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In this photo illustration, an AppLovin logo is displayed on...
AppLovin logo displayed on the screen of an iPad (Sheldon Cooper/Getty Images)
Not Lovin’ It

Short sellers’ reports sink AppLovin

The stock has erased its 2025 gains.

Luke Kawa

AppLovin is sinking in early trading on Wednesday after short-selling firms Fuzzy Panda Research and Culper Research announced short positions in the stock, alleging that its AI ad-tech breakthroughs are a farce.

The short-selling firms teamed up to investigate the company and published separate reports on their findings.

Culper summarizes its short thesis in two bullets:

  • The company’s mobile gaming results are being juiced by “the systematic exploitation of app permissions that enable advertisements themselves to force-feed silent, backdoor app installations onto users’ phones... each illicit install translates directly to profit.”

  • The company is gaming Meta’s advertising platform in a way that allows it to “take credit for the sale” and claim better results on its ad campaigns.

Fuzzy Panda’s report also alleges that AppLovin is “stealing data from Meta in their e-commerce push” and that “Apple, Google, and Meta all have a vested interest in putting a stop to it.”

AppLovin is one of the many companies felled by the rout in momentum stocks. Shares had rocketed higher after reporting earnings earlier this month, but with today’s losses they’ve given back all of that advance as well as all their 2025 gains.

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SpaceX reportedly plans to IPO in mid-June, chooses to list on Nasdaq

Elon Musk’s aerospace and satellite manufacturer, SpaceX, could price its initial public offering as soon as June 11 and make its public market debut on June 12, Reuters reported Friday. SpaceX is preparing for a monster IPO, reportedly aiming to raise $75 billion at a record $1.75 trillion valuation.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Musk’s company had chosen to list on the Nasdaq.

SpaceX is moving through its IPO timeline and is said to be ready to hit the road to secure commitments from investors around June 4, according to Reuters.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Go Deeper: What happens to Tesla stock when SpaceX goes public?

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Figma spikes after raising full-year sales outlook as the software company leverages AI for growth

Figma jumped postmarket Thursday after posting impressive sales in Q1, surpassing Wall Street expectations and raising its full-year guidance. The key numbers:

  • Q1 revenue of $333.4 million (compared to analyst estimates of $316 million).

  • Q2 sales guidance of $348 million to $350 million (estimate: $329.7 million).

  • Full-year revenue between $1.422 billion and $1.428 billion (up from previous guidance of $1.37 billion).

The digital design software firm is the latest company to diminish investor fears about AI-induced disruption by making the technology work for them. Like Atlassian or Datadog, Figma said it was able to use AI to its advantage, bringing more customers on board and getting them to spend more.

In the press release, Praveer Melwani, Figma CFO, said:

As AI gets better, Figma is accelerating and customer usage and workflows on our platform are deepening. Our platform and AI products drove faster growth for both new customer acquisition and expansion within existing accounts.

Revenue grew 46% year over year in Q1 2026, an acceleration from growth of 40% in Q4 2025.

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Luke Kawa

Infleqtion reports Q1 adjusted loss, offers modest boost to full-year sales guidance

Infleqtion is falling in postmarket trading after reporting a Q1 adjusted loss from operations of $13.2 million and sales of $9.5 million.

Management modestly upgraded its sales guidance to “at least” $40 million for 2026, adding that language to enhance the target provided in early April. Revenues of $40 million would mark an increase of roughly 23% compared to the $32.5 million generated in 2025, and an acceleration from growth of 12% last year.

The company utilizes neutral-atom technology to make quantum sensors used in clocks and antennas in addition to computers.

“Q1 reinforced our confidence that quantum is gaining momentum as the market shifts toward deployable systems, real applications, and measurable customer value,” said CEO Matt Kinsella. “Across computing, sensing, and software, we are seeing expanding customer activity especially in national security, space, and hybrid quantum-AI applications.”

Shares are roughly flat since February 13, which is just before the company went public via a SPAC, after being down 35% near the end of March, and then up nearly 30% in mid-April.

The quantum computing space benefited from the return of speculative appetite in April after the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire. The cohort was later bolstered after Nvidia unveiled a suite of open models designed to leverage AI to improve calibration and error correction for quantum computers.

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Luke Kawa

Applied Materials rallies after better-than-expected Q2 results, strong sales guidance

Shares of Applied Materials are gaining in postmarket trading after the company reported robust Q2 results and a sales outlook that indicate building momentum.

  • Net sales: $7.9 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $7.7 billion and guidance for $7.65 billion, plus or minus $500 million).

  • Adjusted earnings per share: $2.86 (estimate: $2.68, guidance: $2.68, plus or minus $0.20).

For Q3, the company anticipates net sales of $8.95 billion (plus or minus $500 million; estimate: $8.15 billion) with adjusted EPS of $3.36 (plus or minus $0.20; estimate: $2.88).

“The growth in AI that Applied has been investing for is now in full force,” CFO Brice Hill said in the press release.

Management has consistently indicated that it expects demand to pick up in the second half of this year, but its first-half results have already blown away expectations by a wide margin. All this appetite for semiconductors to support AI compute is fantastic news for companies like Applied Materials that make the equipment to produce these specialized chips.

Shares of Applied Materials closed near a record high ahead of this report, up more than 70% year to date.

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