Alpha Coverage #116
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[News] Tesla launches a limited robotaxi service in Austin on a landmark day for autonomous ambitions
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) launched a limited version of its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas on Sunday to mark a significant milestone in the company’s goal to become the autonomous driving leader. Social media accounts have already posted pictures of the self-driving vehicles out in the wild.
Notably, the initial rollout is highly controlled and invite-only, with access granted primarily to select Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) enthusiasts, investors, and social media influencers.
CEO Elon Musk previously told reporters that there may be fewer than a dozen cars in Austin on Sunday and that the vehicles will stick to specific geo-fenced neighborhoods as the company displays an abundance of caution.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 22, 2025
ITA 0.00%↑ NOC 0.00%↑ SLB 0.00%↑ OXY 0.00%↑ KGC 0.00%↑ AEM 0.00%↑ SLV 0.00%↑
[News] Wall Street advanced and oil slid after Qatar intercepted an Iranian attack on a U.S. base. Potential ceasefire on the table
Iran fired missiles towards a U.S. base in Al Udeid on Monday, Iran's state news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency, said. Majed Al Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Qatar's air defenses had intercepted the Iranian missiles. Iran's move came after the U.S. attacked nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan late on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said the targeting of an American base in Qatar was Iran's official response to U.S. strikes on Iranian military sites over the weekend and that Iran has 'gotten it all out of their system' after the U.S. base attack.
“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” Trump added, signaling that the attacks were political.
President Trump said on social media Monday evening that Israel and Iran agreed to a tentative ceasefire which will take effect at around midnight Washington, D.C., time.
Israel and Iran on Tuesday accepted the ceasefire plan proposed by the U.S. President Donald Trump.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
Link to CNBC News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
[News] Novo Nordisk discontinues partnership with Hims & Hers over Wegovy sale
Novo Nordisk said that Hims & Hers Health has not complied with legal regulations that prohibit the mass sale of compounded drugs under the misleading notion of “personalization”, raising concerns about patient safety.
“We will collaborate with telehealth companies that prioritize patient safety in providing direct access to Wegovy. If companies engage in illegal compounding practices that threaten the health of Americans, we will take appropriate action.” Dave Moore, Executive Vice President, US Operations of Novo Nordisk said in a statement.
Novo Nordisk mentioned that an investigation showed that counterfeit semaglutide drugs sold by telehealth providers and compounding pharmacies contain active pharmaceutical ingredients sourced from unapproved foreign suppliers in China.
The company also cited a report from the Brookings Institute indicating the FDA has never authorized or approved the manufacturing processes employed by any of these foreign suppliers for semaglutide, nor has the FDA reviewed or authorized the quality of the 'semaglutide' they produce.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
[News] New York to build one of first U.S. nuclear power plants in a generation, Hochul tells WSJ
New York plans to build a large nuclear power facility, Gov. Hochul told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Monday, adding that she has directed the state's public electric utility to add at least 1 GW of new nuclear power generation to its aging fleet of reactors.
The project would be the first major new U.S. nuclear plant undertaken in more than 15 years.
The New York Power Authority will find a site in upstate New York and determine the reactor's design, Hochul told WSJ, adding that the utility may pursue the project alone or in partnership with private entities.
Only five new commercial reactors have come online in the U.S. since 1991, which has not been enough to offset plant retirements.
Potential sites under review for New York's new plant include the sites of New York’s three operating plants, all owned or majority-owned by Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG), the governor said, adding that the facility could be one large reactor or a collection of smaller ones.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
[News] QuantumScape says Cobra separator process enters baseline production
QuantumScape (NYSE:QS) Tuesday announced a major milestone in the scale-up of its production capabilities: the successful integration of its advanced Cobra separator process into baseline cell production.
Cobra forms the foundation of QS’s high-throughput, continuous-flow separator production platform.
Compared to the prior-generation Raptor process, Cobra offers a ~25x improvement in heat treatment speed and occupies a fraction of the physical space per film start – key advantages in the design of a scalable gigafactory production line, the company said.
"By significantly improving throughput and shrinking the equipment footprint, Cobra gives us a powerful path forward for commercializing our next-generation battery technology," stated QuantumScape (NYSE:QS) CEO Dr. Siva Sivaram.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
[News] Nextracker selected to power Greece's largest solar project
Nextracker (NASDAQ:NXT) said Wednesday it was selected to power one of Europe’s largest solar projects - and the largest in Greece - the 550 MW Oricheio PPC Ptolemaida solar PV park in Macedonia with its NX Horizon solar trackers.
Owned by Greek utility PPC Group, the project was launched by repurposing the land of a former coal mine with high-performance solar energy infrastructure.
Now in its final stage of construction, Oricheio PPC Ptolemaida is the largest single solar power project in Greece and is estimated to provide 1.8% of the country’s electricity per year when fully operational.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
[News] Meta's Zuckerberg, execs discuss 'de-investing' in Llama for competitors: report
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have discussed “de-investing” in its Llama family of language models in favor of models made by competitors, The New York Times reported.
Meta could look to models from OpenAI and Anthropic, the news outlet added, citing two people familiar with the matter. While no final decision has been made on the matter, it would mean turning towards the “closed” approach to models, whereas Llama is open source and can be tweaked by others.
Meta released the first models from its Llama 4 series in April at its LlamaCon event, however the new model did not perform as well as rivals. Additionally, a number of developers left the event feeling underwhelmed, the news outlet added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 27, 2025
News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:
ITA 0.00%↑ NOC 0.00%↑ SLB 0.00%↑ OXY 0.00%↑ KGC 0.00%↑ AEM 0.00%↑ SLV 0.00%↑
U.S. enters war between Israel and Iran
President Donald Trump on Saturday said the United States had attacked Iranian nuclear sites, pushing America into Israel’s war with its longtime rival and regional power.
“A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime, Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan,” Trump said in a speech from the White House.
U.S. Navy submarines also launched more than 30 Tomahawk missiles into Iran, two defense officials told NBC News.
It was unclear late Saturday precisely how much damage the U.S. strikes had done to the heavily fortified Iranian nuclear sites, or whether any American military assets were still active in the country.
Saturday’s action puts the United States in direct armed conflict with Iran, a massive escalation in its involvement with Israel’s effort to cripple Tehran’s nuclear program and topple its regime.
It also marks a major shift from just 48 hours ago, when Trump said the United States would take “two weeks” to see if the conflict between Israel and Iran could be resolved diplomatically.
That diplomatic path may now be closed. Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said recently that “any American military entry will undoubtedly be met with irreparable damage.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that the country had evacuated personnel from the three nuclear sites in advance. The three nuclear sites the US says it struck “some time ago.” According to the broadcaster, Iran had relocated its nuclear stockpiles from those sites to secure locations.
Link to CNBC News Article - Jun 21 2025
Link to Financial Express News Article - Jun 21 2025
[News] China solar installations hit record high in May ahead of policy deadline
According to data from the National Energy Administration, the country added 93 gigawatts of solar capacity last month—four times the amount installed in May 2024, Bloomberg reported.
This surpasses the previous monthly record of 71 gigawatts, set in December.
Remarkably, China installed more solar power in May alone than any other country did throughout all of 2024, according to BloombergNEF.
China's solar installations soared to a new monthly record in May, as developers raced to complete projects ahead of upcoming regulations that could significantly reduce renewable energy prices.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
[News] Compass plummets as late-stage data on psychedelic asset for depression disappoints
Compass Pathways (NASDAQ:CMPS) is down ~46% in Monday trading after posting phase 3 data on its psilocybin-based asset for treatment-resistant depression that appeared to disappoint investors.
While the COMP005 trial met its primary endpoint, investors were likely expecting even better results.
A single dose of COMP360 25 mg compared to placebo led to a -3.6 difference in change at the primary endpoint.
"From a FDA/registrational perspective though, this study clearly meets/exceeds the bar as the effect size is more than good enough, with a low p-value," wrote Stifel's Paul Matteis. He rates the stock a buy with an $11 price target.
Evercore ISI's Gavin Clark-Gartner said that investors were looking for at least a 4-point difference to keep the stock flat, and a 5+ point difference to see upside. He cut his rating on Compass to in-line from outperform.
"There may be some disappointment in the efficacy given KOLs had seen the bar as 4 points on MADRS," added RBC Capital Markets' Leonid Timashev. However, the data has derisked the asset and "can ultimately enable $1.1B in U.S. sales." Timashev rates Compass at outperform with a $15 price target.
atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ:ATAI), which has an oral film version of N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in phase 2, also for treatment-resistant depression, is off ~15%.
MindMed (NASDAQ:MNMD), which has a form of LSD in phase 3 for major depressive disorder, is down ~6%.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
Salesforce launches Agentforce 3 as agentic adoption surges
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) has updated its Agentforce platform, releasing Agentforce 3, which provides enterprises greater visibility and control over artificial intelligence agents as adoption continues to grow since its October 2024 release.
The customer relationship management software company said AI agent usage has increased 233% over the past six months, and approximately 8,000 customers have registered to deploy Agentforce. The update features a new "Command Center" that provides greater observability and support for Model Context Protocol, or MCP, for "plug-and-play operability."
The MCP servers allow agents to access unstructured data from Amazon (AMZN) Bedrock Data Automation and Amazon Nova Canvas. The MCP also provides access to new Agentforce use cases through Google (GOOG)(GOOGL) Cloud services. It opens more access to Box (BOX), PayPal (PYPL), Stripe (STRIP) and WRITER.
Also, starting in July, Agentforce will offer an expanded list of large language models, including Anthropic's Claude models. Later in 2025, Google's Gemini will also be available to help build customizable agents in Agentforce.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
AMZN 0.00%↑ #ProjectKuiper
Tech Voices: Amazon's Kuiper
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) said United Launch Alliance, or ULA, has launched a second batch of Project Kuiper satellites into orbit, bringing the total number of Kuiper spacecraft launched to date to 54. The launch is part of Amazon's bid to build a satellite broadband network that rivals SpaceX's (SPACE) Starlink.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 23, 2025
Teladoc extends gains as Citron says it’s a “coiled spring” at current valuation
Citron Research issued a bullish report on the telehealth firm, arguing that it is a “coiled spring” at the current sub-$1.5B valuation.
“At a $1.4B market cap, Teladoc is not getting its full value as the largest telehealth provider as they are still paying the price of acquisitions of old … But all that is about to change,” Citron Research said in the report.
“AI will make this a more profitable business, and its scale cannot be replicated for its market cap,” the investment firm added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
Apple, Qualcomm likely to launch 2nm chips next year, built by Taiwan Semi: Counterpoint Research
There has been accelerated adoption of 3nm and 2nm nodes, due in part to stronger performance and higher efficiencies, as companies put more artificial intelligence capabilities on devices, Counterpoint said. And Apple is expected to be a major player, with more than 80% of its product portfolio moving to 3nm node this year, Counterpoint added.
Sharma continued: “TSMC will start the tape out process for the 2nm node in H2 2025 and mass production in 2026. Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek are expected to launch their first wave of flagship SoCs in late 2026.”
Taiwan Semiconductor had roughly two-thirds of the semiconductor foundry market in the fourth-quarter of 2024, according to data from TrendForce. And given its technological prowess, it is expected to keep its stronghold as the chip industry continues to focus more on advanced nodes, Counterpoint research director Brady Wang said.
“In 2025, TSMC will likely lead total smartphone SoC shipments with an 87% share in the 5nm and below (3nm and 2nm) nodes and is expected to grow to 89% by [the] end of 2028,” Wang explained.
Major customers such as Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek rely on Taiwan Semiconductor, which may make it difficult for Samsung's (OTCPK:SSNLF) foundry to compete in the leading edge. This is due in part to past yield issues, which has delayed the adoption of 3nm in smartphones, Wang added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
TMUS 0.00%↑ #Starlink
T-Mobile launches satellite texting service in the U.S. with internet to follow in October
T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) has introduced a satellite-to-mobile service, which will be powered by Elon Musk's Starlink (STRLK), the company announced during a live event on Monday.
The company launched T-Satellite, which will expand its network coverage into more than 500,000 square miles of unreachable U.S. territory, leveraging the 657+ Starlink direct-to-cell satellites that are in orbit.
T-Satellite will support SMS for both Android (GOOG) (GOOGL) and iOS (AAPL) subscribers, as well as MMS picture messaging and short audio clips for Android, with iOS support to follow. The service will launch across the U.S. on July 23. Starting in October, it will begin providing internet.
The new service will be free for customers on the T-Mobile's Experience Beyond plan. For everyone else—including AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) customers—the service will be available for $10 per month.
The new service will offer 911 texting at launch. Later this year, customers with a compatible device, regardless of carrier, can also avail 911 texting via satellite, T-Mobile said.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
BlackSky wins NGA Luno A facility monitoring order worth over $24M
BlackSky Technology (NYSE:BKSY) said on Tuesday that it has won a more than $24M, four-year, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency delivery order for global monitoring of military and economic facilities.
As part of the order, BlackSky has received an initial base and surge option award of $2M.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
UBER 0.00%↑ GOOG 0.00%↑ TSLA 0.00%↑ #Waymo
Uber Technologies rallies after Atlanta Waymo expansion, Tesla's stumbles in Austin
Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) tracked higher on Tuesday after the mobility company expanded its partnership with Waymo (GOOG) to parts of Atlanta. Available exclusively through the Uber app, the service spans about 65 square miles in the city, from Downtown to Buckhead to Capitol View, with plans to expand in the future.
The service area currently excludes highways and airport trips.
In both Atlanta and Austin, Waymo rides are only available via the Uber app. In contrast, riders in San Francisco and Los Angeles must use the Waymo One app. The partnership between Waymo and Uber is limited to passenger transport and does not include Uber Eats deliveries.
Some traders have pointed to the early issues for Tesla's (TSLA) robotaxi service in Austin as an indication that the initiative is not a significant short-term headwind yet for Uber (NYSE:UBER).
U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating reports that Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) self-driving robotaxis may have violated traffic laws on their first day of offering paid rides in Austin.
Videos shared online show Tesla robotaxis exceeding the speed limit and, in one instance, swerving into the wrong lane.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
MSFT 0.00%↑ CRM 0.00%↑ NOW 0.00%↑ GTLB 0.00%↑
Microsoft, Salesforce among AI agent winners as spending may hit $155B by 2030: BofA
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) and Intuit (INTU) are expected to be among the top beneficiaries of artificial intelligence agent spending, as Bank of America believes the market could hit $155B by 2030.
“We estimate global knowledge worker wages across seven major occupation categories (such as sales, finance and IT) are $18.6 trillion annually,” Bank of America analysts wrote in a note to clients. “We believe it is reasonable to assume 10% of workflows for this cohort of employees will be performed by agents by 2030, representing $1.9 trillion in automation-driven value. Assuming software vendors can capture roughly 8% of this value (representing 12x customer ROI on agentic spending), this would equate to global agentic AI spending of $155 billion.”
As such, Microsoft should benefit via its Microsoft 365 product cycle and its Azure partnership with OpenAI. In addition, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Intuit, HubSpot (HUBS), GitLab (GTLB), and OneStream (OS) should also benefit, via their respective, Agentforce, Now Assist, Intuit Assist, Breeze AI, Duo and SensibleAI platforms and services, Bank of America analysts added.
“These firms possess the key ingredients for AI success and monetization: large customer dataset, and robust data management/governance capabilities,” the analysts posited. “These companies also have agentic AI features/products available today, either publicly or in beta. We expect monetization to begin ramping in CY26.”
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
AMD pops as CFRA upgrades on upcoming products, better competitive stance
“Our upgrade reflects several factors,” analyst Angelo Zino wrote in a note to clients. “First, we see AMD closing the competitive gap to NVIDIA (NVDA) in 2026 as it launches the MI400x and prepares to shift to rack-scale solutions, with the ZT deal complete, offering GPU sales upside. We see an expanding customer base for AMD's accelerators (e.g., Oracle, OpenAI) while the company is also making progress with its open-source AI software stack (ROCm).”
Zino, who raised his rating to Strong Buy from Buy and upped his price target to $165 from $125, added that the GPU server market is expected to see a sharp recovery, starting in the fourth-quarter, which should benefit AMD.
Lastly, sovereign AI opportunities and a potential scenario where AMD returns to China are also positives, Zino added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
ENPH 0.00%↑ FSLR 0.00%↑ TAN 0.00%↑
Solar stocks surge as rooftop credit may get boost in Senate budget bill
Enphase Energy (NASDAQ:ENPH) +11% and First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) +4.5%, surging into the close of trading Tuesday, after U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer said Republicans are discussing changes to a provision that would end tax credits for rooftop solar panels in President Trump's tax and spending bill.
Cramer told reporters there is "work being done on rooftop solar" as part of talks around fixing the language on the future of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for clean energy projects.
The senator said the clean energy credits being discussed by Republicans on the Senate tax writing committee "might be a little more generous than the House" version, although he did not know details about how the provisions for rooftop panels might change.
Cramer said senators are working on adjusting the "off ramp" for phase-out of the tax credits, which were abrupt in the House-passed version.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 24, 2025
Tesla market share shrinks in EU, registrations drop 40% Y/Y in May
Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) sales in the European Union saw another fall in May; registrations dropped 40.5% to 8,729 units vs. last year.
Tesla's European market share for new car registrations dropped to 0.9% in May from 1.6% a year ago, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). So far in 2025, its market share shrank to 1.1% from 2% last year.
The American EV maker's European sales have now fallen for five straight months as customers prefer cheaper Chinese EVs. Besides, CEO Elon Musk's political adventures likely put off European customers, leading to boycotts and protests. The refreshed Model Y was expected to help reverse Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) fortunes in the EU market; however, it did little good to push sales.
Overall in Europe, Tesla (TSLA) sales in the first five months of 2025 fell 45.2% from the same period last year.
Broadly, the passenger car registrations in the EU increased by 1.6% Y/Y to 926,582 units in May 2025, the ACEA data showed.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
Nvidia in focus as Loop Capital boosts price target to new Wall Street high
Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah raised his price target to $250 from $175, citing the belief that hyperscale and AI factor spending could reach $2T by 2028. As such, Baruah believes Nvidia could hit a $6T market cap on the view that the company essentially has a monopoly in “critical tech” and has strong pricing power.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
OKLO 0.00%↑ LEU 0.00%↑ #TerraPower #Hexium
Oklo to partner with TerraPower, Hexium on HALEU fuel production
Oklo (NYSE:OKLO) said Wednesday it will collaborate with Hexium and TerraPower to develop domestic production of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium "at industry leading cost targets."
The collaboration addresses a critically urgent bottleneck in deploying advanced nuclear reactors in the U.S., the companies said.
As things stand today, Centrus Energy (NYSE:LEU) is the only domestic company with a uranium enrichment license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the production of LEU and HALEU, Craig Hallum analyst Eric Stine says.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Apr. 01, 2025
Constellation may restart shut Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 2027, ahead of schedule
Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG) may restart the former Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania in 2027, about a year ahead of schedule after being put on a fast track to connect to the regional grid, CEO Joe Dominguez said Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The reactor re-entering service at Three Mile Island, which is being renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, was not part of the infamous 1979 nuclear accident, and shut in 2019 for economic reasons.
At the time Constellation (NASDAQ:CEG) announced its deal last September to power Microsoft data centers, paving the way to reopen Three Mile Island, the company said it expected the plant to re-open in 2028, anticipating a process that would be slowed by wait times associated with connecting power projects to the regional grid operated by PJM Interconnection.
As a way to ease some of the bottleneck, particularly as data centers rapidly proliferate in PJM's territory, the grid operator has fast-tracked its interconnection process for select projects.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
Tech Voices: Nvidia CEO on robotics
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said that robotics represents the biggest growth opportunity for the company next to AI.
“We have many growth opportunities across our company, with AI and robotics the two largest, representing a multitrillion-dollar growth opportunity,” Huang told listeners Wednesday at Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) annual shareholder's meeting, according to CNBC.
“We’re working towards a day where there will be billions of robots, hundreds of millions of autonomous vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of robotic factories that can be powered by Nvidia technology,” Huang added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 25, 2025
Serve Robotics takes its sidewalk delivery robots to Atlanta
The California-based company said the market expansion builds on its successful launches in Los Angeles, Miami, and Dallas–Fort Worth as part of an ongoing collaboration with Uber Eats (UBER).
For the Atlanta expansion, Serve's (NASDAQ:SERV) autonomous delivery robots are being utilized on the sidewalks of midtown, the Old Fourth Ward, and the downtown region.
The launch of Serve's (SERV) Atlanta operations represents another significant milestone on the company's path to deploying 2,000 AI-powered delivery robots across the U.S. by the end of 2025. Additional U.S. markets are expected to be announced in the coming months.
Serve (SERV) was spun off from Uber (UBER) in 2021 with Uber (UBER) still holding a minority stake in Serve Robotics (SERV).
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
Ocean Power Technologies awarded patent for vehicle charging tech
The newly allowed patent is designed to address the increasing demand for clean maritime operations.
The invention enables electric vessels to safely locate, dock with, and recharge from a floating energy platform while at sea.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
Salesforce utilizes AI to tackle 30-50% of internal tasks: report
"AI is doing 30% to 50% of the work at Salesforce now," said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, in an interview with Bloomberg's "The Circuit with Emily Chang."
Salesforce is using AI to handle tasks ranging from customer service to software engineering, the report said. It is also reducing the need for new employees in some instances.
Salesforce competitor ServiceNow (NOW) has also utilized AI systems internally to improve efficiency.
AI agents have increased ServiceNow's lead-to-sale conversion rate by 16x, reduced meeting prep time for sellers by 42% and driven 86% task deflection in areas like IT support.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
Apple tweaks App Store policy for EU users to comply with regulators
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced changes today to its App Store for users in European Union nations to comply with the European Commission's Digital Markets Act and avoid escalating financial penalties.
Starting today, developers with apps in the European Union storefronts of the App Store can promote offers for purchase of digital goods or services available at a destination of their choice.
"The destination can be a website, alternative app marketplace, or another app, and can be accessed outside the app or within the app via a web view or native experience," Apple said.
Apple is also updating its business terms for app developers in the EU.
"By January 1, 2026, Apple plans to move to a single business model in the EU for all developers," Apple said. "Under this single business model, Apple will transition from the Core Technology Fee to the CTC on digital goods or services."
The CTC, or Core Technology Commission, will apply to digital goods or services sold by apps distributed from the App Store. What's more, when Apple releases iOS 18.6 to the general public, EU users will be able to install alternative marketplaces or apps from a developer's website.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
Gold seen as biggest winner from dollar diversification at central banks, survey says
The world's central banks likely will move away from the U.S. dollar into gold, the euro and China's yuan, according to survey results published this week by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.
The survey of 75 central banks conducted between March and May showed 32% of central banks plan to increase their exposure to gold in the next 12-24 months, the most conviction seen in the last five years, while looking to move away from the dollar, with the survey showing 16% of participants plan to decrease their exposure to the greenback, up from 11% reported in 2024.
The survey offers a first snapshot of the potential repercussions of President Trump's April Liberation Day tariffs that caused market turmoil and a slide in the safe-haven dollar and U.S. Treasuries.
The dollar, the most popular currency in last year's survey, fell to seventh place this year, with 70% of those surveyed saying the U.S. political environment was discouraging them from investing in the greenback.
A net 16% of central banks surveyed by OMFIF said they plan to increase euro holdings over the next 12-24 months, making it the most in-demand currency, up from 7% a year ago, the yuan is more favored over the next decade, with a net 30% of central banks expecting to increase holdings and its share of global reserves seen tripling to 6%.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
$TTD $AMZN
Trade Desk slides after Wells Fargo rating cut as Amazon competition looms
Analysts at Wells Fargo have downgraded Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) to "equal weight" from a previous investment rating of "overweight" on Thursday, citing competitive impact from Amazon (AMZN) going ahead.
Wells Fargo previously believed that TTD would maintain an advantage over Amazon DSP on CTV inventory availability. But after Amazon signed Roku (ROKU) & Disney (DIS) publisher deals, those deals are "catalyzing advertiser plans to test Amazon DSP on non-Amazon inventory in 2026."
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
China slow-walking rare earth magnet export approvals despite pact with U.S. - WSJ
Chinese authorities are continuing to drag out approval of Western companies' requests for rare earth magnets, two weeks after China promised the U.S. it would ease restrictions on exports of the items, a situation that could reignite trade tensions between the two countries, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Western companies say they are receiving barely enough magnets for their factories and have little visibility of future supplies, and applications for raw rare earths used to make magnets are rarely granted, sparking concerns that the shortages could soon affect manufacturing, according to the report.
Manufacturers reportedly have taken the difficulties as a sign that new Chinese rare earth export restrictions, introduced in April after President Trump raised tariffs on China, are here to stay, contrary to the administration's claims that the flow would return to normal.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
China signals approval of rare earth exports to US after breakthrough trade deal
"China will approve the export application of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly," China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
On Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying that China is “going to deliver rare earths to us” and once they do that, “we’ll take down our countermeasures,” referring to the export curbs the US imposed on China in May.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that China has told rare-earths firms to provide the government with a list of workers with technical expertise, and has asked some to turn in their passports to prevent them from taking unauthorized overseas trips.
Rare earth producers MP Materials (NYSE:MP), USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ:USAR) and Critical Metals (NASDAQ:CRML) -7.3%, -12.1% and -12.3%, respectively, in Friday's trading following the news.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 27, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 27, 2025
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 27, 2025
GOOG 0.00%↑ TTD 0.00%↑ AMZN 0.00%↑
Evercore thinks Trade Desk safe from Amazon's competitive push, but Google isn't
The research firm cited positive sentiment for online ad demand, improvement in execution by the company, and a strong slate of product announcements to justify the rating change.
On Thursday, Wells Fargo cut its rating on TTD, fearing competition from Amazon (AMZN) going ahead, but Evercore, while noting that competition is intensifying, expects Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) to be more at risk due to this.
Evercore thinks that Google's DV360 is likely to be the primary share donor to Amazon's DSP, as "AMZN’s power alleys are much more likely to overlap with DV360’s existing footprint than TTD’s."
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 27, 2025
MSFT 0.00%↑ AMZN 0.00%↑ GOOG 0.00%↑ AVGO 0.00%↑ NVDA 0.00%↑ AMD 0.00%↑
Microsoft’s in-house AI chip efforts face hurdles - report
Microsoft’s next AI chip, dubbed Braga, is facing a delay of at least six months. This is pushing out its mass production to 2026 from 2025, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the effort.
When the chip gets into mass production next year, it is expected to fall well short of the performance of Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) new Blackwell chips, which were released in late 2024, the report noted.
In November 2023, Microsoft unveiled its Maia 100 chip, aimed at AI workloads.
The Information report said that Microsoft has mainly relied on Maia 100 for internal testing rather than real-world usage. The chip is not powering any of its AI services, as per several current and former Microsoft employees. This largely because it was originally designed in 2019, before OpenAI released ChatGPT, and was meant for image processing rather than generative AI, the report added citing a person involved in the project.
After the release of Maia 100 in 2024, Microsoft launched a strategy to build three successor chips— dubbed Braga, Braga-R and Clea — with plans to deploy them in its data centers in 2025, 2026 and 2027, respectively, the report noted.
However, Braga’s delay to 2026 increases concerns if the company will be able to launch the remaining chips on time.
The three chips are all meant for inference.
Microsoft had planned to design a chip for training AI models but canceled the effort in early 2024, the report added.
Mid-way through Braga’s development, which is expected to be introduced publicly as Maia 200, Microsoft asked for design changes to include new features requested by OpenAI, the report added. That made the chip unstable when run through simulations and set the project back several months as engineers worked out bugs.
Despite significant changes to Braga’s design, Microsoft executives did not move the deadline to complete the design of the chip by year-end. The deadline created stress for such that around one-fifth of the people on some teams related to the chip’s design left, the report added citing current and former team members.
Microsoft’s AI chips would not come close to competing with those of Nvidia’s until at least Maia 300, dubbed Clea, which is based on a new chip design compared to Braga, the report noted.
Until then, the performance of the Maia chips relative to their high electricity cost will lag behind that of comparable chips from Nvidia, the report added.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is also working on its third-generation AI chip Trainium 3 and the company has said it will be available to customers by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) next-generation TPU, known as Ironwood, is expected to see manufacturing in small quantities by the end of this year, with most of its mass production slated for next year, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.
Google has faced another type of issue. Last year, Google started collaborating with Taiwan’s MediaTek on the design of its next-generation TPUs. However, the collaboration saw a setback — as key people from the MediaTek team responsible for the TPU’s networking technology, a vital part of AI processing which allows multiple chips to work together in unison, left to join Nvidia — the report noted, citing people familiar with the matter.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 27, 2025
Charts & Technicals:
Micron in charts: Revenue from Computer and Networking grows most among units in FQ3
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Jun. 26, 2025
Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.
