Trump also posted a bizarre AI rendering of him touring the renovated ballroom with George Washington.
Why the world’s second-largest Bitcoin mining power is shutting down rigs in its capital city
The Energy Ministry enacted the year-round restriction to mitigate power capacity shortages, as energy-intensive mining facilities continue to strain regional grids.
Bruno Mars Passes One Of The Top Hitmakers Of All Time With A New No. 1
“I Just Might” becomes Bruno Mars’s twelfth No. 1 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart. He passes Mariah Carey’s record and comes within one hit of Rihanna’s showing.
Paul Tudor Jones’ investment firm increases stake in BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF after year of selling
Calls fell 85.2% to 148,000 underlying shares, while puts slipped 1.4% to 715,000.
Nvidia, Intel, Google: Wall Street is partying like it’s 1999
The signs are all around that Wall Street is back in that dangerous atmosphere of giddy euphoria that those with long memories will remember from the infamous dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.
SpaceX, Google, Meta position themselves as the best of AI’s rest
OpenAI set off the artificial intelligence race when it released ChatGPT 3.5 four years ago. Since then, AI has morphed from a niche portion of the modern technology movement to the ubiquitous driving force behind most of the industry. While OpenAI and Anthropic have been the cream that has risen to the top so far, there are three major players that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to catch up with them: Meta, Google, and SpaceX. John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, spoke with TheStreet about the current AI landscape and the “other” companies that most investors don’t think about first when they think about AI. Meta learned its lesson from Llama The developments coming from Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), its internal AI lab, have been more forward-looking and big-picture, according to Belton.This team is different than the one that developed the ill-fated Llama portfolio of large language model products, which “had pretty clearly fallen behind the frontier,” he said. But have those changes been enough for Meta to overtake market leaders OpenAI and Anthropic?Not quite, but MSL’s work has been enough to reposition Meta in a better position than it was six months ago. “Where we stand today, my view is that there’s still a gap between OpenAI and Anthropic and everyone else, but Meta has definitely shown a lot of progress,” Belton said. “They’ve identified a few areas they’re prioritizing, including personal agents, business agents, and LLM technology for their ad models and content-recognition systems for ad targeting. In other words, they’re prioritizing models that are useful for the things their existing business does best, particularly their core advertising business,” Belton added.While Meta hasn’t caught its rivals, Belton does believe the company is executing a more focused and targeted strategy than Anthropic and OpenAI, whose approach is “much more horizontal and centered on building pure intelligence.””I don’t know if the long-term goal there is some form of AGI or superintelligence. Meta’s strategy seems more targeted toward specific use cases, applications, and markets,” Belton said. “And I think Google is now sort of pivoting toward the same approach.”Google loses top-3 AI statusGoogle has never reached the levels OpenAI and Anthropic have with its artificial intelligence ambitions, but it has carved out a nice spot as the third-best with Gemini. But muted comments during Alphabet’s earnings call leads Belton to believe that Google’s AI efforts may be losing a bit of steam. “The message coming off earnings, to me, felt like: we’re still committed to the frontier, or to remaining at the frontier, and to investing in this effort, but for whatever reason, we’ve lost some ground and some focus,” Belton said. It’s not like Google is abandoning developing AI, but the feeling now is that it has more so shifted its focus to applications. “I think Demis Hassabis (chairman and co-founder of Google DeepMind), at I/O, painted a picture where Google had been focused on real-world models—multimodal models, rather than just text-based models. In focusing on that, I think they also deprioritized a major commercial application for these models, which was coding,” Belton said.
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SpaceX near-term estimates need revisionSpaceX analysts may have the company’s story wrong, according to John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, since the space exploration company is “aggressively building out infrastructure” and has a path towards a very lucrative “neocloud” leasing program. Neocloud is a leasing program where providers like SpaceX rent out AI computing infrastructure to tech companies like Anthropic and Google. The revenue stream is so lucrative for SpaceX that the company made more money doing that than from space launches.SpaceX reported second-quarter neocloud revenue of $1.6 billion, all of which came from Anthropic. Deutsche Bank analysts expect that deal alone to ramp up to $3.75 billion in the third quarter.”What’s interesting to me about SpaceX is that they’re very clearly aggressively building out infrastructure and have a line of sight to a big business in leasing infrastructure—I guess you could call it a neocloud business,” Belton said. “Given that, I think estimates need to be revised significantly higher in the near term.”Belton says the current environment is great for neocloud companies because supply and demand are “way out of balance” as there isn’t enough infrastructure supply to satisfy all the demand, “which is benefiting incumbent computing infrastructure platforms,” like SpaceX is becoming. But the current environment won’t last forever, so Belton’s SpaceX comments are only relevant for now.”Eventually, that situation will normalize, and when it does, not every platform will have the same business model. There are very different services being provided, and some are much more commoditized. So, for SpaceX right now, there’s clear upward pressure on estimates,” Belton said. “But I think there will come a time when some of the sources of this acceleration, and the quality of those revenues, get called into question.”Related: SpaceX analyst plots path to bold $100 billion claim
The HBO Max ‘Lanterns’ Rotten Tomatoes Review Score Is In
Lanterns is arriving on HBO Max this weekend, and it has a Rotten Tomatoes review score in from critics ahead of that release.
Jim Cramer reveals 6 AI stocks to watch in 2026
For most of the summer, investors pulled money out of chipmakers and data center names and moved it into health care, banks, and retailers. The AI infrastructure trade led the market for two years. This summer, it underperformed.Jim Cramer says that phase is over. On CNBC’s “Mad Money,” the host declared that the AI data center trade has regained market leadership. He pointed to some events over a few days that changed the setup, naming six stocks driving the rebound. All six closed higher that session and are outperforming the S&P 500 so far in 2026.Here is what Cramer said, why it happened, and what investors should watch before chasing the move.Why Jim Cramer says the AI data center trade is backCramer’s argument rests on one idea: These stocks did not fall because the businesses were broken.The six stocks had posted smaller gains than financial, health care, and retail stocks for several weeks. Then, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, all six rose together in a single trading session. Cramer said the size of that one-day move made it one of the most important sessions he’d seen for the group.More AI Stocks:Bank of America tweaks CoreWeave stock forecast after earnings’Big Short’ Michael Burry takes aim at surging AI stockIntel’s $20 billion stock sale has surprising upsideThe sell-off had a specific cause. Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund, Situational Awareness, peaked near $45 billion in early July.It then took margin calls from its prime brokers and sold its leveraged stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel at a discount, CNBC reported.The stocks fell because a leveraged fund was forced to sell, not because the companies reported weak earnings. That’s an important distinction. A forced sale says nothing about whether a business is doing well. It only says the seller ran out of room to hold the position.
Jim Cramer told “Mad Money” viewers the AI data center trade has moved back to market leadership.VCG / Getty Images
The 6 stocks Cramer named and how far they fellCramer called the group “the fabled six fighting bulls.”The names are Nvidia (NVDA), CoreWeave (CRWV), Nebius (NBIS), Intel (INTC), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), and Lumentum (LITE).Each stock fell sharply from its 2026 high once the forced selling began. Here is how much each one dropped, according to Yahoo Finance.How the 6 fell from their highsCoreWeave: Down 56%Supermicro: Down 53%Nebius: Down 48%Lumentum: Down 43%Intel: Down 42%For context, the Nasdaq 100 fell just 11% over the same stretch. The six stocks were affected much more than the market, which is what a leverage-driven sell-off looks like.What changed in a single week to shift sentimentCramer said prices still sit below their peaks. But he sees four specific developments that support higher prices ahead.The catalysts behind the reboundIntel demand: Investors wanted more Intel stock than expected. The company raised its stock offering to $20 billion from $15 billion.Earnings beats: Supermicro and Lumentum both beat earnings expectations. Nebius followed with a strong quarter of its own. Supermicro missed on revenue, but beat on profit.GPU resale value: CoreWeave’s results showed that older Nvidia chips keep their value longer than expected. This matters because AI companies borrow money using their chips as collateral.Cooler inflation: The July Consumer Price Index, which measures how fast prices rise, came in lower than feared. That eased pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates high, which helps growth stocks like these.Each catalyst addresses a different worry investors had about AI stocks. Cramer said together, they show the AI buildout is speeding up, not slowing down.Why the CoreWeave earnings mattered more than the restOne result carried extra weight.CoreWeave reported second-quarter revenue of $2.58 billion. That’s up 112% from a year earlier, according to CNBC. The company also raised its full-year guidance, and the stock jumped nearly 20% the next day.Related: Intel’s stock buybacks: History & investor impact explainedBut the revenue number wasn’t the most important part. The real news was about the chips that CoreWeave uses. The quarter showed that older Nvidia GPUs hold their value much longer than skeptics expected. Cramer compared it to jewelry rather than a car. A car loses much of its value the moment you drive it off the lot. These chips don’t work that way.Here’s why that detail matters so much.Nvidia recently announced a $500 billion financing plan with six large asset managers. The idea is to let companies use their computing hardware as collateral for loans, the same way someone might use a house or a car to secure a loan.For that plan to work, the hardware needs to hold its value over time.CoreWeave’s results are early evidence that it does. If GPUs keep their value, the loans behind the AI buildout carry less risk.How the 6 stocks have performed in 2026Even after the summer decline, every name in the group is ahead of the market this year.The S&P 500 has gained about 13% in 2026. All six beat it.2026 gains for Cramer’s 6, according to Google FinanceNebius: Up about 210%Intel: Up about 174%Lumentum: Up about 153%CoreWeave: Up about 50%Supermicro: Up about 29%Nvidia: Up about 20%The gap between the gains is wide. Nebius has been the clear winner, while Nvidia, the largest and most owned name, has posted the smallest gain of the group.Where the bulls could be wrongCramer’s call is a starting point, not a final answer. The setup that excites him also worries other investors.Michael Burry is one of them. He recently added to a short bet against Nebius at $247a share. His argument centers on Nebius’s contract pricing. He believes it signals that AI computing power could lose value faster than the company expects.CoreWeave carries its own risk. The company is borrowing heavily to fund its buildout. Bank of America expects CoreWeave to burn through nearly $23.8 billion in cash in 2026 alone. The bank still kept a buy rating and a $140 price target, but the cash burn is a real cost investors are taking on.Timing adds a third risk. These six stocks jumped 20% to 34% in a single session before Cramer made his call. Buying after a move that large means paying a higher price.What to watch before following the tradeThe next few quarters will prove who is right.Signals that would confirm the reboundBacklog conversion: Whether CoreWeave and Nebius turn signed contracts into actual revenue on scheduleContract pricing: Whether new deals hold their higher margins or fade, which is the exact point Burry is testingPower delivery: Whether operators bring promised data center capacity online without long delaysRate path: Whether inflation stays low enough for the Federal Reserve to keep cuttingIf those four signals hold up, Cramer’s case gets stronger. If contract pricing drops or spending outpaces revenue, that supports the skeptics instead.For most investors, the safer approach is simple. Watch these six stocks for now instead of buying immediately.Before adding new money, decide how much a sudden 20% drop would cost you and whether you could handle that loss. Then wait for the next round of earnings reports to confirm the trend is real.Related: Intel’s CFO called his shot, but shareholders pay the price
The $11.2 billion in 2026 funding that killed crypto’s permissionless era
Dubai-based crypto lawyer Irina Heaver and her team parsed every crypto deal in the first half of 2026. BlackRock, Goldman, and Persian Gulf sovereigns all wrote checks to regulated firms.
Gold’s wild 2026 ride might not be over yet
Gold traders have had a hard time getting this year right. The metal has swung from record highs to steep drops and back again. Most of the people who trade it are still trying to figure out which move to trust.A shift in Federal Reserve expectations, paired with a fresh round of buying, is now pushing the rally question back to the front of the room. Whether it holds depends on a handful of signals that are worth walking through one by one.Gold’s 2026 swings set up a pivotal weekGold hit an all-time high of approximately $5,589 an ounce on January 28, then fell more than 18% from that record. Despite the pullback, the metal is still well above its 52-week low.Gold posted its best week since January, gaining more than 7% as weaker-than-expected jobs data and tamer inflation readings reduced expectations for September’s Federal Reserve rate hike. Gold stocks had already been trading at an elevated level. Both data points accelerated the rally, according to CNBC.Related: Bank of America’s latest gold outlook sends a different signal”Gold is the new gold,” Pippa Malmgren, a former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and member of the National Economic Council, told CNBC. What draws people into gold hasn’t changed much in her view: worry over U.S. fiscal spending running loose, and weak growth almost everywhere else, which she thinks points toward more inflation.Central bank buying keeps the floor under pricesCentral banks haven’t stopped adding to their gold reserves, and China is leading that charge. Something Malmgren reads as a sign that faith in fiat currency keeps eroding. “The PBOC added 19.9 tons in July, its largest month since late 2023 and its 21st straight month of accumulation,” said Patrick Kennedy, who founded the Hartford, Connecticut firm AllSource Investment Management, according to Caixin Global. China’s streak has stretched well beyond a year at this point.John Paulson, the billionaire hedge fund manager who has bet on gold for more than a decade, thinks the metal is still only in the early innings of a longer rally. He points to fading trust in paper currency and government spending that shows no sign of slowing, according to CNBC.Goldman Sachs is leaning on much the same logic. The bank expects central banks to keep purchasing roughly 60 tonnes of gold monthly through 2026 as reserve managers diversify from the dollar. That’s a real reversal from earlier this year, when higher rate expectations pushed billions of dollars out of gold ETFs before those outflows finally started to slow.
Gold traders have had a hard time getting this year right.Anadolu/Getty Images
Fed rate expectations are shifting quicklyOdds of a Fed rate hike have dropped fast. Traders are now pricing in about a 40% chance of a September hike, down from a higher level before the newest inflation numbers came out, based on the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, according to CNBC. Lower hike odds, paired with a weaker dollar, usually work in gold’s favor by reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding metal.Nick Cawley, an analyst who contributes work for the UK bullion dealer Solomon Global, said the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike were already sliding sharply before the inflation data were released. Kennedy cautioned against reading too much into that shift. The Fed held rates steady all year, he pointed out. And Wednesday’s CPI print came in roughly where economists expected, with both headline and core inflation running close to forecasts.New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is adding his own wrinkle to the picture. Eugenia Mykuliak of B2Prime Group described his early messaging as “cautious and often ambiguous,” saying the uncertainty has pushed some money out of stocks and, in turn, into gold. At the Fed’s July 29 meeting, policymakers held rates steady even though three officials wanted a hike instead, as CNBC reported. This isn’t the first time precious metals have swung sharply in response to market interpretation of Warsh’s policy stance.Miners and ETFs give investors more ways to play the tradeSome traders are hunting for value in gold mining stocks rather than the metal itself. Vince Stanzione, an independent trader who wrote “The Millionaire Dropout,” pointed to AngloGold Ashanti and S&P 500 member Newmont as examples trading at single-digit forward earnings multiples while still paying decent dividends.Retail investors typically reach for equity-focused funds like VanEck Gold Miners and VanEck Junior Gold Miners, or bullion-focused ETFs such as SPDR Gold Shares and iShares Gold Trust when they want more direct exposure to price moves. Bank of America has favored larger producers in the sector, noting bigger producers like Newmont among its preferred names rather than smaller miners when prices pull back.Miners also carry more leverage than the metal itself. When gold prices rise while mining costs stay flat, profit margins can grow faster than gold itself. Which is one reason why Kennedy treats miner funds as a satellite bet rather than something to build a portfolio around. Silver has ridden the same wave, just logging its best week since February.Related: Top European bank has a message for investors on gold price