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Uber, Lucid climb after setting San Francisco as the first market for joint robotaxi fleet

San Franciscans’ robotaxi options are about to expand again.

Shares of Uber and Lucid are rising in premarket trading Wednesday after the companies set the Bay Area as the first market for their planned robotaxi fleet.

The vehicles will hit SF roads next year, putting Uber in direct competition with Waymo, which is operational in the region. Tesla is testing robotaxis in the area, and Amazon’s Zoox began offering rides there earlier this month. Uber also works with Waymo in select cities, including Austin and Atlanta.

Yesterday, Uber announced a partnership with Nvidia, setting a goal to have a fleet of 100,000 Nvidia-powered autonomous vehicles. Uber will begin scaling its fleet in 2027. The announcement widens the already robust web of auto and tech partnerships that make up the US robotaxi market.

Last month, Lucid delivered its first Uber-bound vehicle to Nuro, the tech partner in the robotaxi fleet partnership. The agreement will see at least 20,000 Lucid vehicles turned into robotaxis over the next six years.

Uber shares were up about 2% in premarket trading on the news, while Lucid shares climbed more than 6%.

The vehicles will hit SF roads next year, putting Uber in direct competition with Waymo, which is operational in the region. Tesla is testing robotaxis in the area, and Amazon’s Zoox began offering rides there earlier this month. Uber also works with Waymo in select cities, including Austin and Atlanta.

Yesterday, Uber announced a partnership with Nvidia, setting a goal to have a fleet of 100,000 Nvidia-powered autonomous vehicles. Uber will begin scaling its fleet in 2027. The announcement widens the already robust web of auto and tech partnerships that make up the US robotaxi market.

Last month, Lucid delivered its first Uber-bound vehicle to Nuro, the tech partner in the robotaxi fleet partnership. The agreement will see at least 20,000 Lucid vehicles turned into robotaxis over the next six years.

Uber shares were up about 2% in premarket trading on the news, while Lucid shares climbed more than 6%.

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Report: Boeing could unveil 500-jet order from China during Trump’s visit later this month

Shares of Boeing are up nearly 4% on Friday afternoon, following a Bloomberg report that the company could be close to finalizing a deal to sell 500 planes to China.

The deal was first reported in August and would be one of Boeing’s largest ever.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

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Why software shares are withstanding the war jitters

The outbreak of the war in Iran has clearly rattled investors and created a few clear winners — mostly energy stocks — and losers — consumer staples, airlines, and, well, more or else everything else.

But there is one interesting outlier to that Manichaean market dynamic.

Software shares — often the same companies that the market was giving up for dead just a few weeks ago due to overexpectations of an AI-driven disruption — have been holding up remarkably well.

These companies, including Intuit, ServiceNow, Datadog, Snowflake, IBM, Workday, and Oracle, have actually had a pretty decent run since the war started with a combined US-Israeli attack on Iran last weekend.

A new note from RBC Capital’s Rishi Jaluria suggests this isn’t just a fluke. Looking at the performance of software stocks during periods of geopolitical stress and market volatility over the last 10 and 25 years, his team found that software shares appear fairly well insulated when these broader shocks hit. RBC wrote:

“The defensive nature of SaaS models and the mission-critical nature of many core software systems at the enterprise level (e.g., in the absence of mass layoffs that may create seat-based headwinds, geopolitical uncertainty and/or market volatility typically will not cause an enterprise CIO to consider ripping out their ERP, CRM, Cyber systems, etc.”

I briefly got Jaluria on the phone yesterday, and he explained a bit more about why he thinks investors might see software as a decent place to hide out from the current chaos.

“With everything in the Middle East, you have to think about not just oil and gas input prices but also supply chains,” he said. “With software, you’re not really thinking about that.”

In other words, there is no equivalent of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz that software investors have to worry about.

Others suggested that the near-term profitability of these giant software companies — aside from concerns about potential long-term disruption from AI — may look different in the face of the economic uncertainty that seems to be growing with the war, especially after a sell-off that has left them relatively attractively valued.

Mark Moerdler, who covers software stocks for Bernstein Research, says that while the AI worries are clearly real, software companies continue to be highly productive cash cows.

“Everyone is afraid that AI is a massive disruptor, and all these articles you read talk about AI as massive disruptor or the world is ending or whatever,” he said. “You don’t see it in the fundamental numbers of the companies I cover. They are delivering GAAP profits, free cash flow, and they’re good investment ideas.”

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