Hey Snackers,
Parents fighting to limit their kids’ screen time is a tale as old as… screens’ existence. The latest battleground? The Wall Street Journal reported last week that some American parents are installing low-tech landlines as a new tactic, but as we’ve charted, it’s a long-distance call to say landlines are staging a comeback.
Stocks surged as the market took a definitively risk-on stance Tuesday, driving each of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 higher as Iran appeared not to escalate after President Trump’s blockade and reports surfaced that the US and Iran could resume peace talks as early as this week.
Starlink is so strong that it’s propping up SpaceX’s business. Enter Amazon.
Ahead of SpaceX’s highly anticipated IPO in June, we’re learning just how dependent the rocket and AI company is on its satellite internet business. New reporting from The Information shows that in 2025, Starlink generated $11.4 billion in revenue and $7.2 billion in adjusted EBITDA — a striking 63% margin — making it SpaceX’s only meaningful source of profit.
By contrast, the company’s core rocket launch business and its recently acquired AI unit, xAI, lagged far behind financially. The space launch business generated $4.1 billion in revenue and about $700 million in adjusted EBITDA, while the AI segment brought in $3.2 billion in revenue but lost roughly $1.2 billion on an EBITDA basis.
In other words, Starlink accounted for most of SpaceX’s revenue — and more than all of its adjusted profit.
Which, naturally, is why we also learned Tuesday that Jeff Bezos wants a piece of that action.Â
Amazon, where Bezos is the executive chairman, said it would shell out $11.6 billion to buy Globalstar, a satellite company that would help Amazon compete with Starlink. The deal will help Amazon “deliver continuous connectivity for consumer, enterprise, and government customers around the world,” the company said.Â
That $11.6 billion chunk of change would make Globalstar Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition ever, after its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.Â
The Takeaway
Sure, satellite internet seems like an extremely lucrative business. But Amazon’s push feels like yet another way that gigantic tech companies, which used to have their own very specific and defined lanes where they could pile up gazillions of dollars in profits, are broadening out to try to fiercely compete in the same business areas as other tech giants. Alexa, how many ways can tech billionaires compete in space and still be way less cool than the Artemis II crew?
Tap into modern technology exposure
The companies that are participating in the technology-enabled economy aren’t limited to the tech sector or a single exchange. A traditional tech sector ETF may not include companies like the so-called “Magnificent 7”, and other companies with technology-related business activities due to sector classification frameworks
That’s why NYSX is designed to provide exposure beyond traditional sector classifications to give investors access to leading companies across today’s technology ecosystem.
The Global X NYSE® 100 ETF (NYSX) seeks to track the NYSE® 100 Index, a rules-based index of 100 companies shaping modern economy, including businesses with exposure to cloud computing, digital media, payments, e-commerce, and artificial intelligence.
Risk-on is back — at least for a day — with crypto, tech, and retail favorites flying
There’s still a war happening in the Middle East, and the price of oil is still sky-high, but risky assets didn’t seem to mind on Tuesday.Â
Bitcoin rose, and ethereum climbed to its highest point since the end of January, though both gave back ground as the day wore on.
Quantum computing stocks surged — on World Quantum Day, no less — as IonQ disclosed some fresh contract wins and hit new benchmark milestones. It was the best day in the markets since late February for IonQ, which finished up 20%.Â
Six of the Magnificent 7 stocks rose, and most of them were up big. Apple was in the red, but only slightly.Â
The Takeaway
It doesn’t feel like we get many days where markets aren’t constantly focused on the drawbacks of war, but Tuesday was one of those days. A somewhat unbelievable fact: the S&P 500 actually closed Tuesday slightly higher than its closing level the day before the war started.
Stanford: AI models’ capabilities are accelerating, China has closed the gap with the US
The university’s annual AI Index Report says “leading models are now nearly indistinguishable” from each other, and the benchmarks used to evaluate them are falling behind their accelerating capabilities.
Snacks Shots
♟️ Chess: The FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament has crowned its winner in the form of Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov, who takes home the real prize: a head-to-head match against reigning champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Based on Sindarov’s absolutely dominant performance over the course of this tournament, the challenger has become the favorite for that particular head-to-head, with markets* pricing in a 70% chance that Sindarov takes the title from Dommaraju in a match whose date and location are yet to be decided.
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
What else we're Snackin'
Microsoft is reportedly looking to remake Copilot in the image of OpenClaw
The Justice Department accused telehealth company Zealthy of fraud, saying it lacks the liquidity to pay what it owes customers
Vertiv’s dominance in data center cooling earned it an “outperform” rating
United’s CEO has reportedly floated the idea of merging with American Airlines to government officials
Snack Fact of the Day
The all-in cost of oil has hit as much as $286 per barrel, according to the CEO of HSBC.Â
Wednesday
Earnings expected from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and JB Hunt