✨ Micro devices, massive deal
Hey Snackers,
The Economist dropped its 2025 “Carrie Bradshaw index,” named after the “Sex and the City” main character who lived (and splurged) solo in New York. The index shows how much income you need for a median-priced studio apartment. The most affordable? Wichita, Kansas, while New York City was the least affordable. See the other 41 cities that joined the unaffordable club, up from 38 last year. (We also crunched some Bradshaw math, calculating how many Jimmy Choos and cab rides the average worker can afford after housing bills in each city.)
The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all climbed to fresh record closing highs, a feat last performed on September 18. This is the fourth consecutive record close for the S&P 500 and the second consecutive record close for the Russell 2000. The Nasdaq 100 crossed the 25,000 resistance level for the first time.
AMD soars after striking megadeal with OpenAI that “is expected to deliver tens of billions of dollars in revenue”
OpenAI’s cash burn makes the investing world go ’round, and on Monday made shares of Advanced Micro Devices go way up along with many other AI stocks.
The chip designer surged, finishing the day up 24.7% after being the latest to strike a pact with the Sam Altman-led venture to accelerate the AI build-out, which AMD CFO Jean Hu said “is expected to deliver tens of billions of dollars in revenue.”
The deal will see AMD sell multiple generations of its flagship GPUs to OpenAI, powering 6 gigawatts of its AI infrastructure. The first deployment is slated to start in the second half of 2026.
AMD’s AI GPU sales are expected to total $6.56 billion in fiscal 2025 and $10.26 billion in fiscal 2026 — and that latter figure is likely heading higher as analysts adjust estimates following this announcement.
This accord “quickly brings Lisa Su and AMD right into the core of the AI chip spending cycle and is a huge vote of confidence from OpenAI and Altman,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote. “Any lingering fears around AMD should now be thrown out the window as this gives them a major platform to monetize the AI Revolution.”
As part of this agreement, AMD has issued warrants to OpenAI that enable the ChatGPT developer to receive 160 million shares, or about 10% of the company, if certain operational and stock price targets are hit over time.
The Takeaway
The deal is just the latest in a recent series of aggressive steps from OpenAI to amass computing power for the AI boom, including substantial agreements with Broadcom and Oracle. To make good on these pacts will likely require equally aggressive moves for OpenAI to raise enough capital through private markets or, potentially, an IPO down the road.
OpenAI’s Sora tweaks its lax controls amid popular and messy launch
OpenAI is moving fast and breaking things. Its new invite-only generative-AI video app, Sora, spent the weekend at the top of the App Store charts, letting users generate videos of copyrighted characters in situations that would make a brand manager blush.
Sora was released into the world with few controls to prevent people from violating intellectual property rights, using a novel opt-out mechanism for media companies. Now OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced some changes that will give IP owners control over how their characters could appear in Sora videos (or not at all), as well as noting the elephant in the AI room: “We are going to have to somehow make money for video generation.”
Altman said, “People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences. We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rightsholders who want their characters generated by users.”
But currently the app is free and has no ads, so there is no revenue…
And it remains to be seen if people would stick around for endless AI slop of Sam Altman barbecuing Pikachu or cringe-rapping.
The Takeaway
It seems like a step in the right direction. The new controls allow users to manage the context in which their “cameos” appear in other users’ videos. An example of the new controls shared by an OpenAI staffer shows a preference panel that lets a user say that they must always appear wearing a hat that says “#1 Ketchup Fan” and never appear in videos with mustard or relish.
Can pharma companies put tariff threats behind them?
The latest deal with Pfizer applies only to brand-name drugs, which are typically manufactured in Europe. Generics, which account for more than 90% of prescriptions filled in the US, are predominantly made in China and India by other manufacturers. So are drug prices really going to fall?
Yesterday’s Big Daily Movers
Tesla jumped after posting videos teasing today’s date, making many hopeful a long-awaited new model announcement is coming
Sony shares climbed to their highest level in 25 years as “Abenomics” supporter Sanae Takaichi will likely become Japan’s prime minister
Klarna ticked higher as Wall Street rolled out bullish coverage on the “buy now, pay later” giant
What Else We’re Snackin’
The CDC signed off on a narrower Covid shot recommendation
In bad news for protein-hungry Americans, beef is more expensive than ever
Sharpie solved the puzzle of how to make its pens in the US and do it cheaper, quicker, and better
More details about OpenAI’s new device emerge...
...while murmurs grow louder about the AI boom being a bubble
Snack Fact of the Day
America’s top 1% now holds nearly a third of household wealth.
Tuesday
Earnings expected from McCormick