TOGETHER WITH
Hey there weekday warriors,
Here’s what’s on tap today… Claude dethrones OpenAI, Greg Abel ain’t no Oracle, and Jensen Huang wants to buy photon torpedoes or something.
Enjoy the next 3 minutes and 4 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.
Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,
Claude its way to the top
Giphy
In case you missed it over the weekend, there’s a new leader in the AI app clubhouse (think: the Apple App Store’s most downloaded list)…
Side note: how could you not be bullish on DICK’S after seeing this?
So how did Claude take the throne?
Politics mostly.
You might recall that last week, Claude and Uncle Sam officially called it quits. Anthropic told the government it wouldn’t allow it to use its AI to surveil citizens (it’ll let Ring do that) or build autonomous weapons (Dario likes his carpet bombing done the old-fashioned way).
Not long after the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic, OpenAI agreed to do whatever the government would like (…including, but not limited to, killing innocent civilians).
Turns out that pissed a lot of people off. Signups for Claude soared, pushing Dario’s LLM to the top spot.
Even trailblazing astronauts got involved…
Because there is simply nothing that can’t be politicized. Including which app we want to replace ourselves with…
The Gold standard for AI news
AI keeps coming up at work, but you still don't get it?
That's exactly why 1M+ professionals working at Google, Meta, and OpenAI read Superhuman AI daily.
Here's what you get:
Daily AI news that matters for your career - Filtered from 1000s of sources so you know what affects your industry.
Step-by-step tutorials you can use immediately - Real prompts and workflows that solve actual business problems.
New AI tools tested and reviewed - We try everything to deliver tools that drive real results.
All in just 3 minutes a day
+ Hard act to follow…
Greg Abel’s first quarter at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.A ( ▼ 4.89% ) went about as well as you might expect. The new emperor of Omaha reported operating earnings of only $10.2B for Q4, down 29% from last year. Which, yikes.
Insurance biz profits fell 54%, which dragged down the whole operation. Shares dropped 5% on the news, despite GrAbel’s pathetic excuse of an annual investor letter. Imagine knowing no matter what you do, you’ll never be him.
Jensen Huang is playing 3D chess, and we’re all playing checkers. $NVDA ( ▲ 2.99% ) announced it’ll be investing $4B in two companies. Each is developing photon technology.
Both Lumentum $LITE ( ▲ 11.75% ) and Coherent $COHR ( ▲ 15.44% ) shares mooned on the news that they’d be receiving $2B checks from Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 2.99% ) to create “the world’s most sophisticated silicon photonics to build the next generation of gigawatt-scale AI factories.” Imagine explaining this to Steve Jobs…
+ “Here, peasants.” - Apple every couple of years after everyone who can afford the newest model is done buying it
Tim and the boys in Cupertino just dropped the iPhone 17e (think: the poor man’s iPhone). The “affordable” model does come with a solid 256G of storage.
Apple $AAPL ( ▲ 0.2% ) also introduced the new iPad Air, with its M4 chip for a cool $599. Still no updates on Gemini-powered Siri, though…
You’re dumb (yes, you)
Don't worry, I am too. We all make dumb money moves. Every damn day.
We’ll spend countless hours researching a new investment, but we'll overpay for insurance or home improvements.
See where you're leaving money on the table.
> Paramount to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service after WBD merger (CNBC) // You mean Max/HBO Max/HBO is gonna get renamed again?
> MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, the viral calorie app built by teens (TechCrunch) // MyFitnessPal just brutally acquiremaxxed Cal AI.
> Bitcoin Advances Toward $70,000 as Market Volatility Increases (Bloomberg) // And Michael Saylor is still buying this dip.
> Jamie Dimon warns inflation could soar beyond expectations as US, Israeli strikes on Iran spark terror fears (NY Post) // Captain Obvious strikes again…
> Call your mom and pay your mortgage…
Yesterday I asked, “Pick the greatest cooking competition show known to man.”
24.5% of you said, “Iron Chef.” Opinions were all over the place for this one…
Here’s what some of you guys had to say (and my response in italics)…
Beat Bobby Flay: “I study beat Bobby Flay episodes like a football guy breaking down film. It’s the only thing I can geek out on and have my wife understand. ‘Bro under seasoned here. Bobby is about to sweep this guy easy.’” Armchair chef-ing.
Hell’s Kitchen: “Watching grown adults cry over under cooked eggs and having Gordon throw that dish across the room…tv gold.” The polar opposite of Great British Baking Show.
Iron Chef: “Iron Chef is the major leagues. Morimoto vs Flay back in the day is a classic. Thought they were going to fight.”
The Great British Baking Show: “GBBS is classy and the best because there aren't screaming swearing BS assholes thwarting your every move.” Such a calm, relaxing competition.
Top Chef: “So many hot judges showing lots of cleavage.” I really didn’t expect to have to hand this out for this question, but… here’s your BONK.
Here’s today’s question(s)…
Dick's Sporting Goods crushing the app download game got me thinking... The year is 2005. You've got 2 hours to kill time at any of these stores. Where are you kicking it?
+ US stocks “finished steady on Monday, clawing back early losses during a volatile session after U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iran roiled global markets.” (Reuters)
+ The 10-year yield “moved higher on Monday even after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran over the weekend as investors failed to use the U.S. bond market as a safe haven.” (CNBC)
+ Oil “and gas prices surged on Monday following Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran and retaliation by Tehran that forced shutdowns of oil and gas facilities across the region and disrupted shipping in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.” (Reuters)
+ The “smart” money (prediction markets) thinks that there’s a 78% chance that the Seahawks visit the White House (did they really not already?). (Polymarket)
⏪ Yesterday…
+ Ast Spacemobile, BigBear, Archer Aviation, Credo Tech Group, MongoDB, Quantum Computing, Plug Power, Riot Blockchain, Ouster, Asana, Core Scientific, and StoneCo reported after hours
+ The Department of Justice antitrust trial against Live Nation–Ticketmaster got underway
⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…
+ Target, Sea, On Holdings, Best Buy, AutoZone, and British American report before the opening bell
+ Crowdstrike, Gitlab, and Ross Stores drop earnings after the bell
Oh, and one more thing…
What did you think about today's newsletter?
Sent from my Amazon Fire Phone. Please excuse any mistakes and typos.
Does this look like the face of a guy you should take financial advice from?
No, it’s the face of a guy with a Nano Banana account and a wild imagination. So, act accordingly...
This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter is an investment recommendation. All content is created for entertainment, educational, or informational purposes only. Do your own research, or do yourself a favor and hire a professional.