Hey there weekday warrior,
Here’s what’s on tap today… Meta still thinks it has a shot in the AI race, Kevin Warsh is handing out government jobs to VCs, and the Iran ceasefire is unceased…
Now, enjoy the next 3 minutes and 39 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.
Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,
Large Wanguage Model
Zuck really out here smoking meats the competition…
Yesterday, The Meta $META ( ▲ 4.7% ) rolled out a yuge update to its AI model Muse Spark… Muse Spark 1.1.
The new model is the brainchild of AI chief Alexandr Wang (no, not the one Ye doesn’t want you to spend everything on)…
Per Alex, 1.1 is Meta’s “strongest model for agentic and coding work yet,” so yeah, it’s probably useless.
This makes 2 major updates for Facebook this week. ICYMI, Muse Image (codename Mango) dropped on Tuesday, which is why your aunt started sending you a bunch of new talking cat videos 2 days ago.
And apparently, Zuck’s already gearing up to uppercut undercut the rest of the AI for the enterprise playing field…
Turns out, API costs for users of Muse 1.1 are coming in at only 25% of the cost of other models (read: OpenAI and Anthropic).
Zuck went all Facebook Marketplace lowball with this one: “The pricing from some of the other labs is very extreme and has very high margins.”
Oh, and you can bet Zuck’s market-cornering prices will go lower than Dennis Reynolds in a pair of jean short cutoffs after he starts building his own in-house chips by September…
Meta stonk closed up 4.7% yesterday.
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K-Woww, aka Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, just dropped a list of “experts” who will lead 5 task forces to overhaul the Fed’s operations.
On the short bus list of brilliant minds: Marc Andreessen, Mervin King (think: former Bank of England Governor), Greg Mankiw (previous chairman of WHOTUS’s Council of Economic Advisers), and Doug McMillon, former Walmart CEO.
Per Kev, “The goal is straightforward: to ensure the Fed is best positioned to achieve our objectives in this consequential time.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you say nothing and everything all at once.
Hopefully the new blood can settle the Fed’s Family Feud. The Fed Minutes that dropped Wednesday confirmed what we pretty much already knew: the Central Bank is divided af on future interest rate moves. You might recall that Kev called the spirited debate a “family fight.”
+ *Drops the Mic-ron*
Micron’s $MU ( ▲ 4.52% ) share price just did what chip stonks do (spoiler: only go up). Yesterday, the corporation at least partially responsible for Intel’s $INTC ( ▲ 2.09% ) slow, painful death announced a $3B investment in its US semiconductor supply chain.
New capex includes $500M for GlobalWafers to expand wafer manufacturing in Texas (spoiler: not the Nilla variety). In total, Micron is raising its planned investment in the US to $250B through 2035…
+ Iran and the US: *says we’re done*
Also, Iran and the US:
We are so f*cking back (at war).
The US and Iran are putting the “fire” in “ceasefire.” Yesterday, Donny Diplomacy Destruction went all, “I say we hit them 20 to 1 – every time they hit us, we’re going to hit them 20, and we did it last night.”
The ceasefire isn’t technically scrapped… as of this writing.
Anyway, can you guess what oil prices did? Yep.
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> Anthropic appoints former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke to its independent trust // Presumably because Alan Greenspan has not been returning Dario’s calls…
> Palo Alto CEO Arora says AI pricing needs to fall 90% as token costs skyrocket // Imagine what poor people will do with Fable.
> Meta patents ‘creepy’ AI device that tracks wearer’s sighs and laughter, medication intake // “You’re absolutely right. You deserve another Xan*x with that glass of wine again today…”
> (Wednesday) Michael Burry bets on sportsbooks DraftKings and Flutter, sees prediction markets curbed by regulation // Iconoclast.
> (Wednesday) Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aims to raise $10B in first round of outside fundraising: report // Temu SpaceX.
On Tuesday, I asked, “What kinda World Cup fan are you?”
36.4% of you said, “USA and a handful of others.” True patriots are done watching now that the USA is out, but ok…
Here’s what some of you guys had to say (and my response in italics)…
USA and a handful of others: “Watching the Scots drink Boston dry, the Japanese show the world how to pick up after themselves (when not eating BBQ), and Germans discover Buc-ee’s has been a highlight of my summer. Donny T be droppin’ USA love bombs all over the world right now… Nice. After that, the fam pushed our chips all-in.” We should be the only ones allowed to host the Olympics.
Catch most or all games: “Surprised at how much I have been watching and recently learned I am an infracaninophile.” Not all words should be used even if the definition isn’t bad…
Not at all: “I don’t care about soccer for 3.9 years, so why fake the other .1% of the time? PS- 10 Sundays til the NFL.” Real sports loading.
Catch most or all games: “Watch them because I am a degenerate gambler who has to have action each and every day.” How down bad are you?
Other (write-in): “Zero interest in watching the games, but love the free advertising from Europeans who discovered that we’re nice and we’ve got so much cool stuff here.” Buc-ee’s was the real winner all along.
Here’s today’s question(s)…
+ US stocks fell Tuesday (S&P 500: -0.4%) as Samsung’s results and word that DeepSeek is building its own AI chip set off another semiconductor selloff, kept sliding Wednesday (S&P 500: -0.3%) after Trump declared the Iran ceasefire “over,” then bounced back Thursday (S&P 500: +0.8%) on a Micron-led chip rally. Semis giveth, semis taketh away.
🔴 Paramount Stock Tumbles on Warner Deal Worries // Don’t listen to the haters, Davey.
+ The 10-year yield jumped Tuesday and again Wednesday as soaring oil prices and Trump’s NATO summit remarks did the heavy lifting, then fell back Thursday as traders looked past the Middle East.
+ Oil settled 3% higher Tuesday after reports of attacks on vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, popped another 5% Wednesday when Trump threatened fresh strikes on Iran, then slid about 2% Thursday on demand worries. Make up your damn mind.
+ The “smart” money (prediction markets) thinks there’s a 39% chance France wins the World Cup. (Polymarket)
Oh, and one more thing…
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