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Tempus AI jumps after hit from short seller’s report

The stock is up more than 90% this year.

6/2/25 11:16AM

Shares of Tempus AI, an unprofitable vendor of cancer screening tests that also licenses data for use in drug discovery, soared on Monday, erasing much of the loss it suffered after a short seller released a searing analysis of the stock last week.

Since debuting less than a year ago, the shares have become something of a favorite of retail traders, as well as a target of short sellers. More than 20% of the company’s float is in the hands of shorts.

One of those shorts, Spruce Point Capital, released a report on Wednesday saying “investors should focus on its aggressive accounting, financial engineering, [and] related party dealings,” which knocked the stock down nearly 20%.

Tempus declined to comment on the report and said it “remained focused on delivering shareholder value, taking advantage of the enormous opportunity of bringing AI to healthcare.” The stock is up more than 90% year to date.

But the surge in Tempus shows the risks of short sellers directly confronting a favorite of often tribal retail stock traders, who can react to short sellers’ critiques of companies by rallying each other to hold the shares rather than selling on potential risks that the shorts are spotlighting.

Luke Kawa3h

Oracle soars after TikTok signs agreement to sell its US operations to consortium that includes the cloud computing giant

Oracle soared in after-hours trading on Thursday on news that TikTok owner ByteDance signed contracts with the three major investors who are leading a joint venture to take over the short-form video app’s US operations, per a widely-cited memo from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees.

The trio of parties in that consortium are the cloud computing company, private equity firm Silver Lake, and MGX, a tech investment company backed by Abu Dhabi.

Per reports, the structure of the deal is roughly aligned with what was outlined in September, which valued TikTok’s US operations at about $14 billion. Relative to some less-popular peers, that seems like a pretty low price tag, so picking up doomscrolling on a discount (or if you prefer, short-term video browsing on a budget) looks to be a worthy catalyst for the bump in the beaten-down hyperscaler’s shares. And that’s even before mentioning the potential for Oracle’s cloud business to enhance its preexisting relationship with TikTok.

Toby Bochan

Market Wrap

Markets cheer surprise gift of cooler CPI amid renewed AI optimism to finish higher

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 surged on Thursday — perhaps we’ll have a Santa rally after all!

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Rescheduling would lift regulatory pressures that have been weighing on US cannabis operators’ margins. Shares of weed companies, many of which don’t sell cannabis in the US, tumbled an hour before the executive order was signed.

J. Edward Moreno10h

Max Knoblauch11h

Rivian climbs as it rolls out a “universal hands-free” update and scores an upgrade from Baird

Shares of EV maker Rivian are on pace for their 10th best day of 2025 on Thursday, following an upgrade from Baird to “buy” from “hold” and the rollout of its new hands-free driving update.

Baird raised its price target on Rivian nearly 79% to $25, writing that “2026 is the year of R2.”

Meanwhile, Rivian says its new hands-free feature will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel across 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads.

Despite referring to it as “universal hands-free” driving, the EV maker says the feature will not stop or slow for traffic lights or stop signs, follow navigation systems, or make turns, and will function only on roads with visible lane lines.

Rivian revealed the update at its AI Day last week, when it also hinted at a robotaxi plan.

Rivian rolls out new 'Universal Hands-Free' driving feature | TechCrunch

Meanwhile, Rivian says its new hands-free feature will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel across 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads.

Rivian revealed the update at its AI Day last week, when it also hinted at a robotaxi plan.

Matt Phillips12h

The stock market loves your rising electricity bill

Utilities with a footprint in the massive PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest power grid, were up Thursday after prices set in a key auction hit a record high of $333.44 per megawatt-day.

Such power providers, including Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra, saw tidy gains shortly before midday.

“This auction leaves no doubt that data centers’ demand for electricity continues to far outstrip new supply, and the solution will require concerted action involving PJM, its stakeholders, state and federal partners, and the data center industry itself,” Stu Bresler, set to become PJM’s chief operating officer next month, told Reuters.

As I’ve previously mused, political pushback from high power prices, partially created by the AI boom, could become a constraint on development of such sites. Democrats in the US Senate are now calling for hearings on the issue.

It’s fertile political soil. This morning’s US CPI report for November showed electricity prices up nearly 7% year over year, the highest since the tail end of the postpandemic inflation in April 2023.

Tempus AI jumps after hit from short seller’s report

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