQ (NASDAQ: LAES) announced on Friday that it plans to launch its first Quantum Security Operations Center (QSOC) satellite on a SpaceX mission in Q4 2026, with plans to expand the network to as many as 100 satellites by 2033.

Built with support from WISeKey’s subsidiaries, the company said the launch is the first step toward building a network of satellites that will provide post-quantum cybersecurity, AI services, and secure communications from space.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 12, 2026

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

[News] Nvidia debuts RTX Spark AI superchip for Windows laptops, desktops

NVIDIA (NVDA) on Monday unveiled NVIDIA RTX Spark, a new superchip that reinvents Windows PCs for the era of personal AI agents, featuring 1 petaflop of AI performance, power efficiency, full-stack NVIDIA AI and graphics technology, and up to 128 GB of unified memory.

Designed for AI, content creation, and gaming, the RTX Spark brings three decades of Nvidia graphics and processing advancements to slim Windows laptops with all-day battery life and ultra-efficient desktop PCs.

The new Arm-powered superchip also positions Nvidia and Microsoft to directly challenge the personal computing strongholds of Apple (AAPL), Qualcomm (QCOM), Intel (INTC), and AMD (AMD).

RTX Spark lets creators, AI developers, and gamers render ultralarge 90GB+ 3D scenes, edit 12K 4:2:2 video, generate 4K AI videos, run 120B-parameter LLMs with up to 1 million tokens context using agents locally, and play AAA games at 1440p and over 100 frames per second, the U.S. tech giant company said in a statement.

Nvidia said Adobe (ADBE) is rearchitecting Photoshop and Premiere from the ground up for RTX Spark to deliver 2x faster AI and graphics performance.

Starting this fall, Nvidia’s new RTX Spark Superchip will debut in laptop and desktop computers from leading PC brands including Dell Technologies (DELL) and Lenovo Group (LNVGY), Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

The product is a combination of microprocessor and graphics chip, built with help from Taiwan’s MediaTek, that will run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows for Arm operating system.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

[News] Nvidia’s Huang says Marvell could be the next trillion-dollar chip company

Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said Marvell Technology (MRVL) could become the next semiconductor company to reach a $1T market valuation, citing growing demand for AI infrastructure driven by the rise of autonomous AI models.

Speaking alongside Marvell CEO Matt Murphy at a trade show in Taipei, Huang outlined his vision for the next phase of AI infrastructure, emphasizing a shift from traditional copper interconnects to optical networking technologies.

“When you take a computing problem, and you disaggregate it into a lot of parts, and you distribute it across the entire data center, what’s necessary is connectivity,” Huang said at Computex, the annual computing industry event held in Taiwan.

“That’s the reason why Matt’s doing so well,” Huang added, referring to Marvell CEO Matt Murphy. “That’s the reason why Marvel is so essential.”

“We view NVLink Fusion as an important long-term option for Marvell, but the monetization path will likely depend on hyperscalers’ willingness to adopt Nvidia’s interconnect architecture within their custom AI silicon roadmaps. We remain constructive on Marvell. Beyond the optionality around Nvidia, our positive view continues to be driven primarily by Marvell’s positioning in custom AI silicon and connectivity,” GF analyst Jeff Pu said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

[News] T1 Energy to buy KORE Power, entering BESS and data center infrastructure markets

T1 Energy (TE) down 2.3% pre-market Wednesday after saying it agreed to acquire KORE Power, an engineering-focused battery energy storage systems and software solutions provider supporting industrial hyperscaler development, in a deal valued at ~$32M.

T1 (TE) expects the acquisition to provide an entry point into the energy storage and AI data center infrastructure markets through an expanded potential customer base for solar and storage solutions.

KORE Power’s NRI division, which is focused on designing, delivering, installing, and operating utility-scale energy storage solutions and has deployed ~1,100 BESS projects worldwide, is considered the “strategic centerpiece” of the acquisition.

T1 (TE) expects the transaction will generate positive EBITDA in 2026 and contribute $15M-$20M of EBITDA in 2027.

T1 Energy (TE), which is building its first solar cell fab in Texas and expects to start producingcells by the end of the year, is an important part of establishing an end-to-end U.S. polysilicon-to-solar-panel supply chain, and as such will benefit from several macroeconomic shifts, Northland analyst Gus Richard says.

The company’s products are primarily used for utility-scale solar, the least expensive and quickest-to-build source of electricity, Richard notes; the alternatives, new natural gas combined-cycle plants and nuclear power plants, take years before large-scale deployment comes on-line and are more expensive forms of energy.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

[News] JinkoSolar to supply power to Chinese desert AI data center - report

JinkoSolar (JKS) is poised to enter the data center business, planning to build a massive 1 GW data center near the desert city of Zhongwei in western China, supplying power directly from its plants to meet the growing demand from the spread of artificial intelligence, Nikkei reported Wednesday.

Construction of the data center spread out over 530K sq meters reportedly is set to begin this year, with a goal of completion by 2028.

Operating data centers in tandem with power plants is known in China as computing powercoordination, a term that was included for the first time in a government policy document released in March outlining policies for this year, but a solar panel maker—JinkoSolar (JKS)—is uniquely taking the lead in this case.

Jinko (JKS) decided to run the data center because revenue in the external power supply business depends on factors such as securing long-term contracts and maintaining an advantage in price negotiations, and it aims to stabilize earnings by shifting from an electricity supplier to a company that generates and manages demand, the Nikkei report said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

[News] Redwire wins Astrobiome Space contract for first commercial space greenhouse mission

Redwire (RDW) Thursday said that it has been awarded a contract from Astrobiome Space S.à r.l., a Luxembourg-based biotech company pioneering microbiome solutions for regenerative space agriculture, to grow strawberries and test Astrobiome Space’s proprietary soil enhancement product inside Redwire’s Greenhouse systems on board the International Space Station.

This award marks the inaugural flight for Redwire’s trailblazing Greenhouse system—the world’s first commercial space greenhouse.

The Redwire Greenhouse provides a simple, scalable commercial solution for customers seeking to advance crop science from benchtop laboratory facilities to true production in space.

Astrobiome Space will begin growing test crops in the Greenhouse system on Earth in June, in preparation for the ISS flight.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

[News] Apple’s AI-focused apps on its App Store increase billings revenue fourfold

AI-focused apps stormed into Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, as billings revenue for such apps increased fourfold in 2025, and 40 of the top 100 apps on the storefront for that year featured consumer-facing AI capabilities, according to a new study by the Analysis Group.

Some of these apps include Daydream: AI for Fashion, which acts as a personal stylist; Capy, an AI-powered meeting translator; VSCO, an AI-powered photography editor; and Linearity Curve Graphic Design, an AI-enhanced illustrator for digital artwork.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

[News] Coinbase, Better offer first Fannie Mae-eligible crypto-backed mortgage to Michigan couple in early 30s

The first loan was closed by Joe, a software engineer, and Amy, a graduate student. The couple pledged their crypto as collateral to buy their first home instead of liquidating their long-term Bitcoin position, incurring capital gains taxes, and forfeiting future upside.

The product, which enables Americans who qualify for a mortgage with BETR to pledge crypto tokens as collateral to fund their cash down payment, initially supports Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and Circle Internet Group’s (CRCL) USDC (USDC-USD). However, the plan is to expand support to additional digital assets as the market matures.

At BETR, about 41% of pre-approved customers qualify on income and credit but do not have the cash for a traditional down payment.

“The 30-year fixed mortgage was designed for a generation that kept its savings in a bank account and built equity through a single employer. That’s not the financial reality of millions of qualified buyers today that are building real wealth in digital assets,” said Better CEO Vishal Garg.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

#HONA

Honeywell unveils new brands ahead of June 29 aerospace spin-off

Honeywell (HON) on Monday announced the new brand identities for its automation and aerospace businesses ─ Honeywell Technologies and Honeywell Aerospace. These will become two independent, publicly traded companies on June 29, 2026, when Honeywell spins off its aerospace business.

Honeywell, which has a market value of $150.72B, said the automation business will be known as Honeywell Technologies and will continue to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “HON.”

The company will be a global leader of the industrial world’s transition from automation to autonomy, with a comprehensive portfolio of mission-critical, outcome-based technologies, solutions, and software to drive customers’ productivity and growth.

The aerospace business, meanwhile, will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “HONA” and will be known as Honeywell Aerospace. The company will be one of the largest publicly traded, pure-play aerospace suppliers, with leading positions in technology and systems that will continue delivering the future of aviation through increasing electrification and autonomous flight.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Uber, Autobrains partner on Munich robotaxi program powered by Nvidia Drive

Uber (UBER), and Autobrains on Monday announced a strategic collaboration to launch a robotaxi program in Munich, combining Uber’s ride-hailing platform, Autobrains’ agentic autonomous driving intelligence, and Nvidia Drive’s (NVDA) robotaxi-ready level 4 Hyperion platform to support scalable autonomous mobility for commercial ride-hailing.

Pending regulatory approval, Munich will serve as the first deployment city for the robotaxi program, establishing an OEM-agnostic model to scale autonomous ride-hailing across vehicle platforms and urban markets.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Nvidia highlights agentic and physical AI, key partnerships at Computex

Nvidia launched an open world foundation model for physical AI called Cosmos 3.

The company noted that Cosmos 3 is the world’s first fully open omnimodel that can natively understand and generate text, images, video, ambient sound, and actions with leading physics accuracy, reducing physical AI training and evaluation cycles from months to days.

An open world foundation model is an AI architecture that understands the physical laws of the real world. An omnimodel is a type of AI system that perceives, reasons, and generates across multiple data types — such as text, images, audio, and video — in a single unified architecture.

The company launched Nemotron 3 Ultra, a 550-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model that delivers frontier-level intelligence to long-running agents across coding, research, and enterprise workflows.

Nvidia also introduced the Alpamayo 2 Super open reasoning model for robotaxis.

It is a 32-billion-parameter reasoning‑based vision language action, or VLA, model that reasons, plans, and acts across the full driving stack for safer, scalable level 4 development.

In addition, Nvidia unveiled Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, the first open humanoid robot reference design built on Nvidia Jetson Thor and the Isaac GR00T open development platform.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Crude oil spikes as Iran says stopping talks with U.S., will ‘completely’ block Strait of Hormuz

Crude oil futures jumped Monday after Iran’s Tasnim state-affiliated news outlet said Iranian negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries in protest of Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and Gaza.

Iran will completely block the Strait of Hormuz and open other fronts, including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, according to the Tasnim report.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday it had targeted an air base used by the U.S. in response to an attack on southern Iran; the group did not identify the base, but Kuwait activated air defenses and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks.

Fighting in Lebanon has continued despite the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the ‌battle against Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Oil prices dropped from their highs after President Trump said the growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon will stop, following calls he held with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Hezbollah “through highly placed representatives.”

Netanyahu said he told Trump on their call that “if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens, Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut” and that the Israeli military will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Marvell edges up after releasing 102.4 Tbps switch built for AI infrastructure

Marvell Technology (MRVL) released the Teralynx T100 in what the company described as the industry’s first 102.4 Tbps switch silicon that was purposely built for AI infrastructure.

The semiconductor firm also said the T100 uses up to 25% less power than competitive solutions.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

#SIEGY

Fluence Energy skyrockets on tie-up with Siemens, Nvidia for AI data center design

Siemens (SIEGY) said it will partner with Fluence (FLNC) to develop infrastructure built with Nvidia’s (NVDA) Vera Rubin NVL72, a new rack-scale AI supercomputer designed for use in data centers.

The companies said the blueprint, which incorporates design work from nVent Electric (NVT), would translate Nvidia’s (NVDA) AI factory vision into deployable systems for data center providers; reference plans involve a 136 MW data center facility that would incorporate Fluence (FLNC) batteries.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

#Binance

Binance becomes first global crypto exchange to offer direct stock trading worldwide

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Monday said its users can now also trade in U.S. stocks and ETFs in addition to crypto tokens on its platform.

The Binance app will let users trade over 7,000 stocks and ETFs, making the company the first global crypto exchange to offer direct stock trading worldwide.

Binance said its users can also opt into fully paid securities lending from June 4, allowing additional yield on shares by lending them out while retaining ownership.

Furthermore, the company said its users can buy stocks and ETFs with stablecoins used for their crypto portfolio, including USDT (USDT-USD) and USDC (USDC-USD).

Binance users can trade stocks and ETFs 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] MP Materials, USA Rare Earth rally as Needham starts coverage with Buy ratings

Needham analyst Carter Goman sees MP Materials (MP), the largest producer of rare earth materials in the Western Hemisphere, as a “clear leader” with “early mover advantages,” believing the sector is in the front end of a multi-year rare earths investment cycle as supply chains increasingly bifurcate between China and non-China.

While significant amounts of capacity have been announced, Goman thinks MP’s (MP) odds of success are among the highest, given legacy operations at Mountain Pass and the strength of the management team.

“As we reach the latter part of the decade and into the 2030s, the story should shift focus back to demand growth, with broader EV adoption and eventually ramping humanoid robot deployments,” Goman writes.

The analyst also thinks USA Rare Earth (USAR) has assembled a unique collection of assets across the value chain, along with a strong management team, that position the company as a leader of the secular push to decouple rare earth magnet supply chains from China.

With the Serra Verde acquisition expected to close in Q3, the integration of LCM, and first magnet shipments to customers beginning in H2 2026, Goman says USA Rare Earth (USAR) is “on the cusp of ramping meaningful capacity.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Moderna, Merck release promising data on mRNA cancer vaccine

Moderna (MRNA) and Merck (MRK) said that the experimental cancer vaccine intismeran autogene plus Keytruda (pembrolizumab) led to a 49% decline in the risk of recurrence or death, and a 50% reduction in the risk of distant metastasis, compared to Keytruda alone, or death in patients with late-stage melanoma.

The data is based on a median five-year follow-up of the phase 2 KEYNOTE-942/mRNA-4157-P201.

Overall survival, an exploratory endpoint, also showed a positive trend.

Enrolled patients had high-risk stage III/IV melanoma.

Intismeran autogene, known as an mRNA-individualized neoantigen therapy, is also under investigation by the two companies for other tumor types, including non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer, and renal cell carcinoma.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Credo Technology Non-GAAP EPS of $1.16 beats by $0.13, revenue of $437M (+157.0% Y/Y) beats by $3.7M

“We believe fiscal ‘27 represents an inflection point for Credo’s optical business.” (President, CEO & Chairman Brennan)

“That inflection is bolstered by more than $600 million in optical revenue ... driving more than 80% year-over-year total revenue growth for the full year.” (Chief Financial Officer Fleming)

“In fiscal ‘27, we expect our optical DSPs, SiPho PICs and ZeroFlap optics will each contribute more than $100 million of revenue and in total, more than $600 million of revenue, with this expected ramp accelerating in the second half of the year.” (President, CEO & Chairman Brennan)

First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Outlook: Revenue is expected to be between $465.0 million and $475.0 million vs consensus of $464.67M.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 01, 2026

Bloom Energy CEO sees no need to raise capital despite AI boom

Bloom Energy (BE) makes fuel cells that generate electricity from natural gas through a chemical reaction, rather than burning the fuel. Bloom can recover the cost of building a new factory in six months through sales, making it unnecessary to raise capital, KR Sridhar said in an interview on Monday.

Also, rising local opposition to data centers presents an opening for Bloom Energy (BE), whose fuel cells are cleaner and quieter than conventional power-generating systems, according to CEO KR Sridhar.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

#SKHynix

[Newsletter Exclusive] SK Hynix to double wafer capacity to ease memory shortage

Chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters in Taipei that the company is responding to a persistent shortage of memory chips that could continue through 2030. While SK Hynix intends to increase investment to expand capacity, Chey did not disclose how much the company plans to spend.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

WeRide, Uber bring robotaxis to Madrid

WeRide (WRD) and Uber Technologies (UBER) announced plans to launch Spain’s first commercial robotaxi pilot in the Region of Madrid, marking the companies’ first joint entry into the European market.

This marks the fourth of the 15 cities outlined under WeRide and Uber’s previous agreement, with another 11 cities to come by 2030.

The service is expected to begin operations later this year, in collaboration with Madrid’s Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid), with rides available via the Uber app.

It will be carried out with the support of AVOMO, a Moove Cars Group company, and Uber’s AV fleet operations partner in the U.S. in both Atlanta and Austin, using WeRide’s autonomous driving technology.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Generac signs global supply deal with hyperscale data center operator; shares up 7%

Generac Holdings (GNRC) has signed a global supply agreement with a hyperscale data center operator to supply backup power generators for the company’s data center infrastructure, it said on Tuesday, sending shares up 7% in early trade.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] SEALSQ buys Miraex to expand quantum solutions

SEALSQ Corp (LAES), a subsidiary of WISeKey International (WKEY), on Tuesday announced the acquisition of 100% of Miraex SA, a developer of photonics-based quantum interconnect solutions headquartered at the EPFL Innovation Park in Ecublens, Switzerland.

As part of this strategic transaction, SEALSQ has acquired the entire issued share capital of Miraex SA.

SEALSQ Corp. (LAES) Monday also reported its participation as a lead investor in Quobly’s €130 million Series A financing. The round is led by ST Microelectronics (STM), SEALSQ, Isalt, and the French Public Investment Bank (BPI France).

The SEALSQ investment made via the SEALSQ Quantum Fund supports Quobly’s industrialization of silicon-based quantum processors and the deployment of its first commercial systems.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Voyager to buy Astrobotic Technology for up to $300M

Voyager Technologies (VOYG) has agreed to acquire Astrobotic Technology, a Pittsburgh-based company specializing in commercial lunar delivery, lunar power systems and reusable rocket technology.

The transaction, valued at up to approximately $300M including contingent consideration, is expected to close by early July 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals. The consideration will be paid in a combination of cash and stock.

“With Astrobotic, Voyager is now a lunar platform that will have capability at every infrastructure layer needed to put Americans on the lunar surface and keep them there,” said Dylan Taylor, chairman & CEO, Voyager.

Voyager said it plans to increase investment in Astrobotic’s lunar transportation, power and reusable rocket programs as it seeks to support future U.S. lunar exploration and Moon Base initiatives.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Broadcom surges after unveiling broadband Edge AI portfolio products

The company said that the lineup of AI-ready broadband solutions includes a 50G Passive Optical Network, or PON, gateway System-on-Chip, or SoC, a comprehensive Wi-Fi 8 product family, and a joint 5G and Wi-Fi 8 fixed wireless access, or FWA, platform solution.

Designed to enhance intelligence and security across smart homes and enterprises, these solutions deliver low latency, localized processing, and robust reliability essential for next-generation connected AI applications, according to the company.

Broadcom noted that the newest integrated Wi-Fi 8 and broadband solutions are engineered to maximize performance while minimizing total latency and making the edge more intelligent.

The CPU and neural processing unit, or NPU, capabilities can enable these broadband devices to operate as intelligent agentic orchestrators. Operators and original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, can use the chips’ capabilities to dynamically route compute between the edge and the cloud while simultaneously serving as the local agentic compute engine, the company added.

“By deploying NPUs across our Wi-Fi 8 and broadband solutions, we empower service providers to secure user privacy, reduce network congestion, and deliver the multi-gigabit, sub-millisecond connectivity that enables the AI era,” said Vijay Nagarajan, vice president of marketing in Broadcom’s Wireless and Broadband Communications Division.

Broadcom has collaborated with Samsung (SSNLF) to develop the integrated 5G and Wi-Fi 8 FWA platform.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

AppLovin slips even as Citi adds 90-day catalyst watch

“We see scope for potential upside as AppLovin’s eCommerce platform migrates from the pilot/referral phase to general availability by June 30, 2026,” analysts at the firm wrote in a note to clients. “Currently, new eCommerce customers are somewhat limited as new firms must receive a referral code to join the platform. We expect general availability will open up the platform and may result in an acceleration of store growth and eCommerce revenue. We’d note, ahead of general availability, AppLovin seems to have increased Axon marketing.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Aluminum climbs to new four-year highs; analysts say rally far from over

Aluminum futures on the London Metal Exchange rose to its highest in more than four years on Tuesday, and some industry watchers say aluminum’s rally is far from done.

LME aluminum (LMAHDS03:COM) recently traded up 1.3% at $3,765/ton, marking an advance of more than 25% this year.

In a sign of tighter markets, cash aluminum contracts were as much as $116.50/ton more expensive than three-month futures on Tuesday, the biggest premium since 2007, according to Bloomberg.

Commodities are facing a “super squeeze” that will worsen if the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut, HSBC analysts said in a note.

“The longer the strait is closed, the more inventories are run down, the more likely it is that we reach ‘tipping points’ in the markets for some commodities,” HSBC analysts wrote, although knowing exactly when that might happen is hard to determine.

For aluminum, “the structural demand story is positive, but a key driver of late has been the damage to smelting capacity in the Middle East,” the analysts said, noting the region accounted for ~10% of global output before the conflict began.

Up to 3.5M tons of Middle East aluminum production will be lost this year, roughly half the region’s recent annual output, Wood Mackenzie analyst Charvi Trivedi told The Wall Street Journal.

“We think we could see real physical scarcity of metal over the next six months in Europe or in North America,” Alcoa (AA) CEO Bill Oplinger told a Miami conference this month.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

#Anthropic

Snowflake and Anthropic partnership drives enterprise AI adoption

Snowflake’s (SNOW) partnership with Anthropic (ANTHRO) is driving up Claude adoption by enterprises through Snowflake Cortex AI, the companies announced today at Snowflake Summit 26.

The two companies initially announced the multi-year partnership in December 2025.

“The rapid adoption of models like Claude through Snowflake Cortex AI reflects a broader shift in what enterprises expect from AI,” said Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product at Snowflake. “Customers want AI that works directly on their governed data, not in isolated systems. We’re seeing strong demand across our AI products, with Snowflake Cortex Code becoming the fastest-growing product in Snowflake’s history.”

Snowflake’s Cortex Code now has more than 7,100 users.

“Snowflake brings the governed data environment enterprises already rely on, and Claude brings the reasoning to put that data to work,” said Steve Corfield, Head of Global Business Development & Partnerships at Anthropic. “Together we’re making it easy for organizations to use trusted AI on their most critical business data.”

At its Snowflake Summit 26, the company announced new capabilities for its coding agent Snowflake CoCo, formerly known as Cortex Code. The company said the new capabilities in CoCo bring the experience across desktop, mobile, and Slack interfaces, meeting builders where they work to build, iterate, and ship. Builders can now let CoCo run tasks autonomously, assist with end-to-end app development and deployment, and help teams deliver production-ready results faster and more securely.

Snowflake also introduced Snowflake Datastream, a new, fully managed streaming service for Apache Kafka that brings real-time data and AI together in a single, governed platform. This gives organizations an easier way to power AI apps and agents with continuously flowing data, according to the company.

The company also unveiled enhancements to Snowflake CoWork, formerly Snowflake Intelligence, designed to provide more AI capabilities to workers grappling with fragmented data, tools, and workflows that don’t understand the full context of their work.

With innovations including Artifacts, Cortex Sense, and personalization, CoWork unifies data, context, and AI into a single agent experience so that business teams can safely interact with AI to drive decisions and execution with confidence, the company added.

In addition, Snowflake highlighted innovations in the Snowflake Horizon Catalog to govern, contextualize, and secure AI. New enhancements ensure that every person, tool, and agent shares the same trusted business context through richer semantic views, built-in governance, and security controls, the company noted.

Snowflake also introduced new capabilities for interoperability, enabling organizations to access, govern, share, and act on data across systems without compromise.

The company said that for the first time, enterprises can work on a single, live, governed copy of their data wherever it resides across Snowflake, external lakes, and open systems, without moving or duplicating it. Powered by Snowflake Horizon Catalog, organizations can now transform siloed data into a connected, AI-ready foundation where users and AI agents securely discover, govern, and access the full business context.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] USA Rare Earth selects South Carolina for $1.2B magnet manufacturing, rare earth metals facility

The plant is expected to produce 6,400 ⁠metric tons/year of NdFeB magnets and 5K tons/year of rare earth metals and alloys, with commissioning targeted to begin in 2028; combined with the planned expansion at the company’s Oklahoma plant, USA Rare Earth (USAR) expects total domestic production capacity to reach 10K tons/year of NdFeB rare earth magnets and 10K tons/year of heavy rare earth metals and alloys.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Microsoft flexes AI muscles with new in-house models, agents and quantum chips at Build

The company announced several new models developed by Microsoft AI. The new models include MAI-Thinking-1, MAI-Code-1-Flash, MAI-Image-2.5, MAI-Transcribe-1.5 and MAI-Voice-2.

“The compute used to train frontier models has increased by a factor of one trillion. Now we expect another thousand-fold increase over the next three years,” said Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.

Microsoft also unveiled Majorana 2, its latest topological quantum chip, which the company said was built in part by Microsoft Discovery’s agentic AI. The new chip’s qubits are 1,000 times more reliable than predecessors, the company said.

Microsoft now expects to develop a scalable quantum computer by 2029, reducing its prior timeline by several years.

The Redmond-based corporation also announced the general availability of Microsoft Discovery, a comprehensive platform for organizations to utilize frontier research and development. There is also a Microsoft Discovery app available in early preview.

The company introduced Microsoft Scout, which is intended to serve as an always-on personal agent. It is considered the first of a new category of AI agents that Microsoft has named Autopilots.

“Autopilots stay active in the background, understand how work gets done across your apps and systems, and take action without needing to be prompted each time,” said Omar Shahine, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Scout. “Because they operate with their own identity, they can carry out tasks within the permissions and policies you and your organization set. This creates a more durable way to keep work in motion so it continues even when your attention is elsewhere.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Global oil inventories on track for critical levels before summer peak, IEA says

Global oil stocks fell by more than 250M barrels between March and May, with on-land commercial and strategic stockpiles draining at a record pace, the IEA reported.

A full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz could take 6-8 months in the best-case scenario if an agreement was reached today, Bosoni said at the S&P Global Energy Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in London.

An additional IEA-coordinated emergency stock release could become a possibility, but it is not currently being discussed as around half of the initial 400M-barrel coordinated release from March has not yet reached the market, Bosoni added.

The IEA is seeing higher prices and a weaker economic outlook turning into lower demand for transport fuels, Bosoni said, adding, “The biggest adjustment factors we have seen to the markets have come from the demand side.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 02, 2026

Perplexity CEO: Efficiency metric will decide AI winner

The companies that can provide the most economic value from the power their AI uses will ultimately command the highest valuations, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC on Wednesday.

Srinivas said that whichever company can provide the “most taken value per watt per user” will be the winner in the future.

“Whoever is able to maximize this particular objective really will, by balancing accuracy, latency, cost, privacy and intelligence all together, they’re going to win, that’s what’s going to win long term,” Srinivas told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday. Perplexity AI, a San Francisco-based startup, is backed by Nvidia (NVDA), SoftBank (SFTBY), and Jeff Bezos.

A token refers to the basic unit of data that an AI model can process. When an AI chatbot is asked to carry out a task, it breaks it down into tokens. Each token then requires energy to be processed. Srinivas’ view is that whichever company can provide the best ratio of energy to economic output will be in the strongest position.

“And so it might feel like some model providers are making a lot of money because their models are very expensive ... but that’s short-term revenue growth,” Srinivas said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Inflation woes: Emerging markets lead rate hikes; ECB may be next

Indonesia, South Africa, Rwanda and Sri Lanka hiked rates over the past two weeks, while Singapore and the Philippines did so in April. The Philippine central bank is also considering an off-cycle rate hike.

India is widely expected to maintain rates on Friday, but some analysts say a surprise hike may be in the cards as the rupee continues to weaken. Japan is seen raising rates later this month, and South Korea may follow in July.

Developed markets have largely left rates unchanged, except for Australia and Norway, which lifted rates in May.

But Europe may not be far behind in policy tightening. Eurozone inflation growth crossed 3% in May, the highest since 2023 and well above the ECB’s 2% target, driven by a 10.9% jump in energy prices.

In the U.S., Fed Funds futures are leaning towards the Federal Reserve maintaining rates at 3.50%-3.75% until at least October, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

But recent data supports the narrative that the U.S. economy could be re-accelerating despite stretched consumer finances, ING economists noted, adding that the Fed may have to hike by year-end.

“Based on the data, I’m more concerned about the growing risks of persistently elevated inflation than the risks to full employment and that monetary policy may not be sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2%,” Cleveland Fed’s President Beth Hammack said on Tuesday.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

USA Rare Earth secures up to $1.6B funding via U.S. government CHIPS program

The agreements comprise up to $277M in federal funding and up to $1.3B in senior secured loan capacity under the CHIPS Act, with disbursements tied to the achievement of project milestones.

Combined with the $1.5B private capital raise completed in January and previous capital raises, the agreements bring total committed capital supporting USA Rare Earth’s (USAR) growth plan to ~$3.5B.

Specifically, the agreements will support development of the Round Top heavy rare earth and critical mineral deposit in Texas, targeted to begin commercial production in 2028; processing and separation of the output from Round Top, including heavy rare earth element and critical mineral oxides and concentrates; reshoring of 10K tons/year of heavy rare earth element metal- and alloy-making and strip-casting capacity; and the scaling of NdFeB magnet manufacturing capacity in Oklahoma and South Carolina to 10K tons/year.

As part of the agreement with the Commerce Department, USA Rare Earth (USAR) will issue 16.1M common shares and 17.6M warrants to the DoC.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

AMD rises after execs highlight agentic AI driving CPU, GPU demand

“I think the biggest change during the last few months is really the rise and inflection of agentic AI. You can see continued momentum from training to inference, from AI adoption, experimentation, to more adoption at scale,” said AMD’s CFO Jean Hu at the Bank of America 2026 Global Technology Conference on June 2. “And all of those require significant CPU performance. And what we are seeing is very significant and incremental demand for our CPU platforms.”

Hu noted that the CPU business grew over 50% in the first quarter, with second quarter guidance for 70% year-over-year growth.

She also pointed out that agentic AI workloads require high core count and high-performance CPUs, leading to increasing average selling prices, or ASPs, over time.

“You can already see, with the software engineering part of agentic work -- autonomous agentic workflow, you really need very high performance, high core count CPUs. That tends to have a higher ASP,” said Hu.

In addition, Hu discussed GPUs, noting that MI450 is on track. “Yes. We are on track. We sampled MI450. We expect to be launching in second half or Q3 starting point, and Q4” Hu added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Oil extends gains as Persian Gulf countries caught in serious U.S.-Iran flare-up

Crude oil futures are higher Wednesday but pull back from earlier highs, as hostilities in the Middle East ‌erupted overnight in some of the most intense fighting since the ceasefire went into effect in April.

Iranian drone and missile attacks on Kuwait killed one person, injured at least 63, and damaged the international airport, which suspended flights.

Kuwait’s military said it had tracked and intercepted 13 ballistic missiles and 17 drones in Kuwaiti airspace since dawn, and Bahrain’s army said it had intercepted three missiles and several drones, as Iran said it had attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the country.

The U.S. and Iran had exchanged heavy fire the previous night, after the U.S. struck an empty oil tanker it said was attempting to breach its blockade.

The attacks follow days of rising tensions, including over Israeli operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, that threaten to derail U.S.-Iran talks about an interim peace deal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. stocks of crude oil and petroleum products have dropped to their lowest level since 2004 after falling by 10.6M barrels last week, according to new data released Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Crude inventories fell by 8M barrels to 433.7M barrels in the week ended May 29, the EIA reported, 3% below the five-year average and more than double the draw analysts had forecast.

Overall, crude inventories have declined by 63.9M barrels since the U.S.-Israeli launched strikes on Iran on February 28.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a war powers resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s military actions in Iran. The House passed a Democratic-led measure on Wednesday with a 215-208 vote.

Four Republicans joined all Democrats in voting yes to end the war with Iran: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The resolution calls on Trump to withdraw U.S. armed forces from hostilities involving Iran unless Congress formally declares war. However, the resolution would not force Trump to end the conflict and is largely viewed as symbolic unless it passes the Senate and survives a presidential veto.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Axon real-time translation rolls out at Calgary Police Service in Canadian debut

The technology, known as Real-Time Translation, is integrated into Axon Body 4 cameras and enables two-way conversations between officers and members of the public in more than 50 languages.

The translation feature is part of Axon Assistant, the company’s artificial intelligence-powered toolset for law enforcement.

Axon said its Axon Assistant platform has been used more than one million times by over 500 public safety agencies.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Broadcom Non-GAAP EPS of $2.44 beats by $0.04, revenue of $22.19B (+47.9% Y/Y) beats by $70M

Third quarter revenue guidance of approximately $29.4 billion vs consensus of $28.47B.

“During the quarter, bookings for AI semiconductors were over $30 billion against the $10.8 billion we shipped.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Hock Tan)

“For the full year 2026, we expect to achieve AI semiconductor revenue of $56 billion, up approximately 180% from fiscal 2025.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Hock Tan)

“Now we expect this momentum to continue into fiscal year 2027 and reiterate our AI semiconductor revenue guidance to be in excess of $100 billion.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Hock Tan)

“To deliver this vision, we are creating the AI XPV platform with Apollo and Blackstone and other leading investors to deploy more than 20 gigawatts of compute capacity through 2028.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Hock Tan)

“The first tranche of this platform valued at $35 billion is, in fact, currently being launched by Apollo.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Hock Tan)

Ross Seymore, Deutsche Bank: Pressed on gross margin drivers and whether it was rack-related; CFO & Chief Accounting Officer Spears said, “as the TPUs continue to accelerate, there’ll be pressure overall on margins” while “the connectivity side, the AI networking side of the business has very rich margins.” Tan added, “No racks it’s all chip...” (CFO & Chief Accounting Officer Spears; President, CEO & Executive Director Tan)

James Schneider, Goldman Sachs: Asked if AI networking stays near “40%” of AI revenue and timing for CPO/optics to become meaningful; President, CEO & Executive Director Tan said the 40% was “probably as high as that percentage” and “The more expected percentage... would be closer to around 30%.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Tan)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

#Nuro

Uber commits nearly $500M to self-driving startup Nuro to boost robotaxi fleet

Uber (NYSE: UBER) has committed nearly $500 million to self-driving startup Nuro, according to a Reuters report citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to sources directly aware of the matter, the investment includes an unreported follow-on capital injection that significantly exceeds Uber’s initial funding in Nuro’s $203 million round. A portion of the newly disclosed funds has already been released after Nuro met its first few development targets on time, one of the sources told Reuters.

The remaining capital is strictly tied to upcoming performance milestones, including driverless testing and early passenger deployment in the San Francisco Bay Area slated for later this year, with plans to ramp up the service next year, the source said.

Nuro has already made regulatory headway for this phase, having secured California permits to test its vehicles without a safety driver, alongside a separate clearance to carry passengers in testing with drivers present.

This capital heavily backs a blockbuster three-way alliance between Uber (UBER), Nuro, and electric vehicle maker Lucid Group (LCID). The partnership aims to deploy a fleet of 35,000 robotaxis leveraging Lucid’s Gravity SUVs, its upcoming midsize vehicle platform, Nuro’s autonomous software stack, and Uber’s dispatch network.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Amazon launches AI-powered warehouse robot as part of €10B Europe push

E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) showcased the next-generation Proteus robot at its “Delivering the Future” event in Dartford, UK with deployment across European facilities scheduled for H1 2027.

Unlike the current Proteus, which operates mainly in dock areas, the upgraded robot can work across entire warehouse floors.

The U.S. e-commerce giant also plans to expand STARK, a robotic tote-handling system that will reach 15 European sites by 2027, and highlighted Vulcan, its robot equipped with tactile sensing capabilities.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

GE Vernova to launch 3.8 MW workhorse turbine in India with wind farm order

GE Vernova (GEV) said Thursday it signed an agreement with Indian company Powerica to supply 28 of its 3.8 MW–154m onshore wind turbines for the 100 MW Botad wind farm in Gujarat, India, marking the debut of the 3.8 MW workhorse turbine in the Indian market.

The deal includes turbine supply and installation and further strengthens a partnership that has delivered four wind farm projects together.

The turbines will be supplied from GE Vernova’s (GEV) plant in Pune, India, with deliveries expected to start in Q4 2026.

GE Vernova (GEV) also said it has been certified by India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and included on the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers of Wind Turbines, a mandatory requirement for wind turbine OEMs participating in India’s wind market.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

CrowdStrike falls after Q1 results; analysts bullish but highlight high investor expectations for ARR

RBC Capital Markets kept its Outperform rating and increased the price target to $755 from $650.

“CrowdStrike delivered a strong start to the FY, beating and raising across the board. While the ARR [Annual Recurring Revenue] beat did not meet high investor expectations due in part to Mythos/Glasswing-led optimism, the FY ARR raise was much higher than the beat, with accelerating y/y NNARR [Net New Annual Recurring Revenue] growth reflecting pipeline generation driven by AI,” said analysts led by Matthew Hedberg.

J.P. Morgan maintained its Overweight rating and $800 price target on the shares of the cybersecurity company.

Analysts led by Brian Essex said that CrowdStrike exceeded the high end of guidance on all first quarter metrics and increased its ARR outlook for the year by a magnitude meaningfully greater than the size of the beat for the quarter. The company also guided fiscal second quarter ARR well over consensus. Better-than-expected guidance for growth was supported by a healthy second quarter pipeline, post-Mythos demand activity, and accelerating module adoption.

“Shares traded lower after-market as the degree of 1Q NNARR beat was low relative to historical performance. However, we think the magnitude of the upward revision to ARR outlook more than offsets any near-term NNARR softness. Guidance implies NNARR acceleration vs. FY26, which is a more meaningful read into the durability of demand for CRWD’s platform,” said the analysts.

The analysts noted that recent frontier model releases (Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) Glasswing and OpenAI’s (OPENAI) Daybreak) are triggering an inflection point where cybersecurity is shifting from a risk-management function to foundational AI infrastructure.

“CRWD’s positioning as a Glasswing launch partner, partner in Daybreak, and founder of Project Quiltworks position Falcon as a critical runtime defender for frontier AI deployment. We see the ‘Mythos moment’ as a structural shift, with AI adoption at scale requiring a runtime security control plane that Falcon is well-positioned to capture,” said Essex and his team.

Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating while raising the price target to $720 from $700.

“CrowdStrike reported its FY1Q27 results featuring slight beats across the board while slightly raising its FY27 guidance as the company continues to see an expansive pipeline for its cyber-AI product portfolio which remains a significant driver of its bookings pipeline. We maintain our OUTPERFORM rating while raising our price target from $700 to $720 reflecting significant momentum for its platform approach and we would be buyers of weakness in shares,” said analysts led by Dan Ives.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 03, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Welcome to the bot-dominated internet

Bot traffic has overtaken human activity in a closely watched slice of the internet, underscoring how quickly AI (AIQ) agents and other automated systems are reshaping the web.

Cloudflare (NET) Radar data shared by CEO Matthew Prince on Thursday showed bots accounting for 57.5% of worldwide HTTP requests to HTML content over the last seven days, versus 42.5% for humans.

“Thought it would be end of 2027, then early 2027, but agentic traffic [is] growing so fast that bots have now passed human traffic online for the first time in the Internet’s history,” Prince wrote in a social media post.

That is a narrower measure than all internet traffic, though it is still a striking milestone because HTML requests sit close to the core of ordinary web browsing and content consumption.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Apple’s revamped Siri may run on Nvidia chips from Google: report

The revamped version of Siri, which Apple (AAPL) is set to debut perhaps as soon as next week, could run partially on Nvidia (NVDA) Blackwell B200 GPUs provided by Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), The Information reported.

The new voice assistant will use Nvidia’s confidential compute feature, which allows for data to keep encrypted as it’s being processed, the news outlet added. It’s unclear at this point how, if at all, it will use Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, which was introduced in 2024, as part of Apple’s artificial intelligence push.

Private Cloud Compute allows Apple Intelligence to use large server-based models to handle more complex requests, while smaller requests can be handled on the device itself.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

The $805B secret hiding in central bank portfolios

Central banks are increasingly allocating foreign exchange reserves to smaller currencies rather than traditional alternatives to the U.S. dollar, according to a recent Financial Times analysis of International Monetary Fund data.

The IMF’s latest Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves report showed that the “other currencies” category accounted for 6.13% of global reserves, or roughly $805B. The category has grown by about $550B since 2020 and now exceeds both the Japanese yen and British pound in reserve holdings.

The trend suggests that reserve managers are diversifying beyond major currencies such as the euro, yen, and Chinese renminbi. The renminbi, once viewed as a potential challenger to the dollar, has seen its share of reserves largely stagnate recently, according to the report.

The IMF does not disclose which currencies make up the “other currencies” category.

Rather than replacing the dollar with another dominant reserve currency, central banks appear to be spreading holdings across a broader range of smaller, high-quality markets, reflecting a gradual shift in global reserve management.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Quantinuum makes IPO debut as quantum era approaches

Quantinuum (QNT) shares opened at $68, climbing 12% from its initial public offering price, after debuting on the Nasdaq on Thursday afternoon.

However, the price retreated by late market action and closed at $60.38.

The quantum computing company, which is majority owned by Honeywell (HON), offered 28M shares priced at $60. It had earlier planned to offer 21M shares priced from $45 to $50, but early demand pushed the price higher just ahead of its IPO. It attracted about 20 times the demand than shares it had to offer. Quantinuum raised nearly $1.7B through the offering, propelling its valuation to more than $15B.

Quantinuum generated 2025 bookings of $79.3M, with revenue rising to $30.9M from $23.0M in 2024, while net loss widened to $192.6M as the company continued investing heavily in growth and commercialization efforts. Bookings were $1.3M for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to $1.9M for the three months ended March 31, 2025.

The firm recently signed a deal with the U.S. federal government to receive R&D funding to address specific technology bottlenecks in the development of fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum computers. And earlier this week, it inked a memorandum of understanding with Mitsubishi Electric to develop quantum computing applications for advanced industrial engineering and design.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

SpaceX AI-related revenue expected to jump 100 times by 2030: report

The investment bank expects AI-related revenue to surge to $322B by 2030, up from around $3.2B in 2025, according to a forecast that was discussed with a potential investor, the news outlet explained. SpaceX’s total revenue is expected to hit $474B by 2030, including $144B from Starlink.

The investment bank also expects SpaceX to generate $72B in free cash flow by 2031, the news outlet added.

In 2025, SpaceX’s revenue was $18.7B, with the vast majority coming from Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Planet wins $22M NGA contract extension, secures new crisis monitoring award

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) on Thursday said that its subsidiary, Planet Labs Federal, received a one-year, $22 million contract extension from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for maritime surveillance services and was also awarded a new contract to support crisis response monitoring.

The $22 million award represents the first option-year extension under the NGA’s Luno B contract for Advanced Analytics for Maritime Operations and Reconnaissance.

Under the agreement, Planet will continue providing maritime domain awareness services, including the detection of ship-to-ship transfers and other maritime activity.

Separately, the company said it was awarded a contract by the NGA, in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit, to provide its Global Monitoring Service, which uses satellite imagery and analytics to support crisis response and situational awareness efforts.

Financial terms of the new Global Monitoring Service contract were not disclosed.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Planet Labs Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.03 beats by $0.01, revenue of $94M (+41.9% Y/Y) beats by $3.87M

“In Q2, we’re expecting revenue to be between $102 million and $107 million.” (CFO Johnson)

“Q2 adjusted EBITDA profit is expected to be between breakeven and $5 million.” (CFO Johnson)

The company now expects fiscal-year revenue of $425 million to $441 million, compared with prior guidance of $415 million to $440 million, reflecting continued momentum across its customer base.

“We are maintaining our prior expectations for fiscal year ‘27 adjusted EBITDA profit to be between breakeven and $10 million.” (CFO Johnson)

The updated forecast highlights the increasing importance of Earth-observation data as governments and businesses seek real-time insights into military conflicts, supply chains, natural disasters and environmental conditions.

Planet Labs (PL) said its contracted backlog expanded 72% year over year to more than $906 million.

“We also successfully launched 3 additional Pelican satellites, including one for Sweden, their first sovereign reconnaissance satellites, just 4 months after contract signing.” (CEO Marshall)

“We recently started early customer access through a private beta testing phase of our new AI app, a pioneering tool aimed at making Planet’s massive global data archive querable through natural language.” (CEO Marshall)

Colin Canfield, Cantor: asked about “Planet on-ramps for orbital compute”; CEO Marshall said, “what we’re doing with Google is an early tech demo” and added, “within 10 years, it will definitely be cheaper to do it in space than on the ground.” (CEO Marshall)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

#Anthropic

[Newsletter Exclusive] Anthropic co-founder says humans might become the bottleneck in AI

“The evidence suggests that the human role is narrowing at each step in the AI development process,” said Marina Favaro, head of The Anthropic Institute, and Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic, in a blog post. “Once human- and AI-authored code quality reach parity, humans will stop writing code entirely, and shift to only reviewing it. But if they can’t review code as quickly as Claude can generate it, human review will become the bottleneck to AI development.”

Claude has learned how to handle code. Anthropic engineers are shipping eight times as much code per quarter as they were from 2021 through 2025.

AI agents can now write and edit their own code. They can also delegate hours of work to other agents. As of May 2026, more than 80% of the code that Anthropic merged into its codebase was written by Claude.

However, these accelerating improvements could lead to grave consequences, the authors warn. As of now, engineers provide Claude with a goal, and Claude can figure out how to achieve the goal without being given a specific method to use. And in research, Claude can already match or outperform humans at executing an experiment. But humans are still required to provide the assignment. Claude is not yet capable of effectively coming up with or using judgment when it comes to generating its own research ideas or specific goals.

When, and if, the day arrives that Claude is capable of full recursive self-improvement and begins building ever-more-powerful successors, humans could conceivably lose control of the AI system.

“The rare occurrences of misalignment present in today’s models could compound as the models build their successors, growing more frequent but less understood until we lose control of them,” Favaro and Clark said. “It’s possible that we can’t build, integrate, and verify the tools that we’d need to understand which trendline we are actually on.”

“We do not have good intuitions for what this world would look like, because our economy is currently driven by humans and human-built tools,” they said. “By its nature, a world driven by fast recursive self-improvement could become dominated by the self-improving model as its capabilities fully eclipse those of humans and the model proliferates across the broader economy. It is difficult to predict what the economy looks like if human labor stops being competitive.”

In light of this possibility, Favaro and Clark propose a slowdown or pause in AI model development. However, they admit AI developers with nefarious intentions would not likely stall their efforts, and a nuclear peace treaty-type commitment would be required to keep the genie in the bottle.

Anthropic plans to organize meetings with policymakers, researchers, and other AI companies to discuss what should come next.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

S&P refuses to waive rules for megacap IPOs ahead of SpaceX listing

S&P Global said on Thursday it would keep the existing criteria for entry into its major indices, dashing hopes of a swift S&P 500 (SP500) inclusion for Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX) following what is expected to be the world’s largest-ever IPO.

The index provider in a press release said it will not shorten the 12-month seasoning period for newly public companies it currently has or waive existing profitability and public-float requirements based on a company’s size, diverging from a broader industry shift embraced by rivals Nasdaq (NDAQ) and FTSE Russell.

“Initial public offerings should be traded on an eligible exchange for at least 12 months before being considered for addition to an index,” the release said.

Under one of the S&P 500 eligibility criteria that remains unchanged, a company must report profits under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) both in its latest quarter and on a cumulative basis over its four most recent quarters to qualify for inclusion in the index.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

Samsara Non-GAAP EPS of $0.17 beats by $0.04, revenue of $478.8M (+30.5% Y/Y) beats by $23.63M

“We ended Q1 with nearly $2 billion in ARR, growing 30% year-over-year” and “We added $101 million in net new ARR” (CEO Biswas).

“We now have over $1.2 billion in ARR from our customers spending $100,000 or more, growing 37% year-over-year” (CEO Biswas), and “In Q1, we added 169 customers with $100,000 or more in ARR and 15 customers with $1 million or more in ARR” (CEO Biswas).

“For Q2, we expect revenue to be between $482 million and $484 million” (CFO Dominic Phillips), with “Non-GAAP operating margin to be 18%” and “non-GAAP EPS to be between $0.15 and $0.16” (CFO Phillips), plus: “we expect to be GAAP profitable for Q2” (CFO Phillips).

“For full year FY ‘27, we expect revenue to be between $2.005 billion and $2.013 billion” (CFO Phillips), with “Non-GAAP operating margin to be 20%” and “non-GAAP EPS to be between $0.70 and $0.72” (CFO Phillips), adding: “We also expect to be GAAP profitable for full year FY ‘27” (CFO Phillips).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

Nvidia CEO highlights robotics as South Korea’s next major sector

When asked about potential investments in South Korea, Huang said, “Korea has many sectors to invest in. Robotics is going to be the next major sector here in Korea.”

“Korea is extraordinary at manufacturing, mechatronics, and also artificial intelligence,” Huang noted. “The fusion of ⁠all of that technology is perfect robotics.”

Separately, Huang said he’s given the go-ahead for Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), SK Hynix (HXSCL) and Micron Technology (MU) to supply HBM4, an indispensable component of Nvidia’s (NVDA) next-generation Vera Rubin platform for artificial intelligence work.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

XPeng highlights its physical AI upside at the CVPR Conference

A key focus is XPeng’s (XPEV) in-house AI model, called VLA2.0, which was first introduced at the same conference in 2025 and is now being rolled out into mass production across the company’s products. VLA2.0 is software that learns from how humans drive and then helps vehicles decide what to do on the road, such as when to change lanes or react to sudden events. XPENG frames this as proof that it can turn cutting-edge research into real features used by everyday drivers, not just demos in controlled environments.

XPeng (XPEV) also said it validated a scaling law that delivered a 4,360% jump in single-job training efficiency as it ramped up compute and data, while GPU hardware utilization climbed from 40% to 90%, matching benchmarks set by top-tier global AI firms.

The company also pointed to work on a “world model,” another AI system designed to predict how the surrounding environment will change after a vehicle or robot takes an action. Beyond cars, XPeng (XPEV) stressed that the same physical-AI technology is being extended to its humanoid robots and flying car projects, signaling its ambition to build a broad ecosystem of intelligent hardware.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

#SPCX

Google agrees to rent up to $30B of compute capacity from SpaceX in multiyear deal

The compute capacity includes access to 110,000 Nvidia (NVDA) GPUs, CPUs, memory and other related components.

“Pursuant to the agreement, the customer has agreed to pay us $920M per month from October 2026 through June 2029, with capacity ramping up through September at a reduced fee,” the filing reads. “If we fail to deliver access to the committed amount of GPUs by September 30, 2026, then following a one-month grace period, Google may immediately terminate the agreement or accept the number of GPUs provided, with a corresponding pro rata reduction in monthly fees.”

After December 31, 2026, either company has the right to terminate the agreement with a 90-day notice. If the deal runs the entire 33 months of the agreement, it would generate more than $30B in revenue for SpaceX, which recently merged with xAI.

Throughout the agreement, Google will retain ownership of its intellectual property rights, content, AI models and related data.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun 05, 2026

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

#Huawei

[News] Huawei proposes new architectural path for advanced chips to defy US controls

China’s Huawei Technologies expects to design advanced 1.4-nanometer equivalent chips by 2031, mapping out a new path forward for China’s semiconductor industry despite tight U.S. export controls.

The projection, made by Huawei on Monday in a statement, was the most eye-catching ⁠claim of what the company calls the Tau Scaling Law, a new principle for improving chips as the industry can no longer rely mainly on making transistors smaller.

The Chinese tech giant said that the law proposes replacing geometric scaling with time (τ) scaling as a new guiding principle for the evolution of both semiconductors and electronic systems.

Huawei noted that, based on this law, it has developed core technologies like LogicFolding.

Huawei said its Kirin ⁠chips scheduled to launch in the fall of 2026 would be the first to use LogicFolding, which the company said would shorten wiring inside chips and ⁠considerably improve performance.

Over the past six years, Huawei has designed and mass-produced 381 chips based on the Tau Scaling Law, serving a wide range of industries, sectors, and markets.

Huawei noted that in recent years, Moore’s Law — which has guided the semiconductor industry for more than five decades — has faced severe physical limits and diminishing economic returns.

“The industry must now tackle the urgent and common challenge of overcoming the physical constraints of traditional processes and finding a new, sustainable evolution path that can match surging computing demands. This is where the τ Scaling Law comes into play,” the company noted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 25, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 25, 2026

[News] Firefly Aerospace wins $75M NASA JPL subcontract, launches stock offering

Firefly Aerospace (Nasdaq: FLY) on Tuesday said it had been awarded a $75 million subcontract from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to deliver four drones to the Moon’s south pole for NASA’s MoonFall mission.

The company said the mission is targeted to launch no earlier than 2028 and is part of the first phase of NASA’s Moon Base initiative focused on long-term lunar exploration and infrastructure development.

Under the subcontract, Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft will transport the drones during a 45-day transit to the Moon, enter lunar orbit, and deploy them about 50 km above the lunar south pole.

The drones, built by JPL, are designed to survey the region, including permanently shadowed areas, using optical cameras and scientific instruments.

The mission will also support the search for resources such as water ice for future Artemis program missions, the company said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

[News] Rocket Lab clears key review for SDA tracking satellite constellation

Rocket Lab (RKLB) said it successfully completed a key program review for the U.S. Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tracking Layer Tranche 3 (TRKT3) satellite constellation program, which supports missile warning and defense capabilities for the U.S. and allied nations.

The TRKT3 is a $3.5B+ program to build a 72-satellite constellation in low earth orbit designed to globally detect, warn, and track advanced and hypersonic missile systems.

This milestone advances the program that will see Rocket Lab deliver satellites equipped with advanced missile warning, tracking, and defense capabilities to U.S. and allied national security.

Built on Rocket Lab’s Lightning satellite platform, the TRKT3 constellation will leverage the company’s end-to-end manufacturing capabilities, with all major components, including the advanced IR sensors, solar arrays, avionics, optical terminals and propulsion systems, designed and manufactured in-house.

Rocket Lab’s ~$816M TRKT3 award builds on the company’s previously awarded approximately $515M Transport Layer-Beta Tranche 2 program, bringing Rocket Lab’s total SDA awards to more than $1.3B.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

[News] Robinhood launches agentic trading and credit card

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) said the new feature, introduced on Wednesday, allows artificial intelligence agents to trade and make credit card purchases on the customer’s behalf.

Users can connect their agents directly to Robinhood’s AI-native Model Context Protocol, or MCP, servers for integration into the platform, the company said.

For trading, users can open a dedicated agentic trading account separate from the rest of their portfolio, allowing the agent only to access funds in that specific account.

For the credit card, a user connects their agent to Robinhood Banking’s MCP server, giving it access to a dedicated virtual Robinhood Gold Card. The user sets a specific spending limit and can choose whether to require manual approvals or not. Agents are restricted to that individual virtual card and have no access to the user’s primary credit card number or any other Robinhood account information.

Once it’s set up, the agent can scan for the best prices, monitor availability, and make purchases automatically based on the user’s instructions, while earning 3% cash back.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

#SPCX #BlueOrigin

[News] NASA eyes permanent moon base as Isaacman maps out multi-phase strategy

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman recently unveiled a $20 billion, three-phase roadmap to establish a permanent lunar outpost by the early 2030s. Noting that astronauts arriving during the 2028 Artemis 4 mission will find early infrastructure of a lunar outpost already in place.

The $20B, three-phase plan scraps the Gateway orbital station, repurposing its resources toward a surface outpost near the lunar south pole.

Isaacman emphasized that the strategy relies on commercial partners like SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver incremental upgrades.

Phase One, running through 2029, will focus on robotic scouting and the “science of survival,” utilizing 25 launches to deliver four metric tons of technology payloads, rovers, and landers.

Phase Two, spanning 2029 to 2032, will transition to early habitation by delivering up to 60 tons of heavy cargo, including expanded solar arrays and nuclear fission surface power systems.

Finally, Phase Three will begin in 2032 to establish a sustained human presence with routine crew rotations living in permanent habitats for months at a time, ultimately preparing the agency for future manned missions to Mars.

Artemis III now targets mid-2027 to practice lunar lander docking in Earth orbit first.

Artemis IV, targeting 2028, would mark the first human lunar landing in over 50 years.

WealthWise Research

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

[News] Drone stocks rally after report Trump administration explores funding deals

Companies identified by the Pentagon as potential funding candidates include Performance Drone Works, which secured an Army contract to provide reconnaissance drones; Unusual Machines (UMAC), a drone-parts supplier backed by shareholder and advisory board member Donald Trump Jr.; and Neros Technologies, a Sequoia Capital-backed startup focused on small first-person-view drones, according to people familiar with the matter.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

[News] Robinhood stock gains after Invest America app launches

The first set of email invitations to download the app were sent on Thursday, the company said. Activation emails will continue to be sent out in the coming weeks to every eligible person who chose to open an Invest America account by filing IRS Form 4547.

Eligible children born in the years 2025 through 2028 qualify for an initial $1,000 contribution from the U.S. Treasury. Family, friends, and employers can collectively contribute up to $5,000 per year.

The contributions are automatically invested in a default qualifying low-cost index fund designed for long-term growth potential, Robinhood (HOOD) said.

Several U.S. states and public-sector organizations have also approached Robinhood Markets (HOOD) for partnership over their own versions of America First accounts, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing CFO Shiv Verma.

Robinhood stands to gain some potential partners as several states have already rolled out wealth-building programs for children lately, the Bloomberg report noted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

[News] Nextpower enters BESS, AI data center markets in $365M deal for Prevalon Energy

Nextpower (NXT) up 5.7% post-market Thursday after saying it agreed to acquire battery company Prevalon Energy for as much as $365M in cash and stock, marking its entry into the energy storage and AI data center markets.

Nextpower (NXT) said the deal for Prevalon, a joint venture of Mitsubishi Power Americas (MSBHF) and EES, is expected to extend its solar power technology platform with the integration of BESS and energy management software.

The company said the acquisition allows it to raise FY 2027 guidance for revenues to $4B-$4.4B from its prior outlook of $3.8B-$4.1B and adjusted EBITDA to $845M-$930M from $825M-$900M previously.

Prevalon, which Nextpower (NXT) plans to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, has more than 6 GWh of BESS systems deployed globally and 1.3 GW of firm supply contracts supporting AI and hyperscaler data center infrastructure deployments.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

Arista sees bullish views at Evercore on AI tailwinds

“We view Arista as a core name for investors to own as the company is uniquely positioned to solve the AI Infrastructure bottleneck and bolster XPU utilization,” said analysts led by Amit Daryanani.

“ANET is uniquely positioned to win in AI networking given its ability to deliver a scalable, unified Ethernet fabric across Scale-Up, Scale-Out, and Scale-Across architectures in a vendor-agnostic manner. Arista’s EOS software stack provides a key differentiation enabling operational consistency, automation, & resiliency across complex AI clusters and multi-vendor environments,” said Daryanani and his team.

Secondly, positioned for over 30% sales growth. The analysts noted that Arista recently raised their expectation to over 20% growth through 2028 (versus mid-teens at analyst day). Given tailwinds across AI infrastructure, new customer wins, and growth in enterprise, the company should sustain more than 30% growth driven by end-market, share gain, and new customers, the analysts added.

Thirdly, customer diversification through Anthropic (ANTHRO), Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, (ORCL) and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL). “We expect ANET to have OCI and Anthropic as 10%+customers in CY26 along with Meta & MSFT. In addition, there is potential for ANET to scale with GOOG in CY27 & beyond. We see sizable incremental revenue from these two customers through CY28 as clusters scale,” the analysts noted.

“Investors with duration should look to own ANET as transient supply issues will alleviate in H2. ANET is poised to deliver MULTI YEAR 30%+ sales & EPS growth,” said the analysts.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 23, 2026

Nvidia says $200B projection for CPU market includes China

During Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings call this week, Huang forecasted a $200B total addressable market for its new “Vera” ⁠central processing units.

Asked if that forecast includes China, Huang said, “I would think so.” He was speaking to reporters after arriving at Taipei’s Songshan ‌airport ahead of the country’s Computex trade show next month.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 23, 2026

U.S., Iran cite progress in talks as Trump weighs fresh attacks

Iran, the U.S., and mediator Pakistan all indicated progress in talks to end the months-long conflict on Saturday.

“We are now finalizing this memorandum of understanding,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmael Baghaei on Saturday amid high-stakes talks that mediators believe could lead to a 60-day extension to the country’s ceasefire with the U.S.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as saying that nuclear issues are not part of the current negotiations, as Tehran first seeks to end the war before discussing its nuclear program that has long been at the heart of international tensions.

Baghaei said the sides are trying to finalize a memorandum of understanding and positions have moved closer in recent days. “Over the past week, the trend has been toward narrowing differences,” he said. “We will have to wait and see what happens over the next three or four days.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 23, 2026

Xi’s clash with Trump over Japan signals rising Asia security tensions

Chinese President Xi Jinping sharply criticized Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s military buildup during his recent summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing, according to a Financial Times report citing people familiar with the talks.

The report said Xi grew unusually animated while discussing Japan’s expanding defense posture, making the issue one of the most contentious moments of the summit. U.S. officials were said to be surprised by the intensity of Xi’s remarks because Japan had not been a major focus in preparatory discussions between Washington and Beijing.

Trump defended Tokyo’s tougher security stance by pointing to escalating threats from North Korea, according to the report. Japan has increased military spending, eased restrictions on arms exports and signaled greater openness to revisiting long-standing limits on nuclear policy under Takaichi’s leadership, moves that have drawn criticism from Beijing.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 24, 2026

Tanker carrying Iraqi oil to China exits Gulf as Hormuz talks raise hopes for shipping

A supertanker loaded with Iraqi crude bound for China has exited the Persian Gulf and entered the Arabian Sea, marking one of the clearest signs yet that commercial shipping may slowly resume as the U.S. and Iran edge toward a possible agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg News reported Sunday.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 24, 2026

Coinbase CEO flags these 8 gaps in finance as SEC delays tokenized plans

Tokenization of real-world assets: Real estate, stocks, bonds, and funds moving on-chain for instant settlement, fractional ownership, and wider distribution.

24/7 global trading: Global liquidity across all assets with better leverage and capital efficiency.

Next-gen payments: Near-instant, low-cost global transfers using stablecoins, including AI agent-based payments.

AI-powered risk and compliance: Better credit decisions, fraud detection, compliance systems, and broader access to financial advice.

Innovation-friendly regulation: Moving from strict one-size-fits-all rules to risk-based regulations that support innovation.

Expanded access: Open protocols and self-custodial wallets give financial access to anyone with a smartphone.

Capital formation: Lower-cost and easier fundraising opportunities for startups and new ideas.

Sound money: Providing protection against inflation and weakening fiat currency discipline.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 25, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] China’s global lithium ownership set to reach 39% by 2030, WoodMac says

Chinese companies are on course to control 39% of all lithium extracted globally by 2030, up from approximately one-third in 2020, according to new analysis published by Wood Mackenzie.

The findings, drawn from Wood Mackenzie’s Lens Metals & Mining platform, highlight a growing divergence between the geography of lithium production and the nationality of asset owners.

Australia, long the dominant force in lithium supply, accounted for 43% of global extraction in 2020. By 2030, that share is forecast to fall to 25%, driven not by declining investment, but by faster growth elsewhere, particularly across Africa. The continent’s share of global lithium extraction is expected to rise from near zero in 2020 to 13% by 2030.

China’s ownership position, meanwhile, extends well beyond its domestic production base. Chinese firms have built significant stakes in Australian and Argentine assets while deploying capital at scale across Africa, filling a vacuum left by increasingly cautious Western investors.

South America also faces mounting competitive pressure. Despite continued investment, the region’s share of global lithium supply is expected to fall to below a quarter by 2030.

Elsewhere, Europe’s ownership share is rising following Rio Tinto’s (RIO) acquisition of Arcadium Lithium and Equinor’s (EQNR) entry into battery materials, while North America’s share has declined following the divestment of US-held assets to Rio Tinto.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 25, 2026

U.S. conducts ‘self-defense’ strikes in Iran; stock futures trim gains

U.S. forces carried out what they described as “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran early Tuesday, with U.S. Central Command stating that the operation was intended to “protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”

CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins said targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

#BYDDY

[Newsletter Exclusive] China EV exports jump 40% to 278,081 units as shipments to Brazil skyrocket 221%

China’s electric vehicle export machine continued its aggressive global expansion in April, as worldwide shipments surged 40% year-over-year to 278,081 units, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

This rapid growth shows how Chinese automakers are changing the global car trade, even with tougher international regulations.

Data from China Customs reveals that Brazil became the world’s top importer of Chinese green vehicles after shipments skyrocketed 221% annually to 38,144 units.

Regionally, Asia held its crown as the volume leader with 110,613 vehicles (+20% y/y), while Europe tracked 83,813 units (+36% y/y)—including a sharp 41% jump into the European Union to 63,063 EVs—and Latin America and the Caribbean surged 80% to 52,897 units.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

Pony AI beats top-line and bottom-line estimates; updates FY26 outlook

Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.09 beats by $0.04.

Revenue of $34.25M (+145.0% Y/Y) beats by $12.29M.

Service revenues were US$16.7 million (RMB115.4 million) in the first quarter of 2026, representing an increase of 61.4% from US$10.4 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Product revenues were US$17.5 million (RMB120.9 million) in the first quarter of 2026, representing an increase of 384.4% from US$3.6 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Updating 2026 growth targets — “We raise our 2026 Robotaxi revenues target from 3 times to more than 3.5 times the level in 2025 and year-end Robotaxi fleet size target from 3,000 units to over 3,500 units.”

Pony.ai CEO James Peng said, “Our robotaxi fare-charging revenues saw an over five-fold increase year-over-year, and we have continued to scale our commercial operation, supported by scaled fleet, technological and operational capabilities, and user experience.”

In the first quarter, Pony.ai (PONY) generated revenue of $34.3M, up 145% year-over-year, while robotaxi revenue increased 395.4% year-over-year, with fare-charging revenues growing 456.5%, reflecting the continuous scaling of its fleet operations.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

$QNT

Honeywell-backed Quantinuum seeks to raise $1.05B in IPO

Honeywell-backed (HON) quantum computing firm Quantinuum (QNT) has filed to offer 21.05M shares of its Class A common stock in its initial public offering and sees the price to be between $45-$50 a share.

The offering would raise $1.05B at the top end of the range. The firm plans to apply to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “QNT.”

According to the filing, Quantinuum generated 2025 bookings of $79.3M, with revenue rising to $30.9M from $23.0M in 2024, while net loss widened to $192.6M as the company continued investing heavily in growth and commercialization efforts.

Bookings were $1.3M for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to $1.9M for the three months ended March 31, 2025.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

D-Wave unit secures second-year funding for superconducting quantum innovation

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) said its subsidiary Quantum Circuits received second-year funding for a U.S.-backed quantum computing project focused on improving materials for superconducting qubits with scalable fabrication methods.

The SQFab (Improved Materials for Superconducting Qubits with Scalable Fabrication) project is one of four programs selected by the U.S. Department of War through NORDTECH, a regional consortium of non-profit accessible semiconductor R&D facilities, government labs, defense companies, academic institutions, and technology manufacturing organizations in and around New York State.

The four programs are collectively receiving more than $25M in second year funding after achieving key first-year benchmarks by demonstrating significant results in the design, fabrication, and characterization of key quantum computing components.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

Marvell jumps as HSBC upgrades on back of AI networking strength

Marvell Technology (MRVL) was in the spotlight on Tuesday after HSBC upgraded the semiconductor company, citing an artificial intelligence networking-linked “supercycle.”

“Despite Marvell share price already rebounding +124% since 30 March (vs. SOX +71%) and no major upside surprises to its upcoming 1QFY27 earnings likely, we believe the revenue growth from optical interconnect is still being underestimated by the market, which will lead to upside to consensus forecasts over the next two years,” analyst Frank Lee wrote in a note to clients. “In addition, we believe ongoing memory shortage related to agentic AI CPU demand could lead to upside in the [compute express link total addressable market].”

Lee raised his rating on Marvell to Buy from Hold and upped his price target to $300 from $85.

Delving deeper, Lee said he thinks Marvell will be a “key beneficiary” as AI clusters expand to multi-rack AI factories, which is driving a shift towards optical interconnects. “Marvell is capitalizing on this through its dominant position in 800G and 1.6T Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), which are the ‘brains’ inside these high-speed optical modules. Marvell has a majority market share in DSPs, which have a 1:1 attach rate to optical transceivers, and we believe it should be able to grow at least on a par with the industry.”

Separately, on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley and Susquehanna also raised their price targets on Marvell to $172 and $230 from $103 and $100, respectively.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Micron tops $1T as UBS raises price target to new Wall Street high on memory momentum

Micron Technology (MU) shares soared nearly 18% and hit $1T in market cap on Tuesday after UBS raised its price target on the memory maker to a new Wall Street high, citing continued strength in the market.

Analyst Timothy Arcuri raised his price target to $1,625 from $535 and reiterated his Buy rating on Micron. At that valuation, Micron would be worth nearly $1.8T.

“With LTAs now firmly in place across most of the industry, we are again raising C2027-2029 estimates and expect EPS to remain comfortably >$100 throughout the period, with MU generating over $400B in FCF across the same timeframe,” Arcuri wrote in a note to clients.

“We believe the market will start to put a more ‘normal’ multiple on the stock and MU will continue to re-rate higher as more details emerge about the structural changes AI has driven to the entire memory complex,” Arcuri added. “Our supply chain work on Long Term Agreements across the memory industry suggests that up to 30% of DDR volumes industry-wide will be soon locked in at pricing that is just slightly below current levels and these agreements will allow MU to trade some near-term revenue for demand visibility and a smoother earnings profile.”

As such, he upped his earnings estimates on Micron and now expects the Boise, Idaho-based company to earn $155, $167, and $77 per share in 2027, 2028, and 2029.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

Nvidia, AMD among group of winners as BofA thinks AI spending has ‘staying power’

Even though many semiconductor stocks are up sharply in 2026, Bank of America believes there is much more to come, as high artificial intelligence spending is likely here to stay.

“We retain high conviction in continued AI infra strength, driven by: (1) 3–5x YoY sales growth at frontier labs, (2) improving AI monetization, exponential token growth (7x YoY at Google), and continued disruption fears among hyperscalers, (3) tight supply with near-full utilization of all deployed infra, and (4) underappreciated sovereign, enterprise and industrial demand,” analysts led by Wamsi Mohan wrote in a note to clients. “We forecast AI TAM tripling to ~$1.7T by 2030E.”

Additionally, the analysts noted that the sharp run-up in semiconductor stocks is being led by earnings, as the forward P/E ratio is around 25.6, roughly unchanged year-to-date and below the peak of around 30.

“We see limited evidence of speculative multiple inflation, supporting durability of the rally amid secular AI infrastructure growth,” the analysts added.

As such, the firm said its favorite parts of the semiconductor market are still compute (led by Nvidia (NVDA), AMD (AMD), and Broadcom (AVGO)), memory (Micron (MU)), analog (Analog Devices (ADI), and Texas Instruments (TXN)), semiconductor equipment (Lam Research (LRCX), and KLA Corp. (KLAC)), electronic design automation (Cadence Design Systems (CDNS)), interconnects (Marvell (MRVL)), and consumer.

For the compute part of the market, Bank of America said it expects multiple CPU announcements at next month’s Computex event, including more details about Nvidia’s forecast that CPUs are a $200B total addressable market.

On the analog portion of the market, the firm added that ON Semiconductor (ON) and Microchip (MCHP) also have exposure via ON’s emerging AI power pipeline and Microchip’s exposure to the aerospace and defense markets.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Oklo tapped by DoE for advanced discussions in surplus plutonium program

Oklo (OKLO) up 10.2% pre-market Tuesday after saying it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for advanced negotiations under the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, which aims to make designated surplus plutonium material available to industry participants and enable the conversion of those materials into fuel for advanced nuclear reactors.

The company said its selection, alongside four other advanced nuclear companies, supports its broader fuel strategy, which includes multiple pathways to source fuel to support advanced reactor deployment while domestic enrichment and fuel infrastructure continue to scale.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

ASP Isotopes surges on restart of Silicon-28 enrichment plant; commercial shipments seen in Q3

ASP Isotopes (ASPI) up 12.3% pre-market Tuesday after saying it successfully restarted the first 18 stages, comprising segments 1 and 2, of its Silicon-28 enrichment facility in Pretoria, South Africa, and that it expects to make initial commercial shipments of enriched Silicon-28 in Q3.

The company said the first 18 stages of the facility have operated for more than three weeks at target enrichment levels following nine months of engineering modifications to non-core components including valves, compressors, and piping.

ASP Isotopes (ASPI) said it shipped its first samples of enriched Silicon-28 to a U.S. customer in August 2025, with independent analysis confirming enrichment levels tracked in line with theoretical calculations; following customer site visits in H2 2025, the company said it began implementing modifications to the facility.

The company previously said it signed three commercial contracts for enriched Silicon-28 with U.S.-based customers requiring it for quantum computing and next-generation semiconductors.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Aluminum jumps to four-year high as fears of China production cut add to Middle East disruption

Traders are said to be concerned that Chinese smelters will be asked to reduce production alongside a nationwide inspection of energy use and emissions from key industries.

China’s aluminum smelters have been running above capacity to capitalize on a global shortage caused by the Middle East war, lifting China’s daily aluminum output to a record 129K tons last month, according to official data.

A smelter in Baise, Guangxi province, has already cut production of molten aluminum, according to researcher Mysteel, without providing estimates of volumes affected.

Aluminum production from the Persian Gulf plunged to its lowest level in more than a decade in April, according to the International Aluminium Institute.

The Persian Gulf accounts for ~20% of non-Chinese production and is a core supplier to buyers in Japan, South Korea, the European Union, and the U.S.

Two Persian Gulf aluminum smelters have been damaged in missile strikes during the Middle East war: Emirates Global Aluminium’s Al Taweelah plant reportedly will take a year to repair, and at least one other producer - Qatalum - has reduced capacity.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

Vicor surges to record after raising revenue guidance on AI power licensing deal

Vicor (VICR) said it now expects second-quarter revenue of $142 million, up from prior guidance of $126 million. The company attributed the increase to stronger product revenue and royalties from an additional licensee of its intellectual property portfolio.

The updated outlook highlights growing demand for technologies designed to improve efficiency and power density inside AI servers and high-performance computing systems. Investors have increasingly scrutinized power bottlenecks as hyperscalers and semiconductor companies race to deploy ever-more-powerful AI hardware.

Vicor (VICR) said the new licensing agreement covers its patents related to power-converter topologies, control systems, power components and distribution architectures, including its Factorized Power Architecture and Vertical Power Delivery technologies.

The company said an unnamed OEM secured the all-inclusive license.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

Brent crude climbs as Iran warns of retaliation after U.S. strike

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it will retaliate against U.S. strikes of missile launchers in southern Iran after the U.S. sank two IRG ships it said were attempting to lay mines in the strait; Iran responded by launching surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes, prompting the American attacks on missile launchers.

The U.S. strikes happened as Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar’s prime minister aimed at reaching an agreement.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 26, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Palo Alto, CrowdStrike sit in prime position to benefit from AI catalyst: Wedbush

“For PANW, the completion of the CyberArk acquisition, now reborn as Idira, positions the company as the only vendor offering unified coverage across network, cloud, and identity security at scale. PANW’s momentum behind Idira and Prisma AIRS underscores how rapidly identity and AI security are becoming durable demand drivers for the platform,” Wedbush noted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

#Anthropic #KlingAI

First fully AI-generated feature film to debut at Tribeca Film Festival

The first feature-length film called “Dream of Violets” generated entirely from artificial intelligence will be debuted at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, marking the first time a live-action, AI-generated film will be premiered at a major film festival.

The film took roughly 3 months to make at a cost of just ~$2K using tools such as Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) Claude AI for language editing, Kling AI for video generations, and Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Gemini and Nanobanana for research and imagery.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

AWS’ margins leave competitors behind due to Claude growth: report

“Although all CSPs are benefiting from increased AI and non-AI revenue, margins are a whole different story,” according to the study. “Oracle (ORCL) and Coreweave (CRWV) both disappointed the market with lower-than-expected profits from their cloud arms. Azure (MSFT) is also seeing a downward trend in margins. Google Cloud (GOOG)(GOOGL) has had a great upwards climb recently, but margins are inflated since they do not include training costs from DeepMind in the GCP segment. The only CSP with a true rising trend is AWS—a remarkable achievement considering their server depreciation (5 years) is the lowest of all CSPs.”

AWS to increase its EBIT margins by 213 basis points during the first quarter of 2026, the study said. Part of this is due to Amazon being the only cloud service provider using the token-as-a-service strategy as the dominant share of its artificial intelligence business. Amazon is also building out its data center capacity at a higher clip than its rivals, and its custom chip, Graviton, continues to provide “better economics than merchant solutions.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

Snowflake Non-GAAP EPS of $0.39 beats by $0.07, revenue of $1.39B (+33% Y/Y) beats by $70M

Net revenue retention rate of 126%.

779 customers with trailing 12-month product revenue greater than $1 million, representing 29% year-over-year growth.

Remaining performance obligations of $9.21 billion, representing 38% year-over-year growth.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2027, the company expects: Product revenue of $1,415 million to $1,420 million, representing 30% year-over-year growth.

For the full-year of fiscal 2027, the company expects: Product revenue of $5,840 million, representing 31% year-over-year growth, up from previous guidance of $5,660 million, or 27% year-over-year growth.

In addition, Snowflake entered into a deal with Amazon Web Services (AMZN) to purchase $6B in Graviton compute and AI spend on AWS over five years, which reflects accelerated demand for data and AI workloads.

Sanjit Singh, Morgan Stanley: what inflected in demand and mix? CEO Ramaswamy: “AI is accelerating the value” and “agentic products... Snowflake Intelligence and Cortex Code... came into their own in Q1”; CFO Robins: “CoCo had the largest driver to the increase in our forecast” and “we also saw acceleration in our core business.”

S. Kirk Materne, Evercore ISI: how CoCo changes speed and go-to-market? CEO Ramaswamy: “CoCo is a general purpose coding agent” and said it makes migrations and agent creation faster; he also said internal teams have “95-plus percent adoption of CoCo” and “this is early” for agentic development.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Memory stocks stretched but still reasonably valued - analyst

High bandwidth memory, or HBM, pricing has surged dramatically—up seven to eight times compared to last year, with Q2 prices rising 60%-70% sequentially. Vivek Arya, senior semiconductor analyst at Bank of America Securities projects continued sequential price growth through year-end, with potential deceleration in early next year as incremental capacity comes online.

However, the analyst emphasized that each new HBM generation—from version three to four to five—requires three to five times more wafers for the same capacity, keeping supply constrained against surging AI demand.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

Marvell jumps on back of strong Q1 results, guidance

For the period ending May 2, Marvell said it earned an adjusted $0.80 per share as revenue rose 28% year-over-year to come in at $2.42B. Analysts had expected the company to earn an adjusted $0.79 per share on $2.41B in revenue.

“Marvell delivered record first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $2.418 billion, up 28% year-over-year, and guided second-quarter revenue to $2.7 billion at the mid-point, representing 35% year-over-year growth. We expect revenue growth to continue accelerating each quarter throughout fiscal 2027, driven by continued strength in our data center business,” said Marvell CEO and Chairman Matt Murphy in a statement. “We are seeing exceptional AI-related bookings, and as a result, we are significantly raising Marvell’s revenue outlook for both fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 compared with the guidance we provided last quarter. This improved outlook is being driven by strong demand across a broad set of Marvell solutions, including 800G and 1.6T scale-out optics, 51.2T Ethernet scale-out switches, scale-up optical solutions for NPO and CPO applications, scale-across datacenter interconnect modules, and custom XPU and XPU-attach solutions.”

Looking ahead, Marvell said it expects to earn between $0.88 to $0.98 per share on an adjusted basis, while revenue is forecast to be $2.7B, plus or minus 5%. Marvell also said it anticipates adjusted gross margins will be between 58.25% and 59.25%.

Analysts had expected the company to earn an adjusted $0.90 per share on $2.6B in revenue.

“We are now guiding Q2 revenue to grow double digits sequentially, and we expect Q3 and Q4 revenue to also grow by at least 10% sequentially” and “we now expect $3 billion in quarterly revenue in Q3, one full quarter ahead of our prior outlook” (CEO & Chairman Murphy).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

#KlingAI

Amazon launches the GenAI Creators Fund to support AI-generated cinematic entertainment

The GenAI Creators Fund was created by Amazon MGM Studios and Amazon Web Services to financially support filmmakers, digital creators, and startups that use generative AI in their production pipelines, with the goal of delivering high-quality cinematic entertainment. Participants get access to Amazon’s (AMZN) AI infrastructure and tools.

Projects supported by the fund will use Project Nara, an AWS-based platform that combines third-party generative models such as Kling with a proprietary AI tool built specifically for Amazon MGM Studios. The workflow is meant to integrate with established industry tools like Blender, Maya, and Adobe’s creative applications.

The e-commerce and media giant has ordered three new animated series for Prime Video that will be made using its in-house generative AI production tools. At Amazon’s (AMZN) “AI on the Lot” event in Culver City, it unveiled the three projects it was backing, which included Punky Duck from Jorge Gutiérrez, Love, Diana Music Hunters starring YouTube child influencer Diana, and Cupcake & Friends from BuzzFeed Studio.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 27, 2026

#ByteDance

ByteDance joins tech peers in building custom CPUs for AI inference, Reuters reports

Chinese technology giant ByteDance (BDNCE) is developing its own central processing units (CPUs) to support its growing AI infrastructure needs, as ‌surging chip prices and prolonged supply shortages constrain its expansion plans, Reuters reported on Thursday citing sources.

The move underscores the industry’s rapid shift toward “inference,” where AI models are deployed to perform agentic tasks that demand more from CPUs, working in tandem with the graphics chips made by Nvidia (NVDA) that have dominated the AI boom.

The shift has created a shortage of CPUs in recent months, and global hyperscalers including Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) are also developing their own custom CPUs to reduce costs. It has also helped major CPU makers Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) emerge as leading challengers to Nvidia’s AI ⁠dominance.

Chinese technology giant ByteDance (BDNCE) is also working on developing artificial intelligence processors that are similar to offerings from Nvidia (NVDA) partner Groq, The Information reported.

The chip, which is still in the early stages, would be able to run AI models at a low cost, the news outlet added, citing three people with knowledge of the project. It is working with China-based InnoStar Semiconductor to integrate its memory technology into the new chips, the news outlet added.

In addition, ByteDance is also working on a different chip for video algorithms.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

BlackSky secures multi-year renewal contract to accelerate automation of future non-earth imagery services

BlackSky Technology (BKSY) on Thursday said it was awarded a seven-figure, multi-year contract renewal to accelerate the automation of future non-Earth imagery services.

As part of this contract, BlackSky will deliver high-resolution imagery and AI-enabled analytics of on-orbit objects that give decision-makers a dual-use capability in a single platform that is flexible for both Earth observation and highly dynamic space domain awareness missions.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

#WCD #ETH #OpenAI

Eightco Holdings treasury hit $374M, led by $90M OpenAI position

Eightco Holdings (ORBS) announced on Thursday that its total holdings stood at around $374M as of May 27, including crypto assets, private tech investments, cash, and stablecoins.

The company holds an indirect $90M investment in OpenAI through SPVs, making up around 24% of its treasury assets. The company said reports about a possible OpenAI IPO could further support its AI investment thesis.

It also owns 283.45M Worldcoin (WDC-USD) tokens valued at about $99M at $0.35 per coin, along with 11.1K Ethereum (ETH-USD).

Moreover, the company has invested $18M in Beast Industries equity and another $1M in Mythical Games.

The management said its treasury strategy is focused on three major themes—artificial intelligence, digital identity, and the creator economy.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

Google, Workday team up to offer AI agents for HR and finance

Workday (WDAY) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) (GOOG) Google Cloud are expanding their partnership to bring AI agents for HR and finance directly inside the applications people use every day.

The companies said the new collaboration integrates the Sana Self-Service Agent from Workday directly into Google’s Gemini Enterprise. Employees can now ask a question in Gemini Enterprise and get a personal answer directly from Workday, with all the right policies and permissions already applied.

The companies noted that Gemini is now the default AI model inside Sana for Workday.

By combining the Workday Agent System of Record, or ASOR, and agent roadmap with Google Cloud’s enterprise-ready agent platform and leading models, the partnership will create a single foundation where agents from Workday, Google Cloud, and third-parties work together on real HR and finance workflows, with built-in governance and security.

The companies said that partnership supports Agent-to-Agent, or A2A, Agent-to-UI, or A2UI, and Model Context Protocol, or MCP, approaches so AI agents can share information and autonomously hand off tasks to each other in real time in a single workflow.

As part of the collaboration, Alphabet will use the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform to build and run a custom Workday agent to streamline and automate key workflows for their Workday administrators.

The companies said that Workday Data Cloud is available to early adopter customers now and will be generally available later this year. Sana Self-Service Agent in Gemini Enterprise is available today in early access for eligible Workday customers, the companies noted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

#Anthropic #OpenAI

Anthropic surpasses OpenAI as most valuable AI startup after raising $65B

Anthropic (ANTHRO) said on Thursday that it has raised $65B in a new funding round that values it at $965B. At that valuation, Anthropic has topped OpenAI (OPENAI) as the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

#OpenAI #Anthropic

Chatbot wars: OpenAI growth slows but still leads rivals in total usage, says Sensor Tower

ChatGPT’s MAUs have increased 58% year over year so far in May. In comparison, Meta AI (META) and Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) Claude are up 666% and 583%, respectively, during this same period.

Even though ChatGPT’s MAU rate has remained relatively flat since March 2026, it dominates in terms of total users. For example, ChatGPT has averaged 984M MAUs over the past three months, while Google’s (GOOG)(GOOGL) Gemini, its next closest competitor, averaged 464M.

In terms of downloads of chatbot apps, DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK), xAI’s (SPCX) Grok, and ChatGPT all reported declining rates in April, according to Sensor Tower data. Global downloads of these three apps declined by 68%, 40%, and 18% year over year, respectively, during the month. Conversely, Meta AI and Claude downloads have increased by a staggering 20 times and 17 times, respectively, in that time.

In-app purchase revenue is also diverging for some of these chatbots. While spending in ChatGPT increased by 98% year over year in April, Claude’s in-app purchases surged 29 times. Despite the ferocious gains made by competitors, ChatGPT still accounted for 77% of in-app sales across all chatbots.

In terms of engagement time, Gemini leads the pack with users spending an average of 19 minutes per day on the app in May. Claude ranks second with 16 minutes.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] MongoDB goes bananas following strong outlook

For the quarter ended April 30, the database platform reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.32 versus the consensus estimate of $1.18.

Revenue for the first quarter increased 25% year over year to total $687.6M, which was more than the $663.8M estimate.

CEO Chirantan Desai framed MongoDB’s growth around “2 dimensions” of demand: “core workloads where large customers run their most demanding, mission-critical workloads” and “AI, where enterprises, digital natives, frontier labs and AI natives alike are moving agentic applications into production and choosing MongoDB as the data platform to power them.”

For the quarter in progress, MongoDB expects adjusted EPS ranging from $1.58 to $1.61, which is much more than the $1.30 estimate. It expects revenue ranging from $729M to $734M, which easily clears the $700M estimate.

For the entire fiscal year, the company increased its adjusted EPS outlook to range from $5.95 to $6.14 compared to its earlier projection of $5.75 to $5.93. The estimate calls for $5.88. It increased its revenue guidance to range from $2.92B to $2.96B compared to prior guidance of $2.86B to $2.9B. The estimate expected $2.9B.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 28, 2026

#NINOF #NINOF

Nikon to price chip equipment lower than ASML: report

Nikon (NINOF) (NINOY) plans to compete with ASML (ASML) by pricing its semiconductor photolithography equipment lower than its rival, Nikon’s new CEO Yasuhiro Ohmura told Nikkei.

The lithography equipment maker produces many of its parts in-house, allowing it to price its products lower while still achieving profit, according to Ohmura, who was previously head of Nikon’s chipmaking unit.

Nikon and ASML are the only companies that produce ArF lithography equipment. Intel (INTC) has previously made up 80% of Nikon’s ArF lithography orders.

“We lacked a sufficient track record [aside from Intel] and our support capabilities hadn’t earned trust,” Ohmura said.

Nikon has set its semiconductor equipment business as a key growth driver in its medium-term plan announced in May.

The company is talking to multiple U.S. and Asian chipmakers and is “nearing purchase orders” for its argon fluoride lithography equipment, Ohmura told Nikkei.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Texas is less than one-tenth of Waymo’s

According to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles database, Tesla (TSLA) has 42 authorized robotaxis in Texas, while the Alphabet (GOOGL)-owned Waymo (WAYMO) has 577 registered vehicles.

Tesla (TSLA) also trails other robotaxi operators in the state - Nebius (NBIS)-owned Avride has 317 authorized robotaxis and Nuro has 47. Meanwhile, Amazon’s (AMZN) Zoox (ZOOX) has 35 authorized robotaxis in Texas.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

Uber rolls out cheaper rides for World Cup fans

Uber Technologies (UBER) is giving FIFA World Cup fans a cheaper option to $200 parking fees and $100 mass transit fares with Uber Shuttle, a new service that will give soccer fans a ride from the stadium for as little as $45.

The service is being offered at matches in New York/New Jersey, Miami, Dallas, and Boston. The option for a ride to and from the stadium is only offered in Miami.

Riders must book a shuttle ride ahead of time, pay the flat fee, and show the downloaded QR code to the Uber shuttle driver.

Uber Max is offered for larger groups with a 14-seat van to and from the games in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. Max vans can be booked for as long as eight hours.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Ondas wins $30M+ new orders in May

Ondas Holdings (ONDS) secured more than $30M in new orders during May across its defense, security, and autonomous systems businesses, bringing its Q2 order intake to more than $110M to date.

The company reported Q1 2026 revenue of $50.1M and ended the quarter with a pro forma backlog of $457M.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

JPMorgan will fight CLARITY Act in current form, Jamie Dimon says

“We’re not worried,” he said about the proposed legislation that, in its current version, would allow crypto platforms to pay interest-like rewards on stablecoins. “We want it to be fair,” Dimon said in an interview on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” program.

The current draft of the CLARITY Act allows fintechs to “effectively pay interest on stablecoins without the protections,” he said. “This will be fought.”

“No one is going to bow down to this guy, okay, or that company,” he said, referring to Coinbase Global (COIN) and its CEO, Brian Armstrong.

Specifically, if crypto companies are offering bank-like products, they should be regulated like a bank, he said. “They need to follow the same rules,” he said. “It should be fair and equal. Period.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

ServiceNow leads software rally as AI fears turn to optimism

Speaking at the Jefferies Software, Internet and AI conference earlier this week, ServiceNow Chief Product Officer and COO Amit Zavery explained that the system of record provided for enterprises by firms such as ServiceNow remains critical in deploying agents or other AI tools.

“So for us, it’s a very natural extension to now say that I will also discover and track and manage and give you visibility to AI agents,” Zavery said. “We, of course, build connectors and adapters to discover a lot of the next-generation AI systems out there. But for IT managers and IT system owners, this was like, okay, I already have all the other visibility. I don’t want to go to a third-party system for only AI-related stuff. I want to go to the same place where I can have full license visibility, all usage visibility, all cost visibility.”

Zavery also said it’s time to move past an AI and non-AI narrative when he discussed ServiceNow’s hybrid pricing model.

“We don’t want to have a non-AI and AI mindset anymore inside the company,” he said. “Our customers don’t want it. They want to be able to adopt AI as part of the same products they buy from us, not just one of the products. So that kind of drove this. We knew the pricing had worked. The feedback we got from our customers was very positive about how we’ve approached these AI capabilities in our Pro Plus.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

#BlueOrigin

Amazon & ASTS dip as the Blue Origin rocket explosion sets back its global satellite plan

Roth Capital noted that Amazon’s (AMZN) LEO constellation deployment timeline and direct-to-device commercial service expectations are likely to slip.

Amazon (AMZN) had counted on up to 24 New Glenn launches as a backbone of its constellation rollout, so a prolonged stand-down reduces its planned annual deployment and could push more mass onto other, generally more expensive providers such as ULA and Ariane.

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS), which uses Blue Origin to place communications satellites in space, down 18.5% in early trading.

Deutsche Bank downgrades AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) to Hold from Buy with a $106 price target following the New Glenn rocket explosion, saying ASTS will be unable to meet its launch target of ~45 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026 without Blue Origin; the bank had been estimating that 26 ASTS satellites would be launched via New Glenn this year.

“It’s difficult to gauge at this time just how delayed ASTS launch plans will be, but we think it would be very optimistic to expect any New Glenn launches in the next three months and unrealistic that ASTS would have access to the four New Glenn launches we had been estimating for 2026,” Deutsche Bank says in a note.

While New Glenn could be back to the launchpad within six months, there will inevitably be fewer launches this year spread across Blue Origin’s major customers, including Amazon (AMZN) and the U.S. government, the bank says.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

AI monetization shifts to usage-based pricing

Enterprise software vendors are rethinking how they charge for AI. Rather than bundling AI features into seat-based subscriptions, companies are moving toward models where customers pay based on what AI agents actually accomplish. This includes tasks like resolved support tickets, qualified leads, or completed workflows.

This shift creates new pressure on both vendors and customers. Vendors must demonstrate measurable value to justify per-outcome pricing. Customers must manage AI usage costs the same way they manage cloud compute, as a variable operating expense tied to consumption.

The infrastructure layer is feeling this pressure too. As AI moves from training to continuous inference, the cost of running models at scale becomes a central concern. Storage architecture, liquid cooling capacity, and total cost of ownership are now part of the AI economics conversation alongside chip performance.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Cerebras continues to plunge; shares now down 24% from opening day close

The company’s flagship technology includes the Wafer-Scale Engine 3, or WSE-3, which it contends is the fastest commercialized AI processor in the world. The company said it is 58 times larger than the leading GPU chip and uses a fraction of the power per unit of compute while delivering inference up to 15 times faster than leading GPU-based solutions offered by competitor Nvidia (NVDA).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 29, 2026

Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.

In 2020, I told my friends, that I have built a million dollar portfolio. Meaning, if I left my relatively tiny portfolio untouched, as is, and didn’t do anything to it, it would grow to a million dollars in less than a decade.

Well, I didn’t just leave the portfolio untouched, as is, and let’s just say that a million dollars is no longer the goal!

WealthWise started with the idea of helping close friends & family learn about investing, because it would be really boring to be rich alone.

The idea was simple, share a crisp summary of everything important I come across throughout the week in a weekly blog.

I realized very early that not everyone has the time, nor the inclination to do what I do. But everyone wants to be rich!

I, therefore, started WealthWise and opened it to everyone because I realized that nearly everyone I came across needed what I had built. Even if they didn’t know it yet.

Today, from my perspective, WealthWise is a social service. I learned about investing from the internet, for free and this is my way of giving back.*

*WealthWise news is and shall always remain free. Specific stock picks and research are behind a paywall.

Performance Report

Long time readers, may have noticed that I haven’t published a performance report for a while now. Oh! It’s been longer than a year now, I just checked.

I did not stop publishing performance reports because of lack of performance, not at all. Quite the contrary actually. The performance over the last couple of years has been blockbuster and I don’t think I could have done any better.

The reason I stopped publishing performance reports however, is because it was getting increasingly harder for me to accurately calculate my returns, given how much dollar cost averaging I do, which makes it difficult to keep track of the cost basis.

There is no way, I was knowingly going to publish inaccurate results, so I stopped, until I had a better solution.

Coverage Universe and Future Performance Reports

Going forward, I am going to start publishing performance reports again. I am going to start reporting performance report based on the reporting I see in my Robinhood account. Robinhood because that is where I have most of my high growth holdings, which I have written about on my Substack.

My Robinhood portfolio is mirrored (very closely) in the WealthWise Coverage Universe and hence I believe Robinhood’s reporting will most closely resemble WealthWise’s returns.

This is also the reason why Coverage Universe is behind a pay wall. It is potentially a multi-million dollar portfolio, of course it is behind a pay wall.

Over the last 1 year WealthWise has delivered a return of a staggering 360% (as of May 27th, 2026).

As I said, it was not because of lack of performance.

Commentary on Key Holdings:

Read more

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

[News] NRC completes environmental review for Dow, X-energy Texas nuclear project

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed its environmental assessment for Dow Inc. (DOW) and X-energy’s (XE) construction permit application for a proposed advanced nuclear project in Texas with a finding of no significant impact, the companies said post-market Monday.

X-energy’s (XE) XE-100 is an 80 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor designed to enable a minimal environmental footprint.

The proposed Long Mott Generating Station would provide both electricity and high-temperature industrial steam to Dow’s (DOW) UCC Seadrift Operations, powering the production of more than 4B lbs/year of materials per year; upon completion, Long Mott is expected to be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to serve an industrial site in North America.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

[News] Inflation panic, rising yields, rate hike pressure returns: Crypto stocks drown in red

As per Walter Bloomberg’s latest X post, prediction market Kalshi is now forecasting U.S. inflation could reach 5.1% this year, while a latest survey from Bank of America (BAC) showed 40% of fund managers now see a second wave of inflation as the biggest market risk.

Adding to the concerns, The Kobeissi Letter said U.S. CPI inflation is on track to exceed 5.0% as early as this year. Over the last six months, CPI inflation has averaged 0.4% on a MoM basis, with March and April readings reaching 0.9% and 0.6%, respectively.

If the trend continues, YoY inflation could surge to 5.2% by the November midterms, the highest since February 2023 and more than double the February 2026 print.

Even if monthly inflation eases to 0.3%, inflation would still rise to 4.4%, its highest level since April 2023, said reports.

The benchmark U.S. 30-year yield rose Tuesday for the third straight trading session to 5.180%, its highest yield since July 13, 2007, while the respective 10-year and two-year yields jumped to 4.668% and 4.122%, both 52-week highs.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

[News] Amazon Trainium chips starting to win over some AI developers: report

Amazon’s (AMZN) Trainium artificial intelligence accelerators are starting to win over some AI developers who have historically relied on Nvidia’s (NVDA) offerings, The Information reported.

Nvidia’s GPUs, which are widely considered to dominate the AI accelerator market, have remained in short supply amid insatiable demand from hyperscalers, AI frontier model labs, and other buyers. And while there are existing alternatives to Nvidia’s offerings—including those from AMD (AMD), Amazon, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), and other custom application specific integrated circuits—more developers are beginning to see the appeal of Amazon’s Trainium offerings, the news outlet added, citing conversations with six people who use or work with the chips.

“Our response has always been the lack of software support being a barrier,” Daniel Svonava, CEO of Superlinked, told The Information. “That’s the thing that changed in the last couple months. That barrier has been removed.”

Another developer, Bojan Jakimovski, who is machine-learning lead at Loka, also said interest in Trainium rose in the past couple of months, in part because of a lack of access to Nvidia GPUs. He added that one client switched its inference workloads to Trainium’s second-generation chips after a test showed their cost could be cut by up to 35% when compared to Nvidia’s H100 offerings.

However, Jakimovski added that he would recommend large language model training still take place on Nvidia’s offerings.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

[News] Bloom Energy surges on agreement with Nebius worth up to $2.6B in fees

In a 6-K filing, Nebius (NBIS) said on May 14 it entered into a master fuel cell capacity agreement and related system orders with Bloom Energy (BE) in which it will purchase the capacity and associated electricity generated by the power supply systems, and Bloom will install, operate and maintain the power supply systems.

The power capacity being provided under the agreement is expected to come in three phases, each with a supply term of 10 years, and is expected to provide in the aggregate for guaranteed capacity of ~250 MW and system installed capacity of ~328 MW.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

#SPCX #Anthropic

[News] Anthropic signs $45B deal with SpaceX to secure AI infrastructure

Under the agreement, Anthropic (ANTHRO) will pay about $1.25B per month through May 2029 for access to compute capacity from SpaceX’s (SPACE) ‘Colossus 1’ data center in Memphis, Tennessee, owned by xAI (X.AI), the AI subsidiary of SpaceX (SPACE).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

#Quantinuum

[News] IBM, D-Wave, Rigetti, GlobalFoundries confirm proposed U.S. quantum funding awards

The Department of Commerce has signed nine letters of intent to provide just over $2B in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act, as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to build a domestic quantum computing supply chain.

IBM said it signed a letter of intent with the department to launch Anderon, a standalone quantum chip manufacturing company that would operate what IBM described as America’s first pure-play quantum foundry.

The project includes $1B in proposed CHIPS incentives from the federal government, matched by $1B in cash from IBM, along with contributions of intellectual property, assets and personnel. The foundry will be based in Albany, New York, and focus on manufacturing 300-millimeter quantum wafers.

The foundry will initially support wafer fabrication for superconducting qubit and supporting electronics wafers.

Separately, GlobalFoundries said the Commerce Department entered into a letter of intent to award the company $375M to accelerate the build-out of its new quantum business, Quantum Technology Solutions.

The Commerce Department will also take minority, non-controlling stakes in seven quantum computing companies that are getting funding:

Atom Computing will receive $100M

Diraq will receive up to $38M

D-Wave will receive $100M

Infleqtion will receive $100M

PsiQuantum will receive $100M

Quantinuum will receive $100M

Rigetti will receive up to $100M

D-Wave Quantum’s award is tied to efforts to accelerate the development of the company’s superconducting annealing and gate-model technology. Under the proposed agreement, D-Wave would issue $100M in common stock to the Commerce Department once definitive award documents are finalized.

The company said the funding would expedite the delivery of advanced superconducting quantum computers, including a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model quantum computer.

Rigetti Computing also confirmed it signed a letter of intent for up to $100M in funding over three years to accelerate superconducting quantum computing research and development.

The company said the proposed projects would focus on addressing major technical hurdles tied to scaling superconducting quantum systems. The Commerce Department is expected to receive an equity stake in Rigetti tied to the total amount of funding under the proposed agreement.

Infleqtion will receive $100M in proposed funding to accelerate the development of neutral-atom quantum computing systems. A portion of the award would be funded upfront, with the remainder milestone-based. In addition, the department would receive Infleqtion common stock valued at $100M at a 15% discount.

The funding will support quantum hardware, photonics, and full-stack system development.

Quantinuum received a letter of intent from the U.S. Department of Commerce proposing to provide R&D funding for Quantinuum to “address specific technology bottlenecks in the development of fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum computers,” according to a statement from the company.

Additionally, Quantinuum is expected to partner with U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing and photonics technology suppliers to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and manufacturing capabilities.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

#SPCX

[News] SpaceX said to plan 10-GW solar factory near Austin for AI data centers

SpaceX (SPCX) is reportedly planning to build a massive, 10-gigawatt solar manufacturing facility near Austin as part of Elon Musk’s ambition to power artificial intelligence data centers in space.

The facility in Bastrop, Texas, will include two floors that each will make five gigawatts of solar cells, according to permit filings submitted to Bastrop County and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Musk said at the World Economic Forum in January that he viewed solar power as a solution to the energy bottleneck constraining the build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure. He announced an ambitious goal for both Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPCX) each to build 100 gigawatts per year of solar manufacturing capacity in the US over the next three years, an amount that would dwarf current domestic levels, the report said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 22, 2026

[News] SpaceX Starship Successfully Deploys 22 Dummy Starlink Satellites

SpaceX successfully launched its upgraded Starship Version 3 megarocket from Starbase, Texas, on Friday.

Despite one Raptor engine failing early and the Super Heavy booster crashing into the Gulf of Mexico after an incomplete boostback burn, the mission achieved several key objectives.

The Starship upper stage reached its suborbital trajectory, successfully deployed 22 dummy Starlink satellites, and endured the intense heat of reentry.

The vehicle concluded the flight with a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean, utilizing its remaining engines for a final landing burn.

This test critically validated the new Raptor 3 engines and advanced the rocket’s readiness for future Artemis lunar missions and Mars exploration.

WealthWise Research - May 22, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

Datacom market outlook increase proves positive for optical suppliers: JPMorgan

The datacom market outlook was recently revised upwards by LightCounting, which J.P. Morgan analysts said proves positive for optical component suppliers, including Coherent (COHR), Fabrinet (FN), and Lumentum (LITE).

“The datacom growth outlook remains robust, with the total market forecast once again revised upward and now expected to expand at nearly a +35% CAGR through 2028, led primarily by 1.6T and, to a slightly lesser extent, 800G data rates,” said J.P. Morgan analysts, led by Samik Chatterjee, in an industry report.

The growth percentage translates to the datacom market expanding from $19B in 2025 to $47B by 2028.

“From a data rate perspective, growth over the forecast period is being driven by 1.6T, which is expected to expand at ~200% CAGR to $21 bn, followed by 800G, which is projected to grow at nearly +26% CAGR to $21 bn,” Chatterjee noted. “Additionally, 3.2T is expected to contribute modestly in 2028E, while 400G and lower data rates are expected to decline over the forecast period.”

At the same time, the optical attach rate per XPU continues to increase. The blended attach rate is forecast to expand from less than four times in 2025 to four and a half times by 2027.

“That said, attach rates can vary by architecture, according to industry experts, with Google’s (GOOG)(GOOGL) use of optical circuit switches resulting in an attach rate closer to 1.5x per TPU, while Nvidia (NVDA) deployments track closer to 6.0x per GPU,” Chatterjee said.

In addition, the co-packaged optics total addressable market is projected to reach $2B by 2028 and surge to $11B by 2030.

“However, the latest guidance from Lumentum is already driving us to forecast their CPO revenues to be ~$2 bn in CY28, implying overall CPO market TAM to be well ahead of the $2 bn level, which is currently being forecasted by the industry analysts for 2028,” Chatterjee added. “We believe that estimates from industry analysts are conservative and are likely to be revised higher in subsequent updates. Industry forecasts imply that the non-CPO market (i.e., transceiver market) is still expected to grow solidly over the period, expanding at a +20% CAGR and reaching $45 bn+ by 2030.”

Coherent and Lumentum have Overweight ratings from J.P. Morgan, and Fabrinet has a Neutral rating. They have price targets of $380, $1,130, and $680, respectively.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 16, 2026

NextEra discusses offering $76/share for Dominion Energy- Bloomberg

Nextera Energy Inc (NYSE:NEE) is discussing a mostly stock deal for utility peer Dominion Energy Inc (NYSE:D) offering about $76 per share, or about $66 billion, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

NextEra will offer about 0.8 per share of its stock for Dominion, the Bloomberg report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal will also include a small cash component, and NextEra shareholders will own 75% of the combined company, the report said.

The offer represents a premium of about 21% to Dominion’s closing price on Friday.

Link to Investing News Article - May 18, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] ReNew Energy Global GAAP EPS of $0.02 beats by $0.18, revenue of $421M beats by $104.73M

Q4 GAAP EPS of $0.02 beats by $0.18.

Revenue of $421M beats by $104.73M.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

XPeng plans to ramp up robotaxi production as it becomes a physical AI company

XPeng (XPEV) announced on Monday that it is beginning mass production of robotaxis in Guangzhou in a notable step from road testing toward commercial rollout. The Chinese electric vehicle maker still plans pilot passenger operations in the second half of 2026, according to Reuters.

XPeng’s (XPEV) robotaxi roadmap has been building for months. In March, it formed a dedicated robotaxi unit to handle product definition, R&D testing, and operations, and stated that it aimed to start passenger-carrying demonstrations in the second half of 2026. The company has also said its robotaxis will use its Turing AI chips, dual hardware redundancy, and a second-generation VLA system designed for Level 4 autonomy. Strategically, XPeng is trying to differentiate itself from rivals by owning more of the autonomous stack in-house.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

Intel, AMD see price target hikes at Citi as firm raises CPU estimates

“We believe the CPU [total addressable market] could expand from $29.3 billion in 2025 to $131.5 billion in 2030, or a 35% [compound annual growth rate],” Citi analyst Atif Malik wrote in a note to clients. “We expect general purpose CPUs to grow at a 20% CAGR to $50.9 billion in 2030, AI head nodes to grow at a 21% CAGR to $21.1 billion in 2030, and agentic CPUs to grow at a 185% CAGR to $59.4 billion in 2030. We model general purpose CPUs to represent 39% of the [total addressable market] in 2030, AI head nodes to represent 16% of the [total addressable market] in 2030, and agentic CPUs to represent 45% of the [total addressable market] in 2030. For reference, ARM (covered by Andrew Gardiner) forecasted a TAM of $100 billion by 2030 and AMD forecasted a [total addressable market] of $120 billion by 2030. By 2030, we expect Intel to have 47% share, AMD to have 34% share, and ARM/Others to have 19% share.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

ServiceNow in focus as BofA restarts coverage with Buy rating

“While AI is disrupting the software landscape, we think NOW stands to benefit from, rather than be replaced by, new AI solutions,” analyst Tal Liani wrote in a note to clients. “The starting point is strong, with the company occupying a deeply embedded mission-critical position within enterprise workflows, serving as the system that governs, routes, approves, and audits activity across organizations, making the displacement costly and complex. Leading position could turn agentic AI cycle into growth. We believe ServiceNow’s depth and breadth of workflow entrenchment uniquely position it to benefit from any deployment of autonomous agents across IT, employee, and customer workflows.”

Delving deeper, Liani said ServiceNow is likely to generate revenue growth between 18% and 22% from now until 2028, with free cash flow margins likely between 35% and 37%, aided by platform expansion, winning budgets, and monetizing artificial intelligence.

“Notably, cRPO growth has exceeded 20% for five consecutive quarters, highlighting sustained demand and platform relevance,” Liani added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

Google, Amazon, Meta & Microsoft could add up to 34 gigawatts of compute by 2027: MS

The major hyperscalers, a group that includes Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), and Microsoft (MSFT), are likely to add up to 34 gigawatts of compute by 2027, as the “age of inference is upon us,” Morgan Stanley analysts said.

For context, the analysts noted that Amazon Web Services, still the largest cloud service provider, likely only added approximately 5 gigawatts of compute in the first 18 years of its existence.

“We see GOOGL (~7 GW) again bringing on the most capacity in ‘27, followed by AMZN/MSFT (~5 GW each),” the analysts wrote in a note to clients. “META’s capex is only adding 3.5 GW, but when grossing up its hyperscale spend, we estimate META is really adding ~4 GW in ’27.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Top Quant-rated stocks from Jefferies’ Franchise picks list

Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (CRDO) leads the rankings with a Strong Buy Quant Rating of 4.92. Jefferies recently added the company to its Franchise Picks portfolio, citing expectations that adoption of active electrical cables remains in the early stages and could drive durable growth through 2028 and beyond.

AppLovin Corporation (APP) follows with a Strong Buy rating of 4.50, as Jefferies highlighted the company’s leadership in mobile game advertising and its expanding direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

BofA lifts 2026 S&P EPS view after blowout Q1

BofA Global Research on Monday raised its 2026 S&P 500 (SPY) earnings estimate to $335 from $310, implying 22% year-over-year EPS growth, after a much stronger-than-expected first-quarter reporting season and resilient corporate guidance.

With roughly 90% of S&P 500 (SPY) companies having reported, BofA said Q1 earnings are tracking up 26% from a year earlier, or 18% excluding one-time gains at Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META) and Google (GOOGL) (GOOG). The earnings figure of $80.28 is nearly $7 above the firm’s initial forecast.

More notably, 64% of companies beat both EPS and sales estimates, the strongest dual-beat rate in five years, while guidance has held up better than expected despite geopolitical uncertainty. Full-year and Q2 estimates have been revised higher since April 1, reinforcing the idea that the earnings cycle is still broadening rather than fading.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 18, 2026

Blackstone pledges $5B to launch TPU-powered AI cloud business with Google

Blackstone (BX) Monday announced a joint venture with Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) to create a new U.S.-based company that will offer data center capacity, operations, networking, and Google Cloud’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) as a compute-as-a-service offering.

Blackstone (BX) to make an initial $5B equity commitment to bring 500 MW of capacity online in 2027, with plans to scale significantly over time, Google and Blackstone said in a statement.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

Nvidia delivers Vera CPU systems to OpenAI, Anthropic, Oracle, and SpaceXAI

Nvidia (NVDA) has commenced shipping its new Vera CPU systems, moving the company’s agentic computing architecture into production. Initial infrastructure systems were hand-delivered by Nvidia executive Ian Buck to early enterprise adopters Anthropic (ANTHRO), OpenAI (OPENAI), Oracle (ORCL) Cloud Infrastructure, and SpaceXAI (SPACE).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

#OpenAI #Anthropic

OpenAI co-founder joins Anthropic team to work on research and development

OpenAI (OPENAI) co-founder Andrej Karpathy has joined the team at Anthropic (ANTHRO), where he plans to work on research and development of large language models.

“I’ve joined Anthropic,” Karpathy said in a post on X on Tuesday morning. “I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative. I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D. I remain deeply passionate about education and plan to resume my work on it in time.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

Emerson highlights emissions cuts, workplace metrics in sustainability report

The automation and industrial technology company said it reduced Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 49% from a 2021 baseline while lowering energy intensity by 27% over the same period. Emerson (EMR) also said it diverted 70% of non-hazardous waste from landfill and incineration across its manufacturing operations compared with 2022 levels.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

Google unveils new $100 per month AI Ultra plan; cuts price of top-tier plan

Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) on Tuesday unveiled a new $100 per month AI Ultra plan aimed at developers and creators.

Announced at the company’s I/O developer conference, the $100 per month plan comes with five times the usage limit in the Gemini app and Google Antigravity when compared to its Pro Plan; integration with its new frontier Gemini 3.5 Flash model; priority access to Google Antigravity, the tech giant’s agent-first development platform; 20TB worth of cloud storage; and a YouTube Premium individual plan.

The tech giant also noted that it has surpassed 900M monthly active users of its Gemini app, up from 400M a year ago and more than 750M as of the company’s February 2026 earnings call. By comparison, OpenAI’s (OPENAI) ChatGPT has surpassed 900M weekly active users.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 19, 2026

ASML in focus as UBS ups price target, reinstates as top pick

Capacity concerns have come into focus, with fears ASML could constrain semiconductor supply,” UBS analyst François-Xavier Bouvignies wrote in a note to clients. “Our analysis suggests ASML’s 2027 capacity can support >50% y/y growth in leading-edge wafer output (logic & memory) vs. ~25-30% demand, with ~20% of this uplift driven by underappreciated throughput gains from Low NA. While productivity gains may modestly dilute litho intensity as other process steps (deposition, etch) struggle to keep pace, we do not expect ASML to act as a bottleneck in the next 12/18 months.”

Additionally, Xavier Bouvignies said that if the current strength in memory is to last, ASML would be a beneficiary.

“Supported by a constructive memory outlook over the next two years, the supply chain is positioned to benefit—particularly participants with exposure to rising WFE intensity—as node shrinks drive ~30% higher dies per wafer (1b to 1c), increased lithography intensity, and an additional 1-2 EUV layers at 1d (’27/28E),” Xavier Bouvignies added. “ASML is the most memory-exposed semi-cap name (~30-35% of revenues by 2026 vs. ~25-30% peers), reflected in stronger growth (23% memory CAGR 2020-25 vs. ~6%) and rising litho intensity (11% in 2020 to ~15% in 2025 and ~15-20% by ‘27/28E).”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Sundar Pichai says 5 core apps top 3B users: Alphabet’s Google gets biggest search redesign

Speaking at Google I/O 2026, Pichai revealed that Google now has 13 products with more than 1B users, while five products—Google Search, Gmail, Android, Google Chrome, and YouTube—each serve over 3B users globally, according to the official X account.

Reportedly, the biggest announcement was Google Search’s largest redesign in more than 25 years. Instead of separate AI tools, Google is embedding AI directly into the main search box.

Users can now type longer questions and upload images, videos, files, and even Chrome tabs, while AI helps frame queries in real time.

The company’s executives said the goal is to remove friction between traditional search and AI conversations. Elizabeth Reid said users no longer want to think about switching between “classic search” and “AI Mode.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Micron touts chip demand

Micron’s vice president of global operations, Manish Bhatia, told attendees at a J.P. Morgan investment conference that the company’s financial outlook has strengthened since it last gave its outlook in February.

“Our financial outlook has strengthened since our last earnings call,” Bhatia said. “We’re on track for another substantial record free cash flow in fiscal Q3. Our balance sheet has never been stronger, and that’s underscored by multiple credit rating agencies from all three upgrades from all three credit rating agencies this year. Demand continues to outpace our ability and the industry’s ability to supply due to persistent structural factors. And so we expect tightness for HBM, DRAM, and NAND to continue well beyond calendar year 2026.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

#FISN

Deep Fission files for IPO as nuclear startups race to power AI boom

Deep Fission, a Berkeley, California-based nuclear energy startup developing underground small modular reactors, on Wednesday filed for an initial public offering in the latest sign that Wall Street’s appetite for advanced nuclear power remains strong amid surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers.

The company said in its S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it plans to offer 6 million shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “FISN.” Deep Fission estimated an initial price range of $24 to $26 a share, which would value the company at about $1.65 billion.

Founded by Chief Executive Elizabeth Muller, Deep Fission is pursuing a novel approach to nuclear energy by placing reactors deep underground in boreholes, an idea the company says could reduce construction costs and improve safety compared with traditional above-ground nuclear facilities.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Here’s why T1 Energy stock is surging: Wall Street watching 5 TE trends

The rally gained momentum after the company’s strong Q1 2026 earnings were reported on May 12. The company reported GAAP EPS of $0.01, beating estimates by $0.15, while revenue jumped 232% YoY, topping expectations by $66.88M.

The company also posted record quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $9.1M as production and sales at its G1_Dallas facility exceeded forecasts.

Investors are also focused on T1 Energy’s aggressive expansion plans. Construction of its flagship G2_Austin solar cell facility remains on schedule, with first structural steel expected later in May and initial production targeted for Q4 2026.

The management said demand for future G1/G2 production already exceeds more than 100% of anticipated 2027-2028 capacity.

Despite the bullish momentum, activist short seller Fuzzy Panda Research recently disclosed a short position in T1 Energy, alleging undisclosed China ties and potential risks tied to IRA tax credits and accounting practices, reported Sam Badawi.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Iran deal looks like a 30-day ceasefire extension - Eurasia Group

A new peace proposal being negotiated between the U.S. and Iran amounts to a 30-day ceasefire extension that has already angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Gregory Brew, an analyst at Eurasia Group.

The assessment comes after a Wednesday media report of a tense phone call between U.S. President Trump and Netanyahu a day earlier. According to Axios, Trump informed Netanyahu that mediators were working on a “letter of intent” that both the U.S. and Iran would sign to formally end the war in the Middle East and launch the 30-day negotiation window, during which reopening the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear issues would be discussed.

One source briefed on the call told Axios that Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the conversation, with Israeli and U.S. sources describing the two leaders as being in disagreement about the path forward.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Nvidia Non-GAAP EPS of $1.87 beats by $0.10, revenue of $81.62B (+85.2% Y/Y) beats by $2.65B

NVIDIA (NVDA) announces $80.0 billion additional share repurchase authorization and increases its quarterly cash dividend from $0.01 per share to $0.25 per share.

NVIDIA’s outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 is as follows:

Revenue is expected to be $91.0 billion, plus or minus 2% vs consensus of $86.95B. NVIDIA is not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook.

“The demand in China is quite large,” Huang told CNBC’s Sara Eisen. “Huawei is very, very strong. They had a record year, they’ll likely, very likely, have an extraordinary year coming up, and their local ecosystem of chip companies are doing quite well, because we’ve evacuated that market.”

“We’ve really largely conceded that market to them,” he added.

“Vera CPU opens a brand-new $200 billion TAM for NVIDIA… We have visibility to nearly $20 billion in total CPU revenue this year, setting us up to become the world’s leading CPU supplier.” (Co-Founder, CEO & Director Huang)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

#SPCX

SpaceX IPO filing shows company built around Elon Musk, Starlink, AI Age

The filing shows SpaceX’s Connectivity segment, driven primarily by Starlink, has become the company’s financial engine. The segment generated $11.4 billion in revenue during 2025, along with $4.4 billion in operating income and $7.2 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company said the business benefited from subscriber growth, wider enterprise adoption and improved network efficiency, with operating income rising more than 120% year over year.

By contrast, the company’s newly acquired AI segment is consuming cash at a remarkable pace. The AI business generated $3.2 billion in revenue during 2025 but posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion as SpaceX ramped investment in AI applications and compute infrastructure. Capital expenditures tied to the AI segment reached $12.7 billion during the year, far exceeding spending in the Space and Connectivity businesses.

The filing also underscores how heavily SpaceX continues to invest in Starship, the next-generation launch vehicle that Elon Musk has described as essential to the company’s long-term ambitions.

SpaceX’s Space segment generated $4.1 billion in revenue in 2025 and posted a $657 million operating loss. The company spent more than $3 billion on research and development tied to Starship during the year alone. The filing described Starship as the “key enabler” of SpaceX’s long-term growth strategy, saying the vehicle is designed to dramatically improve payload capacity, reusability and launch frequency while opening entirely new categories of missions.

Capital expenditures in the Space segment totaled $3.8 billion in 2025, reflecting the enormous infrastructure demands tied to developing and scaling the Starship program.

On a consolidated basis, SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in revenue during 2025, alongside an operating loss of $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $6.6 billion. For the first quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $4.7 billion and an operating loss of nearly $1.9 billion.

SpaceX expects its Class A common stock to begin trading on Nasdaq on June 12 under the ticker symbol “SPCX,” according to the filing.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 20, 2026

USA Rare Earth selected for up to $19M in Department of Energy funding

USA Rare Earth (USAR) up 1.6% pre-market Thursday after saying it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to receive as much as $19.3M in funding, subject to final negotiation, under the DoE’s Critical Materials Innovation, Efficiency and Alternatives program to support development of a pilot-scale rare earth element separations project.

The project will advance essential technology for processing REEs from domestic resources and specifically support the development of pre-commercial separations capacity in the U.S., the company said, adding that the final project scope, budget, and timeline will be determined through negotiations with the DoE.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

#SPCX

XOVR ETF boosts SpaceX position to ~23% of fund with $35M buy

ERShares (XOVR) Thursday said that its Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR) has added approximately $35M in additional exposure to its SpaceX (SPCX) position.

With the new purchase, XOVR’s total SpaceX exposure is ~$281M, about 23% of fund assets as of 5/20/2026.

The fund’s SpaceX position has generated approximately $41M in appreciation over the past month, creating accretive value for XOVR shareholders. XOVR is the first crossover ETF to provide private-equity access.

SpaceX exposure is obtained through an effective 0/0 SPV (zero management fee, zero performance fee) inside a registered ETF wrapper.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Critical Metals secures rare earth offtake deal for 15% of Tanbreez Phase 1 production

Critical Metals (CRML) up 8.3% pre-market Thursday after saying it entered into a definitive 15-year offtake agreement with REalloys (ALOY) for rare earth element concentrate from its Tanbreez project in Greenland.

Under the agreement, REalloys (ALOY) will purchase 15% of Tanbreez’s annual rare earth concentrate production, with priority rights respecting concentrate volumes containing elevated concentrations of heavy rare earth elements dysprosium and terbium, together with a right of first refusal over additional volumes.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Arm surges after Jefferies sees positives from Nvidia’s results

“Nvidia has visibility for $20bn of standalone Vera CPU sales this year, which is positive for Arm’s royalty outlook,” said analyst Janardan Menon and his team.

Given this tailwind, “we view Arm’s guidance for AGI CPU revenues of $15bn in 2031 as conservative,” the analysts added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Nebius, CoreWeave, Iren surge as Nvidia discloses H100 rental prices continue to rise

“The price of renting an H100 has risen 20% year-to-date, while A100 cloud pricing is up nearly 15%,” Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said on the company’s earnings call. “Benefiting from the versatility of our platform and continuous performance enhancements enhanced by our software stack, customers are generating profitable revenue beyond the depreciable life of their GPUs.”

Amid the insatiable demand for AI GPUs, Nebius recently announced that the on-demand rental price of H100 GPUs would rise to $3.85 per hour, up from $2.95 per hour.

The H100 GPU was unveiled in April 2022.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Enphase powers to 52-week high as Goldman points to data center transformer opportunity

Enphase Energy (ENPH) up 17.8% in Thursday’s trading to a new 52-week high of $63.28, a day after Goldman Sachs issued a report discussing solid-state transformers and the company’s ability to take advantage.

With the pending evolution of modern data centers to 800V DC architecture per the Nvidia roadmap in coming years, Goldman analyst Brian Lee noted the opportunity for power conversion technology across the AI data center footprint that is beginning to come into focus, as several technology firms are planning to roll out advanced transformer technologies to address the efficiency, reliability, and higher power needs of future AI data centers.

“The roadmap to transition to 800V DC indicates first deployments starting as early as 2028, and this has set off a race to commercialize” solid-state transformers, Lee wrote, with power inverter suppliers Enphase (ENPH) and Solaredge (SEDG) already indicating plans to roll out product demos by the end of this year, while industry participants such as ABB (ABBNY), GE Vernova (GEV), and Siemens (SIEGY) also appear to be targeting solutions for the opportunity.

Lee estimated the total SST addressable market at ~10 GW in 2030, equating to a revenue opportunity as high as $5B; based on low and high scenarios, the analyst calculated Enphase’s (ENPH) revenue potential as much as $910M, with additional earnings per share potential in the $0.21-$1.75 range in 2030.

Lee maintained a Buy rating on Enphase (ENPH) with a $57 price target, up from $51.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

Rocket Lab secures $90M U.S. Space Force contract for GEO satellites

Rocket Lab (RKLB) has been awarded a $90M contract by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command to design, manufacture, integrate, and operate two geostationary satellites hosting the Heimdall space domain awareness payload.

The award represents Rocket Lab’s first satellite production program for geostationary orbit and extends the company’s vertically integrated mission model into a new orbital regime.

Rocket Lab (RKLB) will serve as prime contractor and end-to-end mission provider, responsible for spacecraft design and manufacture, integration of the in-house Heimdall optical payload produced by Rocket Lab Optical Systems, launch integration onto a government-furnished launch vehicle, and on-orbit operations for up to five years following commissioning.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 21, 2026

AMD ramps up Taiwan production capacity amid CPU demand surge

Speaking in Taipei following a visit to China, Su said she met with AMD’s largest customers in China and worldwide before traveling to Taiwan to help ensure supply capacity could support a major increase in central processing unit production.

“The overall CPU market has had significantly higher demand than any of us predicted a year ago,” Su said. “I would say the CPU market is tight.”

She added that AMD is rapidly increasing capacity and expects supply to rise each quarter this year, with substantially more capacity planned for 2027 and beyond.

AMD said Thursday it plans to invest more than $10B in Taiwan’s AI sector to strengthen strategic partnerships and expand capacity for building and assembling advanced AI chips.

Su said the investment would focus on advanced packaging, substrates, and manufacturing for rack-scale systems.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 22, 2026

Generac surges as Jefferies upgrades to Buy on AI infrastructure boom

Generac (GNRC) up 7.5% in Friday’s trading as Jefferies upgrades shares to Buy from Hold with a $302 price target, raised from $239, saying the manufacturer of backup power generation products is nearing a “moment of truth” in securing major hyperscaler data center contracts tied to the AI infrastructure boom.

“Given the continued strong environment for data center development, and potential indications of activity with hyperscalers, we see an asymmetric positive risk/reward setup” for Generac (GNRC), according to Jefferies analysts led by Tanner James.

Generac (GNRC) proclaimed in April to be on the “one-yard line” in negotiations toward a final agreement with its first hyperscaler with a non-binding $600M notice to proceed already disclosed; “process timing can be notoriously fickle, but we feel incrementally confident in [management’s] ability to convert, James says.

While long-term execution in the data center market remains uncertain given entrenched competition, there are multiple potential contracts in the works, the analyst says, adding that Baudouin engines are finding their way into hyperscaler configurations, pointing to market acceptance for a product only Generac (GNRC) can ably scale.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 22, 2026

3 announcements that sent Redwire shares higher, outpacing S&P 500 this year

Redwire (RDW) shares jumped more than ~14% to ~$17.52, extending their one-month rally to over ~45%, as investors reacted to a series of major defense and space contract wins announced by the company.

The latest rally came after the company, in collaboration with Added Value Solutions and backed by ESA, successfully developed, tested, and delivered the MANUS lunar robotic arm prototype.

Led by Redwire’s Luxembourg team, the project completed key milestones, including preliminary design and performance assessments. The system supports payload handling for lunar missions.

Separately, the company announced on May 20 that it secured a $15M follow-on order from the US Army’s 1st Aviation Brigade under AVCOE for its Stalker uncrewed aerial systems.

Moreover, it also secured a high eight-figure multi-year NATO ally contract for the Penguin Mk3 UAS. The Penguin series has delivered 250+ aircraft to Ukraine and supports modular, combat-proven operations across allied forces.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 22, 2026

YouTube:

[After Skool] How Ai Slop will Spark the Next Human Renaissance

This episode of After Skool focuses on the hidden tradeoffs of adopting new technology. Each time we gain something with a new invention, we also lose something, and what we lose is often hard to see until much later. We can all sense that Ai will be the single biggest driver of change in the next decade and may very well be our last invention. There’s no denying that it’s a tremendously powerful tool with limitless potential, but what are we losing as we adopt it into our everyday lives? What are we losing by letting Ai make our decisions, do our critical thinking and create our art?

For many this could erase our reason to exist. There is a growing fear that Ai will replace us all. As Ai proves to do everything faster and cheaper than humans can, the unavoidable question is what will humans do? What are we good for? What purpose will we serve?

Since the industrial revolution, we have treated people like cogs in a machine to do monotonous, repetitive tasks in factories and offices in assembly lines under fluorescent lights. We’ve pretended that copying numbers from one spread sheet and pasting them in another is important work. All of a sudden Ai comes along and floods the market with agents that do repetitive tasks quicker and cheaper than any human worker can. It’s dissolved the value of generic work. It’s ended the need for humans to do dehumanizing labor.

“the Ai flood will make un-simulated humanity the ultimate luxury good. So many of us are worried that Ai will replace us, but very soon there will inevitably be a grand realization that Ai can only replace the drudgery. We’ll be left with the work that requires a soul and some real critical thinking. It’s going to be a movement from an economy of quantity to an economy of quality, where we shift our focus to doing the things that the machine cannot.” - Medieval Mindset

The Renaissance (French for “rebirth”) was a transformative cultural, intellectual, and artistic movement that began in Italy in the 14th century and spread across Europe through the 17th century, marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Sparked by a renewed interest in the classical learning, literature, philosophy, and art of ancient Greece and Rome, it celebrated humanism—the idea that human potential, reason, and individual achievement could flourish beyond the constraints of medieval religious dogma. This era produced an explosion of creativity in painting, sculpture, architecture, science, and literature, with towering figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Shakespeare redefining beauty, anatomy, perspective, and human emotion. Economically fueled by wealthy patrons and the printing press, the Renaissance not only revived forgotten knowledge but also laid the groundwork for the Scientific Revolution, global exploration, and the very notion of progress that still shapes Western civilization today.

We could be accelerating out of a dark age into a renaissance - The dawning of a new age where we shake off the fog in our minds and rediscover why we are here. The beginning is near.

Link to Full Video (11:40 Minute) - Mar 17, 2026

Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

[News] JinkoSolar, Masdar sign 2 GW module purchase deal for Abu Dhabi’s gigascale RTC project

JinkoSolar (JKS) said Tuesday it signed an agreement to supply 2 GW of solar modules to United Arab Emirates renewables developer Masdar for a solar and battery storage gigaproject in Abu Dhabi, the world’s first gigascale round-the-clock renewable energy project.

Under the agreement, JinkoSolar (JKS) will provide Tiger Neo modules based on its N-type TOPCon technology platform and tailored to the project’s technical requirements, the company said.

Jointly developed by Masdar and the Emirates Water and Electricity Company, the project integrates a 5.2 GW solar photovoltaic plant with a 19 GWh battery energy storage system, the largest and most technologically advanced system of its kind in the world.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

#SpaceX

[News] SpaceX and Google are discussing orbital data centers

SpaceX (SPACE) and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) are in discussions about using the former’s rocket launches to put data centers into space for the latter.

The tech giant has spoken to SpaceX and others about future launches for its Project Suncatcher initiative, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Seeking Alpha.

Google is working with Planet Labs (PL) to launch two prototype satellites by early 2027.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

[News] COMPASS outlines 1 to 2-month FDA review goal as it targets launch readiness by year-end

CEO Kabir Nath reiterated launch timing and the gating data item for submission: “we will be launch ready by the end of this year,” and “Part B data from 006, which we continue to expect in early Q3, will be the final data set to complete the submission.”

Chief Commercial Officer Lori Englebert emphasized the review voucher’s planning impact and a potential FDA timeline: “One benefit of being selected for the voucher includes the potential for an ultra accelerated review time line of 1 to 2 months after final NDA submission.”

“the actual formal clock about 1 to 2 months as we understand it, will only start with the submission,” while cautioning “that’s a goal.” (CEO & Director Kabir Nath)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

[News] Xi asks Trump if U.S. and China can avoid ‘Thucydides Trap’ at high-stakes summit

Speaking just ahead of Trump, Xi noted the global attention on the meeting, and said a major question for the two countries was whether they could avoid the “Thucydides Trap,” CNBC reported, citing an official English translation of Xi’s Chinese remarks broadcast by CCTV.

The Thucydides Trap refers to how tensions historically between a rising and ruling power have often resulted in a war. Graham Allison, the Harvard professor who popularized the concept, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” that he expects the trade truce Trump and Xi reached at their meeting in South Korea last fall will become a formal agreement.

Xi also said that Taiwan was the most important issue for U.S.-China relations, and if not handled well it would push the bilateral relationship to a “dangerous” place, according to state media.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

[News] Taiwan Semi expects global chip market to reach $1.5T by 2030: report

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) expects the global semiconductor market to exceed $1.5T by 2030, boosting its prior forecast of $1T, Reuters reported, citing presentation materials ahead of a tech ‌symposium on Thursday.

TSM expects AI and high-performance computing, or HPC, to account for 55% of the $1.5T market, followed by smartphones with 20% and automotive applications with 10%, the report added.

The world’s largest foundry said it has been boosting capacity at a faster pace in 2025 and 2026 and intends to build nine phases of wafer ⁠fabs and advanced packaging facilities in 2026.

The company is expected to ramp up capacity for its most advanced 2-nanometer, or nm, and next generation A16 chips, with a compounded annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 70% from 2026 to 2028.

TSM noted that the CAGR of capacity for its advanced packaging Chip on Wafer on Substrate, or CoWoS, is forecast at more than 80% from 2022 to 2027.

The company noted that AI accelerator wafer demand is forecast to ‌increase ⁠11-fold from 2022 to 2026.

TSM expects a 1.8-fold year-over-year increase in Arizona output by 2026, with yields comparable to those in Taiwan.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

[News] Netflix expanding AI-generated content with INKubator animation studio

Netflix (NFLX) is hiring producers, software engineers, and CG artists for a new AI-driven animation studio called INKubator, according to technology and entertainment newsletter Lowpass.

The job listings classify INKubator as a “next-generation, creative-led, GenAI-native animation studio to bridge innovation with imaginative storytelling.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

[YouTube | Sky News] China’s Tech Takeover: Has the US Lost Superpower Status?

Is America’s status as the world’s number one superpower now under serious threat from China?

While the USA has the world’s biggest economy, and the most capable military, its supremacy in technology is now at risk.

That may be one reason why tech bosses like Elon Musk and Jensen Huang joined US President Donald Trump on his recent visit to China. But was that a sign that the race was being lost?

Sky News’ Science and Technology Editor, Tom Clarke explores how a recent decision by the Trump administration may have already set the USA back and could help China own the 21st Century.

Link to Full Video (12:09 Minute) - May 09, 2026

[Chart | The Compound]: Nasdaq Euphoria is Hitting its Limit | TCAF 242

Why this is not 1999.

Link to YouTube Clip (01:18 Hours)Timestamped - May 15, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

#QNT #Honeywell

Honeywell’s Quantinuum prepares for U.S. IPO with S-1 filing

According to the filing, the firm, majority-owned by Honeywell (HON), intends to sell shares of its Class A common stock as part of a listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “QNT.”

Quantinuum has yet to finalize the number of shares and the price range for the proposed offering.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 09, 2026

China-linked U.S. solar factories shunned in Trump crackdown - Reuters

The law, which blocks manufacturing credits from going to factories that are tied to China, is meant to address Chinese dominance in the supply chain and help with reshoring production, but it also threatens to slow the deployment of solar energy, according to the report.

Top solar companies, banks, and insurers have stopped doing business with at least a half dozen recently built U.S. solar panel factories because of restrictions on Chinese-linked businesses attached to tax credits by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Reuters reported this week, citing industry executives and internal documents.

Banks including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs are said to have scaled back tax-equity financing for some solar projects due to concerns that interpretations by the Trump administration could retroactively invalidate tax credits.

The Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, a trade group representing non-Chinese companies with U.S. factories such as First Solar (FSLR) and Hanwha’s Qcells, has urged the Treasury Department to take a tough stance.

Chinese-linked factories account for ~40% of U.S. manufacturing capacity, according to Reuters, and “very few Chinese manufacturers are actually decoupling themselves from their U.S. factories entirely,” according to Wood Mackenzie.

China’s JinkoSolar (JKS), which operates a factory in Florida, and the Chinese parent company of Boviet Solar, which makes panels in North Carolina, have said they are looking for outside investors.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 09, 2026

Crude oil rises after Trump calls Iran’s peace proposal ‘totally unacceptable’

Iran’s proposal reportedly emphasizes Iranian sovereignty over the strait while calling on the U.S. to end its naval blockade, guarantee no further attacks, lift sanctions, and end a U.S. ban on Iranian oil sales.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 10, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises GAAP EPS of -$0.62 misses by $0.59, revenue of $214.4M (+44.3% Y/Y) beats by $64.7M

Total global pipeline grew by 17% to more than $14.0 billion

Bookings of $2.5 billion in the first quarter, a 1,971% increase compared to the same period of 2025

Backlog of $2.7 billion in the first quarter, a 483% increase compared to the same period of 2025.

“Our total pipeline grew by more than 17% to over $14 billion, including new AI data center opportunities” (CEO, President & Chairman of the Board Kenneth Young).

“Our first quarter 2026 consolidated revenues were $214.4 million” (Executive VP & CFO Cameron Frymyer), and “Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $16.1 million,” while noting the revenue increase was “primarily driven by large project volume, including $31 million from Base Electron” and also “the increasing need for electricity from fossil fuels driven by the demand from AI data centers and expanding economies.”

Robert Brown, Lake Street Capital Markets: Asked what is driving pipeline growth and what opportunities are being evaluated; CEO, President & Chairman of the Board Young: Said AI data centers were a major driver but added the company was also seeing “coal to natural gas conversion opportunities” and “large coal generation plant upgrades, environmental upgrades,” and described customer interest in combining “steam boilers with steam turbine” and potentially adding “a combustion turbine down the road” to increase output with limited site footprint.

Jeffrey Grampp, Northland Capital Markets: Asked whether B&W needs incremental investment to deliver multiple projects; CEO, President & Chairman of the Board Young: Said, “we feel good about the current supply chain” and described lining up multiple manufacturers by boiler size, while noting that securing capacity for “steam turbine” and “pressure parts” would become “crucial” as more projects progress.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Circle Internet’s Q1 results demonstrate surging USDC transaction volume growth

Q1 USDC (USDC-USD) onchain transaction volume was $21.5T, surging from $11.9T in Q4 and $5.9T in last year’s Q1. The number of meaningful wallets climbed to 7.2M at the end of Q1 from 6.8M in the previous quarter.

USDC in circulation rose to $77.0B, beating the Visible Alpha consensus of $76.4B, from $75.3B in Q4 and $60.0B in Q1 2025.

Q1 GAAP EPS of $0.21 beats by $0.03.

Revenue of $694.13M (+20.0% Y/Y) misses by $20.75M.

“Meta, the world’s most preeminent social platform began using USDC for creator payouts.” (CEO Allaire)

“According to Visa’s reported figures on commercial transaction volume, USDC continued to gain market share and now accounts for 63% of all stablecoin transactions.” (CEO Allaire)

Circle Internet (CRCL) reaffirmed its 2026 guidance, which includes other revenue of $150M-$170M (vs. the Visible Alpha consensus of $170M), revenue less distribution cost margin of 38%-40%, and adjusted operating expenses of $570M-$585M.

“We are leaving our full year 2026 guidance unchanged.” (CFO Fox-Geen)

“However, this guidance does not include the future financial impacts of the Arc token presale, Arc incentive programs or any Arc-associated revenue streams.” (CFO Fox-Geen)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

AMD, Intel, Qualcomm likely to benefit from server CPU super cycle, GF says

AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), and Qualcomm (QCOM) are likely to be among the big beneficiaries due to the ongoing “server CPU super cycle,” investment firm GF Securities said.

“As the orchestration core of AI infrastructure buildouts, the Server CPU has gained significant traction over the past few months,” analysts at the firm wrote in a note to clients. “This is driven by the Agentic AI/inference trend, fueled by the breakthrough of OpenClaw and Anthropic’s ARR surging to $44bn in April. For instance, in latest earnings calls, AMD projected a >35% CAGR for Server CPU TAM by 2030, and Intel said the shift toward agentic AI is driving a structural demand for CPUs, where the GPU-to-CPU ratio is tightening from 8:1 in training to 4:1 in inference. Based on our estimates, assuming inference accounts for 90% of AI workloads and GPU-to-CPU ratio for AI servers to reach 2:1 in 2030, we now expect Server CPU TAM to grow 54%/39% in 2026/2027, reaching $135bn by 2030 from $26bn in 2025, with a 5-yr CAGR of 38%. That said, we project incremental Server CPU demand of 6.7m/7.6m/6.3m units in 2026/2027/2028 respectively, bringing total server CPU demand to 30m/38m/44m units over the same period, with a 23% 3-yr CAGR.”

Delving deeper, the firm said AMD and Intel are likely to be the main beneficiaries, as x86 CPUs are still the dominant architecture for servers.

“Fundamentally, Intel is well supported by ongoing capacity conversion and CPU price hikes in 2Q, as said in our report on April 16th,” the analysts explained. “For AMD, driven by solid product roadmap and portfolio with relatively sufficient capacity, we expect its share gains to continue. Currently, we forecast Intel’s DCAI and AMD’s server CPU business will grow by 39% and 73% in 2026, respectively.”

Intel is likely to also gain traction in next-gen AI servers, as its Xeon 6 is working with Nvidia’s (NVDA) Rubin NVL8 host CPU. Conversely, AMD’s Venice CPU is likely to be deployed across its Helios Rack and 8-GPU servers, the analysts added.

Even though x86 is still the dominant architecture, the investment firm believes Arm (ARM)-based CPUs could accelerate, via Rubin and application specific integrated circuits, including Amazon’s (AMZN) Graviton 5, Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Axion 2, and Nvidia’s Vera.

“Nvidia has introduced a standalone Vera CPU rack (256 CPUs) for data center clients, with early adoption from Alibaba, CoreWeave, Meta, and Oracle,” the analysts added. “Within Google’s ecosystem, the TPU’s GPU-to-CPU ratio is shifting to 4:2, from the previously expected 4:1. Coupled with robust TPU outlook beyond 2026, we anticipate a further acceleration in Axion 2 shipments. Meanwhile, AWS’s Graviton 4/5 is also gaining momentum via both Teton Max rack (18 CPUs) and standalone Graviton rack for Meta. For Arm itself, the company revised up its AGI CPU demand to $20bn.”

Lastly, the firm believes that Qualcomm, which recently entered the data center CPU market, is “actively developing” a slate for 2028 and expects to hear more at its June 24 investor day.

“In a bull case scenario, assuming Qualcomm captures 30% of ARM-based CPU market in 2028 (~4mn units, with ASP of $3k and 30% net margin), the resulting $3.6bn in net profit would represent a ~30% boost to its annual non-GAAP earnings,” the analysts added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

ASP Isotopes spikes after signing MoU for enriched uranium supply

ASP Isotopes (ASPI) up 9.7% in Monday’s trading after saying its Quantum Leap Energy subsidiary signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with an unnamed European nuclear technology company specializing in advanced nuclear reactor development for the potential supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium.

Under the MoU terms, the companies will conduct a technical and economic assessment to determine the viability of a long-term collaboration for the supply of HALEU with uranium-235 content of greater than 10%.

The MoU outlines a potential framework where the European partner would agree to provide uranium feedstocks to QLE’s planned conversion and enrichment facilities, and QLE would agree to enrich such feedstocks to produce HALEU, including potential deconversion, for delivery to the partner company.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Fortinet, Cloudflare likely to be among beneficiaries of post-quantum cryptography: BTIG

Fortinet (FTNT) and Cloudflare (NET) are likely to be among the beneficiaries of post-quantum cryptography spending, investment firm BTIG said.

Q-Day, or the moment that a quantum computer can break RSA-2048 encryption, is rapidly approaching, with some suggesting it could happen between 2028 and 2029. Additionally, two research papers published in March said the physical qubit requirement may be as low as 10,000, down from 1M, BTIG said. When this happens, the spending for post-quantum cryptography is likely to rise significantly, estimated to be between $3B and $8B by 2030, BTIG added.

“Governments are actively investing in adhering to NIST post-quantum standards, while commercial adoption is running ahead of scheduled mandates, primarily in HNDL-vulnerable verticals; Apple iMessage, Signal, and most cloud platforms offer comprehensive post- quantum solutions today, with the goal of achieving end-to-end defensibility on the near horizon,” the analysts wrote in a note to clients.

And much of that spending will go to cybersecurity and infrastructure incumbents the firm added, like Cloudflare and Fortinet, as they are already capturing some post-quantum cryptography spending now.

“Quantum-oriented equities will likely see technological validation when they are able to run Shor’s algorithm successfully,” the analysts explained. “While the exact timing of Q-Day is still being debated, we see cryptocurrency as one area where PQC adoption appears to lag other industries; we see this as a notable call-out given the $2-3 trillion in outstanding assets.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

#IFNNY

Josh Wolfe’s lifecording basket, ranked by Quant: two strong buys, four holds, and a sell

Lux Capital co-founder Josh Wolfe has made two major public conviction calls, Nvidia (NVDA) at the Invest for Kids conference in 2016, which returned roughly 80x, and a 2024 bet on memory suppliers around the HBM narrative.

His third, which he told his wife and investment committee about on February 21, is “lifecording”: the thesis that wearable hardware devices will record daily life, audio first, then video, with AI continuously processing and surfacing connections.

Following his signature “arms dealers” methodology, backing component suppliers rather than device makers, Wolfe allocated a model $2M across nine positions mapping to the full hardware stack: Nordic Semiconductor (NDCVF) for BLE wireless, TDK (TTDKY) for MEMS microphones, Himax (HIMX) for AR optics, Ambiq Micro (AMBQ) for edge AI, Infineon (IFNNY) for power management, CEVA (CEVA) for DSP licensing, Synaptics (SYNA) for IoT SoC, Enovix (ENVX) for next-generation batteries, and Cirrus Logic (CRUS) for audio codec.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Quantum Computing’s Q1 revenue explodes year over year due to acquisitions

For the quarter ended March 31, the photonics company with a focus on quantum computing reported a loss per share of $0.02 versus the consensus estimate calling for a loss per share of $0.05.

Revenue for the first quarter totaled $3.69M, which was more than the $3.28M estimate. It also dwarfed the $39,000 in revenue the New Jersey-based company reported during the first quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase was driven by the acquisitions of Luminar Semiconductors in February 2026 and NuCrypt in March 2026.

As demand for faster and more efficient data processing grows, it is becoming increasingly clear that photonics will be a critical component of future technological advancements given its low-power consumption and ability to operate at room temperature,” said Quantum Computing CEO Yuping Huang.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Archer Aviation Q1 revenue surges, expanding operations at Hawthorne Airport

“We made tremendous progress towards beginning operations in the U.S. later this year, with record FAA certification progress and our most expansive flight testing to date,” Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein said in a statement.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Hims & Hers Health GAAP EPS of -$0.40 misses by $0.43, revenue of $608.1M (+3.8% Y/Y) misses by $8.75M

For the second quarter 2026, we expect:

Revenue of $680 million to $700 million vs $642.94M consensus

Adjusted EBITDA of $35 million to $55 million, reflecting an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 5% to 8%.

For the full year 2026, we expect:

Revenue of $2.8 billion to $3.0 billion vs $2.72B consensus

Adjusted EBITDA of $275 million to $350 million, reflecting an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 10% to 12%

“Within 6 weeks of introducing direct access to Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 products to our platform, we have fulfilled more than 125,000 shipments for Wegovy products.” (CEO Dudum)

“In the first quarter, revenue grew 4% year-over-year to $608 million... subscribers grew 9% year-over-year to nearly 2.6 million and adjusted EBITDA was $44 million.” (CFO Okupe)

“International growth driven by our acquisitions of ZAVA and Livewell remained strong as revenue increased nearly tenfold... to $78 million.” (CFO Okupe)

“As a result of our pivot, we incurred approximately $33 million of restructuring costs” and “approximately $28 million of onetime charges negatively impacted gross margins by roughly 5 points... which were 65% on a GAAP basis and 70% when adjusted for these costs.” (CFO Okupe)

Maria Ripps, Canaccord: Asked compounded-to-branded transitions/retention and peptide readiness; CEO Dudum said “almost all of the new business is now coming in on the branded side” and on peptides “we likely will not be first to market. But when we do, we’ll make sure that we feel like we’ve got everything done the right way.”

Citi analyst Daniel Grosslight argued that Hims (HIMS) is in a transition phase as it refocuses on branded drugs, new launches, and international growth, reducing reliance on compounded GLP-1s. With a Neutral rating on the stock, Grosslight added that while the company’s ongoing business transformation has generated strong topline growth, its profitability will suffer in the near term.

However, Needham analyst Ryan Macdonald, with a Buy recommendation, raised his price target on HIMS to $35 from $30 per share, arguing that long-term gains for investors can offset near-term margin-related headwinds. “The Novo partnership helps to bring in a large number of net new subs for HIMS to create a durable relationship with and cross-sell multiple categories of care like labs, testosterone, and menopause care,” Macdonald wrote.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 11, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Tower Semiconductor initiated with bullish views at GF Securities

Analysts led by Alicia Xia said that Tower Semiconductor is a leading specialty foundry in niche analog and photonics segments with a differentiated position in silicon photonics, or SiPho, offering a compelling way to play the structural growth of AI optical interconnects.

“We expect TSEM to benefit significantly from the rapid ramp of 800G/1.6T pluggable modules, the penetration rate of SiPho and the longer-term transition toward NPO [Near-Package Optics] architectures, as hyperscalers aggressively scale AI clusters. With its mature platform, proven heterogeneous integration capabilities, and aggressive capacity expansion targeting over 5x SiPho capacity vs Q4 2025 run-rate (with over 70% pre-booked through 2028), TSEM is well positioned to capture share in the high-growth AI optical supply chain,” said Xia and her team.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] MongoDB sees bullish views at Citi on AI growth

“We believe MongoDB is bucking the trend of a weaker traditional software budget environment, as more agents and “vibe-coded” applications expand MDB’s universe by driving demand for write-heavy, schema-evolving operational workloads. Put simply, we see MongoDB as both a direct and indirect beneficiary of the explosive growth of frontier labs and AI coding tools,” said analysts led by Tyler Radke.

The analysts noted that their customer and partner checks suggest significant ramp-up is underway for Atlas usage in the first quarter at several marquee AI customers.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Autonomous trucking goes commercial, even as freight faces a challenging environment

Autonomous trucking is moving from concept to commercial operation. As part of this, real deployments are now running on fixed corridors.

The hybrid model — autonomous on the middle mile, human-driven for local delivery — is a structure firms have deployed.

This comes even as the broader freight market remains under pressure from tight capacity and fragile supply conditions.

Many experts on autonomous mobility see this as an easier market to tackle compared to goals like developing robotaxis.

Industry bulls argue that highway routes are more predictable, making them a simpler task for autonomous technology. Meanwhile, trucking labor costs are high, and the trucking sector faces persistent driver shortages, giving a clear business advantage for companies if the innovation proves viable.

The industry has faced higher fuel prices in recent months, with industry leaders noting margin pressures in recent earnings reports.

Early startups included names like Aurora Innovation (AUR), Kodiak AI (KDK) and Waabi, which had backing from big names like Uber (UBER) and Nvidia (NVDA).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Quantum Computing jumps as Q1 revenue surges, Wedbush says story still in ‘early days’

“We continue to expect the recently completed acquisition of LSI to contribute between $20M to $25M in revenue in 2026, with LSI expected to bolster QUBT’s semiconductor capabilities that will expand the company’s addressable market and strengthen its ability to deliver integrated photonic solutions at scale,” Wedbush analyst Antoine Legault wrote in a note to clients. “Net, while we are encouraged by the company’s 1Q26 results and forward commentary, we maintain our NEUTRAL rating and $12 PT on QUBT and continue to view the company as a ‘show me’ story given it remains at an earlier stage of development than its public peers with a considerably lower quantum hardware revenue base.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

T1 Energy GAAP EPS of $0.01 beats by $0.15, revenue of $177.45M (+232.0% Y/Y) beats by $66.88M

“Today, I’m happy to report that construction of the 2.1 gigawatt Phase 1 of G2_Austin is progressing according to schedule” (CEO & Chairman Daniel Barcelo), and “we remain on schedule to achieve first cell production in Q4 2026” (CEO & Chairman Barcelo).

“We are also working to agree to a comprehensive financing package for the remaining CapEx of approximately $225 million” (CEO & Chairman Barcelo), and “we continue to target the announcement of the G2 financing in the second quarter” (CEO & Chairman Barcelo).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] NET Power targets FID in H2 2026 and early 2029 commercial operation for 80 MW Permian Phase 1

CEO Daniel Rice framed demand as driven by AI and “behind-the-meter power,” saying the market is now “governed by availability of power, not the cost of power,” and positioned NET Power’s West Texas approach as “a pathway to under $100 a megawatt hour.”

CEO Rice emphasized that additional capital commitments hinge on commercial commitments, stating, “Before we move forward with committing any substantial amounts of capital to securing additional equipment, we need to ensure the customer demand is not just there, but is committed to our projects.”

Horstman detailed the project plan and structure: “Project Permian Phase 1 is the commercial deployment of the clean power product, 80 megawatts net output, greater than 90% CO2 capture... We continue to target FID in the second half of 2026 with commercial operation in early 2029.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Nextracker Non-GAAP EPS of $1.05 beats by $0.12, revenue of $881M beats by $51.18M

“This was one of our strongest quarters to date” with FY ‘26 bookings mix of “79%...in the U.S. and 21% from rest of world” and Europe described as “a highlight with record fiscal year bookings” (Director & President Howard Wenger).

“We saw one of the highest booking quarters in our history” and “exited the year with record backlog” as the company pushed its “everything, but the panel strategy” toward a more integrated power plant platform (CEO Shugar).

“We are increasing the targets...to revenue in the range of $3.8 billion to $4.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $825 million to $900 million” for FY ‘27 (CFO Boynton).

“For fiscal ‘27, we expect more than 40% growth in our non-tracker business, bringing total non-tracker revenue to approximately 15% of total revenue” (CFO Boynton).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] USA Rare Earth awarded $14.2M Texas grant for Round Top project

USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ: USAR) on Tuesday said it had been awarded a $14.2 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund to support development of its Round Top Mountain heavy rare earth project in Texas.

USA Rare Earth said the Round Top Mountain deposit contains an estimated one billion tons of material and includes 15 of the 17 rare earth elements.

The grant was awarded through the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund established under the Texas CHIPS Act, the company said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

D-Wave Quantum GAAP EPS of -$0.05 beats by $0.05, revenue of $2.86M (-80.9% Y/Y) misses by $1.28M

Revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $2.9 million, a decrease of $12.1 million, or 81%, from revenue of $15.0 million for the 2025 first quarter, that included $12.6 million in revenue recognized from the Company’s first sale of an annealing quantum computing system.

Closed Bookings of $33.4 million for the first quarter of 2026, up 1,994% year over year from the first quarter of 2025 Bookings of $1.6 million, and up 149% from the immediately preceding fourth quarter of 2025 Bookings of $13.4 million. First quarter Bookings included a $20 million system purchase by Florida Atlantic University (”FAU”), and a $10 million, two-year enterprise Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) agreement with a Fortune 100 company.

“We’re now expecting 2 or 3 system deals per year with expected delivery of at least 2 systems this year in 2026.” (President, CEO & Director Baratz)

“We are targeting our dual rail gate model road map to extend to 100 logical qubits by the end of 2032.” (President, CEO & Director Baratz)

“By the end of 2028, we plan to have approximately 175 physical qubits” and “the integration with D-Wave’s scalable control is expected to take us to 10 logical qubits by 2030, followed by 100 logical qubits 2 years later.” (President, CEO & Director Baratz)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Global oil inventories seen declining faster than expected as Iran war continues - EIA

In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA said it expects global oil stocks to decline by 2.6M bbl/day on average in 2026, compared with its previous estimate of a 300K bbl/day drop, including a decline of 8.5M bbl/day on average in Q2.

The EIA estimated that Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain shut in a combined 10.5M bbl/day of crude oil production in April, which is expected to rise to a peak of 10.8M bbl/day this month as Middle Eastern storage tanks hit maximum capacity, and the agency expects that Iran will have to lower its output due to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

In addition to the supply revisions, the EIA also cut its global oil demand forecasts, now seeing demand increasing by ~200K bbl/day this year, down from last month’s forecast of 600K bbl/day of growth.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Eos Energy Enterprises GAAP EPS of $0.12 beats by $0.34, revenue of $56.96M (+444.6% Y/Y) beats by $0.56M

Revenue totaled $57.0 million, a 445% year-over-year increase, driven by full battery module automation and 5.7x higher cube deliveries.

Commercial opportunity pipeline increased to $24.3 billion, up 56% from the prior year, with a $644.6 million orders backlog representing 2.6 GWh as of March 31, 2026.

COO John Mahaz tied operating progress to manufacturing execution, saying, “Cube output increased 467% versus Q1 ’25 and was up 17% sequentially from Q4,” while “Direct labor per cube is down 47% year-over-year and 25% quarter-over-quarter.” He added, “Initial production is on track for the end of Q2, and we expect full production to occur in Q4” at Thorn Hill.

On profitability timing, Kroeker told analysts, “We’re still targeting gross margin — adjusted gross margin positive later this year,” and added, “We believe we will achieve positive adjusted EBITDA.

Martin Malloy, Johnson Rice & Company: asked how soon to expect project announcements under Frontier; Kroeker said, “There’s a good chance we will be delivering on volume… in 2026, but this really builds momentum going into 2027 and beyond.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Eos Energy surges on Cerberus partnership, Q1 earnings beat

Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE) up 36.7% pre-market Wednesday after unveiling a partnership with Cerberus Capital Management to deploy long-duration energy storage systems and reporting Q1 profit that topped expectations.

Cerberus and Eos Energy (EOSE) will form Frontier Power USA, an independent development and investment company established to build, own, and operate a diversified portfolio of long-duration battery energy storage projects deploying Eos Energy’s proprietary zinc bromide-based Z3 technology with the strategy of becoming an independent power producer.

Cerberus said it will anchor Frontier Power USA with a $100M equity commitment and extend its existing Eos (EOSE) lock-up through year-end 2026; Cerberus is expected to receive Eos warrants and controlling equity in Frontier Power USA in exchange for its commitment.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Tower Semiconductor surges as record guidance, Q1 beat and $1.3B in new contracts ignite rally

The company posted Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.57 beats by $0.01.

Revenue of $414M (+15.6% Y/Y) beats by $3.02M.

The company guides revenue for the second quarter of 2026 to be $455 million vs. consensus of $436.38M, a company record, with an upward or downward range of 5%, reflecting revenue increase of 22% year-over-year and 10% quarter-over-quarter. Company targets sequential quarter-over-quarter revenue and margin growth throughout 2026.

In a separate release, Tower Semiconductor (TSEM) has signed $1.3 billion in contracts for Silicon Photonics (SiPho) for 2027, with $290 million received in prepayments.

This agreement includes even larger wafer commitments for 2028, with further prepayments expected by January 2027.

To support rising demand from over 50 active customers, the company is expanding its manufacturing capacity, aiming for $2.8 billion in revenue and $750 million in net profit by 2028.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Evolv Technologies Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.02 in-line, revenue of $46.3M (+44.7% Y/Y) beats by $2.6M

Q1 2026 Ending ARR of $127.3 million, up 20% year-over-year.

“We remain on track to be comfortably over 10,000 units deployed by the end of this year, reflecting sustained customer demand and our ability to scale responsibly.” (President, CEO & Executive Director John Kedzierski)

“Expedite, our autonomous AI-based bag screening solution continues to gain traction...” and “We now have over 75 expedite customers, representing approximately 6% of our total customer base, up from roughly 1% a year ago.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Kedzierski)

“We are raising our outlook for 2026... now expect $175 million to $180 million, up from $172 million to $178 million.” (President, CEO & Executive Director Kedzierski)

The Company expects ending ARR at December 31, 2026, to increase to approximately $145 to $150 million, reflecting growth of approximately 20% to 25% year-over-year.

“We continue to expect a sequential decline in Q2 revenue... This is a timing dynamic related to backlog mix and fulfillment timing and not a reflection of end market demand, which remains strong.” (Chief Financial Officer Kutsor)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 12, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Activist investor sees BWX Technologies stock doubling on nuclear revival bet

Central to that thesis is a small modular reactor design BWX (BWXT) shelved nearly a decade ago. Ananym argues that shifting market dynamics, particularly the growing appetite for reliable, low-carbon energy from data centers, could make the design commercially viable today.

Based in Lynchburg, Virginia, BWX Technologies is valued at roughly $19 billion and is best known for supplying nuclear reactors to the U.S. Navy. It also manufactures key components for commercial nuclear projects and produces radioisotopes used in medical diagnostics and treatment.

The company’s stock has surged nearly 93% over the past year, closing at $206.83 on Tuesday. That rally reflects a mix of rising defense budgets, increased investment in nuclear power, expanding energy needs and continued growth in nuclear medicine.

Even if the company sticks to its current role as a supplier to large-scale reactors and certain small modular reactor segments, the firm estimates the stock could gain about 45%.

However, the bigger opportunity may lie in developing its own pressurized water small modular reactor technology, either independently or through a partnership. With no dominant player yet established in that niche, Ananym believes BWX could capture significant market share and drive further upside in its valuation.

In the early 2010s, BWXT (then part of Babcock & Wilcox) developed a 180-MW SMR called mPower. It was a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) design, which is the “gold standard” for the U.S. Navy—BWXT’s primary customer.

What happened: Due to a lack of customers at the time and the high cost of the licensing process, BWXT effectively shelved the project around 2014–2017 to focus on their core defense business.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

WealthWise Research - May 13, 2026

Local Bounti GAAP EPS of -$0.53, revenue of $13.33M (+15%)

Net loss decreased to $12.7 million in the first quarter of 2026 as compared to net loss of $37.7 million for the prior year period, primarily due to a $14.8 million reduction in net interest expense resulting from the debt restructuring activities the Company completed in the first quarter of 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA loss improved 35% to $5.7 million, as compared to a loss of $8.8 million in the prior year period.

“Each of our 3 state-of-the-art facilities continues to operate at full harvestable capacity, with our entire run rate capacity committed to customers.” (CEO Valiasek)

“The 2 new retail accounts we announced last quarter have launched. The first is a 6-SKU placement with a large premier retail customer, covering more than 250 stores. The second is a large regional retailer.” (CEO Valiasek)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Enovix Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.14 beats by $0.02, revenue of $7.6M (+49.0% Y/Y) beats by $0.65M

Management highlighted progress toward qualifying its batteries for smartphone use, a key milestone for unlocking large-scale revenue.

“Smartphones remain our priority as we advance toward completing qualification with our lead customer and prepare for commercial production for the most demanding market in consumer electronics,” Chief Executive Raj Talluri said in the earnings announcement.

However, the company acknowledged that the qualification process has taken longer than expected, and final timing still depends on extended testing and customer validation.

Enovix (ENVX) is expanding beyond smartphones into smart eyewear, drones and defense systems, where demand for high-performance batteries is rising.

The company has begun early production of batteries for smart eyewear and expects to produce about 50,000 units in 2026.

It also introduced its MX-1 platform for drones and defense applications, targeting markets that require rugged, high-energy-density batteries.

Its pipeline for products manufactured in Korea now exceeds $130 million, driven largely by drone-related demand.

“commercial production of our A1 battery” for smart eyewear and said “initial shipments are underway with production expected to ramp through the second half of the year” (President, CEO & Director Talluri).

“On smartphones, we aligned with Honor on an updated qualification framework designed specifically for silicon-anode batteries” (President, CEO & Director Talluri), adding that a second smartphone OEM “will need to adapt a similar testing framework” and that the “0.7C test” was removed as a gating requirement in favor of updated protocols (President, CEO & Director Talluri).

Mark Shooter, William Blair: Asked about Honor field-testing volumes and a 2027 ramp; President, CEO & Director Talluri said “it’s hard to predict the number of units” and “they’ll be small,” adding “the real volume will be in ‘27” and later suggested “thousands” for system tests.

Mark Shooter, William Blair: Asked about drone qualification times and capacity; President, CEO & Director Talluri said “the qualification time will be shorter than things like smartphones” and emphasized “this is also an NDAA-compliant cell,” while Chief Financial Officer Benton said the company is “already spending dollars to add equipment” and noted “multiple empty buildings” for staged expansion.

Colin Rusch, Oppenheimer: Asked about Fab2 yield learning cycles; President, CEO & Director Talluri said “Yields in most production zones are now nearing or exceeding 90%” and “the laser light is kind of in the 80% range,” while outlining plans to get the “mechanical dicer” online “this year.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Spire GAAP EPS of -$0.78 misses by $0.09, revenue of $15.83M (-33.8% Y/Y) beats by $0.75M

CEO, President & Director Theresa Condor said, “Our 50% full year growth guidance is unchanged” and reiterated the setup as “second half-weighted.”

Condor highlighted capacity and scaling claims: “We have launched more than 240 satellites across more than 40 campaigns, and we have reserved launch capacity through 2028,” and “We have operational scaled transatlantic manufacturing with production facilities in the U.S., Europe and the U.K.”

CFO, Principal Financial Officer & Principal Accounting Officer Alison Engel said, “We are maintaining our full year 2026 guidance” with “revenue... $75 million to $85 million,” “full year adjusted EBITDA... negative $26 million to negative $20.7 million,” and “full year non-GAAP loss per share... negative $0.93 and negative $0.79 per share on approximately 37.9 million shares.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 13, 2026

POET Technologies surges after unveiling AI infrastructure deal worth up to $500M

POET Technologies (POET) shares surged more than 24% in premarket trading on Thursday after it unveiled a deal with Lumilens for optical networking that could be worth $500M over the life of the agreement.

Lumilens has placed an initial purchase order with POET for the manufacturing of electrical-optical interposer-based engines for $50M. The deal could eventually result in purchases worth $500M or more over a period of five years, POET said in a statement.

In conjunction with the supply deal, POET granted a warrant to purchase up to 22.92M common shares. The warrant is exercisable over nine years at an exercise price of $8.25 per share.

“GPU interconnects are emerging as the defining bottleneck for scaling AI, and addressing it requires rethinking the full optical stack — silicon, photonics, and packaging — together,” said Lumilens CEO and founder Ankur Singla. “This joint development partnership with POET combines Lumilens’ next-generation chipset and advanced optical manufacturing capabilities with wafer-level photonic integration to build a clear path to the performance, density, and economics that frontier AI deployments will demand over the next decade.”

Engineering samples from the agreement are expected later this year and shipments to hyperscalers are expected to ramp in 2027.

POET Technologies GAAP EPS of -$0.08 misses by $0.03, revenue of $0.5M (+194.1% Y/Y) beats by $0.25M

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Tower Semiconductor sees bullish views at Susquehanna after Q1 results

“Updating estimates to reflect TSEM’s recent results, outlook, planned capacity expansion, and revised L-T revenue/OM [operating margin] targets. We now expect the company to exit 2027 at an annualized EPS of ~$7, rising to ~$8 by the end of 2028, with prospects of upside beyond these levels,” said analysts led by Mehdi Hosseini.

The analysts noted that Tower continues to execute on the radio frequency, or RF, infrastructure ramp (including Silicon Photonics, or SiPh, and Silicon Germanium, or SiGe), with first quarter 2026 results and the guidance both exceeding consensus.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Ondas 23% rally hints more upside: What’s Q1 beat & $457M backlog signaling?

The company reported Q1 revenue of $50.1M, up more than 10x from last year and 66% higher sequentially, as demand accelerated for its autonomous drone, counter-drone, and robotics platforms.

It ended the quarter with a pro forma backlog of $457M, sharply higher than $68.3M in Q4 2025, signaling strong future revenue visibility and supporting the recent momentum in Ondas’s stock price.

Management now expects at least ~$390M in 2026 revenue, representing ~670% growth from 2025. While EBITDA losses are expected to stay elevated near term due to aggressive expansion, the company finished Q1 with a ~$1.48B cash position.

“Following the closing of the World View and Mistral acquisitions in April, backlog increased to more than $450 million.” (Chairman, CEO & President Brock)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Cerebras hits market with near record-setting price as shares open at $350

Shares climbed to $385 just moments after going live, which prompted a temporary halt in trading. By the closing bell, shares had settled at $311.

The company’s flagship technology includes the Wafer-Scale Engine 3, or WSE-3, which it contends is the fastest commercialized AI processor in the world. The company claims it is 58 times larger than the leading GPU chip. It uses a fraction of the power per unit of compute while delivering inference up to 15 times faster than leading GPU-based solutions offered by competitor Nvidia (NVDA), Cerebras said.

Cerebras was founded in 2015. In 2025, it recorded revenue of $510M, which represented a 76% increase from the year prior. Its 2025 net income was $237.8M compared to a net loss of $481.6M in 2014. It has a backlog of $24.6B. Its gross margin has improved from 12% in 2022 to 39% by 2026.

Last month, it secured a $20B deal with OpenAI (OPENAI) to provide servers powered by its AI chips over the next three years. And in March, it announced a collaboration with Amazon (AMZN) to deploy a new AI data center solution designed to increase inference speed.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

#BTC #ETH

[Newsletter Exclusive] Republican-led Senate Banking Committee advances crypto bill

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has advanced the landmark cryptocurrency legislation to the full Senate for its vote, with the bill now expected to see a fierce lobbying fight, Reuters reported.

The bill, which aims to create clear regulations for cryptocurrencies, was said to have been stalled in the Senate Banking Committee since January. Banks opposed a provision that would allow stablecoin issuers and crypto firms to offer yield-bearing products and other incentives that could draw deposits away from traditional banks, potentially making it harder for them to fund lending.

On May 1, Punchbowl News reported that Senator Thomas Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks finalized a compromise to restrict stablecoin yield and rewards, with the Senate looking toward a crypto mark up this month.

The Republican-led committee is said to have advanced the bill with support from two Democrats: Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Maryland Sen. Alsobrooks. However, Gallego and Alsobrooks said they might not vote in ⁠favor of the bill on the Senate floor as negotiations between lawmakers remained fluid.

Committee Chair Republican Sen. Tim Scott has rejected certain outstanding amendments, including one on stablecoin yield, from Democrats, according to the report published on Thursday, May 14.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Applied Materials Non-GAAP EPS of $2.86 beats by $0.18, revenue of $7.91B (+11.4% Y/Y) beats by $220M

Analysts had expected the company to earn an adjusted $2.68 per share on $7.67B in revenue.

China accounted for 27% of quarterly revenues to hit $2.087B, compared to $1.774B in the year-ago period.

Looking ahead, Applied Materials expects revenue to be between $8.45B and $9.45B, well above the $8.15B analysts had expected. Adjusted earnings are forecast to be between $3.16 and $3.56 per share, well above the $2.89 per share estimate.

“Looking ahead, we expect double-digit WFE [Wafer Fab Equipment] growth to sustain for the next 2-3 years driven by GenAI, extreme tightness in Memory, and reemerging competition in Advanced Foundry,” said RBC Capital Markets analysts led by Srini Pajjuri.

The analysts added that Applied Materials appears well-positioned given its leadership in DRAM/Advanced Logic and exposure to new technologies such as Gate-All-Around, or GAA, Backside Power Delivery, or BSP, and Four-F-Squared, or 4F^2 DRAM.

The analysts said that Applied Materials’ management noted that more than 10 new fab projects were added to its tracked pipeline of over 100 globally in just the past 90 days.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 14, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 15, 2026

Vertiv initiated Buy at Loop Capital as underappreciated data center innovation leader

Loop analyst Ananda Baruah says Vertiv (VRT) remains “an underappreciated leader” in data center power and cooling innovation, and now is “just the beginning for this best-of-breed technology innovator” that has “built its purpose-built ‘fly-wheel’ just as the industry enters the front-end of a legitimate AI infrastructure super-cycle.”

Baruah believes Vertiv’s (VRT) AI data center revenue opportunity is increasing seven-fold during 2023-28 “as we’re at the very front end of an AI super-cycle... and folks don’t truly realize it.”

Vertiv (VRT) is actually “a technology company that expresses itself via industrial gear,” Baruah wrote, where innovation is “the name of the game... and “it is this commitment that continues to create an amplifying competitive moat”; she sees the industry reacting to Vertiv’s moves while the company “continues to both lean into and benefit from the aforementioned fly-wheel effect.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 15, 2026

Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.

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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.

Editor’s Pick:

[News] China defies U.S. sanctions on refiners, putting banks in crosshairs

China has issued an injunction blocking U.S. sanctions on five domestic oil refiners accused of purchasing Iranian crude, marking a rare escalation in its response to Washington’s enforcement measures.

Previously, Chinese firms complied with U.S. sanctions to maintain access to the global financial system, but Beijing now views these as unlawful restrictions on third-country trade.

The U.S. sanctions violate “international law and ‌the ⁠basic norms of international relations,” the ministry said. “The injunction stipulates that the United States cannot recognize, implement, or comply with the ⁠sanctions imposed on the aforementioned five Chinese companies,” they added.

Chinese banks handling these refiners’ transactions now face risks of U.S. secondary sanctions, which could cut them off from dollar-based systems.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

[News] AMD Non-GAAP EPS of $1.37 beats by $0.08, revenue of $10.25B beats by $330M

Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $1.37 beats by $0.08.

Revenue of $10.25B (+37.8% Y/Y) beats by $330M.

For the second quarter of 2026, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $11.2 billion, plus or minus $300 million vs. $10.52B consensus.

On the earnings call, CEO Dr. Lisa Su said the company is seeing a “meaningful” acceleration for CPUs and now expects the market to grow 35% annually and hit $120B by 2030.

Su emphasized EPYC share momentum and platform breadth, saying, “Share gains accelerated year-over-year, reflecting the ramp of fifth-gen EPYC Turin CPUs” and adding that the company remains “on track to launch Venice later this year.”

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon pressed CFO Jean Hu on whether data center AI GPU revenue had grown sequentially in Q1 excluding China, after Hu attributed a modest sequential decline in that business to lower China shipments in the quarter.

Rasgon asked directly whether the underlying AI GPU business had grown ex-China. Hu declined to confirm it had, twice responding only that China revenue in Q1 was “not material” — without addressing the sequential trajectory of the rest of the business.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[News] Aurora inks a deal to use autonomous trucks for restaurant supply deliveries

Aurora Innovation (AUR) announced on Wednesday that it inked an agreement with McLane Company to launch driverless freight operations in Texas using the Aurora Driver following a successful supervised pilot that began in 2023. The deal sets up McLane, one of the largest U.S. distributors serving chain restaurants, convenience stores, and mass merchants, to move restaurant supplies and perishable food more efficiently with autonomous long-haul trucks.

During the pilot, Aurora’s (AUR) self-driving trucks accumulated more than 280K autonomous miles in Texas and delivered 1,400 loads for McLane, achieving 100% on-time performance on demanding schedules. Due to that strong performance, McLane has approved a transition to fully driverless operations on the Dallas–Houston corridor, with plans to add additional routes between McLane distribution centers across the U.S. Sun Belt by the end of the year and potentially expand to more of McLane’s business over time. The operating model keeps McLane’s human drivers focused on the local “last mile,” while the Aurora Driver handles the long-haul middle miles.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

#Anthropic

[News] Anthropic inks $200B Google cloud, chip pact - report

Anthropic (ANTHRO) has committed to spend about $200B over five years on cloud services and AI chips from Google (GOOG), according to a report by The Information, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

The scale of the deal would make Anthropic (ANTHRO) one of the largest customers of Google Cloud, accounting for over 40% of its revenue backlog, the report added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[News] Oil edges higher as U.S.-Iran flare-up threatens to derail ceasefire

Crude oil futures ticked higher Friday after the U.S. struck two Iranian tankers that tried to evade its naval blockade and Iran fired more missiles at the United Arab Emirates, potentially dimming hopes that a peace agreement may be reached soon.

There are currently more than 70 tankers that U.S. forces are preventing from entering or leaving Iranian ports,” U.S. Central Command said on social media. “These commercial ships have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated $13 billion-plus.”

No commercial vessels run by registered shipping companies have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since Tuesday, according to S&P Global Intelligence data.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 08, 2026

News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:

Trump says U.S. to start guiding neutral ships from Persian Gulf under ‘Project Freedom’

President Donald Trump said the United States will begin helping some neutral vessels stranded in the Persian Gulf transit the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday, as tensions continue to disrupt one of the world’s most important energy corridors.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing an unidentified U.S. official, the initiative does not currently include direct U.S. Navy escorts. Instead, it centers on coordination among governments, insurers and maritime organizations.

Iranian state television reported Sunday that Tehran is evaluating the US reply to its recently submitted 14-point proposal, citing a foreign ministry spokesman.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 03, 2026

Amazon opens logistics network to all businesses

Amazon (AMZN) launched Amazon Supply Chain Services, or ASCS, extending its freight, distribution, fulfillment, and parcel shipping solutions to businesses beyond its marketplace sellers.

Starting today, businesses can access a centralized console to discover, select, and sign up for the various ASCS solutions.

Amazon’s transportation network spans ocean, air, ground, and rail freight, supported by a fleet of 80,000+ trailers, 24,000+ intermodal containers, and 100+ aircraft.

Procter & Gamble (PG), 3M (MMM), Lands’ End (LE), and American Eagle (AEO) already signed up, Amazon said.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

#CBRS

Cerebras Systems aims to raise $3.5B in blockbuster IPO

Artificial intelligence chipmaker Cerebras Systems (CBRS) said on Monday that it is seeking to raise up to $3.5B in its upcoming initial public offering.

It is looking to sell up to 28M shares, priced between $115 and $125 each, according to an amended S-1 that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That would value the company, which competes with Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD), at roughly $26.5B, based on the number of shares outstanding. AMD is also a backer of Cerebras.

Cerebras’ revenue increased 76% year over year to $510M in 2025, according to the filing. The company produced a net income of $237.8M in 2025 after a net loss of $481.6M in 2024. Cerebras’ chips focus on inference, which is increasingly what the bulk of AI workloads require.

If approved, Cerebras stock will appear on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CBRS. The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays, and UBS.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

#BTC #ETH

Crypto stocks inch up post news about compromise on key provision in crypto bill

“The final rewards text in the CLARITY Act is now public,” said Coinbase Global’s (COIN) chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, in an X post.

In the end, the banks were able to get more restrictions on rewards, but we protected what matters—the ability for Americans to earn rewards, based on real usage of crypto platforms and networks,” said Shirzad in his social media post.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Google, Trump administration discussed compute power for AI: report

The official agenda was cybersecurity threats. However, NYT’s DealBook noted that the subtext was more specific: worries about AI “capacity” and the government’s struggle to secure enough AI processing power to maintain its own defenses, the report added.

Even as the administration seems to be easing tensions with Anthropic, it’s hoping to use Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s GPT models, and other advanced tools to reduce its reliance on Claude, according to the report.

DealBook noted that Google faces a big challenge. The report said that some of Google’s AI processing chips called Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, cannot be used in some classified contexts. Anthropic became an easy option for the government because its models largely run on Amazon Web Services, which has spent billions to achieve so-called Impact Level 6 security certifications, the report noted.

The government is looking for ways to help accelerate similar clearance for Google TPUs, the report added.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Firefly Aerospace’s unit secures OTA contract for US space missile interceptors

Firefly Aerospace (FLY) unit SciTec announced on Monday that it received an OTA agreement from the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command for the U.S. space-based missile defense program.

The project is part of the “Golden Dome for America” defense architecture, aimed at developing space-based missile interceptors by 2028.

The U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command awarded 20 agreements worth up to $3.2B to 12 companies, including SciTec, for AI-powered missile tracking and interceptor systems.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

UAE missile alert and tanker strike signal renewed tensions in Hormuz

The United Arab Emirates issued a missile threat warning Monday for the first time since a U.S.-Iran ceasefire took hold weeks ago, highlighting how fragile the truce remains as conflict risks resurface in the Gulf.

The alert followed an attack on a tanker owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which was hit by Iranian drones outside the Strait of Hormuz. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the warning was tied directly to that strike or to broader military activity in the region, Bloomberg News reported.

The incident comes as Donald Trump said Washington would begin escorting stranded vessels out of the Persian Gulf, with military support including naval ships, aircraft and drones. Two U.S.-flagged vessels have already completed the transit.

Iran, however, warned it would target U.S. forces entering the strait. State-linked media reported that Iranian forces fired warning shots at U.S. Navy ships approaching the area, though Washington denied any of its vessels had been hit.

Tehran also signaled tighter control over the strait, outlining new maritime zones under its supervision.

Trump’s plan to guide ships, dubbed “Project Freedom,” is intended to help vessels stranded by the conflict, some of which are reportedly low on supplies. He warned that any interference with the operation would draw a forceful response.

Still, details of the plan remain limited, leaving shipping companies uncertain about how the operation will unfold. A multinational maritime security group said an enhanced protection zone has been established and advised vessels to consider safer routes, while cautioning about potential mines in nearby waters.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Iran strikes UAE oil hub, tests cease-fire as U.S. escorts ships through Hormuz

UAE officials said they intercepted multiple Iranian cruise missiles aimed at different parts of the country, while a drone strike ignited a large fire in Fujairah’s oil infrastructure hub, a critical export point that allows Emirati crude to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

The port has long been central to the UAE’s strategy to avoid Iran’s geographic leverage over the narrow waterway. Authorities reported several injuries and described the assault as a “dangerous escalation,” warning they retain the right to respond.

The attacks rattled civilians across the Emirates, with emergency alerts sent to mobile phones in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and beyond urging people to seek shelter. Schools once again shifted to remote learning for the week, a reminder of how quickly daily life can be disrupted by regional conflict.

The latest strikes also spilled into nearby waters. Iranian forces fired missiles and deployed drones against U.S. naval assets and commercial shipping, according to Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command.

Among the incidents, an explosion struck a South Korean vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

American forces responded by intercepting incoming threats and destroying small boats that approached merchant vessels. Despite the confrontations, Cooper emphasized that U.S. forces remain in a defensive posture, even as they work to secure maritime traffic.

Iran pushed back on parts of that account, disputing claims that any of its vessels had been destroyed.

The U.S. military has begun escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, guiding at least two American-flagged vessels through the strategic chokepoint while additional ships prepare to follow.

Maersk (AMKBY) (AMKAF) (AMKBF) said its U.S.-flagged vehicle carrier Alliance Fairfax, operated by subsidiary Farrell Lines, successfully exited the Gulf on Monday with support from U.S. military forces

President Donald Trump warned Tehran against targeting U.S. ships, framing the operation as a mission to ensure safe passage for stranded vessels.

Iran, for its part, has issued its own warnings, signaling it could strike U.S. forces if they approach too closely and cautioning commercial ships against transiting the strait without coordination.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

#SOL

[Newsletter Exclusive] Western Union’s ‘USDPT’ stablecoin goes live on Solana blockchain

Western Union (WU) announced on Monday the launch of its USD stablecoin “USDPT” on the Solana (SOL-USDT) blockchain, marking a major shift in its global payments strategy.

The token is issued by federally regulated Anchorage Digital Bank and is now integrated into Western Union’s network spanning 200+ countries.

The company said USDPT will mainly be used for cross-border settlement and agent clearing, with consumer payment features planned for 2026.

This launch on Solana shows that traditional finance is now moving toward blockchain-based settlement, where money can move and settle faster, cheaper, and 24/7 across borders.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Goldman warns oil buffers are shrinking fast as Hormuz tensions spike prices

The bank estimates total stockpiles at roughly 101 days of global demand, with a potential drop to about 98 days by the end of May.

Goldman also noted that inventories of refined products have tightened sharply, falling from around 50 days of demand before the conflict to about 45 days now.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Firefly Aerospace Inc. GAAP EPS of -$0.61 misses by $0.11, revenue of $80.88M beats by $5.95M

CEO Jason Kim said, “We delivered record quarterly revenue of $81 million,” and tied demand to lunar and defense programs: “The acceleration of the Artemis program, combined with NASA’s Moon base initiative calls for monthly robotic lunar landings.”

Kim emphasized defense-software momentum and contract activity, stating, “After the Space Force operationally accepted our FORGE system last year, in the first quarter, we were awarded a $109 million engineering change proposal to accelerate and expand data center delivery.” He also said, “Firefly’s subsidiary, SciTec, secured an agreement with the U.S. Space Force to support the Space-Based Interceptor program under Golden Dome.”

CFO Darren Ma said, “We delivered the highest quarter of revenue in the Company’s history at $80.9 million,” and added, “We ended the first quarter with a total backlog of approximately $1.3 billion, relatively flat from last quarter, reflecting the conversion of backlog to revenue and timing of new awards.”

Ma reiterated full-year guidance: “we remain confident in our trajectory to achieve significant annual revenue growth this year and are reiterating our outlook of $420 million to $450 million, consistent with what we gave on the March call.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 04, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Tesla’s FSD push in Europe hits roadblocks - report

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has expressed confidence that the EU will soon approve the company’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) system, but emails from several European regulators reveal skepticism about the technology and safety benefits, according to a Reuters report.

The Netherlands’ road authority, RDW, granted initial approval for Tesla’s “FSD (Supervised)” system in April. RDW is now seeking EU approval for FSD with a key committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

The regulators in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway—key players in the approval process—have raised multiple concerns about the technology, the report added, citing undisclosed email correspondence.

The concerns include the system’s tendency to exceed speed limits, questions around its safety in icy conditions, and the ease with which drivers may bypass safeguards meant to restrict mobile phone usage, the report said. They also expressed frustration with Tesla’s (TSLA) strategy of publicly urging vehicle owners to put pressure on regulators to approve FSD.

On Tuesday Dutch regulator RDW presented its case to the EU’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles in Brussels, though no vote was scheduled for this week — the next committee meetings are expected in July and October.

For Tesla’s (TSLA) FSD system to secure approval, it must receive backing from committee members representing at least 55% of EU member states and 65% of the bloc’s population.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to US News Article - May 05, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Fabrinet forecasts $1.25B-$1.29B Q4 revenue as datacom supply constraints persist

“We delivered an outstanding financial performance in the third quarter” with “Revenue... at a record $1.214 billion” and “Record non-GAAP EPS of $3.72” (CEO & Chairman Seamus Grady).

“Revenue” was “$1.214 billion”; “Optical Communications revenue was $889 million” and “Telecom revenue was a record $628 million”; “revenue from data center interconnect modules... jumped to $197 million”; “Datacom revenue” was “$260 million” (Executive VP & CFO Sverha).

“Turning to non-optical communications. Revenue reached $326 million” driven by “our HPC program, which delivered $107 million in revenue”; “Automotive revenue” was “$115 million” and “Industrial Laser revenue” was “$44 million” (Executive VP & CFO Sverha).

“Telecom revenue” was “fueled by strong growth” and within it “data center interconnect revenue grew a robust 90% from a year ago and 38% from Q2” (CEO & Chairman Grady).

“We have made a minority investment in Raytek Semiconductor” to advance co-packaged optics, which management described as “an evolution from silicon photonics into more advanced packaging and integration solutions” (CEO & Chairman Grady).

Guidance: “We expect total revenue to be in the range of $1.25 billion to $1.29 billion” and “we expect non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $3.72 to $3.87” (Executive VP & CFO Sverha).

George Notter, Wolfe Research: asked if EMLs were the Datacom gating item; CEO Grady responded, “It’s not demand risk, it’s supply constraints” and said constraints spanned “mainly lasers, memory... and also certain ASICs.”

George Notter, Wolfe Research: asked what Fabrinet will manufacture in CPO; CEO Grady said Fabrinet is “already seeing some CPO revenue” and is “working on a number of CPO programs with 3 different customers.”

Dylan Ollivier, Susquehanna: asked if CPO revenue is shipping and scale-up vs scale-out; CEO Grady said, “We are shipping to all 3 customers” and “They’re both scale up and scale out.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Applied Materials, Lam Research, ACM Research get Buy ratings as Seaport initiates coverage

Seaport Research Partners initiated coverage on a trio of wafer fabrication equipment companies, Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), and ACM Research (ACMR), giving them all Buy ratings as the sector is currently in one of its strongest cycles in history.

“The chief constraint on AI today is the availability of compute,” said Sepaort senior analyst Jay Goldberg in an investor report. “Hyperscalers and frontier labs are scrambling to source sufficient GPUs (and power) to drive ever-larger models and handle the growing inference workloads. All of this is bottlenecked by the fab capacity—both at TSMC and at the memory makers. Fab owners are all pointing to increased capex budgets this year, and we believe that will continue into next year. That capex will go towards WFE tools in record amounts. And the cycle extends beyond AI to robotics, automotive and other sectors. Trailing-edge fabs, especially in the PRC, are adding capacity and, as a result, are buying more WFE tools.”

Seaport considers Applied Materials to be in the best position of global WFE suppliers and gave them a $500 price target.

“While they do not have ASML’s (ASML) monopoly in EUV lithography, they do have offerings in almost every other line of tools covering - deposition, etch, implant, CMP, cleaning and more,” Goldberg noted. “We think their role in advanced semis is almost as irreplaceable as ASML.”

Meanwhile, Lam Research was assigned a $300 price target due to its leverage in the memory segment.

Finally, ACM Research received a $75 price target, as the Fremont, Calif.-based company primarily supplies the rapidly growing semiconductor market in China. Despite export controls on WFE equipment to China, ACM Research already has considerable operations established there, which may shield it from geopolitical issues.

“They are a US company but sell over 90% of their products into the PRC,” Goldberg said. “And over the past year, they have begun winning orders to supply fabs in other countries. Demand for WFE tools is surging in the PRC today, and ACM is well positioned to pick up share there and use those profits to fund growth of its platform and their export ambitions.”

Although Seaport acknowledges the cyclicality of the WFE sector, it surmises that the current cycle should last for several more years before facing a downturn.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Rockwell Automation beats estimates, raises outlook as stock jumps

Rockwell Automation (ROK), a global provider of industrial automation, control systems and digital transformation software, topped Wall Street expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

Revenue came in at about $2.24 billion, ahead of the $2.16 billion consensus estimate, while adjusted earnings of $3.30 a share exceeded expectations of $2.88.

Growth was particularly strong in areas such as warehouse automation, data centers and semiconductor demand.

Net income rose to $350 million, or $3.10 a share, from $252 million, or $2.22 a share, a year earlier.

Rockwell (ROK) raised its fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings outlook to a range of $12.50 to $13.10 a share, up from a prior range of $11.40 to $12.20 and ahead of the $12.14 analyst consensus.

The company also nudged its full-year reported sales midpoint to about $8.9 billion from $8.8 billion previously, slightly above the $8.87 billion consensus forecast.

Rockwell’s intelligent devices segment posted double-digit growth, while software and control delivered even faster gains, reflecting strong demand for automation software and digital solutions. Lifecycle services grew more modestly but remained stable.

The company continues to emphasize recurring revenue streams, with annual recurring revenue rising 6% year over year, signaling ongoing traction in software and services.

Rockwell (ROK) said it expects continued momentum in high-growth sectors such as automation, energy and data infrastructure, while remaining cautious about uneven capital investment trends.

The company’s combination of hardware, software and services positions it as a key supplier to manufacturers seeking efficiency gains through automation, a theme that continues to drive investor enthusiasm.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] First Solar upgraded at Freedom Broker as Section 232 seen driving upside

First Solar (FSLR) was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Freedom Broker analyst Dmitriy Pozdnyakov, who raised the price target to $260 from $250, citing potential upside from Section 232 policy support and steady operational execution.

Pozdnyakov said U.S. trade policy could provide a meaningful boost to First Solar’s domestic positioning, supporting the decision to turn more constructive on the stock.

First Solar (FSLR) reported first quarter revenue of $1.04 billion, up 23.6% year over year. The figure came in slightly below the analyst’s estimate but aligned with broader consensus expectations.

Growth was driven by higher module shipment volumes, which rose 30.9% year over year on a megawatt basis. However, average selling prices declined due to a greater mix of shipments to India.

The company ended the quarter with a backlog of 47.9 gigawatts, down from 50.1 gigawatts at the end of the prior quarter, reflecting strong shipments that exceeded new bookings.

Module production reached 4.3 gigawatts in the quarter, while shipments totaled 3.8 gigawatts. First Solar (FSLR) expects to produce between 16.5 gigawatts and 17.5 gigawatts in 2026, increasing to as much as 20.5 gigawatts in 2027.

Operating income rose 56.1% year over year to $345.3 million, beating the consensus estimate of $310.9 million. Operating margin reached 33.0%, up from 26.1% a year earlier, supported by higher gross margin and lower startup costs tied to new facilities.

Net income totaled $346.6 million, above the consensus estimate of $295.7 million. Diluted earnings per share came in at $3.22, compared with expectations of $2.72.

Looking ahead, the company expects some margin moderation in the second and third quarters, before strengthening again in the fourth quarter.

First Solar (FSLR) reaffirmed its 2026 outlook, projecting revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion. The company also guided to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion for the year.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

AI, chip stocks jump as US-Iran ceasefire holds; AMD results on tap

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. effort to guide vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz is temporary and “separate and distinct” from ongoing military operations in the region. His comments come one day after the U.S. military started operations to guide ships in the waterway, CNN reported. He also said, “The ceasefire is not over.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran made competing claims on Tuesday over which side controlled the Strait of Hormuz. While Hegseth said the U.S. effort to free trapped vessels was ongoing, Iran’s state broadcaster dismissed the U.S. effort as a failure and said Iranian control over the strait had “intensified,” the New York Times reported.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Ballard soars over 22% following mixed Q1 print

The company posted a loss of $0.04 per share, slightly above what analysts had expected. Revenue came in at $19.4M, missing estimates but representing a 26% year-over-year growth, which the company attributed to increased engine shipments during the period.

Bus revenue was $6.8 million, down 46% from Q1 2025, while Rail revenue was $5.1 million, representing a multi-fold year-on-year increase.

The company had an order backlog of $112.9 million at the end of the quarter. The 12-month order book was $52.8 million at the end of Q1, a decrease of $1.1 million, or 2%, from the end of Q4 2025.

It guided capital expenditure in the range of $5 million to $10 million and total operating expense in the range of $65 million to $75 million.

“We continue to see strong momentum in the fuel cell bus market, supported by increasing long-term customer commitments. New Flyer’s multi-year 50 MW agreement highlights accelerating fleet adoption in North America. In the U.K. and E.U., we are seeing strong traction with two additional bus OEMs that are advancing next‑generation hydrogen bus platforms…” the CEO additionally noted.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

#OpenClaw #Remy

Google reportedly building OpenClaw competitor codenamed ‘Remy’

The artificial intelligence agent is being tested by employees at the tech giant and, like OpenClaw, is capable of taking actions on a person’s behalf, the news outlet added. It currently runs in an employee-only version of the Gemini app and is capable of being integrated into other Google services, the news outlet added, citing an internal document and two people familiar with the matter.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Lumentum Non-GAAP EPS of $2.37 beats by $0.10, revenue of $808.4M misses by $1.65M

Lumentum press release (LITE): Q3 Non-GAAP EPS of $2.37 beats by $0.10.

Revenue of $808.4M (+90.1% Y/Y) misses by $1.65M.

Lumentum expects the following for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026: Net revenue in the range of $960 million to $1.01 billion vs consensus of $917.27M.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.85 to $3.05 vs consensus of $2.69.

“Lumentum delivered an exceptional third quarter, with revenue growing 90% year over year to a record $808 million,” said Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston. “While our top-line growth continues to garner headlines, the more impressive part of our recent performance has been our margin expansion. In fiscal Q3, gross margin improved by 540 basis points on quarter and operating margin by 700 basis points.”

“This quarter, mix was aided by strength in laser chips, but also by a less-heralded part of our portfolio, ‘scale-across’ components, which include our pump lasers and narrow linewidth laser assemblies,” he added. “As our key growth drivers of co-packaged optics and optical circuit switches begin to kick in, we would expect further increases in earnings power.”

Ryan Koontz, Needham & Company, LLC: asked about supply ramp vs. demand for EMLs and lasers; President, CEO & Director Hurlston responded, “we continue to lag demand” and said the imbalance was “somewhere greater than 30%” and “probably even higher than we reported in our last call.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Arista Networks Non-GAAP EPS of $0.87 beats by $0.06, revenue of $2.71B beats by $90M

Arista Networks press release (ANET): Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.87 beats by $0.06.

Revenue of $2.71B (+35.5% Y/Y) beats by $90M.

For the second quarter of 2026, we expect: Revenue of approximately $2.8 billion vs consensus of $2.78B;

Non-GAAP diluted net income per share of approximately $0.88 vs consensus of $0.86.

“Arista has experienced significant velocity in all our sectors in Q1 and are now commanding the #1 market share in high-speed switching in the greater than 10 gigabit Ethernet category,” said CEO & Chairperson Jayshree Ullal.

Ullal framed AI networking around “3 AI fabric use cases” and added, “Scale-Up will be a new entry for Arista in 2027 and beyond,” while also saying Arista has “greater than 100 cumulative customers to date in 800 gigabit Ethernet deployments” and “expect the addition of 1.6 terabit in 2027 at production scale.”

George Notter, Wolfe Research: asked scale-up rack designs; Ullal: “we continue to see at least 5 to 7 rack opportunities” and “majority of the Ethernet scale-up will only really happen in ‘27 and ‘28.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Joby Aviation GAAP EPS of -$0.12 beats by $0.09, revenue of $24M beats by $3.8M

Q1 GAAP EPS of -$0.12 beats by $0.09.

Revenue of $24M beats by $3.8M.

The loss deepened to $109.9 million, or $0.12 a share, from a loss of $82.4 million, or $0.11 a share, a year earlier. Operating expenses rose as the company increased spending on research, development and manufacturing to support certification and commercialization efforts.

Founder, CEO, Chief Architect, President & Director JoeBen Bevirt said the quarter’s biggest development was the White House-backed eIPP selection, stating, “This program paves the way for us to bring our aircraft and service directly to U.S. communities this year ahead of FAA type certification.”

CEO Bevirt emphasized infrastructure and partnerships tied to commercialization, including: “In L.A., we announced a partnership with the Ruben Brothers to bring a vertiport to the iconic towers at Century Plaza,” and “In Dubai, we celebrated the completion of the first ever purpose-built commercial vertiport located right next to Dubai International Airport.”

“To put our ramp into context, we are adding a third shift to our composites layup team and our automated fiber placement team,” and “Today, we’re producing parts for our ninth conforming aircraft. And we continue to do all of this with Toyota at our side.”

CEO Bevirt said eIPP timing expectations are centered on the back half of 2026: “I think our -- the best crystal ball we’ve got at the moment is that we’ll be signing or that agreements will start being signed in Q3. And that as we move into the back half of the year, we’ll start to do operations.”

CEO Bevirt indicated passenger flights remain a 2026 objective across two geographies: “it is very exciting for us to now have 2 shots on goal for passenger flights this year, both in Dubai and as well as in our different eIPP markets.”

The company ended the quarter with approximately $2.5 billion in cash and short-term investments, providing a sizable liquidity cushion as it works toward commercial operations.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Astera Labs Non-GAAP EPS of $0.61 beats by $0.07, revenue of $308.36M beats by $16.04M

Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.61 beats by $0.07.

Revenue of $308.36M (+93.5% Y/Y) beats by $16.04M.

GAAP Financial Outlook: Revenue within a range of $355 million to $365 million vs consensus of $310.06M.

GAAP diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.44 to $0.46.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.68 to $0.70 vs consensus of $0.55 on non-GAAP weighted-average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 184 million.

“Today, we announced the expansion of our Scorpio product line of AI fabric switches for both scale-up and scale-out use cases” and “we are now shipping initial volumes of our new 320 lane Scorpio X with production volumes ramping in the second half of 2026.” (CEO Mohan)

Joseph Moore, Morgan Stanley: asked about timing and requirements to move from copper to optical; COO Sanjay Gajendra: “NPO-based opportunities... will start happening in 2027” and “more of the mainstream deployments for CPO happening in the 2028 time frame.”

Ananda Baruah, Loop Capital: asked if lane counts keep rising and how optics fits; CEO Mohan: “we are investing heavily” and “increasingly, we will enable optical connectivity as well, starting with NPO... and then going to CPO.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Voyager raises 2026 revenue guidance to $230M-$255M as record backlog reaches $275M

“Voyager had an outstanding first quarter with record backlog, a book-to-bill ratio of 1.3 and significant traction on new contracts, including Golden Dome.” (Chairman & CEO Dylan Taylor)

“First quarter bookings of $45 million drove our backlog to a new record of $275 million, up 54% year-over-year.” (Chairman & CEO Dylan Taylor)

“We are increasing our 2026 revenue guidance to $230 million to $255 million.” (Chairman & CEO Dylan Taylor)

“During the first quarter, Starlab achieved 4 additional milestones and received $24 million in cash payments from NASA.” (Chairman & CEO Dylan Taylor)

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Solid Power outlines commissioning of SP2.5 by year-end as it targets 500 metric ton electrolyte production partnership in Korea

“Starting with our partnership with SK On, we completed site acceptance testing in early April, marking the final milestone of the line installation agreement for SK On.” (CEO, President & Director Van Scoter)

“We expect that line to be commissioned by the end of the year and are on track for that.” (CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Heller)

“With this accomplishment, we’re very pleased that there are now cell production lines using our technology on 3 continents.” (CEO, President & Director Van Scoter)

“We believe installation of our continuous electrolyte manufacturing pilot line will represent a critical inflection point in our path to commercialization and a clear differentiator for Solid Power.” (CEO, President & Director Van Scoter)

“We also continue to explore potential partners with processing, scaling capabilities and capital to support construction of a 500 metric ton electrolyte production facility.” (CEO, President & Director Van Scoter)

Colin Rusch, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division: Could you talk a little bit about the potential for partnerships in North America…? CEO, President & Director Van Scoter: “the demand that we see right now is really coming off the peninsula in Korea” and “we have yet to see… anything really substantial here in the States”.

Amit Dayal, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division: What are the next steps with SK On… post site acceptance? CEO, President & Director Van Scoter: “we’ll be transitioning, supporting them running the line” and “transition to ultimately an electrolyte supplier agreement with them.”

Amit Dayal, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division: What is the time line… on the electrolyte supply agreement? CEO, President & Director Van Scoter: “It’s multiyear. It actually goes out through ‘27. It’s for a total of 8 metric tons.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Trump pauses effort to guide ships out of Strait of Hormuz; blockade still in effect

President Donald Trump said he will pause the U.S. military operation to help stranded ships exit the Strait of Hormuz, dubbed “Project Freedom,” for a short period to see if a deal can be reached with Iran.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Uber Non-GAAP EPS of $0.72 beats by $0.03, revenue of $13.2B misses by $60M

Revenue of $13.2B (+14.5% Y/Y) misses by $60M.

Gross Bookings grew 25% YoY to $53.7 billion, and 21% on a constant currency basis, topping the consensus estimate of $52.9B.

Mobility bookings during the quarter came in at $26.4B vs. $25.8B consensus. Delivery bookings were $25.9B vs. $25.8B consensus. Trips during the quarter increased 20% year-over-year to 3.6B vs. 3.64B consensus. The increase in trips was driven by monthly active platform consumers growth of 17% and monthly trips per MAPC growth of 3%.

Mobility revenue was up 5%, delivery revenue increased 34%, and freight revenue was up 6%.

Income from operations soared 57% to $1.9B. Free cash flow was up to $2.3B.

On autonomy, “we now have more than 30 autonomous partners across Mobility and Delivery” and “AV Mobility trips grew more than 10x year-on-year” (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). He added, “we remain on track to be live in up to 15 cities by the end of the year.”

Looking ahead, Uber (UBER) sees Q2 gross bookings of $56.25B to $57.75B (midpoint $57.00B vs. $56.23B consensus. The company also expects Q2 adjusted EBITDA of $2.70B to $2.80B (midpoint $2.75B) and EPS of $0.78 to $0.82 (midpoint $0.80) vs. $0.81 consensus.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Johnson Controls International beats Q2 expectations, initiates Q3 guidance

Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $1.19 beats by $0.07.

Revenue of $6.14B (+8.1% Y/Y) beats by $60M.

Q2 GAAP EPS of $0.99.

Q2 Orders +30% organically year-over-year.

Backlog of $20.0 billion increased 26% organically year-over-year.

While headline results were solid, underlying performance showed some cracks. Organic sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose just 1%, significantly lagging other regions, as growth in products and systems was offset by disruptions tied to Middle East conflicts and weaker non-recurring services volumes.

That unevenness contrasts with stronger gains in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, where demand for applied HVAC systems and large-scale projects, particularly data centers, continued to drive growth.

Fiscal 2026 third quarter guidance: Adjusted EPS of ~$1.28 (vs. consensus of $1.28).

Johnson Controls (JCI) raised its full-year outlook, now expecting organic sales growth of about 6% and adjusted earnings of roughly $4.85 per share, up from a prior view of about $4.70 and above the $4.76 consensus.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Arista falls after Q1 results as analysts mull supply constraints

“While the supply constraints do moderate expectations around the magnitude of upsides that the bull-case incorporated coming into the print, we see limited moderation of the long-term demand drivers that have driven our expectations for around mid-30% growth in the medium-term, with potential greater upsides from the realization of deferred revenue into in-period revenue once there is more significant progress on acceptance clauses, which is currently a significant headwind with product deferred revenue increasing by ~$643 mn to ~$3.63 bn in F1Q,” said J.P. Morgan analysts led by Samik Chatterjee.

The analysts noted that Arista’s results highlighted the long-term growth drivers that position the company well for robust demand, with the notable highlights included: a large tier 1 hyperscaler (the analysts believe, based on industry checks, to be Microsoft (MSFT)) starting its transition to leveraging Ethernet from InfiniBand in the back-end; conquest wins with a Neo-cloud customer relative to white-box products; and a surge in revenue in relation to scale-across opportunities, while scale-out revenue continues to expand at a robust pace.

“That said, the strong pace of demand increases are running into hurdles of capacity, which is not specific to Arista but visible across the supply chain, including de-commits in relation to supply from semiconductor companies, leading Arista to now expect translation of some of the demand upsides into revenue to be pushed out of this year,” said Chatterjee and his team.

However, the analysts noted that as a silver lining, Arista has longer visibility into demand and is also building a robust backlog. Separately, the company is also confident of being able to maintain gross margins despite the inflationary cost backdrop, with the help of price increases taken in the first quarter as well as pricing for innovation in the future, the analysts added.

“Strong Q1 print; while supply challenges could gate the AI upside potential for CY26, we note that the demand backdrop remains robust and should provide multi-year growth visibility,” said Evercore analysts led by Amit Daryanani.

“ANET noted that the overall demand backdrop remained robust (demand outstripping supply) and we think that the upward revision to full year guidance would have been larger had it not been for supply constraints (seeing de-commits related to wafer fab shortages for advanced nodes in particularly). The constrained supply backdrop will likely weigh on future gross margin performance as ANET is seeing lead times extend beyond 52-weeks,” said Daryanani and his team.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

AMD’s results and guidance prove that the CPU’s time to shine is now

The Dr. Lisa Su-led company is one of the primary beneficiaries of the rise of agentic AI, where CPUs are now as in demand as GPUs were (and still are) amid the rise of generative AI.

“AMD delivered in spades with Q1 upside largely driven by better than expected server compute revenues (up over 50% Y/Y) with management guiding for sales to accelerate further in CQ2 (to ~70%+ Y/Y growth),” Wedbush Securities analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a note to clients. “The acceleration in growth stems from combination of unit and ASP gains with demand upside largely attributed to compute racks powering agentic AI. And management indicated AMD expects this trend will continue fueling AMD server CPU growth through 2026 and into 2027.”

Jefferies analyst Kevin Garrigan said that while server CPUs stole the proverbial show and garnered much of the attention, the company’s GPU business looks prime to take off to another level.

“On the GPU side, MI450/Helios remains on track for a 2H26 ramp (3Q initial volume, significant 4Q ramp), with the lead customer’s forecasts now exceeding their initial plans,” Garrigan wrote in a note to clients. “The customer pipeline continues to broaden and AMD expressed confidence in surpassing the [greater than 80% long-term data AI CAGR over the next several years],” Garrigan wrote. He noted that while data center AI revenue fell modestly sequentially (due to China revenue declining to $0), both server CPUs and data center AI revenue are expected to grow double-digit percentages this quarter.

Nonetheless, the CPU was the star of the show, as AMD’s Su said the company is seeing a “meaningful” acceleration for CPUs and now expects the market to grow 35% annually and hit $120B by 2030.

“We would have thought server enthusiasm was already priced in given the sharp move in the stock, but in the last few weeks there seems to be limitless enthusiasm for CPU and management’s long-term commentary was probably more impactful than the modest near-term upside,” Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore wrote in a note to clients.

Moore, who raised his price target on AMD to $410 from $360 after the results, said the “world has changed” and AMD is still in a “very strong position” when it comes to gaining market share amid some issues at Intel (INTC).

“Intel has stated the view that they can gain share because they have fabs, but AMD appeared to categorically reject that view, voicing that they have confidence in their supply chain to meet the demand - and restating the view that they can achieve majority share by 2030, including ARM,” Moore added. “We believe in the AMD CPU story.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Firefly Aerospace is called a Moon landing winner by B. Riley Securities

Analyst Mike Crawford said the firm sees Firefly Aerospace (FLY) as a leader, winner, and consolidator as humanity races to and contests space, the Moon, and beyond. He noted that FLY was not only the first commercial company to stick a soft landing on the surface of the Moon, but it also operates a burgeoning small- to medium-lift rocket launch business, fueling a $1.29B backlog altogether.

“We see lunar lander mission cadence increasing considerably given NASA’s race to establish a moon base, plus multiple mission opportunities for FLY’s Elytra orbital transfer vehicles, including rendezvous proximity operations in low Earth orbit (LEO), long-haul resilient communications, and—in conjunction with FLY’s AI ground processing and on-orbit capabilities gained via an $855M acquisition of SciTec—potential space-based missile detection and intercept as part of Golden Dome solutions,” highlighted Crawford.

With NASA seeking to nearly triple the budget allocated to lunar exploration and development, Firefly Aerospace (FLY) is seen as one of the keys to unlocking U.S. success.

B. Riley Securities assigned a price target of $60 to Firefly Aerospace (FLY).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

#SpaceX

SpaceX proposes spending $55B to start Terafab project

SpaceX (SPACE) has proposed spending $55B to start its widely anticipated Terafab semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas, according to official government documents.

If additional phases of the semiconductor production facility are completed, the total cost could be around $119B, the documents added. News of the spending amount was first reported by Bloomberg.

Some analysts have speculated that the project may have to raise outside money, given the cost and complexity of building a semiconductor plant.

The project would begin with a smaller advanced fabrication facility capable of designing and testing a wide range of chips, with ambitions to scale into a much larger operation. Elon Musk, who leads Tesla and SpaceX, has argued that current chipmakers are not expanding fast enough to meet the demands of next-generation AI systems.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Astera’s ‘strong’ Q1 results see bullish views from analysts

J.P. Morgan analysts noted that the company continues to drive strong shipments of Aries retimers, Scorpio “P” Series switches, and Taurus Active Electrical Cable, or AEC, products. A more significant volume ramp for Scorpio X is expected in the second half of 2026 (the analysts believe Amazon Trainium 3 XPU ramp).

“All continues to be on track with Scorpio X starting to ramp and a newly introduced high-radix 320-lane solution layering in 2H26. On Optical, connector solutions leveraging aiXscale acquisition starting shipments along with chipsets supporting NPO [Near-Package Optics] in 2027. New solutions for KVCache offload, NVLink Fusion, and UALink with stronger Trn3 ramp reinforce our confidence in significant estimate revisions heading into 2027,” said Jefferies analysts led by Blayne Curtis.

Meanwhile, Barclays raised Astera’s price target to $200 from $165, and Morgan Stanley upped it to $240 from $210. Stifel increased the price target on Astera’s stock to $260 from $236, while keeping a Buy rating. In addition, Needham increased the price target to $260 from $220 while maintaining its Buy rating.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Lumentum continues to see demand exceeding supply, prompting positive feedback from analysts

“Focused capex aims to accelerate critical manufacturing capacity across InP fabs and transceivers, supported by customer LTAs,” said Needham analysts Ryan Koontz and Jeffrey Hopson in a Wednesday note. “Meanwhile, multi-billion OCS systems and CPO laser backlog are poised to contribute materially to C2H26 and beyond from near zero today.”

Morgan Stanley analysts Meta Marshall and Antonio Jaramillo said in an investor note, “With demand for product continuing to grow, that sets the stock up to maintain bull case valuation in the near term, as pricing power is unlikely to ease. This is even before we have really seen the ramp of optical circuit switching and co-packaged optics, which don’t become more material until later in the year.”

“The management highlighted a widening supply-demand imbalance, with supply still lagging demand by over 30%, despite plans to increase capacity by approximately 50% YoY,” said GF Securities analysts, led by Alicia Xia, in a note. “EML, pump lasers, and narrow linewidth lasers remain effectively sold out, with pump lasers emerging as an even tighter bottleneck than EML. While management is actively expanding capacity through long-term supply agreements and incremental fab investments, demand continues to outpace supply, resulting in ongoing allocation decisions across customers and reinforcing tight market conditions across key optical components.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

#USO

U.S.-Iran reportedly near a deal, oil cuts losses

The U.S. is reportedly getting close to a deal with Iran on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the conflict.

The memorandum is expected to set a detailed plan for comprehensive nuclear talks between the two countries, reports said, citing two U.S. officials and two other sources.

However, reports suggested that Iran has yet to respond to the U.S. proposals, which contain some unacceptable provisions, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.

Reports also suggested that the IRGC Navy has ensured the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I also worry about the mention of the HEU being sent to the U.S., which Iran has consistently rejected. On the other hand, seems the U.S. has accepted the phased approach, where the war ends and the blockade is lifted before nuclear issues are addressed,” Gregory Brew, senior analyst at Eurasia Group, said.

The agreement would also see Iran commit to a pause in nuclear enrichment, while the U.S. would lift sanctions and release billions in frozen Iranian assets. Both sides would also ease restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz, reports said.

The one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding is being discussed between U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and many Iranian officials, the report said. The MoU is also expected to declare the end of the war in the region and the start of a 30-day period of negotiations on the agreement.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

#SpaceX #Anthropic #xAI

[Newsletter Exclusive] Rivals turn partners as Anthropic inks deal to secure computing power from xAI’s Colossus 1

SpaceXAI (X.AI)(SPACE) has inked a deal with Anthropic (ANTHRO) to provide the juggernaut of a startup access to its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tenn.

Anthropic plans to use the extra computing power provided by Colossus 1 to increase its usage limits for Claude subscribers.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] AeroVironment tests counter-drone laser system with U.S. agencies

The test, led by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, evaluated the company’s LOCUST high-energy laser system in scenarios designed to reflect operations in U.S. airspace.

According to the company, the system demonstrated automated safety shut-off functions that restrict engagement to confirmed targets. Testing also indicated no adverse effects on civilian aircraft under controlled conditions and relied on identification protocols before engagement.

The company said the laser system successfully engaged both stationary and airborne targets during the test. The demonstration was intended to assess accuracy and operational performance in counter-drone scenarios.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Axon Enterprise Non-GAAP EPS of $1.61 beats by $0.01, revenue of $807.35M beats by $27.74M

Revenue of $807.35M (+33.7% Y/Y) beats by $27.74M.

Software & Services revenue grows 35% to $355 million; AI products up over 700% year over year

Counter-drone product revenue up over 300% year over year.

“Net revenue retention... was 125%” and “ARR... grew 35% year-over-year to $1.5 billion.” (COO & CFO Bagley)

“International revenue was up over 100% year-over-year” and “it represented 20% of our revenue for the quarter.” (COO & CFO Bagley)

“Future contracted bookings was up 44% year-over-year to $14.3 billion.” (COO & CFO Bagley)

Raises full-year revenue outlook to a range of 30% to 32% annual growth and maintains 25.5% Adjusted EBITDA margin.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

AppLovin GAAP EPS of $3.56 beats by $0.10, revenue of $1.84B beats by $60M

Revenue of $1.84B (+58.6% Y/Y) beats by $60M.

For the period ending March 31, AppLovin said it earned $3.56 per share as revenue rose 58.9% year-over-year to come in at $1.84B.

“Come June, advertisers across the world will be able to sign up for Axon and start running campaigns.” (CEO Foroughi)

Looking to its fiscal second-quarter, AppLovin expects revenue to be between $1.915B and $1.945B, above the $1.89B estimate.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Coherent Non-GAAP EPS of $1.41 beats by $0.02, revenue of $1.81B beats by $30M

GAAP EPS was $0.97 compared to the $0.88 estimate.

Revenue of $1.81B (+20.7% Y/Y) beats by $30M.

“We experienced another step function increase in our order book, driving our backlog to a record level” and that “orders now [reach] into calendar 2028 and customer LTAs extending to the end of the decade” (CEO Anderson).

“Our Datacenter & Communications segment continues to be the primary driver of our growth and accounted for 75% of total company revenue in Q3” (CEO Anderson), and he tied near-term growth to “both transceivers and OCS systems,” adding, “we expect growth to be driven by both 800 gig and 1.6T” (CEO Anderson).

“We remain on track to achieve our goal of doubling internal indium phosphide output capacity by the end of this calendar year” and “we now expect to reach that milestone 1 quarter earlier than originally planned” (CEO Anderson), alongside “plans to begin 6-inch indium phosphide production at a third site in Zurich” (CEO Anderson).

“In March, we announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA focused on multiple CPO-related products and solutions” including “NVIDIA’s $2 billion equity investment in Coherent and a multiyear supply agreement extending through the end of the decade” (CEO Anderson), with expected timing that “initial scale-out CPO revenue” begins “in the second half of this calendar year” and “scale-up CPO revenue” begins “in the second half of calendar 2027” (CEO Anderson).

Business Outlook – Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2026(1)

Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 is expected to be between $1.91 billion and $2.05 billion vs $1.91B consensus

EPS for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 is expected to be between $1.52 and $1.72 vs $1.54 consensus on a non-GAAP basis.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Redwire GAAP EPS of -$0.40 misses by $0.25, revenue of $96.97M misses by $7.68M

Revenue of $96.97M (+57.9% Y/Y) misses by $7.68M.

For the full year ended December 31, 2026, Redwire affirms that it is forecasting revenues of $450 million to $500 million.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Array Technologies Non-GAAP EPS of $0.06 beats by $0.11, revenue of $223.41M beats by $21.75M

Revenue of $223.41M (-26.1% Y/Y) beats by $21.75M.

Record total executed contracts and awarded orders at March 31, 2026 of $2.4 billion

Achieved 2x book-to-bill with ~50% increase in APA orderbook. Trailing twelve-month book-to-bill of 1.3x.

For the year ending December 31, 2026, the Company expects:

Revenue to be in the range of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion vs. $1.46B consensus.

Adjusted net income per common share(2) to be in the range of $0.65 to $0.75 vs. $0.70 consensus.

For the quarter ending June 30, 2026, the Company expects revenue to be in the range of $300 million to $320 million.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] BorgWarner outlines $14.0B-$14.3B 2026 sales outlook while targeting 2027 industrial launches

President, CEO & Director Joseph Fadool highlighted industrial expansion efforts: “we are taking steps to grow our product capabilities for the data center and other industrial markets,” and said the turbine generator is “making progress towards its 2027 launch” (President, CEO & Director Fadool).

Picariello, BNP Paribas: asked about synergy with Endeavour and potential turbine capacity expansion; Fadool said, “there’s definite synergy” across “turbine generator, battery energy storage and then power conversion,” and added, “Sometime this year, we will have to make a decision on whether we expand capacity further beyond the 2 gigawatts” (President, CEO & Director Fadool).

Emmanuel Rosner, Wolfe Research: asked about turbine generator value proposition; Fadool emphasized “time to market,” “the emission profile,” and “the total cost of ownership is very attractive” (President, CEO & Director Fadool).

Chris McNally, Evercore: pressed on turbine demand vs. capacity; Fadool said the market starts with “massively... demand” and reiterated “we’ve installed 2 gigawatts of capacity” and “The $300 million next year is the initial launch” (President, CEO & Director Fadool).

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Centrus Energy Non-GAAP EPS of $1.05 beats by $0.78, revenue of $76.7M misses by $1.63M

Revenue of $76.7M (+4.9% Y/Y) misses by $1.63M.

CEO Vexler updated backlog and production context, saying Centrus ended Q1 with “$3.9 billion of backlog that extends through 2040,” and that “since we’ve begun our HALEU operations contract, we have contractually produced over 1.6 metric tons of HALEU UF6 for the government.”

Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $450 million to $500 million from $425 million to $475 million.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 05, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Aurora projects over 200 driverless trucks by end of 2026 as Hirschbach targets 500-truck scale-up

“In April, the Aurora Driver surpassed 370,000 driverless miles with 100% on-time performance and 0 Aurora Driver attributed collisions.” (CEO Urmson)

“We expect this kit to drive a 50-plus percent reduction in Aurora Driver hardware costs, a key lever supporting our breakeven gross margin target.” (CEO Urmson)

“We continue to expect 2026 revenue of $14 million to $16 million up 400% year-over-year at the midpoint.” (CFO Maday)

“Revenue will be back-end loaded with the fourth quarter projected to contribute over half of full year revenue.” (CFO Maday)

“We anticipate exiting the year with more than 200 driverless trucks in operation.” (CFO Maday)

Scott Group, Wolfe Research: asked how many trucks are operating today versus the 200 target and what converts the Hirschbach MOU; CEO Urmson said, “Today, we’re running about a handful of them” and added, “I think we own 25 of them now, and they’re in various stages of upfit and preparation.” Urmson also said the Hirschbach scale-up is “a 500 truck deal over 27 and 28 is our expectation” and added, “we expect to get to closure on that this year.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Energy Fuels reports mixed Q1 results; reaffirms FY26 outlook

Revenue of $35.84M (+112.1% Y/Y) beats by $4.09M.

As of March 31, 2026, the company had $956.6 million of working capital, including $108.4 million of cash and cash equivalents.

The company generated $8.3 million in cash from operating activities during the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to $18.8 million used in cash from operating activities during the same period in 2025.

The company sold 510,000 pounds of U3O8 at a weighted average realized price of $70.04 per pound for total uranium revenues of $35.7 million.

Spot market sales totaled 100,000 pounds for revenue of $9.6 million at a weighted average realized price of $95.88 per pound, while long-term contract sales totaled 410,000 pounds for revenue of $26.1 million at a weighted average realized price of $63.74 per pound.

The company produced 790,000 pounds of finished U3O8 in Q1 2026 and reached 1 million pounds in April.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Amprius Technologies reports mixed Q1 results; updates FY26 outlook

Revenue of $28.54M (+153.0% Y/Y) beats by $2.82M.

Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of ($1.8) million, a $3.4 million improvement Y/Y.

Amprius updates its 2026 full year outlook as follows: Total revenue is now expected to be at least $130 million, raised from at least $125 million vs. consensus of $126.08M.

Reiterating targets:

Net loss is expected to be less than $8.0 million.

Net loss per share is expected to be under $0.06 vs. consensus of -$0.05.

Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be at least $4.0 million.

Capital expenditure is expected to be under $10.0 million.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] IonQ GAAP EPS of $2.07 beats by $2.59, revenue of $64.67M beats by $14.94M

Revenue of $64.67M (+754.3% Y/Y) beats by $14.94M.

Reported Record GAAP Revenues of $64.7 Million, Representing 755% Year-On-Year Growth, Fueled by Quantum Computing Growth and Expansion of the Quantum Platform.

Raises Full Year Guidance to be between $260 and $270 Million vs $236.18M consensus as Remaining Performance Obligations grow 554% year-on-year to $470 Million.

“We view the continued RPO [Remaining Performance Obligations] expansion as one of the most compelling leading indicators of the company’s ability to scale commercial revenues meaningfully over the next several years, and maintain our constructive view on IONQ,” said Wedbush analysts led by Antoine Legault in a research note.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

#GTBIF

Green Thumb Industries GAAP EPS of $0.07 beats by $0.05, revenue of $300.19M (+7.4% Y/Y) beats by $2.55M

“On April 1, Green Thumb was conditionally awarded a license to operate in the state of Texas” and “while operations will still be a few years out, the license gives us a meaningful opportunity in the nation’s second most populated state.” (CEO Kovler)

“As medical represents approximately 50% of our business, we are encouraged by the recent movement in the rescheduling process, which moved medical cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act” and “we submitted last week” (applications to register with the DEA). (CEO Kovler)

CEO Kovler: “the federal government acknowledging that this product has medical qualities is a welcome, refreshing step” and “the bifurcation of medical and adult use that’s happening at the federal level, we didn’t see that exactly coming.”

“we’re cautiously optimistic” and “the path to getting the bill over the finish line by the end of 2026 remains murky” stood out as cautious analyst-facing framing, while multiple analyst questions pressed on regulatory outcomes, hemp restrictions, and federal implications, including “what doors will that open, if any?” (Pablo Zuanic, Zuanic & Associates).

“Looking forward, we expect second-quarter sequential revenue to be flat to down slightly due to the pricing environment.” (CFO Faulkner)

“We continue to navigate the following headwinds: price compression, largely driven by oversupply and increased competition; consumer discretionary spending pressure from years of elevated inflation and current high gas prices; and regulatory uncertainty, particularly around the closure of the Farm Hill loophole, making it difficult to allocate capital with a long-term lens.” (President Georgiadis)

Frederico Yokota Gomes, ATB Cormark: asked whether rescheduling could enable international exports; President Georgiadis: “we love to run the business on optionality” and “Europe is a place where we’d like to do that at some point in time.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

BWX Technologies wins over $1.4B in U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion contracts

BWX Technologies (BWXT) said on Thursday it received U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program contracts worth more than $1.4B.

The largest award, valued at $1.285B, covers long-lead material procurement for the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program and represents the first of five annual task orders available through 2030.

A separate $165M contract covers reactor system components and manufacturing work for Ford-class aircraft carriers. Production will take place at BWXT facilities in Ohio and Indiana.

The company also said it recently shipped four large steam generators for the USS Doris Miller (CVN 81), the Navy’s newest Ford-class aircraft carrier.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

Arm Holdings slides amid supply concerns, but Wall Street sees glory days ahead

“Demand for the new CPU chip appears to be building quickly, particularly with large enterprise customers, with early deployments and its power-efficient design supporting the opportunity across agentic AI workloads,” Morgan Stanley analyst Lee Simpson wrote in a note to clients. “However, advanced-node wafer availability at TSMC remains the gating factor, limiting near-term confidence in Arm’s ability to fully capture the potential $2bn+ FY27/28 chip opportunity. Meanwhile, management continues to frame the core IP business around c.20% annual growth, led by Cloud AI royalties, hyperscaler custom CPU adoption, and DPU/SmartNIC penetration. The key debate is how to size the CPU opportunity without double counting AI infrastructure demand, while monitoring royalty reacceleration and licensing durability.”

Appearing on CNBC, CEO Rene Haas said that agentic AI is putting a lot of pressure on the CPU, but that the company will have the largest share by CPU type by the end of the decade.

“Management now has line of sight into $2b AGI CPU revenue in the next two years but is maintaining its prior guidance for $1b due to supply constraints,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Srini Pajjur wrote in a note to clients. “Licensing is sustaining >20% growth for now and management believes SoftBank’s contribution is durable. Looking ahead, we see room for meaningful upside potential as supply situation eases and view ARM as an outsized beneficiary from agentic AI-driven CPU growth. In other markets, CSS transition remains a tailwind in smartphones while PhysicalAI is in very early stages. We believe premium valuation is justified given 20%+ royalty growth, data center share gains, and large [serviceable addressable market].”

Other investment firms also raised their price targets on Arm after the results, including Barclays and KeyBanc Capital. The pair of banks their targets to $250 and $300 from $200 and $170, respectively.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

#CC

21Shares Canton Network’s first U.S. ETF, ‘TCAN,’ launches on Nasdaq

The 21shares Canton Network ETF (TCAN) gives investors exchange-traded exposure to Canton Coin (CC-USD) with a 50bps fee.

According to 21Shares US, Canton Network supports more than $4T in monthly tokenized asset volume. The network was built for institutions like Nasdaq (NDAQ), Visa (VISA:CA), Goldman Sachs (GS), Microsoft (MSFT), and Deutsche Bank (DB), with a privacy-focused structure designed for regulated financial markets.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

Amprius Technologies reports mixed Q1 results; updates FY26 outlook

Q1 GAAP EPS of -$0.04 misses by $0.01.

Revenue of $28.54M (+153.0% Y/Y) beats by $2.82M.

Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of ($1.8) million, a $3.4 million improvement Y/Y.

Amprius updates its 2026 full year outlook as follows:

Total revenue is now expected to be at least $130 million, raised from at least $125 million vs. consensus of $126.08M

Reiterating targets:

Net loss is expected to be less than $8.0 million

Net loss per share is expected to be under $0.06 vs. consensus of -$0.05

Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be at least $4.0 million

Capital expenditure is expected to be under $10.0 million

CEO Thomas Stepien highlighted defense/UAS customer momentum and linked it to downstream demand visibility, saying, “Three Amprius customers leveraging our SiCore batteries have recently received notable multimillion dollar awards,” and, “Their success boosts our visibility into future purchase orders for SiCore cells.”

Stepien announced a China LEV win, saying, “We are pleased to announce that our silicon anode cells were selected by a leading light electric vehicle customer based in China,” and, “This customer placed a $21 million multi-quarter purchase order for batteries for 2- and 3-wheeled vehicles.”

Stepien updated the DIU contract expansion: “In the March quarter, the contract was increased for a third time and now totals $18.1 million,” and said the increase “adds delivery of 3 types of silicon anode cylindrical cells and 4 standard-sized pouch cells.”

“In the quarter, we generated 58% of our revenue from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 21% from North America and 21% from the Asia Pacific region,” CFO Ricardo Rodriguez said. “The North American share increased meaningfully.”

“We just signed up a new group in South Korea that’s helping us get started there before we establish our own team in place there.”

Rusch, Oppenheimer: asked about robotics product-market fit and path to substantial production; Stepien said, “It’s early days on robotics,” and, “We don’t have any real meaningful revenue in our Q1 numbers,” while indicating, “That will start to show up in terms of revenue toward the end of this year, early next.”

Mark Shooter, William Blair: asked about urgency from U.S. military/defense contractors; Stepien said, “We’re starting to see that flow down to us,” and pointed to programs including, “The Gauntlet itself starts in August” with “qualifiers next month in June.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

Rocket Lab USA GAAP EPS of -$0.07 beats by $0.01, revenue of $200.3M (+63.4% Y/Y) beats by $10.89M

Rocket Lab (RKLB) said on Thursday it had secured a $30 million contract from defense technology company Anduril Industries for three hypersonic test launches using its HASTE launch vehicle, while separately announcing plans to acquire spacecraft robotics company Motiv Space Systems.

The hypersonic test launches will take place from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, with the first mission scheduled within 12 months, the company said.

The missions are intended to support the development of hypersonic technologies capable of speeds exceeding Mach 5 and will be funded by Anduril’s internal capital.

Separately, the company said it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire California-based Motiv Space Systems, which specializes in space robotics, motion control systems, and spacecraft precision mechanisms. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Rocket Lab said the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

Motiv’s technologies have been used in missions including NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and CADRE lunar rovers. Rocket Lab said the deal would expand its capabilities in robotics and spacecraft component manufacturing, including solar array drive assemblies and motion control systems.

Looking ahead, Rocket Lab (RKLB) forecast second-quarter revenue between $225 million and $240 million, implying another sequential record. The company expects adjusted ebitda to remain negative, with a loss between $20 million and $26 million, as it continues investing in growth initiatives.

Management said progress on its Neutron rocket program, including engine qualification and hardware integration, keeps the vehicle on track for a debut launch later this year.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

US attacks Iran to retaliate for strikes on Navy warships in Strait of Hormuz

The US military has attacked military sites in Iran in retaliation for the Middle East nation launching projectiles at Navy warships that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Oman.

“Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage.,” US Central Command wrote in an X post.

CENTCOM claimed, “No U.S. assets were struck.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait lifted restrictions on the U.S. military’s use of their bases and airspace imposed after Donald Trump launched “Project Freedom”, forcing the U.S. president to back down and pause the project.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

WealthWise Research - May 07, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Redwire GAAP EPS of -$0.40 misses by $0.25, revenue of $96.97M (+57.9% Y/Y) misses by $7.68M

“During the first quarter of 2026, Redwire saw strong demand across our differentiated products” and “achieved a strong book-to-bill ratio of 1.92” while ending with “record contracted backlog of $498.1 million,” according to President, CEO & Chairman Peter Cannito.

Cannito highlighted a sharp shift in profitability mix and execution: “We sharpened our operational performance and portfolio management” and gross margin “moving from 9.6% in Q4 2025 and 14.7% in Q1 2025, up to 26.6% in Q1 2026.” He added, “we returned to strong growth in areas with better gross margins.”

Edmunds said, “we are reaffirming our full year 2026 revenue forecast in the range of $450 million to $500 million” and added, “we expect our revenue to build as we move through 2026.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] Ormat Technologies Non-GAAP EPS of $1.30 beats by $0.40, revenue of $403.9M (+75.8% Y/Y) beats by $54.7M

CEO Doron Blachar framed Energy Storage as central to growth, saying, “Our Energy Storage segment continues to emerge as a key growth engine with revenues increasing 153% year-over-year, driven by both capacity expansion and our ability to capture favorable merchant pricing.”

Blachar highlighted portfolio moves and contracting, saying the quarter included “the COD of our Shirk Energy Storage facility,” “the acquisition of the Hoku hybrid solar plus storage facility in Hawaii” and “the signing of the PPA for Jersey Valley” (a “67-megawatt solar paired with a 67-megawatt 268-megawatt hour storage facility”) targeted for “late 2027 or early 2028.” He also said Ormat “signed PPAs for approximately 200 megawatts at favorable pricing, including agreements with Google and Switch and two blend and extend contracts.”

For Q2, total revenues are expected to be between $1,110 million and $1,160 million vs. $1.14B consensus.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 06, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 07, 2026

[Newsletter Exclusive] IREN jumps 7%, inks five-year $3.4B AI cloud deal with Nvidia

IREN (IREN) secured a five-year AI cloud services contract worth about $3.4B with Nvidia (NVDA) to provide managed GPU cloud services for the chipmaker’s internal AI and research workloads.

The agreement will use air-cooled Blackwell systems deployed across around 60MW of IREN’s existing data center capacity at its Childress, Texas campus.

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 08, 2026

BlackSky forecasts $130M-$150M 2026 revenue as Gen-3 drives over 50% subscription growth

Q1 GAAP EPS of -$0.82 misses by $0.42.

Revenue of $20.8M (-29.5% Y/Y) misses by $6.46M.

Space-based intelligence & AI services revenue grew 14% as compared to the prior quarter.

CEO Brian O’Toole tied demand to longer-duration commitments, stating the company is “transitioning new and existing customers from early pilot programs into long-term 7 and 8-figure subscription contracts,” and said, “subscription-based contracts drive predictable revenue and strong visibility into future growth as these are highly sticky accounts with almost no churn.”

CFO Henry Dubois reported, “Our first quarter revenue was $20.8 million,” and said the company is “increasing our revenue guidance for the year from our previous range of $120 million to $145 million to an updated range of $130 million to $150 million.”

CFO Dubois described pacing and backlog-based visibility: “we do expect the second half of the year to be a much stronger than the first half,” and said backlog was “about $351 million as of March 31st,” adding that including “some of the large contracts that we signed in early April” would make it “about $380 million,” with “about $90 million” expected to be “already booked for 2026.”

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 08, 2026

Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - May 08, 2026