SUCCESS

Kade Anderson and George Lombard Jr. are among the best options to consider on the fantasy baseball waiver wire for Week 23.

When you buy a Pixel phone, wristwatch, or pair of earphones, you usually don’t think about the nation emblazoned in tiny characters on the packaging.

For Alphabet (GOOGL) investors, it matters more and more.

Google is planning to shift production of all of its Pixel phones, watches, and wireless earbuds out of China by 2027, with more manufacturing to be sent to India and Vietnam, according to TechRepublic.

The company has advised suppliers to prepare for the move, TechRepublic reported, citing Nikkei Asia. Google has not publicly announced the schedule.

The timing of the move is especially interesting.

Google shipped about 12 million Pixel phones in 2025 and could see volumes grow by 8% to 10% in 2026, possibly bringing yearly shipments to roughly 13 million devices, AndroidCentral noted.

Pixel remains a small player compared to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy series. But for the hardware business to matter, Google doesn’t need Pixel to be the dominant smartphone. Pixel is more and more the physical showroom for Gemini, Android, and Google’s growing AI ecosystem.

And behind those devices, Google looks to be creating something less visible, but perhaps just as important: increased leverage over the components required to create them.

Google has been preparing its Pixel exit from China for years

Google’s stated 2027 plan would be stunning, but it’s not starting from scratch.

The company revealed in 2023 that it would begin producing Pixel smartphones in India, starting with the Pixel 8. Google had claimed at the time that India was a priority Pixel market and that it planned to boost device production capacity there.

Related: Buffett’s Berkshire is doubling down on Google

The first Made-in-India Pixel 8 phones were rolling off the assembly lines by August 2024.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is becoming significant for Google’s premium devices, TechRepublic reported. The current revelation indicates that successful Pixel development and mass production there, backed up by investments in tooling and testing equipment, helped give Google confidence that Vietnam could absorb further manufacturing.

That is an important difference.

One is the final assembly. New-product introduction, which includes the engineering, testing, and manufacturing refining that happens before mass production, needs a much richer manufacturing ecosystem.

If India and Vietnam can take on more of those jobs, Google will be less dependent on China, not just for assembly, but also for some of the expertise needed to bring new technology to market.

The human impact may be almost invisible. A Pixel assembled in Vietnam could feel identical to one assembled in China.

But for Google, having more than one major manufacturing site means an alternative choice when tariffs, geopolitical tension, shipping disruptions, or component shortages threaten output.

Google’s biggest Pixel change may happen far from the consumer.LUDOVIC MARIN / Getty Images

Google’s enormous AI spending gives Pixel an unusual advantage

The most compelling aspect of the narrative is behind the manufacturing floor.

Google is said to be consolidating some of its memory-chip buying through its cloud and smartphone units, giving it additional clout with suppliers including Micron Technology (MU), Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix.

That’s essential because the same AI explosion that’s fueling Google’s cloud business is putting pressure on the consumer-electronics supply chain.

More Google:

Alphabet’s biggest AI fear may be fading

Bank of America says Alphabet stock investors are missing the bigger signal

Google stock price faces major AI test ahead of earnings

Those products are more lucrative, and memory makers have begun redirecting capacity to high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators, Tech Crunch reported, squeezing supply of some conventional memory used in smartphones and PCs.

That squeeze just happens to be on both ends of Google.

Google Cloud and Gemini require enormous memory and computational infrastructure.

It also requires memory for Pixel phones.

Alphabet expects $180 billion to $190 billion of capital expenditures in 2026, roughly six times its 2022 level, with the overwhelming majority going toward technical infrastructure.

The scale produces buying power few smartphone makers can match.

Google Cloud generated $20 billion in first-quarter revenue, up sharply as AI demand pushed its backlog to $462 billion. Alphabet also reported $174 billion in operating cash flow over the preceding 12 months.

Pixel is therefore in a rare corporate structure.

Google’s not just a phone vendor fighting for processors. It’s one of the world’s major buyers of AI infrastructure, cutting deals for some of the same kinds of components its phones need.

That might give Pixel a supply-chain edge that its share of the smartphone market alone would never provide.

Pixel’s small size could actually make the transition easier

The comparatively small smartphone volumes at Google might help.

There’s a basic difference between moving about 12 million devices a year and moving production for a corporation that sells hundreds of millions of cell phones.

The 8%-to-10% shipment-growth target implied that Google thinks it can grow Pixel while also changing where it builds the smartphones.

Key numbers behind Google’s Pixel supply-chain shift

2027: Reported year by which Google wants Pixel manufacturing out of China

12 million: Approximate number of 2025 Pixel smartphone shipments

8%-10%: Reported expected Pixel shipment growth in 2026

About 13 million: Implied annual shipments near the top of that range

$180 billion-$190 billion: Alphabet’s planned 2026 capital expenditures

$20 billion: Google Cloud’s first-quarter revenue

$462 billion: Google Cloud backlog at the end of Q1

India and Vietnam: Expected primary alternatives for Pixel production, according to Tech Republic

There is one major caveat.

Taking final manufacturing out of China does not mean China will disappear from Google’s supply chain. Even when the finished phone rolls off a line in India or Vietnam, components, materials, and subassemblies can still come from China.

So Google’s Pixel change is better understood as diversification rather than complete decoupling.

But that diversification coincides with Pixel becoming a more critical part of Google’s consumer-AI goals. It may appear in the form of different gadgets, a phone running Gemini, a Pixel Watch on someone’s wrist, and Pixel Buds in their ears.

In Google’s view, they’re increasingly becoming parts of the same ecosystem, all of them relying on a steady stream of chips, memory, and manufacturing capacity.

The biggest Pixel change of 2027 for customers might be one they never see.

For Alphabet investors, where Google builds those devices and how much leverage it gains over the companies supplying the parts could become one of the more consequential upgrades.

Related: Google is using a $29 gadget to tighten its grip on Android users

Naming an aircraft carrier after a sitting president would be an unprecedented move, and it would undo the original plan to name the vessel after World War II hero Doris Miller.

Doctors and patients are excited about the possible breakthrough, but some analysts believe there’s too much hype.

The U.S. Treasury just made an unusual move that caught Wall Street off guard, and it says a lot about how nervous officials have gotten over borrowing costs.

Yields on the longest-dated government debt had been climbing toward levels not touched since before the 2008 financial crisis.

On the same day the national debt crossed a new milestone, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent decided he had seen enough.

What he announced, and why he felt he had to act now, matters far beyond Wall Street trading desks, touching everything from mortgage rates to how much room the government has left to maneuver.

Scott Bessent doubles Treasury bond buybacks as 30-year yield hits 19-year high

The Treasury said on Aug. 19 it will at least double the size of its buyback operations for 10- to 30-year debt, raising the maximum from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, while also doubling the frequency from two to four operations per quarter.

The change kicks in on Sept. 9 and runs through Nov. 4, according to CNBC.

The move came after a rough stretch for long bonds. The 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.34% on Aug. 18, its highest level since 2007, as worries over a possible escalation in the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran collided with growing concern about the country’s fiscal trajectory.

Higher yields squeeze households, companies, and the federal budget all at once, since they push up the cost of nearly every kind of borrowing.

More Wall Street:

Wall Street’s AI trade faces its biggest valuation test

The next Wall Street shift is already underway

Wall Street sends strong 4-word verdict on the stock market

The announcement did what it was meant to do, at least for a day. The 30-year yield dropped to as low as 5.18%, while the 10-year yield eased to around 4.63%, and stocks rebounded on the news.

The Aug. 18 selloff had been brutal by comparison, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both sliding as the yield spike hit AI infrastructure stocks especially hard.

The timing made the moment feel bigger than it already was. Total U.S. federal debt outstanding topped $40 trillion for the first time in history that same day.

President Donald Trump downplayed the significance when asked by reporters whether Americans should worry about bond market volatility, saying simply, “No, I don’t think so,” according to CNBC.

Treasury bond buyback skeptics Evercore, Jefferies, Citi on Bessent’s market move

Not everyone is convinced the buyback fixes anything.

“I think that this will have a huge impact on the long end,” said Dan Gottlander, global head of USD and CAD swaps trading at Citi, though he added the shift could just push the Treasury to lean more heavily on shorter-term debt instead, according to Reuters.

Evercore ISI analysts framed the announcement as a well-timed strike against traders betting on higher yields, praising Bessent’s “tactical skill as an activist Treasury secretary.”

But they also questioned whether the relief would last, given that the government still needs to finance what they called a “tidal wave” of maturing debt and deficits.

Thomas Simons, chief U.S. economist at Jefferies, said the surprise announcement broke with Treasury’s longstanding habit of sticking to “regular and predictable” debt issuance, calling the move “shot from the hip.”

Scale matters here, too. The $2 billion increase per operation is small next to a $32.2 trillion Treasury debt market, and the total liquidity support tied to this buyback window tops out around $83 billion, including $14 billion of additional liquidity support from the remaining scheduled operations.

This was not Bessent’s first market intervention this month.Spencer/Getty Images

National debt, $40 trillion mortgage rates: what Bessent’s Treasury pressure means

This was not Bessent’s first market intervention this month. He also joined Japan on Aug. 1 in a rare coordinated effort to prop up the yen after it slid to 40-year lows against the dollar, part of a pattern of unusually hands-on moves from the Treasury this year.

The underlying math also explains the urgency. Net interest costs reached roughly $857 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2026 through June, more than the combined budgets of several major federal agencies. A gap that grows the longer yields stay elevated, according to TheStreet.

Higher yields have already worked their way into everyday costs. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed toward 6.67% in mid-August, after reaching its highest reading in roughly a year earlier in the month, adding real monthly costs for anyone shopping for a home loan or refinancing an existing one.

Complicating things further, Federal Reserve minutes released the same afternoon showed policymakers still open to a rate hike if inflation does not cool, even as traders had shifted their bets toward a hold.

What Treasury bond buyback means for stock market, AI infrastructure investors

The S&P 500 was up Aug. 19. Three days of losses, done.

But AI infrastructure names didn’t really join the party. Those stocks have a yield problem that one Treasury announcement doesn’t fix. When you’re financing $39 billion in data-center spending, the difference between 5.3% and 5.1% on a 30-year bond isn’t noise.

That split matters for anyone holding capital-intensive growth stocks. Companies such as CoreWeave, which raised its 2026 capital spending plan to as much as $39 billion, become more sensitive to borrowing costs exactly when yields spike, highlighting a broader financing risk for the AI infrastructure trade, according to TheStreet.

The key point for most investors is not that the fiscal problem is solved.

As Anshul Sharma, chief investment officer at Savvy Wealth, put it, the move “doesn’t solve the underlying issues around deficits, inflation, or Treasury supply,” but it buys time and shows regulators still have tools left to use.

For now, that reassurance is worth something, even if the bigger questions still remain unanswered.

Related: Scott Bessent’s economy claim is raising eyebrows on Wall Street

While once not particularly known as a travel destination outside of Spain itself and certain religious communities, the town of Santiago de Compostela has been attracting larger and larger numbers of tourists over the last half-decade.

As the number of travelers embarking on the 820-kilometer network of pilgrimage paths ending in the shrine of Saint James The Great quintupled past 500,000 over the last two decades, the city at its endpoint has also been seeing growing traction.

Last May, United Airlines began running a new seasonal route between Newark Liberty (EWR) and Rosalia de Castro (SCQ) in Santiago de Compostela . On the European end, a new budget airline called Fly2Galicia is preparing to launch out of the same airport by December 2026.

Fly2Galicia to launch flights to 17 destinations by December 2026

At the moment, the new airline is scheduled to launch through an ACMI agreement to lease an Airbus A320 operated by Romanian carrier FLYYO. Such a wet lease is a common way for startup airlines to test demand and build an established network of customers prior to rolling out as a full airline with its own planes, operating certificate and crew.

The 17 weekly departures will run on a network of intra-Spanish and European routes flying from Santiago de Compostela to destinations including Alicante, Zaragoza, Granada, Brussels, Munich, Milan-Malpensa, Venice and Prague. The latter capital of Czechia is the most distant destination currently on the airline’s flying slate although the expressed plans include expansion to more destinations.

Related: Airline stopover program now includes Grand Prix tickets

With ticket sales opened on August 18, the cheapest flights to Spanish cities such as Alicante and Granada currently start at €21.50 ($25 USD) and €19 ($22 USD) for the return ticket.

The airline is also advertising Economy Plus, Economy Premium and Business Premium fare classes offering perks such as larger armchair-style seating and lounge access as well as a Fly2Galicia Miles Programme for earning points.

“Fly2Galicia was created to enhance Galicia’s air connectivity through direct flights from Santiago de Compostela to key European destinations, offering competitive fares and reliable, customer-focused service,” the airline writes of its launch on its new website under the tagline “Galicia Takes Off.”

The new airline will be based out of Spain’s Santiago de Compostela.Image source: Unsplash.

Which other airlines fly into Santiago de Compostela in 2026

With the city itself home to a permanent population of just over 180,000 people, Rosalia de Castro has previously been a regional airport not served by many carriers.

After failing to reach an agreement with the Spanish government over the rising costs of airport taxes, Dublin-based Ryanair has stopped flying into many smaller Spanish cities including Santiago by 2026.

More Travel News:

Another low-cost airline is betting big on Guatemala travel

There is a very cool Irish version of swimming pigs in The Bahamas

Unexpected country is most luxurious travel destination for 2026

September and October are no longer the cheap time to book that trip

Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air is now also opening a base out of Santiago by December 17 with plans to start flying routes to 10 domestic and international destinations including Rome and Warsaw.

While the airlines will fly to different destinations, the presence of both Fly2Galicia and Wizz Air will create significant competition for a destination that for most arrivals is highly seasonal.

In 2025, the airport handled just over 3.1 million passengers.

Related: Another low-cost airline is betting big on Guatemala travel

Shares of Apple (AAPL) traded at around $317 on Aug. 20, up nearly 16% in 2026. 

The Cupertino giant’s stock regained some momentum, rising 4% over the previous two sessions, although they remain 8% behind its July record high.

The next big catalyst is already approaching, though. 

Apple is expected to show off its iPhone 18 Pro lineup in September, following an unusually robust run for the iPhone 17. 

The iPhone 17 series outsold its predecessor by an eye-catching 16% during its first full quarter, while iPhone sales jumped nearly 22% to a June-quarter record of $54.25 billion.

However, the bigger change might not be just another iPhone. 

Apple announced that Tim Cook is set to hand over the reins of CEO to longtime hardware chief John Ternus on Sept. 1, ending a nearly 15-year run. 

Cook becomes executive chairman and will remain involved in areas including government relations.

And Bank of America thinks that handoff may become more than just a management change, particularly as Apple enters a much faster-moving AI era.

Bank of America sees a bolder Apple after Tim Cook 

Bank of America isn’t treating Apple’s CEO transition as a reason to abandon the stock.

For perspective, analyst Wamsi Mohan reiterated a Buy rating and $380 price target, implying roughly 20% upside from Apple’s Aug. 20 price of $316.83.

The more important note shared with me is what BofA thinks could change once John Ternus takes over.

Cook’s Apple has everything to do with extraordinary execution at an immense sale. For color, Apple created $32 million in value for every hour over the past 15 years under Cook’s tenure. Moreover, the iPhone maker became a cash-flow-generating machine, able to manage a remarkably complex product ecosystem. 

Apple’s free cash flow has more than quadrupled under Cook, rising from $33 billion in fiscal 2011 to nearly $137 billion on a trailing-12-month basis. 

BofA expects much of that juggernaut of a machine to remain firmly intact under Ternus. The potential break with the Cook era is mostly in risk appetite.

Related: Jim Cramer doubles down on Tim Cook and Apple verdict

The bank underscored Apple’s move away from its net-cash-neutral objective as an early signal that its management might be more willing to deploy capital. That would translate into heavier R&D spending, more CapEx, and potentially bigger acquisitions, areas that weren’t major features of Cook’s strategy.

Under Ternus, BofA sees the possibility of Apple moving much more quickly into new categories, including AI glasses, camera-equipped AirPods, smart rings, home automation, personal assistants, and robotics.

The logic behind those moves is obvious.

Apple controls the hardware, chips, operating systems, privacy architecture, and a billion-unit installed base. Combining those advantages with on-device AI reinforces Apple’s dominance, moving from the cloud toward more intelligent devices.

Nevertheless, Apple’s immense size is its biggest obstacle.

At a market value of over $4.6 trillion, even successful incremental products might not be able to move the needle the way they did in years past.

BofA says that Ternus needs to preserve the highly profitable system Cook built while restoring a stronger sense of technological surprise.

Tim Cook leaves Apple far bigger than he found it 

Tim Cook’s illustrious run as Apple CEO is now running on a fixed clock.

The numbers under his tenure are tough to fathom.

According to Bloomberg reporting, Apple was worth nearly $350 billion when Cook became CEO in August 2011. It has since grown into a company valued at over $4 trillion. 

In terms of sales, fiscal 2025 sales totaled an eye-popping $416.2 billion, compared with about $108 billion in 2011. Moreover, since he took over, Apple stock has delivered a whopping 2,700% total shareholder return, including reinvested dividends, according to Yahoo Finance data.

A $1,000 investment around the beginning of his tenure would be worth around $28,000 today. 

One would argue that Cook’s bigger achievement was perhaps turning Steve Jobs’ product machine into a broader, more repeatable earnings engine. 

Apple built Services into a $109 billion annual business, growing its installed base beyond 2.5 billion active devices, launched new devices like Apple Watch and AirPods, and moved Macs to Apple silicon.

More Apple:

Apple rewrites how Americans pay for iPhones

Bank of America doubles down on Apple stock ahead of earnings

Apple’s iPhone 18 AI bet hides a pricing trap

At the same time, Apple has spent over $880 billion on share repurchases since launching its buyback program in 2012. 

Legendary investor Warren Buffett was unusually direct about Cook’s instrumental role.

According to Variety, in 2021, Buffett hailed him as “one of the best managers in the world”. Moreover, at Berkshire’s 2026 annual meeting, Buffett said his $35 billion that Berkshire originally committed to Apple grew to about $185 billion pre-tax, and he asked Cook to “take a bow”.

Cook’s final earnings call offered a fitting storybook ending.

Apple posted record June-quarter sales of $109.4 billion, up a substantial 16%, meaning one quarter of sales exceeds nearly $108 billion Apple generated in all of 2011. 

iPhone sales were up 22%, Mac sales 29%, and Services reached $30.7 billion.

At the earnings call, Cook also talked about Apple’s tremendous AI opportunity, calling on-device processing a “competitive weapon”, while also acknowledging elevated AI spending. Additionally, he said that the transition to Ternus was going “seamlessly” and that he had “never been more optimistic”.

 Bank of America says Apple could take bigger risks after Tim Cook.Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images

What Apple investors should watch next

For Apple investors, BofA’s lofty valuation leaves very little room for missteps. 

The bank’s $380 price target is based on 37 times calendar 2027 EPS of $10.32, comfortably above Apple’s five-year historical valuation range of 19 to 35 times earnings, with a median near 27 times.

BofA argues that this premium is mostly justified by Apple’s massive agentic AI opportunity, a multi-year iPhone upgrade cycle, a swelling cash balance, Services mix, and the possibility of entering new categories.

That effectively means that the stock isn’t just priced for steady iPhone execution. Investors are paying today for Apple to prove its AI could create a new upgrade cycle and widen its addressable market.

One of the key areas to watch is agentic AI and broader AI execution. 

If Apple lags its rivals or struggles to translate its power-packed AI features into hardware demand, the premium multiple becomes harder to defend. BofA analysts also highlighted sluggish consumer spending, slower Services growth, prolonged iPhone replacement cycles, and intensifying smartphone competition as major downside risks. 

Moreover, investors also need to watch Apple’s gross margins closely. 

A healthier mix from its higher-end iPhones and internally developed chips might support bottom-line expansion, while tariffs, currency pressure, and higher component costs might work the other way.

Hence, the big takeaway is that Apple needs to continue delivering on the earnings front, drive AI adoption, and maintain robust capital returns to justify its valuation. 

More on Apple & its stock: 

History of Apple: Company timeline and facts

Who owns Apple? Institutional holdings & executives’ shares

How many employees does Apple have? A deeper look at the tech giant’s workforce

Tim Cook’s net worth: The Apple CEO’s wealth as he prepares to retire

John Ternus’s net worth as Apple’s next CEO

Five of the six Buss siblings are on board with selling their remaining Lakers shares to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, but acting governor Jeanie Buss is not.

The Atlanta Braves have turned to a former Los Angeles Dodgers veteran after losing a key backstop for the year.

Washington has no shortage of options. None are easy.