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Bitcoin explodes through $72,000 after Trump’s Clarity Act surge
Micron’s $50 billion bet is rewriting Boise’s future forever
Meta’s child safety trial carries a $1.4 trillion bombshell risk
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Capitalist Insider: Did Treasury buybacks just light a $180k fuse under Bitcoin
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Bitcoin explodes through $72K after Trump’s Clarity Act surge
Bitcoin climbed more than 9.3% Thursday to above $72,000, its highest level since June 1, after President Trump met crypto executives, urged a fair version of the Clarity Act, and yields fell sharply.
Yields drop triggers rally: Treasury yields pulled back sharply after U.S. plans to buy longer-dated bonds, sending the dollar to a three-month low and lifting risk assets including bitcoin more than 3% Thursday.
Short squeeze amplifies gains: Roughly $2.7 billion in crypto short positions were liquidated in 24 hours, building on bitcoin’s 7% prior-day surge for a two-day gain exceeding 11% from the $63,000 level.
Trump hosts industry leaders: The White House meeting included CEOs from Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Ripple and ChainLink as Trump called for the Clarity Act to keep the U.S. ahead of China.
Possible government purchases: Trump signaled the U.S. is reviewing plans to buy bitcoin and digital assets at a sizeable scale, a shift from the March 2025 Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded mainly by seized assets.
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AI spending just turbocharged S&P 500 Q2 earnings
S&P 500 companies are set for a 52% surge in second-quarter earnings year-over-year, driven by a 74% profit jump in technology and large mark-to-market gains at Alphabet and Amazon from stakes in AI firms like Anthropic.
Excluding Mark Gains: Without the investment mark-to-market boosts, estimated profit growth would be 33%, still the strongest quarter since 2021 according to LSEG data.
AI Infrastructure Role: Goldman Sachs strategists say AI infrastructure stocks account for roughly one-third of S&P 500 earnings per share growth this quarter.
Nvidia Guarantee Plan: Nvidia plans a guarantee of up to $105 billion to help OpenAI lease a large data center in Ohio amid AI buildout costs.
Investor Caution Grows: Analysts warn mark-to-market gains can reverse quickly and circular financing plus high valuations raise risks of future disappointments.
Alibaba profits crash 75% after heavy AI spending binge
China’s Alibaba reported a 75% plunge in June-quarter profits as AI-driven capital spending jumped 75% to 67.7 billion yuan, or $10 billion, while total revenue rose 9% and cloud revenue surged 45%.
Cloud Division Climbs: Key cloud unit revenue reached 48.4 billion yuan, up 45% year-on-year as AI demand accelerates for the tech giant.
AI Products Surge: AI-related product revenue posted triple-digit growth for the twelfth consecutive quarter, according to CEO Eddie Wu.
Spending Weighs Profits: Capital expenditure rose primarily from increased CPU-compute capacity and higher chip component prices across the board.
Shares Fall Sharply: U.S.-listed shares dropped 3.1% after initial 4% premarket losses following the earnings release on Thursday.
Micron’s $50 billion bet is rewriting Boise’s future forever
Micron’s $50 billion chip fab buildout in Boise is creating over 17,000 jobs and turning employees into millionaires after the stock’s more than tenfold rise since late 2024 pushed market cap past $1 trillion amid AI memory demand.
Jobs And Facilities: Two new manufacturing plants expected to add more than 17,000 jobs including 3,500 at Micron, which already employs about 7,000 locally.
Stock Wealth Boom: Wealth managers help clients diversify after stock surge, with some seeing portfolios grow from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands or millions.
Local Impacts Felt: Boise sees traffic, rising rents up 4.3%, and influx of residents while some benefit from Micron-linked prosperity and others do not.
U.S. Production Push: First new Boise fab online in 2027 as first U.S. front-end for leading-edge memory; long-term goal 40% DRAM production in America.
Super Micro: Our leaders say they knew nothing about this
Super Micro Computer completed an independent investigation concluding senior management had no knowledge of an alleged scheme diverting Nvidia-powered servers to China, with no evidence of direct sales to restricted parties or unreliable financial statements.
Personnel Actions Taken: The company took several steps including terminations following the probe into its export compliance program related to the allegations.
Board Enhances Program: Independent directors recommended further improvements to export compliance, which the board adopted in full after the review.
Legal Background: U.S. prosecutors charged a Super Micro co-founder and two others with illegally diverting billions in Nvidia servers via Southeast Asia to Chinese customers; all pleaded not guilty.
Shares Respond Positively: Super Micro stock rose as much as 5.9% after the company announced the investigation findings on Thursday.
Hyundai just dropped a massive luxury EV to challenge Tesla
Hyundai Motor’s Genesis brand launched its new flagship all-electric large SUV, the GV90, seating up to seven with up to 660 horsepower and 310-mile range, set for U.S. sale early next year from a South Korean plant.
Largest Genesis Yet: The GV90 is the biggest vehicle offered by the luxury brand since its U.S. market entry a decade ago, expanding the lineup to seven models.
Coach Door Option: Available as GV90 Neolun with rare coach doors opening from the middle, plus standard trims and a plush First Edition variant.
Power And Range: Features high-performance electric motors delivering up to 490 kilowatts or about 660 horsepower and roughly 310 miles of expected range.
Sales Growth Continues: Genesis U.S. sales rose about 5% to 39,088 units in the first half, marking 22 consecutive months of year-over-year gains.
Bugatti’s problem? Too many collectors, not enough cars
Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac says over-demand far exceeds supply after the company’s most successful year in 116 years with record production, prompting plans to double annual capacity to 200 cars for its ultra-wealthy collector base.
Demand Far Exceeds: With about 300,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals worldwide and only 100 cars produced yearly, Bugatti serves less than 1% of that population.
Capacity Expansion: The brand will double production to 200 vehicles a year just to keep up with growing collector interest in multi-million-dollar models.
One-Off Program: Programme Solitaire builds two bespoke one-of-one cars annually; the new Destrier is the third, estimated at $15 million to $20 million.
Collector Appeal: Buying a Bugatti is the ultimate “I made it” statement, and top collectors help design the unique cars with engineers and name them.
Lincoln production surges in the U.S. as China imports die
Ford plans to expand U.S. production of Lincoln vehicles beginning in 2030 and eventually stop importing vehicles from China for American customers, a move expected to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
Current China Link: The redesigned Nautilus is assembled at the Changan Ford plant in Hangzhou, China, and exported to the U.S. market.
U.S. Footprint Strong: Lincoln already builds the Navigator in Louisville, Kentucky, and Aviator in Chicago; Ford assembled more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2025.
Tariff Context: Ford reported about $3 billion in gross costs from 2025 tariffs, with roughly $2 billion impact on EBIT after offsets, though it did not link the decision to tariffs.
Employment Scale: The company employs approximately 56,300 hourly manufacturing workers in the U.S. and leads in U.S. vehicle exports and hourly autoworker jobs.
Meta’s child safety trial carries a $1.4 trillion bombshell risk
A federal trial in Oakland by four states leading a 29-state coalition accuses Meta of misleading the public on risks to young users and designing Facebook and Instagram features that keep children hooked, with potential penalties up to $1.4 trillion near its market cap.
High Stakes Penalties: Meta says the theoretical maximum under the states’ theory approaches the value of the company itself and could effectively transfer stockholder value to the public.
Advisory Jury Role: An eight-person jury is advisory only while U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide liability and any remedies in the case.
Company Financial Scale: Meta generated nearly $201 billion in revenue last year and held more than $90 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of June.
Stock And Prior Cases: Shares fell as the trial started and remain down 17% this year; prior juries found Meta misled teens or liable with Google over addiction claims.