Alpha Coverage #154
AI, Robotics, Space, Quantum Computing, Climate Change/Energy Transition, Biotech/Genomics
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This Week’s Alpha Coverage: YouTube Playlist or Weekly Compilation.
Editor’s Pick:
TSLA 0.00%↑ TSM 0.00%↑ MU 0.00%↑ #SSNLF
[News] Elon Musk says Tesla Terafab project launching in a week
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk announced on Saturday that a project that enables in-house production of semiconductors for Tesla (TSLA) will be launched in a week.
In an X post, the billionaire investor wrote that the project named Terafab “launches in 7 days”.
“In order to remove the probable constraint in three or four years, we are going to have to build a Tesla TeraFab.” Musk said during the company’s earnings call, adding, “A very big fab that includes logic, memory, and packaging, domestically.”
“That’s going to be very important to ensure we are protected against geopolitical risks,” he said. “I think people maybe are underweighting some of the geopolitical risks that are going to be a major factor in a few years.”
In January, Musk suggested that Tesla’s (TSLA) existing chip suppliers, Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), Micron Technology (MU), and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), cannot supply the EV maker at the levels it needs.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 14, 2026
[News] Nvidia CEO Huang doubles down, eyes $1T in product demand through 2027: GTC
Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang doubled down on the $500B figure he revealed during last year’s GTC.
“We saw $500B in GPU demand last year for Blackwell and Rubin,” Huang said during his GTC 2026 keynote on Monday in San Jose, Calif. “I’m here to tell you that right here where I stand, one year after the last GTC, I see through 2027 at least $1T.”
Nvidia also launched its Vera CPU, which was specifically built for data processing, AI training, and agentic inference at scale.
The Vera CPU rack integrates 256 liquid-cooled Vera CPUs to sustain more than 22,500 concurrent CPU environments. It is currently in full production and is slated for release during the second half of 2026.
Intel’s (INTC) Xeon 6 is being used as the processor for NVIDIA DGX Rubin NVL8 systems.
Nvidia also introduced the Groq 3 LPU, which will integrate with Rubin. Samsung (SSNLF) is manufacturing the Groq chips.
Huang provided some details regarding its chip roadmap, including the new Feynman GPU and the Kyber high-density rack architecture. He said Kyber will scale up utilizing both copper and co-packaged optics.
“For everybody in our ecosystem, we need a lot more capacity for copper and optics,” Huang said.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
[News] Nvidia has received Chinese purchase orders, CEO says
Nvidia (NVDA) has received purchase orders from customers in China, CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday.
“We have received purchase orders, and we’re in the process of restarting our manufacturing,” Huang said in comments made at the company’s financial analyst event and obtained by CNBC. “And so, so that’s new news for all of you, and it’s different than it was two weeks ago or three weeks ago.”
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
[News] Lumentum leaps after revealing long-term quarterly revenue run rate of $2B at OFC: Stifel
“Within the next 9-12 months (which brings us to F2Q27E or F3Q27E), the company expects to reach a $1.25bn quarterly revenue run rate ($5bn annually) on a NG gross margin midpoint of 46.5% and a NG operating margin midpoint of 35%,” said Stifel analysts, led by Ruben Roy, in a Wednesday investor note. “Another 9-12 months beyond that (F1Q28E at the earliest, or F3Q28E at the latest), Lumentum anticipates reaching a $2bn quarterly revenue run rate ($8bn annually) on a NG GM midpoint of 50.5% and a NG operating margin midpoint of 40%.”
Lumentum highlighted its four key growth drivers, which included cloud transceivers, optical circuit switching, scale-out copackaged optics, and scale-up copackaged optic applications. The networking company also discussed its capital allocation plans for Nvidia’s (NVDA) $2B investment.
“About half of the capital is slated to be invested into strategic CapEx to expand capacity and includes the Greensboro fab acquired from Qorvo (QRVO),” Roy said. “The CapEx will increase over the next couple of years to support expansion, with qualification at Greensboro expected in CY27E and production in early CY28E. Ultimately the facility will support $5bn in revenue capacity, primarily for UHP lasers for CPO applications at Nvidia.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
[News] Brent crude spikes to $108 after Iran says energy industry attacked
Crude oil futures jumped Wednesday after Iran said the U.S. and Israel struck its giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, marking the latest escalation in a conflict that has disrupted global oil supply.
If confirmed, such an assault would mark the first time the U.S. and Israel have targeted Iran’s upstream oil and gas facilities in the war.
Iranian state TV said part of the South Pars gas field and Asaluyeh refinery facilities were hit in an airstrike, and Iran pledged to strike back and hit enemy sites previously thought to be safe.
Saudi Aramco reportedly is evacuating the Samref and Jubail facilities as a precautionary measure after Iran issued a list of potential targets.
Some other sites identified in Iran’s list, including the Al Hosn gas field in the United Arab Emirates and the Mesaieed complex in Qatar, reportedly are also being evacuated.
“These centers have become direct and legitimate targets and will be targeted in the coming hours,” Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
President Trump temporarily waived the Jones Act, authorizing foreign-flagged vessels to transport a range of commodities between U.S. ports for the next 60 days, in an attempt to help lower the cost of transporting oil, gas and other commodities.
The oil market could lose 11M-16M bbl/day over the next 4-6 weeks if the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, which could push Brent prices to $110-$120/bbl, Citi analysts said.
In a more severe scenario, the bank said a prolonged outage or broader attacks on energy infrastructure could drive prices to average $130/bbl in Q2 and Q3, with spikes as high as $200.
Crude oil futures are climbing in after-hours trading, with Brent rising above $110/bbl, after an Iranian missile attack caused “extensive damage” at Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility.
U.S. President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that Israel was behind the attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, adding that neither the United States nor Qatar played any role in it.
Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the South Pars attack. According to the Wall Street Journal and Axios, Trump knew of Israel’s plan to attack the Iranian part of the world’s largest natural gas deposit in advance and supported it.
Crude oil futures rose in Asian trade on Thursday, with Brent rising 4.4% to $112.14/bbl, after an Iranian missile attack caused “extensive damage” at Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility. WTI crude (CL1:COM) was up 0.9% at $97.18.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 19, 2026
[News] Micron slides even as Q2 results, guidance blow past forecasts on AI strength
Micron Technology press release (MU): Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $12.20 beats by $3.54.
Revenue of $23.86B (+196.4% Y/Y) beats by $4.56B.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, Micron said it expects to earn between $18.75 and $19.55 per share on an adjusted basis, while revenue is expected to be between $32.75B and $34.25B. Analysts had expected the company to earn an adjusted $11.29 per share on $23.66B in revenue.
The company expects tight supply conditions for both DRAM and NAND to persist beyond 2026, with new capacity from expansions in Idaho and the Powerchip Tongluo facility not impacting supply meaningfully until fiscal 2028. Management reiterated that demand forecasts from customers for 2026 and 2027 continue to escalate, and supply increases coming online in ‘26 and ‘27 are not expected to significantly close the gap.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
[News] SEC approves Nasdaq plan for tokenized stock trading and settlement
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a Nasdaq (NDAQ) proposal to permit certain stocks to be traded and settled in tokenized form, signaling progress toward bringing blockchain-based settlement into mainstream equity markets.
Securities eligible for tokenized trading would initially be limited to stocks in the Russell 1000 Index, as well as exchange-traded funds tracking major benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, the filing said.
In January, the New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), announced that it is developing a platform for 24/7 trading of tokenized U.S.-listed equities and ETFs.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 19, 2026
[News] Tesla faces deeper U.S. probe over Full Self-Driving safety concerns
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday it is opening an engineering analysis to evaluate Tesla’s Full Self Driving Beta and Full Self Driving (FSD) (Supervised) degradation detection system. “The focus of this investigation will be to assess the system’s ability, when encountering reduced roadway visibility conditions, to detect degradation and alert the driver with sufficient time to respond,” the regulator said.
NHTSA cited several crashes, including one fatal, in which the system failed to adequately warn drivers in low-visibility conditions such as sun glare, fog, or dust. The investigation, which began in 2024, is now moving to an “engineering analysis,” a deeper review that could lead to a recall or other enforcement action.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
News, Facts, Analyst & Market Commentary - Short Reads:
[Newsletter Exclusive] BNP highlights bullish takeaways on agentic AI, growth in meetings with Salesforce, Workday, Snowflake
Analyst Stefan Slowinski said Salesforce believes it is well-positioned to be a winner in the new agentic layer, as it benefits from the following things.
Context: Salesforce having the customer data and the metadata to provide customer context results in better and more accurate outcomes.
Work: Salesforce has the systems of work in its various apps that customers do not want to rebuild and then be responsible for maintaining, and even the Large Language Model, or LLM, providers are using Salesforce’s apps.
In terms of AI competition, the analysts said Salesforce sees companies coming back to Salesforce after testing solutions from start-up AI pure plays like Sierra AI and Decagon AI, and having tried do-it-yourself artificial intelligence, or DIY AI, using tools, including LLMs from OpenAI (OPENAI) and Anthropic (ANTHRO). Salesforce sees its 27 years of operational CRM data embedded within its systems of record as an advantage versus both subsets of new competitors, the analyst added.
Salesforce has started to report Agentic Work Units, or AWU, so that customers and investors can see the growth in actions performed by Salesforce Agents and not just token consumption, the analyst added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 14, 2026
Oil markets brace for fresh volatility after U.S. strike on Iran export hub
Global oil markets are entering another week of uncertainty after U.S. strikes on Iran’s key export facility at Kharg Island intensified fears of supply disruptions across the Middle East, Bloomberg News reported Sunday.
President Donald Trump said U.S. forces targeted military sites on Kharg Island and warned that attacks could expand to energy infrastructure if Iran interferes with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the critical passage linking the Persian Gulf to global markets.
“We totally demolished Kharg Island, but we may hit it a few more times just for fun,” Trump said over the weekend.
Iran warned that attacks on its oil infrastructure could trigger retaliation against energy facilities tied to the United States across the region.
The conflict is also disrupting logistics. In the United Arab Emirates, a drone strike briefly halted loading operations at the export hub of Fujairah, the country’s only outlet for shipments while Hormuz remains blocked. Activity resumed the following day.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday there is no certainty that oil prices will decline soon as fighting continues around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route for global crude supplies.
In a separate interview on “Meet the Press” on NBC News, Wright acknowledged that shipping conditions remain dangerous. Asked whether the route was safe for tanker traffic, he replied: “No, it is not.”
Oil prices rose again Monday as the war involving Iran entered its third week, keeping pressure on global energy markets and prolonging the shutdown of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude climbed about $2 to roughly $105 a barrel (CO1:COM) in early trading after gaining nearly $3 in the previous session. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (CL1:COM) also advanced, rising about $1.60 to just above $100 a barrel.
Both oil benchmarks have surged more than 40% this month, reaching their highest levels since 2022.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said he expected China to help unblock the strait before he travels to Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which had been scheduled for March 31 to April 2.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 15, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 15, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 15, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 15, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Micron to build second Taiwan facility to boost advanced DRAM capacity
Micron Technology (MU) announced plans to build a second chip manufacturing facility at its newly acquired Tongluo site in Miaoli County, Taiwan.
The site includes approximately 300K square feet of existing 300mm cleanroom space and will support the company’s efforts to expand the supply of DRAM products, including HBM, to meet growing AI-driven demand.
The expansion follows the completion of its $1.8B acquisition from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing announced in January this year.
The new Tongluo site is expected to support product shipments from the existing fab beginning in fiscal 2028. The construction of a second facility of comparable scale, which will add approximately 270K square feet of cleanroom space, is set to begin by the end of fiscal 2026.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
AMZN 0.00%↑ JD 0.00%↑ BABA 0.00%↑ PDD 0.00%↑
[Newsletter Exclusive] JD.com challenges Amazon in Europe with launch of ‘Joybuy’ marketplace
Joybuy, JD.com’s (JD) international online shopping brand, launches in six new markets, including the U.K. and Germany.
Unlike competitors such as AliExpress (BABA) and Temu (PDD), which utilize asset-light models to ship directly from China, JD.com leverages its own local warehousing and logistics infrastructure to ensure faster delivery speeds.
The Chinese tech giant said customers in Europe can get same-day delivery on orders placed before 11 a.m. For orders over £29 in the U.K., there’s no extra cost. Joybuy will also feature brand stores from companies including L’Oréal Paris and De’Longhi, Reuters reported.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
#HualiMicroelectronics
China’s second-largest chipmaker prepares 7-nm chipmaking tech: report
China’s Hua Hong Group has developed advanced chipmaking technologies that can be used to make AI chips, Reuters reported, citing four people with knowledge of the matter.
The company’s contract chipmaking business, Huali Microelectronics is planning an initial 7 nm chip production capacity of a few thousand wafers per month by the end of the year, the report added.
It began 7 nm test production last year at Hua Hong Fab 6, leveraging local suppliers like Huawei-backed SiCarrier.
China’s largest contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) (SIUIF) is currently the only local manufacturer capable of making chips with 7 nm technologies.
China’s current advanced manufacturing capabilities remain limited, and even existing 7-nm production at SMIC has faced yield and equipment constraints due to restrictions.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
TAN 0.00%↑ FAN 0.00%↑ USO 0.00%↑
UN climate chief warns against fossil fuel reliance, says ‘renewables turn the tables’
The Iran war has delivered “another abject lesson” on the risks of fossil fuel reliance, according to UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, who believes renewable energy is a way for countries to insulate themselves from global turmoil.
“Fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security and sovereignty, and replacing it with subservience and rising costs,” Stiell will tell EU officials at the Green Growth Summit in Brussels, Belgium on Monday, as per his prepared remarks.
“Europe is more reliant on fossil fuel imports than almost any other major economy,” he will say, adding that “fossil fuel dependency means economies, household budgets, and business bottom lines at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and price volatility in a chaotic world.”
“Some responses to the fossil fuel crisis — incredibly — argue for doubling down on the cause of the problem and slowing the shift to renewable energy,” Stiell’s remarks read. “This is completely delusional. Because history tells us, this fossil fuel crisis will happen again and again.”
He is expected to tell officials at the event that “meek dependence on fossil fuel imports will leave Europe forever lurching from crisis to crisis.”
Stiell will say that renewables turn the tables. “Sunlight doesn’t depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits. Wind blows without massive taxpayer-funded naval escorts.”
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] ReNew secures $95M equity investment
ReNew Energy Global (RNW) said its commercial and industrial unit, ReNew Green Energy Solutions, has secured a $95M equity investment.
The funding was led by LeapFrog Investments, which invested $50M, with additional backing from Emerging Market Climate Action Fund and Carlyle AlpInvest.
ReNew Green Energy Solutions operates one of India’s largest clean energy portfolios for commercial and industrial customers, with 2.5 GW of committed capacity, including over 2.0 GW already commissioned.
About 1.3 GW of this capacity is under long-term agreements with companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG) (GOOGL).
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Nebius surges after Meta’s up to $27B AI infrastructure deal
Meta Platforms (META) has committed to spend up to $27B over the next five years to access advanced AI infrastructure from Nebius (NBIS).
Under the five-year AI infrastructure supply agreement, Nebius will provide $12B of dedicated capacity across multiple locations, based on one of the first large-scale deployments of Nvidia’s (NVDA) Vera Rubin platform. Nebius will deliver this capacity starting early 2027.
In connection with access to these Vera Rubin deployments, Meta has committed to buying additional available compute capacity across certain upcoming Nebius clusters up to a total of $15B over five years.
Nebius said that it currently intends to sell this capacity to third-party customers of its AI cloud business, with remaining capacity to be bought by Meta.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Redwire climbs 4%, secures contract for Belgian national security satellite
Redwire (RDW) secured a contract to develop Belgium’s inaugural national security satellite, partnering closely with Aerospacelab.
The agreement positions Redwire (RDW) as the lead integrator for the satellite, focusing on critical avionics, payload integration, and mission systems tailored for national security applications.
The mission—known as MATTEO—is commissioned by the Belgian Federal Government and is fully funded by Belgian Defence. Redwire (RDW) and Aerospacelab will jointly develop MATTEO.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
AMD, Celestica team up to bring Helios rack-scale AI platform to market
The companies said that at launch, Celestica will undertake the research and development, or R&D, design, and manufacturing of scale-up networking switches in the AMD Helios rack-scale AI architecture.
AMD Helios is a high-performance, open-standard AI rack-scale infrastructure designed for large-scale AI training and inference. Rack-scale AI architecture is a computing approach where an entire rack, rather than an individual server, acts as the foundational unit for AI workloads. It integrates computing power like graphics processing units, or GPUs, high-speed networking, and liquid cooling into a single system to efficiently train large language models, or LLMs.
The companies said scale-up switches will use advanced networking silicon to enable the high-speed interconnect of the next-generation AMD Instinct MI450 Series GPUs, enabling leading-edge computing optimized for large-scale AI clusters.
AMD Helios will be available to customers in late 2026.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
GEV 0.00%↑ #HTHIY
[Newsletter Exclusive] GE Vernova, Hitachi to explore BWRX-300 small modular reactor deployment in Southeast Asia
The companies said they will collaborate through the GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Hitachi GE Vernova Nuclear Energy joint ventures to identify commercial opportunities for the BWRX-300 in Southeast Asia while looking at ways to use Japanese suppliers to strengthen the SMR supply chain supporting future deployment in the region.
The first BWRX-300 is under construction at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington site in Canada, with completion expected by the end of the decade, which would make it the first small modular reactor in a G-7 country; four SMRs are planned for the site.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Draganfly demonstrates drone capabilities for Canadian armed forces
Drone manufacturer Draganfly (DPRO) successfully completed a demonstration for the Canadian armed forces through its MINERVA Uncrewed Aircraft Systems group in which unmanned drones completed tasks to support the country’s military.
These included aerial reconnaissance, situational awareness, and tactical mission support.
Systems that were showcased during the demonstration included the Draganfly Commander 3XL heavy-lift drone platform, Draganfly Overwatch platform for advanced aerial surveillance, and Draganfly Apex ISR platform and FPV tactical drone systems.
Despite winter conditions and freezing rain across the demonstration area in Ottawa, Draganfly drones successfully conducted multiple flight operations in realistic field conditions.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Revolution Wind starts sending power to New England; Vineyard Wind completes construction
Two U.S. offshore wind projects targeted by the Trump administration each cleared hurdles Friday, as the 700 MW Revolution Wind offshore Rhode Island became the third offshore wind project to start delivering power, and the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project offshore Massachusetts completed construction.
Revolution Wind, a 50-50 joint venture between Ørsted (DNNGY) and Global Infrastructure Partners, said it has started delivering power to New England’s electric grid; it plans to scale up the amount of energy sent to the grid in the coming weeks, and will ultimately produce 704 MW of electricity, enough to power more than 350K homes and businesses.
Also on Friday, Vineyard Wind 1 completed construction by installing its final turbine, The New Bedford Light reported, although some turbines still must undergo commissioning and testing before being brought online; the project, which is owned 50-50 by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola’s (IBDRY) (IBDSF) Avangrid Renewables, is the largest wind farm to complete construction in the U.S. so far.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Nvidia unveils plans to bring AI to space-based data centers
Nvidia (NVDA) announced plans on Monday at its annual GTC event to bring artificial intelligence to space-based data centers.
The newly announced Nvidia Space-1 Vera Rubin Module has 25 times more AI compute than the Nvidia H100 GPU and can help usher in the next-generation of data centers, the Jensen Huang-led company said in a statement.
The Vera Rubin Module is one part of Nvidia’s space-based data center strategy: it also includes the company’s existing IGX Thor and Jetson Orin platforms.
Nvidia added that companies such as Aetherflux, Axiom Space, Kepler Communications, Planet, Sophia Space and Starcloud are already using Nvidia’s computing platforms to power next-generation space missions across orbital and ground environments.
Nvidia said that the Space-1 Vera Rubin Module will be available at a later date.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Nvidia expands its autonomous driving system with new car manufacturers and Uber: GTC
BYD, Geely, and Nissan are developing Level 4 autonomous vehicle programs built on Nvidia’s DRIVE Hyperion compute and sensor architecture. Isuzu and TIER IV are collaborating to build a Level 4 autonomous bus using Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX Thor system-on-a-chip.
Meanwhile, Uber plans to deploy an autonomous driving fleet in 28 cities spread out across four continents powered by Nvidia’s DRIVE AV software by 2028.
Nvidia also expanded its existing partnerships with Hyundai and Kia.
In addition to autonomous driving, Nvidia continues to develop relationships with various robotics manufacturers to improve the abilities of physical AI. This includes ABB Robotics, AGIBOT, Agility, CMR Surgical, FANUC, Figure, Hexagon Robotics, KUKA, Medtronic, Skild AI, Universal Robots, World Labs, and YASKAWA.
NVIDIA unveiled new Cosmos world models, including Isaac simulation frameworks and Isaac GR00T N, to accelerate the transition to intelligent robotics.
AGIBOT, Humanoid, LG Electronics, NEURA Robotics, and Noble Machines are also adopting NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N models to accelerate industrial deployments of their humanoids.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
Middle East output plunges 12M boe/day, could drop 70% from pre-war level, Rystad says
The Middle East has lost more than 12M boe/day of production since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, ~7% of global liquids demand, and the region’s output could fall as low as 6M bbl/day in a worst-case scenario, a 70% decline from pre-war levels, Rystad Energy said in a report Monday.
“Further cuts from major Middle East oil producers cannot be ruled out as storage tanks fill to the brim, bypass infrastructure approaches its limit, and the conflict shows no sign of a near-term resolution,” Rystad’s Aditya Saraswat said, adding that restoring output to pre-conflict levels could take months, depending on infrastructure and geopolitical conditions.
Crude oil futures fell sharply Monday as Iran appeared to let some tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 16, 2026
NVDA 0.00%↑ HSAI 0.00%↑ LIDR 0.00%↑
[Newsletter Exclusive] Hesai, AEye partner with Nvidia Halos AI lab for safety-certified AV and robotics solutions
Hesai Technology (HSAI) has joined the Nvidia Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab, the first ANSI National Accreditation Board-accredited inspection lab for AI-driven physical systems, it said Monday in a statement.
As a member, Hesai will evaluate and validate its lidar platforms within this unified framework for functional safety, cybersecurity, and AI compliance.
Nvidia (NVDA) Halos is a comprehensive full‑stack safety system for physical AI that unifies safety elements across vehicle and robotics architectures and their underlying AI models. It combines hardware and software components, tools, models, and design principles to safeguard AI‑based, end‑to‑end AV and robotics stacks.
Digital accessibility platform AEye (LIDR) also joined the Nvidia lab, the company said.
As a member, AEye will collaborate within NVIDIA’s safety ecosystem to validate interoperability, safety processes, and system-level integration with Nvidia Drive platforms.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
MU 0.00%↑ #SKHynix #SSNLF
SK Group chairman warns memory chip shortage could last until 2030
The head of South Korean conglomerate SK Group stated that a global memory chip shortage is expected to continue for another four to five years due to persistent constraints in semiconductor production.
Leading players such as SK Hynix (HXSCL) are expanding capacity, but they’re unlikely to fully sate demand until around 2030, said Chey Tae-won, whose company controls the chipmaker.
Industry-wide, the supply of the basic wafers that are made into chips is lagging demand by more than 20%, Chey told reporters on the sidelines of Nvidia’s (NVDA) GTC event in San Jose.
SK Hynix (HXSCL), the main high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supplier to Nvidia, ranks No. 1 in the HBM market with a 57% share and holds a 32% share of the global DRAM market, making it the second-largest player, according to Counterpoint.
U.S. memory chipmaker Micron (MU) ranks as the world’s third-largest maker of memory and storage chips, trailing South Korea-based Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) and SK Hynix (HXSCL).
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
Coda Octopus GAAP EPS of $0.08 beats by $0.02, revenue of $6.71M
Coda Octopus press release (CODA): Q1 GAAP EPS of $0.08 beats by $0.02.
Revenue of $6.71M (+28.8% Y/Y).
Total revenue was approximately $6.7 million compared to $5.2 million in FQ2025, representing an increase of 28.8%.
Revenue from our core business (Marine Technology Business) was $3.4 million compared to $2.3 million in FQ2025, representing a 47.4% increase.
Revenue from our Defense Engineering Services Business was $1.8 million compared to $1.6 million in FQ2025, representing an increase of 9.2%.
Revenue from the Acoustics Sensors and Material Business was $1.6 million compared to $1.3 million in FQ2025, representing an increase of 20.7%.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
NVDA 0.00%↑ LITE 0.00%↑ COHR 0.00%↑
[Newsletter Exclusive] Lumentum, Coherent, Credo trade mixed as Nvidia CEO Huang reaffirms copper use
J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur said Nvidia pursuing both paths is consistent with his expectations and that expectations of co-packaged optics are “ahead of downstream readiness.”
“For the current Vera Rubin generation, Oberon racks use copper scale-up for NVL72, with optical scale-up to expand to NVL576,” Sur wrote in a note to clients. “The Spectrum-6 SPX co-packaged optics Ethernet switch is in full production, co-developed with TSMC, with [management] claiming 5x greater optical power efficiency and 10x higher resiliency vs. traditional pluggable transceivers. For Rubin Ultra (C2H27), the Kyber rack architecture uses vertical compute trays connected through a central midplane and NVLink copper scale-up (up to 144 GPUs), with an alternative CPO-based NVLink switch solution also shown for inter-shelf interconnect. Mgmt indicated both designs will continue advancing in parallel. For Feynman (CY28), NVDA will explicitly offer Kyber with both copper and CPO scale-up, alongside Spectrum-7 (204T, CPO) for scale-out.”
BNP Paribas analyst Karl Ackerman agreed that Nvidia’s dual-pronged use of both copper and optical makes sense, and he sees it as “bullish” for Credo. Additionally, Nvidia using both copper and optical “takes a bite out of the bull camp on the pace and exclusivity of CPO adoption in Nvidia’s AI infrastructure,” Ackerman added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Oklo wins first NRC license approval and DoE OK for Aurora nuclear safety design
Oklo (OKLO) +7.3% pre-market Tuesday after saying the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the company’s first NRC license, a materials license to the Atomic Alchemy subsidiary to handle, process, and distribute isotopes and begin initial commercial sales from its Idaho Radiochemistry Laboratory.
The license, granted after NRC review and onsite inspection of the Idaho facility, authorizes the company to receive, possess, use, store, and conduct chemical and/or mechanical processing, repackaging, manufacturing, and distribution activities involving up to 2 Curies of Ra-226.
Also, the U.S. Department of Energy approved the nuclear safety design agreement for its Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory under the DoE’s Reactor Pilot Program.
The nuclear safety design agreement is the first step under DoE’s RPP authorization licensing pathway, launching the Aurora powerhouse at INL into the next phase of project execution under DoE oversight after initial groundbreaking in September.
Oklo (OKLO) said it plans to subsequently pursue licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to support commercial operations.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Robinhood Ventures Fund I invests in Stripe, ElevenLabs
Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI) announced it has closed investments in Stripe (STRIP) and ElevenLabs.
The fund purchased nearly $20M of ElevenLabs Series D Preferred Stock in a primary transaction on March 12, 2026. It previously bought $14.6M of Stripe Class B Common Stock in secondary transactions on March 9.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Nvidia-OpenClaw team up a ‘gamechanger’; space data centers can unlock another growth lever: SA analyst
On Monday, Nvidia (NVDA) said it was collaborating with the creator of OpenClaw to create Nvidia’s NemoClaw, which combines the ease of OpenClaw’s ability to build agents with Nvidia’s privacy and security controls needed to run these agents within an enterprise.
“Regarding NVDA’s partnership with OpenClaw, I think it’s a real game changer for NVDA’s cyclicality because the firm can directly boost the enterprise world’s reliance on Nvidia’s hardware through the open-source space bet. And so since software companies will need to develop an “OpenClaw strategy,” Nvidia will be able to monetize on it through the NemoClaw framework, hence boosting its TAM and making its hardware even more sticky than before. At least that’s my understanding of what might be coming if Jensen is right,” said Seeking Alpha analyst Danil Sereda, Investing Group Leader for Beyond the Wall Investing.
“With the Groq 3 LPX rack integration into upcoming Vera Rubin deployments, Nvidia directly addresses current power, memory and networking bottlenecks in scaling agentic-dominant inference workloads, unlocking up to 35x higher throughput per megawatt and 10x greater revenue opportunity for trillion-parameter models,” said Seeking Alpha analyst Summit Research.
“The single biggest takeaway from GTC26 is that Nvidia is NOT a GPU company anymore. Yes, Nvidia unveiled its Feynman GPU roadmap for CY28. But at GTC26 Jensen Huang officially staked Nvidia’s future as a full-stack platform provider of the AI factory vision. Nvidia now offers GPUs (NVL72 VR GPU racks), Switches (Spectrum6), CPUs (Vera), Inference (Groq 3 LPX), and storage (BlueField-4 STX) as one unified AI platform for AI factories. And Nvidia’s AI platform vision now allows the company visibility into a $1 trillion revenue opportunity in CY27, up from the >$500B revenue opportunity Nvidia sees for CY26,” said Seeking Alpha analyst Uttam Dey.
The analyst noted that agentic AI (via NemoClaw) and AI inference (Vera CPUs and inference chips) are the immediate growth markets, with physical AI and robotics the next frontier of growth.
“Institutional investors might still struggle to use GTC26 as a way to find answers to the China, Cash and Earnings Surprise questions I suspect they’re asking. But, to buy an AI platform company with the size, scale, and significance of Nvidia at just 22x forward PE is still a steal, in my opinion,” Dey noted.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Equity calm could be a trap as oil shock builds - analyst
“The equity market was ‘resilient’ at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war as well,” Gina Martin Adams said in a post on X. She noted that “it took five weeks of high oil prices (CL1:COM) (CO1:COM) (USO) before stocks started to capitulate to inflation pressures in 2022.”
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
High Tide reports Q1 results
High Tide press release (HITI): Q1 Revenue of $178.3M (+25.2% Y/Y) beats by $51.47M.
Gross profit was a record $44.4 million for the three months ended January 31, 2026, up 25% year over year and up 4% sequentially.
Gross margin was 25% for the three months ended January 31, 2026, which was consistent year over year and compared to 26% sequentially.
Adjusted EBITDA was $11.5 million in the three months ended January 31, 2026 representing the second-highest quarter ever, and compared to $7.1 million year over year, marking the fastest growth rate in eight quarters, and $12.4 million sequentially.
The Company generated $2.9 million in free cash flow in the three months ended January 31, 2026, representing a significant improvement from $(1.9) million year over year, and $1.3 million sequentially. During the past four quarters, the Company has generated $16.8 million in free cash flow.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
Energy Vault Holdings Non-GAAP EPS of $0.02 beats by $0.04, revenue of $153.3M beats by $0.74M
Energy Vault Holdings press release (NRGV): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.02 beats by $0.04.
Revenue of $153.3M (+358.0% Y/Y) beats by $0.74M.
2025 GAAP gross profit reached $48.0 million up nearly 8x versus the prior year, resulting in 2025 gross margin of 23.6% versus 13.4% the prior year (and well above the original 2025 guidance range)
Q4 2025 Adjusted EBITDA improved by $23.2 million versus prior year, delivering a positive $9.8 million versus a loss of $13.4 million in the prior year
Q4 2025 Adjusted Net Income turned positive to $3.7 million versus a loss of $25.0 million in the prior year period
Q4 2025 GAAP Net Loss of $20.7 million improved by $41.1 million from a loss of $61.8 million in the prior year
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
Nvidia preparing Groq chips that can be sold in Chinese market, Reuters reports
Nvidia (NVDA) is preparing a version of its Groq artificial-intelligence chips that can be sold to the Chinese market, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 17, 2026
USO 0.00%↑ #Aramco #Repsol
Oil majors cut energy transition spending in 2025 for first time in eight years
The world’s largest oil and gas companies ratcheted back investment in the energy transition in 2025, marking the first annual decline in eight years, according to BloombergNEF. Spending on low-carbon technologies by oil and gas majors fell by more than a third over the past year, to $25.7 billion from more than $38 billion in 2024, according to a report published Wednesday.
Low-carbon spending accounted for 6.5% of the companies’ total capital expenditure compared to almost 10% the previous year. That’s the lowest share in five years, according to BNEF analysts Claudio Lubis and David Doherty, the report’s authors.
Not all firms retreated from energy transition-related spending. Repsol SA (REPYY) and Saudi Aramco (ARMCO), the largest investors in low-carbon technology in 2025, each committed about $4 billion — more than the previous year.
“Since early 2025, policy volatility under the Trump administration – including permitting delays and stop-work orders – has materially increased execution risk for capital-intensive offshore wind projects,” the analysts wrote in the report. Investment by oil and gas majors is expected to continue moderating in the coming years, they added.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Vertical Aerospace starts battery pilot production at VEC
Vertical Aerospace (EVTL), an aerospace tech firm, said its battery pilot production line is now operational at its Vertical Energy Centre (VEC).
The company has upgraded its Energy Center with automated manufacturing to support certification and early production, with the pilot line set to build battery packs for seven Valo certification aircraft while adding capacity for commercial production by 2028.
In 2026, Vertical expects to open VEC2 with 3x battery capacity and announce locations for its production and battery facilities (UK and overseas under review). Total investment across Vertical Energy Center (VEC) and VEC2 is projected to reach £6.4M ($8.5M) by 2027.
These batteries will drive recurring revenue, with ~20 packs per aircraft over its lifetime and up to ~45K packs supplied by 2035.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Spire Global shares rise as Q4 results top estimates
Fourth-quarter revenue of $15.8 million was ahead of the consensus estimate of $15.49 million. An adjusted loss of $0.39 a share also came in better than expected, beating forecasts of a $0.50 per-share loss.
Spire Global (SPIR) said fourth-quarter revenue declined 27% from a year earlier, primarily due to the sale of its maritime business in April 2025. Excluding that divested segment, revenue increased 44% year over year and rose 25% sequentially, driven by higher demand for weather data and space services.
The company pointed to increased sales tied to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contracts, including radio occultation and ocean wind data, as well as stronger contributions from its space services unit.
Its net loss narrowed to $25.1 million, or $0.76 a share, from a loss of $48.8 million, or $1.92 a share.
Cash used in operations totaled $4.3 million in the quarter, a 78% improvement from a year earlier. Spire Global (SPIR) ended the year with $81.8 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and maintained a debt-free balance sheet.
Spire Global (SPIR) launched 12 satellites during the quarter and continues to expand its constellation to support applications including weather forecasting, radio-frequency intelligence and defense-related capabilities.
CEO Theresa Condor emphasized Spire’s competitive position, citing a fully built and operational constellation of about 100 payloads.
Looking ahead, Spire Global (SPIR) expects 2026 revenue, excluding maritime operations, to grow more than 50% at the midpoint of its guidance range, signaling continued momentum in its core satellite data and analytics business.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Oil prices at $100 are ‘mispriced’ - Carlyle’s Jeff Currie
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Currie pointed to crude delivered into Asia trading between $130 and $170 per barrel, while Oman crude recently spiked to $173—all while futures markets hover around $100.
“The paper markets, they’ve entirely disconnected from the physical markets,” Currie said, noting that product prices are spiraling above $200 per barrel in some regions.
He described the situation as “molecular contagion,” with physical shortages spreading from Singapore to Rotterdam, and now reaching Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Powell’s future at the Fed is in focus as prediction markets price in rising exit odds
“If my successor is not confirmed by the end of my term as chair, I would serve as chair pro tem until he is confirmed. That is what the law calls for,” Powell said.
“On the question of whether I will serve as a governor after my term ends and the investigation is over, I have not made that decision yet. I will make that decision based on what I think is best for the institution and for the people we serve,” Powell added.
The Federal Open Market Committee opted to hold its benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 3.50% to 3.75%, marking the third consecutive meeting without a change.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Nvidia partners with Qnity to identify advanced materials for semiconductors
Nvidia (NVDA) has partnered with Qnity Electronics (Q) to engage in the research and development of advanced materials for semiconductors and advanced packaging technology for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
The companies will utilize Nemotron 3 Nano, ALCHEMI BMD NIM, LAMMPS Kokkos, and CUDA-X accelerated Abaqus for modeling and simulation technologies.
Qnity is a pure-play materials and technology solutions provider for the semiconductor and electronics industry. The company was spun off from DuPont (DD) last year, and it went public in November 2025.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Rocket Lab secures $190M contract for 20x HASTE launches
Rocket Lab (RKLB) on Wednesday announced the signing of a $190 million contract for a block buy of 20 hypersonic test flights with its HASTE launch vehicle for the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) 2.0 program.
Under MACH-TB 2.0 Task Area 1, led by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Rocket Lab will perform 20 hypersonic test flights with its HASTE launch vehicle over a four-year period.
The first of these 20 new missions is expected to take place within months of contract signing, it said.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Red Cat targets scaling to 1,000 Black Widow drones monthly while expanding USV production in 2026
Red Cat Holdings GAAP EPS of -$0.17 misses by $0.02, revenue of $26.23M beats by $2.31M
CEO Jeffrey Thompson described the launch and rapid development of the Blue Ops Maritime USV division, highlighting that a new factory in Georgia “just went operational approximately 1 month ago,” with full rate production tooling expected within the month. Thompson added, “We believe and are confident that they can build over 100-plus USVs in 2026 as we ramp up production capability to thousands.”
Thompson described recent achievements in counter-drone capabilities: “We demonstrated short-range and long-range counter drone capability...the ACS Bullfrog on the front of the Variant 7...can shoot down FPV drones up to 1,500 yards...For long range, we have the Aeon’s Zeus that can travel 20 kilometers and take out Shahed-136 at a very low cost.”
Thompson stated, “We are not currently ready to offer official guidance. We want to have our government contracts in hand before we give guidance.” He indicated that the company will update the market “as soon as we have the contracts in hand.”
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar. 18, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] BTQ Technologies deploys first quantum-resistant bitcoin upgrade
BTQ Technologies (BTQ) announced Bitcoin Quantum testnet v0.3.0 with the first working implementation of BIP 360.
BIP 360 introduces Pay-to-Merkle-Root, a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction output type.
The upgrade is live on testnet, enabling developers, miners, and researchers to test quantum-safe transactions.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
TLN 0.00%↑ #Xenergy
Talen Energy, X-energy to evaluate gigawatt-scale SMR deployment
Talen Energy (TLN) said pre-market Thursday it signed a letter of intent with advanced nuclear reactors and fuel technology developer X-energy to assess deploying Xe-100 small modular reactors in Pennsylvania and across the PJM transmission market.
Under the agreement, Talen (TLN) and X-energy plan to conduct early-stage project development activities, including feasibility studies, site evaluations, and a project execution framework.
While specific siting parameters have yet to be finalized, the companies said they will assess opportunities to transition fossil-fired generation to nuclear power through X-energy SMRs.
X-energy’s Xe-100 is an 80 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that is strongly aligned to meet the Mid-Atlantic region’s growing energy needs, with unique characteristics well-suited to regional grids, hyperscale data centers, and other large commercial offtakers, the companies said.
X-energy is currently developing more than 11 GW of new nuclear capacity across commercial partnerships in the U.S. and U.K.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
Rivian rallies as Uber commits $1.25B to robotaxi fleet
Shares of Rivian (RIVN) were launched higher in early Thursday trading after Uber Technologies (UBER) announced a $1.25 billion investment to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis, with an option for up to 40,000 more.
Uber’s (UBER) investment will extend through 2031, subject to the achievement of certain autonomous milestones by specific dates. The R2 robotaxis will be initially available in 2028 exclusively through the Uber (UBER) platform for San Francisco and Miami, scaling to 25 cities through 2031.
Rivian’s third-generation autonomy platform includes a multi-modal sensor suite with 11 cameras, 5 radars, and 1 LiDAR.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
Planet Labs Non-GAAP EPS of $0.00 beats by $0.05, revenue of $86.82M beats by $8.65M
Planet Labs press release (PL): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.00 beats by $0.05.
Revenue of $86.82M (+41.1% Y/Y) beats by $8.65M.
Financial Outlook
For the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, ending April 30, 2026, Planet expects revenue to be in the range of approximately $87 million to $91 million. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be in the range of approximately 49% to 51%. Adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to be in the range of approximately ($6) million to ($3) million for the quarter. Capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of approximately $17 million and $23 million for the quarter.
For the full fiscal year 2027, Planet expects revenue to be in the range of approximately $415 million to $440 million. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be in the range of approximately 50% to 52%. Adjusted EBITDA profit is expected to be in the range of approximately $0 and $10 million. Capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of approximately $80 million and $95 million for the year.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
Firefly Aerospace outlines $420M–$450M 2026 revenue target as company scales lunar and defense programs
Firefly launched Alpha’s seventh flight, orbital launcher designed for the small-satellite market, completed static fire and second-stage relight testing, and verified key subsystems for Block 2, which is expected to improve launch cadence and reliability. The company partnered with Swedish Space Corporation for European launches and is evaluating expansion in Japan.
Progress was made on the Eclipse medium-lift rocket, being co-developed with Northrop Grumman, with all major flight articles in build and over 100 Miranda engine hot fire tests completed. The first full launch is targeted no earlier than 2027.
CEO Jason Kim highlighted achievements in spacecraft with SciTec, including operational acceptance of the FORGE AI-enabled missile warning architecture and a $109 million engineering change proposal, boosting the total contract value to $372 million.
The Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander and Elytra orbiter passed structural qualification at NASA JPL, with payload integration and a launch window opening late Q4 2025 into Q1 2026. Missions 3 and 4 are advancing through design and requirements reviews.
Firefly reported Q4 revenue of $57.7 million, the highest in company history, up from $30.8 million in Q3 and $9 million a year ago. Spacecraft Solutions contributed $50 million and launch revenue was $7.7 million.
Q4 backlog reached $1.4 billion, up from $1.3 billion at Q3 end and $1.1 billion year-over-year.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
GEV 0.00%↑ BAM 0.00%↑ CCJ 0.00%↑ #HTHIY
Trump, Takaichi to announce $40B GE Vernova Hitachi reactor project
President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi are set to announce a $40B nuclear power project in Tennessee, where GE Vernova (GEV) and Hitachi (HTHIY) (HTHIF) will build BWRX-300 small modular nuclear reactors, Bloomberg reported Thursday; specific details, including when the reactors would be operational, are not yet clear.
The Trump administration believes small modular nuclear reactors would help boost U.S. industrial growth by adding power that can be generated on demand.
According to previous reports, the Trump administration was unable to reach a nuclear project deal with Westinghouse owner Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) and Cameco (CCJ).
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 19, 2026
Iran attacks wipe out 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity for up to five years, QatarEnergy CEO tells Reuters
Iranian attacks have knocked out 17% of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO and state minister for energy affairs told Reuters on Thursday.
Saad al-Kaabi said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes. The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years, he said in an interview.
QatarEnergy had declared force majeure on its entire output of LNG, after earlier attacks on its Ras Laffan production hub, which came under fire again on Wednesday. “For production to restart, first we need hostilities to cease,” he said.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 20, 2026
ORBS 0.00%↑ #OpenAI
[Newsletter Exclusive] Eightco boosts OpenAI investment by $40M to $90M
Eightco Holdings (ORBS) has announced an additional $40M investment in OpenAI (OPENAI), bringing its total commitment to $90M in the artificial intelligence company.
With this latest investment, OpenAI now represents approximately 30% of ORBS’ total treasury position. In addition to the company’s stake in OpenAI, ORBS’ total holdings include 277.22M Worldcoin (WDC-USD), 11,068 Ethereum (ETH-USD), and total cash and stablecoins of $76M.
Eightco (ORBS) holds nearly 10% of the current WLD supply in circulation, positioning the company as the largest public market participant in the Worldcoin ecosystem.
The company recently announced $125M in new funding commitments led by $75M from Bitmine (BMNR) with a commitment of at least $25M from ARK Invest.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 20, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Middle East war poses greatest threat to global energy ‘in history,’ IEA chief tells FT
The Iran war is “the greatest global energy security threat in history,” International Energy Agency Fatih Birol warned Friday in an interview with the Financial Times, adding that it could take six months or longer to restore oil and gas flows from the Persian Gulf.
More oil has been cut off in the current crisis than during the shocks of the 1970s and twice as much natural gas is now offline than the amount cut off from Russia in 2022, but politicians and markets are underestimating the scale of the latest disruption, the IEA head said.
Even if the war ends soon, “it will take a long time to have oil and gas rehabilitated. It will be six
months for some [sites] to be operational, others much longer,” he said.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 20, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Fed Gov. Waller: From supporting an immediate rate cut to ‘wait and see’ stance
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller has shifted from supporting an immediate rate cut to a cautious “wait and see” stance following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
In an interview with CNBC, Waller explained that what initially appeared to be a short-lived spike in oil prices (CL1:COM), (CO1:COM) now looks like a more protracted conflict.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 20, 2026
[Newsletter Exclusive] Apple CEO says latest product launch produces best week ever for new Mac customers
Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said the hardware launch initiated earlier this month produced the best week ever in attracting first-time Mac buyers.
The surge in sales was likely prompted by the release of the new, low-cost MacBook Neo, which starts at $599.
“Mac just had its best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers,” Cook said in a post on X. “We love seeing the enthusiasm!”
In addition to the Neo, Apple also released a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and two new Studio Displays. All these were made available on March 11.
While the Neo is available at multiple Apple Store locations, a delivery order made today from the Apple site indicates an 18-to-25-day delivery time. In contrast, the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air indicate a delivery time of only four days.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 20, 2026
IWM 0.00%↑ SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑
Russell 2000 enters correction territory, and the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are not far off
The Russell 2000 Index (RTY)(IWM), a widely followed benchmark for U.S. small-cap companies, has officially entered correction territory, falling 10.3% from its January 22 closing high.
The tech focused Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) has declined 9.8% from its record high, while the Dow (DJI) is down 9.5%, nearing correction territory as well. The S&P 500 (SP500) has pulled back 7% from its peak.
Link to Seeking Alpha News Article - Mar 20, 2026
YouTube:
[Lock Stock Finance] If You Don’t Understand the Petrodollar, You Don’t Understand Geopolitics
Trump’s War in Iran has sparked global fears about the economy. If the Strait of Hormuz were to remain closed, and Dubai, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the other Gulf states continue to come under attack, global oil prices could surge.
Why has Trump launched this attack on Iran now?
Everything comes back to the US Petrodollar system. Oil is at the root of everything. It’s been the basis of our global economy since the Second World War.
But what actually is the Petrodollar system? How does it work? Why was it put in place? What’s the future of the Petrodollar?
In this video, we dive into the topic. Keeping the Petrodollar afloat explains all the US foreign policy, and all geopolitics, for more than 70 years. Everything from the first Gulf War, to the War in Iraq, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to the current War with Iran.
Link to Full Video (08:02 Minute) - Mar 12, 2026
Disclosure: We own positions in some/all of the tickers mentioned in this article.
