Markets
markets

Investors pour into Joby and Archer after White House announces air taxi pilot program participation

On Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the creation of a new FAA pilot program aimed at speeding up the development of “advanced air mobility” vehicles, including electric air taxis made by Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation.

Joby shares climbed more than 5% in premarket trading on Monday, after closing up 2% on Friday. Archer shares rose 7% in the premarket, following a 3% jump. Both companies announced their plans to participate in the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), which the FAA says will include at least five projects and run for three years.

Both companies have been burning cash as they work toward FAA certification to kick off their commercial air taxi businesses in the US. Joby last month said it’s 70% complete with the fourth stage of its five-stage certification process.

The eIPP was first hinted at in President Trump’s June executive order, aimed at speeding up adoption of the electric vertical takeoff aircraft.

More Markets

See all Markets
Complex Simplicity

OpenAI doesn’t have the cash to pay Oracle $300 billion — raising it will test the very limits of private markets

The ChatGPT-maker plans to burn though $115 billion by 2029. No company in history has ever lit that much money on fire, let alone tried funding such a splurge through private markets alone.

markets

Seagate, Western Digital romp as hard drive makers dominate S&P 500 leaderboard

Hard drive makers Seagate Technology Holdings and Western Digital surged Monday, putting them comfortably in the top two spots of this year’s top performers in the S&P 500.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET, they were looking at gains of roughly 145% and 130%, respectively, for the year.

Not much news on the day, though Bank of America analysts have boosted the price target for Seagate to $215 from $170 while upwardly revising their outlook for hard disk drive demand this year, per The Fly.

Positive background music on the US and China’s trade relationship, important to IT hardware makers, is also likely helping, along with a general upswing in the AI data center trade.

Not much news on the day, though Bank of America analysts have boosted the price target for Seagate to $215 from $170 while upwardly revising their outlook for hard disk drive demand this year, per The Fly.

Positive background music on the US and China’s trade relationship, important to IT hardware makers, is also likely helping, along with a general upswing in the AI data center trade.

markets

Nio climbs ahead of new SUV launch as Chinese EV giants recommit to paying suppliers faster

Shares of Chinese EV maker Nio climbed in Monday morning trading as investors cheered news that its ES8 SUV — priced to compete with Tesla’s Model Y — will begin deliveries this weekend.

Nio may also be seeing a boost from the recommitment by several Chinese EV giants on Monday to pay their suppliers within 60 days. That effort could help tame some of the brutal price wars between automakers in the country, which the Chinese government has struggled to contain.

The move is seen as a boost to the stability of the Chinese auto industry, and Nio rivals Li Auto and BYD also climbed.

At the end of 2023, Nio took nearly 300 days to pay its suppliers, according to Bloomberg reporting. In June, Nio and 16 other Chinese automakers agreed to the 60-day payment window, though a government report in August found that only three had set up payment systems.

markets

CoreWeave soars on $6.3 billion cloud computing purchasing agreement with Nvidia

Shares of CoreWeave are flying higher in early trading after the company struck an agreement with Nvidia that will see the chip designer purchase all of CoreWeave’s unused cloud computing capacity through April 13, 2032.

The new order has an initial value of $6.3 billion, per a filing from CoreWeave that outlines this modification to its April 2023 services deal with Nvidia.

Securing access to cloud computing capacity has been the hot topic in the AI space, which was underscored by last week’s deal between Microsoft and Nebius as well as Oracle’s mammoth pipeline of sales, thanks in large part to OpenAI.

As such, it strikes me as a bit odd that this particular agreement for CoreWeave — securing full utilization of its cloud computing capacity, which everyone seems to want and where demand appears to outstrip supply — is such a big deal, but hey.

Nvidia has secured a high degree of vertical integration throughout the AI ecosystem through its equity positions and partnerships with cloud computing and data center companies.

Latest Stories

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, or Robinhood Money, LLC.