It can be pretty jarring, and it certainly makes for an uncomfortable internal vibe, when stocks soar after a company announces a swathe of job cuts. Fewer employees mean lower costs, and likely stronger earnings for shareholders.

But in the age of AI, the market's reaction to a round of layoffs has become less predictable. If investors already rate your company an AI-winner, or even if it's seen to have the potential to benefit from AI, the market tends to reward AI-linked job cuts in a "wow, you're so efficient and innovative" kind of way (See: Block, Coinbase, and Snap). But, if there's even a whiff of AI threatening your business, AI-related job cuts are seemingly interpreted as an admission of weakness — which is exactly the case for GitLab this morning.

Shares in the company are down nearly 9% in premarket trading Tuesday after the software development platform announced a restructuring plan amid what CEO Bill Staples called the “agentic era.”

In a memo to employees and investors, Staples said the company is planning a “workforce reduction” as part of a restructuring it expects to finalize on or before June 1. The plan includes reducing its country footprint by up to 30%, removing up to three layers of management in some functions, reorganizing R&D into roughly 60 smaller teams, and using AI agents to automate internal reviews, approvals, and handoffs. The company did not specify how many jobs would be affected.

Staples said the process will happen “openly,” including a voluntary separation window.

GitLab sells a software-development platform that helps companies manage code from planning and review to testing, security, and release — a workflow AI agents are beginning to automate.

The company reaffirmed its Q1 and full-year fiscal 2027 guidance, adding that the final scope and financial impact of the restructuring will be shared on its June 2 earnings call, after approval by the board.

Shares of GameStop briefly mooned after hours before erasing the entire advance after posts from @TheRoaringKitty appeared, then disappeared from the social media platform X.

@TheRoaringKitty is the account associated with Keith Gill, the messiah of GameStop’s meme-stock moment in 2021 who returned in 2024 to kick off another parabolic rally in the shares.

The tweets came and went before I could lay eyes on them, but Bloomberg tells me there was “one depicting a cat, and another with a picture of the online character Pepe the Frog wearing Roaring Kitty’s trademark red bandanna” around 5:40 p.m. ET. A screenshot posted of one tweet showed that it included a string of text (ending in “pump”) that appears to be the wallet address for a meme coin called “Red Kitten Crew.”

The market cap of the coin briefly jumped to about $12 million around the time of that tweet before cratering to about $2.6 million thereafter.

The emergent consensus on the r/Superstonk subreddit, which is dedicated to discussions of GameStop, is that the account was hacked. The more tinfoil-hatted members, meanwhile, are suggesting that not only is this a hack, but a hack intended to somehow thwart GameStop’s attempt to purchase eBay.

And on that note, GameStop also released a filing after the close of its letter to shareholders regarding their upcoming annual meeting, asking them to approve CEO Ryan Cohen’s proposed pay package as well as an increase in the authorized share count, which is one of the hurdles that would be need to be cleared in order to complete the deal with eBay.

Anyways, all these hacked account scams on X are really interfering with my ability to get people to vote for me to be a major podcast host.

Shares of Power Solutions International are extending losses in postmarket trading after the engine- and power-system provider released its Q1 results.

Revenues of $128.6 million came in shy of the consensus call for $161 million, and operating income of $11.4 million was less than half of the anticipated $23.7 million.

(Granted, there were only two estimates available here.)

But the curious thing is... traders didn’t wait until these underwhelming results were released to dump the stock.

Up until about 12:10 p.m. ET, volumes were tracking above their 5-day average, but nothing too abnormal. In the 20-minute span after that — with no reported news on any wires — shares tumbled on 40 times their average volume for that time of day.

The stock finished down 17.7% in regular trading, and extended that loss to down 50% as of 5:05 p.m. ET.

Suffice it to say, this isn’t normal.

Companies operating in a similar segment of the market, like Cummins or Generac Holdings, didn’t suffer a similar intraday swoon.

While other power providers are visibly cashing in on the AI boom and offering robust outlooks tied to data center demand, Power Solutions’ management was reluctant to pencil in anything forward-looking on that front.

“The Company continues to see strong demand for data center power solutions, and expects sales to increase in the second half of 2026,” per the press release. “However, the timing and ultimate volume of related shipments remain subject to customer scheduling, manufacturing throughput, supply-chain factors, and other variables, and the Company is not predicting any specific level of data center revenue in any future period.”

After soaring during Monday's session, AST SpaceMobile shares are coming back to earth.

The retail-trading favorite is down double digits in postmarket trading Monday after the company fell short of Wall Street’s expectations with its Q1 earnings report. 

Here are the details:

• Revenue of $14.7 million (compared to analyst estimates of $39 million). 

• Net income of -$191 million (estimate: -$76.3 million)

Shares, which rose 10% during the regular session on Monday, fell 11% after the report.

The company — which is building the first space-based cellular broadband network, connecting standard cell phones to satellites — has experienced high stock volatility over the past year. Despite the dips, however, it had still landed up nearly 200% since last May. 

Despite missing Street estimates, the company's revenue is a significant increase over the Q1 2025's $7.18 million, when the company focused primarily on government contract work. The company has a devoted retail following, who call themselves the SpaceMob, who’ve cheered on the SpaceX rival’s rapid growth. 

Today, AST Spacemobile has agreements with Verizon, AT&T, and others to provide space-based internet directly to phones. Earlier this year, it also won a key contract with the US Department of Defense for the “Golden Dome.” 

So far the company has successfully launched seven functioning satellites and on Monday recommitted to plans to have 45 total satellites by 2026. The company currently trails behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX, who says they now have 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit and launched. AST Spacemobile also is one short on their goal after their BlueBird 7 satellite had to be taken out of orbit in April.

Shares of CleanSpark are down in postmarket trading after the bitcoin miner and data center developer reported its second-quarter earnings on Monday, missing Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines.

CleanSpark reported:

• $136.4 million in revenue (compared to analysts’ consensus estimate of $139.4 million). 

• An adjusted loss per share of $1.52 (estimate: a $0.66 loss).

Those numbers show revenue down 24.9% year over year.

Like TeraWulf, which reported earnings on Friday, and many, many others, CleanSpark is transitioning from a solely bitcoin mining company to a broader AI infrastructure provider. The company is up 53% over the past year. 

In its press release Monday, the company said it roughly doubled its megawatts under contract year over year. Per Matt Schultz, CEO and chairman of CleanSpark:

“Our objectives are clear: commercialize our AI/HPC-applicable assets, grow the portfolio, and continue mining efficiently to power CleanSpark’s transformation.”

According to exchange data, CleanSpark is among the Russell 3000 companies that traders love to hate, with roughly 35% of its float sold short as of mid-April. That’s one reason, besides the bitcoin/AI crossover, that the name is on the dashboard of many retail traders.

Bitcoin miner and data center operator MARA Holdings released its Q1 earnings report Monday afternoon, missing analysts’ expectations on revenue and earnings per share. Shares dropped in after-hours trading, giving back gains built on Monday’s session.

The company reported:

• Revenue of $174.6 million, below the FactSet analyst consensus estimate of $181.9 million and an 18% decline from $213.9 million in the same period last year.

• A net loss of $1.3 billion, or a $3.31 loss per diluted share, compared to the $1.55 loss per share in Q1 2025.

The jump in the company’s net loss was “primarily driven by a $520.4 million increase in operating loss, largely due to unfavorable bitcoin mark-to-market adjustments of ($1.0 billion) and restructuring costs of $45.9 million during the quarter,” MARA CFO Salman Khan said in the firm’s Q1 2026 shareholder letter.

MARA Holdings has the fourth-largest bitcoin treasury and, similar to other mining companies, has made a push to develop infrastructure to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month, the company announced acquiring Long Ridge Energy & Power LLC for $1.5 billion to add over 1 gigawatt of total potential power capacity.

“We expect Long Ridge will continue to supply power to the grid and generate cash flow and positive EBITDA upon closing,” MARA Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said in a statement. “Our intention is to develop incremental capacity at the site and build a higher value digital infrastructure asset.”

Air taxi maker Archer Aviation reported its first-quarter earnings after markets closed on Monday afternoon. The company’s shares climbed over 4% in after-hours trading.

For its first quarter, Archer reported:

• An adjusted operating loss of $172.5 million, in line with Wall Street estimates of a $173 million loss. Archer had forecast a loss of between $160 million and $180 million for the quarter.

• A loss of $0.28 per share, compared to the $0.31 loss per share analysts polled by FactSet had predicted.

• $1.78 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, down about 10% from Q4 2025. Archer’s rival, Joby Aviation, ended Q1 with $2.5 billion.

For the second quarter, Archer guided for a loss of between $170 million and $200 million, with a midpoint deeper than Wall Street’s $177.7 million loss estimate.

Earlier this month, Archer announced it had secured an “established pathway for Archer to begin limited commercial operations” in the UAE, though it didn’t give a timeline. Archer shares are down more than 13% year to date and more than 50% from a high last October.

“Archer expects Midnight operations in American cities to begin this year through the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) and as part of its preparation to serve as the Official Air Taxi Provider of the LA28 Olympic Games, in coordination with the US Department of Transportation and FAA,” read the company’s shareholder letter.

After acquiring more than 5.2 million ethereum tokens, worth $12 billion at current prices, BitMine Immersion Technologies announced it will dial back its weekly buying.

The company commands 4.3% of the total supply of ethereum and will likely meet its target of 5% this year.

“If ETH closes above $2,100 at the end of May 2026, this would be the third consecutive monthly gain — this has never been seen in a crypto bear market,” according to BitMine Chairman Tom Lee. “Thus, a close above $2,100 would validate ‘crypto spring’ has arrived,” Lee continued in a statement.

Meanwhile, SharpLink Gaming, the second-largest ethereum treasury company, announced a nonbinding agreement with Galaxy Digital to roll out a $125 million liquidity fund that will deploy capital into on-chain yield strategies.

“This marks an extension of our treasury strategy into more active strategies, aimed at providing sustainable term structures to great projects,” SharpLink CIO Matthew Sheffield said in a press release.

SharpLink also released its Q1 earnings results Monday morning, reporting total quarterly revenue of $12.1 million and a net loss of $685.6 million, below analyst expectations, “primarily driven by non-cash unrealized losses and impairments offset by net realized gains.”

In other ethereum ecosystem news, Ronin, a gaming-based blockchain known for Axie Infinity, will be migrating on Tuesday to a layer 2 network on ethereum. Ronin was previously exploited for around $625 million by North Korea’s Lazarus Group in March 2022.

Investors are riding the hot hands.

At the index level, Monday’s gain might be nothing to write home about, but it’s shaping up to be a session to remember for the volatile stocks that seemingly don’t stop going up.

Goldman Sachs’ high-beta momentum long index is enjoying one of its best days versus the SPDR S&P 500 ETF of the year, as of 11:29 a.m. ET.

AI infrastructure and other stocks that support the data center build-out are in full boom mode to kick off the week.

These include:

• Memory stocks: Micron, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings.

No Sandisk so far, but back-from-the-dead Qualcomm is also continuing its recent revival as its CEO joins the group of executives traveling to China with US President Donald Trump.

• Data center companies: Nebius, CoreWeave, Applied Digital, and Cipher Digital.

(IREN is left out, presumably because of its convertible note offering!)

• Networking firms: Corning, Coherent, soon-to-be new Nasdaq 100 member Lumentum, Applied Optoelectronics, and Credo Technology Group.

• Power: Oklo, Bloom Energy, and Plug Power (taking an optimistic interpretation of its tie to the build-out).

• The even more speculative fringes: POET Technologies and Navitas Semiconductor.

Brian Garrett of Goldman Sachs describes the price reaction simply: winners are pressing their bets, and losers are being forced to do what the winners have been doing.

“Fundamental long short managers just had their second best weekly alpha in more than 5 years and are now +10.8% on the year... there is solid PnL in the book and investors are looking for more ways to play offense... grabbing for upside seems to be the first move,” he wrote in a note to clients this weekend. “‘Capitulatory stop ins’ was used on the desk this week for asset manager activity... most specifically forced length in AI infrastructure, while using anything non-AI as a source of funds.”

Intel may be on the verge of securing South Korean memory giant SK Hynix as a major customer.

According to ZDNet Korea, SK Hynix is considering using Intel’s technology for packaging its high-bandwidth memory chips together with logic dies.

If realized, this would see Intel build on momentum from reports just days ago in which Apple reached a preliminary agreement for the chipmaker to manufacture Apple silicon in America.

The AI boom has been turning around Intel’s once struggling foundry business, and CPUs (a longtime strength) are experiencing a surge in demand thanks to the compute needs of AI agents.

Supported by the US government (which holds a 10% stake in Intel), the company’s expanding foundry footprint offers a domestic alternative for data center build-outs in a world where floor space is a major constraint.

Shares of Intel have risen over 220% year to date.

Shares of Constellation Energy are modestly higher in early trading after the owner of the largest fleet of US nuclear plants reported better-than-expected Q1 results.

The key numbers:

• Adjusted operating earnings of $2.74 per share (compared to analyst estimates of $2.53).

• Operating revenue of $11.12 billion (estimate: $8.57 billion).

The company also reaffirmed its full-year adjusted operating earnings guidance of $11.00 to $12.00 per share, roughly aligned with the consensus call for $11.53.

Constellation Energy has been racing to meet the voracious power demands of hyperscalers’ data centers, which are central to the AI boom.

This quarter was defined by the finalization of its $16.4 billion Calpine acquisition on January 7, which cemented Constellation’s status as the nation’s largest electricity producer and drove a large year-on-year increase in its sales and operating earnings. To satisfy federal requirements following the merger, the company agreed in March to sell 4.4 gigawatts of natural gas capacity to LS Power for $5 billion.

And as the deal is finalized, Reuters reported that the company is pursuing 1 gigawatt in capacity uprates over the next decade, including a 135-megawatt increase at its Braidwood and Byron Clean Energy Centers in northern Illinois as it prioritizes long-term contracts with hyperscalers.

Investors remain watchful regarding the planned Three Mile Island restart. While central to Constellation’s long-term strategy, recent reports from April 6 suggest that transmission delays and grid bottlenecks could slow the timeline for bringing the plant back online.

Despite today’s earnings beat, the stock has faced some recent volatility, down about 15% year to date.