Key Takeaways SoundHound is expanding restaurant automation with OASYS across drive-thrus, kiosks, phones and chat.AI-enabled drive-thru locations generated higher revenues for a major QSR customer than comparable stores.First-quarter 2026 revenues rose 52%, while cash reached about $216 million with no debt. SoundHound AI (SOUN - Free Report) is strengthening its position as a leading provider of AI-powered restaurant automation, making 2026 an important year for the company. While SoundHound is still expanding beyond its automotive roots, its growing traction in restaurants, combined with new agentic AI capabilities, could make it one of the industry's key disruptors.
A major catalyst is SoundHound's newly launched OASYS platform, a self-learning agentic AI system that allows businesses to build, deploy and continuously improve AI agents across drive-thrus, kiosks, phones, web, chat and other customer touchpoints. This unified platform significantly reduces deployment time while enabling restaurants to automate ordering, customer service and workflow management with minimal manual intervention.
The company's restaurant momentum is also becoming increasingly tangible. Management noted that a major quick-service restaurant (QSR) customer found AI-enabled drive-thru locations generated higher revenues than comparable stores without SoundHound's technology. The company also reported rising cross-selling opportunities among restaurant customers and growing adoption of its Voice Insights analytics platform, suggesting that customers are expanding beyond initial deployments.
Another potential growth driver is the planned acquisition of LivePerson. Once completed, the transaction will combine SoundHound's voice AI with LivePerson's digital messaging capabilities, enabling restaurants to offer seamless customer interactions across voice, text and chat. The acquisition is also expected to expand cross-selling opportunities while broadening the company's enterprise customer base.
Financially, SoundHound appears well positioned to support these initiatives. First-quarter 2026 revenues rose 52% year over year to a record level, the company ended the quarter with approximately $216 million in cash and no debt, and management reaffirmed its full-year revenue outlook of $225-$260 million.
Although continued losses and execution risks around integrating LivePerson remain challenges, SoundHound's expanding restaurant footprint, differentiated voice AI technology and growing enterprise ecosystem position it well to become a meaningful force in restaurant automation during 2026.
Restaurant AI Competition Is IntensifyingNCR Voyix (VYX - Free Report) is one of SoundHound's strongest competitors in restaurant automation due to its extensive restaurant software ecosystem spanning point-of-sale, payment processing, self-service kiosks and digital ordering. NCR Voyix has deep relationships with leading restaurant chains and continues to enhance its AI-driven ordering and operational capabilities.
While NCR Voyix primarily focuses on restaurant commerce infrastructure, it is still expanding its conversational AI capabilities. This creates an opportunity for the company to compete directly with SoundHound as restaurants increasingly seek integrated voice-enabled ordering and customer engagement solutions.
Par Technology (PAR - Free Report) is another major rival, offering cloud-based restaurant management software, digital ordering, loyalty programs, back-office solutions and restaurant analytics. Through acquisitions and continued product development, Par Technology has built a comprehensive platform serving thousands of restaurant locations.
As restaurants increasingly adopt AI to improve order accuracy, labor productivity and customer experience, Par Technology is embedding more automation across its software suite. While Par Technology offers a broad restaurant operating platform, SoundHound differentiates itself with its proprietary voice AI, agentic AI platform and drive-thru automation capabilities, positioning the company to capture a larger share of AI-first restaurant deployments.
SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound shares have lost 34.2% year to date (YTD), underperforming the industry, as shown below:
SOUN’s YTD Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, SOUN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 11.18, slightly above the industry’s average.
SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 loss per share has remained unchanged at 18 cents, as shown below. The expected loss also remains wider than the previous year’s loss of 13 cents.
Meta Platforms (META -2.81%) and Reddit (RDDT -8.79%) are two of the most well-known social media companies. Meta Platforms has dominated the industry with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while Reddit has carved out a unique niche for itself.
Both stocks had rough starts to 2026, and while Meta has mostly recovered, Reddit is still down by more than 20% year to date. However, with both companies scheduled to report earnings before the end of the month, now would be a good time to assess them both and determine which is the better buy.
Image source: Getty Images.
Reddit is growing much faster Reddit has the edge in growth rates. Its compound annual revenue growth rate of 48.9% over the past three years comfortably outpaced Meta Platforms' 19.9% rate over the same stretch.
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Reddit's more rapid growth should continue for a while, since it has the advantage of being a far smaller platform. The only issue with operating a set of platforms that reach a cumulative 3.56 billion daily active users (DAUs) is that there aren't as many people left who can become new users of its family of apps.
Reddit is different. It has an impressive 126.8 million DAUs, but it could double its current user base and still have less than 10% of Meta Platforms' DAUs. Smaller companies have more untapped market share, which can produce higher long-term returns for patient investors.
The fact that Reddit saw a 17% year-over-year increase in daily active users compared to Meta's 4% growth rate highlights how much more market share is available to Reddit. Meta Platforms has done a more complete job of saturating its market.
Higher user growth rates have helped Reddit outpace Meta's revenue growth in recent years. Net income has followed the same pattern.
Meta Platforms has more ways to generate revenue While the current fundamentals favor Reddit, there are a few potential catalysts on Meta's side. Facebook's parent company has the better valuation: Its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23.5 is superior to Reddit's 51.8 P/E. Reddit's growth rates are better, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
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Furthermore, Meta Platforms has more ways to generate revenue. Its large language model (LLM) and AI glasses offer compelling long-term opportunities, as does the cloud infrastructure segment that it's expected to launch.
Granted, these three initiatives will only account for a small fraction of its total revenue: Meta Platforms is still primarily an online advertising company. However, the steps Meta is taking now could set the stage for growth in other areas, which would provide vital diversification in the event that advertising sales slow down. Reddit doesn't have other meaningful sources of income; data licensing and Reddit Premium subscriptions make up only a small portion of its total revenue.
How much longer can ad revenue remain elevated? Every high-growth company eventually sees its top-line growth rates decelerate. For instance, Meta Platforms delivered 54% year-over-year revenue growth back in 2016.
Reddit's revenue growth will follow a similar regression over time. As more people either sign up for Reddit or consider it and opt not to create an account, it will become more difficult for the company to achieve high year-over-year growth rates.
Meta has a more attractive valuation, but investors can attribute Reddit's premium to the fact that it's gaining market share more rapidly. Meta Platforms is, relatively speaking, an older and more mature collection of social media platforms. Reddit has more room to run, though the main question with this comparison is how much runway remains for it.
If Reddit can maintain elevated revenue growth rates for multiple years, it will look like the better pick. However, if revenue growth rates decelerate sharply, it will face more pressure on its valuation.
Reddit is guiding for $720 million in second-quarter revenue at the midpoint, which would be a 44% year-over-year improvement. That would be good, but it would also be a meaningful deceleration from its 69% growth rate in Q1. For Reddit to justify a decision to buy it over Meta, it will have to exceed guidance in Q2. If it doesn't deliver that degree of outperformance, I'd say Meta Platforms stock looks more attractive at current levels.
Financial markets run on speed, often pricing in geopolitical shifts fractions of a second before standard retail feeds register a headline. For high-frequency trading firms and quantitative hedge funds, paying a steep premium for a latency advantage can be a required cost of doing business.
Trump Media & Technology Group Today
DJT
Trump Media & Technology Group
$9.14 -0.69 (-6.98%)
As of 03:39 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$6.96▼
$20.17 Trump Media & Technology Group NASDAQ: DJT plans to launch Truth API—a licensed data feed that will automatically deliver verified Truth Social posts to institutional customers in milliseconds—on Aug. 1, 2026.
The prevailing narrative surrounding Trump Media historically centers on its consumer-facing social network and the associated retail user base.
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The fundamental reality of operating an advertising-supported consumer platform has proven exceptionally challenging in the current macroeconomic environment.
Building an infrastructure to support millions of free users requires immense capital, often leading to severe margin compression before a platform ever achieves true scale.
Trading Pennies in Ad Spend for Six-Figure ContractsEvaluating Trump Media through a traditional fundamental lens requires addressing the immediate financial metrics.
Trump Media generated $3.68 million in total revenue during 2025, with first-quarter 2026 revenue coming in just over $870,000. The trailing 12-month net margin is deeply negative at 29,103%, which is difficult to interpret, given the company’s unusually small revenue base and the fact that its 2025 loss included substantial investment-related losses. Valuing an enterprise with a $2.6 billion market capitalization against those distinct sales figures yields a price-to-sales ratio that defies standard value investing principles.
The Truth API marks a structural pivot aimed at rectifying those exact metrics. Instead of chasing fractions of a cent in retail ad spend, Trump Media is adding an enterprise software-as-a-service model. The machine-readable feed will give institutional clients machine-readable access to posts from 10 influential Truth Social accounts within milliseconds of publication. The service will reportedly cost up to $100,000 per month, or $60,000 per month with a three-year commitment.
The unit economics here could materially alter the fundamental outlook for Trump Media. Securing just four enterprise clients at the premium tier would yield $4.8 million annually, instantly outpacing the entire gross revenue Trump Media generated in 2025. This could redefine the path to profitability, shifting the focus away from mass-audience acquisition toward specialized B2B data licensing.
High Beta Meets High-Margin Revenue GrowthPricing market-moving information requires historical context. A Truth Social post regarding international tariffs in April 2025 triggered a 9.5% single-day rally in the broader index, while statements on U.S.-Iran relations in March 2026 caused immediate price dislocations in the crude oil market. Algorithms executing trades milliseconds ahead of standard public feeds form the core value proposition for prospective Truth API buyers.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (DJT) Price Chart for Wednesday, July, 22, 2026
Trump Media currently trades around $9.40. Trading dynamics reveal a high beta of 4.10, indicating DJT moves with over four times the volatility of the broader market.
This metric pairs with a heavily bearish short-interest profile. When fundamental shifts occur in highly shorted equities, the mechanics for a sharp upside price dislocation become a distinct possibility. If the upcoming API launch produces material revenue news, it could force short sellers to cover their positions and the resulting buy-side pressure could be aggressive.
Trump Media also authorized a $400 million share repurchase program in June 2025, permitting the buyback of up to 10.2% of outstanding shares at the time. This authorization acts as a potential floor against further margin compression, providing potential capital support just as the new revenue model comes online.
Current top-tier institutional positioning remains negligible at around 4.3%, with funds like Handelsbanken Fonder AB holding just 0.02% of shares. Demonstrating repeatable enterprise software revenue is often the primary vehicle for attracting broader institutional capital, which could help stabilize a volatile shareholder base over the long term.
Mitigating Digital Risks With Hard Asset InvestmentsEvaluating a specialized data provider requires a critical look at the underlying asset. The inherent vulnerability for Trump Media is key-person concentration risk. The API's demand elasticity relies on one specific account continuing to bypass standard press channels in favor of exclusive social media disclosures. If regulatory interventions or ethics litigation compel simultaneous public disclosure of presidential policies, the latency edge could narrow or disappear.
Trump Media appears to recognize these structural vulnerabilities and is actively deploying capital to offset them. Recent corporate announcements confirm the settlement of critical legacy legal disputes, reducing legal uncertainty.
More critically, emerging reports indicate an aggressive capital deployment strategy outside the digital media sector, specifically eyeing nuclear energy investments. Trump Media has agreed to an all-stock merger with fusion developer TAE Technologies. The transaction remains pending, but if completed, it would move the company well beyond digital media. It would, however, add significant execution, financing, and commercialization risk.
Diversifying into hard assets while operating a high-margin data licensing business creates a much more resilient financial profile than operating a standalone social media application.
Trump Media also recently transferred 2,650 Bitcoin, valued at nearly $205 million, to Crypto.com, reflecting a high-risk tolerance in treasury management that strays far from traditional cash equivalents.
Watching for Material Revenue ConfirmationAdding an institutional data feed to a consumer network is a complex endeavor.
Demand for a six-figure social media feed remains unproven, especially when comprehensive institutional data terminals from established financial data providers cost a fraction of the quoted price for the Truth API. Quantitative funds will rigorously test the feed's latency against traditional scraping methods before committing to long-term enterprise contracts.
The optionality embedded in the Trump Media data extends well beyond immediate trading latency. Trump Media indicated an intent to explore licensing the platform's historical text archives to artificial intelligence (AI) developers. Training large language models requires vast amounts of proprietary conversational data, creating an additional scalable revenue stream not tied solely to daily market volatility.
If Trump Media packages its archives for AI model training, the total addressable market expands well beyond the specialized high-frequency trading niche.
Investors might consider watching for evidence that the Truth API can produce material, repeatable revenue in upcoming quarterly filings. Disclosed contract values, enterprise customer acquisition rates, and any materialized AI licensing agreements offer the clearest evidence that Trump Media is building a scalable business.
Cautious market participants may prefer to wait for official revenue confirmation from the API launch before allocating capital, while those with a higher risk tolerance may want to closely monitor the mechanics of underlying volatility as the August rollout approaches.
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The AI boom extends far beyond the biggest tech names. Discover 10 companies supplying the memory, storage, networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and power infrastructure that make AI possible. Learn where the next wave of AI investment opportunities may emerge—and the key risks investors should watch as the global AI buildout accelerates.
A new defense-focused exchange-traded fund began trading this month. The VistaShares Defense Supercycle ETF (NYSEARCA:AMMO) launched under a prospectus dated July 12, 2026, issued by VistaShares and organized inside Tidal Trust III. It lists on NYSEARCA alongside two sister funds VistaShares rolled out at the same time: a space-themed ETF (GALX) and a robotics-themed ETF (RTOO).
AMMO carries a total annual operating expense ratio of 0.75%. Shares recently changed hands around $25.50, based on trading through July 22, 2026. Because the fund has only been trading for a handful of sessions, there is no meaningful performance record yet.
What the Fund Does AMMO is an index-tracking ETF, meaning it follows a preset list of stocks rather than picking them freely. The benchmark is the BITA VistaShares Defense Supercycle Index, a rules-based index that tracks companies deriving a meaningful portion of their revenues from supplying components, subsystems, materials, and enabling technologies to the U.S. Department of Defense procurement supply chain. The prospectus ties eligibility to the annual DoD procurement appropriation and its underlying P-1 spending lines, so the roster is meant to reflect firms directly plugged into Pentagon buying.
The fund can hold companies of any size, from small caps to large caps, and it can own foreign stocks either directly or through American Depositary Receipts, in both developed and emerging markets. Up to 20% of the portfolio can sit outside the index in stocks the sub-adviser picks based on business plans, capital spending, and R&D that suggest defense-supply-chain exposure, or in cash and money market funds. The prospectus also states the fund will concentrate more than 25% of its total assets in aerospace and defense-related industries. It is a plain-vanilla long-only equity ETF with a narrow theme, with no leverage, options overlay, or single-stock structure.
Holdings data has not been published yet, so the top positions and country mix are not visible in public filings as of this writing.
Why It Exists and How It Stacks Up VistaShares is pitching AMMO into a moment of unusually visible defense spending. The Department of War’s FY 2027 budget request is built around a headline figure of $1.5 trillion, with $52.9 billion earmarked for critical munitions and 46% growth in ship procurement and 26% growth in air power funding. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, in its 2026 outlook, flagged economic security and national defense as a lasting portfolio theme, citing the +€800 billion EU defense spend in the ReArm Europe Plan 2030 as evidence.
Investors already have cheaper ways to own the sector. The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEARCA:ITA) is the incumbent name and has returned 18.62% over the past year and 124.19% over five years. ITA and SPDR’s XAR both charge expense ratios well below AMMO’s 0.75%. What buyers get for the higher fee is a different portfolio recipe: a global supplier-chain lens tied to specific DoD appropriation lines, rather than the mostly domestic prime-contractor mix in ITA.
Who It Might Suit, and the Risks The fund is designed for investors who want targeted exposure to the defense supply chain as a multi-year theme and are comfortable paying more for a narrower, rules-based screen. It is best used as a thematic sleeve alongside a diversified core.
The risks are worth spelling out:
No track record. AMMO has traded for only four days, so there is nothing to judge it by. Small-fund frictions. New ETFs often start with low assets and wider bid-ask spreads, and funds that fail to gather assets can close. Concentration. The prospectus allows more than 25% of assets in a single industry group, which amplifies moves in aerospace and defense stocks in both directions. Policy risk. Defense revenues track federal budget cycles; a smaller appropriation or a shift in procurement priorities can hit holdings quickly. Foreign exposure. Owning non-U.S. defense names adds currency and regulatory risk the prospectus does not hedge away. The things to watch over AMMO’s first year are straightforward: how quickly assets accumulate, how tight the bid-ask spread becomes, and whether the supply-chain screen produces returns that differ meaningfully from the established aerospace-and-defense ETFs already on the shelf.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. (DRUG - Free Report) could be a solid addition to your portfolio given its recent upgrade to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). This rating change essentially reflects an upward trend in earnings estimates -- one of the most powerful forces impacting stock prices.
The sole determinant of the Zacks rating is a company's changing earnings picture. The Zacks Consensus Estimate -- the consensus of EPS estimates from the sell-side analysts covering the stock -- for the current and following years is tracked by the system.
Individual investors often find it hard to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts, since these are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time. In these situations, the Zacks rating system comes in handy because of the power of a changing earnings picture in determining near-term stock price movements.
As such, the Zacks rating upgrade for Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. is essentially a positive comment on its earnings outlook that could have a favorable impact on its stock price.
Most Powerful Force Impacting Stock PricesThe change in a company's future earnings potential, as reflected in earnings estimate revisions, and the near-term price movement of its stock are proven to be strongly correlated. That's partly because of the influence of institutional investors that use earnings and earnings estimates for calculating the fair value of a company's shares. An increase or decrease in earnings estimates in their valuation models simply results in higher or lower fair value for a stock, and institutional investors typically buy or sell it. Their bulk investment action then leads to price movement for the stock.
For Bright Minds Biosciences Inc., rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade fundamentally mean an improvement in the company's underlying business. And investors' appreciation of this improving business trend should push the stock higher.
Harnessing the Power of Earnings Estimate RevisionsEmpirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock movements, so it could be truly rewarding if such revisions are tracked for making an investment decision. Here is where the tried-and-tested Zacks Rank stock-rating system plays an important role, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions.
The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .
Earnings Estimate Revisions for Bright Minds Biosciences Inc.This company is expected to earn -$4.90 per share for the fiscal year ending September 2026, which represents no year-over-year change.
Analysts have been steadily raising their estimates for Bright Minds Biosciences Inc.. Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company has increased 7.6%.
Bottom LineUnlike the overly optimistic Wall Street analysts whose rating systems tend to be weighted toward favorable recommendations, the Zacks rating system maintains an equal proportion of "buy" and "sell" ratings for its entire universe of more than 4,000 stocks at any point in time. Irrespective of market conditions, only the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks get a "Strong Buy" rating and the next 15% get a "Buy" rating. So, the placement of a stock in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks indicates its superior earnings estimate revision feature, making it a solid candidate for producing market-beating returns in the near term.
You can learn more about the Zacks Rank here >>>
The upgrade of Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. to a Zacks Rank #1 positions it in the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks in terms of estimate revisions, implying that the stock might move higher in the near term.
GE Vernova (GEV) fell 5.48% premarket after reporting second-quarter diluted earnings of $2.47 a share, well short of the $3.18 Wall Street analysts expected, e
GE Vernova Inc. (GEV) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 22, 2026 7:30 AM EDT
Company Participants
Michael Lapides - Vice President of Investor Relations
Scott Strazik - CEO, President & Director
Kenneth Parks - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Nicole DeBlase - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Andrew Obin - BofA Securities, Research Division
Nigel Coe - Wolfe Research, LLC
Andrew Kaplowitz - Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Ameet Thakkar - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research
David Arcaro - Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Joseph Ritchie - Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division
Julien Dumoulin-Smith - Jefferies LLC, Research Division
Christopher Dendrinos - RBC Capital Markets, Research Division
Sunaina Ocalan - Bernstein Institutional Services LLC, Research Division
Presentation
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to GE Vernova's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] My name is Liz, and I will be your conference coordinator today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the program over to your host for today's conference, Michael Lapides, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Michael Lapides
Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you. Welcome to GE Vernova's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I'm joined today by our CEO, Scott Strazik; and CFO, Ken Parks.
Our conference call remarks will include both GAAP and non-GAAP financial results. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures can be found in today's Form 10-Q press release and the presentation slides, all of which are available on our website. Please note that unless otherwise specified, our year-over-year commentary or variances on orders, revenue, adjusted and segment EBITDA, and margin discussed during our prepared remarks are on an organic basis, which includes the removal of the impact of our Prolec GE acquisition.
We will make forward-looking statements about our performance. These statements are based on how we see things
Ed Butowsky and Tom Essaye discuss their takeaways from GE Vernova (GEV) earnings. Tom explains why the company is under pressure following earnings, noting that there was little room for error following a parabolic run in shares.
Artificial intelligence has fueled a surge in demand for power infrastructure, but GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV) says investors may still be underestimating just how far into the future that demand now stretches.
Speaking on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday, CEO Scott Strazik said GE Vernova expects to finish the year with at least 125 gigawatts of gas turbines under contract—enough to leave the company “mostly sold out through ’30” while already filling production slots for the following year.
The comments offer one of the clearest signs yet that utilities, hyperscalers and other large customers are locking in electricity infrastructure years in advance as AI data centers, electrification and grid modernization reshape long-term power demand.
Production Slots Are Filling Years AheadGE Vernova’s gas power business continued to benefit from strong global demand during the quarter, signing 20 gigawatts of equipment orders and slot reservation agreements while increasing total contracted capacity from 100 gigawatts to 116 gigawatts. The company now expects that figure to reach at least 125 gigawatts before year-end.
Strazik said the company already has “agreements signed into ’31” and expects “to have sold more than half of the 30 gigawatts of ’31 production slots by the end of this year,” underscoring how customers are committing to capacity years before equipment is scheduled to ship.
The visibility extends even further. During the question-and-answer session, Strazik revealed there are already “active discussions for ’32 and beyond,” although he cautioned that it is too early to discuss the timing of future contracts.
Why Investors Should Pay AttentionThe headline isn’t simply that GE Vernova has a record backlog. It’s what that backlog says about the durability of electricity demand.
While much of Wall Street has tied the company’s momentum to AI data centers, management described a much broader investment cycle. Strazik said “the long-cycle electric power industry is in the early stages of a multi-decade growth opportunity,” adding that GE Vernova is “in the early stages of this electricity investment supercycle.”
That confidence is allowing the company to expand production capacity without building entirely new factories. GE Vernova now expects annual gas turbine output to reach 30 gigawatts by 2030 through lean manufacturing improvements and incremental investments within its existing footprint, with much of that expansion effectively supported by customer commitments already on the books.
Photo: Saskia B / Shutterstock
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Red Cat Holdings (NASDAQ:RCAT) stock is down 26% over the past month and down 8% today to $7.86, putting the drone maker at the heart of a broader shakeout in defense-tech names. The question is whether the group is out of fuel or simply cooling off after a large run higher.
The answer looks mixed across peers. Redwire Corporation (NYSE:RDW) stock has been the worst of the four, down 30% over the past month. Ondas Holdings (NASDAQ:ONDS) stock is down 9% on the month but up 6% today on fresh order news, while AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV | AVAV Price Prediction) shares are up 1% on the month after a U.S. Army contract win. This looks like a major rotation within a battleground sector, with names holding concrete contract wins pulling away from laggards.
Red Cat Stock Leads the Drop Red Cat stock trades at $7.86 today after a punishing four-week stretch. The 52-week range spans $5.77 to $18.78, and the 200-day moving average sits at $11.37, illustrating how far shares have retraced from earlier highs. No confirmed company-specific catalyst explains the move, which fits the broader sector pullback.
Red Cat’s fundamentals remain speculative: Q1 FY2026 revenue came in at $15.47 million, up 849% year over year, but the company posted an operating loss of $27.3 million and is not profitable on a trailing basis. The bull case rests on backlog from Black Widow ISR orders through NATO and Asia-Pacific allies, plus a $131.9 million cash balance from a recent equity raise. Sentiment tools show a full-chain put/call ratio of 0.6, consistent with cautious positioning.
Ondas Stock Bounces on Fresh Orders Ondas stock is the standout mover today. The company announced $70 million in new orders over the past four weeks across unmanned ground systems, border security, counter-UAS, ISR, and precision-strike technologies, exceeding its 2025 backlog of $68.3 million. The company is the only profitable one of the four.
That profitability comes at a trailing P/E ratio of 90x on EPS of $0.09, a rich multiple for a stock trading near $8 that embeds heavy growth expectations. Ondas stock investors are effectively paying up for the sharp guidance raise and expanding counter-UAS backlog.
AeroVironment Stock Holds With an Army Win AeroVironment stock is the relative winner, up on the month after the company was awarded a $117.3 million U.S. Army production contract for its P550 eVTOL unmanned aircraft system, covering 82 aircraft under the Army’s Long Range Reconnaissance program. That deal gave AVAV shares real fundamental support while peers sold off. AeroVironment shares remain down sharply year to date, and the business isn’t profitable on a trailing basis.
AeroVironment’s Q4 report on June 29 delivered a 25% earnings surprise, giving the stock a spark that partly offset broader sector weakness. The beat helped reset sentiment after a weaker Q3 print earlier in the year.
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Redwire Stock Deepens Its Slide Redwire stock has taken the deepest cut of the group. The company is more space-infrastructure and defense-tech than a pure drone play.
Redwire’s Q1 FY2026 EPS came in at -$0.40 versus a -$0.1478 estimate, weighed down by $42.5 million in accelerated equity-based compensation tied to the Edge Autonomy acquisition. At the same time, the company’s backlog hit a record $498.1 million with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.92x.
Sector Flows and ETF Exposure Per S3 Partners, investors poured $10.7 billion into new long exposure across six drone-related stocks between January 16 and July 15 even as the group fell 25% over that stretch. The Pentagon’s Drone Dominance program targets 300,000 low-cost attack drones by the end of 2027 with $1.1 billion in funding.
The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEARCA:ITA) offers thematic exposure but is dominated by mega-cap primes. It holds Red Cat, AeroVironment, and Redwire at a combined 0.66% of net assets and doesn’t hold Ondas, so a Red Cat slump barely moves the fund. Think of the ETF as diluted theme exposure rather than a concentrated drone bet.
The drone and defense-tech theme still appears to have fuel. Ondas stock is bouncing on order momentum, AeroVironment stock is holding on a real Army contract, and Red Cat and Redwire shares are absorbing most pain. Contract wins separate the winners from the laggards inside this volatile theme.
Investors can watch for follow-through on Ondas stock, whether Red Cat stock stabilizes near recent lows, and how backlog conversion trends at Redwire play out through the next earnings cycle. These remain speculative, mostly unprofitable names, and position sizes should stay modest for those adding exposure here.
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The market has been razor-focused on soaring oil prices this year, and rightfully so. But not paying attention to the broader energy landscape would be a mistake and potentially a missed investment opportunity.
That’s according to Chronometer Partners Chief Investment Officer Matthew Smith, who says there is a huge emerging opportunity in natural gas.
Smith’s argument is built on the thesis that, as power demand increases due to an oil crunch and the needs of artificial intelligence, natural gas will quickly become the best game in town.
Here are the stocks to buy before that happens.
Image source: Getty Images.
Why natural gas will see increased demand and ramp up productionSmith sees natural gas exports in the U.S. ramping from 15 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day to 35 Bcf by the end of 2030. Smith also expects current excess supply to dwindle and there to eventually be a 5 Bcf deficit of natural gas per day “before the full force of AI demand.”
“Natural gas, which [represents] over 40% of U.S. power generation, is imminently going to become the most important fuel in the country,” Smith said on a recent podcast, according to MarketWatch.
“Gas has lulled everybody to sleep, but what happens is these structural things start to fall into place in 2027-2028, and we start to draw [down] meaningfully in the middle of 2028.”
Interestingly, according to Henry Hub natural gas spot prices provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, prices per million British thermal units (BTU) have dropped from $3.62 per million BTU in February to $3.15 in June.
Smith believes that the demand for AI-driven compute, particularly among hyperscalers, could double or triple.
The stocks that will benefitSmith recommends several ways to play this looming natural gas crunch.
U.S. natural gas producers like Expand Energy (EXE +4.48%) and Range Resources have quick access to natural gas and can therefore more quickly ramp production, according to Smith.
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Smith also thinks other renewable energy sources, such as solar and nuclear, could see increased demand, as they are among the few logical ways to counter higher electricity prices.
“… The only viable solution is to build large-scale nuclear as fast as possible, which would mean it needs to come on in 2033 or 2034,” Smith said.
He thinks a larger nuclear company like Cameco could potentially get up and running in that time frame. Solar stocks Smith likes include XPLR Infrastructure and Clearway Energy.
Ultimately, I agree with Smith’s view that natural gas and other alternative sources of energy could be a good place to park some capital.
What the Iran war has shown many people and investors is that there’s likely to be greater emphasis on domestic energy production and alternative energy, if nothing else, for national security.
Iran’s greatest weapon in this war has been the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the global oil supply travels daily under normal times.
This has made Americans, who are largely removed from war, feel the pain in their finances.
I also think that regardless of what happens with AI, power demand is likely to move higher because the electric grid has seen very few updates in decades.
Approximately 85% of IREN Limited's targeted $4 billion AI Cloud ARR is backed by signed multi-year contracts, materially improving revenue visibility. Customers now prepay roughly 45% of GPU deployment costs, while a $3.65 billion financing facility reduces future equity dilution risk. Consensus forecasts $728 million in FY2026 revenue despite IREN management targeting over $4 billion ARR, creating a meaningful valuation disconnect if execution succeeds.
, /PRNewswire/ -- The European Commission has today formally cleared the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBD) ("WBD") by Paramount Skydance Corporation (NASDAQ: PSKY) ("Paramount"), representing a major milestone in completing the transaction in line with the publicly stated timeline.
Paramount has already received competition clearances from antitrust and competition authorities in the following jurisdictions: the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Kuwait, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Ukraine, and the COMESA Competition Commission (the regional competition authority for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa). Additionally, Paramount has received foreign direct investment clearances in Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Slovenia, Belgium, Czechia, New Zealand, Italy, and Romania. The transaction was also unconditionally approved by European Commission under its Foreign Subsidies Regulation regime and by the Austrian Federal Competition Authority under its media merger control regime.
With the clearance from the European Commission, bodies and governments representing 65 jurisdictions have either cleared the transaction or chosen not to challenge it on competition and/or foreign direct investment grounds.
These clearances recognize that the combination of Paramount and WBD will enhance consumer choice and enable a creative-first company to invest in more projects and bring stories to audiences worldwide. It will create a scaled media and entertainment company capable of competing with the tech companies that have come to dominate the industry, strengthening the media ecosystem and creating more opportunities for creatives both in front of and behind the camera.
The conclusions reached by the European Commission directly refute key assumptions that underpin the state AGs' complaint seeking to block the transaction. In its finding that "at film production level, enough film studios remain as competitors in the EEA", the European Commission correctly defined the market as including "smaller US studios such as Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate, as well as European studios" in addition to "other major US studios like Disney, NBC Universal and Sony." The European Commission did not find that high-budget or 'blockbuster' films constituted a relevant market. It rather considered them as an element of differentiation in its competitive assessment, and found that the market will remain competitive for these types of films too. In coming to the conclusion that "as regards the AV value chain, the Commission's investigation showed that enough alternative competitors remain to exert sufficient competitive pressure on the merged entity in the EEA", the European Commission rightly considered streaming platforms as competing directly with linear TV. These conclusions further undermine the market definition relied upon by the state AGs in their complaint.
"Today's approval from the European Commission marks another significant milestone in bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together. We appreciate the Commission's constructive engagement and thorough analysis throughout its review," said Makan Delrahim, Chief Legal Officer, Paramount. "Not only does this combination not pose any competitive harms, it actually enhances competition by creating a scaled media and entertainment company with the ability to truly challenge the tech platforms that have come to dominate the industry. By strengthening competition it will support increased investment in content, expand opportunities for creatives and deliver greater choice for consumers. We are pleased that the European Commission, following its robust review, joins other bodies, including the United States Department of Justice, Australia's ACCC, Canada's CCB, Brazil's CADE, China's SAMR and South Africa, in concluding that this transaction does not harm competition and can proceed, further underscoring its potential to strengthen the global media and entertainment ecosystem."
The transaction brings together the two companies' complementary strengths to create more competition and support greater investment in storytelling and talent. Paramount has proactively made clear its plans and incentives for the combined company: to increase output to at least 30 high-quality films annually, each of which will receive a full theatrical release starting immediately; to continue licensing content to and acquiring content from third parties; and to preserve iconic brands with independent creative leadership.
***
About Paramount, a Skydance Corporation
Paramount, a Skydance Corporation is a next-generation global media and entertainment company, comprised of three business segments: Studios, Direct-to-Consumer, and TV Media. PSKY's portfolio unites legendary brands, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, CBS, CBS News, CBS Sports, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime, Paramount+, Pluto TV, and Skydance Animation, Film, Television, Interactive/Games, and Paramount Sports Entertainment.
This communication contains "forward-looking statements" regarding the Merger. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of PSKY or WBD. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk that the closing conditions for the Merger will not be satisfied, including the risk that clearances under applicable antitrust or regulatory laws will not be obtained; the possibility that the transaction will not be completed in the expected timeframe or at all; potential adverse effects to the businesses of PSKY or WBD during the pendency of the transaction, such as employee departures or distraction of management from business operations; the risk of stockholder litigation relating to the transaction, including resulting expense or delay; the potential that the expected benefits and opportunities of the Merger, if completed, may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected; risks related to PSKY's streaming business; the adverse impact on PSKY's advertising revenues as a result of changes in consumer behavior, advertising market conditions and deficiencies in audience measurement; risks related to operating in highly competitive and dynamic industries; the unpredictable nature of consumer behavior, as well as evolving technologies and distribution models; risks related to PSKY's decisions to invest in new businesses, products, services and technologies, and the evolution of PSKY's business strategy; the potential for loss of carriage or other reduction in, or the impact of negotiations for, the distribution of PSKY's content; damage to PSKY's reputation or brands; losses due to asset impairment charges for goodwill, content and long-lived assets, including finite-lived intangible assets; liabilities related to discontinued operations and former businesses; increasing scrutiny of, and evolving expectations for, sustainability initiatives; evolving business continuity, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection and similar risks; challenges in protecting and maintaining PSKY's intellectual property rights; domestic and global political, economic and regulatory factors affecting PSKY's businesses generally; the inability to hire or retain key employees or secure creative talent; disruptions to PSKY's operations as a result of labor disputes; risks and costs associated with the integration of, and PSKY's ability to integrate, the businesses of Paramount Global and Skydance successfully and to achieve anticipated synergies; litigation relating to the transactions contemplated by the transaction agreement entered into on July 7, 2024, between Paramount Global and Skydance, potentially resulting in substantial costs; volatility in the price of PSKY's Class B common stock; the effect PSKY's dual-class capital structure and the concentrated ownership may have on the price of its Class B common stock or business; risks related to a private sale of a controlling interest in PSKY, including that PSKY's stockholders may not realize any change of control premium on shares of PSKY's Class B common stock and that PSKY may become subject to the control of a presently unknown third party; risks associated with PSKY's status as a "controlled company" under Nasdaq rules, including its exemption from certain corporate governance requirements; risks associated with the lack of voting rights of PSKY's Class B common stock; risks that anti-takeover provisions in PSKY's amended and restated certificate of incorporation (the "Charter") and amended and restated bylaws, and under Delaware law, could deter, delay, or prevent a change of control; risks that exclusive forum provisions in the Charter could limit a stockholder's choice of forum for certain claims and discourage lawsuits against PSKY's directors and officers; risks that corporate opportunity provisions in the Charter could permit certain persons to pursue competitive opportunities that might otherwise be available to PSKY; risks associated with PSKY's holding company structure, including its dependence on distributions from its subsidiaries to meet tax obligations and other cash requirements; risks related to PSKY's indebtedness, including PSKY's substantial outstanding debt obligations; risks related to PSKY's ability to incur substantially more debt and PSKY's ability to meet the financial and other covenants contained in the agreements governing PSKY's indebtedness; risks relating to PSKY's ability to deleverage the business in accordance with management's targets, including risks arising from assumptions, uncertainties and contingencies that may affect PSKY's ability to reduce indebtedness; risks relating to management's ability to execute on its strategic plan and improve its financial profile and cash flows from operations; and risks relating to any capital or other financing PSKY may have to raise in order to reduce its indebtedness following the Merger. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors and the general risks associated with the respective businesses of PSKY and WBD can be found in PSKY's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on February 25, 2026, and PSKY's Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2026, filed with the SEC on May 4, 2026, including, in each case, in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and PSKY's subsequent filings with the SEC, and WBD's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on February 27, 2026, and WBD's Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2026, filed with the SEC on May 6, 2026, including, in each case, in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and WBD's subsequent filings with the SEC. Copies of these filings, as well as subsequent filings, are available online at www.sec.gov, ir.wbd.com or on request from PSKY or WBD. PSKY undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments, except as required by law.
It's not every day that a business can invest $1 into a marketing campaign and turn it into $7. However, it's actually quite common for Zeta Global's (ZETA -5.47%) customers.
Zeta CEO David A. Sternberg touted "an average 600% return on marketing spend for our customers," but the company's stock is only up by 8% this year. While investors shouldn't expect the stock to rise by 600% in a single year, it's hard to imagine that its shareholder returns will stay modest for long if the company continues to execute.
Image source: Getty Images.
Zeta is capitalizing on agentic AI Zeta touts itself as an AI marketing cloud platform that helps businesses run data-driven marketing campaigns. Its AI agents make it easier for marketers to analyze consumer behavior, and more than half of Fortune 500 companies use its platform.
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Athena by Zeta acts as the brains behind the operation. It can analyze results from a company's past marketing campaigns and determine which actions can yield the highest ROI. The Zeta Marketing Platform lets enterprises gather all of their marketing campaign data in the same place, which lets Athena provide more accurate recommendations.
Zeta's progress with agentic AI has attracted Palantir's attention. The two companies announced a strategic partnership that Sternberg anticipates can generate more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue for his company in the future.
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing many industries, including marketing. According to a forecast by Grand View Research, the marketing technology industry will grow at a compound annual rate of 20.1% through 2033 to a value of $2.38 trillion. If Zeta can get a larger slice of that pie through its AI-powered marketing platform, it could outperform the S&P 500 over an extended period of time.
Growth in super-scaled customers lifts the entire business Although Zeta's stock has posted moderate gains so far this year, its fundamentals continue to grow significantly. In Q1, the company delivered its 19th consecutive "beat and raise" quarter as overall revenue surged by 50% year over year.
Super-scaled customers were a big part of that successful quarter. Zeta defines this group of customers as enterprises that generate more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue for the company. Zeta now has 189 super-scaled customers, up by 19% year over year, with an average revenue per user of $1.7 million. That means the company is bringing in approximately $321.3 million per year from those 189 customers.
Zeta currently anticipates 37% year-over-year revenue growth in 2026, but it's possible that its growth rate will outpace that. After all, the company has beaten estimates and raised guidance every quarter for almost five years.
Many of its super-scaled customers upgrade their plans as their needs evolve. It's also easier for these enterprises to pay for more expensive plans once they see high ROIs from Zeta's platform.
If the company can finally report consistent profits, that could be a major catalyst for the stock. Right now, its net profit margins are in the negative, but not by much. Zeta still has good top-line scaling, and once it becomes profitable, net income could scale up quickly as well. Zeta has already guided for positive GAAP net income for 2026, implying that this will happen sooner rather than later.
Investors with an interest in Automotive - Original Equipment stocks have likely encountered both Lear (LEA) and Modine (MOD). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now?
Key Takeaways Astera Labs' Taurus portfolio drove strong Q1 results with 93% year-over-year revenue growth. ALAB expanded Taurus with new Smart Retimers and Redrivers for rack-scale AI infrastructure. ALAB expects Q2 revenues of $355M-$365M, implying 15% to 18% sequential growth. Astera Labs (ALAB - Free Report) is benefiting from robust demand for its Taurus portfolio, which is driving significant growth and positioning the company for further upside. The Taurus product line, focused on signal conditioning and reach extension for both AI and general-purpose compute platforms, has seen broad adoption, particularly as AI infrastructure spending accelerates across hyperscalers, AI labs and sovereign entities.
One of the key strengths of the Taurus portfolio is its ability to support advanced Ethernet Active Electrical Cables, which are critical for extending reach in AI clusters and data center environments. During the first quarter of 2026, Taurus delivered solid results, contributing to Astera Labs’ impressive 93% year-over-year revenue growth.
The company’s expanding Taurus portfolio has been noteworthy. Astera Labs recently expanded its Taurus 3.2T Smart Signal Conditioner portfolio with footprint-compatible 16-lane Smart Retimers and Smart Redrivers for 200G-per-lane Ethernet, UALink and ESUN connectivity in rack-scale AI infrastructure.
The new Taurus family enables customers to switch between retimers and redrivers using the Smart Swap feature without redesigning boards, improving deployment flexibility. Managed through the COSMOS software platform, the solutions provide advanced telemetry, intelligent link management and diagnostics to optimize signal integrity, reduce power consumption and accelerate large-scale AI cluster deployments while supporting multi-vendor sourcing through the OCP standard footprint.
Aster Labs is benefiting from strong demand for its Aries, Taurus, and Scorpio product families, all of which are expected to drive growth in the second quarter of 2026. For the same quarter, ALAB expects revenues between $355 million and $365 million, implying 15% to 18% sequential growth.
ALAB Faces Stiff CompetitionALAB is facing stiff competition from other industry players like Marvell Technology (MRVL - Free Report) and Credo Technology (CRDO - Free Report) . Both Marvell Technology and Credo Technology are making strong efforts in the connectivity space.
Marvell Technology’s expanding portfolio has been noteworthy. In June 2026, Marvell Technology introduced the Teralynx T100, a 102.4 Tbps AI-optimized switch silicon designed to enhance high-speed connectivity and networking efficiency in large-scale AI data centers through lower latency and reduced power consumption.
Credo Technology’s expanding portfolio has been noteworthy. In May 2026, Credo Technology completed its acquisition of DustPhotonics, adding industry-leading silicon photonics technology to strengthen its optical interconnect portfolio across 800G, 1.6T and 3.2T solutions. The acquisition enhances Credo Technology’s vertically integrated AI connectivity stack and is expected to be a significant growth driver in fiscal 2027, supported by increasing hyperscale AI adoption.
ALAB’s Share Price Performance, Valuation, and EstimatesALAB shares have surged 92.3% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s increase of 12.1%. The Zacks Internet - Software industry has decreased 6.1% in the same time frame.
ALAB Stock’s Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ALAB stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 29.28X compared with the Internet - Software industry’s 3.98X. ALAB has a Value Score of F.
ALAB’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $ 2.97 per share, which has increased by a couple of pennies over the past 30 days. This suggests 61.41% year-over-year growth.
ALAB’s Zacks RankAstera Labs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Oscar Health has rerated to the $30 range, reflecting its strong performance but reduced asymmetry versus prior opportunities. Risk Adjustment Transfer dynamics and plan mix will pressure EPS and margins in Q2 and beyond, despite an encouraging Q1 medical loss ratio. I expect MLR to rise to the mid-to-high seventies and negative EPS for upcoming quarters, with SG&A likely flat as tech efficiencies are offset.
The Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Components industry participants are benefiting from the ongoing automation drive and increased spending by manufacturers of semiconductors, automobiles, machinery and mobile phones. Industry participants like nVent Electric (NVT - Free Report) , Forgent Power Solutions (FPS - Free Report) and Vicor (VICR - Free Report) are well-poised to benefit from the solid adoption of AI and the democratization of IoT, which are transforming robotics, industrial automation, transportation systems, retail and healthcare. However, a challenging global macroeconomic environment, end-market volatility and higher tariffs are headwinds. Export restrictions imposed by the United States, as well as China, are a major headwind. Growing geopolitical tensions and foreign currency headwinds are taking a toll on the industry players.
Industry Description The Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Components industry primarily comprises companies providing various accessories and parts used in electronic products. The industry participants’ offerings include power control and sensor technologies to mitigate equipment damage, testing products for safety and advanced medical solutions. They cater to varied end markets, such as telecommunications, automotive electronics, medical devices, industrial, transportation, energy harvesting, defense and aerospace electronic systems and consumer electronics. Customers in this industry are mainly original equipment manufacturers, independent electronic component distributors and electronic manufacturing service providers.
3 Trends Shaping the Future of Electronics - Miscellaneous Components Industry Automation Boom a Tailwind: The requirement for faster, more powerful and energy-efficient electronics leads to increased automation. Control systems, such as computers, and robots and information technologies for handling different processes and machinery, are driving the industry. The growing installation of collaborative robots, which add efficiency to production processes by working with production workers, will benefit industry participants. IoT-supported factory automation solutions are other contributing factors. The evolution of smart cars and autonomous vehicles is expected to drive growth for the industry.
Miniaturization Remains a Key Lever: Industry participants are benefiting from the ongoing transition in semiconductor manufacturing technology. Demand for advanced packaging, enabling the miniaturization of electronic products, remains strong. The consistent shift to smaller dimensions, the rapid adoption of device architectures like FinFET transistors and 3D-NAND, and the increasing utilization of new manufacturing materials to increase transistor and bit density are driving the demand for solutions provided by industry players.
Geopolitical Tensions Are Worrisome: Tariffs and the souring relationship between the United States and China are headwinds. Increasing dependency on AI-backed electronic devices on semiconductors and current restrictions ordered by the United States on trading with China, which remains the main hub for chip production, are significant negatives for the industry.
Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Bullish Prospects The Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Components industry is housed within the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector. It carries a Zacks Industry Rank #60, which places it in the top 24% of more than 250 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bullish near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than two to one.
Given the bullish prospects, there are a number of stocks that investors can choose to pick for a healthy portfolio. However, before we present the stocks, let us look at the industry’s recent stock-market performance and the valuation picture.
Industry Lags S&P 500 and Sector The Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Components industry has underperformed the Zacks S&P 500 composite and the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector in the past year.
The industry has appreciated 0.7% over this period compared with the S&P 500’s return of 20.9% and the broader sector’s 30.6%.
One-Year Price Performance
Industry's Current Valuation Based on the forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E), a commonly used multiple for valuing electronics – miscellaneous components stocks, the industry is currently trading at 24.94X compared with the S&P 500’s 20.85X and the sector’s 23.95X.
In the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 28.51X and as low as 20.27X, with a median of 21.97X, depicted in the charts below.
Forward 12-Month Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio
3 Electronics - Miscellaneous Components Stocks to Buy nVent Electric: This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company benefits from durable infrastructure demand as AI-driven data center buildouts and grid upgrades lift orders, backlog and revenue visibility. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
nVent remains well positioned to benefit from the accelerating AI infrastructure build-out, with management highlighting strong demand across both white-space and gray-space data center applications. Investments in liquid cooling, engineered building solutions and expanded manufacturing capacity, including the new Blaine facility, are expected to support sustained growth. The company also sees long-term opportunities from power grid modernization, electrification and utility infrastructure spending.
nVent shares have returned 57.6% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NVT’s 2026 earnings has been revised upward by a penny to $4.56 per share over the past 30 days.
Price and Consensus: NVT
Forgent Power Solutions: This Zacks Rank #1 company continues to benefit from exceptionally strong demand across AI data centers and grid infrastructure, with record bookings, a 2.3 times book-to-bill ratio and nearly $2 billion of backlog providing excellent revenue visibility.
Forgent’s integrated Powertrain Solutions strategy, engineering-led customer engagement and vertically integrated manufacturing model are helping it gain market share and win large multi-product contracts. The company also expects margin expansion and stronger free cash flow as new production facilities ramp and utilization improves through fiscal 2027.
Forgent shares have returned 39% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FPS’ 2026 earnings has been revised upward by a penny to 68 cents per share over the past 30 days.
Price and Consensus: FPS
Vicor: This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company’s long-term outlook is increasingly tied to AI infrastructure, where its second-generation Vertical Power Delivery (VPD) technology addresses growing power density requirements for hyperscalers and advanced computing systems.
Vicor expects strong Advanced Products growth, expanding licensing revenues, increasing backlog and continued capacity expansion to support higher product shipments. The company also sees significant opportunities from aerospace, industrial and defense markets, while future licensing agreements with OEMs and hyperscalers could become an additional high-margin growth driver.
Vicor shares have jumped 95.9% in the year-to-date period. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2026 earnings has increased 8.5% to $2.94 per share in the past 30 days.
Cathie Wood is doing the Cathie Wood thing again. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) is down 38% from its recent peak and trading below its IPO price; the lockup clock is ticking, and the founder of the firm that manages $30 billion in assets just told Fox Business on July 22, 2026, that the company “could become the most important company in history.” Not the decade. History. ARK is buying more instead of trimming.
The underlying claim is more interesting than the headline, because Wood is not defending a rocket business anymore. She is defending an AI holding company that happens to own the world’s cheapest way to leave the atmosphere. The public-market proxies for this thesis, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB), tell you what the market thinks of the space-and-AI trade right now. Tesla is down 14% year to date, and Rocket Lab is down 27% over the past month. Wood is buying anyway.
The Moat Wood Is Actually Defending “SpaceX has a first mover advantage. It will be difficult. It has a ten year lead and the key has been reusable rockets.” That decade of iteration shows up in one number that matters more than any valuation multiple. SpaceX controls 70% of satellites in orbit. Reusable boosters are the reason. Every competitor has to build the flywheel from zero while SpaceX is already spinning it.
Rocket Lab is the closest publicly traded pure-play alternative, and Peter Beck’s team is running the correct playbook. Q1 2026 revenue hit $200.35 million, up 63.46% year over year, with a backlog of $2.20 billion and non-GAAP gross margins of 43.0%. Neutron, the medium-lift vehicle meant to compete with Falcon 9, is targeted for its debut launch later in 2026 after a stage-1 tank test failure pushed the timeline. That is the state of “second place” in launch. Impressive, growing, and still years behind.
The Real Thesis Is Orbital Data Centers Rockets are the setup. The punchline is compute. Wood argued that “The secret to scaling technologies is falling costs as units increase… SpaceX has a first mover advantage with 70% of the satellites and beyond that we have the global data centers, orbital data centers so they will be the most economic and will allow Elon and team the opportunity to develop… some of the most sophisticated frontier models in the world at the lowest cost.”
If you own launch, you own the cheapest way to put racks of GPUs into orbit where solar is free, and cooling is a physics problem instead of a water bill. The GAO flagged this exact concept in April, noting that data centers could account for up to 12% of U.S. electrical demand by 2028 and that since January 2026, the FCC has received three applications from U.S. companies for large satellite constellations operating as data centers. Wood says SpaceX is already renting data center capacity to Anthropic and Google. If that scales, the company competes with hyperscalers, not Boeing (NYSE:BA).
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Tesla is the tell. Tesla disclosed a roughly $2 billion equity investment in SpaceX in Q1 2026 and is partnering with SpaceX on a vertically integrated semiconductor fab at Gigafactory Texas. Elon is stitching his companies into one AI-industrial stack. The Q1 filing shows where the money moves.
The Multi-Trillion Stack Versus the $116 Billion Unlock Wood’s final flourish stacks the businesses on top of each other. “Ultimately SpaceX when they combine the most powerful, the robotaxi opportunity, the orbital data center opportunity… There are lots of opportunities and they are multi trillion dollar opportunities.” She also framed AI productivity as a generational advantage for U.S. companies, with Chinese competitors looking less efficient despite throwing raw compute at the problem.
Now the ugly part. SpaceX is set to unlock $116 billion in shares after IPO restrictions lift. That is a supply wave arriving into a stock already down 38%. Prediction markets are pricing 96.4% odds against S&P 500 inclusion in 2026, meaning index-fund buying will not rescue the float. Nasdaq-100 inclusion is already resolved yes, which helps, but does not neutralize the coming supply.
Wood’s thesis is coherent and more sophisticated than the headline suggests. The launch moat is real, the orbital compute angle is not science fiction, and the Tesla-SpaceX-xAI convergence is happening in filings. Whether you buy the dip depends on whether you can sit through the unlock. Wood can. Most retail cannot.
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When it comes to analyst price targets for Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -5.30%), you're going to find a wide range. At the high end of the spectrum is Raymond James, which placed a whopping $800 target on the stock. Morningstar, meanwhile, has said the fair value for the stock is closer to $62.
In my opinion, the stock is much more likely to trade closer to Morningstar's fair valuation by year-end. This is largely based on the early valuation Elon Musk's other company, Tesla, traded at in the early years after its IPO.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Selling pressure likely to mount After a hot start, SpaceX's stock has been in free fall, trading below its $135 IPO price. This is before any of the numerous lock-up expirations set to hit later this year have even started. With a deluge of shares expected to exponentially increase the amount of SpaceX stock available on the open market, this is a headwind the stock will have to contend with for most of the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
Now, strong results and a reasonable valuation could certainly overcome a flood of new shares hitting the market, but SpaceX's valuation is still in the stars. Even after its pullback, the stock still has a market cap of around $1.7 trillion for a company that generated less than $19 billion in revenue in 2025.
And while analysts expect rapid revenue growth this year (Morgan Stanley, for example, projects it will hit $45 billion), that's still an extreme valuation for a company set to continue losing money and burning cash. In fact, Morgan Stanley, which is bullish on the stock, doesn't think it will turn free cash flow positive until 2035. That means the company is going to have to raise a lot of cash, through equity or debt offerings, to fund what is a high-capital-expenditure (capex) business.
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A lot of SpaceX's valuation is based on future promises and predictions from founder and CEO Elon Musk, and his faithful following should help cushion the stock's downside, despite his spotty record with on-time predictions. However, that is largely why I think the stock will go into the $60s, not below that level.
A 10 times price-to-sales (P/S) multiple on $45 billion in revenue gets you to a market cap of $450 billion, which is about a $34 to $35 stock price. However, a high capex business also probably shouldn't be trading at a multiple of sales to begin with, so I don't think that is the best way to value the stock anyway. Nonetheless, a P/S of between 15 times and 20 times, which is where Tesla traded at in its early years, gives you between a $50 to $70 stock price, which is where I think SpaceX can trade at year-end.
SpaceX SPCX shares remain in focus after Elon Musk issued a pointed warning to those betting against his space infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) company.
In his latest post on X, the billionaire wrote: “Survival probability of firms who maintain significant short position in SPCX over time is very low.”
Musk’s comment arrives at a time when SpaceX stock has fallen out of favor with investors mostly because of valuation concerns. At writing, it’s down 40% versus its post-IPO high of over $200.
Bearish sentiment surrounding the space and AI conglomerate has intensified rather quickly.
Short sellers have built a massive $25 billion wager against SpaceX – with “short interest” soaring from 40 million shares a month ago to 206 million shares, representing roughly 32% of its public float.
Experts attribute this rapid acceleration in short positions to traders pricing in negative catalysts – including the firm’s high valuation multiple (over 80x sales).
Additionally, short sellers are betting that multi-billion-dollar annual net losses, fuelled by heavy AI compute expenditures, will continue to pressure SPCX shares in the near-term.
Despite rising bets against SpaceX shares, bulls contend that the current setup leaves short sellers vulnerable to a classic short squeeze.
With nearly a third of the active float sold short, any positive catalyst could trigger a violent buying scramble as bears rush to cover their positions.
In the near-term, this could kick off as soon as next month as SpaceX reports its very first quarterly earnings as a public company on August 4th.
If Starlink subscriber momentum, space launch revenues, or margin figures top expectations, the resulting rally could force margin calls and accelerate upward momentum.
Investors should note, however, that the potential for a squeeze is complicated by upcoming supply changes.
Following the earnings print, the initial post-IPO lock-up restrictions will begin to expire, releasing millions of insider and employee shares into the public float.
This incoming surge of liquidity will expand the tradable supply, making shares significantly easier for bears to borrow and cover over time.
In short, while long-term investors align with Elon Musk’s vision of dominating space logistics and next-gen connectivity, near-term traders remain sharply divided until the August numbers provide concrete clarity.
Despite recent underperformance, SPCX stock hasn’t fallen entirely out of favour with high-profile names.
For example, Cathie Wood – the chief executive of Ark Invest – continues to invest in SpaceX on the pullback, believing it could eventually become the most important company in history.
And Wall Street analysts seem to agree with her optimism. The consensus rating on SPCX sits at Moderate Buy currently, with price targets going as high as $800, signaling a more than 6x potential over time.
A 25-year dataset from First Trust Portfolios presents a sobering backdrop. The research tracks post-IPO performance from January 2001 through June 2026 and reveals a persistent pattern: most newly listed U.S. stocks underperform as time passes.
SPCX stock is treading water ahead of TSLA earnings. See the price action here. IPO Hype Meets Historical RealityInitial enthusiasm often masks the harsh reality — within two years of listing, 59% of companies generated negative returns, with the median stock declining 10.51%.
The trend did not stabilize in later years. After three years, the median loss widened to 14.07%, and by year four, it reached 17.13%. Losses among weaker performers were far more severe. The bottom quartile declined more than 61% after two years and over 73% after four years.
The pattern shows deterioration rather than recovery. Time, in most cases, increases the gap between IPO expectations and operational execution. Growth narratives face pressure from earnings realities, competition and capital intensity.
SpaceX enters public markets with extraordinary visibility, but the same forces apply. High valuation multiples leave little room for operational missteps.
There is, however, an important counterbalance. While median outcomes remain negative, average returns across the dataset stayed positive: 28.89% after two years, 32.34% after three years, and 39.55% after four years. This divergence highlights a skewed distribution. A small group of outliers delivered exceptional gains, lifting the overall average despite widespread underperformance.
The SpaceX BetInvestors focusing on SpaceX are effectively making a probabilistic bet. The base rate suggests underperformance is more common than success. Yet the upside case rests on joining the narrow cohort of transformational winners.
SpaceX has attributes that could support that thesis: dominant launch economics, expanding satellite revenue through Starlink and long-term optionality in deep space infrastructure.
Still, the burden of proof is elevated. Historical IPO data implies that narrative strength must convert into sustained financial performance within a relatively short window. Execution risk, regulatory complexity and capital demands remain central variables.
The post-IPO phase, therefore, becomes less about momentum and more about validation. SpaceX may redefine industries, but market history indicates that only a minority of companies translate early promise into enduring shareholder returns.
SPCX Stock Price Activity: SpaceX shares were down 3.05% at $119.77 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo: photo_gonzo / Shutterstock
This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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EXTON, Pa., July 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE:TOL), the nation's leading builder of luxury homes, today announced its newest luxury 55+ community, Regency at Valley Creek, is now open in Exton, Pennsylvania. This exclusive master-planned community features three collections of townhome and single-family home designs with first-floor primary bedroom suites set amidst a picturesque location in Chester County. The Toll Brothers Sales Center is now open at 949 Swedesford Rd in Exton.
This exceptional community of 317 homes is set on approximately 100 acres and bordered by more than 700 acres of permanently preserved park and open space, offering modern living in a sought-after location. Enriching social connections and wellness-inspired activities will be available at the private clubhouse, complete with a state-of-the-art fitness center, great room, gathering spaces, and outdoor amenities including a pool, pickleball and bocce courts, a fire pit, and an event lawn. Residents at Regency at Valley Creek will enjoy a low-maintenance lifestyle with lawn care and snow removal provided.
Townhome designs in the Carriages and Villa collections range from approx. 2,200 to 2,500+ square feet with pricing starting from the low $700,000s. Single-family home designs in the Estates collection range from approx. 2,800 up to 3,000+ square feet and are priced from $1 million.
Toll Brothers customers will experience one-stop shopping at the Toll Brothers Design Studio. The state-of-the-art Design Studio allows home shoppers to choose from a wide array of selections to personalize their dream home with the assistance of Toll Brothers professional Design Consultants.
Located close to the community, residents will find an abundance of premium shopping and dining options, from the charming main streets of downtown Exton, West Chester, and Malvern to world-class retail and culinary experiences in King of Prussia. Easy access to the Main Line corridor and major commuter routes, including Routes 202 and 30 and Interstate 76, ensures seamless travel throughout the region.
"We are thrilled to introduce Regency at Valley Creek, where active-adults can enjoy low-maintenance living with premier amenities in a prime location," said John Dean, Division President of Toll Brothers in Pennsylvania. "This community will offer a vibrant lifestyle with sophisticated home designs tailored to meet the needs of today’s home shoppers."
Toll Brothers Regency active-adult communities across the United States are planned with the active lifestyles of their residents in mind. Each community offers exquisitely designed homes with an array of luxury resort-style amenities, activities, and social events available for residents 55 years of age or older.
For more information on Regency at Valley Creek and other Toll Brothers communities in Pennsylvania, call (855) 872-8205 or visit TollBrothers.com/PA.
About Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers, Inc., a Fortune 500 Company, is the nation’s leading builder of luxury homes. The Company was founded in 1967 and became a public company in 1986 with common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “TOL.” Toll Brothers builds new homes and communities in over 60 markets across the United States, serving first-time, move-up, active-adult, and second-home buyers. The Company also operates its own architectural, engineering, mortgage, title, land development, smart home technology, landscape, and building components manufacturing businesses.
Toll Brothers was named the #1 Most Admired Home Builder in Fortune magazine’s 2026 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies®, the ninth year the Company has achieved this honor. Toll Brothers has also been named Builder of the Year by Builder magazine and is the first two-time recipient of Builder of the Year from Professional Builder magazine. For more information visit TollBrothers.com.
Apple is preparing to launch a new hardware leasing program with Klarna that could make it easier and cheaper to upgrade to the latest iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman explains why the initiative could reshape Apple's upgrade cycle, lock customers into its ecosystem, and pave the way for more expensive devices like the foldable iPhone.
Apple (AAPL, Financials), the consumer technology company behind the iPhone and Apple Watch, failed to overturn a $634 million jury verdict in a patent dispute
Samsung has unveiled a new lineup of foldable smartphones and offered a closer look at its upcoming smart glasses, developed with Google and partners. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman explains why Samsung's latest foldables preview Apple's own plans, and why privacy could become the biggest hurdle for the next generation of AI-powered wearables.
Investors have long known that Meta Platforms (META -2.76%) planned to continue growing through AI. Most investors assumed that it would leverage its massive data collection to train AI models in ways that its competitors could not precisely replicate.
Hence, even though Meta has been a hyperscaler for years, it may have come as a surprise to some to hear that Mark Zuckerberg was also contemplating a move into leasing cloud computing capacity. Knowing that, investors will likely be watching Meta and its CEO closely when the company reports its Q2 earnings on July 29.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The move into the neocloud So far, investors don't seem enthusiastic about Meta's expensive AI ambitions. The company has pledged to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 alone, primarily to develop its AI. That comes after it spent almost $70 billion on capex in 2025.
Additionally, the social media stock trades at a P/E ratio of 23, the lowest among the "Magnificent Seven" stocks. Its revenue grew by 33% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, a level of growth that supports the investment thesis for Meta, particularly given its low multiple and its success in digital advertising.
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Nonetheless, uncertainty about where it could derive significant long-term growth from may partially explain its low P/E ratio.
Today, an average of 3.56 billion people, about 43% of the world's population, already log into a Meta-owned site daily. That past success has left it with relatively few potential new users to pursue.
For now, the start of its shift to the neocloud appears to hinge on a proposed two-year, $10 billion deal with Anthropic, and some believe an announcement during its July 29 earnings call that such a deal has been sealed will send the stock soaring. That deal would allow Meta to put some of its AI infrastructure to use in a way that directly translates into revenue.
Admittedly, that deal is not final and could still fall through. However, there is plenty of demand for cloud infrastructure across the market. Though it has been viewed as one of the four major hyperscalers throughout the AI build-out, analysts including Mark Mahaney of Evercore see what Meta is likely to offer to its clients as more akin to the specialized cloud offerings of the smaller neocloud providers.
That looks like a promising model: Mordor Intelligence estimates a compound annual growth rate of 46% for the neocloud through 2031.
However, if such an announcement occurs, it still may not ease investor concerns. Nearly 98% of Meta's revenue came from digital advertising in Q1, and Zuckerberg has yet to prove that he can turn his company into a cloud infrastructure provider on par with Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Until investors feel more confident about Meta's pivot in this direction, many may remain skeptical.
Should investors buy Meta Platforms stock before earnings? The good news for investors is that Meta Platforms stock is likely a buy before July 29, when Zuckerberg will probably offer more clarity on its AI ambitions.
Indeed, Meta Platforms stock could take a hit if the Anthropic deal falls through. Additionally, its massive capex spending on new AI data centers is concerning to many investors, given that almost all of the company's revenue still comes from digital ads.
Fortunately, that digital ad business is likely not going anywhere, and the company's AI efforts have enhanced its effectiveness. Considering its rapid revenue increases and the 23 P/E ratio, the company's growth should continue even if Meta's AI plans fail to meet investor expectations.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB)’s AI-enabled glasses could represent a new growth opportunity for the company as the wearables move toward broader consumer adoption, according to Jefferies analysts who tested multiple models and highlighted the product’s potential as a future computing interface.
The analysts wrote that Meta’s AI glasses impressed across areas including camera quality, setup experience and their traditional glasses design, noting that the company currently has a first-mover advantage as the only major player shipping AI glasses at scale. Jefferies estimated that the category could create a $14 billion to $18 billion hardware revenue opportunity over the next several years, assuming adoption levels similar to the Apple Watch and an average selling price of about $400.
Meta’s AI glasses are screen-free, voice-controlled wearables that combine cameras, open-ear audio and integration with the Meta AI application. Jefferies tested three models, including the Ray-Ban Meta Gen2 priced at $379, the Oakley Meta priced at $499 and the Ray-Ban Display with Neural Band priced at $799, and wrote that the devices integrated naturally into daily activities including sports, communication and productivity.
The analysts’ base-case scenario estimates the hardware opportunity could translate into roughly 35 million to 45 million units sold, with additional potential upside from AI subscriptions, advertising and commerce-related monetization. Jefferies highlighted Meta AI’s growing user base, noting that monthly active users have reached approximately 1 billion and daily glasses users are increasing year over year.
Jefferies wrote that the longer-term opportunity could extend beyond hardware sales if AI assistants shift toward “agentic” experiences where users delegate tasks rather than simply search for information. In that scenario, the analysts noted that AI glasses could capture user intent at the point of discovery and potentially position Meta closer to future commerce transactions.
The analysts highlighted several strengths of the products, including camera performance, easy photo capture and synchronization through the Meta AI app. They also pointed to the open-ear audio experience as a key advantage, allowing users to listen to music, handle calls and receive notifications while maintaining awareness of their surroundings. Spotify integration, the glasses’ comfortable design and their ability to combine functions typically handled by a phone camera, earbuds and action camera were also cited as benefits.
However, Jefferies noted that the technology remains in development. The analysts pointed to areas for improvement including video quality, speaker volume, voice activation reliability, battery life and the adjustment required for users to incorporate the glasses into everyday routines. They also noted that launches in some regions, including Europe, have faced delays related to supply constraints and regulatory considerations around AI, privacy and always-on cameras.
Jefferies maintained a positive view on Meta’s AI glasses opportunity, writing that the company’s early position in the category could provide a long-term growth opportunity that is not yet reflected in current expectations.
Shares of Meta traded hands at $630 on Wednesday, down about 5% so far this year.
For Meta, the move was a reprieve after it and YouTube were found guilty in another case in March of negligence and personal injury for their platforms' addictive features.
A woman stands near a Meta logo, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Romina Amato/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesJuly 22 (Reuters) - A Florida teen whose lawsuit claimed Meta’s (META.O), opens new tab platforms were to blame for his depression and anxiety dropped his case against the company just days before the trial in Los Angeles was set to start, his attorneys said on Wednesday.
The lawsuit, brought by a 15-year-old boy known as R.K.C., originally named four defendants, Google's YouTube (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Meta's (META.O), opens new tab Instagram, Snap Inc's (SNAP.N), opens new tab Snapchat and ByteDance's TikTok, but YouTube and TikTok settled in June. The terms of those settlements were confidential.
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Bloomberg reported on Monday that Snap had reached a tentative settlement in the case.
R.K.C., who started using social media when he was about 8, said he became addicted to it, losing sleep and suffering from depression and anxiety, according to court filings.
"In light of the overall successful result of the litigation and his concerns about enduring a grueling weeks-long trial, he has elected to withdraw his claims against Meta," attorneys for R.K.C. said in a statement. "He’s ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life."
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement R.K.C. had dropped the claims without receiving any payment.
"The claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits," the company said.
Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Chris Reese, Alexia Garamfalvi and Chizu Nomiyama
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Diana reports on product liability, litigation, mass torts and the plaintiffs' bar. She previously worked at Law360 and the Chicago Sun-Times.
TSLA stock is moving ahead of earnings. See the chart and price action here. For Q2, Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles, up 25% from a year ago and marking its strongest second quarter ever. Wall Street’s consensus pegs total revenue at $25.71 billion, with non‑GAAP earnings at 50 cents, according to Benzinga Pro estimates.
On paper, that looks like a solid reset after a bruising stretch of revenue stagnation and margin compression. In practice, it raises the core question: is the delivery boom finally translating into durable earnings power, or is the headline growth being hollowed out by aggressive price cuts and rising costs?
Deliveries Are Up, But Did Profit Follow?Stephen Callahan, trading behavior analyst at Firstrade, cuts straight to that tension in an exclusive conversation with Benzinga.
"The question for investors is whether the surge in car deliveries actually made money or did they get eaten by price cuts," he says, framing Q2 as a margin stress test, not a victory lap.
Callahan notes, "Previously, Tesla reported its volume numbers. For the second quarter, Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles, up 25% from the quarter last year, for its strongest second quarter ever."
Tesla stock has already celebrated the volume surprise, and Wednesday’s earnings print will decide whether that enthusiasm is justified.
Consensus Expectations Underline A Fragile Story Gross margin is projected at 19.5% Operating margin is at just 5.4% Net income attributable to common shareholders around $1.28 billion. At the same time, analysts expect negative free cash flow of roughly $3.25 billion, as heavy capital spending outstrips operating cash generation. The mix — record units, modest profit and cash burn — suggests the combination of 480,126 deliveries and a near $28 billion revenue forecast may be stretching expectations faster than Tesla’s actual earnings power is recovering.
Callahan’s real warning sits between the lines.
Wall Street "analysts estimate that Tesla will report second‑quarter GAAP earnings between 34 and 36 cents per share, and non‑GAAP earnings at 55 cents per share. Analysts project total revenue to be $27.58 billion. This would be Tesla’s first revenue growth in more than a year."
If Tesla can’t convert this delivery spike into fatter margins and cleaner cash flow, investors may conclude that the company has rediscovered volume, not genuine profitability — and start to mark down how much a "blowout" quarter is really worth.
TSLA Stock Price Activity: Tesla stock was down 0.21% at $378.14 at the time of publication Wednesday, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Over the past month, TSLA has declined about 4.8% versus a 0.2% rise in the S&P 500 and is down roughly 18% year-to-date compared to the index’s 9.3% gain.
Photo: mundissima / Shutterstock
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Alphabet reports after the closing bell tonight. Q2 '26 GOOGL rev estimate - $127 bl (gross revenue), while the sell-side seems to be around $100 bl – $102 bl for the net revenue. Free cash flow estimated per LSEG for Q3 and Q4 '25 - $6.7 billion and $2.2 bl, respectively.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) reports second-quarter results after Wednesday's close, with Wall Street bracing for a print that could either validate the company's AI spending spree or intensify investor unease about it.
Bank of America is firmly in the bullish camp, reiterating its Buy rating and raising earnings estimates ahead of the print. The bank projects revenue of $102.1 billion and EPS of $8.38, both well above Street consensus of $101 billion and $2.90.
Much of that EPS gap traces to an estimated $80 billion boost to operating income from the revaluation of Alphabet's stake in Anthropic, whose valuation climbed from $380 billion in the first quarter to $965 billion in the second.
Beyond the accounting windfall, the bank sees genuine operating strength: search growth of 17%, cloud growth accelerating to 70%, and a cloud backlog supporting at least $230 billion in revenue over the next eight quarters. Consensus estimates put Q2 revenue closer to $116.8 billion, with cloud revenue growing roughly 63% to over $21 billion.
Capital spending remains the swing factor. Alphabet already guided full-year 2026 capex to $180 billion to $190 billion, and Bank of America thinks that range could climb another 5%, to $190 billion to $200 billion, given accelerating AI demand and rising memory costs.
That spending question is exactly what's rattling some market watchers. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, argues the real story isn't Alphabet's AI models but its infrastructure.
"Alphabet was battered after reports that the latest update to its Gemini model would be delayed by several months. But I believe Alphabet's real winning trade is not its AI model, it is its data centres, TPU chips and its ability to monetise them," she said. "It should not, however, double down on infrastructure spending. Even a comfortable earnings beat may not be enough to bring investors back if AI spending continues to run against investors' desire to see it contained."
Patrick Munnelly, partner for market strategy at Tickmill Group, sees this print as a referendum on capex discipline broadly.
"Alphabet (is) now the next key test for capex appetite and cloud/AI monetisation," he said. "The market does not need perfection, but it does need evidence that spending intentions remain intact and that AI infrastructure demand is not slowing at the margin. After last week's valuation scare, guidance matters more than narrative."
With Gemini 4 slated for a fall launch and new agentic search features from I/O still rolling out, investors will be listening for guidance as closely as the headline numbers.
Alphabet shares were trading modestly higher, up 0.3% before its earnings release.
Image Credits:Google Google announced on Wednesday a new migration experience built directly into Android 17 that should ease the switch from iPhone to Android. The feature lets users wirelessly transfer more data types from an iPhone without needing to download a separate app, Google says.
By simplifying the onboarding process and supporting more data types, the tech giant is looking to lower the barriers to switching smartphone ecosystems as it aims to attract more iPhone users.
With this new method, users can transfer photos, videos, contacts, messages, calendars, and newly supported data types, including their Google Account, passwords, Wi-Fi credentials, and even their eSIM, when switching from an iPhone to Android.
The upgrade has already started rolling out to select Pixel devices, and it’s also available on the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 and Z Fold8 series, which were unveiled today. The new migration method will also come to more Android devices soon, Google says.
Alphabet (GOOG +0.00%)(GOOGL -0.13%) reports second-quarter results after the market closes today, with the earnings call scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET. The revenue and earnings may end up being the focus on many of the headlines. But I'd argue the number that actually has more implications for the stock sits further down the report. It's capital expenditures -- the money Alphabet is pouring into data centers and the computing infrastructure behind its artificial intelligence (AI) push.
After all, nobody doubts that the business is growing. The question is whether the company's AI spending is an investment compounding into more growth or a cost rising faster than the returns it generates.
Image source: Alphabet.
The spending curve keeps steepening In April, alongside first-quarter results, Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to a range of $180 billion to $190 billion, up from $175 billion to $185 billion. Chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi also said the company expects its 2027 capital expenditures to "significantly increase" from there.
And Alphabet spent $35.7 billion on capital expenditures during Q1 specifically. So, even to reach even the low end of its full-year range, spending would need to average about $48 billion per quarter for the rest of the year -- a step-up of more than 30% from the first quarter's pace.
To be fair, the tech company's growth has been impressive. Alphabet's first-quarter revenue rose 22% year over year to $109.9 billion, the company's 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Google Cloud revenue climbed 63% year over year to $20 billion -- an acceleration that made the segment the company's most powerful growth catalyst. And Alphabet notably said its cloud backlog swelled to more than $460 billion.
Further, Alphabet remains compute-constrained.
"We are compute constrained in the near term," CEO Sundar Pichai said in the company's first-quarter earnings call. "Our cloud revenue would have been higher if we were able to meet the demand."
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What would be reassuring -- and what wouldn't As for the earnings line, it has gotten noisy recently. Alphabet's first-quarter net income rose 81% year over year, but a $36.9 billion pre-tax gain on equity securities added $28.7 billion to the bottom line, a swing factor that has nothing to do with the operating business. That's exactly why profit is a poor scoreboard for this report, and the capital expenditure line is a better one.
So what would a reassuring report look like?
Capital expenditure guidance held at $180 billion to $190 billion, cloud growth still running near 60%, and clear evidence that the more than $460 billion cloud backlog is converting into revenue. That combination would say the spending is buying growth at a steady exchange rate.
The worrying version is the opposite. Another guidance raise stacked on top of April's, paired with decelerating cloud growth, would suggest the price of keeping up in AI is rising faster than the payoff. Investors could probably forgive either one on its own. Both together, however, could hit the stock hard.
Valuation frames the stakes. At about $347 per share, Alphabet trades at about 27 times earnings -- closer to 32 times without the first quarter's equity gains, but hardly extreme either way for a company growing revenue 22%. Shares also sit about 15% below their 52-week high of $408.61, so some caution is already priced in.
But a multiple like that still assumes Alphabet's strong growth persists as its investments pay off.
Alphabet has earned patience from investors on this front before. Google Cloud spent years absorbing investment before it became the profit driver it is now, and the company's balance sheet gives it more room for error than almost any business on Earth. The bull case, therefore, is simply that history repeats: spend heavily, wait, collect a bigger business on the other side.
Ultimately, the report lands this afternoon, and the reaction will come fast. When it does, I'll go straight past revenue and earnings to the capital expenditure line -- and I think investors should, too. If Alphabet holds the range while cloud keeps compounding, the stock's premium valuation looks earned. But if the spending number jumps again without growth to match, investors may have some cause for concern.
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is likely to face questions about its delayed frontier AI during earnings. Bloomberg/Getty Images In the AI race, the throne is never safe. Just ask Google.
After the success of Gemini 3, Google found itself in a strong position at the end of 2025. As of this week, the situation is a little shakier.
While the company just rolled out three faster, more cost-effective models, it continues to delay its next frontier model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, and it's unclear whether this week's launches will be enough to keep users and investors happy in the interim.
Some of Google's competitors are using the opportunity to land a few jabs.
Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, wrote on X "gemini who?" in response to a leaderboard that ranked Meta's Spark model above one launched by Google this week.
Thibault Sottiaux, a member of technical staff at OpenAI, also took an apparent jab at the search giant. In a post on X, Google's Logan Kilpatrick announced that pre-training on Gemini 4 — the next big milestone model — had begun. "Hope it finishes one day too!" Sottiaux replied.
Google declined to comment.
'Too early to count anyone out'Google's delay is particularly glaring because OpenAI and Anthropic have rolled out new top-tier models in recent weeks. The pushback of Gemini 3.5 Pro has "shifted perception from leading edge to trailing edge," said Josh Beck, an analyst at Raymond James, in a note this week. He said he saw this as a byproduct of the fast pace of change among the labs right now.
At the same time, Google's business has been humming along nicely in recent quarters, with strong momentum across Search, YouTube, Cloud, and other areas benefiting from Google's AI advancements. Google is also betting that faster, more cost-effective models may be a winning strategy at a time when token costs are racking up.
Google's focus on more efficient models has received praise from some users.
"Google gets a lot of criticism on here for falling behind on agentic coding, but Gemini 3.5 Flash has long been my daily driver for agentic document extraction, which is one of the highest-value use-cases for LLMs IMO," Kyle Walker, founder of Clearfork Intelligence, wrote on X.
Still, Google may need to address this trade-off between efficiency and power when it announces Q2 earnings on Wednesday evening. Analysts are likely to raise the topic of 3.5 Pro and its release timeline.
"I love Gemini, probably more than I should but them hyping 4 before even delivering 3.5 Pro is a lil weird," Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, wrote on X.
Sag told Business Insider he felt that Google hyping up Gemini 4 was an "admission they already have something better." However, he said the "feverish pace" of AI right now doesn't necessarily yield meaningful improvements.
"I just feel like Google is a much bigger company and moves a bit differently from its competitors," said Sag.
He added: "It's just way too early to count anyone out."
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Reddit and a growing number of news publishers are reportedly mulling whether to cut off Google’s access to their sites as the Big Tech giant’s controversial AI search summaries siphon web traffic.
Reddit, which previously inked a $60 million per year deal which permitted Google to use its online message boards to train AI models, has grown disillusioned with the search giant’s tactics and is debating whether the agreement is worth it, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
USA Today, Politico, Reuters and The Economist are also reconsidering their ties to Google over its use of AI-generated “overviews” – which are placed at the top of search results instead of links to outside outlets in what critics have called an existential threat to online publishers.
Reddit is considering cutting ties despite having a content partnership with Google. SDF_QWE – stock.adobe.com
Social media community forum Reddit is considering cutting off Google’s access to the site. Amanda Alamsyah – stock.adobe.com “It’s time to take a stand and say enough is enough,” said USA Today CEO Mike Reed told the Journal.
Google search traffic from US users to USA Today plummeted by nearly half over the 12 months ending in June 2026, according to data compiled by Semrush. Traffic plunged 23% for Politico and by more than 85% for Business Insider, the report found.
USA Today – which is already suing Google for alleging operating a monopoly over digital advertising technology – is considering cutting off Google’s access to its articles for AI training. That would also mean its articles would no longer appear in search results.
Politico, which is owned by publishing giant Axel Springer, has discussed blocking Google and other bots from accessing its non-paywalled articles, according to the report. Reuters is also considering limits.
USA Today could cut off Google’s access to its articles. sharafmaksumov – stock.adobe.com “We are certainly looking at the economic trade-offs between search and AI summaries,” Reuters President Paul Bascobert told the Journal.
A Google spokesperson pushed back on the criticism, asserting that publishers are able to opt out of allowing their sites to be used for training its Gemini AI models without removing themselves from search.
“Google’s AI Search features send billions of clicks to the web every week, meeting people’s evolving preferences for how they want to find information while driving significant traffic to websites,” the spokesperson said.
Google is accused of siphoning traffic from news publishers. Koshiro K – stock.adobe.com “Our AI features highlight links to the web and help creators and publishers grow their audiences, and we offer clear controls for website owners to manage their content.”
Meanwhile, Google has turned up the heat on news publishers.
An example of AI Overview on a Google search page. Google In June, The Information reported that the company was pitching news publishers on a pilot program to have their sites featured in AI Overviews – but only if they agreed to allow sweeping access to their content for AI training.
Warren Buffett once joked that outgoing Apple (AAPL -1.05%) CEO Tim Cook had made more money for Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA -0.07%) (BRKB -0.21%) than Buffett ever did. Of course, it was Buffett's decision to pile about $36 billion into Apple stock between 2016 and 2018, an investment that resulted in massive capital gains for Berkshire shareholders.
Unfortunately, Berkshire has sold more than 75% of its Apple stake since 2018. The stock now trades near its all-time high, about 70% higher than where it was when Buffett started selling the stock in earnest in early 2024. He even joked in an interview earlier this year that he sold it too soon.
Indeed, if Berkshire had held on to every share it owned in 2018, its stake in Apple would be worth approximately $330 billion today.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Buffett's most profitable investment ever Despite "selling too early," the Apple investment netted over $100 billion in profit for Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett estimated earlier this year. With the stock price climbing to a new all-time high this month, the value of that investment keeps going up. Apple remains Berkshire's largest equity position.
The reason Buffett sold the stock was simple: The value of Berkshire's stake in the tech company had exceeded the value of everything else in its equity portfolio in 2023.
"I'm very happy to have it be our largest holding," he explained. "I was not happy to have it be as large as almost everything else combined."
While Buffett prefers a relatively concentrated portfolio and favors a strategy of letting his winners run, the portfolio's degree of concentration in Apple became too large even for him. It was all about risk management.
However, 2026 has been another strong year for Apple. The market has rewarded Apple for its relatively capital-light business model compared to other tech giants like Alphabet (GOOG +0.00%) (GOOGL -0.13%). While the hyperscalers are planning to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on capex this year to build and outfit new data centers, Apple's capex has barely budged. It spent about $11 billion on capital expenditures over the past 12 months. That's remarkable for a business that generated over $140 billion in cash from operations over the same period.
Apple has seen strong iPhone sales, and the market still expects strength from its flagship product with potential for an AI-driven upgrade cycle, thanks to the long-awaited Siri revamp released this summer.
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Interestingly, Buffett and his successor, Greg Abel, have turned their attention to Alphabet amid its capital spending spree, suggesting the market may have become overly pessimistic about the potential returns on hyperscalers' data center investments. The size of Berkshire Hathaway's bet on Alphabet is quickly approaching the amount of capital Buffett poured into Apple a decade ago.
Buffett said he'd be interested in buying more Apple stock again if the price came down, but the price has only moved higher since he made that comment. Even at today's price, he and Abel appear to be comfortable with Berkshire's current stake in Apple, keeping it as the largest position in the company's stock portfolio for now.
CNBC's MacKenzie Sigalos reports on why Alphabet's results and spending outlook could move the broader AI trade — with investors looking for cloud growth and resilient search profits to support a capex bill Bank of America sees nearing $300 billion next year.
SummaryAlphabet's Q2 earnings will likely be more than just a quarterly report. Investors will also see it as an important gauge of whether the AI buildout cycle remains intact.Continued strength in Google Cloud and a confirmation of high AI investment could provide positive read-through for certain Quant Strong Buy stocks.Investors will also look ahead for additional confirmation in a matter of days, with Microsoft and Amazon reporting next week.Together, those results could help determine whether July's pullback was the beginning of a deeper correction in the AI trade or just a healthy reset before the next growth phase.I am Steven Cress, Head of Quantitative Strategies at Seeking Alpha. I manage the quant ratings and factor grades on stocks and ETFs in Seeking Alpha Premium. I also lead Quant Growth and Income, which is a model portfolio for dividend investors interested in capital appreciation and income. Getty Images
GOOG Earnings and AI "Picks-and-Shovels" Stocks Alphabet's (GOOG) (GOOGL) second quarter earnings report could provide one of the clearest signals yet on whether hyperscalers remain committed to the artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout. Investors will closely watch for management
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of CRDO, LITE either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given that any particular security, portfolio, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. The author is not advising you personally concerning the nature, potential, value or suitability of any particular security or other matter. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. Steven Cress is the Head of Quantitative Strategy at Seeking Alpha. Any views or opinions expressed herein may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank.
Amazon Earnings: What Wall Street Will Be WatchingThe brokerage reiterated its Buy rating and $310 price forecast, citing improving AI positioning, accelerating AWS growth and continued momentum in generative AI services as potential catalysts for the stock in the second half of 2026.
Bank of America now expects Amazon to report second-quarter revenue of $198.8 billion and operating income of $24.1 billion, above Wall Street consensus estimates of $196.8 billion and $23.6 billion, respectively.
The firm also raised its AWS revenue growth forecast to 33% year over year, up from its prior estimate of 31%, driven by growing demand from Anthropic, OpenAI-powered Bedrock services and broader enterprise AI adoption.
AWS Growth Remains The Key FocusAnalysts expect Amazon’s third-quarter revenue guidance to range between $200.5 billion and $205.5 billion, roughly bracketing Street expectations.
They noted that an earlier-than-usual Prime Day will likely create a headwind for third-quarter retail comparisons after shifting some sales into the second quarter.
The firm said investors should focus less on headline earnings and more on AWS growth, cloud margins, AI backlog expansion and commentary around capital spending.
Bank of America believes Amazon’s cloud business continues to strengthen relative to competitors, supported by Bedrock adoption, Trainium chips and growing AI workloads.
AI Spending And Anthropic PartnershipThe brokerage also said Amazon could increase its 2026 capital expenditure outlook to about $210 billion because of higher memory costs and additional AI infrastructure investment.
While that could weigh on near-term sentiment, analysts said stronger cloud demand and improving AI monetization should outweigh those concerns over time.
Bank of America added that Amazon’s expanding relationship with Anthropic could further boost results. The firm estimates Anthropic-related workloads alone could contribute more than $1.5 billion in sequential AWS revenue growth during the quarter, while Amazon’s stake in the AI startup could generate a significant mark-to-market gain.
Wall Street Remains Bullish Ahead Of EarningsAmazon is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 30.
Wall Street expects earnings of $1.82 per share, up from $1.68 a year earlier. Revenue is projected to reach $196.02 billion, compared with $167.70 billion in the prior-year quarter.
The stock trades at about 29.6 times forward earnings. Analysts maintain a Buy consensus rating with an average price forecast of $320.10. Recent analyst actions include:
Wells Fargo reiterated Overweight and raised its price forecast to $322 on July 21. KeyBanc maintained Overweight and increased its price forecast to $335 on July 16. Wedbush reiterated Outperform with a $293 price forecast on July 16. Amazon ETF ExposureAmazon is a major holding in several exchange-traded funds, including:
Large fund flows into or out of these ETFs can influence Amazon’s share price because of its significant portfolio weighting.
Amazon Price ActionAMZN Stock Price Activity: Amazon.com shares were down 1.47% at $243.91 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo via Shutterstock
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Amazon is laying off some employees in its unit focused on artificial general intelligence, the company confirmed Wednesday, as it continues to cut jobs while pouring money into AI.
The company declined to disclose how many staffers were affected, or which parts of the AGI organization were exposed to the cuts. The AGI unit is focused on building AI models, and also includes groups working on silicon development and quantum computing initiatives.
"This is a fast-moving space, and we're sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers, so we can move faster on what counts," an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. "That focus means some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles within parts of our AGI organization, even as we continue to invest in the areas most important to our customers' future."
Reuters first reported the layoffs.
Amazon has been downsizing over the past several years following a pandemic hiring binge, and as it commits massive sums to building out AI infrastructure. The company has laid off more than 30,000 staffers since last October, and has continued to eliminate roles through smaller rounds in recent months.
The AGI unit is a core part of Amazon's AI strategy as the company tries to keep pace with leaders OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. AGI generally refers to AI that can perform as well or better than humans on most tasks.
In 2024, Amazon's AGI group released a set of foundation models, called Nova. The unit took on a more expansive focus last December when Amazon tapped longtime cloud executive Peter DeSantis to replace Rohit Prasad as the head of the group.
In February, the company lost the head of its AGI lab, David Luan, who joined Amazon in 2024 through a so-called acquihire of his startup Adept.
Amazon's spokesperson said the company has been building large AI models for several years and "it remains one of the most important things we're working on."
DeSantis acknowledged in an interview with CNBC last month that Amazon's models "haven't been at the very frontier for the very largest, most demanding workloads."
He said Amazon has been working to shore up its models further and it hopes to have one of the "most capable intelligent models out there."
Amazon is scheduled to report second-quarter results next week. The company has forecast capital expenditures for the year of $200 billion, an increase of more than 50% from 2025, and is raising tens of billions of dollars in debt to help fund its AI buildout.
Amazon has cut jobs in its artificial general intelligence (AGI) group, Reuters reported Wednesday (July 22).
The move follows Amazon’s consolidation of AGI work into part of a larger group that also includes silicon development and quantum computing in December 2025, the departure of AGI-focused executive Rohit Prasad at the end of 2025, and the departure of AGI lab leader David Luan in February, according to the report.
It’s also one of a series of smaller workforce reductions Amazon has made since a much bigger round of layoffs in January, the report said.
Employees reported being impacted by the cuts in the AGI group in posts on online forums Wednesday, but the scope of the cuts is not clear, per the report.
Asked about the reports by Reuters, an Amazon spokesperson said: “We’ve been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we’re working on. We’re sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers, so we can move faster on what counts. That focus means some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles within parts of our AGI organization.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in a Dec. 17, 2025 message that the AGI team was being included in a newly formed organization that brought together the company’s AI models, silicon development and quantum computing, and is led by Peter DeSantis.
Jassy also said in the message that Prasad, who led the creation of the AGI organization over the previous two years, had decided to leave Amazon.
“The path ahead is full of opportunity,” Jassy said in the message. “With the foundation that’s been built, the traction we’re seeing, and Peter’s leadership bringing unified focus to these technologies, we’re well-positioned to lead and deliver meaningful capabilities for our customers. I’m excited about what this team will build and how these foundational technologies will help shape Amazon’s future.”
AGI refers to the development of intelligent machines that can think, learn and perform any intellectual task that a human can, PYMNTS reported in April 2024. Unlike AI systems that are designed to excel at specific tasks, AGI aims to create machines that can think and reason like humans, adapt to new challenges and learn from experience.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) reports second-quarter earnings on July 30, and Bank of America is raising the bar ahead of the print, arguing AWS is accelerating faster than the Street expects.
BofA now projects second-quarter revenue of $198.8 billion and operating profit of $24.1 billion, both above consensus of $196.8 billion and $23.6 billion.
The upside case centers on AWS: the bank raised its growth estimate to 33% year over year, up from 31%, a 5-point acceleration from the first quarter.
The driver is surging demand from AI model providers, with Anthropic-related revenue and OpenAI models on Bedrock cited as key contributors.
AWS margins should expand year over year to 34% on strong capacity utilization and pricing, though they'll contract sequentially as stock-based compensation rises.
Retail looks steadier. Bank of America card data shows online spending accelerated 2 points sequentially, consistent with Street expectations for North American retail growth to reach 14% year over year, even as the Prime Day bump appeared more modest than in prior years. BofA also thinks Amazon could raise its 2026 capex outlook to $210 billion on higher memory costs.
For the third quarter, BofA expects revenue guidance of $200.5 billion to $205.5 billion, a midpoint just below the Street's $204 billion. That outlook bakes in a roughly $1 billion sequential decline in North American retail tied to Prime Day timing, offset by international growth and AWS accelerating to 36%, adding an estimated $3.8 billion sequentially.
On profit, BofA expects a guidance range of $21.5 billion to $26.5 billion, with a $24 billion midpoint, flattish sequentially and slightly below the Street's $25 billion. Amazon typically guides conservatively, but AWS acceleration should still drive sequential profit growth.
BofA's broader thesis is that results will showcase Amazon's improving AI positioning, including AWS acceleration, an expanding backlog reportedly including $100 billion tied to Anthropic, positive Bedrock datapoints, and margin benefits from Amazon's Trainium chips.
As of 11:31 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.13%) is up 0.24% to 52,351.14, the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.01%) has gained 0.07% to 7,514.29, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.31%) has slipped 0.15% to 25,798.97 as tech stocks come under pressure.
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Gold prices have climbed 1.98% to $4,154.42 as of 11:39 AM ET, while the 10-Year Treasury yield is trading up 0.02% at 4.65%. Utilities and energy stocks are leading sector gains, while technology and communication services are falling.
Today's biggest movesThe Magnificent Seven are in focus this morning, with quarterly results due from Alphabet (GOOGL -0.13%) (GOOG +0.00%) and Tesla (TSLA -0.92%) after the bell. Microsoft (MSFT -2.28%), Amazon (AMZN -1.85%), and Meta Platforms (META -2.69%) all dropped in early trading. Super Micro Computer (SMCIP +17.60%) soared over 24% after the company said it expects its 2026 gross margins to double.
What this means for investorsIt has been a mixed morning of trading as oil prices continued to increase, fueling renewed inflation concerns and pressuring global markets. WTI crude rose over 2% to more than $86 a barrel. Traders are concerned about further supply restrictions as tensions in the Middle East show no signs of de-escalation.
A research note from Goldman Sachs Group highlighted the eye watering level of debt issuance to fund artificial intelligence (AI) build-outs. It said around $489 billion in AI-related debt had been issued this year, with hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta accounting for 40% of the debt. As markets brace for Alphabet and Tesla earnings later today, investors will be looking for signs that this intensive spending is driving revenue growth.
Emma Newbery has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Goldman Sachs Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
by Mary Jo Foley on Jul 22, 2026 at 9:36 amJuly 22, 2026 at 9:53 am
Nearly 20 years ago (!), in 2007, I published my first and only book: Microsoft 2.0. It focused on changes I expected at the company in the “Post-Gates” era. What would remain the same and what likely would be different once co-founder and CEO Bill Gates had left the building?
CEO Satya Nadella has not exited the company (yet). But there’s no question that Microsoft and its mission have morphed considerably in the past year or two. I’m not quite ready to christen this the Microsoft 3.0 era, even though Nadella handed the reins of Microsoft’s dominant commercial business to Judson Althoff nearly a year ago.
That decision resulted in Nadella moving into more of a “founder mode” role, allowing him to focus less on the day-to-day work of running the business. (Microsoft historians may recall that Gates made a somewhat similar move back in 2000 when he became Microsoft’s chief software architect.)
While it might not yet be time for Microsoft 3.0, we arguably could be in the “Microsoft 2.5” era. Windows and Office are still around and still play a big role. Microsoft still builds and sells developer tools and databases. But there’s no question that the cloud and all things AI are at the top of the pecking order now.
I’m embarking on a series here at GeekWire that will focus on what matters to Microsoft and, by extension, to its customers, partners, investors, and employees these days. Who are some of the people shaping and leading the company? What are their opportunities and challenges right now?
Over the next few weeks, I will be profiling various Microsoft execs working on plans for Microsoft’s ongoing evolution. Some are company veterans; some are newcomers. I’ll be talking with top execs from Microsoft’s Security, Copilot, Windows + Devices, Xbox, GitHub, and more.
I’m interested in their strategies for Microsoft’s key products and technologies and how they plan to try to turn Microsoft’s ambitious vision into reality. What are their teams building? What do they see as their biggest challenges and opportunities? And where do they see the technologies in their respective areas heading?
I feel like many of us who’ve been keeping track of the biggest tech companies (myself included) have fallen into the trap of blaming or attributing everything a company does to AI. Layoffs? AI is the culprit. Price increases? It’s all thanks to AI. Changing sales strategies? Chalk it up to AI …
But upon further reflection, I believe Microsoft’s strategy is more nuanced than “AI or bust.” There’s no question that Microsoft’s AI ambitions are shaping its goals and tactics. But Microsoft, as a heavily enterprise-focused entity, can’t simply stop supporting products that aren’t built from the ground up with AI (as much as it might like to do so). Nor can it just leave behind customers who aren’t 100% onboard with its AI moves.
Couple those enterprise hurdles with some not-so-popular consumer decisions, like axing 3,200 people in the gaming unit, and Microsoft’s approach to turning the ship looks a lot trickier.
Our Microsoft 2.5 series kicks off Thursday. Stay tuned.
BENSALEM, Pa., July 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith reminds investors that class action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies. Investors have until the deadlines listed below to file a lead plaintiff motion.
Investors suffering losses on their investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in these class actions at (215) 638-4847 or by email to [email protected].
Erasca, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERAS)
Class Period: January 14, 2025 – April 26, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 10, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) ERAS-0015’s preclinical data was based on improper comparisons to RevMed and placed Erasca at risk of violating patent and trade secret protections; and (2) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Nano-X Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ: NNOX)
Class Period: March 31, 2025 – April 17, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 11, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Defendants overstated purported efficiency gains achieved in Nano-X’s operations, as well as the purported increased demand for its products; (2) in reality, Nano-X’s production and manufacturing operations were poorly aligned with demand for the Company’s products; (3) as a result, Nano-X was experiencing significantly increased operating expenses and cash burn; (4) the foregoing significantly increased the likelihood that Nano-X would be forced to take disruptive remedial measures with respect to its manufacturing operations, entailing significant restructuring and impairment charges; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Class Period: May 1, 2025 – January 28, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 11, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) that Microsoft’s Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) that Microsoft’s flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) that Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert GPU and CPU capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related R&D; (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and the Company’s Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Black Rock Coffee Bar, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCB)
Class Period: September 12, 2025 – May 12, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 17, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) Black Rock Coffee’s new store openings were leading to a cannibalization of its existing services and revenue; (2) Black Rock Coffee overstated the manner in which its expansion strategy was tailored to avoid “sales transfer”; (3) as a result of “sales transfer,” the Company’s financial results were materially impacted; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
To be a member of these class actions, you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about these class actions, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone at (215) 638-4847 or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Contacts
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith
Howard G. Smith, Esquire
215-638-4847
888-638-4847 [email protected]
www.howardsmithlaw.com
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) both reported quarters shaped by one question: how do you feed AI enough electricity?
I keep hitting the buy button on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) because I am buying three relationships that no other Mag 7 name can replicate, and the market just handed me a chance to load up while the stock sits down 16.45% year to date and down 20.49% over the past year.
The Three Relationships That Keep Pulling Me Back First, the OpenAI model and API relationship. Satya Nadella spelled it out plainly on the last call: “We have a frontier model royalty-free with all the IP rights that we will have access to all the way to ’32, and we fully plan to exploit it.” Microsoft owns roughly 27% of OpenAI valued near $135B, and OpenAI has contracted an incremental $250B in Azure services. That is a customer, a supplier, and a partner in one seat.
Second, the AMD Helios rack-scale co-development. On July 20, 2026, Microsoft confirmed it will integrate AMD’s Helios AI platform and next-generation EPYC processors into Azure across new HDv2, HXv2, and ND MI455X v7 virtual machines. Microsoft is designing the rack alongside Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), not renting one.
Third, the Copilot+ PC silicon standard and the enterprise seat base behind it. Microsoft now has over 20 million Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats, seat adds up 250% year over year, and Accenture alone at 740,000 seats. That is the client-edge lock.
The Data That Makes It Cheap The AI business now runs at a $37B annualized rate, up 123% year over year. Commercial remaining performance obligations sit at $627B, up 99%. Q3 FY26 delivered EPS of $4.27 against $4.09 estimated, the fourth consecutive beat, on revenue of $82.89B, up 18.3%. Operating margin holds at 45.62%, ROE at 33.28%, and debt to equity at 0.176 with interest coverage of 53.89x. At a trailing P/E of 23 and a forward P/E of 20, I am paying a market multiple for one of the highest-quality balance sheets in the market.
Why Not the Obvious Alternatives The names a reader reaches for first are Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) for AWS and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) for Google Cloud. Neither one owns a royalty-free IP license to a frontier model through 2032. Neither one shows me a $627B RPO backlog that grew 99%. Neither one is running 17 exabytes of enterprise context in a WorkIQ layer that gets stickier every day. Azure grew 40% off a base that crossed $75B in annual revenue in FY25. My money keeps going here because the moat is specific and measurable.
The Real Risk CapEx. Q3 alone hit $30.88B, up 84.39%, and management guided calendar 2026 CapEx near $190B. Free cash flow fell 3.32% in FY25. If AI returns do not materialize, payback stretches. What keeps me steady: roughly two-thirds is short-lived GPU and CPU capacity, with the rest supporting 15-plus year monetization, and operating cash flow climbed 26.01% to $46.68B in a single quarter.
Forward Conviction Analysts carry a $558.21 target with 54 buys and zero sells. I need the three relationships to keep compounding, the dividend of $3.56 per share to keep growing, and management to keep returning capital like the $12.7B they sent shareholders in Q2 alone. As long as OpenAI, AMD, and 20 million Copilot seats pull in the same direction, my buy button stays warm.
