A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY.
Here's a full recap:
1. Anthropic is reportedly in early talks to rent Azure servers powered by Microsoft’s $MSFT Maia AI chips, per The Information. The move would further deepen Microsoft’s relationship with Anthropic, after Microsoft pledged up to $5B to the company, Anthropic committed $30B in Azure spending, and Microsoft began reselling Claude through Azure. The chip angle matters because Maia is being positioned as a lower-cost option than Nvidia’s $NVDA GPUs for certain inference workloads, rather than a replacement for frontier AI training. Anthropic already uses chips from Amazon $AMZN, Google $GOOGL, and Nvidia $NVDA, and Microsoft now wants Maia to become part of that mix.
2. Nvidia $NVDA PT's were raised across the street with the highest of $500 at Baird. The firm says Nvidia continues gaining market share in AI inferencing and across hyperscalers, while adoption of the upcoming Vera Rubin platform at frontier model companies is expected to exceed that of Blackwell. Baird also believes Vera’s standalone performance could significantly outperform traditional x86 CPUs, opening an additional $200B TAM opportunity for Nvidia, which already has visibility into nearly $20B in CPU revenue this year alone. Looking ahead, the firm expects annual AI infrastructure spending to grow from over $1T in 2027 to roughly $3–4T by 2030 as agentic AI proliferates across industries, while reiterating Nvidia as one of its top investment ideas.
3. U.S. initial jobless claims came in at 209,000, slightly below expectations of 210,000, signaling the labor market remains relatively stable.
4. OpenAI reportedly generated about $5.7B in Q1 revenue, roughly $1B ahead of Anthropic, per The Information. Anthropic could narrow that gap quickly, with its recent annualized revenue reportedly nearing $45B compared to OpenAI’s $25B annualized run rate in February. Anthropic is also projecting nearly $11B in Q2 revenue and about $600M in operating profit. OpenAI’s Q2 outlook was not reported, but The Information said growth has been supported by Codex, enterprise sales, ad tests, GPT-5.5, and image generation.
5. Walmart $WMT reported earnings this morning, with EPS of $0.66 coming in line with expectations and revenue of $177.8B beating estimates of $175B. Despite the revenue beat, the stock fell 7% after the company lowered guidance and warned it would raise prices on certain consumer goods.
6. Starbucks $SBUX has reportedly retired a worker-facing AI tool designed to automate inventory counts and help address product shortages, according to Reuters. The program was shut down this week, just nine months after being rolled out across North American stores.
7. A reported draft agreement between the U.S. and Iran has reportedly been reached through Pakistan-mediated talks, with an official announcement expected within hours. The deal is said to include an immediate comprehensive ceasefire across all fronts, along with commitments from both sides not to target infrastructure. The agreement would also guarantee freedom of navigation through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz under a joint monitoring mechanism. In exchange for Iran’s compliance, sanctions would reportedly be gradually lifted, while negotiations on unresolved issues are expected to begin within seven days.
8. $AMD AMD announced more than $10B in investments across Taiwan’s ecosystem to expand advanced packaging capacity and accelerate next-generation AI infrastructure deployments. The company highlighted products ranging from its 6th Gen EPYC CPUs, codenamed “Venice,” to its Helios rack-scale AI platform featuring Instinct MI450X GPUs, with multi-gigawatt deployments expected to begin in the second half of 2026. AMD also said it reached another key production milestone with TSMC, as Venice EPYC CPUs are now ramping on TSMC’s 2nm process technology in Taiwan, with future plans to expand production to TSMC’s Arizona fabrication facilities.
9. The U.S. is preparing to award $2B to nine quantum companies through the CHIPS and Science Act while also taking minority equity stakes. IBM is expected to receive $1B, GlobalFoundries $375M, and other recipients including $QBTS D-Wave, $RGTI Rigetti, $INFQ Infleqtion, Atom Computing, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum are expected to receive $100M each. Diraq is expected to receive $38M. The deals would combine grants with government equity stakes, though they still need to be finalized.
10. The Pentagon is testing AI models from OpenAI, Google, and others as it looks for alternatives to Anthropic’s Claude, per Bloomberg. The tests began in March with 25 heavy users of the Defense Department’s AI tools across five military theater commands. The move follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designating Anthropic as a supply-chain risk over its model guardrails, a designation Anthropic is now challenging in court. Claude is currently used heavily in the Pentagon’s Maven Smart System, including classified operations.
11. Oura, the maker of the popular smart ring, has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO and plans to go public later this year, per Bloomberg. The company’s growth is the main story: revenue is expected to reach $1.5B in 2026, up from $500M in 2024, while total rings sold have climbed to 5.5M from 2.5M in mid-2024. Oura was last valued at $11B.
12. A Bank of America survey shows investors are increasingly worried the Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates again. According to the survey, 14% of investors believe conditions for a hike are already in place, while 38% think the Fed would tighten policy if core inflation rises to 3.5%–4%, regardless of labor market strength. Overall, more than half of respondents see rate hikes as possible under certain inflation scenarios, reflecting renewed concern about persistent inflation pressure.
I will also be launching a product tomorrow morning at 10AM EST that I think many retail investors will enjoy. 100% free. See you then!
WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
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