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Tesla bull on Trump-Musk brawl: “Jaw dropping and a shock to the market”

It’s another “Twilight Zone” moment.

Matt Phillips

Tesla super-bull and Wedbush Securities equity analyst Dan Ives is, as always, quick draw McGraw with his reaction to this afternoon’s bizarre, highly public political breakup between the world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and the world’s most powerful man, US President Donald Trump.

He writes:

“The quickly deteriorating friendship and now ‘major beef’ between Musk and Trump is jaw dropping and a shock to the market and putting major fear for Tesla investors on what is ahead. This situation between Musk and Trump could start to settle down and the friendship continues but this must start to be calmed down on the Musk and Trump fronts and it's not good for either side.

This feud does not change our bullish view of Tesla and the autonomous view but clearly does put a fly in the ointment of the Trump regulatory framework going forward. It’s another Twilight Zone moment in this Musk/Trump relationship which now is quickly moving downhill.”

Ives expounds on the idea that the “Trump regulatory framework” could be in jeopardy as a result of today’s events, saying investors are now concerned that it could “change the regulatory environment for Tesla on the autonomous front over the coming years under the Trump Administration.” (Translation: investors expected the administration to ease regulation of self-driving cars to Tesla’s benefit.)

This is the closest I’ve seen to someone on Wall Street laying out the rationale of many investors in so-called Trump trades — stocks like Tesla that soared after Trump won the 2024 election. One category of Trump trades, which includes Taser maker Axon Enterprise and deportation contractor and private prison operator GEO Group, were simply expected to generate more government business due to Trump administration policies.

But another set of companies were, in some cases, bets that personal, political, and/or financial connections with the administration could produce favorable outcomes in terms of government policy.

As I’ve said before, that’s a pretty decent definition of corruption. But just for the record, now that Musk has joined the resistance, it should go without saying that government efforts to punish him or his companies for public criticism of the president would also meet that description.

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Luke Kawa

Applied Digital, WeRide, and Recursion Pharmaceuticals dip as Nvidia exits positions

Three stocks took a dip in after hours trading on Tuesday after Nvidia’s 13F filing showed the chip designer sold its stake over the final three months of 2025:

  • Applied Digital, a data center operator in which Nvidia was the seventh-largest holder as of the end of Q3.

    • That being said, Nvidia still has some quasi-direct Applied Digital exposure through its still-substantial CoreWeave position. The neocloud acquired warrants in APLD last June.

  • WeRide, the Chinese self-driving firm.

  • Recursion Pharmaceuticals, which engages in AI-driven drug development.

Nvidia also sold its holdings of Arm Holdings, but that was offset by some good news: part of Nvidia’s expanded pact with Meta will see Arm-based CPUs assume a more prominent role in data center environments, which may help boost its volumes and selling prices.

Nvidia added positions in Nokia, Intel, and Synopsys in Q4, all of which had been previously announced via press releases. Its Coreweave and Nebius positions were unchanged relative to Q3.

Luke Kawa
3h
Nvidia enhances partnership with social media giant Meta to deploy “millions” of its GPUs

Winners: Nvidia, ARM. Losers: AMD, Broadcom, Intel, Arista.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang interviews Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the 2024 SIGGRAPH conference in Denver, CO on July 29, 2024.
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Luke Kawa

Sandisk drops after Western Digital confirms plan to unload $3 billion in stock

Western Digital is cashing in more of its Sandisk position.

The hard drive seller is exchanging more than $3 billion in Sandisk shares as part of a debt-for-equity swap.

The two companies were once one, but Western Digital spun off a little more than 80% of its flash drive business in February 2025, and already exchanged the lion’s share of what remained in a separate debt-for-equity swap in June.

This move was very, very well telegraphed by Western Digital, which recently confirmed plans to monetize its Sandisk position before the one-year anniversary of that split (February 21). And Sandisk’s press release makes clear that the company is not the one selling more stock or making any money off of this.

That being said, being a high-flying stock that has a Bloomberg headline with “secondary offering” in it could, in theory, spark some turbulence.

Shares of Sandisk have indeed extended the day’s losses to more than 8% in the after-hours session before paring some of that decline.

Western Digital announces additional $4 billion in share buybacks, with management poised to unload its remaining stake in Sandisk

The two companies were once one, but Western Digital spun off a little more than 80% of its flash drive business in February 2025, and already exchanged the lion’s share of what remained in a separate debt-for-equity swap in June.

This move was very, very well telegraphed by Western Digital, which recently confirmed plans to monetize its Sandisk position before the one-year anniversary of that split (February 21). And Sandisk’s press release makes clear that the company is not the one selling more stock or making any money off of this.

That being said, being a high-flying stock that has a Bloomberg headline with “secondary offering” in it could, in theory, spark some turbulence.

Shares of Sandisk have indeed extended the day’s losses to more than 8% in the after-hours session before paring some of that decline.

markets
Luke Kawa

Cadence Design Systems jumps after Q4 earnings, 2026 profit outlook, and sales backlog exceed estimates

Cadence Design Systems jumped in after-hours trading on Tuesday, briefly erasing the day’s big losses, after posting better-than-expected Q4 earnings, a big pipeline of future business, and a solid profit outlook for 2026.

For Q4, the electronic design automation company reported:

  • Sales of $1.44 billion (estimate: $1.42 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $1.99 (estimate: $1.91).

  • Remaining performance obligations (RPO) of $7.8 billion (estimate: $7.25 billion).

Management said that 2026 adjusted earnings per share would range between $8.05 and $8.15, above the consensus call for $8.03.

In recent weeks, investors have worried that Cadence’s software business, which is used by chip designers, could suffer competitive pressure from AI tools. At the very least, that RPO figure says there’s billions of dollars standing between Cadence and any more disrupted future.

Luke Kawa
Final Boss
7h
Infleqtion CEO Matt Kinsella on how the newly public quantum computing company is “following in the footsteps of Nvidia”

Infleqtion shares gained double digits in their opening session, while peers sold off.

US-AI-SCIENCE-NVIDIA

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