RIP: Jim Simons, pioneering quant investor

In the late 1970s, Simons abandoned a promising career as an academic mathematician to trade currencies, and built Renaissance Technologies into one of the most profitable investment shops of all time. Renaissance’s flagship Medallion fund — open only to Renaissance employees — averaged annual returns, after fees, of nearly 40% from 1988 to 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Gregory Zuckerman, who wrote a book about Simons entitled “The Man Who Solved the Market.”

In 1994, he and his wife founded the Simons Foundation, which is one of the largest charitable organizations in the US, and funds research in mathematics and science.

Simons Foundation Co-Founder, Mathematician and Investor Jim Simons Dies at 86

In 1994, he and his wife founded the Simons Foundation, which is one of the largest charitable organizations in the US, and funds research in mathematics and science.

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Tasha Matsumoto

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Stocks continue winning streak on ceasefire optimism

Reports of an agreement between Israel and Lebanon to begin negotiations raised optimism for a sustained ceasefire.

Software stocks fall as ebbing geopolitical risks prompt renewed focus on long-term disruption

In fact, it’s never been more likely that if semis are outperforming the S&P 500, software is lagging.

Luke Kawa5h

Matt Phillips6h

Sandisk jumps as Bernstein raises price target to a Wall Street high of $1,250

Sandisk spiked Thursday as Bernstein boosted its earnings estimates for the company, with analysts raising their price target to $1,250 from $1,000, the most optimistic view of the 23 analysts polled by Bloomberg.

The gains come amid a fairly subdued day for broad indexes and other AI memory plays like Micron, Seagate Technology Holdings, and Western Digital.

Bernstein’s more bullish view comes after a surge in prices of NAND flash memory based on AI demand. (NAND flash is used for long-term data storage and is also a key input to consumer products like phones and other devices.)

“Memory prices continue to surprise to the upside with NAND showing the strongest increases and continued acceleration,” Bernstein wrote.

The analysts — led by Mark C. Newman — raised their base case for next fiscal year’s adjusted earnings per share by 58% to $144, from $91. (That new forecast now blows away the Wall Street consensus estimate of $94.07, per FactSet.) The new price target implies a gain of roughly 50% from where the stock is currently.

Bernstein analysts even threw out a “blue-sky scenario” price target of $3,000 for Sandisk, should an even more bullish scene play out for both earnings and market valuations.

Up nearly 250% this year, Sandisk has been the best-performing stock in the S&P 500. It reports earnings on April 30 after the close.

Luke Kawa6h

Infleqtion soars after announcing it’s providing upgraded quantum hardware to the International Space Station

Quantum technology firm Infleqtion is booming in early trading after announcing that it would be providing upgraded quantum hardware to the International Space Station as part of a cargo mission slated to launch as early as Friday.

The equipment “is designed to support the stable and simultaneous production of dual-species quantum degenerate gases using rubidium and potassium atoms, one of the long-standing scientific objectives of the mission,” per the press release, and will expand the Cold Atom Laboratory’s ability “to investigate ultracold matter and demonstrate advanced quantum sensing in space, under real operating conditions.”

After the close on Wednesday, the company said it was targeting sales of $40 million this year, which if achieved would have revenue growth accelerating to 23% from 12% in 2025.

“Space remains a particularly important market for us in a major area of growth,” CEO Matt Kinsella said during a conference call on Wednesday, highlighting that the company has partnered with NASA for over a decade.

Read more: Infleqtion CEO Matt Kinsella on how the newly public quantum computing company is “following in the footsteps of Nvidia”

Matt Phillips7h

Intel announces custom chip collaboration with Google Cloud for AI

Intel shares rose early Thursday after it announced a new multiyear collaboration with Alphabet’s Google Cloud division on AI infrastructure.

The deal includes co-development of custom chips for Google’s needs, a program that Intel says is “reinforcing the critical role of CPUs and custom infrastructure processing units (IPUs) in scaling modern, heterogeneous AI systems.”

Shares popped into positive territory on the premarket announcement.

Intel, Google Deepen Collaboration to Advance AI Infrastructure

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