Markets
markets
Luke Kawa
7/28/25

Samsung soars after Elon Musk says Tesla signed a deal to buy $16.5 billion in new AI chips

Shares of Samsung Electronics had their best day of the year, rising 6.8% during trading in South Korea after the electronics giant announced a $16.5 billion chip manufacturing deal.

Loose terms of the agreement, which runs through 2033, were detailed in a release from Samsung — but no information on the customer was provided. Elon Musk seemingly confirmed that Tesla was the buyer on Sunday night by replying “yes” on X to a user who asked about the veracity of a report from Bloomberg News.

Per Musk, Samsung will produce Tesla’s AI6 chips, next-generation processors that are expected to enhance the company’s autonomous driving capabilities in the years to come.

Shares of Tesla are up about 2% in premarket trading.

Samsung currently makes the AI4 chips that are used in Tesla’s self-driving system. Industry leader TSMC is responsible for producing Tesla’s AI5 chips, which have yet to enter into service. Its stock is down 1% in premarket trading.

Musk also expressed optimism that the agreement would see much higher output than Samsung outlined, adding that these processors will be made at a new foundry in Taylor, Texas, which “is conveniently located not far from my house 😀.”

Samsung has not yet confirmed details as to where this order will be manufactured. Reuters has previously reported on the struggles of its Texas plant to get up and running, with Samsung delaying the start of operations and holding off on taking delivery of equipment from ASML in light of sluggish demand. ADRs of the Dutch semi equipment titan are up 3.5% as of 6:25 a.m. ET.

This deal “implies a recovery in its foundry business’ 2-nanometer generation chip production,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Masahiro Wakasugi and Takumi Okano wrote. “It could also lead to new contracts with other fabless chip companies.”

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markets
J. Edward Moreno
11m

UNH rises after preliminary data shows most Medicare Advantage enrollees will be on more lucrative, top-rated, plans

UnitedHealth rose more than 4% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the company disclosed that it expects that the majority of its Medicare Advantage enrollees will be on plans rated four stars or higher in 2026.

Although the data is only preliminary, about 78% of UNH’s Medicare Advantage members are in plans rated four stars or higher, the company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday morning. On Monday the company said it plans to reiterate its full-year guidance when it meets with investors this week.

Insurance companies that provide government-sponsored plans, such as Medicare Advantage, have struggled this year amid unexpected rising costs. Plans that are rated four-star or higher earn bonus payments and are typically more lucrative for healthcare insurance providers.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa
16h
US stocks grind higher as volatility dissipates

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in what was is fourth-smallest intraday range of 2025, as did the Russell 2000, while the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.5%.

Germany, Bull running on field
markets
Matt Phillips
16h

Retail darling Planet Labs soars on earnings pop for second straight quarter

Planet Labs, which operates a network of satellites that record data, images, and information about the Earth, surged more than 40% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly numbers before the open of trading Monday.

It was the second straight quarter when the money-losing company’s quarterly update generated a massive market reaction. The stock jumped nearly 50% after numbers came out in June.

The company, which went public via SPAC in 2021, raised its full-year revenue guidance and notched its second straight quarter of positive free cash flow. Analysts and investors watch free cash flow closely as it can signal when a company’s business is starting to become more durable.

While the company is small — roughly $2.5 billion in market cap — it has posted pretty serious gains, rising almost 300% the past 12 months. Planet Labs also appears to have a fairly large retail shareholder base.

Just 57% of its float is in the the hands of institutional investors, according to FactSet data. That’s roughly the same as other retail favorites such as Palantir, though Planet Labs is no where near as highly valued as the defense data and AI software company led by CEO Alex Karp.

Planet Labs Boosts View as Deals Close Quicker on Higher Demand

Planet Labs Boosts View as Deals Close Quicker on Higher Demand

The company, which went public via SPAC in 2021, raised its full-year revenue guidance and notched its second straight quarter of positive free cash flow. Analysts and investors watch free cash flow closely as it can signal when a company’s business is starting to become more durable.

While the company is small — roughly $2.5 billion in market cap — it has posted pretty serious gains, rising almost 300% the past 12 months. Planet Labs also appears to have a fairly large retail shareholder base.

Just 57% of its float is in the the hands of institutional investors, according to FactSet data. That’s roughly the same as other retail favorites such as Palantir, though Planet Labs is no where near as highly valued as the defense data and AI software company led by CEO Alex Karp.

markets
Luke Kawa
17h

OpenAI’s cash burn suggests selling Nvidia because of reported Broadcom chip orders may not make much sense

When Broadcom announced that it booked $10 billion in new orders from a customer reported to be OpenAI, shares of their major AI chip rivals tanked.

The judgement of the Invisible Hand was that this was nearly a zero-sum outcome: $130 billion of market cap erased from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, and a $135 billion increase in Broadcom’s market value.

But looking at this from the perspective of near-term cash flows, the market’s view seems off.

The Information is reporting that OpenAI now expects to burn through $115 billion by the end of 2029 (or more than 11 seasons’ worth of NFL broadcasting rights).

Let’s zoom in on this tidbit from The Information:

But the biggest change emerging from OpenAI’s latest projections was to its cash flows. The company projected it will burn more than $8 billion this year, or roughly $1.5 billion higher than its prior projection from earlier this year. Cash burn will more than double to more than $17 billion next year—$10 billion higher than what the company earlier projected

That $10 billion fits all too neatly with the $10 billion in orders from a major new customer that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan pointed to in the chip designer’s earnings call.

(Cheers to @lokoyacap for flagging this on X)

Assuming the reporting around OpenAI and Broadcom is accurate, these orders for ASICs don’t look to be displacing what the ChatGPT creator was going to spend on Nvidia’s GPUs, but are just in addition to it! The money’s not coming out of Jensen Huang’s pockets, it’s coming out of OpenAI’s coffers. Their spending budget is just getting bigger.

Perhaps if you squint, there’s a world in which OpenAI may prefer to have an additional $10 billion in Nvidia GPUs rather than ASICs, and I am still of the belief that hyperscalers diversifying their chip sources due to constrained top-end supplies isn’t a good sign for the company selling the most in-demand product.

But it’s quite intriguing, and says something about the depth of the pockets that fuel the AI boom, that OpenAI’s reported new relationship with Broadcom has seemingly no direct negative financial impact on Nvidia in the near term.

markets
Luke Kawa
19h

Broadcom’s post-earnings romp continues on heavy volumes

As Broadcom enjoys a rush of new orders from a major new customer (reported to be OpenAI), it’s also reveling in a flood of traffic into the stock.

Volumes are running at 2.5 times their daily average through 1:20 p.m. ET as traders continue to bid up shares in response to the brighter outlook for 2026 revenues, which sent the stock up 9.4% on Friday.

The chip designer is basking in a flood of price target hikes from Wall Street, with Bank of America, JPMorgan, Argus Research, Citigroup, Bernstein, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Piper Sandler, Rosenblatt Securities, Wells Fargo, and Susquehanna upping their view on how high shares can go since the company reported earnings last week.

Separately, Taiwanese industry outlet DigiTimes is reporting that orders from several other leading tech companies for custom-made Broadcom chips (or ASICs) are “already in the pipeline.” This report has not been corroborated by our own or any other publication’s reporting to date.

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