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Jensen Huang CEO of Nvidia Houston Astros v Oakland Athletics
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stands on the mound (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

CoreWeave reveals stake in Applied Digital, adding another brick to Nvidia’s “House of GPUs”

Applied Digital is up big on the news; CoreWeave, the opposite.

Luke Kawa

Applied Digital is surging after CoreWeave, the hottest IPO since sliced bread, revealed a 5.5% stake in the data center upstart, which would make it the fifth-largest owner according to publicly available filings.

Who else owns Applied Digital? Nvidia, now the seventh-largest holder with a 3.4% stake as of the end of Q1. And Nvidia, of course, also owns a big chunk of CoreWeave (nearly 7%), which has so far been an immensely profitable position to hold.

The connections between these companies can loosely be depicted as such:

House of GPUs

One might think of an ouroboros of sorts (the snake eating itself), or one reader suggested this handy alternative:

Financial Wasserfall FTW

[image or embed]

— clueneeder.bsky.social (@clueneeder.bsky.social) June 4, 2025 at 6:47 PM

What’s the purpose behind all this? Well, something that immediately springs to mind is that by accelerating the deployment of CoreWeave and Applied Digital’s capabilities by providing access to equipment and capital, Nvidia is doing its best to ensure that all the possible near-term demand for AI that can be met is met through Nvidia, one way or another.

CoreWeave provides effectively “surge access” to Nvidia’s GPUs, and signed a deal with Applied Digital earlier this week to lease data center IT load, which analysts noted could help the firm realize its ginormous $25.9 billion order backlog more expeditiously.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has emphasized his desire for the company to be “the platform that wins” in AI, most recently with respect to access to China, but that’s a sentiment that holds true for the private sector at large, as well.

“In the end, the platform that wins the AI developers wins AI,” he said on the company’s most recent earnings call.

CoreWeave is down a ton today. I would be extremely reluctant to attribute CoreWeave’s decline to literally anything; the stock has been going parabolic, sometimes on no news, sometimes on news seemingly from a day ago. High-vol assets can cut both ways! As of yesterday’s close, the recently IPO’d company was up more than 350% from its April 21 closing low.

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Palantir pops as its Maven AI targeting system made “official program” for DOD

Palantir jumped Monday following reports that the US military is making official its long-term commitment to buying and using Palantir’s AI-powered data analysis and targeting program.

Reuters’ David Jeans reported over the weekend:

“Palantir’s Maven artificial intelligence system will become an official program of record, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve ​Feinberg said in a letter to Pentagon leaders, a move that locks in long-term use of Palantir’s weapons-targeting technology across ‌the U.S. military.

In the March 9 letter to senior Pentagon leaders and U.S. military commanders, Feinberg said embedding Palantir’s Maven Smart System would provide warfighters ‘with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains.’”

Key benefits of being named an “official program of record” include eligibility for permanent funding from the Department of Defense. The designation also implies a long-term commitment to a technology, which significantly decreases competitive threats from alternate military contractors and vendors.

In other words, being a “program of record” implies significant long-term cash flow in the future from the US Treasury to Palantir, and thus the market reaction.

“Palantir’s Maven artificial intelligence system will become an official program of record, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve ​Feinberg said in a letter to Pentagon leaders, a move that locks in long-term use of Palantir’s weapons-targeting technology across ‌the U.S. military.

In the March 9 letter to senior Pentagon leaders and U.S. military commanders, Feinberg said embedding Palantir’s Maven Smart System would provide warfighters ‘with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains.’”

Key benefits of being named an “official program of record” include eligibility for permanent funding from the Department of Defense. The designation also implies a long-term commitment to a technology, which significantly decreases competitive threats from alternate military contractors and vendors.

In other words, being a “program of record” implies significant long-term cash flow in the future from the US Treasury to Palantir, and thus the market reaction.

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Lawmakers to introduce bill banning sports contracts on prediction markets: WSJ

Sports-betting stocks rose after The Wall Street Journal reported that a bipartisan pair of lawmakers are seeking to ban Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated companies from offering sports-related contracts on prediction markets.

Reportedly sponsored by Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and John Curtis, R-Utah, the bill would prevent companies like Kalshi or Polymarket’s US arm from posting event contracts related to the outcome of sporting events, a market that accounts for a sizable chunk of their volumes.

Prediction markets have emerged as competitors to sports-betting platforms, which are primarily regulated at the state level, and companies like DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment have risen on the news in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, Robinhood Markets and Interactive Brokers, which both offer prediction markets covering sports and other contracts, ticked down on the news before President Trump’s latest Iran announcement sent much of the stock market jolting higher, with futures on the S&P 500 rising more than 3% in a matter of minutes.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions. I own Robinhood stock as part of my compensation. Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Prediction markets have emerged as competitors to sports-betting platforms, which are primarily regulated at the state level, and companies like DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment have risen on the news in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, Robinhood Markets and Interactive Brokers, which both offer prediction markets covering sports and other contracts, ticked down on the news before President Trump’s latest Iran announcement sent much of the stock market jolting higher, with futures on the S&P 500 rising more than 3% in a matter of minutes.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions. I own Robinhood stock as part of my compensation. Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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Synopsys rises on WSJ report of Elliott’s new multibillion-dollar stake

Software company Synopsys is up 3% in premarket trading on Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported that Elliott Investment Management, a well-known activist fund, has taken a multibillion-dollar stake in the company.

Elliott Managing Partner Jesse Cohn told the WSJ that “Synopsys is essential to the global chip industry,” and that it is “uniquely positioned to benefit” as the AI industry continues to require more capital, more complex chips, and therefore, more software to design them.

The firm’s investment is predicated on a “clear opportunity for Synopsys’ financial performance to more fully reflect the value it delivers.” While memory stocks like Micron have been on a tear recently, Synopsys has dropped 8% over the past year, lagging behind its biggest rival, Cadence Design Systems, which is up 6% in the same period.

Citing people familiar with the investment in Synopsys, the Journal reports that Elliott sees room for the company to boost sales and improve its margins to be more in line with that of Cadence. In its fiscal year 2025, Cadence notched an adjusted operating margin of nearly 45%, while Synopsys eked out only 37%.

Elliott Managing Partner Jesse Cohn told the WSJ that “Synopsys is essential to the global chip industry,” and that it is “uniquely positioned to benefit” as the AI industry continues to require more capital, more complex chips, and therefore, more software to design them.

The firm’s investment is predicated on a “clear opportunity for Synopsys’ financial performance to more fully reflect the value it delivers.” While memory stocks like Micron have been on a tear recently, Synopsys has dropped 8% over the past year, lagging behind its biggest rival, Cadence Design Systems, which is up 6% in the same period.

Citing people familiar with the investment in Synopsys, the Journal reports that Elliott sees room for the company to boost sales and improve its margins to be more in line with that of Cadence. In its fiscal year 2025, Cadence notched an adjusted operating margin of nearly 45%, while Synopsys eked out only 37%.

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC. Futures and event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC.