Key Takeaways NBIS pipeline generation grew 3.5 times quarter over quarter to a record level amid strong demand.Nebius raised 2026 capital spending to $20B-$25B to expand capacity with customer commitments secured.NBIS reaffirmed 2026 revenue guidance as utilization, pricing and added capacity support growth. Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS - Free Report) is seeing strong momentum in customer demand, supported by a rapidly expanding sales pipeline and increasing adoption of its AI cloud platform. During the first quarter, the company reported that pipeline generation grew 3.5 times from the previous quarter, marking a record level. Management stated that the growing pipeline, together with strong customer demand, is driving continued investments in infrastructure, platform capabilities and capacity expansion. The company noted that several customers are typically competing for every GPU it brings online, while contract durations, average contract values and customer prepayments continue to increase.
Alongside growing demand, Nebius continues to expand its AI infrastructure and full-stack cloud platform. The company increased its contracted power capacity to more than 3.5 gigawatts and now targets at least 4 gigawatts by the end of 2026. It also announced a new Pennsylvania site capable of supporting 1.2 gigawatts of power. To strengthen its platform, Nebius acquired Tavily, Eigen AI and Clarifai, adding engineering talent and enhancing its inference optimization, agentic search and Token Factory capabilities.
The company highlighted its pipeline excludes strategic hyperscaler agreements such as Meta Platforms, Inc. (META - Free Report) and consists of qualified opportunities across its AI cloud and Token Factory offerings, serving AI-native companies, software vendors and enterprises. Nebius maintained strong win rates while shortening sales cycles, increasing average selling prices and securing customer wins across healthcare, life sciences, physical AI, automation and fintech.
For 2026, Nebius raised capital expenditure guidance to $20 billion-$25 billion from the previous $16 billion-$20 billion range. The increase reflects investments for 2027 capacity, with customer commitments already secured, including Meta. Management expects these investments to begin contributing to revenue during the first half of 2027.
Nebius reiterated its full-year 2026 guidance for annualized run-rate revenue of $7 billion-$9 billion, group revenue of $3 billion-$3.4 billion and a group adjusted EBITDA margin of around 40%. The company said utilization and pricing remain strong, while additional capacity will remain the key factor supporting growth throughout the year.
Taking a Look at NBIS’ CompetitorsMicrosoft (MSFT - Free Report) capitalizes on AI business momentum and Copilot adoption alongside accelerating Azure cloud infrastructure expansion. Strong Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud demand has been propelling Productivity and Business Processes revenue growth. ARPU is increasing through E5 and M365 Copilot uptake across key segments. Strategic execution through expanding scale and enterprise customer growth is driving non-AI services. Azure growth for the fourth quarter is projected to be 39-40% at cc, suggesting demand saturation, with customer demand exceeding available capacity. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, Microsoft expects total company revenues between $86.7 billion and $87.8 billion, suggesting growth of 13% to 15%, with accelerating commercial growth partially offset by the consumer business.
CoreWeave (CRWV - Free Report) is seeing strong demand for inference-ready compute across GPU generations, which management expects to support long-term margin and earnings growth. The company also expects its storage business to grow rapidly, while software, CPU and networking offerings are each projected to exceed $100 million in ARR by 2026. AI adoption is expanding its customer base and platform opportunities as clients scale deployments across training, inference and agentic AI workloads. CoreWeave has surpassed 3.5 GW of contracted power capacity, secured more than $20 billion in financing and grown its backlog to nearly $100 billion, supporting growth through 2026 and 2027.
NBIS Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of Nebius have gained 4.4% in the past month against the Internet – Software and Services industry’s decline of 0.3%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
On a price-to-book basis, NBIS’ shares are trading at 9.65X, above the Internet Software Services industry’s 4.21X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NBIS’ earnings for 2026 has been revised significantly upward over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
NBIS currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Nebius Group NBIS stock is under immense pressure this morning mostly because of aggressive new competitive threat from its biggest customer – Meta Platforms (META).
As investors bailed on NBIS, the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure firm sunk below its 20-day moving average (MA), indicating bearish momentum could sustain in the near-term.
Despite today’s decline, however, Nebius shares remain a blockbuster investment for 2026 – still up some 150% versus the start of this year.
NBIS stock is taking a major hit on July 1 following a Bloomberg report that Meta Platforms Inc is developing an internal cloud infrastructure business.
Dubbed “Meta Compute”, the new initiative aims at selling excess AI computing power and hosted artificial intelligence models to outside developers.
This moves the titan directly into the bare-metal GPU capacity market dominated by “specialized” neocloud providers like Nebius Group.
Meta’s announcement is particularly bruising for NBIS because it recently locked in a multi-year AI infrastructure partnership with the Facebook-parent valued at up to $27 billion.
Investors are concerned because the Bloomberg report essentially suggests the company’s largest customer is warming up to become its most formidable competitor.
Meta Compute also threatens Nebius by reshaping the economics of hyperscale AI infrastructure.
If the titan begins commercializing its surplus GPU clusters, it effectively floods the market with low‑cost, high‑performance compute that NBIS can’t replicate without sacrificing margins.
This new segment will also give META privileged visibility into customer workloads, enabling it to bundle compute with its own AI models and developer tools – a closed-loop ecosystem that will further strengthen its edge over Nebius Group.
All in all, by controlling both supply and demand, the Mark Zuckerberg company may eventually succeed in steering enterprise clients away from external neocloud providers.
That structural power shift raises real concerns that Nebius shares’ longer-term growth curve may flatten far sooner than investors expected.
NBIS shares are also being punished because they’re trading at a rather stretched 125x sales at the time of writing. This means they hardly have any room to digest setbacks like the potential META competition.
Additionally, investors are increasingly sensitive to the fact that Nebius insiders have been selling aggressively, recording 17 “sell” transactions since the start of 2026 and zero purchases.
Short interest on NBIS has quietly climbed to about 24% as well, leaving the equity vulnerable to sudden shifts in sentiment.
What’s also worth mentioning is that Wall Street firms aren’t particularly bullish on Nebius Group following its meteoric year-to-date run.
While the consensus rating on NBIS remains at “Moderate Buy”, the mean target of about $237 is already in line with where the price at which it’s trading currently.
Momentum investing revolves around the idea of following a stock's recent trend in either direction. In "long context," investors will be essentially be "buying high, but hoping to sell even higher." With this methodology, taking advantage of trends in a stock's price is key; once a stock establishes a course, it is more than likely to continue moving that way. The goal is that once a stock heads down a fixed path, it will lead to timely and profitable trades.
While many investors like to look for momentum in stocks, this can be very tough to define. There is a lot of debate surrounding which metrics are the best to focus on and which are poor quality indicators of future performance. The Zacks Momentum Style Score, part of the Zacks Style Scores, helps address this issue for us.
Below, we take a look at Diversified Healthcare (DHC - Free Report) , a company that currently holds a Momentum Style Score of B. We also talk about price change and earnings estimate revisions, two of the main aspects of the Momentum Style Score.
It's also important to note that Style Scores work as a complement to the Zacks Rank, our stock rating system that has an impressive track record of outperformance. Diversified Healthcare currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Our research shows that stocks rated Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and #2 (Buy) and Style Scores of "A or B" outperform the market over the following one-month period.
You can see the current list of Zacks #1 Rank Stocks here >>>
Set to Beat the Market? In order to see if DHC is a promising momentum pick, let's examine some Momentum Style elements to see if this residential care real estate investment trust holds up.
Looking at a stock's short-term price activity is a great way to gauge if it has momentum, since this can reflect both the current interest in a stock and if buyers or sellers have the upper hand at the moment. It is also useful to compare a security to its industry, as this can help investors pinpoint the top companies in a particular area.
For DHC, shares are up 7.11% over the past week while the Zacks REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry is up 3.44% over the same time period. Shares are looking quite well from a longer time frame too, as the monthly price change of 9.41% compares favorably with the industry's 4.13% performance as well.
While any stock can see a spike in price, it takes a real winner to consistently outperform the market. Over the past quarter, shares of Diversified Healthcare have risen 34.01%, and are up 147.34% in the last year. In comparison, the S&P 500 has only moved 14.95% and 21.93%, respectively.
Investors should also pay attention to DHC's average 20-day trading volume. Volume is a useful item in many ways, and the 20-day average establishes a good price-to-volume baseline; a rising stock with above average volume is generally a bullish sign, whereas a declining stock on above average volume is typically bearish. DHC is currently averaging 2,114,888 shares for the last 20 days.
Earnings OutlookThe Zacks Momentum Style Score encompasses many things, including estimate revisions and a stock's price movement. Investors should note that earnings estimates are also significant to the Zacks Rank, and a nice path here can be promising. We have recently been noticing this with DHC.
Over the past two months, 1 earnings estimate moved higher compared to none lower for the full year. This revision helped boost DHC's consensus estimate, increasing from $0.57 to $0.60 in the past 60 days. Looking at the next fiscal year, 1 estimate has moved upwards while there have been no downward revisions in the same time period.
Bottom LineTaking into account all of these elements, it should come as no surprise that DHC is a #2 (Buy) stock with a Momentum Score of B. If you've been searching for a fresh pick that's set to rise in the near-term, make sure to keep Diversified Healthcare on your short list.
Key Takeaways New NSF grant adds to growing U.S. government support for D-Wave.QBTS will provide dual-rail gate-model resources through its Quantum Circuits subsidiary.QBTS previously announced a proposed $100M CHIPS Act funding commitment. D-Wave Quantum (QBTS - Free Report) , or D-Wave, has secured a $1.5 million grant under the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (“NQVL”) program. The funding will support the company’s participation in ERASE (Erasure Qubits and Dynamic Circuits for Quantum Advantage), a Yale University-led initiative focused on developing the technologies needed for scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing. The project brings together researchers from leading academic institutions and industry organizations to advance dual-rail gate-model quantum computing hardware, software, error correction and applications.
The University pioneered the dual-rail technology behind D-Wave’s gate-model program and later became part of the company through its January 2026 acquisition of Quantum Circuits, Inc., a Yale startup. As part of the collaboration, D-Wave will provide researchers with access to its superconducting dual-rail gate-model quantum computing resources through the subsidiary. The award also moves ERASE into the second phase of the NQVL program.
Researchers participating in ERASE will be able to explore new software, compilers and error-correction approaches on D-Wave's platform via selected development interfaces and APIs. At the same time, the project will also broaden workforce development efforts with academic and industry partners, helping expand the talent pipeline for quantum technologies.
The latest NSF-funded project builds on growing U.S. government support for D-Wave's quantum computing technologies. In May, the company announced it had signed a Letter of Intent for $100 million of proposed funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act to accelerate the development and scaling of its annealing and gate-model quantum computing systems.
Recent Developments Among QBTS PeersIBM (IBM - Free Report) introduced the world’s first sub-1 nanometer (nm) chip technology, featuring a breakthrough transistor architecture at the 0.7 nm, or 7 angstrom node. The development marks a major milestone for an industry facing the physical limits of traditional chip scaling. IBM’s new sub-1 nm chip packs nearly 100 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail, nearly twice the density of IBM’s 2 nm chip, unveiled in 2021.
IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) recently unveiled Clavis XG Multiplex, a new addition to its Clavis XG Quantum Key Distribution portfolio, designed to make quantum security even more practical and deployable across metropolitan fiber networks. The Clavis XG product line stands out for its enterprise???grade network integration, offering benefits in form factor and maintenance to configuration and management. IonQ also recently opened a new laboratory suite in Boulder, CO, to support quantum computing R&D and semiconductor chip testing facilities.
The Zacks Rundown for QBTS StockYear to date, QBTS shares have dropped 8.3% compared with the industry’s 14.3% decline.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
D-Wave is trading at a forward, three-year Price/Sales (P/S) of 134.69X, significantly higher than its 75.49X median and the industry average of 3.62X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Take a look at how estimates for D-Wave’s 2026 and 2027 earnings are shaping up.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
D-Wave currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
DALLAS, July 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD), a designer, builder, and operator of high-performance, sustainably engineered data centers and colocation services for artificial intelligence, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads, today announced it has achieved Ready for Service for Phase 1 of Building 2 at Polaris Forge 1, delivering 75 MW of operational AI capacity to its customer on schedule and bringing total live capacity at the campus to 175 MW.
The delivery marks the next major milestone in the continued buildout of Polaris Forge 1, Applied Digital’s fully leased AI Factory Campus designed to support high-density artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads. At full build out, Polaris Forge 1 is contracted to deliver 400 MW of critical IT load under long-term lease agreements.
“Delivering this phase on time underscores the strength of our execution model,” said Wes Cummins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Applied Digital. “Polaris Forge 1 continues to demonstrate the depth of our team and the discipline it takes to bring critical AI infrastructure capacity online for our customers. Achieving this milestone required intense coordination across the field, construction, engineering, operations, procurement, development, and corporate teams, and I’m proud of the entire Applied Digital organization for delivering as planned. With 175 MW now live at the campus, Polaris Forge 1 demonstrates the repeatable model we are scaling across our AI Factory footprint.”
This latest achievement follows Applied Digital’s on-time completion of the first 100 MW building at Polaris Forge 1 and further demonstrates the Company’s ability to bring critical IT capacity online in alignment with customer deployment timelines. With 175 MW now live, Polaris Forge 1 continues to demonstrate Applied Digital’s ability to execute across multiple phases of a large-scale AI infrastructure deployment.
Applied Digital’s execution approach is built around what the Company refers to as its AI Factory franchise model: a repeatable framework that replicates a core team of design, construction, and operations professionals across each campus, supported by centralized expertise and dedicated site-level execution teams.
“Polaris Forge 1 continues to validate the repeatable model we are building across our AI Factory platform,” Cummins continued. “We are not just securing power; we are turning it into live, operational AI capacity. That is the hard part, and it is where Applied Digital continues to differentiate itself.”
As demand for large-scale AI infrastructure continues to grow, customers are placing increasing importance on execution certainty and speed to market. Applied Digital’s on-time delivery of another major phase at Polaris Forge 1 reinforces the Company’s ability to bring complex infrastructure online in alignment with customer timelines.
Polaris Forge 1 is located in Ellendale, North Dakota, where Applied Digital has operated since 2021 and built long-standing relationships with local leaders, partners, and community stakeholders. As the campus continues to expand, the Company remains focused on responsible development, local partnership, and creating long-term value in the communities where it builds.
About Applied Digital
Applied Digital (Nasdaq: APLD), named Best Data Center in the Americas 2025 by Datacloud — designs, builds, and operates high-performance, sustainably engineered data centers and colocation services for artificial intelligence, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, and founded in 2021, the company combines hyperscale expertise, closed-loop cooling, and rapid deployment capabilities to deliver secure, scalable compute at industry-leading speed and efficiency, while creating economic opportunities in underserved communities through its AI Factory franchise model.
Learn more at applieddigital.com or follow @APLDdigital on X and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding, among other things, future operating and financial performance, product development, market position, business strategy and objectives, and future financing plans. These statements use words, and variations of words, such as “will,” “continue,” “build,” “future,” “increase,” “drive,” “believe,” “look,” “ahead,” “confident,” “proven,” “deliver,” “outlook,” “expect,” “project” and “predict.” Other examples of forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, (i) statements that reflect perspectives and expectations regarding lease agreements and any current or prospective data center campus development; (ii) statements about the high-performance computing (HPC) industry; (iii) statements of company plans and objectives, including the company’s evolving business model, or estimates or predictions of actions by suppliers; (iv) statements of future economic performance; (v) statements of assumptions underlying other statements and statements about the company or its business; and (vi) the company’s plans to obtain future project financing. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events and thus are inherently subject to uncertainty. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the company’s expectations and projections. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, among others: whether or not our customers exercise the renewal options under their leases with us (if not, we will not recognize further revenue from such customer under its respective lease); our ability to complete construction of our data center campuses as planned; the lead time of customer acquisition and leasing decisions and related internal approval processes; changes to artificial intelligence and HPC infrastructure needs and their impact on future plans; costs related to the HPC operations and strategy; our ability to timely deliver any services required in connection with completion of installation under lease agreements; our ability to raise additional capital to fund the ongoing datacenter construction and operations; our ability to obtain financing of datacenter leases and more broadly for our development and general corporate activities; our dependence on principal customers, including our ability to execute and perform our obligations under our leases with key customers; our ability to timely and successfully build new hosting facilities with the appropriate contractual margins and efficiencies; power or other supply disruptions and equipment failures; the inability to comply with regulations, developments and changes in regulations; cash flow and access to capital; availability of financing to continue to grow our business; decline in demand for our products and services; maintenance of third party relationships; and conditions in the debt and equity capital markets. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties, and other factors can be found in the company’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections captioned “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors,” and in the company’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, on the company’s website (www.applieddigital.com) under “Investors,” or on request from the company. Information in this press release is as of the dates and time periods indicated herein, and the company does not undertake to update any of the information contained in these materials, except as required by law.
Hyperscaler capex has ballooned to nearly $700 billion, up from roughly $400 billion just three months earlier, according to Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins. Oracle’s transformation into an AI cloud powerhouse is the marquee headline, but the money is quietly rotating into the picks-and-shovels names that get paid whether Oracle, Microsoft, or Meta wins the model race. Five under-the-radar tickers sit directly in that spending firehose, and the market has not fully repriced any of them.
1. Lantronix (LTRX): The Edge Compute Play Hiding Inside the Drone Boom Start with the name nobody mentions in the same sentence as Oracle. Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) makes the onboard edge compute modules that live inside drones and unmanned systems, and every one of those endpoints is a customer of the AI cloud back at the data center. As hyperscalers scale training capacity, the edge devices generating and consuming that inference explode in tandem. Lantronix is the quiet supplier under the hood.
The March quarter told the story. Embedded IoT Solutions grew 22% year over year to $14.62 million, driven almost entirely by drones. Management raised the fiscal 2026 drone revenue outlook to a range of $10 million to $14 million and guided drone revenue to roughly double in fiscal 2027, reaching 15% to 20% of total revenue. Add the FCC’s December 2025 ban on new DJI approvals and a proposed record $75 billion Department of War budget for unmanned and autonomous systems, and the setup writes itself. Shares are up 105% over the past year and still trade at a forward multiple of 20.
Hardware at the edge is one layer of the stack. The software sitting on top of Oracle-grade cloud capacity is where the growth rates get truly absurd.
2. Rezolve AI (RZLV): The Agentic Commerce Software Sitting on Top of the Cloud Rezolve AI (NASDAQ:RZLV) is the application layer riding directly on the AI cloud build-out. Its Brain Suite platform turns retailer catalogs into agentic commerce workflows, the exact use case Oracle, Google, and AWS are pitching to enterprise CIOs. Rezolve gets paid every time an enterprise decides agentic AI is real.
The Q1 fiscal 2026 numbers, filed on June 30, 2026, are eye-watering. Quarterly revenue hit $60.00 million, up 1,800% year over year, meaning a single quarter exceeded the entire fiscal 2025 baseline of roughly $46.8 million. Management reaffirmed fiscal 2026 revenue guidance of approximately $360 million and is targeting a minimum $500 million ARR exit rate for 2026. Shareholders also authorized a $300 million share repurchase at the AGM. CEO Daniel Wagner put it plainly: “Rezolve Ai is operating at a pace, scale and level of commercial momentum that we believe places us among the most exciting AI growth companies in the public markets.”
Software layer, check. But someone has to build and lease the actual physical concrete-and-copper campuses that host it.
3. Applied Digital (APLD): The Pure-Play AI Data Center Landlord Here is the obvious heavyweight. Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) is what Oracle looks like if you strip out the software and keep only the buildings, power, and hyperscaler leases. Polaris Forge 1 is already live with 100 MW of direct-to-chip liquid-cooled capacity, and Polaris Forge 2 carries a signed 15-year, 200 MW hyperscaler lease worth roughly $5 billion.
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Q3 fiscal 2026 revenue landed at $126.64 million, up 139% year over year and beating the $78.48 million consensus. Adjusted EBITDA swung to $44.14 million from $6.26 million a year earlier, and adjusted EPS came in at $0.09 versus a -$0.21 estimate, the fourth consecutive beat. Total contracted capacity of 600 MW represents roughly $16 billion in aggregate revenue over the lease terms. Analysts carry an average target of $73.36 against a current $35.70 share price, and shares are still up 270% over the past year despite a 21% pullback in the last month, arguably the setup investors have been waiting for.
If Applied Digital is the polished operator, the next name is the one nobody expected to end up in the AI cloud sweepstakes at all.
4. HIVE Digital (HIVE): The Bitcoin Miner That Became a GPU Cloud HIVE Digital Technologies (NASDAQ:HIVE) spent a decade mining Bitcoin and is now pivoting the same power infrastructure into GPU-as-a-service. Its BUZZ HPC division just brought the first liquid-cooled NVIDIA B200 cluster live with Bell Canada’s AI Fabric, adding roughly $15 million of incremental ARR. This is the transformation trade in its purest form.
Fiscal 2026 revenue landed at $297.79 million, up 158% year over year. HPC ARR has already grown from roughly $20 million to $35 million, and the planned 320 MW GTA AI Gigafactory is designed to host more than 100,000 GPUs, generating roughly $360 million in ARR at full operations. CEO Aydin Kilic laid out the near-term milestone directly: “doubling the size of our GPU cloud this year, from approximately 5,500 NVIDIA GPUs to approximately 11,000 GPUs under management by the end of calendar 2026, which is expected to generate over $200 million of AI Cloud ARR.” Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets has already caught on, with the thread “Why HIVE will be the big winner in the mining to AI compute race” hitting peak sentiment scores of 82 in the very-bullish zone. Shares are still just $3.47.
5. Blaize Holdings (BZAI): The Sub-$200 Million Lottery Ticket on Inference Silicon Here is the punchline. Blaize Holdings (NASDAQ:BZAI) is a pure-play edge AI inference silicon designer with a market cap of just $196.37 million. Every Oracle, AWS, and Azure inference workload will eventually push out to the edge, and cost per inference is the next battleground. That is exactly the market Blaize was built for. CEO Dinakar Munagala framed it clearly: “AI infrastructure is entering its next phase as the industry moves from model training to inference at global scale.”
Q1 2026 revenue hit $2.70 million, up 168% year over year, with gross margin expanding to 58% from 11% the prior quarter. The pipeline is where the payoff lives: a NeoTensr contract worth up to $50 million, a Winmate partnership worth roughly $15 million in first-year business, and full-year 2026 revenue guidance of approximately $130 million. Yes, shares are down 29% year to date and securities fraud investigations are an overhang worth acknowledging, but at $1.39 a share the asymmetric setup is unambiguous. Five analysts rate it Buy with an average target of $4.80.
The Setup in One Sentence Oracle’s AI cloud pivot is the headline, but the money on the ground is moving into landlords, transformation trades, edge compute suppliers, agentic commerce software, and inference silicon. Applied Digital and HIVE just pulled back hard from recent highs, Rezolve just posted the growth rate of the year, Lantronix has a drone tailwind Washington is directly funding, and Blaize is priced like an option. The names on this list will not stay under the radar much longer.
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CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) and Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS | NBIS Price Prediction) both reported first quarter results that reshape how investors should think about AI cloud infrastructure. CoreWeave leaned into raw US scale, banking a $99.4 billion backlog. Nebius, run out of the Netherlands, delivered +841% YoY AI Cloud growth on a much smaller base while pushing aggressively into US soil.
Backlogs Carry CoreWeave. Margins Carry Nebius. CoreWeave posted $2.078 billion in revenue, up 111.7%, edging past estimates. That top line rests on a fresh $21 billion Meta commitment plus multi-year Anthropic and OpenAI work. CEO Michael Intrator called it “the strongest bookings quarter in CoreWeave’s history”. The catch: a $740 million net loss, $7.695 billion in quarterly capex, and interest expense doubling to $536 million. That growth carries a real cost.
Nebius told a different story. Revenue of $399 million missed the $593.19 million consensus, yet the AI Cloud unit ran at a 45% adjusted EBITDA margin, and cost of revenue collapsed from 49% to 26%. Arkady Volozh framed it as building “the infrastructure, tools, and capabilities for where it will be tomorrow.” That premium posture is the point.
US Powerhouse Versus European Full Stack Operator Lens CoreWeave Nebius Active Power 1+ GW 800MW to 1GW target Backlog / RPO $99.4B backlog $33.59B RPO Core Bet Inference at hyperscaler scale Full stack cloud plus subsidiaries Key Vulnerability $50.814 billion in liabilities Meta concentration, $10.04B convertible debt CoreWeave sits “between the models and the silicon”, tightening around inference on NVIDIA GB200 systems. Nebius spreads wider, running Avride robodelivery (174,000+ deliveries), TripleTen education, and the ClickHouse stake that produced a $780.60M non-cash gain. That optionality is real, but it complicates the story.
The Next Test Is Cash Burn Discipline I want to see whether CoreWeave can convert that $99.4 billion backlog without perpetually negative free cash flow (-$4.711 billion in Q1). For Nebius, the tell is whether the $3.0B to $3.4B 2026 revenue guide holds after a Q1 miss, and whether Pennsylvania and Missouri AI factories light up on schedule. Both companies pulled in $2 billion NVIDIA equity checks, a signal I read as supply chain insurance more than validation.
Why I Lean CoreWeave for Scale, Nebius for Upside For me, CoreWeave looks like the sturdier bet on raw US AI capacity. The stock is down 38.95% over the past year to $99.54, and it trades at roughly 8x sales versus Nebius near 76x. If you want defensive exposure to hyperscaler AI spend, CoreWeave’s US pipeline and Meta anchor look durable. If you prefer sharper upside variance and can stomach a 399.13% one-year run and premium valuation, Nebius fits a growth-believer profile. Both names carry meaningful risk if AI capex signals wobble into the back half of 2026.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Nebius Group didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Rough day for CoreWeave (CRWV 13.13%) shareholders. Already drifting lower from its early May peak, as of 12:25 p.m. ET the stock's down 12.7% on Wednesday alone, reaching a new multi-week low as a result.
Blame Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META +9.78%), mostly, which now poses a more direct threat to CoreWeave's future growth.
New competitor CoreWeave is an artificial intelligence data center operator, if you aren't aware, offering cloud-based access to AI infrastructure to companies that need it but don't want to build such facilities for themselves. OpenAI, Cloudflare, and Perplexity are just some of its customers contributing to Q1's revenue of nearly $2.1 billion, up 111% year over year. Analysts were looking for similar growth this year and through next year.
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Now that projected triple-digit growth is threatened. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported Meta is establishing a new business to sell access to its artificial intelligence computing capacity that it's already built but isn't using (yet), confirming an idea that CEO Mark Zuckerberg first floated at Meta's annual shareholder meeting in May.
It's not clear how much artificial intelligence capacity Meta has, or how much excess it has to offer. It isn't insignificant, though. The company is budgeting up to $145 billion worth of capital expenditures for this year alone -- largely on AI infrastructure -- as part of a sizable wave of past and future investment in such technology. Its sheer scale easily dwarfs CoreWeave's.
Don't flinch It's a concern for CoreWeave shareholders to be sure. This is a case, however, where bigger isn't necessarily better.
See, CoreWeave's something of a specialist, built from the ground up with machine learning, training, inference, and now agentic AI for third parties in mind. Although Meta can certainly develop specialized solutions as well, Facebook remains its breadwinning priority, while CoreWeave has a strong developmental headstart on Meta's new third-party artificial infrastructure business.
There's also likely to be more than enough AI business to go around for both parties.
More to the point for current or prospective CoreWeave shareholders, today's reporting on Meta's new ambition isn't quite the catastrophe the stock's sudden setback suggests it is. And it's certainly not a reason to sell it if you weren't already on the fence. Indeed, given that the underlying investment thesis hasn't really changed, if you were considering buying a stake in CoreWeave before today, Wednesday's stumble is a compelling entry opportunity.
It doesn't matter your age or experience: taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for all investors. Luckily, Zacks Premium offers several different ways to do both.
The popular research service can help you become a smarter, more self-assured investor, giving you access to daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens.
It also includes access to the Zacks Style Scores.
What are the Zacks Style Scores? The Zacks Style Scores, developed alongside the Zacks Rank, are complementary indicators that rate stocks based on three widely-followed investing methodologies; they also help investors pick stocks with the best chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Based on their value, growth, and momentum characteristics, each stock is assigned a rating of A, B, C, D, or F. The better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform; an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value ScoreFor value investors, it's all about finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value before the broader market catches on. The Value Style Score utilizes ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to help pick out the most attractive and discounted stocks.
Growth ScoreWhile good value is important, growth investors are more focused on a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score takes projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow into account to uncover stocks that will see long-term, sustainable growth.
Momentum ScoreMomentum traders and investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." This investing style is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Employing factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, the Momentum Style Score can indicate favorable times to build a position in high-momentum stocks.
VGM ScoreIf you like to use all three kinds of investing, then the VGM Score is for you. It's a combination of all Style Scores, and is an important indicator to use with the Zacks Rank. The VGM Score rates each stock on their shared weighted styles, narrowing down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank is a proprietary stock-rating model that harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to help investors build a successful portfolio.
It's highly successful, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988. That's more than double the S&P 500. But because of the large number of stocks we rate, there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
But it can feel overwhelming to pick the right stocks for you and your investing goals with over 800 top-rated stocks to choose from.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
You want to make sure you're buying stocks with the highest likelihood of success, and to do that, you'll need to pick stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B. If you like a stock that only has a #3 (Hold) rank, it should also have Scores of A or B to guarantee as much upside potential as possible.
As mentioned above, the Scores are designed to work with the Zacks Rank, so any change to a company's earnings outlook should be a deciding factor when picking which stocks to buy.
For instance, a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one that boasts Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings forecast, and a much greater likelihood its share price will decline as well.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: Brinker International (EAT - Free Report) Brinker International, Inc. is based in Dallas, TX. The company owns, operates, develops and franchises restaurants under the Chili’s Grill & Bar (Chili’s) and Maggiano’s Little Italy (Maggiano’s) brands. The company took over Chili’s, Inc., a Texas-based corporation, in September 1983. It completed the acquisition of Maggiano’s in August 1995.
EAT is a #2 (Buy) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of A.
Additionally, the company could be a top pick for growth investors. EAT has a Growth Style Score of A, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 20.8% for the current fiscal year.
One analyst revised their earnings estimate higher in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.02 to $10.75 per share. EAT also boasts an average earnings surprise of +6.8%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Growth and VGM Style Scores, EAT should be on investors' short list.
Inspired by the energy of reality TV's summer romances and unforgettable connections, the July Margarita of the Month arrives nationwide
, /PRNewswire/ -- This month, Chili's® Grill & Bar is making an entrance with the Bombshell Margarita of the Month, available nationwide through July 31 for just $6. Whether celebrating a new couple or unpacking TV drama, the Bombshell Marg is the perfect complement to every debrief.
Chili’s® Grill & Bar is making an entrance with the Bombshell Margarita of the Month, available nationwide through July 31 for just $6. Made with el Jimador® Blanco Tequila, Monin® Dragonfruit, triple sec, strawberry puree and house-made sour, the Bombshell Marg delivers a vibrant blend of sweet and citrusy flavors. Proudly display where your loyalty lies with the custom Bombshell vs. OG swizzle stick served in each Bombshell Marg, while supplies last.
"We know our guests are breaking down the drama of the summer's biggest romances with their friends, often sitting around booths right here at Chili's," said George Felix, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of Brinker International. "The Bombshell Marg is a fun way for us to recognize that passion and be part of the conversation in a way only we can — serving a great, affordable margarita."
The Bombshell Marg is the latest addition to Chili's fan-favorite Margarita of the Month lineup. After serving nearly 30 million margaritas in 2025, Chili's continues to keep the marg conversation flowing with monthly drops inspired by trending flavors, seasonality and culture's biggest moments, from nostalgic throwbacks to trending obsessions.
Guests who plan their calendars around each Margarita of the Month can join Chili's Margarita of the Month Club at chilis.com/motmclub. Members can track their monthly margarita journey with collectible digital stickers, build streaks throughout the year and shop exclusive Margarita of the Month Club merchandise, including a new Bombshell Marg "I got a marg!" tank top, available at welcometochilis.com on July 1, while supplies last.
Fans can make their bombshell (marg) debut now at participating Chili's locations nationwide for just $6. For more information and to find a Bombshell Marg at a location near you, visit chilis.com. At participating locations only. Must be 21+ to purchase or consume alcohol.
About Chili's® Grill & Bar
Hi, welcome to Chili's! A proud leader in the casual dining industry and the flagship brand of Dallas-based Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT), Chili's was honored in 2025 as one of Fast Company's Brands that Matter and Inc.'s Best in Business. The brand was also named Ad Age's Brand of the Year in 2025 and 2026. Founded in 1975, Chili's is known for serving Big Mouth Burgers®, Crispy Chicken Crispers®, and sizzling fajitas, while hand-shaking more margaritas than any other restaurant brand in the United States. Chili's operates 1,600 restaurants in 29 countries and two territories with over 70,000 team members. With a purpose to make everyone feel special, Chiliheads take food, drink and service seriously – but not themselves. Chili's was a proud winner at the 2025 MenuMasters Awards for Best New Menu Item for Nashville Hot Mozz, the breakout addition to the social media-famous Triple Dipper. For more than 20 years, Chili's has been a proud supporter of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and has raised more than $120 million for the organization through generous guest and team member donations. Find more information at chilis.com, follow on X or Instagram, like on Facebook, or join Chili's on TikTok.
Investors looking for stocks in the Retail - Restaurants sector might want to consider either Brinker International (EAT) or Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG). But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now?
Key Takeaways RIG secured a seven-rig-year drilling agreement in Norway, adding more than $1B to backlog.Transocean will deploy three Cat D semisubmersible rigs under programs starting in 2027 and 2028.RIG's long-term contract supports fleet utilization, revenue visibility and offshore market position. Transocean Ltd. (RIG - Free Report) has entered into a major offshore drilling agreement with Equinor (EQNR - Free Report) that reinforces its leadership in the harsh environment drilling market. Subject to the necessary license approvals, the agreement covers the deployment of three specialized semisubmersible rigs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The contract adds more than $1 billion to the Switzerland-based oil and gas drilling company's backlog over seven rig years, highlighting continued investment in offshore energy projects and the strong demand for premium drilling assets.
Long-Term Contract Strengthens Revenue VisibilityThe new agreement provides Transocean with a substantial long-term revenue stream through multi-year drilling programs scheduled to begin in 2027 and 2028. The contract includes a base day rate of $399,000, with adjustment provisions expected to increase the effective rate above $400,000 per day before operations commence.
Long-duration contracts are particularly valuable in the offshore drilling industry because they improve fleet planning, increase asset utilization and provide financial stability during changing market conditions. By securing years of committed work, Transocean enhances its operational outlook while maintaining a strong presence in one of the world's most active offshore regions.
3 Rigs Ready for Norway's Demanding Offshore EnvironmentThe agreement covers three Cat D semisubmersible rigs that were specifically designed to operate in the harsh weather conditions of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. These rigs combine advanced engineering with high safety standards, enabling reliable drilling operations throughout the year. The Transocean Enabler will commence a three-year assignment in the first quarter of 2028, immediately following the completion of its current drilling campaign. The Transocean Encourage is scheduled to start a two-year program in the same period, allowing uninterrupted operations through a direct contract continuation. The Transocean Endurance will return from Australia before beginning its two-year assignment in Norway during the second quarter of 2027, expanding its active fleet in the region.
Why Cat D Rigs Are Essential for Offshore Drilling in NorwayOperating in the North Sea requires equipment capable of handling extreme weather, rough seas and challenging drilling conditions. Cat D rigs were developed specifically to meet these demands through reinforced structural design, enhanced station-keeping capability, and systems engineered for cold-weather performance.
These specialized rigs improve drilling efficiency while supporting strict safety and environmental requirements. Their ability to remain productive during severe seasonal conditions makes them among the most sought-after assets for operators working on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Equinor Continues to Prioritize Offshore DevelopmentThe agreement reflects Equinor's ongoing commitment to maintaining and developing offshore energy resources in Norway. Securing experienced drilling partners and purpose-built rigs allows the company to execute future well programs with greater operational consistency.
Working with specialized drilling contractors also helps optimize project planning, reduce mobilization challenges and maintain reliable execution across multiple offshore developments. These long-term partnerships contribute to efficient field development while supporting Norway's position as a leading offshore energy producer.
Strong Industry Relationship Supports Operational ExcellenceTransocean and Norway-based integrated oil and gas company, Equinor, have built a long-standing working relationship through years of successful offshore projects. Their continued collaboration demonstrates confidence in operational performance, technical expertise and safe drilling practices.
Commenting on the agreement, Keelan Adamson, chief executive officer of Transocean, emphasized that the contract reflects both the resilience of Norway's harsh environment drilling market and the strength of the partnership between the two companies. Adamson noted that both organizations remain focused on improving drilling efficiency, increasing well cost-effectiveness and maintaining safe, reliable operations.
Positive Outlook for the Offshore Drilling IndustryThe latest agreement signals continued confidence in offshore exploration and production despite changing global energy dynamics. Investment in premium drilling equipment remains strong as operators focus on developing high-value offshore reserves with modern, efficient technology.
Norway continues to attract drilling activity due to its stable regulatory environment, advanced offshore infrastructure and long-term energy development strategy. Demand for modern harsh environment rigs is expected to remain healthy as operators prioritize safety, efficiency and high-performance assets capable of supporting complex drilling campaigns.
What This Means for Transocean's FutureThis contract further strengthens Transocean's competitive position in the global offshore drilling market. With several years of secured work for three high-specification rigs, the company gains improved fleet utilization and stronger earnings visibility.
Beyond the immediate financial value, the agreement reinforces Transocean's reputation as a preferred drilling contractor for technically demanding offshore projects. Continued investment in specialized assets, combined with long-standing customer relationships, positions the company to benefit from future opportunities as offshore development activity expands.
ConclusionThe agreement between Transocean and Equinor represents more than another contract award — it highlights the continued importance of advanced offshore drilling capabilities in one of the world's most demanding energy regions. By securing long-term work for three purpose-built semisubmersible rigs, Transocean strengthens its financial outlook while supporting Equinor's future drilling programs with reliable, high-performance assets. As offshore investment remains active on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, this partnership is well-positioned to contribute to efficient, safe and sustainable energy development for years to come.
RIG's Zacks Rank & Key PicksCurrently, RIG and EQNR carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors interested in the energy sector might look at some better-ranked stocks like Liberty Energy (LBRT - Free Report) and Valero Energy (VLO - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Liberty Energy is valued at $4.29 billion. It is a leading U.S. oilfield services company that provides hydraulic fracturing and advanced well completion solutions for oil and natural gas producers. Liberty Energy stock has gained approximately 128% over the past year.
Valero Energy is valued at $79.08 billion. It is one of the world's largest independent petroleum refiners and a major producer of renewable fuels, serving markets across North America, Europe and Latin America. Valero Energy stock has risen approximately 91% over the past year.
Key Takeaways Sandisk's QLC SSD expansion strengthens its AI storage portfolio alongside existing TLC offerings.SNDK aims to address both performance-focused and capacity-focused AI workloads with complementary SSDs.Sandisk's multiyear supply agreements provide stronger visibility into future enterprise storage demand. Sandisk Corporation (SNDK - Free Report) is expanding its Quad Level Cell (QLC) Solid State Drive (SSD) portfolio, which is expected to strengthen its position in the fast-growing AI storage market and support long-term growth. The upcoming Stargate QLC enterprise SSDs will add to the company's data center storage lineup, complementing its existing TLC based enterprise SSDs. By offering high-capacity and cost-efficient storage for AI inference and enterprise workloads, the QLC portfolio should help Sandisk expand its opportunity in hyperscale data centers.
The company continues to build on its BiCS8 NAND platform, which supports both TLC and QLC SSDs. Growing AI inference and enterprise workloads are increasing demand for higher-density flash storage solutions that balance performance with cost efficiency. This shift favors wider QLC adoption, and Sandisk's growing list of enterprise SSD qualifications across cloud customers positions SNDK to capitalize on this trend. Having both TLC and QLC products also allows the company to serve performance-heavy and capacity-heavy AI workloads at the same time.
Financial performance already reflects this momentum. Data center revenues rose 233% sequentially in the fiscal third quarter to $1.47 billion, helping drive total revenue growth of 97% sequentially to $5.95 billion. Sandisk has also signed five multiyear supply agreements covering more than one-third of its expected fiscal 2027 bit shipments, giving it stronger visibility into future demand. The expanding QLC SSD portfolio, supported by long-term customer commitments and increasing AI storage demand, is expected to remain an important driver of Sandisk's growth over the next few years.
How SNDK's Rivals Stack UpSandisk competes with Micron Technology (MU - Free Report) and Seagate Technology (STX - Free Report) in the enterprise SSD market, where demand for high-capacity flash storage continues to rise. Micron is expanding its enterprise SSD portfolio with advanced NAND technology, while Seagate continues to enhance its NVMe SSD offerings for enterprise and cloud customers.
However, Sandisk's expanding QLC SSD portfolio, supported by its BiCS8 NAND platform, provides a differentiated offering. As Micron and Seagate continue investing in enterprise SSD solutions, Sandisk's complementary TLC and QLC SSD lineup positions it well to address evolving storage needs. Growing adoption of QLC SSDs will remain a key area of competition among Micron, Seagate and Sandisk.
SNDK’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSandisk shares have skyrocketed 857.8% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 15.7%.
SNDK Stock Outperforms Sector
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SNDK stock is trading at a forward 12-month price/sales of 17.28X compared with the Zacks Computer-Storage Devices’ 6.56X. Sandisk has a Value Score of F.
SNDK’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $64.01 per share, up by a penny over the past 30 days. Sandisk reported earnings of $1.78 per share in fiscal 2025.
Sandisk currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
For new and old investors, taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals. Zacks Premium provides lots of different ways to do both.
The research service features daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, all of which will help you become a smarter, more confident investor.
Zacks Premium includes access to the Zacks Style Scores as well.
What are the Zacks Style Scores? Developed alongside the Zacks Rank, the Zacks Style Scores are a group of complementary indicators that help investors pick stocks with the best chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Each stock is given an alphabetic rating of A, B, C, D or F based on their value, growth, and momentum qualities. With this system, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on, meaning the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value ScoreValue investors love finding good stocks at good prices, especially before the broader market catches on to a stock's true value. Utilizing ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and many other multiples, the Value Style Score identifies the most attractive and most discounted stocks.
Growth ScoreGrowth investors, on the other hand, are more concerned with a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score examines things like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will experience sustainable growth over time.
Momentum ScoreMomentum investors, who live by the saying "the trend is your friend," are most interested in taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Utilizing one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, among other factors, the Momentum Style Score can help determine favorable times to buy high-momentum stocks.
VGM ScoreIf you want a combination of all three Style Scores, then the VGM Score will be your friend. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, helping you find the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum. It's also one of the best indicators to use with the Zacks Rank.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank, which is a proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to make building a winning portfolio easier.
Investors can count on the Zacks Rank's success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500's performance. But the model rates a large number of stocks, and there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
With more than 800 top-rated stocks to choose from, it can certainly feel overwhelming to pick the ones that are right for you and your investing journey.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
To have the best chance of big returns, you'll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you're looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it's important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.
Since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank, the direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy.
A stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, for instance, even one with Scores of A and B, will still have a declining earnings forecast, and a greater chance its share price will fall too.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: Seagate (STX - Free Report) Headquartered at Dublin, Ireland, Seagate is a leading provider of data storage technology and infrastructure solutions. The company’s primary product offering is hard disk drives which is commonly referred to as disk drives, hard drives or HDDs. HDDs are used as the primary medium for storing digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating disks with magnetic surfaces.
STX is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
Momentum investors should take note of this Computer and Technology stock. STX has a Momentum Style Score of A, and shares are up 4.1% over the past four weeks.
One analyst revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.04 to $14.93 per share. STX boasts an average earnings surprise of +10.7%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Momentum and VGM Style Scores, STX should be on investors' short list.
For new and old investors, taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals. Zacks Premium provides lots of different ways to do both.
The popular research service can help you become a smarter, more self-assured investor, giving you access to daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens.
Zacks Premium also includes the Zacks Style Scores.
What are the Zacks Style Scores? The Zacks Style Scores is a unique set of guidelines that rates stocks based on three popular investing types, and were developed as complementary indicators for the Zacks Rank. This combination helps investors choose securities with the highest chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Each stock is assigned a rating of A, B, C, D, or F based on their value, growth, and momentum characteristics. Just like in school, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on -- that means the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value ScoreFinding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value, are what value investors like to focus on. So, the Value Style Score takes into account ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to highlight the most attractive and discounted stocks.
Growth ScoreGrowth investors, on the other hand, are more concerned with a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score examines things like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will experience sustainable growth over time.
Momentum ScoreMomentum trading is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook, and these investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." The Momentum Style Score can pinpoint good times to build a position in a stock, using factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates.
VGM ScoreIf you want a combination of all three Style Scores, then the VGM Score will be your friend. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, helping you find the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum. It's also one of the best indicators to use with the Zacks Rank.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank is a proprietary stock-rating model that harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to help investors build a successful portfolio.
#1 (Strong Buy) stocks have produced an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, which is more than double the S&P 500's performance over the same time frame. However, the Zacks Rank examines a ton of stocks, and there can be more than 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, and another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
But it can feel overwhelming to pick the right stocks for you and your investing goals with over 800 top-rated stocks to choose from.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
To have the best chance of big returns, you'll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you're looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it's important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.
As mentioned above, the Scores are designed to work with the Zacks Rank, so any change to a company's earnings outlook should be a deciding factor when picking which stocks to buy.
A stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, for instance, even one with Scores of A and B, will still have a declining earnings forecast, and a greater chance its share price will fall too.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN - Free Report) San Rafael, CA-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. focuses on the development and commercialization of treatments for life-threatening severe medical conditions, mainly for children.
BMRN is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
It also boasts a Value Style Score of B thanks to attractive valuation metrics like a forward P/E ratio of 11.57; value investors should take notice.
Three analysts revised their earnings estimate higher in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.34 to $4.95 per share. BMRN also boasts an average earnings surprise of +71.2%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Value and VGM Style Scores, BMRN should be on investors' short list.
Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE +1.42%) is part of a group of nuclear companies that could be called the nuclear minnows. These companies, which also include publicly traded companies like Oklo (OKLO +2.18%) and privately held ones like TerraPower, share a common aim: to build and deploy advanced nuclear reactors.
Nano isn't the biggest name in this group, and that's exactly what's attracting aggressive investors. Like Oklo, Nano is not generating meaningful revenue, and it's mostly pre-commercial as it navigates the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process for its microreactor designs.
The risks Nano is facing are enormous, with regulatory approval being just the first. If it were to succeed, however, this stock could deliver impressive returns over the long term, perhaps enough to set you up for life.
Could Nano Nuclear Energy stock make you a millionaire? Let's take a look.
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Becoming a millionaire-maker will require everything to go right Nano Nuclear Energy is aiming to become a vertically integrated nuclear reactor company. It wants to be in control of the nuclear energy supply chain, from deploying microreactors (like its KRONOS design), to establishing a nuclear fuel fabrication business, to transporting that fuel commercially.
For Nano Nuclear Energy to become a millionaire-maker, three things have to go right. The first two are obvious: commercializing its nuclear reactors and building up its fuel and transportation businesses.
Image source: Getty Images.
The third is something not entirely in Nano's control. For this company to succeed, microreactors have to be widely adopted everywhere, from data centers to military bases to mining sites. That means the costs of building microreactors and the timelines of deploying them have to be both competitive and short enough to attract strong demand.
More than likely, Nano's microreactors will not be cost-effective everywhere. Rather, they'll likely be more effective in very remote regions where other power sources, like diesel generators, are already expensive.
If Nano fails to win these regions, or if other factors delay deployment -- such as construction costs ballooning beyond estimates, or bottlenecks in nuclear fuel supply -- Nano's growth would be stunted. That's not to say the company would fail without substantial microreactor sales. Its fuel fabrication and transportation businesses could still be highly successful, assuming nuclear energy as a whole keeps growing. However, the stock likely won't become a 100-bagger without strong revenue growth from microreactor sales.
As such, I wouldn't treat Nano stock as a millionaire-maker. Rather, it's a highly speculative play on a nascent, but exciting, opportunity in nuclear power. Wealth from the upside could be life-changing, but underwhelming performance due to slipshod execution could just as easily leave investors with disappointing returns.
Key Takeaways WCN shares gained 11.8% in the past month, outpacing the industry's 9.7% rally.WCN expects revenues to rise 5.7% in 2026 and 6.1% in 2027, with earnings also growing.WCN's landfill tons rose 4%, aided by municipal solid waste and special waste volume gains. Shares of Waste Connections (WCN - Free Report) have gained 11.8% in the past month, outpacing the industry’s 9.7% rally.
WCN’s revenues in 2026 and 2027 are expected to increase 5.7% and 6.1% year over year, respectively. Earnings are anticipated to rise 6.8% in 2026 and 12.4% in 2027.
Factors That Augur Well for WCN’s SuccessMarket Expansion Support Top-Line Growth: Waste Connections is well-positioned to capitalize on the global waste management market's expansion. According to Grand View Research, the market is expected to see a 6% CAGR through 2033, reaching $2.4 trillion. The company accounts for an estimated 35% of total industry revenues, making it a major player with a significant market share.
Landfill Volume Drivers: Despite disruptions faced during winter, WCN witnessed a 4% increase in landfill tons, hinting at robust demand for volume moving into facilities. This growth can be attributed to a 5% rise in Municipal Solid Waste and an 8% hike in special waste tons. The first quarter of 2026 marks the sixth consecutive quarter of high special waste activity. This momentum hints at a construction demand that can benefit the company’s broader volumes in the future.
AI-Backed Tech Optimizes Operations: WCN’s AI-fueled pricing tool supported a nearly 20% year-over-year enhancement in customer retention and pricing efficiency while ensuring strong core pricing. This tool allows the company to incorporate price hikes efficiently, retaining customers for the long term and lowering returns. Management anticipates the complete deployment of AI initiatives to boost margins by 100 basis points heading into 2028.
Shareholder-Friendly Actions: Waste Connections consistently rewards its shareholders despite fluctuations in its cash position, underscoring its dedication to creating long-term value for investors. In 2023, 2024 and 2025, Waste Connections paid out $271 million, $302 million and $334 million in dividends, respectively. Consistent dividends demonstrate the company’s commitment to returning value to shareholders and support share prices.
Risks Faced by Waste ConnectionsHigh Competition: The regulated waste collection and disposal business is characterized by very low barriers to entry, allowing competitors to raise prices rapidly to gain market share. This capital-intensive industry includes larger and better-capitalized companies, which affects its ability to invest in substantial labor and capital resources.
Weak Liquidity: At the end of the first quarter of 2026, WCN’s current ratio was pegged at 0.69, lower than the industry average of 1.08. The 1.4% dip in the current ratio from the year-ago quarter due to a rise in accounts payable and a current ratio of less than 1 indicates that the company may have problems paying off its short-term obligations.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Seasonality Hurts Revenues, Operating Risks High: WCN’s top-line is highly seasonal, with first-quarter revenues being the lowest. While revenues climb in the second and third quarters, fourth-quarter revenues are lower than the prior two quarters. The anticipated fluctuation between the highest and lowest quarters due to seasonality is around 10%. This is mainly due to the lower volume of solid waste generated during winter and early spring, owing to comparatively lesser construction and demolition activities, as well as reduced E&P activity.
WCN’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to ConsiderThe company has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.
Some better-ranked stocks from the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Ralliant Corporation (RAL - Free Report) and Pentair (PNR - Free Report) , currently flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), respectively. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Ralliant has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 8.4%. RAL delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 8%, on average.
Pentair has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 11%. PNR delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 3.7%, on average.
SpaceX stock SPCX fell sharply on Wednesday as investors continued to navigate volatile post-IPO trading.
Shares of Elon Musk's space and artificial intelligence company dropped more than 6% to $159.95 in early trading.
The decline came amid broader weakness in technology and semiconductor stocks.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 88 points.
Among other technology names, Micron fell 6%, Sandisk dropped 8%, Nvidia lost roughly 2%, and Broadcom declined about 1%.
The pullback highlights the ongoing debate over SpaceX's valuation following its blockbuster public market debut.
With the stock experiencing significant swings since listing, investors are increasingly looking to analyst assessments for clues about how much upside remains after the company's rapid ascent.
On Tuesday evening, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives initiated coverage of SpaceX with an outperform rating and a $190 price target.
"We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity, Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel, and increasing deal flow for its Colossus [AI data centers]," Ives wrote.
According to Ives, Starship remains central to the company's long-term growth strategy.
The analyst argued that the next-generation launch vehicle could reduce the cost of reaching space by roughly 90% compared with Falcon 9 missions, potentially enabling a broader range of commercial opportunities, including orbital AI data centers.
"All of SpaceX's future business runs through Starship, whether it's Starlink's next-generation [satellites], the orbital AI-compute constellation, the Artemis lunar lander, or the cost-and-capacity step the whole forward [valuation] case assumes," Ives wrote.
"The vehicle is the single largest source of value in the franchise as much as its largest risk."
Ives based his valuation on a sum-of-the-parts framework that separately assesses the company's launch, satellite internet, and artificial intelligence businesses.
Under that approach, he values SpaceX's launch operations at approximately $66 billion and Starlink at roughly $600 billion.
The largest component of the valuation is the company's artificial intelligence business, which Ives estimates is worth approximately $1.8 trillion.
He expects AI-related operations to generate more than $80 billion in revenue by 2028, before any contribution from potential orbital AI data centers.
The analysis places significant emphasis on SpaceX's expanding AI ambitions alongside its traditional aerospace operations.
Separately, SpaceX is set to become one of the fastest companies ever added to the Nasdaq-100 index following recent rule changes adopted by Nasdaq.
Nasdaq announced after last Friday's close that SpaceX qualifies for inclusion in the benchmark technology index.
Assuming the company continues to meet eligibility requirements, index-tracking funds and related investment products will begin purchasing shares after the market closes on July 6, with SpaceX officially joining the Nasdaq-100 before trading begins on July 7.
More than $800 billion tracks the Nasdaq-100, including the Invesco QQQ Trust, one of the largest and most actively traded exchange-traded funds.
SpaceX is expected to enter the index with a weighting of less than 1%.
Even with a relatively small weighting, inclusion could create meaningful buying demand because SpaceX's public float remains limited compared with its overall market capitalization.
Index funds and exchange-traded funds tied to the Nasdaq-100 will need to acquire shares to reflect the benchmark's revised composition, while active managers benchmarked against the index may also adjust positions.
Three weeks after the largest IPO in history, the story investors tell about SpaceX is still mostly about rockets and Starlink.
That’s understandable — but it misses where the company is actually headed. Two of the most consequential developments since the June 12th debut happened nowhere near a launchpad: the transformation of the xAI division from a cash furnace into a genuine revenue engine, and the public launch of X Money, Elon Musk’s long-promised financial “everything app.”
SpaceX stock soared to nearly over $225 per share in its first week of public trading before coming back down near IPO levels. With the company’s first earnings report as a public entity now weeks away, these threads deserve a closer look.
Image Source: StockCharts
Is the xAI Transformation Just Hype?Start with xAI, which was the single biggest drag on SpaceX’s profitability last year. The AI unit posted a roughly $6.4 billion operating loss for 2025, and skeptics rightly flagged it as the riskiest piece of the SpaceX empire. But the picture has shifted quickly.
In May, Anthropic signed a contract worth $1.25 billion per month to purchase all the compute capacity at xAI’s Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, which houses roughly 220,000 Nvidia GPUs. Then in June, Google agreed to pay $920 million monthly for cloud compute from Colossus to help power its Gemini models, at a reduced rate through September and the full rate until 2029.
The significance is hard to overstate: between the Anthropic and Google deals, the entire company’s revenue run-rate is set to more than double. A division that was pure burn is suddenly selling its excess compute to two of the most sophisticated buyers in AI — a striking validation of the infrastructure Musk assembled.
That said, xAI remains an enormous consumer of capital. AI accounted for roughly 76% of the group’s total capital expenditures in the first quarter, with xAI still burning billions annually. First-quarter AI capex ran about $7.7 billion, implying something in the $30 billion range for the full year.
The long-term vision ties xAI back to the core space business through “Starmind” — a planned constellation of up to one million AI satellites designed to run inference in orbit. It’s an audacious idea, and whether it becomes real infrastructure or remains a slide in a deck is one of the central questions for patient shareholders. On the product side, Grok 4.5 recently entered private beta, with Musk claiming its performance rivals or exceeds Anthropic’s Claude Opus — a claim worth noting but not yet independently established.
X Money Promises Eye-Popping YieldThe second development is arguably the more intriguing for retail investors, because it was hiding in plain sight. X Money officially launched in late June for U.S. Premium subscribers, with full availability targeted for mid-2026.
This is not a tip jar. The product offers a 6% annual yield on deposits, a personalized metal Visa debit card, peer-to-peer transfers, 3% cashback, and FDIC insurance structured to cover up to $10 million for top-tier subscribers.
The strategic logic rests on distribution: X has more than 560 million monthly active users and 245 million daily users, a built-in audience most fintechs would envy. And the AI layer is the differentiator — analysts note that with xAI funded, X can push beyond being a Cash App rival toward an “agentic banking” interface, positioning it in the emerging world of AI-driven commerce.
But let’s remember, the U.S. market is already saturated with entrenched players like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and Apple Pay, and every prior attempt at a Western “super app” has hit the same ceiling. American consumers, already deeply banked and served by best-in-class single-purpose apps, have historically resisted the all-in-one model that made WeChat indispensable in China.
Which brings us to the event that will put numbers behind all of this: the first earnings report. SpaceX hasn’t officially confirmed the date, but it’s expected in early August, with several sources pointing to August 6th. This first reported quarter sets the tone for all three segments simultaneously and triggers the initial lock-up early release, so outsized volatility around the date should be expected regardless of results.
In keeping with the company’s ethos, the disclosure itself will be unconventional: SpaceX has said it will release financial results only through its website and its X account, bypassing the traditional newswire services entirely. It’ll be worth watching xAI’s bottom line now that the Anthropic and Google revenue is beginning to flow, alongside Starlink’s subscriber trajectory and any concrete update on Starship’s path to orbital payload delivery.
Bottom LineStepping back, the synthesis is what matters.
SpaceX (SPCX - Free Report) is no longer a rocket company that happens to own a satellite network — it is a bet on whether one founder can simultaneously operate a launch monopoly, a Starlink cash machine, a frontier AI lab, and now a consumer bank.
The bull case is that Starlink’s profits fund the moonshots while xAI begins to monetize and X Money adds free upside. The bear case is equally coherent: reputable sources peg the fair value of the current business at roughly $780 billion — less than a third of the market capitalization — and the lock-up calendar promises a steady wave of supply, beginning after this very earnings report.
That first report, and the analyst estimates that follow it, will begin to fill in the blanks. Until then, SpaceX remains one of the most fascinating — and most richly valued — stories in the market.
Wedbush has initiated coverage of SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) with an 'outperform' rating and a $190 price target, implying 16% upside from Tuesday's close of $163.33, arguing the company is becoming a hyperscaler in its own right rather than just a rocket company.
Dan Ives and his team frame SpaceX as three vertically integrated businesses: Starlink connectivity, Starship launch, and an AI segment built around Colossus compute clusters and the Grok model.
Starlink is doing the heavy lifting on profitability, with roughly 12 million subscribers as of June 5 and average revenue per user of about $66 across its enterprise and consumer base. Wedbush estimates SpaceX still holds less than 1% of the global telecom and broadband market, leaving what it calls "early innings" of penetration.
Capital keeps flowing
The analysts point to SpaceX's roughly $86bn IPO haul, about a fifth of which is earmarked for AI infrastructure, as sufficient funding for the near term while the company works through its debt. Wedbush expects further financing to follow given the scale of the AI ambitions.
Starship as the swing factor
Reusability remains the strategic edge, according to the note, cutting hardware costs while building a flywheel that improves flight rates without a corresponding jump in capital spending. The new Starship models are expected to carry around 60 Starlink satellites per launch, more than double the 27 carried by Falcon 9, which the analysts argue makes the rocket essential not just to the launch business but to the broadband and orbital compute ambitions layered on top of it.
Where the valuation comes from
Wedbush's $190 target is built on a sum-of-the-parts valuation using FY28 estimates, implying roughly $2.48 trillion of enterprise value.
Connectivity is valued at 17 times revenue given its high-margin, recurring subscriber base; AI and compute carry the richest multiple at 22 times, reflecting a contracted compute book with Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI worth an annualised run rate of roughly $28bn; and Space carries the lowest multiple at 9 times given its capital intensity and lumpier earnings profile.
The analysts are explicit that this excludes several potential upside drivers, including sub-$200 per kilogram launch economics, orbital data centres, and enterprise AI monetisation, all of which they see as optionality rather than base-case value given the execution hurdles still ahead, including Starship's need to demonstrate orbital delivery, upper-stage catch and in-orbit propellant transfer.
Wedbush's bull case puts the target at $235, its bear case at $135.
The New Year's eve ball ascends on the day of SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesShort interest about 31% of SpaceX free float — Ortex dataCost to borrow still relatively cheap at 1% from as high as 14% at launchShorts sitting on mark-to-market losses of about $760 mln since IPO, Ortex saysNo squeeze yet, but if shares rebound short sellers could be hitNEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - Short sellers are betting SpaceX's(SPCX.O), opens new tab will resume its post-debut decline with nearly a third of its tradable shares now sold short — even as those wagers have already cost them nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars in paper losses.
The sizeable short position could inject further volatility into the stock, with every $1 SpaceX share price swing translating to roughly $200 million in gains or losses for shorts, Ortex estimates.
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Short sellers, who sell borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back at a profit when the stock slips, were emboldened after SpaceX shares' initial burst of strength gave way to weakness and the share price slipped as much as 23% in the days following its June 12 market debut.
Short interest now stands at 196 million shares, about 31% of the free float, through Tuesday, up from some 83 million shares, or 13% of the free float, a week ago, Ortex data showed.
"(The rise in short bets) is extraordinary for a stock that has been public less than a month," said Ortex co-founder Peter Hillerberg.
SpaceX's more than $2 trillion valuation makes it a target for short sellers skeptical of its rich price tag, but strong retail and institutional interest and Musk's history of public battles against short sellers make that a risky proposition. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SpaceX shorts are sitting on mark-to-market losses of about $760 million since the IPO, Ortex estimates.
When the stock bottomed near $153 last week they were up around $2.5 billion on paper, but the rebound in SpaceX shares since has wiped all of that out, Ortex data showed.
"SpaceX has been a roller coaster for the short sellers," Hillerberg said.
The cost to borrow SpaceX shares, a gauge of demand to short a stock relative to the supply of shares available to lend, remains relatively cheap at about 1%, Ortex data showed.
Given the number of shares sold short relative to the total tradable shares available, should SpaceX's stock price continue to rebound, short covering — where bearish investors are forced to buy shares to close out their wagers to avoid further losses — has the potential to push the shares even higher, Hillerberg said.
"(It's) a lot of potential fuel if it tips into a squeeze," he said.
Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed Editing by Nick Zieminski Editing by Nick Zieminski
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX 6.36%) and its record-setting IPO have arguably been the biggest story in the stock market this summer. And now that Elon Musk’s mammoth company is finally public, analysts are starting to weigh in on the merits of SpaceX.
On Wednesday, Wedbush Securities and analyst Dan Ives initiated coverage on SpaceX stock, assigning an “Outperform” rating and a price target of $190, representing potential upside of 18% from its price at this writing.
Considering that SpaceX has been a roller coaster since opening at $150 on June 12, rising as high as $225 before giving back most of those gains, will Ives’ bullish outlook give investors reason to consider SpaceX stock now?
Wedbush’s rosy outlookIves, the managing director of Wedbush, has been one of the most visible and influential tech analysts on Wall Street, particularly involving key artificial intelligence stocks. Wedbush has even started an exchange-traded fund under his name, the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF, built around his research.
Image source: Getty Images.
Ives writes in his coverage that SpaceX is a future major hyperscaler with "one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market" with its connectivity, launch, and AI infrastructure segments. The firm’s $190 price target reflects fiscal year 2028 revenue estimates that imply an enterprise value of approximately $2.48 trillion.
The primary profitability driver, Ives wrote, is the company’s Connectivity division, which includes the Starlink global satellite internet constellation, comprising 9,600 satellites in low Earth orbit. Starlink provides mobile and broadband services in 30 countries and six continents, currently serving more than 10.3 million customers.
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Ives wrote that Starlink is "still in the early innings of penetrating the global telecom and broadband market," noting that SpaceX has less than 1% market share. Starlink is also bolstered by SpaceX’s rocket-launching business and the development of its Starship space vehicle. Starship, once fully operational, is expected to carry 60 Starlink satellites per launch, up from 27 on the company’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets. Ives calls it "an incremental driver of its highly profitable broadband connectivity business."
The long play is AIWhile Starlink is SpaceX’s only profitable business right now, AI represents the biggest opportunity for Musk’s company. According to SpaceX’s prospectus, AI represents a massive $26.5 trillion market opportunity. The AI division, which includes the X social media platform and the Grok large language model and chatbot, had $3.1 billion in sales in 2025, but lost $6.35 billion over the year.
However, SpaceX aspires to turn its AI division into a hyperscaler, using a satellite network and solar power to provide computing capacity that could generate billions in annual revenue. SpaceX already has deals with Alphabet, Anthropic, and Reflection AI to provide computing capacity in terrestrial data centers. SpaceX is expected to generate $2 billion per month from those contracts.
Ives said that AI and computing capacity are "still in early innings over the next decade," but have the potential for long-side upside for SpaceX stock.
Even with Wedbush’s outlook, SpaceX will be a volatile stockIPO stocks often struggle to hold their gains in the first few months after going public, and SpaceX has been no different so far. Even with Wedbush’s coverage today, SpaceX stock is down about 6% in morning trading.
The stock trades at an extreme valuation, with a price-to-sales ratio of 115.6, suggesting investors are pricing in expected performance beyond the company’s current financials.
SpaceX has a huge opportunity, particularly in AI, but it will also incur significant expenses that will likely weigh on the stock. Goldman Sachs, the lead underwriter for the IPO, projects that the company’s revenue will jump from $6.6 billion in 2025 to $352 billion by the end of the decade. But to make that happen, SpaceX plans to spend $350 billion in capital expenditures by 2030.
Whether you are swayed or not by Ives’ coverage and bullish take, investors in SpaceX should expect plenty of ups and downs in the years ahead.
Wedbush has initiated coverage of SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) with an 'outperform' rating and a $190 price target, implying 16% upside from Tuesday's close of $163.33, arguing the company is becoming a hyperscaler in its own right rather than just a rocket company.
Dan Ives and his team frame SpaceX as three vertically integrated businesses: Starlink connectivity, Starship launch, and an AI segment built around Colossus compute clusters and the Grok model.
Starlink is doing the heavy lifting on profitability, with roughly 12 million subscribers as of June 5 and average revenue per user of about $66 across its enterprise and consumer base. Wedbush estimates SpaceX still holds less than 1% of the global telecom and broadband market, leaving what it calls "early innings" of penetration.
Capital keeps flowing
The analysts point to SpaceX's roughly $86bn IPO haul, about a fifth of which is earmarked for AI infrastructure, as sufficient funding for the near term while the company works through its debt. Wedbush expects further financing to follow given the scale of the AI ambitions.
Starship as the swing factor
Reusability remains the strategic edge, according to the note, cutting hardware costs while building a flywheel that improves flight rates without a corresponding jump in capital spending. The new Starship models are expected to carry around 60 Starlink satellites per launch, more than double the 27 carried by Falcon 9, which the analysts argue makes the rocket essential not just to the launch business but to the broadband and orbital compute ambitions layered on top of it.
Where the valuation comes from
Wedbush's $190 target is built on a sum-of-the-parts valuation using FY28 estimates, implying roughly $2.48 trillion of enterprise value.
Connectivity is valued at 17 times revenue given its high-margin, recurring subscriber base; AI and compute carry the richest multiple at 22 times, reflecting a contracted compute book with Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI worth an annualised run rate of roughly $28bn; and Space carries the lowest multiple at 9 times given its capital intensity and lumpier earnings profile.
The analysts are explicit that this excludes several potential upside drivers, including sub-$200 per kilogram launch economics, orbital data centres, and enterprise AI monetisation, all of which they see as optionality rather than base-case value given the execution hurdles still ahead, including Starship's need to demonstrate orbital delivery, upper-stage catch and in-orbit propellant transfer.
Wedbush's bull case puts the target at $235, its bear case at $135.
That’s how much of the global telecom and broadband market Starlink has penetrated, according to Ives, despite growing to roughly 12 million subscribers with an average revenue per user of about $66 across its consumer and enterprise offerings.
For Ives, that isn’t a sign of maturity—it’s evidence that SpaceX’s largest business is still in its earliest stages.
The Starlink OpportunityInitiating coverage on SpaceX with an Outperform rating and a $190 price target, Ives argued that Starlink remains the company’s primary profitability engine thanks to its recurring subscription revenue.
More importantly, he believes the satellite internet business has barely scratched the surface of its addressable market.
With less than 1% penetration of the global telecom and broadband opportunity, Ives sees significant room for subscriber growth even before accounting for newer initiatives such as direct-to-device cellular connectivity.
That recurring revenue base also differentiates SpaceX from traditional aerospace companies, providing investors with a business that resembles a telecommunications platform as much as a launch provider.
More Than RocketsWhile SpaceX is widely associated with reusable rockets and ambitious Mars missions, Wedbush’s investment thesis places Starlink at the center of the story.
The firm’s note argues that the launch business and Starship’s expanding payload capacity ultimately serve a larger purpose: enabling Starlink to deploy satellites more efficiently, expand network capacity and reinforce what has become the company’s most profitable segment.
In other words, the rockets increasingly support the broadband business—not the other way around.
That dynamic is one reason Ives believes SpaceX should be viewed as more than a space company, describing it as a future hyperscaler with businesses spanning connectivity, launch services and AI infrastructure.
The Bigger PictureFor investors, the less-than-1% figure helps explain why SpaceX continues to attract bullish long-term forecasts despite already commanding a market capitalization above $2 trillion.
Rather than focusing on the subscribers Starlink has already added, Ives is focused on the customers it has yet to reach.
If satellite broadband continues expanding into underserved markets while direct-to-device services gain traction, today’s 12 million subscribers could represent only a fraction of Starlink’s long-term opportunity.
That makes the smallest number in Wedbush’s initiation note arguably its most important one. For Ives, SpaceX’s bull case isn’t built on what Starlink has already achieved—it’s built on how much of the market still remains untapped.
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Elon Musk Loses Trillionaire Status As SpaceX Slide Cuts Net Worth By $50 Billion Ty Roush is a breaking news reporter based in New York City.
Jul 01, 2026, 12:33pm EDT
ToplineElon Musk on Wednesday lost his trillionaire status as sliding SpaceX shares lowered his fortune by more than $50 billion, the latest stock decline for the rocket maker despite newfound optimism from one of the best-known analysts of Musk’s Tesla.
A well-known analyst of Musk’s Tesla offered a bullish take for the rocket maker.
2024 Invision
Key FactsShares of SpaceX dropped 7.1% as of Wednesday afternoon, a reversal from the nearly 12% jump over the three previous trading sessions.
Another decrease in SpaceX’s share price cut Musk’s net worth by $57.8 billion to $995.2 billion, as Musk holds 4.8 billion SpaceX shares and another 350 million stock options with an exercise price of $8.40 per share.
When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?
Let's take a look at what these Wall Street heavyweights have to say about Apple (AAPL - Free Report) before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage.
Apple currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.91, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 43 brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.91 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy.
Of the 43 recommendations that derive the current ABR, 23 are Strong Buy and three are Buy. Strong Buy and Buy respectively account for 53.5% and 7% of all recommendations.
Brokerage Recommendation Trends for AAPL
Check price target & stock forecast for Apple here>>>
While the ABR calls for buying Apple, it may not be wise to make an investment decision solely based on this information. Several studies have shown limited to no success of brokerage recommendations in guiding investors to pick stocks with the best price increase potential.
Are you wondering why? The vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover often results in a strong positive bias of their analysts in rating it. Our research shows that for every "Strong Sell" recommendation, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations.
In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement.
Zacks Rank, our proprietary stock rating tool with an impressive externally audited track record, categorizes stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), and is an effective indicator of a stock's price performance in the near future. Therefore, using the ABR to validate the Zacks Rank could be an efficient way of making a profitable investment decision.
Zacks Rank Should Not Be Confused With ABRAlthough both Zacks Rank and ABR are displayed in a range of 1--5, they are different measures altogether.
Broker recommendations are the sole basis for calculating the ABR, which is typically displayed in decimals (such as 1.28). The Zacks Rank, on the other hand, is a quantitative model designed to harness the power of earnings estimate revisions. It is displayed in whole numbers -- 1 to 5.
It has been and continues to be the case that analysts employed by brokerage firms are overly optimistic with their recommendations. Because of their employers' vested interests, these analysts issue more favorable ratings than their research would support, misguiding investors far more often than helping them.
In contrast, the Zacks Rank is driven by earnings estimate revisions. And near-term stock price movements are strongly correlated with trends in earnings estimate revisions, according to empirical research.
In addition, the different Zacks Rank grades are applied proportionately to all stocks for which brokerage analysts provide current-year earnings estimates. In other words, this tool always maintains a balance among its five ranks.
Another key difference between the ABR and Zacks Rank is freshness. The ABR is not necessarily up-to-date when you look at it. But, since brokerage analysts keep revising their earnings estimates to account for a company's changing business trends, and their actions get reflected in the Zacks Rank quickly enough, it is always timely in indicating future price movements.
Should You Invest in AAPL?In terms of earnings estimate revisions for Apple, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has remained unchanged over the past month at $8.74.
Analysts' steady views regarding the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by an unchanged consensus estimate, could be a legitimate reason for the stock to perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for Apple. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
It may therefore be prudent to be a little cautious with the Buy-equivalent ABR for Apple.
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Value ScoreFor value investors, it's all about finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value before the broader market catches on. The Value Style Score utilizes ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to help pick out the most attractive and discounted stocks.
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How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank, which is a proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to make building a winning portfolio easier.
Investors can count on the Zacks Rank's success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500's performance. But the model rates a large number of stocks, and there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
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Since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank, the direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy.
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Stock to Watch: Apple (AAPL - Free Report) Apple’s business primarily runs around its flagship iPhone. The Services portfolio that includes revenues from cloud services, App store, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay, and licensing and other services now contributes a significant part of revenues.
AAPL is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
Additionally, the company could be a top pick for growth investors. AAPL has a Growth Style Score of B, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 17.2% for the current fiscal year.
For fiscal 2026, three analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.03 to $8.74 per share. AAPL boasts an average earnings surprise of +7.3%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Growth and VGM Style Scores, AAPL should be on investors' short list.
Apple’s recent price increases could be a harbinger for a years-long era of costlier electronics.
That’s according to a report Wednesday (July 1) from Kiplinger, which says a memory crunch it had warned of in March has only made smartphones and PCs more expensive.
The largest shift in the consumer electronics market so far, the report said, has come from Apple’s recent price hikes. The tech giant has raised prices on laptops and tablets between 17% and 30% this year, with higher iPhone prices likely for this year as well.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has blamed the increases on surging memory chip costs, saying he’s never witnessed anything like it in 40 years, the report added.
“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook told the Wall Street Journal last month.
The company’s most recent price increase came last week, with the cost of Macs increasing between 15% and 20%, and iPads climbing 15% to 25%, thanks to the skyrocketing costs of components used to power these devices.
“Tight memory supply, due to immense AI infrastructure demand, has pushed prices 3-4 times higher than they were at the end of 2024, with further rises likely,” William Kerwin, an analyst at Morningstar, wrote in a recent research note, per Kiplinger.
“Memory has accounted for about 10% of an iPhone’s cost, but inflation threatens to raise the cost of building an iPhone by 20% or more.”
The report notes that AI infrastructure is monopolizing the manufacturing capacity at memory chip makers, leaving much less capacity for consumer electronics. And AI will receive priority treatment over consumer products as new manufacturing capacity comes online.
It’s also not clear when the memory price hikes will end, the report added, citing a recent article from IDC analyst Soo Kyoum Kim.
“The supply-demand imbalance is expected to persist beyond 2027 in key segments,” Kim wrote, while Kerwin projected that memory inflation would “continue through 2028.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported in early May that computers and electronics orders saw their best month in 25 years during March, a trend attributable to rise to soaring demand for these products as companies invest in AI.
Taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for new and old investors, and Zacks Premium offers many different ways to do both.
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What are the Zacks Style Scores? The Zacks Style Scores is a unique set of guidelines that rates stocks based on three popular investing types, and were developed as complementary indicators for the Zacks Rank. This combination helps investors choose securities with the highest chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Based on their value, growth, and momentum characteristics, each stock is assigned a rating of A, B, C, D, or F. The better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform; an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value ScoreValue investors love finding good stocks at good prices, especially before the broader market catches on to a stock's true value. Utilizing ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and many other multiples, the Value Style Score identifies the most attractive and most discounted stocks.
Growth ScoreGrowth investors are more concerned with a stock's future prospects, and the overall financial health and strength of a company. Thus, the Growth Style Score analyzes characteristics like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will see sustainable growth over time.
Momentum ScoreMomentum trading is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook, and these investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." The Momentum Style Score can pinpoint good times to build a position in a stock, using factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates.
VGM ScoreIf you like to use all three kinds of investing, then the VGM Score is for you. It's a combination of all Style Scores, and is an important indicator to use with the Zacks Rank. The VGM Score rates each stock on their shared weighted styles, narrowing down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank, which is a proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to make building a winning portfolio easier.
#1 (Strong Buy) stocks have produced an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, which is more than double the S&P 500's performance over the same time frame. However, the Zacks Rank examines a ton of stocks, and there can be more than 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, and another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
But it can feel overwhelming to pick the right stocks for you and your investing goals with over 800 top-rated stocks to choose from.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
You want to make sure you're buying stocks with the highest likelihood of success, and to do that, you'll need to pick stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B. If you like a stock that only has a #3 (Hold) rank, it should also have Scores of A or B to guarantee as much upside potential as possible.
The direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should always be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy, since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank.
For instance, a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one that boasts Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings forecast, and a much greater likelihood its share price will decline as well.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: Meta Platforms (META - Free Report) Meta Platforms is the world’s largest social media platform. The company’s portfolio has evolved from the Facebook app to multiple apps, including photo and video sharing app Instagram and WhatsApp messaging app, largely through acquisitions. Along with in-house developed Messenger and newer services such as Threads, these products form Meta’s Family of Apps, which reached about 3.56 billion daily active people on average in March 2026.
META is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
Additionally, the company could be a top pick for growth investors. META has a Growth Style Score of A, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 40.5% for the current fiscal year.
Four analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.60 to $33.01 per share. META boasts an average earnings surprise of +12.3%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Growth and VGM Style Scores, META should be on investors' short list.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) has had a rough first half of 2026, but our model sees a compelling risk-reward setup in mega-cap tech. With shares down 16.5% year to date and the AI capex narrative dividing investors, the pullback has gone too far.
Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Meta is $796.59, implying 44.77% upside over the next 12 months. Our model’s rating is buy, with a confidence level of 90%, which we consider high.
24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $550.25 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $796.59 Upside 44.77% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% From $785 Peak to $550 Pullback Meta topped near $785 in August 2025 before drifting lower for ten months to down 13.3% over the past month and down 23.97% over the past year. The stock trades just 4% off its 52-week high of $793.65 on a calendar basis but well below recent peaks, with the 200-day moving average sitting at $650.02.
Q1 2026 fundamentals tell a different story. Revenue delivered revenue of $56.31 billion, up 33.08% YoY, with EPS of $10.44 versus a $6.66 consensus, a 56.79% beat. Underlying EPS was roughly $7.31.
Ad impressions rose 19% while average price per ad climbed 12%. Management raised 2026 capex guidance to $125 billion to $145 billion, fueling the “incinerating capital” narrative that gathered momentum in late June.
Why Bulls See a Breakout Ahead The bull case rests on Meta’s ad engine compounding while AI investment turns into monetizable products. Q1 saw Business AI weekly conversations rise to 10 million from 1 million at the start of 2026, the Value Optimization Suite cross a $20 billion annual run rate, and AI glasses daily active users triple year over year.
Zuckerberg framed the strategy bluntly: “We are on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people.” Wall Street agrees, with 8 strong buys, 49 buys, and zero sell ratings. Our bull-case scenario points to $864.66 over 12 months, a 57.14% return.
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The Risks Worth Watching The bear case starts with capex. The $125 to $145 billion 2026 capex nearly doubles 2025 spending and pressures free cash flow, which fell 19.39% in 2025. Reality Labs lost $19.2 billion last year, and youth-related litigation trials in 2026 could be material. Polymarket traders assign only 0.5% probability to META hitting $700+ in June to near-term success.
Bulls counter that the forward P/E of 17 is undemanding, and capex feeds the Muse Spark model and custom silicon platform built with Broadcom that powers over 1 gigawatt of compute. Our bear scenario still produces $697.95, a 26.84% gain.
The Setup at Current Levels The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $796.59 reflects a confident buy rating. Meta trades at a forward P/E of 17 and PEG of 0.795 while compounding revenue at 33% with industry-leading margins.
The bull thesis rests on whether ad pricing power and engagement gains can fund the AI buildout without margin collapse. The bear case strengthens if capex spirals past $150 billion in 2027 with no monetization payoff. The risk-reward at $550 favors buyers.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $796.59 2027 $816.11 2028 $1,049.06 2029 $1,219.81 2030 $1,384.57 These projections assume Meta converts AI capex into monetizable products at its current pace. Significant upside or downside could result from agentic commerce traction, AI glasses adoption, or regulatory shocks from EU and US youth litigation.
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Meta Platforms shares META surged in trading on Wednesday following a report that the company is developing a cloud infrastructure business that would sell artificial intelligence computing power and AI models to external customers.
The proposed business would allow Meta to generate revenue from excess AI computing capacity, potentially creating a new source of income while expanding its presence in the fast-growing cloud infrastructure market.
Shares of Meta rose 10.6% in trading following the report.
According to Bloomberg, Meta is developing plans to sell access to AI computing infrastructure and hosted AI models through a new business built around its expanding data center network.
One option under consideration would allow customers to access AI models hosted on Meta's infrastructure, similar to Amazon Web Services' Bedrock platform.
Another would involve selling raw computing capacity, placing Meta in direct competition with AI-focused cloud providers such as CoreWeave and Nebius.
The initiative is part of Meta Compute, the company's internal effort to build and manage AI infrastructure.
The report weighed on companies that already provide AI computing services. CoreWeave fell about 14% in trading, while Nebius dropped 15%.
The move would also expand competition for the major cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Meta has significantly increased spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure as it pursues its goal of developing AI "superintelligence."
In April, the company raised its projected capital expenditure for the year by $10 billion to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, citing "expectations for higher component pricing" and "additional data center costs."
The company has also committed billions of dollars to data centers and AI chips while entering computing agreements with companies including CoreWeave, Google, and Oracle.
A cloud infrastructure business could provide Meta with a way to monetize those investments beyond its core advertising business.
Unlike its cloud rivals, Meta has historically justified its AI spending primarily through improvements to its own products, while Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have long generated revenue by renting computing infrastructure to outside customers.
The report also comes as investors continue to monitor Meta's efforts to commercialize artificial intelligence through products such as its Meta AI chatbot.
Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg previously acknowledged that selling excess computing capacity is a possibility if the company builds more infrastructure than it ultimately requires.
"It's definitely on the table," Zuckerberg said during a shareholder call in May. "Almost every week there are different companies that come to us from the outside asking us to both stand up an API service or asking if we have compute that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at."
"We haven't done that yet because we think we have a use for the compute," Zuckerberg said at the time. "But obviously if we get to a point where we feel that we have overbuilt, then that is an option that we have, and that is partially what gives us confidence in investing in building this out."
Zuckerberg has repeatedly argued that computing capacity remains one of the biggest constraints in the AI industry, supporting Meta's strategy of aggressively expanding its AI infrastructure while determining additional commercial uses for that capacity over time.
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Denise Moreno is stepping into Alex Schultz's CMO role at Meta. Meta Meta is getting a new CMO.
Denise Moreno is stepping into the role as Alex Schultz, the former CMO, becomes Meta's first chief data officer, the company shared Wednesday.
Moreno has had a lower profile, but isn't a stranger to the top job. She temporarily stepped into the CMO role last year when Schultz was preparing for Meta's FTC trial.
A 17-year marketing vet at Meta, Moreno most recently served as global SVP of consumer marketing and growth. Schultz called her his "quiet right hand on growth," crediting her with promoting Meta's products, including its AI glasses and Threads, while building its e-commerce capabilities.
In announcing her new role, Moreno said AI would be key to providing scale and speed to augment the company's human judgment.
Schultz is moving into the data officer role at a time when Meta, along with other tech giants, ramps up its AI spending. In November, Schultz defended the sector's investment level to Business Insider, saying it was "aggressive, but not crazy."
In his new role, he'll focus on everything from building data foundations to AI-powered analytics, experimentation, research, and decision-making.
"We've already made exciting progress — from Analytics Agent, now the most widely used AI agent inside Meta, to foundational work modernizing our analytics infrastructure — but I believe we're only at the beginning of what's possible," he wrote on LinkedIn.
At Cannes Lions in June, Schultz told Business Insider in an interview that the key to avoiding AI slop is the same as avoiding bad results in any area.
"It's only going to work if you are competent at using it," he said.
Meta recently took heat for an REI ad made with a Meta AI tool that showed a bike with two sets of handlebars. Meta declined to comment at the time.
AI won't be for all advertisers, Schultz said at Cannes Lions.
"When you think about AI, you're going to have three categories of things in the future, and I don't think these are particularly groundbreaking," he said. "You will have AI-only content. You will have creators who are enabled by AI, and you will have people and advertisers who swear not to use AI."
Schultz said he sees AI tools as an enabler of creativity and analytics.
"If you look at the most successful people in analytics, it's the ones who think of the right question to answer," he said. "And by the way, they can use the AI tools to turbocharge them."
Lara O'Reilly contributed reporting.
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Lucia Moses You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Lucia Moses covers the media and entertainment business, with a focus on creators. She's broken stories about MrBeast's business ambitions, Google's movie initiative, and Netflix's push into podcasts.Her reporting has won the Los Angeles Press Club's National Entertainment Journalism Awards.She previously worked at Digiday and Adweek and graduated from Cornell University.Reach her at [email protected], X at @lmoses, LinkedIn, or via phone/text/Signal at (917) 209-8549.Popular articles
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HomeIndustriesInternet/Online ServicesTech StocksTech StocksMeta’s reported interest in monetizing its AI infrastructure is leading investors to question the sustainability of neocloud business modelsJuly 1, 2026, 11:55 a.m. ET
Artificial-intelligence infrastructure providers like CoreWeave and Nebius Group may soon face stiff competition from a new kid on the block: Meta Platforms.
According to a Wednesday Bloomberg report, Meta META is developing an internal “Meta Compute” division to sell its excess cloud capacity. The company is reportedly considering charging developers to use models hosted directly on Meta’s infrastructure, as well as renting its raw compute capacity out in direct competition with existing neoclouds.
The artificial intelligence buildout has created one of the largest infrastructure races in technology history. Companies across the industry are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers, GPUs, networking equipment, and energy capacity to support AI models. Annual AI infrastructure spending by the major hyperscalers is approaching $750 billion, as they, startups, and governments compete for compute power.
That spending wave created a new class of AI infrastructure companies known as “neoclouds.” These specialized providers built businesses around supplying GPU clusters and high-performance computing capacity faster than traditional cloud providers could deliver. But a report from Bloomberg this morning that Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) is exploring its own cloud business under its Meta Compute initiative sent shares of several AI infrastructure companies lower — raising a bigger question for investors: Is the neocloud opportunity shrinking just as quickly as it emerged?
Shares of Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS), CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), and IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) are all declining following the news. Nebius and CoreWeave were down about 15% in morning trading, while IREN declined about 6.5%. Meta Platforms is up over 10%.
The market reaction reflects a simple concern: Meta is not just a customer anymore — it could become a competitor.
Neoclouds Built a Business Around AI’s Compute Shortage Neocloud companies exist because AI demand moved faster than traditional cloud capacity.
The biggest cloud providers — Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) — remain dominant, but AI companies need GPU capacity immediately. That opened the door for companies focused almost entirely on AI workloads.
Here is how the major players compare:
Company Focus Key Customers/Partners Nebius Full-stack AI cloud, GPU clusters, AI infrastructure Meta, Microsoft CoreWeave Nvidia GPU-focused AI cloud Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic IREN Renewable-powered AI/HPC data centers Microsoft, AI customers Nebius gained attention after securing a deal with Meta worth up to about $27 billion over five years. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has invested billions in the company. Nebius is building an AI-focused cloud platform designed around GPU infrastructure.
CoreWeave has followed a similar path. The company’s business model centers on Nvidia GPU availability and optimized AI computing environments. Its agreement with Meta reportedly totals about $21 billion, alongside partnerships involving OpenAI and Anthropic.
IREN took a different route. Originally focused on Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) mining, the company has shifted toward AI and high-performance computing data centers, using renewable energy as part of its infrastructure strategy.
Meta’s Move Is a Risk — But Also a Validation Bloomberg reported that Meta is considering selling excess AI compute capacity through Meta Compute. The company could eventually offer raw GPU capacity or AI-related services. The plans remain early and could change.
The concern, though, is obvious. If Meta spends billions building AI infrastructure and then sells unused capacity, it could pressure pricing for companies whose business depends on renting GPUs.
But there is another side, too. Meta’s own AI ambitions are enormous. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has discussed building massive AI infrastructure to support Llama models and future “superintelligence” efforts. Meta has indicated it expects to build tens of gigawatts of AI capacity over time. Selling excess capacity would be a way to improve returns on those investments.
That strategy is not unusual. Companies with expensive infrastructure often monetize unused capacity. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), for example, uses its technology platform to serve outside customers through its Starlink business.
Surprisingly, Meta becoming a potential competitor also confirms the scale of the opportunity. Companies do not spend hundreds of billions of dollars building AI infrastructure because demand is disappearing.
The Bigger Risk Is Not Meta — It Is Supply and Execution Granted, neocloud investors need to understand the risks. These companies have attractive growth opportunities, but they also carry heavy capital requirements. Building AI data centers requires billions of dollars in GPUs, power infrastructure, and financing.
The risks include:
AI demand slowing before capacity investments generate returns Hyperscalers flooding the market with cheaper compute Higher interest rates increasing financing costs Customer concentration creating bargaining pressure Customer concentration is especially important. Meta and Microsoft are valuable partners, but they also have the resources to build internally.
That said, neocloud companies still offer advantages. They can deploy specialized AI infrastructure faster, provide flexible capacity, and serve customers that need immediate access to GPUs.
In short, the market reaction looks more like a reset of expectations than the end of the neocloud story.
Key Takeaway Meta’s cloud ambitions are a reminder that the AI infrastructure race will become more competitive. Neocloud companies cannot assume today’s demand environment will continue forever. But investors should not confuse competition with collapse.
Meta’s willingness to spend billions on AI infrastructure supports the core investment thesis: compute demand remains massive. The companies best positioned for the next phase will likely be those with strong contracts, diversified customers, efficient data center operations, and specialized offerings.
For investors, the question is not whether AI compute demand exists. The question is which companies can turn that demand into durable profits as the industry matures.
A woman walks by the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
July 1 (Reuters) - Meta said on Wednesday its chief marketing officer Alex Schultz will become the company's first chief data officer, to better manage AI analytics globally.
The Facebook-parent also promoted its vice president of consumer marketing and growth, Denise Moreno, to marketing chief.
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"My focus in this new role will be helping transform how Meta learns and makes decisions in the AI era," Schultz said in a LinkedIn post, opens new tab.
The leadership changes signal at Meta's move to deepen its focus on data-driven decision-making and AI integration across its operations.
Schultz joined the company in 2007 and held responsibilities across various domains like developing Meta's brand strategy and WhatsApp privacy campaigns, according to his LinkedIn page.
Shares of Meta were up 10% after Bloomberg News reported earlier on Wednesday that the company is building a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity.
A 17-year veteran at Meta, Moreno began her career managing email marketing and growth experiments, she said, opens new tab in a separate post.
Axios first reported about Meta naming Schultz as its chief data officer and elevating Moreno as CMO.
Meta is projected to spend as much as $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year, a significant portion of Big Tech's more than $700 billion outlay on the technology.
Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Tesla is once again the ticker every headline is chasing, riding a 10.22% one-week rip on robotaxi buzz and Optimus promises. But here’s what you should actually be watching.
The Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) story requires you to pay 416x earnings for a company whose full-year 2025 revenue fell 2.93%, whose annual net income dropped 46.79%, and whose deliveries declined 9% for the year. That is a story stock trading at a growth stock’s multiple, and the story keeps slipping to the right. Prediction markets currently assign a 0.5% probability to a California robotaxi launch by June 30, 2026, and a 0.1% probability to an Optimus release in the same window. The composite sentiment score has dropped 17.67 points in the past 7 days. Tesla trades at $420.60, down 6.48% year-to-date, while the promises get pushed into 2026 and beyond.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the cash machine hiding in plain sight while everyone stares at Cybercab renderings. Three reasons the smart money is quietly stacking Apple.
1. Valuation Sanity on a Proven Business Apple trades at roughly 38x earnings. Tesla trades at 416x. You are paying nearly ten times less per dollar of earnings for a business generating a 171.4% return on equity and a 32.0% operating margin, compared with Tesla’s 4.6% operating margin and 4.9% ROE. That premium leaves little margin for a robotaxi fleet that regulators have not approved.
2. A Capital Return Machine Tesla Cannot Match Apple’s board just authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and lifted the dividend 4%. In fiscal 2025, Apple repurchased $90.71 billion of its own stock and returned roughly $32 billion to shareholders in Q1 26 alone. Tesla offers no dividend and no buyback. For an investor who wants cash flowing back to them rather than into humanoid robot production lines, this is not close.
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3. Real Growth Happening Now Apple just posted its 8th consecutive EPS beat: $2.01 versus $1.94 consensus on $111.18 billion in revenue, up 16.6% year over year. iPhone revenue hit $56.99 billion on what Tim Cook called “extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup“. Services set another all-time record at $30.98 billion. Every geographic segment posted double-digit growth. Greater China alone surged to $25.53 billion in Q1 26 from $18.51 billion the prior year. Meanwhile Tesla’s automotive revenue fell 11% in Q4 25.
Bank of America reiterated its Buy with a $380 price target, calling Apple’s AI reset “underappreciated.” Apple shares are up 41.6% over the past year and 1,225.63% over the past decade. This is a compounder with 2.5 billion active devices and a Services annuity that keeps hitting records.
For investors weighing story-driven promises against demonstrated cash generation, the contrast between the two names is worth tracking.
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Uber (NYSE:UBER | UBER Price Prediction) has become a growth story firing on every cylinder while its stock quietly bleeds. Gross Bookings hit $53.72 billion in Q1 2026, trips grew 20% year over year, and Uber One crossed 50 million members. Yet shares trade at $72.16, down 22.66% over the past year. Can Uber shares double to $150 by July 2027?
Why Uber Shares Are Stuck Despite Record Bookings The disconnect between Uber’s fundamentals and stock price is jarring. Year to date, shares are down 11.69%, with a 3.57% one-week bounce doing little to shift momentum. The one-month gain sits at just 2.5%.
Two factors weigh on the stock. First, GAAP earnings have been distorted by a $1.5B pre-tax equity investment revaluation headwind, dragging Q1 net income down 85.19% year over year.
Second, investors worry that Waymo and other robotaxi operators will erode Uber’s market share. With a beta of 1.12, the stock swings harder than the market, and every AV headline has cut against it. Shares sit 2% off the 52-week high of $101.99. The market refuses to credit Uber’s operating engine.
Wall Street Sees 45% Upside. Our Model Says 72% Wall Street is bullish, but analysts are being too conservative. The consensus target of $104.48 rests on 9 Strong Buys, 36 Buys, 5 Holds, and just 1 Sell, with bullish sentiment at 88%.
Our base case lands at $124.43, implying 72.44% upside with 90% confidence. The bull case reaches $138.01, the bear case delivers $105.24. Analysts anchor on a bruised trailing multiple, underweighting earnings-growth contribution while overweighting recent GAAP noise. When free cash flow ran at $9.76B for full-year 2025 and buybacks totaled $6.523 billion, a $104 target feels conservative.
The Path to $150 Per Share Reaching $150 from $72.16 requires a 107.9% gain. This sits above both our base case and bull case, making it a stretch.
With forward EPS of $5.43, a $150 stock price implies a forward P/E of 28x. Our base case of $124.43 implies 14x, meaning the bold target requires roughly 14 turns of additional multiple expansion.
Management is executing key catalysts. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said “AV Mobility trips grew more than 10x year-on-year” and framed autonomy as “another $1 trillion total addressable market”.
Q2 2026 guidance calls for Non-GAAP EPS of $0.78 to $0.82, up 31% to 38% year over year. If EPS compounds at that rate, the forward multiple compresses even as price rises, making 28x easier to defend. Primary risk: a broad AI-driven tech multiple contraction as flagged in Vanguard’s 2026 outlook.
Where Uber Trades Today vs Its Earnings Power At $72.16 against forward EPS of $5.43, Uber trades at roughly 13x forward earnings. For a business growing gross bookings 21% and Non-GAAP EPS 44% year over year, that is cheap.
The stock sits near the 52-week low of $67.19 and far below the high of $101.99. Over ten years, UBER is up 73.59%, hardly heroic. The valuation gap is notable for patient long-term holders to monitor.
Is $150 Realistic? My Verdict Reaching $150 requires a 107.9% gain. It is a stretch.
For it to happen, three things must click: EPS growth must stay in the 30%-plus range through 2027, the AV narrative must flip from threat to tailwind (Waymo, Zoox, and Pony partnerships driving value), and buybacks must shrink the share count aggressively. A recession hitting Mobility volumes before AV economics scale would derail it. We’ve outlined the blueprint for how Uber could reach $150 in 2027.
People walk next to Lime rental bikes parked on a pathway at Eel Brook Common in Fulham, London, Britain December 1, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesJuly 1 (Reuters) - Uber-backed Lime's (LIME.O), opens new tab shares jumped 8% in its Nasdaq debut on Wednesday after the company raised $167 million in its U.S. IPO, valuing the electric scooter and bike operator at about $1.73 billion.
Its shares opened at $27, compared with the initial offering price of $25. The company and existing stockholders sold about 7 million shares in the offering, generating $174 million in total.
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Lime, founded in 2017, is based in San Francisco, California, and provides short-term rentals of electric bikes and scooters in more than 230 cities worldwide.
Shared e-bikes and scooters have gained popularity among commuters in densely populated cities, where their affordability and convenience have made them popular options for short trips.
Lime's debut comes as new issuers enjoy renewed investor interest after volatility triggered by the war in Iran prompted some companies to take a wait-and-see approach.
The U.S. IPO market has gathered pace in 2026, with a series of high-profile offerings, including SpaceX's record-breaking $75 billion IPO, drawing investors back to new listings.
A LONG, BUMPY ROAD TO MARKETLime operates in an industry grappling with high operating costs and regulatory hurdles, and counts on its partnership with Uber (UBER.N), opens new tab, a major backer, for a significant chunk of its revenue. Uber's ride-hailing app offers Lime's scooters as a transport option.
The company, which has been eyeing a public listing since 2021, is one of the few major standalone micromobility companies to survive an industry shakeout that followed the pandemic.
Its valuation dropped from $2.4 billion in 2019 to about $510 million in 2020, according to media reports at the time, as the pandemic triggered a sharp downturn in the industry.
Former rivals such as Bird filed for bankruptcy protection, while operators including Tier and Dott merged to cut costs and gain scale.
Lime said in its prospectus that it has yet to turn a net profit. For 2025, it posted a net loss of $59.3 million on revenue of $886.7 million.
Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Uber Technologies (UBER) is "stuck on struggle street," says Thomas Martin. He says the company is performing at its best, though the rise of robotaxis like Alphabet's (GOOGL) Waymo and Tesla's (TSLA) self-driving vehicle add outlook pressures.
The IPO window is showing more signs of life, with Uber-backed Lime raising $174 million in its public debut, pricing its shares right at the midpoint of the expected range. Lime CEO Wayne Ting says the company is going public to attract new investors, and is thinking about M&A, though "the bar is high.
When headlines hit the wire that Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL subsidiary Waymo was removing its autonomous vehicles from the Uber app in Phoenix, the market reacted with predictable, reactionary selling. Shares of Uber Technologies NYSE: UBER slid more than 4% on June 29 after the news was released, pushing the stock down nearly 12% year to date and leaving it near $72.
Uber Technologies Today
UBER
Uber Technologies
$73.04 +0.88 (+1.21%)
As of 12:52 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$67.19▼
$101.99P/E Ratio18.20
Price Target$104.54
The knee-jerk interpretation is that Uber is losing its grip on the autonomous vehicle revolution, sidelined by a vertically integrated giant that has decided to go it alone. Take a step back and look at the underlying mechanics of marketplace dynamics. The withdrawal of a dozen Waymo vehicles in a single metropolitan market is not a structural failure of Uber’s long-term business model.
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Instead, it serves as a highly visible stress test for autonomous demand aggregation. By rapidly rotating the Uber supply chain and leaning on massive core cash flows, Uber is proving that localized fleet shifts cannot fracture a globally entrenched membership moat.
Pumping the Brakes: Waymo’s Phoenix Power PlayTo understand the Waymo exit in Phoenix, you have to look at how autonomous fleet economics scale. Waymo has spent years meticulously mapping and testing in the Phoenix area. Waymo has achieved geographic density, brand penetration, and a critical mass of proprietary hardware in that specific region.
When an autonomous vehicle operator reaches that level of local maturity, it gains the leverage to bypass third-party aggregators and direct consumers to a proprietary application, capturing the full unit economics of the ride. Waymo reallocating those vehicles to a proprietary platform and securing a separate delivery agreement with DoorDash NASDAQ: DASH demonstrates that top-tier developers view third-party networks as supplementary distribution channels in established, highly saturated markets.
Scaling that density nationwide requires staggering capital expenditure. That is exactly why the broader Uber-Waymo alliance remains active in newer autonomous markets like Austin and Atlanta. Autonomous operators still require massive, pre-existing user bases to efficiently penetrate new geographies and sustain fleet utilization rates during early-stage scaling. An empty robotaxi burning miles without a passenger is a massive liability. Uber provides instant demand, solving the utilization equation for these nascent fleets.
Firing on All Cylinders: Uber’s Massive Operating LeverageWhile the market obsesses over future robotaxi market share, current operating metrics provide a rigid valuation floor. Uber Technologies is no longer a cash-burning growth experiment dependent on venture subsidies. Uber has structurally matured, generating $1.9 billion in non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2026, representing a massive 42% year-over-year expansion.
That immense operating leverage is directly funding a $3 billion share repurchase execution. When a management team aggressively buys back stock during localized operational turbulence, it signals deep confidence in the durability of the underlying cash flows.
Those cash flows are largely insulated by the rapid expansion of the subscription ecosystem. Cross-platform Uber One members recently surpassed 50 million, accounting for over 50% of total gross bookings. When you lock tens of millions of consumers into a recurring membership that incentivizes them to use a single application for mobility, food delivery, and freight, you neutralize the revenue impact of isolated supply-chain disruptions. The consumer does not care if the vehicle arriving is driven by a human, guided by Waymo, or powered by another autonomous developer. They simply want the ride fulfilled within the app they already pay a monthly fee to use.
Swapping Parts: Building a Bulletproof Supply ChainThe terminal valuation of a mobility network relies heavily on becoming an indispensable, neutral demand aggregator. If a single autonomous provider achieves a monopoly over the supply side, it can dictate pricing, leading to severe margin compression for the aggregator.
The strategic countermeasure to vendor lock-in is supplier fungibility. If one partner leaves, another must immediately plug into the network. Uber Technologies is already executing this exact playbook. Uber is actively preparing a replacement partner for the Phoenix market to backfill the Waymo vacancy. More importantly, Uber is rapidly advancing a high-volume integration utilizing the Nuro Driver artificial intelligence system on Lucid Group NASDAQ: LCID vehicles.
This multi-year program targets a 35,000-vehicle fleet exclusive to Uber, launching in the San Francisco Bay Area in late 2026 and expanding to Houston by mid-2027. Combined with recent strategic agreements with international developers like WeRide, these moves prove rapid backfilling capabilities. The supply chain is becoming modular, protecting Uber against vertical monopolies and ensuring continuous capacity in contested markets.
The Smart Money Is Riding ShotgunOverall MarketRank™97th Percentile
Analyst RatingModerate Buy
Upside/Downside43.3% Upside
Short Interest LevelHealthy
Dividend StrengthN/A
News Sentiment0.63 Insider TradingN/A
Proj. Earnings Growth49.83%
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Follow the derivative markets, and a much more optimistic narrative emerges. While retail sentiment soured on the Phoenix headlines, institutional capital appears to be taking the other side of the trade. July 2026 options chain data reveals unusually heavy call volume clustered at the $77 and $85 strike prices. This suggests sophisticated market participants are positioning for a near-term bullish reversal, heavily discounting the localized Waymo turbulence.
Insider alignment further refutes the bearish narrative. Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi maintains substantial equity exposure. While recent regulatory filings show multi-million dollar stock liquidations, these trades were executed concurrently with massive retention awards, including the receipt of 293,637 new stock options.
These scheduled sales align with standard Rule 10b5-1 trading plans rather than opportunistic insider fleeing. When leadership continues to hold and vest massive blocks of equity alongside aggressive corporate buybacks, it telegraphs a strong conviction in the broader multi-partner autonomous marketplace.
The Road Ahead: Dominating the Next Mobility CycleThe transition from human-driven ride-hailing to an autonomous mobility network will inevitably face friction. Individual partnerships will form, evolve, and occasionally dissolve as hardware developers test pricing power. By actively diversifying its autonomous fleet and leveraging its 50-million-strong membership base, Uber is effectively turning competing robotaxi fleets into interchangeable commodities.
The true metric to watch over the coming quarters is not whether a single partner stays or leaves a specific city, but whether Uber can seamlessly route massive consumer demand to the provider with the most efficient capacity. Investors observing the current pullback might consider how a diversified, multi-partner supply chain ultimately secures long-term marketplace dominance.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Uber Technologies Right Now?Before you consider Uber Technologies, you'll want to hear this.
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SummaryAlphabet is rated a 'Hold' due to the extended valuation, despite robust business fundamentals and AI verticalization.GOOG's revenue is projected to grow 17%–20% annually through 2026, with stable operating margins in the low 30% range.The current valuation implies high single-digit returns, while much of the near-term upside appears to be priced in.Selling put options on GOOG can yield ~11% in annualized income, offering a win-win for income-focused investors seeking lower entry points.Looking for option income ideas that focus on capital preservation? I offer this and much more at my exclusive investing ideas service, Option Income Builder. Learn More » mustafaU/E+ via Getty Images
A few months ago, I wrote an article titled "The Three Key Reasons We're Downgrading Alphabet."
In it, I made the case that the shares of Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) no longer looked like
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of GOOG 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 (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.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is trading higher on Wednesday. It has gained about 5% in just three days.
The uptrend may continue, as the shares are testing resistance and may be on the verge of a breakout. This is why Alphabet is the Stock of the Day.
Resistance is a price level at which a large number of shares are for sale. If a stock is trending higher, it’s because there aren’t enough sell orders to fill all of the buy orders.
Those who wish to acquire shares are forced to outbid each other and pay premiums if they want to get sellers interested. This forces the shares into an uptrend.
This changes at resistance — and because there are enough sell orders to fill the buy orders, the rally will end or at least pause.
There tends to be resistance at price levels that had previously been support. This can be seen on Alphabet’s chart.
In April, the $374 level was support. People who bought shares at this level were glad they did when the price went higher. But when this support broke in early June, they changed their minds. They decided that selling was actually a mistake.
Some also decided to sell out of their positions if they could eventually do so at breakeven. When Alphabet rallied back to $374, they placed sell orders. These created resistance at the former support level.
The same dynamic is currently taking place at the $358 level. As you can see, this level was support in early June. Now it has become resistance because of buyers’ remorse. People who bought at $358 are now selling, and this has created resistance.
If a stock can clear this resistance and stay above it, traders call this a breakout. This can be a bullish dynamic because it shows the sellers who created the resistance are gone. They have either canceled or finished their orders.
Buyers may once again be forced to outbid each other to attract sellers. This can keep Alphabet’s uptrend intact.
Photo: Markus Mainka via Shutterstock
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A Google Cloud logo is pictured at a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse//File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
JOHANNESBURG, July 1 (Reuters) - Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab has exceeded a five-year target to invest $1 billion in Africa, it said on Wednesday, as it made public initiatives on infrastructure and development of AI to accelerate the continent's digital growth.
They follow on from Google's launch of a cloud for the Johannesburg region in 2025.
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Here are the details of the new initiatives that Google, owned by Alphabet, announced at the first Africa Cloud Summit in Johannesburg.
Google will establish a connectivity hub in South Africa's Eastern Cape, the first of four planned connectivity hubs on the continent.
The facility will link Africa to Australia via the Umoja subsea cable and to India through a new route, strengthening internet resilience and capacity.
Africa's first applied AI lab in Ghana will pair local startups with Google researchers and provide early access to its AI models.
A more than $1 million programme in partnership with UK actor Idris Elba's Akuna Group will train underrepresented creators in AI-driven storytelling.
Google's Economic and Community Development programme and WeThinkCode have committed to build a 3 million rand ($183,468) digital innovation centre in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Google also said its startup accelerator programme will back 15 South African firms as part of Google's pledge to back 50 African ventures between 2024 and 2028.
"The AI opportunity for Africa is significant, and Google is committed to doing our part working with Africans to help Africa realise it," James Manyika, Google's senior vice president for research and technology, told reporters.
($1 = 16.3516 rand)
Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Barbara Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Nqobile is a Johannesburg-based reporter covering the South African retail, telecom and tech sectors. She has been a journalists for about 10 years. She joined Reuters in 2015 and has covered a variety of beats ranging from pharma, health to property and banking.
Investors interested in Retail-Wholesale stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Retail-Wholesale sector should help us answer this question.
Amazon is one of 187 companies in the Retail-Wholesale group. The Retail-Wholesale group currently sits at #12 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.
The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Amazon is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMZN's full-year earnings has moved 0.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that AMZN has returned about 3.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Retail-Wholesale sector has returned an average of -1.5% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Amazon is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another stock in the Retail-Wholesale sector, Brinker International (EAT - Free Report) , has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 17.1%.
The consensus estimate for Brinker International's current year EPS has increased 0.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking more specifically, Amazon belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry, which includes 35 individual stocks and currently sits at #182 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 4.8% so far this year, meaning that AMZN is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.
On the other hand, Brinker International belongs to the Retail - Restaurants industry. This 36-stock industry is currently ranked #191. The industry has moved +0.8% year to date.
Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Amazon and Brinker International as they attempt to continue their solid performance.
Meta Platforms is developing plans to build a cloud infrastructure business that would sell access to AI computing power and models. It would take on industry leaders like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Greyston Holt, Alan Ritchson, Jasper Jones, Maria Sten
Shane Mahood/Prime
It seems clear that Amazon wants to make seasons of Reacher for as long as possible, with infinite source material, high viewership, and high-profile action star Alan Ritchson. But its effort to fill seasonal gaps with a spinoff is taking a strange turn.
Reacher season 4’s release date is Wednesday, August 12, just over a month from now. Its spinoff, Neagley, focused on Maria Sten’s recurring Reacher ally, had not previously received a release date, even though it seemed like it should air before Reacher season 4. Now, Amazon has announced a date, and it’s a strange choice.
Reacher will do a triple-episode premiere for season 4 on August 12, and then air weekly through September 16. Pretty standard. But on September 16, right after the Reacher finale airs, Amazon will put all eight episodes of Neagley online.
We have seen shows act as lead-ins for new series before, something with big views trying to boost something new. But while Neagley seems like it could use that Reacher boost, airing all eight episodes as a binge drop right at that moment, likely able to be finished by the weekend, is a strange move that seems like it could make the show forgotten about almost immediately unless it makes an enormous impact.
Maria Sten, Greyston Holt
Sabrina Lantos/Prime
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I have often compared this Reacher-Neagley idea to the relationship between The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, the latter meant to be an interim series between seasons of the flagship. But Fear did not get TWD as a lead-in, and instead premiered five months later, airing weekly after that. This move would seem to me to suggest a lack of confidence in Neagley, perhaps believing that it would do poorly if it aired 5-6 months from now in between Reacher seasons, standing on its own.
As a fan of Reacher, the idea of a Neagley spinoff has never made much sense to me. The show has tried to shoehorn her into stories she was never a part of in the original book, and I simply don’t think she’s all that compelling of a character, no offense to Sten. Her show sounds like a copy of a Reacher plot we’ve essentially already done (a friend from her past is killed and she tries to uncover the mystery and get justice), except with Neagley instead of Reacher, and I just don’t think the two are remotely comparable characters.
We’ll see if my skepticism is unwarranted and Neagley performs better than I predict. But a binge drop the night of the Reacher finale still seems like it could do more harm than good, especially if the show compares unfavorably to the season that just aired.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
by Lisa Stiffler on Jul 1, 2026 at 9:00 amJuly 1, 2026 at 7:53 am
Wind Wall, a wind farm in California’s Tehachapi Mountains, produces renewable energy for Amazon Web Services. (Amazon Photo) Amazon’s carbon footprint jumped 16% last year after several years of little or no increase. The company emitted nearly 80.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025. By comparison, that’s slightly higher than the nation of New Zealand’s emissions.
Amazon disclosed its climate-related data in its most comprehensive sustainability report to date, which includes a breakdown of its carbon sources, water use and other environmental impacts.
Not surprisingly, energy use showed the biggest rate of increase in the 2025 carbon tally as Amazon and other tech companies are working to rapidly expand their data center capacity to meet AI computing demand.
For the first time since 2019, the company also reported an uptick in its “carbon intensity” — a measure of how much carbon was emitted relative to each dollar of revenue. Amazon has promoted this metric as a sign that it can decouple its growth from its climate impacts.
*Million of metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent. † Grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per dollar of revenue. ‡ Carbon emissions for 2025 were calculated using a market-based method, including the application of Environmental Attribute Credits (EACs). (2025 Amazon Sustainability Report) Despite emissions moving in the wrong direction and ongoing data center-driven challenges, the Seattle-area company remains committed to its pledge of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
When it comes to that goal, “I remain confident and optimistic in the overarching vision and the long-term progress we continue to make toward it,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer, in the foreword to the company’s annual report.
The report highlights areas of success that include:
Data center efficiency: Amazon’s data centers are 9% more efficient than the public cloud average and 30% more efficient than on-premises data centers at directing energy toward computing rather than cooling, lighting or overhead. Data center water use: Amazon is seven times more efficient in its water use than the industry average thanks to its use of air cooling at most sites, most of the year. 100% clean energy overall: For the third year running, Amazon matched its company-wide electricity use with an equivalent volume of purchased clean energy, although it technically still draws on fossil fuels for some of its energy. Electric vehicle fleet: It has the largest corporate EV fleet in North America, with more than 52,700 delivery vans worldwide. It’s halfway to meeting its 2030 goal of 100,000 EVs. The company also reported improvements in reducing packaging and plastic use in delivered items; increasing use of low-carbon building materials in data center construction; and progress toward becoming water positive at its data centers, meaning it aims to replenish more water to communities than it uses.
The Amazon-backed Climate Pledge — an effort to get other organizations to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 — has grown to 656 signatories after adding 107 companies this year. It marks a notable increase at a time when companies are growing quieter about climate commitments, with some stepping back from earlier goals.
But the surge in data center investment shows little sign of slowing, which will keep complicating Amazon’s path to lower emissions. CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon expects to spend a record $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, including “AI, chips, robotics, and low-Earth orbit satellites.”
Not all reactions to that buildout have been positive — even within the company. Members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice this month testified before the Seattle City Council in favor of data center requirements for renewable energy and labor protections, though Amazon doesn’t operate any data centers within city limits.
In the report, Amazon CSO Hurst acknowledged that AI-fueled advances could catalyze sustainability solutions or slow progress toward climate goals.
“But what alternative do we have,” she said, “but to continue to invest, learn, and move forward to try to solve one of the world’s most challenging issues?”
