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Nobody remembers the processor in a phone they owned six years ago. They remember the photo of a kid blowing out birthday candles, the one that came out dark and grainy, the one they wish they could take again.

Cameras are how phones earn loyalty. Everything else is a spec sheet.

For roughly a decade, the camera has carried the entire upgrade pitch. A bigger sensor, a third lens, a better night mode, and suddenly $1,200 feels like a defensible price for a slab of glass.

That pitch is getting harder to make. Worldwide smartphone shipments will fall 16.7% in 2026 to just over 1 billion units, “the steepest annual contraction the industry has ever recorded,” according to IDC.

Buyers are holding phones longer, and prices are rising anyway. A memory shortage has pushed average selling prices up 27.6% this year to $581, according to IDC’s latest tracker.

So when a company that does not sell a phone writes a nine-figure check for phone camera technology, it earns a minute of your attention.

OpenAI has acquired Glass Imaging, a Los Altos, California, startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to sharpen smartphone photos, in a deal valuing the company at more than $300 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Why the smartphone camera race stalled out

Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, two former Apple (AAPL) engineers who led the team behind the iPhone’s portrait mode, according to TechCrunch.

They left to rethink cameras without designing around the rest of the phone.

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The constraint they walked away from is physical. A phone is thin, so the lens is small and the sensor is small, and every flagship on the market works around the same ceiling.

Phone makers answered that ceiling with more hardware. Extra lenses, periscope zoom, thicker sensor stacks. Each addition costs space and money, and the visible gain from one generation to the next keeps shrinking.

Glass Imaging’s answer is GlassAI, a neural image signal processor (ISP) trained on the specific flaws of a specific camera. Instead of retouching a finished picture, it cleans raw sensor data at the moment the shutter fires, according to TechCrunch.

One network handles sharpening, denoising, high dynamic range, and color correction in a single pass, and “everything happens within one piece of neural network,” Attar told Optics & Photonics News.

Bishop has described the technology as turning raw burst data into “stunning, high-fidelity visuals,” according to a company announcement. The pitch all along was better pictures without invented detail.

OpenAI acquires Glass Imaging, an AI camera startup founded by former Apple engineers.© Marco Bottigelli / Getty Images

What OpenAI bought with Glass Imaging

OpenAI picked up a small team with two decades of combined optics work inside Apple, a licensable neural ISP that manufacturers can drop into existing chips, and camera hardware designs meant to break the thin-phone ceiling rather than live under it.

The price says as much as the technology. Glass Imaging carried a valuation of roughly $100 million in a funding round last year, reported The Wall Street Journal, which means OpenAI paid about triple that figure roughly 16 months later.

I ran the funding history against the exit price, and the compression is the part worth sitting with.

A seed round in 2021 led by LDV Capital, according to a Glass Imaging press release

A $9.3 million extended seed in 2024 led by GV, Google’s venture arm, as Glass Imaging confirmed

A $20 million Series A in May 2025 led by Insight Partners, according to Optics & Photonics News

A sale valuing the company above $300 million in 2026, as The Wall Street Journal reported

That is not the arc of a company running out of runway. It indicates a company somebody wanted taken off the board before a rival got there.

How a camera fits OpenAI’s hardware plan

OpenAI paid about $6.5 billion for io, the device startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, in 2025, according to TechCrunch. Ive’s remit inside OpenAI covers consumer devices.

Against $6.5 billion, this deal is a rounding error. It is also the piece that decides whether the eventual device can see.

A model that acts on the physical world needs clean input. Noisy, smeared, low-light frames tax every inference that follows, and repairing them after capture throws away detail the sensor already recorded.

Related: OpenAI’s CFO just said something IPO investors should hear

The software was built to run on the edge AI chips already shipping inside phones, drones and wearables, according to the company. No new silicon is required, which is what makes the technology licensable rather than exotic.

A neural ISP then becomes part of the plumbing rather than a photography feature. It sits between the lens and the model, and whoever owns it owns the quality of everything downstream.

When I checked the deal against IDC’s forecast, the timing looked like a plan rather than opportunism. Handset makers heading into the worst shipment year on record need a reason for shoppers to trade in, and OpenAI now owns one it can license.

Two paths are open from here. Build the device with Ive, or sell the camera stack to Samsung, OnePlus, and anyone else short on differentiation. Either road runs through Apple and Alphabet, which have spent 15 years making the camera the reason to upgrade.

The company has been stepping up acquisitions ahead of an expected initial public offering (IPO) next year, the Journal reported.

What the Glass Imaging deal means for investors

Apple is not in trouble this quarter. Its camera lead rests on custom silicon, a decade of computational photography, and a supply chain nobody else can rent.

The pressure does not stop at Apple. Chip suppliers such as Qualcomm (QCOM) and MediaTek sell imaging pipelines as part of their platforms, and a rival stack backed by the largest AI model company changes the terms of that sale.

The signal here is about the quarter after next. If an OpenAI device takes visibly better pictures than a $1,200 iPhone, the upgrade pitch that has carried the premium tier since 2015 belongs to someone else.

Three things are worth watching into 2027. Whether OpenAI shows hardware at its developer event. Whether GlassAI turns up inside a shipping Android flagship. And whether Apple answers by buying instead of building, which it does rarely and, on occasion, must.

The market backdrop makes the stakes plain. Smartphone volumes are shrinking, while total market value still grows 6.3% to $613 billion this year, according to IDC. It means that the margin now belongs to whoever owns the reason to upgrade.

Today, that is still Apple. For $300 million, OpenAI just bought a ticket on that changing, and the ticket cost less than 5% of what it paid for Jony Ive.

Related: Apple’s accusations are making things uncomfortable for OpenAI

Jamie Dimon has spent several years weighing in on interest rates, banking crises and the health of the American consumer, often in language sharp enough to move markets.

His latest warning has nothing to do with any of that, and it may end up mattering more to ordinary Americans than most of what he has said before.

The JPMorgan Chase chief executive has been telling anyone who will listen that the American Dream is slipping out of reach for millions of families. Six months after he first raised the alarm, his bank has put a specific, dollar-quantified reason behind the warning, and it centers on a demographic shift most people have not thought much about until now.

Jamie Dimon says the American Dream is slipping

Dimon first sounded the alarm on March 31, when he launched JPMorgan’s American Dream Initiative with a blunt assessment of where things stood.

“The American Dream is alive, but it’s slipping out of reach for too many people, and for future generations,” he said, adding that the trend was slowing economic growth and hurting communities, Fortune reported.

The initiative backing that statement was not small. JPMorgan committed nearly $80 billion in small-business lending over 10 years, along with transition advisory services and philanthropic funding aimed specifically at helping business owners navigate ownership transfers.

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The bank framed the American Dream Initiative as a multi-year effort rather than a one-time gesture, TheStreet reported.

Dimon’s framing echoed concerns he has raised for years about opportunity in America not being shared equally. This theme has run through several of his public warnings this year about how artificial intelligence could disrupt employment and force JPMorgan to retrain workers as automation changes the workforce.

JPMorgan puts a number on the retirement wave

The centerpiece of the bank’s follow-up is a new report titled “Powering 10 Million Small Businesses,” released this week. Chase surveyed 1,000 business owners and found that while 70% describe themselves as being in the early stages of succession planning, only 8% say they have reached an advanced stage, according to Fortune.

The numbers behind that gap are hard to ignore. Roughly 12 million businesses, representing nearly $10 trillion in assets, are expected to change hands over the next decade. That is not a forecast about some distant future. The owners are already aging, Benzinga reported.

The exposure is not evenly spread across the economy. In industries JPMorgan considers critical to national security, more than half of firms currently have an owner who is 55 or older, meaning the transition risk is concentrated in exactly the sectors policymakers already regard as strategically important.

Dimon’s framing echoed concerns he has raised for years about opportunity in America not being shared equally.Alexander Spatari / Getty Images

What the retirement wave means for America

Outside researchers have reached similar conclusions using different data. McKinsey estimates roughly 6 million small and midsize businesses will face ownership transitions by 2035, with successful transitions potentially protecting millions of jobs and hundreds of billions in annual local spending, TheStreet reported.

A separate figure reinforces how unprepared many business owners are. A 2025 Gallup survey found that 27% of employer firms with owners 55 or older are either unsure of their long-term plan or intend to simply close the business permanently rather than sell or transfer to new ownership, according to McKinsey.

The stakes extend well beyond any individual owner’s retirement account. Most small business owners say they see their business as something they hope to eventually pass on, yet a clear majority lacks a formal plan for how that handoff will actually happen, making the gap between intention and preparation one of the most consequential financial planning failures in the American economy right now.

A policy push and what comes next

JPMorgan is not simply publishing statistics and moving on.

The new report backs specific legislative proposals, including the American Ownership and Resilience Act, the Small Business Succession Planning Act and the Retire Through Ownership Act, while also pushing the Small Business Administration to build a national succession planning toolkit, Fortune reported.

The bank’s own scale gives the push added weight. JPMorgan recently posted the highest quarterly profit any U.S. bank has ever recorded and is nearing a $1 trillion market valuation. A reminder that the same bank pressing Washington on small-business succession is also working through its own succession question at the top, with Dimon now 70.

Whether the legislative push succeeds or stalls in Washington, the demographic math behind Dimon’s warning is not going away on its own.

With trillions of dollars in business assets set to change hands over the next decade and only a small fraction of owners actually prepared for that transition, the retirement wave JPMorgan is describing looks less like a distant forecast and more like a countdown that is already well underway.

Related: Elon Musk joins Tim Cook in sending strong warning to Americans

AI stocks were battered on Monday, Sept. 14, as investors confronted the possibility that the breakneck pace of growth could slow down. Chip stocks sold off sharply as warnings from Anthropic, OpenAI, and others revived fears that the costly data-center buildout could potentially lose momentum. 

Bank of America, though it disagrees with that interpretation, argues it misses the point of what’s actually driving the spending cycle. AI is too strategically important for the big players to step aside in a big way, and that has major implications for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock. 

In a fresh note shared with me, BofA sees something much closer to an arms race than a coordinated slowdown. According to the bank, U.S.-China competition, hyperscalers battling neoclouds, sovereign programs, and frontier labs all have pretty strong incentives to continue shelling out billions even if everyone would prefer a more measured pace.

That comes as BofA raised its S&P 500 price target to 7,400 from 7,100, which, interestingly, still implies 3% to 4% downside from current levels, as my colleague Hillary Remy reported.

So the bank remains bullish on semiconductors despite the near-term choppiness. 

Compute is the area it believes is most likely to hold up, with AMD and Nvidia (NVDA) stocks specifically highlighted.

BofA argues that the tech giant can benefit not only from a much larger AI spending pool but also from gaining share within it, creating a superb earnings-growth setup that investors are underestimating.

BofA sees two engines behind AMD stock’s next leg

Bank of America sees AMD benefiting from a couple of forces at once: a rapidly growing compute market and the potential to take a bigger share of it.  

BofA places AMD alongside Nvidia in its preferred compute bucket, expecting resilience from both, even as other parts of the semiconductor complex continue to trade with high volatility. 

Moreover, networking names such as Marvell Technologies (MRVL) and analog players, including Analog Devices and onsemi, also make the cut. At the same time, memory and semiconductor equipment stocks may need stronger momentum before leadership returns.

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For AMD, veteran analyst Vivek Arya maintains a $620 price target, based on 27 times estimated 2028 non-GAAP earnings. That multiple is largely in line with AMD’s historical forward median, suggesting the bank isn’t relying on an extreme valuation expansion to make the math work.

At the $516.13 share price used in the report, that target implies a massive 20% upside.

The most pivotal piece of BofA’s thesis is growth.

The bank sees 50%+ annual EPS CAGR potential, led by share gains across AI GPUs and CPUs. In other words, AMD needs to win more of that market from its peers, which gives its investors both broader market growth and company-specific share gains.

Recent operating results make the argument a lot easier to take seriously. AMD’s Q2 revenue jumped 50% year over year to a record $11.54 billion, while Data Center sales surged 107% to $6.72 billion, equating to around 58% of total sales.

Data Center operating income surged to $2.1 billion, with segment margins near 31%, while companywide non-GAAP gross margin jumped to 56%.

These numbers underscore that AMD is already becoming more data-center-heavy, more profitable, and a lot less dependent on its historically slower-cyclical businesses.

AMD’s biggest risk is no longer just the chip

BofA’s clearest risk to AMD’s bull case centers around its MI400 Series, and that risk is a lot bigger than a routine product-launch concern.

With Helios, AMD is looking to move beyond selling individual accelerators and compete at the full rack-scale level. 

The robust platform covers Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs, Pensando networking, and ROCm software, competing with Nvidia’s Vera Rubin offering. That also means AMD now needs to prove it can deliver an integrated system, rather than just a competitive chip. 

The opportunity is substantial. 

Anthropic is looking to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of MI450 Series GPUs in Helios systems, with the first gigawatt expected in the first half of 2027. Microsoft (MSFT) is also planning to deploy Helios at scale on Azure for frontier-model inference.

That makes execution critical to its bull case.

If Helios performs as expected, AMD can strengthen its position against Nvidia and capture a much larger share of the overall AI stack. 

Moreover, Arya also flags multiple less obvious risks.

He argues that the uncertainty around the timing of Middle East AI projects, lumpy enterprise and consumer spending, and the dependency on a single outsourced manufacturing partner are other noteworthy issues.

The Middle East risk, in particular, can be substantial, as sovereign AI projects tend to be large yet uneven. Delays might destroy long-term demand but can shift sales between quarters and make growth look a lot less predictable. 

That leaves AMD with a strong upside setup, but also one where execution matters more than ever.

: Bank of America sees AMD benefiting from stronger AI compute demand ahead.Bloomberg / Getty Images

What AMD investors should watch before the next earnings test

For AMD investors, BofA’s argument boils down to whether Wall Street is discounting AI durability too aggressively.

Despite a 67% year-to-date gain in the SOX ETF, semiconductors trade at nearly 19 times forward earnings, roughly even with the S&P 500, even as they post 139% year-over-year EPS growth. 

On a 24-month basis, BofA feels the group trades at an 11% discount to the market while offering around twice the expected growth.

AMD is the cleaner way to test that thesis, as BofA expects both sector-wide expansion and company-specific share gains.

The next major checkpoint is Q3 earnings.

AMD is widely expected to announce earnings on Nov. 3, according to Yahoo Finance. The company itself guides to roughly $13 billion in sales, plus or minus $300 million, implying 41% year-over-year growth and 13% sequential growth, with non-GAAP gross margin near 56%.

Importantly, the current market consensus is at nearly $12.97 billion in sales and $1.93 EPS as reported by Investing.

That said, investors should watch three things: data Center growth, Helios/MI400 deployment commentary, and gross-margin durability. If those impress, BofA’s thesis becomes a lot easier to defend. 

Related: Elon Musk sends strong signal for SpaceX, Nvidia stocks 

These days, tech’s biggest artificial intelligence evangelists are sounding like alarmists.

In a Sept. 12 public blog post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei became the latest high-level executive to raise concerns about the risks AI presents to humanity.

Even though he has given warnings before and, according to him, has “grappled with this duality of risk and benefit” since he started his company, his comments now seem extreme when packaged with warnings from other Silicon Valley execs.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was also pretty vocal about his concerns recently, telling Fortune the company is delaying its own public listing and that because of “everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.”

This is, of course, a far cry from the hubris and lack of concern Altman has shown in the recent past about the effects AI will have on society. After all, he is the same man who once said, “A kid born today will never be smarter than AI, ever.”

That statement is pretty funny when viewed against the numerous videos of ChatGPT 6 being stumped by the most mundane of questions, such as “How many e’s are in the number 17?” Still, it goes a long way toward showing his mindset just a few short months ago.

“Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together,” Altman said.

Chinese state media accuses U.S., tech AI oligarchs of ulterior motives

While the about-face may seem odd to you or me, the Global Times, a state-backed Chinese media outlet, has an opinion that might shed some light on the newly cautious Silicon Valley trend.

The newspaper mentioned Amodei specifically when suggesting that the U.S. has an ulterior motive for his recent screed, and that motive is steeped in Cold War-era tradecraft.

According to the Global Times editorial, the essay’s purpose was “to attempt to curb China’s AI development through technological barriers and regulatory monopolies, uphold Washington’s monopolistic hegemony in cutting-edge technology, and exclude China from the global AI governance system.”

“This ‘silent AI Cold War’ is hypocritical and short-cited,” the Global Times declared.

Given its ties to the ruling communist party in China, it’s safe to say that this isn’t a fringe position among China’s ruling class.

Domestically, discussions about the future of AI rarely involve China, so where would its government get the idea that the sudden calls for a slowdown are a way to slow it down?

The answer is President Donald Trump.

A state-backed Chinese media outlet believes Dario Amodei’s call to slow down AI development masks an ulterior motive.NurPhoto / Getty Images

White House AI comments spark Cold War accusations

Despite polling showing that Americans don’t want data centers in their back yards, President Donald Trump recently posted on social media to call those communities “backwards and poor.”

His administration is heavily invested in AI, so he warned, “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

While that criticism was directed at American citizens, the president also warned that China “could not be happier” with American sentiment turning against AI data centers. That last comment seemed to have caught the ears of China’s leaders.

Related: AI data center backlash accelerates ahead of elections

“They know that China has become a strong competitor in AI, and worry that if the U.S. slows down development or tightens regulation, China could catch up even faster,” Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.

“That concern is increasingly shaping U.S. AI policy, with containing China taking up more attention while issues such as safety, governance, and long-term risks are in danger of being pushed aside.”

Ironically enough, whether President Trump meant to or not, using China as a boogeyman to get what he wants legislatively at home is a Cold War tactic. It invokes a period in history, known as the Red Scare, when U.S. politicians used the threat of Russian Communists to push through all types of anti-American, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance laws and ideologies.

The idea is that if the public is scared enough of “the Reds,” it would accept some of the same anti-democratic legislation the Russians were being accused of implementing.

China calls for AI cooperation

This time around, instead of being unofficially at war with its rival for decades, as Russia and the U.S. were during the Cold War, China says the U.S. should work with it to make AI safe for everyone.

“Over the past month, leading U.S. AI companies have repeatedly disclosed safety risks, suggesting that advanced AI systems are beginning to exhibit behavior that can extend beyond developers’ intended boundaries,” the Global Times said. “However, concerns over China remain deeply embedded in the debate.”

Arguing that the rhetoric has fueled fears, China said the alternative is to work together.

“AI is a consequential technology for the well-being of all humanity. All parties should jointly promote the open and inclusive development of AI for good and for all. Fear-mongering, confrontation, and vicious competition will only hamper efforts toward sound global AI governance, which serves no one’s interest,” the Times said, paraphrasing China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun.

The Times also noted that China has proposed to the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance that countries share the benefits of AI. Its leaders “looked forward to the active participation of all parties with a view to bridging the AI divides,” it added.

Related: Sam Altman’s latest delusional AI prediction doesn’t pass the test

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Why we love this deal

Remember when tech was vibrant and colorful? We may have hints of that peeking through otherwise sterile designs in the present day, but nothing beats the gadgets of the ’90s and early 2000s that were both playful and functional. Transparent tech was an iconic trend during those times, and what once felt futuristic now feels like a blast from the past. I’ve been on a mission to find electronic devices with nostalgic designs that won’t break the bank, and I recently discovered a Y2K-inspired DVD player that’s perfect for physical media lovers.

The Magnavox Translucent DVD Player is on sale for only $35 at Walmart, thanks to a limited-time Walmart Flash deal. Its retro-style look makes it look like something you’d find at a vintage shop on eBay, which makes its affordable price that much more enticing. Even at its regular price of $40, it was already a steal, but who doesn’t love a discount?

Magnavox Translucent DVD Player, $35 (was $40) at Walmart

Courtesy of Walmart

Shop at Walmart

Why do shoppers love it?

Dust off your old DVD collection, because this device will have you reaching for the remote and DVD player rather than a pricey streaming service. First things first: This DVD player instantly hits home for nostalgia lovers. It’s reminiscent of a time when devices boasted more playful aesthetics, with transparent and translucent covers giving us a look into the inner workings of electronics. The matching remote control completes the look and boosts the DVD player’s functionality and convenience. It’s available in four colors, including purple, blue, red, and orange. The purple colorway really leans into the Y2K era, with many gaming devices sporting similar looks in the late ’90s and early 2000s. 

Aside from the design, this DVD player supports multiple formats, including DVD, CD, MP3, and CD-R/RW. It comes with an HDMI cable, allowing for easy connection and hookup to your TV, and can be connected via RCA/AV outputs. Measuring only 6.5 inches long by 7.8 inches wide by 1.7 inches high, it’s also compact and saves space on an entertainment system or TV stand.

Related: Amazon is selling a 2-in-1 laptop and tablet for $60 that comes with a 5-piece accessories bundle

Details to know

Dimensions: 6.5 inches long by 7.8 inches wide by 1.7 inches high.

Outputs: HDMI and RCA/AV.

Color: Purple, blue, orange, and red.

Walmart shoppers said this DVD player is “very easy” to set up. Others highlighted the color and design, saying it’s “so cool,” and it’s a great size. “I actually like having a physical copy of some of my favorite movies,” a shopper said. “This connected perfectly to the TV and also my computer to use with the monitor.” They added that it’s simple yet works great.

Shop more deals

Famkit DVD Player, $28 (was $57) at Walmart

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Desobry Mini DVD Player, $50 at Walmart

During a limited-time Flash deal, the Magnavox Translucent DVD Player is only $35, and it’s a great buy for nostalgia and physical media lovers.

A Virginia-based defense contractor known for its Switchblade attack drones and, more recently, laser weapons and space hardware, saw its BlueHalo unit win a Pentagon contract worth up to $99.8 million for space systems research, according to Seeking Alpha.

Shares climbed more than 4% in the next session, the same report showed. Six months earlier, a far larger space bet from that same unit collapsed and erased more than half the company’s market value.

That contrast, not the $99.8 million figure, is the real story behind AeroVironment’s (AVAV) Sept. 14 rally. It shows how hard the company has had to work to rebuild trust with the same customer in less than a year.

AeroVironment stock’s rally still trails a deep hole

AVAV shares closed Sept. 14 at $153.40, up 4.56% from Friday, Sept. 11’s close. That still leaves the stock about 63% below its all-time high of $417.86, a level reached on Oct. 9, 2025, which also marks AVAV’s 52-week high.

The 52-week low is $135.20, meaning the stock has spent most of 2026 far closer to its floor than its ceiling. Wall Street has not given up on it.

Related: Two defense stocks just got a multiyear vote of confidence

Among the 20 analysts tracked by StockAnalysis, the consensus rating is Buy, with an average price target of $222.82, about 45% above the Sept. 14 close.

JPMorgan raised its target to $210 from $200 after AeroVironment’s fiscal first-quarter report and maintained an Overweight rating, according to TipRanks. That report, not the Sept. 11 contract, is what actually moved the stock this month.

Revenue hit a record $480.5 million and adjusted earnings of 59 cents a share more than doubled Wall Street’s forecast, according to The Motley Fool.

Not everyone agrees that the contract drove the Sept. 14 move at all. AeroVironment shares were already up sharply before the BlueHalo award spread widely, extending a rally tied to that Sept. 9 earnings report rather than any new announcement, 24/7 Wall St noted.

If that reading holds, investors cheering BlueHalo’s Pentagon news may really be cheering a turnaround that was already underway.

AeroVironment stock remains about 63% below its October 2025 all-time high, even after a new $99.8 million BlueHalo space contract and a record fiscal first quarter.SOPA Images / Getty Images

A previous space bet already backfired once

BlueHalo joined AeroVironment through a $4.1 billion all-stock acquisition that closed in May 2025, adding space, laser, and cyber warfare technology to a company built on small drones, according to GovConWire.

AeroVironment now runs two segments, Autonomous Systems and Space, Cyber and Directed Energy, with the second built almost entirely from BlueHalo’s businesses.

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The centerpiece of the BlueHalo bet was a Space Force program called SCAR, worth roughly $1.7 billion, which aimed to build a new generation of satellite-control antennas replacing the aging, Cold War-era ground stations the military relies on today, according to SpaceNews.

CEO Wahid Nawabi called SCAR “a $1 billion franchise” in the months before the collapse, according to a securities complaint filed by Levi & Korsinsky.

The Space Force issued a stop work order in January, then terminated the contract in March, forcing AeroVironment to book a $151.3 million goodwill impairment, according to SpaceNews.

Shares fell more than 17% in a single session as the SCAR story unraveled, TipRanks confirmed, and eventually declined roughly 59% from their peak. The Sept. 11 award shows the Pentagon still trusts BlueHalo with space work, just structured to fail smaller if it does.

Washington is spreading its space bets around

SCAR broke down partly because AeroVironment and the Space Force could not agree on converting it to a fixed price contract for a commercial product, according to Defense Daily.

The new Leveraged Orbital Battlespace Optimization contract is explicitly research and development, paid out through task orders rather than one locked in price, based on a contract notice reported by Defence Blog.

Only $1.7 million of the $99.8 million ceiling is funded so far, covering two initial task orders worth a combined $20.2 million, and BlueHalo was the sole bidder, despite the award being classified as competitive, the official contract record shows.

That structure spreads risk across years instead of concentrating it in one fixed commitment, which is exactly what broke down under SCAR.

President Donald Trump said this month that the country is “rapidly growing” its defense industrial base, citing space and counter-drone technology among the priorities. Nawabi told CNBC that the Pentagon and its allies are still playing catch-up on both fronts, which is why it keeps signing contracts of various sizes.

The Space Force signaled in March that it would favor multiple vendors building smaller, modular systems over single companies holding billion-dollar programs, according to SpaceNews.

For AeroVironment, and for the defense space contractors watching it, the lesson from the Sept. 11 award is not its size. It is that Washington now wants space capability delivered in pieces small enough to fail without dragging a whole program, or a stock price, down with it.

Related: Top defense contractor scores huge U.S. Army payday, stock jumps

Social Security benefits could lose enough purchasing power to wipe out hundreds of dollars from retirees’ monthly budgets within six years, depending on where recipients live.

A nonpartisan fiscal group just mapped those reductions for retirees across all 50 states, and the dollar amounts are large enough to shape monthly budgets for millions of beneficiaries.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) released a report titled “No State Spared” that models an across-the-board 24% benefit cut triggered by the retirement trust fund’s projected depletion. 

In that case, the reductions range from $459 to $556 a month, depending on the state.

The projected reductions would hit hardest in households where Social Security covers most of the monthly budget. The CRFB’s state-level projections show how much each state could lose by late 2032.

Connecticut leads 29 states where average monthly cuts would top $500

The largest dollar-amount reductions cluster in the Northeast, where average monthly Social Security payments tend to run higher than the national figure. 

A flat percentage cut, therefore, strips more from each individual check in those states, widening the gap between current benefits and post-insolvency payments.

Connecticut tops the CRFB’s list with a projected monthly loss of $556, followed by New Jersey at $554 and New Hampshire at $553. 

Delaware ($549) and Maryland ($541) round out the top five, while Washington, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Utah each face projected reductions of $523 or more.

Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warned in a statement following the 2026 Trustees Report that years of legislative paralysis have put the program on a path toward automatic reductions that no current proposal in Congress would fully prevent.

Washington is sleepwalking into a retirement crisis, allowing our nation’s most important trust funds to go insolvent at the expense of over 70 million beneficiaries who count on these programs

The national average reduction amounts to $500 per month, which exceeds the roughly $461 that the typical retired household spends on food at home in 2026 dollars, the CRFB’s inflation-adjusted calculation based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey.

A cut of that size would force millions of beneficiaries to make immediate trade-offs between groceries, medical costs, and other basic household expenses.

How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act moved Social Security’s deadline forward

The insolvency timeline has been creeping forward in recent years, but the largest single-year acceleration came from a pair of 2025 laws that squeezed the trust fund from both sides, one by raising benefit outlays and the other by reducing revenue.

The Social Security Fairness Act, signed in January 2025, repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). 

The two mechanisms had reduced or eliminated benefits for roughly 3.2 million public-sector retirees whose careers also earned them a government pension. The repeal increased program outlays by an estimated $200 billion over ten years, according to the CRFB.

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Six months later, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed on July 4, 2025, made the 2017 income tax rates permanent and created a temporary $6,000 bonus deduction for Americans 65 and older that stacks on top of the standard deduction through 2028, the Bipartisan Policy Center reported. 

Because a share of Social Security’s revenue comes from income taxes retirees pay on their benefits, those changes reduced the money cycling back into the program.

Social Security Administration Chief Actuary Karen Glenn estimated the law would add a net $168.6 billion in combined Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program costs from 2025 through 2034, in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden.

That cost estimate moved the projected depletion of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund from the first quarter of 2033 to the fourth quarter of 2032. 

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) 2026 Trustees Report has since confirmed that timeline. It projects that incoming revenue would cover only 78% of scheduled benefits once the reserves are depleted.

The CRFB analysis used the 24% cut from the 2025 Trustees Report, while the 2026 report narrowed the projected shortfall to 22%. The final dollar figure in each state may shift modestly once updated modeling is released.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act accelerated Social Security’s projected insolvency deadline to 2032, intensifying pressure on future benefits and retirees.FG Trade Latin / Getty Images

West Virginia and Mississippi face the deepest economic damage from benefit cuts

When reductions are measured against the size of state economies instead of raw dollar amounts, the hardest-hit states tend to have older populations with lower per-person incomes.

West Virginia leads the nation with projected cuts amounting to 1.9% of state Gross Domestic Product (GDP), followed by Mississippi and Vermont at 1.8% each, according to the CRFB. 

South Carolina and Maine follow closely at 1.7%, and the national average sits at 1.1% of GDP, with 40 states projected to see cuts that exceed 1% of GDP.

How to budget for a smaller Social Security check by 2032

The CRFB’s projections put a specific number on a risk retirees can plan around now rather than react to later. 

Beneficiaries whose Social Security check covers most of their monthly expenses face the steepest exposure. The Senior Citizens League’s 2026 Senior Survey found 44% of seniors now rely on Social Security for all of their income.

Shannon Benton, executive director of the Senior Citizens League, recommends that current and near-retirees stress-test their budgets against a 22% to 24% benefit reduction. 

That means calculating what a $459-to-$556 monthly shortfall would look like in your budget, identifying expenses you could reduce or cover with other income, and using the years ahead to build savings where possible.

A potential benefit cut is not the same as a guaranteed cut. But knowing what a smaller check would mean for your household now can give you more time to adjust before late 2032.

Related: The latest Social Security warning is here; future retirees should pay attention

A major shift in the specialty retail landscape has left valuable market share up for grabs, and Michaels is moving quickly to capture it.

The arts and crafts retailer has been expanding into categories once dominated by two competitors that have exited the retail market, using new products, dedicated shop-in-shop concepts, and events to attract customers who have fewer specialty destinations than they did before.

The strategy comes as retailers continue to adjust to the fallout from the bankruptcies and store closures of leading brands, which reshaped the fabric, sewing, and party-supplies markets. Michaels has increasingly positioned itself to compete for some of the demand those exits left behind.

Founded in 1973, The Michaels Companies Inc. is one of North America’s largest specialty retail chains for arts, crafts, and décor, operating more than 1,300 stores across 49 states and Canada, as well as through its e-commerce platforms.

Michaels expands its Knit & Sew Shop after Joann bankruptcy

Michaels has expanded its Knit & Sew Shop, adding more than 1,600 new products across fabric, yarn, sewing, and needlecraft, and making the expanded assortment available in over 1,200 stores nationwide, according to a company announcement.

The move comes a little more than a year after Michaels acquired Joann’s intellectual property in June 2025, following the fabric retailer’s bankruptcy filing earlier that year.

Fabric is now available in nearly 90% of Michaels stores, with more than 400 new fabric products covering categories including quilting, cosplay, and special occasions.

Michaels is also introducing shop-in-shop experiences featuring Big Twist and DMC Embroidery Threads, expanding its assortment with products and experiences aimed at sewing and needlecraft customers.

The retailer is further leaning into the category with a lineup of in-store events throughout September for National Sewing Month. The schedule includes community meet-ups, open classrooms, product demonstrations, online classes, and free sewing experiences.

“We’re investing in The Knit & Sew Shop to give today’s shoppers more of what they love, while making these crafts more approachable for anyone who wants to learn,” Michaels CMO Stacey Shively said in a statement.

Michaels expands Knit & Sew Shop after Joann’s bankruptcy.jetcityimage / Getty Images

Michaels moves into the space left by Joann and Party City

Michaels debuted The Knit & Sew Shop and The Party Shop inside select locations in late 2025 as it looked to expand its presence in categories where major competitors had disappeared from the retail landscape.

The move gave Michaels an opportunity to compete for customers and sales that had previously been served by Joann and Party City, both of which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ultimately closed their standalone stores.

In June 2025, Michaels acquired Joann’s intellectual property and private-label brands, although the deal did not include any of the bankrupt retailer’s physical stores.

Michaels also attempted to acquire Party City during its bankruptcy auction but was outbid by New Amscan, an affiliate of Ad Populum. New Amscan ultimately acquired Party City’s intellectual property and wholesale operations.  

Joann and Party City had long been prominent players in their respective categories. Both companies, however, faced a combination of post-pandemic economic pressures, changing consumer habits, increased competition, and significant debt before their businesses deteriorated.

The exits left fewer established specialty retailers serving shoppers in categories that overlap with Michaels’ existing business.

“The first thing that we concluded was there was tremendous disruption in the marketplace with the exit of Joann Fabric and the exit of Party City — and that job one was to go after that,” Michaels CEO David Boone said at the ICR Conference in January, as reported by Retail Dive. 

“We have introduced a Party Shop by Michaels in every single store in our fleet, and we’ve introduced the Knit & Sew Shop in every single store in our fleet.”

Michaels uses rivals’ exits to gain market share

Michaels had spent years competing with retailers such as Hobby Lobby and Walmart for customers in the arts-and-crafts market. The disappearance of Joann and Party City, however, has given the company an opportunity to expand into adjacent categories where it already has an established store base and customer relationships.

In 2021, private equity firm Apollo Global Management acquired Michaels, adding the retailer to its portfolio of consumer and other businesses. While Apollo Global Management does not publicly disclose financial results, Bloomberg reported in July 2026 that Michaels’ first-quarter sales and adjusted earnings grew by double digits, citing people familiar with the matter.

The broader assortment has also required Michaels to carry more merchandise. According to the same Bloomberg report, the retailer increased its inventory by 20% as it expanded its selection.

Tariffs on imported goods have added another cost consideration for retailers managing merchandise expenses.

Here’s some of my previous coverage of retail strategy:

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Walmart builds a whole new kind of store

The opportunity created by Joann and Party City’s exit is also attracting other retailers.

GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders said that “a lot of demand is up for grabs” now that both chains are gone. Michaels, however, has an advantage because sewing and party supplies are closely aligned with its existing business.

“Many retailers are trying to take a slice of this, including generalists like Walgreens and Five Below,” Saunders told CNN. “However, party and sewing are more in Michaels’ ballpark and if it executes with authority it can take a good level of share in a way that retailers dabbling in the space won’t be able to do.”

Taken together, Michaels’ expanded assortment, dedicated shop concepts, and investment in classes and community events suggest the retailer is seeking to become a larger destination for customers with fewer specialty options than before Joann and Party City exited the market.

Related: After Joann and Party City bankruptcies, a new player steps in

Boeing (BA) started September with a labor problem that could have slowed its recovery.

Its engineers, who approve the jets Boeing needs to certify and deliver, almost went on strike.

However, on Friday, Boeing and its engineering union reached a tentative four-year contract, and investors moved quickly.

Boeing averts a strike that threatened its jet certification timeline

Boeing reached the tentative deal on Friday, September 11, with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA).

The SPEEA covers about 17,000 engineers and technical staff, CNBC reported.

The current contract expires October 6. A rejection could have triggered a strike days later which matters because SPEEA engineers handle the safety analysis and paperwork behind two delayed programs, the 737 MAX 10 and the 777-9 widebody. 

A strike would have affected those programs.

BA shares rose 2.76% to close at $210.45 on the same Friday.

Boeing’s engineers hold the certification keys to the 737 MAX 10 and 777-9 programssanfel / Getty Images

Why Boeing depends on SPEEA engineers to keep building jets

Boeing earns the biggest share of its revenue selling commercial jets to airlines, with two other arms in defense and aftermarket services.

The company needs engineers who design, test, and certify the aircraft.

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SPEEA represents Boeing’s core Northwest professional and technical units, and it had not negotiated a new contract since 2012, according to Reuters. 

Members approved extensions in 2016 and 2020 instead.

SPEEA’s negotiating team called the agreement “a real step forward” for pay and for its relationship with Boeing leadership.

What the new SPEEA contract pays and when the raises land

The revised offer beat the first proposal on guaranteed wages.

Boeing’s earlier offer carried 3% general raises, which many engineers said would not keep up with rising prices. 

Seattle-area prices rose 4.5% compared to last year, Reuters reported, citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The new pay terms

A 10% guaranteed raise effective October 16, 2026

A 4% raise in the March 2027 review

6% wage pools in 2028, 2029, and 2030, each with a guaranteed 4% raise

Revised work-from-home rules and tighter overtime limits

Why higher labor costs still pressure Boeing’s commercial margins

The raises increase Boeing’s fixed expenses while its commercial airplane margins are already thin and free cash flow is still recovering.

Boeing guided free cash flow to a range of $1 billion to $3 billion for 2026. Higher wages make those cash targets harder to hit if there is a delay in deliveries.

The company made a decision to pay more now to keep lines running and certifications on schedule.

How Boeing stock compares with RTX and GE Aerospace in 2026

BA is down about 7.6% year to date, even after Friday’s jump. 

RTX and GE Aerospace both posted double-digit gains in 2026, while the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) sat in between, according to Yahoo Finance. 

Related: SpaceX just targeted a key AI supplier: The stock tanked

The reason is their business models. RTX relies on diversified defense revenue, and GE Aerospace on recurring engine servicing. 

Boeing depends on building and certifying jets, which ties its results to production progress.

What still has to happen before Boeing’s comeback holds

The deal is tentative. SPEEA members still have to vote to approve it over the coming days.

If they approve, Boeing’s focus shifts back to execution. The company must build jets faster and finish certifications. 

Boeing is already delivering more jets than at any point since 2018.

What BA investors should watch next

The ratification vote result

Progress on 777-9 and 737 MAX 10 certification

Whether rising labor costs pressure commercial margins

The defense drag, after a $280 million Air Force One charge hit second-quarter results

For now, Boeing removed a near-term threat. The harder task is to turn that relief into steady cash flow.

Related: Two defense stocks just got a multiyear vote of confidence

The exchange-traded fund (ETF) market’s August numbers look flawless on the surface, until you look at where the money actually went.

The industry held $16.4 trillion in assets through August 31, 2026, with $180 billion in fresh capital pouring in that month alone, 3.8 times the historical August average and the strongest August on record for fund inflows, State Street reported.

New fund creation has been equally prolific, with 1,023 ETFs debuting in the first eight months of 2026, a 52% jump from the previous year’s pace. 

Active strategies represent more than 80% of the year’s new products, and about 25% of August’s 134 launches used leveraged or inverse structures, FactSet noted.

Among August’s new launches were 18 single-stock ETFs, most of them targeting semiconductor companies to tap into the artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout.

Despite the record-breaking figures, the flow of money into and out of the market exposes a deeper divide beneath the surface.

Investors pulled $11 billion from tech and financial ETFs as sector selling turned defensive

The disconnect emerged in August 2026, when technology and financial ETFs lost a combined $11 billion despite record market-wide inflows, State Street’s August 31, 2026, report showed.

Technology funds lost $6.1 billion in August, a sharp reversal from July 2026 record $19 billion in inflows, the report indicated. The selling persisted even as the sector gained nearly 6% during the month, meaning investors were booking gains.

Financial-sector funds lost about $5 billion during the month after outperforming the S&P 500 by 6% over the prior three months, the report noted. 

Together, the two sectors accounted for 132% of all sector ETF outflows in August, exceeding their combined weight in the broader index.

Most S&P 500 sectors experienced net outflows, with technology, financials, and energy facing the sharpest selling, FactSet Senior ETF Analyst Lois Gregson reported. 

The four sectors that drew net inflows during August were consumer discretionary, materials, industrials, and utilities, completing a month dominated by defensiveness, FactSet confirmed.

Health care ETFs drew $2.2 billion in August, with biotech-focused funds accounting for 55% of that figure, the State Street report indicated. 

Matthew Bartolini, Managing Director and Global Head of Research Strategists, State Street Investment Management, noted in the August 2026 report that the sector rotation came despite one of the strongest earnings backdrops in years.

Second-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies grew 52%, the strongest pace since 2021, with upward revisions across eight of the index’s 11 sectors, the State Street report showed.

Those revisions mean capital now has destinations beyond the handful of sectors that dominated flows through 2025.

Short-term Treasuries captured nearly all government bond ETF inflows

Bond ETFs gathered $55 billion in August, capturing roughly 30% of the month’s total inflows and marking their fourth consecutive month above $50 billion, State Street’s report showed. 

Year-to-date inflows reached $407 billion, a pace that brings bond funds within striking distance of the 2025 annual record of $448 billion with four full months still remaining.

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Short-term government bond funds captured $14 billion in August, representing 94% of all government bond ETF inflows for the month, State Street noted. 

Year-to-date inflows for that segment have reached $82 billion, surpassing the previous full-year record of $72 billion set in 2022.

Bartolini argued in the August report that the lopsided concentration in short-duration government bonds signals investors are prioritizing liquidity and capital preservation over yield, a stance consistent with the equity sector outflows that preceded it.

“Instead of trusting the basic fundamentals, we start searching for reasons why it won’t work anymore,” Bartolini wrote in the report.

Short-term Treasuries dominated government bond ETF inflows as investors prioritized liquidity and capital preservation amid shifting market conditions.Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Emerging-market and developed-market ETFs both set full-year records

The capital that left growth-heavy sectors spread beyond domestic bonds into international equities, where both emerging-market and developed-market funds set records through August.

Emerging-market ETFs attracted $50 billion in 2026 through August, while developed-market funds outside the United States collected $129 billion, both new full-year records, the State Street August report stated. 

United States-focused ETFs captured only 65% of equity inflows this year, falling well below their 79% share of total industry assets.

Dan Lefkovitz, Strategist at Morningstar Indexes, said in a January 2026 Morningstar analysis that the imbalance between the United States’ share of global economic output and its dominance in global stock market capitalization reflects a structural home-market bias that geographic diversification can help correct.

Spreading one’s bets across geography can be seen as prudent risk management. The US represents just 25% of the global economy but 63% of its stock market value. Given that imbalance, an all-US equity portfolio reflects real home-market bias

Lefkovitz’s imbalance helps explain why the geographic broadening has persisted across multiple months.

What the ETF market’s two-track signal points to going into year-end

State Street projects total inflows could reach $2.3 trillion this year, surpassing the $1.52 trillion record from 2025 as early as September 22. The total will keep climbing, but the headline number alone no longer captures where that capital is concentrating. 

Bartolini noted in the August State Street report that portfolio resilience comes from diversification across regions, sectors, and asset classes, a principle the August flow data reinforces. 

His data shows the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 posted 32% earnings growth in the second quarter.

A breadth that Bartolini argued gives investors room to reduce mega-cap concentration without stepping out of equities altogether, a window that the August flow data suggests many are already using.

Related: S&P 500 investors may want to rethink their favorite ETF