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For two years, BMW was the German automaker that seemed to have figured it out. While Volkswagen was announcing 35,000 job cuts and Mercedes-Benz was launching its own redundancy program, BMW kept its head down and its numbers relatively clean. It held onto combustion engine options when rivals were abandoning them. It avoided the kind of expensive strategy reversals that cost peers billions. Its electric sales were growing without the margin collapse that hit everyone else.On July 29, CEO Milan Nedeljkovic and works council chairman Martin Kimmich stood in front of employees at a company-wide assembly and delivered news that ended that narrative. “The rules dictating the industry have substantially changed, and with it the foundation of BMW’s business model,” Nedeljkovic told staff. BMW is cutting around 8,000 jobs. It’s the largest voluntary redundancy program in the company’s history, and it makes BMW the last of Germany’s three major carmakers to announce a significant workforce reduction. BMW shares rose as much as 1.9% in Frankfurt on the news.What BMW’s 8,000 job cut program involvesThe program came together after six weeks of intensive negotiations between BMW’s management and its works council. It targets administrative and development roles. Factory floor workers and production line staff are excluded entirely, according to CNBC.About 40,000 of BMW’s 85,000 permanent German employees will get redundancy offers from October 2026. The program runs to the end of 2027. BMW has around 154,000 people on its global payroll, so 8,000 departures works out to roughly 5% of the total headcount. Not a small number for a company that was still hiring aggressively three years ago.More Layoffs:Meta layoffs take disturbing turn in new lawsuitMajor snack brand closes plant, cuts 345 jobsJPMorgan Chase pushes fraud division layoffs, despite rising revenuesSeverance will be calculated on salary and length of service. Total restructuring costs will run into the hundreds of millions of euros this year, though the exact figure depends on how many employees accept. The expected payoff is around €1 billion in annual savings from 2028 onward, according to Euronews, citing Handelsblatt. That’s the number BMW management is using to justify the upfront restructuring hit.Why BMW is cutting jobs now after holding out for so longBMW’s problem in China is the most obvious part of the explanation. In 2021, BMW and MINI together delivered a record 847,900 vehicles in China. Through the first half of 2026, that number had fallen to 261,773 units, down more than 20% from the same period last year, according to BMW Blog.Domestic Chinese EV makers have taken significant market share in the premium segment, and there’s no obvious near-term reversal in sight.On top of the China sales drop, BMW is dealing with slimmer margins on its electric vehicles, rising U.S. tariffs, and higher production costs in Europe. Related: BMW’s new SUV is built for an uncertain futureThe company cut its profit outlook last month to a margin potentially as low as 1% at its cars division. For a brand that built its global reputation on premium pricing and strong profitability, that’s a genuinely difficult number to sit with.Then there’s the cost of the transition itself. Building new EV platforms isn’t cheap. Neither is keeping the combustion lineup going for buyers who aren’t switching yet. BMW has been paying for both at the same time, for years. At some point that shows up in the numbers, and right now it’s showing up in the headcount.BMW stayed patient while Volkswagen was lurching through expensive EV commitments it later had to reverse. That patience saved BMW a lot of money and a lot of embarrassing headlines. People inside the industry noticed. But patience isn’t a strategy forever, and the same forces that eventually broke VW’s margins found their way to BMW’s door too. Just later.

BMW’s China problem is the most obvious part of the explanationStanislav/Getty Images

How BMW’s cuts compare to Volkswagen and MercedesVolkswagen’s restructuring has been the biggest in the sector. The company has agreed to cut tens of thousands of jobs and is now pushing to double its planned reductions to 100,000 positions while slashing annual production capacity. Around 20,000 workers had already accepted voluntary redundancy offers earlier this year. Mercedes-Benz has its own voluntary program running. Porsche, part of the Volkswagen Group, ramped up its restructuring to cut around 20% of staff by 2035. Continental, a major supplier, is cutting 3,000 positions in research and development alone.BMW’s 8,000 cuts are smaller in absolute terms than what Volkswagen announced. But the symbolic weight of BMW joining the wave is significant. It was the holdout. The company that seemed to have avoided the worst of it. Its decision to restructure signals that the pressure on German auto is structural and broad, not just a problem for companies that bet heavily on pure EV strategy.Germany’s industrial sector lost 124,000 jobs in 2025. Roughly double what it lost in 2024, and most of it came from automotive, according to Reuters, citing consultancy EY. BMW is the latest entry in that number. Nobody knows yet whether July 29 marks the floor or just another waypoint on the way down.What BMW’s job cuts mean for workers and the German economyThe voluntary nature of the program matters enormously for the workers involved. BMW has been explicit that it is not planning forced layoffs in Germany, and the works council’s involvement means the terms were negotiated rather than imposed from above. For employees who accept the severance, the payout will be meaningful. For those who choose to stay, the message is that BMW’s long-term hiring outlook is considerably more cautious than it was even two years ago.The broader economic stakes are real. German auto has been a cornerstone of the country’s manufacturing base and export strength for decades. When BMW, Volkswagen, and Mercedes are all running voluntary redundancy programs at the same time, it puts pressure on the entire supply chain, on regional economies that depend heavily on auto employment, and on Germany’s overall industrial output.BMW also canceled its appearance at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, despite having committed to attend months earlier. When a company is cutting 8,000 jobs and absorbing hundreds of millions in restructuring costs, a major international auto show isn’t where management attention or money should be going. The cancellation is a small detail that says something bigger about where BMW’s head is right now. It’s focused on getting leaner, not on putting on a show.Related: Verizon shuts down longtime customer support option after layoffs

Anyone who has ever hit a wall of hidden fees while trying to cancel a subscription knows the frustration, and Adobe built part of its reputation on that exact complaint.Federal regulators spent two years building a legal case around it. This week, some of those same regulators cleared Adobe’s newest acquisition faster than almost any deal of its size in years.The Federal Trade Commission granted an early termination notice for Adobe’s pending purchase of Topaz Labs on July 28, letting the deal close before the standard 30-day antitrust waiting period even runs out.Adobe (ADBE) shares jumped nearly 6% on the news, according to Seeking Alpha. The market read it correctly. Getting waved through this quickly is not something regulators do often.Related: Adobe’s rating cut to underweight as CEO search drags onWhat Topaz Labs actually buildsTopaz Labs is a Dallas company that makes AI models for sharpening, denoising, upscaling and restoring video and photos, tools long favored by photographers and filmmakers who wanted more control than Adobe’s own editing software offered.Its Emmy-winning restoration tech has been used to remaster archival footage frame by frame.Adobe announced the acquisition on June 25, saying it plans to fold Topaz’s models into Firefly and Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and Premiere.Topaz also brings Neurostream, technology that runs large AI models on a user’s own device instead of the cloud. Topaz CEO Eric Yang said the two companies share a belief.We’ve always believed that technology should serve human creativity rather than replace it — and so has Adobe. Together, we believe we can dramatically expand what’s possible for filmmakers and creators everywhere.The same executive, a very different outcomeHere is the detail that most coverage of this deal has missed. The Adobe press release announcing Topaz Labs quotes David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Creativity and Productivity business.Wadhwani is also one of two executives the government named personally when the FTC and DOJ sued Adobe in June 2024 over hidden cancellation fees.That case ended in March with Adobe agreeing to a $150 million settlement, split evenly between civil penalties and free services to customers, according to Bloomberg.The government’s complaint described Adobe’s cancellation fee as functioning like “a powerful retention tool” that trapped subscribers.That case was about consumer protection law, not antitrust. But the timing is notable. The same executive at the center of a deceptive practices settlement is now the face of a deal that breezed through the government’s competition review in about a month.It is a reminder that federal agencies keep those two lanes separate, even when the same company and the same name show up in both.

Adobe’s Topaz Labs deal cleared FTC review in about a month, far faster than the Figma acquisition regulators blocked in 2023.PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty Images

Why the Adobe deal moved so fastAdobe knows what a slow, painful review looks like. Its $20 billion bid for Figma collapsed in December 2023 after 15 months of pressure from UK and EU regulators, who argued the deal would eliminate a real competitor in design software, according to CNBC.Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion breakup fee and walked away.Topaz Labs is a different animal. It does not compete with Adobe’s core products, it sells enhancement tools that plug into workflows Adobe already owns, and the deal is estimated at $700 million to $1 billion, far smaller than Figma. Regulators had less to object to.There is also a broader, underreported piece of context. The FTC suspended its early termination program entirely in February 2021 and did not bring it back until February 2025, four years in which almost no deal got fast-tracked, regardless of size.Adobe is not getting special treatment. It is benefiting from a policy the current FTC has been quietly using all year to speed low-risk mergers through the system.More Adobe:Adobe’s rating cut to underweight as CEO search drags onCiti resets Adobe stock price targetWhy Accenture and Omnicom just handed Adobe their AI playbookThe bigger signal for AI dealmakingThe Topaz clearance fits a pattern. Since early termination returned, regulators have been distinguishing between mergers that consolidate market power and bolt-on acquisitions that add a capability without removing a competitor.AI tooling deals, where a large platform buys a smaller specialist rather than a rival, are increasingly landing in the second category.That distinction matters for every software company sitting on a shortlist of AI startups to acquire.The Figma outcome taught dealmakers that regulators fear ecosystem lock-in. The Topaz outcome suggests that fear has limits, and that a well-scoped, non-competing AI acquisition can now move through Washington in weeks rather than months.Adobe’s next move, and how fast peers try to copy this playbook, will show whether that is a rule or a one-off.Related: JPMorgan just sent stock market investors a signal worth watching

JPMorgan just pointed investors toward a fast-rising player in AI nuclear energy.On July 27, 2026, the bank started coverage of BWX Technologies (BWXT) with an overweightrating and a $230 price target.That target runs through December 2027 and sits about 30% above where the stock traded when the call landed.BWXT closed at $169.67 on July 28, down 3.89% on the day and down about 10% over the past month, according to Yahoo Finance.So JPMorgan is making this call while the stock is falling, not climbing. Here is what the bank thinks the market isn’t considering. What JPMorgan sees in BWX Technologies that the market is missingThe analyst behind the call is Tomohiko Sano, and his argument rests on a simple idea: BWXT makes things almost no one else is allowed to make.The company holds NRC Category 1 licenses and manufactures heavy nuclear components under deep U.S. government relationships, Investing.com reported.More AI Power Stocks:Morgan Stanley strongly resets GE Vernova stock targetGE Vernova’s AI power trade has one weak linkTop energy firm sends key signal on AI’s future after $1.2B dealThose are not advantages a competitor can copy in a year or two. They take decades and federal clearance to build.Sano placed BWXT at the intersection of three trends: small modular reactor adoption, commercial nuclear life extensions, and next-generation defense spending.His view is that demand across all three stays strong for the next decade, not just the next quarter.

BWX Technologies has delivered more than 420 naval reactor cores to the U.S. Navy over seven decades.SOPA Images / Getty Images

Why the Navy contracts anchor the whole thesisBWXT builds reactor cores and components for the ships that carry the U.S. nuclear fleet.According to BWXT, the company has delivered more than 420 naval reactor cores to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program for more than 70 years.That track record is why the work keeps coming.In May, BWXT confirmed more than $1.4 billion in new Navy contracts, according to a press release. The largest piece, worth about $1.285 billion, is the first of five annual awards available in 2030.For an investor, it means years of booked revenue tied to submarine and carrier programs that Congress funds, regardless of the market cycle.How SMRs could turn a defense supplier into an energy playThe naval work is the floor. The growth story is nuclear power.Artificial intelligence data centers need enormous amounts of round-the-clock electricity, and utilities are turning to nuclear power to supply it.That same demand is lifting power names across the market. Morgan Stanley recently raised its GE Vernova target to $1,350, arguing the market misread the company’s plan to build more gas turbines for data-center customers.Related: AI’s energy appetite is reshaping the electric gridBWXT plays a different role in that build-out. It manufactures the components that reactors are made from.The company also holds a licensing agreement with Applied Atomics for mPower small modular reactor technology, keeping exclusive manufacturing rights and royalties, Investing.com reported.A small modular reactor, or SMR, is a compact nuclear plant built in a factory and shipped to a site, rather than constructed piece by piece in the field.If SMRs scale the way JPMorgan expects, the company that builds their parts stands to benefit, no matter which reactor design wins.The numbers behind the BWXT bull caseNone of this would hold up without the financials to match, and BWXT’s recent quarter gave the bulls something to point to.First-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue came in at $860.2 million, up about 26% year over year and beating expectations, Investing.com reported.Adjusted earnings hit $1.12 per share, well above the $0.93 analysts expected.Q1 fiscal 2026 at a glance:Revenue: $860.2 million, up about 26% year over year.Adjusted EPS: $1.12, beating the $0.93 estimate.Revenue beat expectations by roughly 3%.The company also raised its 2026 guidance for adjusted EBITDA, earnings, and free cash flow, Investing.com reported.JPMorgan projects high single-digit to double-digit revenue growth through fiscal 2028, supported by a strong order backlog.What still has to happen before BWXT reaches $230A $230 target is a forecast, not a promise, and the path there depends on things that have not happened yet.The naval revenue is close to being locked. The SMR gain is not.Small modular reactors remain early. Commercial deployments still depend on licensing timelines, fuel supply, and customer orders that convert from interest into signed contracts.BWXT also trades at a rich valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio above 45, according to Stock Analysis. That leaves little room for a stumble.For readers weighing the stock, a few questions are worth watching:What to track from hereWhether new naval task orders arrive on the expected 2030 scheduleWhether SMR licensing and orders move from announcements to revenueWhether margins expand as JPMorgan’s model assumesSano is not the only bull. The broader analyst consensus on BWXT carries an average target of$236.71.The bull case comes down to one bet: that steady defense demand pays investors to wait while the nuclear-power story develops.If the Navy backlog holds and SMRs scale, BWXT gives investors nuclear exposure without the revenue-free volatility of the startup names. If SMR adoption stalls, the defense business still anchors the stock, but the 30% gain will likely take longer to arrive.Related: Leading energy company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.Why we love this dealSummer isn’t the same without your favorite pair of sandals. Long days of travel spent on your feet and hot days barbecuing in the backyard call for a comfortable and breathable sandal that’s easy to slip on and off. Flip-flops are a versatile option that are great for everyday wear and require minimal effort to wear and style. They work well with cute summer skirts, jean shorts, and even casual dresses. The ​Ecetana Arch-Support Yoga Flip-Flops check all those boxes and more for just $10. With a lightweight design and flexible materials that move with your feet, tons of shoppers are going back for multiple pairs before they sell out. Ecetana Arch-Support Yoga Flip-Flops, $10 at Walmart

Courtesy of Walmart

Shop at WalmartWhy do shoppers love it?With comfort being the main aspect of these shoes, the orthotic arch support provides relief from painful plantar fasciitis, flat feet, and heel pain thanks to a wide-foot-friendly design that stays comfortable after miles of walking, thanks to the stretchy fabric strap that hugs your foot with every step. The yoga mat cushioning mimics the soft and cushiony feel of a yoga mat, providing a thick footbed that feels like walking on clouds. The cloth thong piece that fits between your toes is soft and malleable, preventing blisters and hot spots that rigid flip-flops can sometimes create, and moving with your foot as you walk, instead of fighting the natural movement of your foot.Related: Amazon’s ’90s-inspired square-toe flip-flops are ‘comfortable’ and start at just $10The knotted detailing on the strap looks cute enough to wear with dressier summer clothes, while they can also easily be dressed down for a more casual summertime vibe. With the deep-grip rubber soles, they perform well on wet surfaces like pool decks, showers, and beach walks to prevent slipping and injuries, giving you peace of mind during long summer days filled with various activities. Thankfully, they’re also easy to wash. Simply put them in the washer or rinse them off, then air dry them, allowing you to worry less about your shoes and more about your next summer pastime.Details to knowSizes: These flip-flops are available in sizes 6 through 12, and the stretchy strap works well on wider feet. Comfort: The orthopedic arch support, cloud-like EVA foam, and soft, stretchy straps make these flip-flops extra comfortable.Care: These can be rinsed off or machine washed, and set out to air dry for easy cleaning.One buyer said, “I love them! They fit just right, and the toe loop is very comfortable. The shoe itself is soft and feels good on my feet. The bottom of the shoe is made with cork. I can wear these shoes all day long.””They’re like walking on pillows,” another shopper said. “They’re so comfortable, have great arch support, and snug my feet well. I like them so much, I bought a pair of each style.”Shop more dealsEcetana Wedge Walking Sandals, $19 (was $31) at WalmartEcetana Foam Thong Flip-Flops, $8 (was $10) at WalmartBussydd Thick Foam Flip-Flop Slippers, $8 (was $9) at WalmartWith its comfort, style, and ease of use, the ​Ecetana Arch-Support Yoga Flip-Flops have it all. For just $10, you can buy a pair of these sandals for the whole family, plus a few extra colors for your closet. Between the soft and stretchy cloth strap and the cushiony yoga mat sole, these are a fantastic investment for your comfort this summer.

Ford is having a strong year. Profits are rising, quality scores are up, and Wall Street just got a bigger earnings forecast to work with.So when CEO Jim Farley talks trade policy, people listen. And on Ford’s (F) Q2 earnings call, held July 28, Farley made clear that the automaker wants a say in how the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA) gets rewritten, and that the company sees real risk if it doesn’t get one.Farley demands level playing field in USMCAFarley didn’t hold back when a Goldman Sachs analyst asked about early USMCA talks. He said Ford builds more vehicles in the U.S. than almost any other major automaker, and is among the largest exporters as well.  That, Farley argued, should earn Ford a seat at the table as the agreement gets revised. His bigger concern is what he sees as an uneven fight with importers from Japan and South Korea.Referring to competitors importing from those countries Farley explained :”They have incredibly strong local supply chains like steel and aluminum. They have much weaker currencies in some cases, 40-year lows, and they have a modest 15% tariff. Even some of our domestic competitors import from those locations, and they have huge advantages.”He said Ford is “prepared to support revising the USMCA” as long as the changes help U.S. automakers compete rather than hurt them. Farley called the current conversations with U.S., Mexican and Canadian officials productive but early stage.Related: Ford set to challenge Tesla after big new deal with tech giantThe comments echoed something Farley said earlier on the call, tying the trade issue to Ford’s recently ratified three-year labor deal in Canada. That agreement, reached with union Unifor under president Lana Payne, covers Ford’s Canadian workforce and keeps the automaker’s Oakville, Ontario plant running.”This agreement also underscores how important USMCA is to our future at Ford,” Farley said, framing it as part of a broader push to build “a framework that levels the playing field for North American manufacturers.”Ford Q2 earnings back Farley’s argumentFarley’s trade comments landed alongside a set of numbers that gave Ford some momentum. The automaker reported $48.3 billion in second quarter revenue, down 4% from a year ago, largely because of lower vehicle output tied to an aluminum supply problem at supplier Novelis. However, adjusted operating profit climbed 17% to $2.5 billion.Ford also raised its full-year profit forecast, now expecting adjusted EBIT between $10 billion and $11 billion, a $1 billion increase at the midpoint from its prior guidance.Much of that improvement came from pricing and a better mix of vehicles sold. Off-road models like the Bronco and Raptor now make up nearly one quarter of Ford’s U.S. sales, and those trucks carry higher margins than standard trims. The F Series pickup lineup remains the top-selling truck in America, a title Ford has held for close to five decades.Quality also improved. Ford was named the top mainstream brand in J.D. Power’s 2026 Initial Quality Study, its first win in that category since 2010. Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra said on the call that vehicle recalls fell about 40% this year, a sign the automaker is spending less to fix problems after vehicles reach customers.

Jim Farley, president and CEO of Ford, pushes for a level playing field for U.S. automakers.Bloomberg/Getty Images

What a revised USMCA means for FordFarley was careful not to get too specific about where USMCA negotiations stand. Asked directly about proposals that could require more U.S. made content in vehicles, he said discussions with U.S. Trade Representative officials, along with counterparts in Mexico and Canada, are still forming.What he did make clear is Ford’s negotiating position: support a tougher trade deal, but only one that strengthens companies already committed to building in America.CFO Sherry House added financial texture to the quarter, noting Ford ended June with $22.3 billion in cash and $43.4 billion in total liquidity. More Automotive:Uber changes key rule for drivers amid rider safety lawsuitsVolkswagen may cut 100,000 jobs in brutal resetHonda CEO withstands investor backlash after $9B EV misstepThe company also declared a third quarter dividend of $0.15 per share, continuing a run that has returned more than $16 billion to shareholders over the past five years through dividends and buybacks.For now, investors are left watching two storylines play out together. One is Ford’s operational turnaround, where cost cuts, hybrid demand and truck pricing power are showing up in the numbers. The other is a trade fight in Washington that could shape how much of an edge Ford’s U.S. manufacturing base actually provides.Farley’s message on the call suggested he sees those two stories as connected. A friendlier trade deal, in his view, would let Ford’s investment in American factories translate into an even bigger financial advantage over rivals importing from overseas.Related: Ford’s SUV profits are fueling its future

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), maker of the da Vinci surgical robot, has been one of the year’s most punished large-cap healthcare names, down about 37% even as revenue keeps climbing.Analysts spent months cutting targets. Then one firm broke from the pack and told investors the fear had gone too far.That call matters for anyone holding the stock or watching it after a brutal slide, because it reframes what the recent selloff actually signals.It also raises a sharper question. If the company keeps growing revenue at double-digit rates, why has the market treated it like a business in trouble?The answer comes down to one earnings figure, one bold bet on automation, and a Wall Street that still can’t agree on what happens next.UBS upgrades Intuitive Surgical stock and pushes back on the selloffOn July 28, UBS analyst Patrick Wood upgraded Intuitive Surgical to Buy from Neutral, according to Investing.com. The move came after the stock dropped about 37% year to date and closed near $361.80.Wood set a 12-month price target of $500, down from $550, as part of a coverage handoff to a new analyst.More Healthcare Stocks:HCA stock falls on uninsured warning despite earnings beatGoldman Sachs says one number will move Eli Lilly stockUnitedHealth CFO sends stark warning after earningsThe lower target might read like caution, but the rating tells the real message. UBS called the recent market selloff of ISRG shares wrong.That is a direct challenge to the fear that has driven the stock down all year, and it sets up the rest of the firm’s argument.

Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robotic system is used in millions of minimally invasive procedures each year, and UBS thinks automation will speed up its adoption.Sundry Photography / Getty Images

Why UBS thinks the market misread Intuitive SurgicalThe bearish case on Intuitive Surgical has centered on three worries: hospital spending, slowing growth, and rising competition from other robotic surgery makers.UBS argues those fears are overextended. The firm’s core bet is on automation. UBS’s research shows that as robotic surgery becomes more automated, procedures get faster and cheaper than current laparoscopy, which is the standard minimally invasive technique surgeons use today.If that holds, more hospitals adopt the technology, and adoption is what drives Intuitive’s recurring revenue.UBS also flagged growth beyond the core business. The firm pointed to expansion into cardiac procedures, endoluminal applications that reach inside the body through natural openings, and the Ion lung-biopsy platform.Put simply, UBS sees several new revenue lines opening at once, while the market prices the stock as if growth has stalled.What Intuitive Surgical’s latest earnings actually showedThe numbers behind the selloff explain why investors got nervous, and why UBS thinks they overreacted.Intuitive reported second-quarter revenue of $2.89 billion, up 19% from a year earlier. Worldwide da Vinci procedures grew about 15%.The company beat expectations on both earnings and revenue. Then the stock fell more than 12%.The problem sat in one figure. U.S. da Vinci procedure growth slowed to 12%, down from 14% in the first quarter, Investing.com reported.Management tied the slowdown to ACA subsidy changes, deferred procedures, and pressure in bariatric surgery.Investors focused on that domestic number rather than the beat, and the reaction was swift.Still, Intuitive kept its full-year da Vinci procedure growth outlook at 13.5% to 15.5%, a sign management sees the slowdown as temporary.How UBS fits into a divided Wall Street on ISRGUBS is not moving alone, and it is not the most bullish voice either.The upgrade landed after two weeks of mixed calls on the stock. On July 16, Truist Financial cut its target to $510 while keeping a Buy rating.A day later, Raymond James lowered its target to $483 from $577 but held an Outperform rating.Related: GLP-1 weight-loss drug popularity reaches new heights with AmericansEven Goldman Sachs, one of the stock’s steadier defenders, kept a Buy rating through the year while the majority of Wall Street cut targets.So the debate now centers on how fast U.S. growth stabilizes, not on whether the company is healthy.The wider analyst view stays positive. The consensus rating is a Strong Buy, built on 19 Buy, 3 Hold, and 1 Sell recommendation.Consensus price targets land at $492.63, which sits well above where the stock trades now.What Intuitive Surgical investors should watch nextA single upgrade does not fix a stock that is down 37% on the year. However, it does give investors a clearer checklist.For the UBS bull case to hold up, a few things need to happen:Signals that would support the UBS callU.S. procedure growth stabilizes. The 12% domestic figure is the number that spooked investors, so a rebound toward the mid-teens would ease the biggest worry.Automation features convert to placements. Faster, cheaper procedures only help if hospitals actually buy and install more systems.New platforms show traction. Early revenue from cardiac, endoluminal, and Ion applications would confirm the diversification story UBS is betting on.Each item is measurable in the next few earnings reports, which makes the call easy to track.There are real risks. If ACA subsidy changes keep pressuring U.S. procedure volumes, the slowdown could last longer than one quarter.Competition is also rising. Rivals are pushing into soft-tissue robotic surgery, and Intuitive’s lead is no longer unchallenged.For a sense of how much this year has hurt device makers, a look at the health care stocks Trump traded in 2026 shows Intuitive down about 28% at the time, alongside steeper drops at Boston Scientific and Abbott.The bottom line for ISRG stockUBS is telling investors the selloff went too far, and the consensus targets agree there is room above today’s price.But the firm still cut its target to $500, which signals patience rather than a rush.For long-term holders, automation and the new platforms support staying in. For anyone considering a new position, the domestic growth number is the one to watch first, because it will confirm or break the recovery.Intuitive Surgical remains a strong company trading at a beaten-down price. Whether that becomes a bargain depends on how fast U.S. procedure growth turns back up.Related: Medicaid’s 5-year rule catches families off guard

Jensen Huang once joked during an internal company meeting that Nvidia was “basically holding the planet together,” and it’s not untrue.He was pointing at memes. The audience laughed. It was funny because it was close enough to true to land.On July 28, Mark Cuban and Michael Burry were making a version of the same observation. Neither of them was laughing.What Mark Cuban said about Nvidia and the AI bubble on XCuban posted on X after another user described Nvidia (NVDA) as a “backstop” for the AI economy, financing its customers’ purchases of its own chips for their data center buildouts. Cuban read it and agreed, then went further.”This is so analogous to the dot com burst,” he wrote on X. “But instead of IPOs, Nvidia is the ‘IPO,’ funding everyone and anyone.”More Nvidia:Bank of America sees Nvidia’s next $20 billion businessMorgan Stanley says Nvidia stock remains top pick despite headwindCiti sends strong signal to Nvidia investors amid rumorsHis argument is that during the late 1990s, the IPO market was the mechanism that kept capital flowing into internet companies that couldn’t justify their valuations on fundamentals. Companies went public, raised money, kept spending. The music played until it stopped. Cuban is saying Nvidia has taken over that role in the current cycle. It’s not just selling chips. It’s financing the purchases of its own chips, which ties its balance sheet to the financial health of the very customers it’s enabling.”One breakthrough in another chip provider, or a misstep, and it all could crumble,” he wrote. “It’s truly scary.”What Michael Burry said about Nvidia’s credit default swaps and circular spendingBurry posted the same night. His angle was different from Cuban’s but landed in the same place. Where Cuban focused on the financing dynamic, Burry focused on what the credit markets are saying about it.”There is a reason $NVDA’s 5 year credit default swaps are going parabolic,” he wrote, attaching a chart showing the cost of buying insurance against Nvidia defaulting on its debts had roughly doubled in two months, according to Business Insider.”All this overreaching by #nvda to push the circular spending to biblical proportions,” he added.Burry’s “Big Short” trade was built on credit default swaps. He bought insurance on subprime mortgage bonds during the housing bubble, collected when they collapsed, and made a fortune. When he points to Nvidia’s CDS going parabolic, he’s pointing at something he understands as well as anyone alive. The credit market is pricing in a rising risk that Nvidia can’t service its commitments if the cycle turns. That doesn’t mean it will. It means enough institutional money thinks it might to pay up for the insurance.

Jensen Huang has called the circular financing criticism “ridiculous.”Astrid/Getty Images

Why Cuban and Burry say Nvidia’s AI financing role is the real riskThe specific concern isn’t just that Nvidia is dominant. It’s that Nvidia is a lender to its own customers. When a chip company finances the purchase of its own chips, it creates a loop. Customers buy more than they could otherwise afford. Nvidia’s revenue looks stronger than underlying demand justifies. The balance sheet of both the customers and the supplier become linked in ways that amplify any downturn.Burry made this point explicitly in a July 24 Substack post, writing that he had bolstered his Nvidia short and holds bearish put options on the stock. He argued that much of Nvidia’s demand doesn’t come from end customers, much of it is financed and kept off its balance sheet, and “future revenues are majority financed in a circular arrangement.”Cuban’s data center pickleball court quip from an earlier podcast fits the same frame. His argument is that AI infrastructure is being overbuilt relative to real demand, that efficiency gains will make much of it redundant faster than people expect, and that Nvidia’s financing role is masking how fragile the demand picture actually is.What Nvidia’s stock decline and CDS surge say about the AI bubble warningsNvidia shares were down about 5% on July 27 and closed at $196.51, stripping roughly $250 billion in market cap in a single session and handing the title of world’s most valuable company back to Apple, according to Business Insider. Nvidia has announced more than $540 billion in circular financing deals in 2026 alone, according to Bloomberg, excluding the potential new OpenAI arrangement. The IMF and the Bank for International Settlements have both flagged AI circular financing as a systemic downside risk.Jensen Huang has called the circular financing criticism “ridiculous.” Nvidia didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Cuban and Burry’s specific posts. Huang’s “holding the planet together” line was from an internal November meeting where he was pointing at memes, not making a financial disclosure. But the joke stuck because the dependence it described is real.Whether that dependence becomes a problem depends on whether AI demand keeps growing fast enough to justify the financing, the buildout, and the valuations. Cuban and Burry are betting, in different ways, that it won’t. The credit markets are quietly starting to agree with them.Related: Michael Burry sends strong warning on AI development path

Every month, another company announces layoffs and mentions AI in the same breath. Workers notice. So do the economists tracking the numbers. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been watching this play out, too, and he’s asserted publicly that most of what’s being said about it is wrong.But at a recent appearance in front of founders, he drew a distinction that cuts against most of what Silicon Valley has been saying about the future of work.Jensen Huang says AI eliminates tasks, not jobsSpeaking at Y Combinator’s Startup School in San Francisco, Huang didn’t mince words when he told founders about the AI effects on jobs: “Many tasks will be automated away.” Then he added the line that mattered more. “Every single job will change, and there’ll be a whole bunch of new jobs,” according to Yahoo Finance.That framing is not new for Huang. He has made a version of this argument for months, most recently calling the “AI jobs apocalypse” complete nonsense on June 1. His logic rests on a simple split. A task is one repeatable action inside a role, while a job is the broader purpose that the role serves.Huang has grown more vocal on policy fronts, too. In July, he ended years of social media silence, posting on X (the former Twitter) and joining tech leaders who oppose restrictions on open-weight AI models.More Nvidia:Bank of America sees Nvidia’s next $20 billion businessMorgan Stanley says Nvidia stock remains top pick despite headwindCiti sends strong signal to Nvidia investors amid rumors”The narrative about AI destroying jobs is exactly backwards,” Huang said. “AI automates tasks away, but it doesn’t necessarily eliminate jobs.” He pointed to radiology, noting that hospital backlogs mean fewer scan readers are needed, but more nurses and radiologists get hired to handle the rising patient volume.Software engineering gets the same treatment in his argument. If AI automates the task of writing code, Huang says companies will hire more engineers to chase bigger ambitions, not fewer. “The backlog of ideas, the backlog of ambition and aspiration, is so high,” he said.Goldman Sachs AI job loss data: 16,000 positions cut monthlyGoldman Sachs has been counting. Since the start of the year, the bank has been running an AI jobs tracker, and the April numbers weren’t pretty. Roughly 16,000 net positions gone every month, specifically because of AI. Not a recession. Not bad earnings. AI.By the time Goldman’s AI Adoption Tracker was updated in late May, that monthly figure had eased to around 11,000 net jobs. Jobs added through AI augmentation across sectors offset some of the damage elsewhere, according to Fortune.April was the worst month Goldman has recorded. About 21,900 workers lost jobs that were specifically attributed to AI that month. Add it all up since Goldman started tracking in 2023, and you get roughly 136,000 AI-attributed layoffs. Joseph Briggs, one of Goldman’s economists, has put a much bigger number on where this ends up: roughly 15 million American workers displaced over the next decade, close to 9% of the workforce, as TheStreet reported.Not every Goldman note looks bleak. A May report found the bank’s occupation mismatch index had fallen below its pre-pandemic level, suggesting that the AI labor shock has not yet produced the general skills mismatch people feared.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once suggested that even the CEO role was not immune to AI displacement.Gomez/Getty Images

Why Amodei and Altman walked back their AI job loss warningsHuang has not been shy about mentioning names. He pushed back on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who told Axios in May 2025 that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs and push unemployment to 20%. Amodei has since softened his tone, now arguing that AI may expand human responsibilities.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also once suggested that even the CEO role was not immune to AI displacement, Fortune noted. He then reversed, saying in May that the technology’s rapid development would not trigger a global jobs apocalypse.Huang has also criticized fellow executives directly for blaming AI on hiring decisions made before the technology matured. TheStreet reported that, speaking to Singapore broadcaster CNA, he called the practice of linking every layoff to AI simply “too lazy,” arguing the technology has barely had time to reshape workplaces at that scale. Goldman’s own strategists have flagged a related warning. Workers displaced from AI-exposed roles take about a month longer to find new work and often accept pay cuts near 3% upon reemployment. “They take approximately one month longer to find a new job and suffer real earnings losses of more than 3% upon reemployment, compared with negligible losses for workers displaced from more stable occupations,” strategist Pierfrancesco Mei warned.What AI job displacement means for workers right nowThe debate carries real stakes for the people caught in the middle of it. Goldman’s own broader labor dashboard, built from 10 separate indicators, shows the labor market running softer than the headline unemployment rate suggests, even before isolating AI’s specific contribution.Workers displaced from AI-exposed roles are already feeling it differently than those laid off for other reasons, since they take longer to find new work and often must accept pay cuts. That’s a real cost that shows up in household budgets, not in earnings calls.For now, the two camps are not fully reconciled. Huang bets on productivity gains expanding total output faster than automation shrinks headcount. Goldman’s data show both things happening at once: new roles emerging through augmentation, and losses concentrated in entry-level white-collar work. Workers stuck in the middle are left watching which trend wins.Related: Bank of America delivers strong Nvidia verdict

Every few months, someone in tech says something that shifts how Washington thinks about AI. Sometimes it’s a Senate hearing. Sometimes it’s a leaked memo. Sometimes it’s a CEO who decides the moment is right to say something nobody else has been willing to say publicly.On July 28, that person was Mark Zuckerberg. He gave the Financial Times an interview and made a case about Chinese AI that puts him directly at odds with where the Trump administration appears to be heading, according to CNN.The same day, he published an opinion piece titled “The AI Future Is for Everyone” in The Wall Street Journal, making the same argument. A Beijing startup had just released a model that made his timing feel deliberate.Zuckerberg says banning Chinese AI won’t workThe U.S. government should not block Chinese models to gain an edge in the AI race, Zuckerberg told the Financial Times, according to CNN.Banning Chinese AI would not be “an effective solution,” Zuckerberg said. His alternative wasn’t complicated. U.S. companies should figure out what’s slowing them down and fix it. He also pushed back on the cybersecurity argument for restrictions, saying open models actually help because more people can spot and fix vulnerabilities when the code is accessible.More Mark Zuckerberg:Mark Zuckerberg says infinite money won’t make him quit his jobMark Zuckerberg makes a move on a new billion-dollar marketMark Zuckerberg admits mistakes in leaked memo after Meta layoffsZuckerberg did not stop at China policy. He also took aim at rivals seeking tighter industry rules, warning against what he called regulatory capture by dominant AI labs. Dominant firms shaping the rules that govern smaller competitors, he suggested, would choke off the same competition Washington claims to want.His op-ed in The Wall Street Journal echoed these ideas; he pushed a vision built on individual empowerment and open models people can run on their own hardware. Meta has increasingly positioned itself as the open-source counterweight to Anthropic and OpenAI, both closed-model developers Zuckerberg avoided naming directly.Kimi K3 and Alibaba raise the stakesThe center of the debate is Moonshot AI, whose Kimi K3 model has drawn attention for its coding capabilities since launching on July 16. Moonshot says K3 packs roughly 2.8 trillion parameters, making it the first open-weight system to approach the 3 trillion parameter mark, with a 1 million-token context window built for long coding sessions, Fireship shared. That scales well past DeepSeek’s 1.6 trillion-parameter model and Alibaba’s own prior 397 billion-parameter release.Benchmarks put K3 just behind Anthropic and OpenAI’s best models overall, but ahead of Claude Fable 5 on LMArena’s blind coding evaluation. Chip stocks sold off hard. People started saying “DeepSeek moment” again. Moonshot had to pause new subscriptions because the servers couldn’t keep up.Alibaba-backed Moonshot is not working alone. Days after Kimi K3 landed, Alibaba previewed its own Qwen 3.8 Max model, claiming it trails only the top American system, Adi Insights & Innovations noted. Its shares climbed as much as 5.4% in Hong Kong trading on July 30 on the news, according to Seeking Alpha.Nvidia and Micron felt it immediately. The whole bull case for American chip stocks rests on the idea that frontier AI stays expensive and American companies control the supply chain for it. A free, open-weight model from China that performs close to the top closed systems pokes a hole in that. Investors noticed before any orders were actually canceled.

Zuckerberg took aim at rivals seeking tighter industry rules.Julia/Getty Images

Washington weighs sanctions over Moonshot AIMoonshot’s rise has intensified debate in Washington over whether Chinese developers are copying U.S. models or genuinely closing the gap through their own research. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has threatened sanctions, and White House science and technology chief Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot of large-scale distillation against American systems, as TheStreet reported.Kratsios went further, alleging that Moonshot acquired Nvidia GB300-equipped servers and accessed similar systems in Thailand, hardware banned from sale to Chinese firms under existing export rules. GB300 chips belong to Nvidia’s Blackwell generation, the same silicon Washington has fought to keep out of Chinese hands. Moonshot has not publicly responded to either allegation.Zuckerberg is not alone on these restrictions. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a similar case days earlier, telling reporters the Chinese models are excellent and should be used, as TheStreet reported. More than 50 companies, including Meta and Microsoft, signed a letter opposing open-weight bans on July 24. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic signed it.Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella backed the same position in writing the same day, arguing open-weight models remain essential to a healthy AI ecosystem, a stance reported in a broader look at how Microsoft took sides in the policy fight just days before its own fiscal earnings.What it means for Nvidia and MicronThe market reaction has been swift and uneven. Semiconductor stocks entered bear market territory after Kimi K3’s debut, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling more than 20% from its June peak, erasing roughly $3.3 trillion in market value, according to Bloomberg.Strategists have warned it could fall further as investors reassess how much pricing power American chipmakers really hold.Not every read on the memory side is bearish. Bank of America has stayed bullish on Micron. It argues that cheaper, competitive open models such as Kimi K3 could expand overall AI demand rather than shrink it, since businesses running models privately still need memory capacity to do it.Zuckerberg is betting on openness. Washington hasn’t decided yet. And until it does, more models like Kimi K3 keep coming.Related: Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO just made major AI decision

Decades of contributing to a 401(k), rolling over old retirement accounts, and staying invested through years of market volatility can build a nest egg that reflects a lifetime of work. Many savers have carefully planned how those assets will be distributed after death.However, some may not have prepared for a different possibility: remaining alive but becoming unable to make financial decisions independently.Vanguard’s incapacity planning guide spotlights a critical gap most Americans ignore entirely when building their financial plans. The investment firm warns that without specific legal documents signed and on file, a sudden stroke or onset of cognitive decline could leave retirement accounts effectively frozen. Family members may even have to seek court approval before accessing savings intended to support the account holder, according to the guide.A spouse may have no legal authority over one’s retirement accountsVanguard states in its incapacity planning guide that a spouse cannot automatically make financial or medical decisions for an incapacitated partner. Even after decades of marriage, a spouse may lack the legal right to access the partner’s brokerage accounts or pay bills without the right paperwork.Without a durable power of attorney already on file, banks and brokerages have no obligation to honor a spouse’s requests for account access. The legal default leaves families scrambling at the exact moment when quick financial decisions matter most, and court intervention becomes the only alternative.Don D. Ford, a board-certified probate and estate attorney and managing partner of Ford+Bergner LLP, confirmed this gap in a Florida Villager article by contributor Merilee Kern. “Without the proper legal documents already in place, even a spouse or adult child may have no legal authority to step in and help, regardless of how obvious the need appears or how close the relationship is,” Ford said.Cognitive decline affects millions, and the financial toll keeps climbingThe need for this kind of planning is not a concern for a small slice of the population, because the numbers say otherwise. About 7.4 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2026, the Alzheimer’s Association reported in its 2026 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report. More Vanguard:Vanguard names 401(k) oversights that hurt your retirementVanguard drops playbook on retirement incomeVanguard warns workers losing thousands in 401(k)sCare costs for people with dementia are projected to reach $409 billion in 2026, and the Association measures lifetime risk beginning at age 45. From age 45, women face a one-in-five chance, and men face a one-in-10 chance of developing Alzheimer’s over their remaining lifetimes, according to the 2026 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report.Cognitive decline is not the only event that can strip away decision-making ability and leave finances exposed to legal limbo. More than 795,000 Americans suffer a stroke every year, and it remains a leading cause of long-term disability, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.”The window to complete these documents can close much faster than people expect,” Ford noted. “Once someone no longer has legal capacity, the planning options become far more limited.”

Millions face cognitive decline, making early financial planning essential before illness or injury limits legal decision-making and personal control.Morsa Images / Getty Images

What Vanguard wants investors to know about incapacity planningVanguard’s guide outlines several legal tools that work together to protect finances and medical care if decision-making ability is lost. About 56% of adults have no formal estate planning documents at all, the 2026 Trust & Will Estate Planning Report found.Vanguard’s guide stresses that every one of these documents must be signed while an individual still has cognitive and physical capacity. State laws governing these tools vary, so the documents must comply with the specific requirements in the jurisdiction where they are executed, Vanguard’s guide states.Families without a plan could face guardianship court proceedingsWhen no incapacity documents exist, the legal fallback is court-supervised guardianship, a process where a judge appoints someone to control one’s financial and medical decisions. John Samuels, Founder and CEO of Wellworth healthcare advisory firm, wrote in Forbes that the financial damage from poor incapacity planning extends far beyond the person receiving care, disrupting entire families.A prolonged period of diminished decision-making capacity can create family conflict, caregiver burnout and unnecessary healthcare spending. The financial impact extends beyond the person receiving careFord described guardianship as one of the most time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally difficult proceedings a family can face in the Florida Villager interview.The process can take months, generate substantial legal fees, and impose ongoing court oversight on every dollar spent on the incapacitated person’s behalf. A court-appointed guardian may not be the person you would have chosen, and family conflict over who takes the role often compounds the damage.”Incapacity planning allows you to decide in advance who will speak for you if you cannot speak for yourself,” Ford said.What to review in an existing incapacity planFord emphasized that creating these documents is only the first step, as major life events and changing circumstances can make existing plans outdated. He recommended revisiting incapacity documents after events like marriage, divorce, or a move to a new state, since each state imposes its legal requirements.Vanguard’s guide reinforces that message, urging investors to confirm that beneficiary designations on retirement accounts align with their overall estate plan. Documents prepared years earlier may no longer reflect an individual’s wishes or provide the intended protection if personal, financial, or family situations have changed over time.Related: Major 401(k), IRA mistake is quietly draining retirement savings