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Freight stocks fall as Amazon announces less-than-truckload offering for outside businesses

Amazon is escalating its attack on legacy logistics companies by opening less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping to outside businesses as part of its Supply Chain Services business announced last month.

Previously, businesses could largely only use Amazon’s LTL fleet to send bulk goods inbound to Amazon’s own facilities. Now, companies can use Amazon to ship partial truckloads anywhere in the US, including to rival third-party warehouses or direct to their own retail partners.

That means legacy carriers must now compete against Amazon’s 80,000 trailers, 24,000 containers, and its highly automated network.

“The feedback from Amazon selling partners using our LTL service was clear: the technology, visibility, and reliability were exactly what they needed—and they wanted to use it more broadly,” Jim Ruiz, director of Amazon Freight, said in the press release.

Industry heavyweights like Old Dominion Freight, XPO, and Saia all fell on the news. FedEx, which recently spun off FedEx Freight, is also down.

That means legacy carriers must now compete against Amazon’s 80,000 trailers, 24,000 containers, and its highly automated network.

“The feedback from Amazon selling partners using our LTL service was clear: the technology, visibility, and reliability were exactly what they needed—and they wanted to use it more broadly,” Jim Ruiz, director of Amazon Freight, said in the press release.

Industry heavyweights like Old Dominion Freight, XPO, and Saia all fell on the news. FedEx, which recently spun off FedEx Freight, is also down.

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69

I didn’t make this up: Tesla currently has authorization for 69 unsupervised Robotaxis in Texas, according to the state’s database. That’s up from 42 — perhaps a reference to 420 — last month. While that represents growth, it’s far from the scale that CEO Elon Musk had promised.

And having permission to be on the road doesn’t mean the vehicles are actually in service.

The number of unsupervised Robotaxis has actually declined recently, despite the company’s highly publicized expansion, according to data from Robotaxi Tracker. The site has tracked 32 active unsupervised Tesla Robotaxis in the last month and just 23 in the last week.

Tesla and Musk, who once threatened to take the company private at $420, have long been fans of sophomoric numerology. You can’t actually tip in the Robotaxi app, but as a joke the company suggests tips of 69 cents or $4.20 — and if you tap them, it brings up a “just kidding” graphic.

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Report: Google is backstopping Anthropic’s $35 billion data center deal

Google and Anthropic have always had close ties. The search giant invested early in the maker of Claude, which boosted Google’s investment returns last quarter.

But the two companies appear to be closer than we knew. According to a new report from Bloomberg, it turns out that Google is backstopping $35 billion worth of data center leases for Anthropic.

Last fall, Anthropic announced that was getting into the data center business, pledging $50 billion in a partnership with Fluidstack.

The revelation adds to concerns of so-called “circular deals,” which could lead to a domino-like collapse if one company fails.

Last fall, Anthropic announced that was getting into the data center business, pledging $50 billion in a partnership with Fluidstack.

The revelation adds to concerns of so-called “circular deals,” which could lead to a domino-like collapse if one company fails.

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Amazon shatters record in Canada’s “maple bond” market

Amazon has set a record in the Canadian corporate bond market by issuing CA$14 billion ($10.04 billion) of Canadian dollar-denominated notes, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The five-part deal officially eclipses the previous record of CA$8.5 billion established just last month by Alphabet.

This massive push comes as hyperscalers aggressively diversify funding to bankroll historic AI capital expenditure, a strategy mirrored by Alphabet’s parallel expansion into European debt markets to fuel its soaring infrastructure demands.

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