News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Bernstein Slashes Targets On VZ, CHTR, T, CMCSA, TMUS Stocks: What's The SpaceX Connection?
* While Starlink is not expected to materially affect telecom operators in the near term, Bernstein said it still adds another competitor to an already saturated and highly competitive market. * The firm added that uncertainty around Starlink's long-term strategy is likely to persist, prompting it to lower price targets across the telecom sector. * Meanwhile, reports have also suggested that SpaceX has held executive-level discussions with Charter Communications about a consumer mobile offering to leverage existing terrestrial infrastructure to accelerate its entry into the broader telecom market. Wall Street is beginning to price in SpaceX's telecom ambitions. Equity research firm Bernstein slashed the price targets on five major telecom operators on Monday, citing valuation risks tied to SpaceX's (SPCX) Starlink. The company lowered price targets on Verizon Communications (VZN), Charter Communications (CHTR), AT&T (T), Comcast (CMCSA) and T-Mobile US (TMUS). See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox Last month, several media reports said SpaceX is planning to launch a direct-to-consumer Starlink mobile service and is considering building its own terrestrial wireless network in the U.S. Why Bernstein Cut Telecom Price Targets While SpaceX's Starlink is unlikely to have a substantial near-term impact for telecom companies, it "represents another competitor in an already mature and highly penetrated broadband market," Bernstein reportedly said in a note, as per TheFly. The analyst said the prospect of a Starlink mobile offering could intensify competition in the U.S. telecom sector, making subscriber gains increasingly dependent on taking market share from rivals. The firm added that uncertainty around Starlink's long-term strategy is likely to persist, prompting it to lower price targets across the telecom sector. VZ, CHTR, T, CMCSA, TMUS Target Cuts How Much Bernstein Cut Each Stock Target Bernstein lowered the price target on Verizon to $44 from $49 and maintained a 'Market Perform' rating on the shares, as per TheFly. The revised target still implies an upside of about 3% from current levels. The firm cut Charter's price target to $170 from $210 and kept a 'Market Perform' rating on the shares, implying an upside of about 29% from current levels.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Throws Shade At Anthropic's New Ad Amid Tussle With Elon Musk, Apple: 'Thought This Was Satire'
* Altman took a swipe at a new advertisement for Anthropic's Claude. * In the past few days, he has again rebutted Elon Musk and said he is "not afraid of Apple" following the iPhone maker's lawsuit. * Investors are closely watching developments at OpenAI as it moves toward a public listing. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a more combative tone toward tech rivals on Monday, days after his AI startup was hit with a major trade-secret theft lawsuit by Apple. "Come for the best model, stay because we don't treat you with contempt," Altman posted on X on Monday, without context. Given the timing, X users interpreted it as criticism aimed at companies like Apple, Anthropic or SpaceXAI. See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox In a separate post, Altman took a swipe at a new advertisement for Anthropic's Claude. The ad, titled "There's Hope in Hard Questions," features a narrator reflecting on whether AI can be built to benefit humanity. Responding to it, Altman wrote, "i thought this was satire, kept looking for the handle to be spelled c1audeai or something." Anthropic was started by former OpenAI employees, and the company now appears to be leading in the AI market. Altman Sharpens The Rhetoric The OpenAI CEO is no stranger to quirky responses to online critics, but lately he appears to be taking a more head-on approach. In the past few days, he's rebutted criticism from SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, saying that he was wooing public market investors with unproven claims about space data centers and that he is "not afraid of Apple" following the iPhone maker's lawsuit. Altman and Musk have frequently traded jabs online amid Musk's long-running legal campaign against OpenAI, including challenges to its restructuring and its relationship with Apple. Apple Lawsuit On Friday, Apple said it sued OpenAI in California, alleging that OpenAI encouraged Apple employees to share information, components, drawings, and other materials related to upcoming products -- as part of OpenAI's efforts to develop its own suite of devices. The suit also named Tang Tan, a 25-year Apple veteran who joined OpenAI as its chief hardware officer last year, as a defendant. The suit marks a dramatic turn for two companies that were close partners. OpenAI has powered Apple Intelligence and Siri, but ties between the two have frayed over the past year. OpenAI IPO Watch Investors are closely watching developments at OpenAI as it moves toward a public listing, setting up a potential IPO showdown with chief rival Anthropic.
TSLA Stock Back To $400? Jefferies Lays Out Bull Case, Says SpaceX Merger Could Hand Shareholders A Premium
* The brokerage raised Q2 EBIT to $1.45 billion but still expects a $7.5 billion free cash flow outflow. * Jefferies said that a Tesla-SpaceX merger could leave room for a shareholder premium, with Musk retaining 55.3% voting control. * Tesla's Semi will enter a pilot in Chicago with Paper Transport to test its 500-mile range in colder conditions. Shares of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) rose 0.2% in overnight trading late Monday as Jefferies raised its price target and said that a potential SpaceX merger could leave room for a shareholder premium. TSLA stock fell 3% on Monday, snapping two straight sessions of gains. See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox Jefferies Lifts TSLA Outlook Ahead Of Q2 Earnings Jefferies raised its Tesla price target to $400 from $375 while maintaining a 'Hold' rating, implying a modest 1% upside from current levels. The firm cited Tesla's "significant auto volume beat" after the company delivered 480,100 vehicles in the second quarter, well above the consensus estimate of 406,000. Model 3 and Model Y vehicles accounted for 467,800 deliveries. The brokerage said that the strength in China and Europe validated the "unique value proposition of Tesla vehicles," even as the broader auto industry faces a growing risk of commoditization. The brokerage also said that Tesla's multi-year deterioration in growth and earnings had started to reverse. Jefferies raised its second-quarter (Q2) earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) forecast to $1.45 billion, representing a 5.1% margin, and increased its longer-term EBIT estimates by about 6%. Tesla is set to report its Q2 earnings on July 22. The firm now expects automotive revenue of $21 billion, including $250 million from zero-emission vehicle credits and $500 million from leasing. Group revenue and EBIT are projected at $28.7 billion and $1.45 billion, respectively. For fiscal 2026, Jefferies raised its EBIT estimate by 4% to $6.2 billion, partly reflecting stronger volumes and the higher-priced long-wheelbase Model Y. Jefferies also expects Q2 capital spending of $6.9 billion, leaving Tesla with $41.7 billion in liquidity. Deliveries running ahead of production should also provide a near-term cash-flow benefit by reducing inventory. However, Jefferies maintained its forecast of about $7.5 billion in free cash flow outflows, including $23 billion in capital expenditures. It also struck a cautious note on autonomy, saying low implied Cybercab production pointed to further delays in Tesla's robotaxi ramp.
Citi sends powerful sign to SpaceX investors
SpaceX stock is trading at $145.30, about 8% above its $135 IPO price, according to Yahoo Finance at the time of writing. Interestingly, SpaceX stock climbed as high as $225.64 after its $135 IPO, according to Yahoo Finance reporting, indicating a peak post-IPO gain of about 67%, before sharply retreating from those highs. So SpaceX investors were naturally looking for proof that Wall Street's post-IPO optimism wasn't misplaced and that the company was truly onto something special. Citi's analysts obliged, offering far more than a simple stock call. Following a 10-hour teach-in on space and AI, the firm argued that SpaceX sits at the center of a 10-plus-year investment cycle, with launch leadership, Starlink, orbital AI, and extreme vertical integration creating a compounding infrastructure story. Citi just hailed SpaceX as a platform for the future, while the market still has to decide how much of that future is investable today. Why Citi sees SpaceX as more than a rocket company Citi kicked things off with a buy rating and a $200 base-case price target for SpaceX stock, implying an expected return of about 34.9% from current levels. In the note shared with me, Citi valued SpaceX as a vertically integrated platform spanning space access, global connectivity, and AI infrastructure, rather than just a launch provider. Moreover, Citi derived its target from the average of three methods: 2027 growth-adjusted multiples for trillion-dollar peers, a sum-of-the-parts analysis valuing Space, Connectivity, and AI separately, and 2030 comparable-company multiples for large-cap platform peers. Put bluntly, as my fellow tech reporter Vuk Zdinjak noted in perhaps the most honest take on SpaceX, that kind of valuation framework shows how tough it is to value such a business. In the Bank of America note he covered, he panned the bank's use of a nearly 20-year cash-flow model that stretched far beyond the usual 5- to 10-year DCF window and well past the typical 12-month life of a price target. Analysts looked to assign a present value to businesses that may not be fully proven for years. Nevertheless, Citi is sold on SpaceX's abilities, especially its reusable launch capability, Starlink's global satellite network, the xAI/Grok integration, and future terrestrial and orbital compute infrastructure. It also argues that extreme vertical integration will likely push costs down and throughput up at a scale competitors might struggle to match. Wall Street price targets for SpaceX stock
Prediction: $25,000 Invested in SpaceX Today Will Be Worth This Much by 2050
Let's get right to it: A $25,000 investment in Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) stock today could be worth over $100,000 by 2050 if revenue grows 19% annually. By the same token, the same investment in SpaceX is more likely to be worth about $28,000 by 2050 if revenue grows more moderately -- albeit still bullish -- at a rate of 13% annually. Let's unpack these predictions. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " First, keep in mind that SpaceX carried a roughly $1.8 trillion valuation at its initial public offering (IPO), despite reporting about $19 billion in 2025 revenue. At the time of its IPO, the stock was already trading close to 100 times annual sales -- a figure that hasn't changed much, even after the stock has plummeted over 30% from its all-time high. Under the bullish scenario, SpaceX would need to quadruple by 2050 for a $25,000 investment to hit $100,000 or more, which would imply a $7 trillion market cap. If we value that version of SpaceX at a price-to-sales ratio of about 5, then the space company would need to generate about $1.5 trillion in annual sales by that year, or almost 19% revenue growth annually. That's not technically impossible, but it would also mean SpaceX has become the most dominant launch, satellite, and artificial intelligence (AI) company in the world. In short, very little has to go wrong, and if it does, it can't go wrong for long. Under a less bullish scenario, SpaceX's valuation would rise only modestly, from about $1.8 trillion to about $2 trillion by 2050. If, again, we assume a price-to-sales ratio of 5, SpaceX would generate about $400 billion in 2050 sales, which implies compound annual revenue growth of about 13% for the next 25 years. That's still impressive growth, even if the concomitant growth in the stock is only modest. These are, of course, my own figures, but they drive home the point that, however you slice it, SpaceX stock is still very pricy right now. Even as the stock nears its IPO price of $135, I think long-term investors should continue to wait. SpaceX may become one of the most important companies in the world, but at today's valuation, much of that success appears already priced in. Should you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies, consider this:
Microsoft Bets on In-House AI to Cut OpenAI and Anthropic Costs
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has taken steps to lessen its reliance on frontier AI models, though it's not an outright declaration of protest. In June, the tech giant launched its own proprietary AI models (Microsoft AI or MAI) across select applications in its Office suite. What this means for the user experience is an open question, but this is a clear margin play for Microsoft. The company competes in multiple areas of the AI infrastructure buildout. In a way that makes this move about controlling the controllables. → MarketBeat Week in Review - 07/06 - 07/10 Instead of experiencing death by a thousand cuts from OpenAI and Anthropic (i.e., the frontier models), Microsoft is trying to widen its existing moat and deliver strong returns on investment (ROI) from its AI spend. But will this be sufficient to alter the sentiment towards MSFT, which has declined approximately 20% year-to-date? Microsoft Expands MAI to Reduce Reliance on OpenAI Here's the news behind the news. Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is quietly routing some Excel and Outlook prompts to MAI, its in-house model family, rather than to OpenAI or Anthropic. Tens of thousands of prompts a week are already running on Microsoft's own tech. → Pushing the Edge: Super Micro Computer Reboots the AI Landscape That's still a small slice of total Copilot traffic. OpenAI and Anthropic handle most of it today. But the direction of that travel matters more than the current split, and Microsoft has made its intentions clear. At Build 2026 in June, Microsoft unveiled seven MAI models, including its first reasoning model, MAI-Thinking-1. The company says it matches Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 on coding tasks. AI chief Mustafa Suleyman put it bluntly: "We pay a lot of money to Anthropic, so our goal is to reduce and ultimately eliminate that cost." → Why WD-40 Is Proving Great Businesses Never Go Out of Style How Microsoft's In-House AI Could Boost Profit Margins For investors, an easy way to think about this is as follows. Copilot is a $30-per-seat subscription that, prior to the MAI launch, was running on top of someone else's expensive AI model by default. Every prompt costs Microsoft money to process, and multiplied across hundreds of millions of Office users, that bill adds up fast.
SpaceX Shares Sink Lowest Level Since Nasdaq Debut
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ:SPCX) shares fell about 4% in Monday morning trading, extending their recent decline and trading near the company's initial public offering price. The stock changed hands around $139, its lowest level since listing on Nasdaq about one month ago. Shares have retreated more than 38% from their intraday peak of $225.64 reached on June 16, reducing much of the gains recorded after the company's market debut. Space Exploration Technologies went public at $135 per share, raising about $75 billion in one of the largest U.S. initial public offerings. The stock opened at $150, roughly 11% above its offering price, giving the aerospace company a market capitalization of about $2.1 trillion at the close of its first trading session. Monday's pullback leaves Space Exploration Technologies trading only modestly above its IPO price after a volatile first month on the public market. The latest decline comes as investors continue to reassess valuations across growth and technology stocks following a strong initial rally after the company's listing.
How Low Can SpaceX Stock Go?
Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public on June 12. Its stock promptly soared to a peak of $225, giving the company a whopping $2.9 trillion market capitalization, but it has since plummeted by 35% to close at $145 on Friday, July 10. SpaceX has a unique business that spans space transportation, satellite internet connectivity, and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, and its revenue is forecast to grow rapidly over the next couple of years. However, its stock remains extremely expensive even after its recent decline, which could open the door to more losses for investors. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " How low can SpaceX stock go? SpaceX has a significant opportunity ahead Before we dive into SpaceX's hefty valuation and the math behind a potential decline in its stock, let's examine the company's business, which does have significant growth potential. It's divided into three core segments: SpaceX already accounts for over 80% of the world's mass to orbit, so it's launching more commercial payloads than any other company or organization on the planet. Its market share will only grow once its Starship rocket enters regular service, because its 100-ton payload capacity is four times that of the Falcon 9 rocket, which completes most trips today. The connectivity business is also set to receive a massive boost, as SpaceX will start launching its V3 satellites later this year, which offer a whopping 10 times the bandwidth of the current V2 satellites. Moreover, Starship will launch 60 V3 satellites into orbit per trip, whereas Falcon 9 is only capable of sending 27 at a time. Moving on to the AI segment, most of its revenue comes from Grok subscriptions and renting data center capacity to other companies. When SpaceX bought xAI, it took ownership of data centers like Colossus and Colossus II, which are fitted with hundreds of thousands of specialized AI chips from suppliers like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
History Says It's Time to Buy SpaceX Stock Before It's Too Late
After an incredible post-IPO performance, Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) stock has gradually returned to earth. SpaceX officially priced its June 12 IPO at $135 per share and opened at $150 per share. Shares reached their all-time high of $225.64 three days later. After a steep correction, the stock is now hovering around $145. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " The space stock is now priced just 7% above its original IPO price, and under the price at which it began trading. Newly published historical data, however, suggest there is more upside to come. History says SpaceX stock is a buy at $145 per share Jay Ritter of the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida has been tracking the performance of IPO stocks for years. On July 7, Ritter released a new report with fully updated statistics. Diving into the data paints an optimistic picture for SpaceX stock today. From 1980 to 2024, Ritter documented 9,253 IPOs. Over that time, the average IPO stock returned 19.1% over a three-year period. The data is already looking good for SpaceX stock. While history doesn't suggest huge returns for the stock over the next three years, the returns are nonetheless expected to be positive. Breaking down the data even further improves SpaceX's prospects. When including only IPO stocks with trailing annual sales of at least $500 million -- a refinement that narrows the universe down to just 1,500 stocks -- the average three-year return improves to 31.8%. When including only IPO stocks with trailing sales of at least $1 billion, the prospects improve even further. These stocks -- which total 866 in all -- average 32.4% returns over their first three years of trading. To be clear, there's no telling exactly where SpaceX stock will head from here. Even if shares have plenty of upside at today's prices relative to historical IPO performances, there is a wide range of outcomes for any one stock. And there are plenty of reasons to believe SpaceX stock is overvalued, even following the correction. Before the June 12 IPO, analysts at the research firm Morningstar valued SpaceX at $63, representing a 53% discount to its IPO price. "Only the most optimistic Moonshot scenario, which requires a rapidly reusable Starship and commercially competitive orbital data centers, approaches the IPO price. The IPO price implies the Moonshot scenario is highly likely, but we think the outlook is very uncertain."
Elon Musk Admits He Was 'Clearly Wrong' About Anthropic -- and Promises Not to Weaponize SpaceXAI's Compute Access Against the Claude Maker: 'Not My Style'
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Elon Musk publicly reversed his earlier view of Anthropic on Thursday, saying he was "clearly wrong" to doubt the AI company and pledging not to use SpaceXAI's compute leverage to harm a competitor. Musk Calls Anthropic Current AI Leader "I was clearly wrong about Anthropic," Musk wrote on X. "They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon." TechCrunch reported that Musk was referring to his September 2025 post that said, "winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic." I was clearly wrong about Anthropic. They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon. And I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor.... -- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2026 Musk added that he would not cut off Anthropic's access in a damaging way, even though Anthropic competes with his own AI business. "I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor. That's not my style," he wrote. He cited Tesla's patent pledge, its decision to open the Supercharger network to rivals, SpaceX's pricing for competing satellite launches and X's tolerance for criticism as examples of what he called fair competition. "Even my worst enemies can attack me on this platform," Musk wrote. Anthropic Depends On SpaceXAI Compute Deal The exchange followed a claim on X that SpaceXAI now runs a frontier model competitive with Anthropic's Opus 4.8 while Anthropic depends on short-term compute leased from SpaceXAI. Anthropic signed a May deal for 300 megawatts of compute from xAI's Colossus 1 data center near Memphis, Tennessee, paying $1.25 billion a month through May 2029. SpaceXAI said in May that the partnership gives Anthropic access to Colossus 1, which includes more than 220,000 Nvidia GPUs and is designed for AI training, fine-tuning, inference and high-performance computing. SpaceXAI also said Anthropic plans to use the compute to improve capacity for Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers.
This Vanguard ETF Would Have Quadrupled Your Money Over the Last Decade. History Says Now Is a Smart Time to Invest. (It's Likely to Outperform SpaceX, Too.)
We're all looking for solid investments for our portfolios, right? It's easy to focus on big-name high-flying stocks, such as Nvidia or Micron Technology. But there's also some risk there, as many highfliers end up overvalued and poised to fall extra-hard in a market pullback. (And a market pullback is far from unlikely these days.) So permit me to suggest a terrific investment that you might not have taken seriously enough: a simple, low-fee S&P 500 index fund. A splendid example is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO). It's an exchange-traded fund (ETF) -- a fund that trades like a stock. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " Meet the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Like any good S&P 500 index fund, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF features low fees. While some actively managed mutual funds might charge you 1% or more of your assets each year, this fund charges 0.03% -- or just $3 annually for every $10,000 you have invested in it. It tracks the S&P 500, of course -- an index of roughly 500 of the biggest stocks in America. Together, they make up about 80% of the value of the entire U.S. stock market, which is why the S&P 500 is often used as a proxy for the total U.S. stock market. Together, the index's recent top 10 components make up about 38% of the index's value by weight. Here they are as of July 9: Data source: Slickcharts.com, as of July 9, 2026. Like many indexes, the S&P 500 is market-cap-weighted, with bigger companies wielding more influence than smaller ones. The fund has a solid record. Check out its average annual return over the last three, five, and 10 years (as reported by Morningstar on July 9): * Last three years: 21.26% * Last five years: 13.11% * Last 10 years: 15.36% Over the last decade, these compounded annual returns would have quadrupled your money. Why invest in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF? Here are several reasons to invest:
Could AI Pay Americans $1 Million Each? New Think Tank Forecast Sparks Jim Chanos' SpaceX Jab: 'Seems Reasonable'
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. The AI Futures Project, a non-profit initiative that forecasts the future of artificial intelligence, recently outlined a proposal for a citizen's dividend by the U.S. government following AI-induced unemployment. Citizen's Dividend to Provide $1 Million Per Person By 2035 In the AI 2040 Plan A, the non-profit says that by 2033, AI-induced unemployment would rise due to the advent of millions of AI agents boosting productivity. "Across a variety of companies, there are now 60 million AI agents running continuously at 20x human speed," the project said. The non-profit then mentions a plan that involves the American government distributing the "majority of compute and robot permit fees as a Citizen's Dividend... to all American adults." The plan mentions the dividend starting at $45,000 per person in 2032, but climbing to $1 million per person by 2035 and $10 million by 2040. The plan also predicts AI reaching a labor share of 85% by 2035. The initiative also predicts the U.S. government "distributing an average of $1,200 per person per year to the rest of the world's adult population" of around 4 billion people. The plan excludes China because it would be "experiencing a similar AI wealth boom." The plan says it will reach $10k by 2035. Earlier, OpenAI was reportedly offering the President Donald Trump administration a 5% stake in the company amid CEO Sam Altman's past proposal for a universal basic capital model that involved distributing a small share of AI-generated wealth. Jim Chanos Weighs In Taking to the social media platform X on Thursday, short-seller James Chanos weighed in on the predictions. "At about the same time $SPCX's valuation exceeds global GDP. Seems reasonable," he said, pointing to Space Exploration Technologies Corp.. At about the same time $SPCX's valuation exceeds global GDP. Seems reasonable. https://t.co/cdQb9SpHfR -- James Chanos (@RealJimChanos) July 9, 2026 Trending: Avoid the #1 Investing Mistake: How Your 'Safe' Holdings Could Be Costing You Big Time SpaceX to Be Worth More Than Earth The comments come as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said that the company would be worth more than the entire planet in the future. "You don't seem to understand that SpaceX will be worth more than the rest of Earth if we accomplish our goals," Musk had said.
Palantir CEO has a blunt verdict on OpenAI and Anthropic
Palantir posted the highest revenue growth rate in its history in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026. U.S. commercial revenue jumped 133%. The company raised its full-year guidance by 10 points. By any operational measure, things are going well. And yet Alex Karp walked onto CNBC's Squawk Box and started criticizing the entire foundation of the AI business model. He wasn't talking about Palantir's competitors in the traditional sense. He was talking about the companies whose technology his own platform runs on top of. "I'm not throwing shade at them," he told viewers, "but something has gone completely wrong." What Karp said about OpenAI and Anthropic on live television The problem, in Karp's telling, is tokens. The way OpenAI and Anthropic sell AI access, metered by token consumption, has created a dynamic he says enterprises are increasingly fed up with. "The basic view among enterprises in this country is I'm going to chillax and waste my time with tokens, I'm gonna get no value, and they're gonna get my IP," Karp told CNBC. When co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin said "that sounds like shade," Karp pushed back: "No, no. This is reporting." He said customers are shifting away from what he called "tokenmaxxing" toward open-weight models that deliver similar output at a fraction of the cost. The ROI conversation is changing. Enterprises are asking harder questions about what they are actually getting for what they are spending, and a lot of them are not liking the answer. Palantir's stock rose 8% that day. Before the interview, the company had published a 9-point "AI sovereignty" manifesto on X, setting the philosophical stage for what Karp was about to say publicly. Why Karp says data ownership is the real AI fight The deeper argument Karp made was about control. Enterprises and governments, he said, want to own their compute, their models, their data stack, and their alpha. The word he kept coming back to was ownership. "They want to know they own the means of production. It's not being transferred to someone else." That framing extended into territory that goes well beyond enterprise software. Karp said it would be "insane" to hand battlefield or government applications entirely over to AI labs, effectively outsourcing sensitive decisions to a small group of Silicon Valley companies operating by consensus.
J.P. Morgan Called a Potential Elon Musk SpaceX-Tesla Merger "Strategically Coherent"
Now that Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) trades publicly, Wall Street has started hunting for the next best thing: stocks that can ride its coattails. The most eye-catching call came from J.P. Morgan, whose analysts described a possible combination of SpaceX and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) as "strategically coherent on paper." That single phrase has revived a long-running fantasy among investors, and it's worth understanding what the analyst company actually means before treating any of these names as a back door into SpaceX. Why J.P. Morgan sees logic in a Tesla-SpaceX tie-up J.P. Morgan's argument is that Musk's companies already share engineering talent, an artificial intelligence ambition, and a common leader, so uniting them could let him run one integrated vision across cars, robots, energy, and space. The analysts also noted that SpaceX's blockbuster public debut gives Musk valuable stock to make a deal, and that his growing voting control at Tesla makes him better positioned to push one through. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " J.P. Morgan was careful, though, and so am I. It flagged real obstacles: securing regulatory approvals across many countries, especially China, where Tesla builds cars; the awkward gap between Musk's near-total control of SpaceX and his smaller stake in Tesla; and the likelihood that any deal would look like SpaceX swallowing Tesla rather than a merger of equals. "Coherent on paper" is a long way from "likely to happen." The other SpaceX-by-association plays Tesla isn't the only name catching the halo. Deutsche Bank started coverage of EchoStar (NASDAQ: ECHO) with a buy rating, framing it as a cheaper way to own SpaceX. EchoStar holds roughly $11 billion of SpaceX shares it received for handing over wireless spectrum, so the bank argues you're effectively buying SpaceX at a discount and getting EchoStar's other assets thrown in. The catch is serious: EchoStar's pay-TV subsidiary recently filed for bankruptcy, and the stock has tumbled. Then there's Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR), which, according to Bloomberg, has held talks with SpaceX about a consumer mobile phone service that would route some traffic through Charter's network. It's a genuine strategic fit, but it's only talk for now.
SpaceX Went Nowhere for a Month, but It Easily Beat Other Space Stocks
* SpaceX (SPCX) trades near its $150 opening price, but a flat price performance is a relative win when the broader space sector is down sharply. * Virgin Galactic (SPCE) crashed 45% and Rocket Lab (RKLB) fell 22% over the past month as sector rotation hammered speculative space names hard. * SpaceX's $1.96 trillion market cap and Starlink's global reach anchor the bull case, but its surrendered IPO pop and rich valuation are real risks. * Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks -- and Rocket Lab didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Shares of SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) are trading at $148 and change on Friday afternoon, essentially back where they opened one month ago. That flat tape looks dull on the surface, but against the rest of the space sector, it's the best performance in the group. SpaceX priced its debut at $135 but commenced trading at $150 on June 12, and has since round-tripped to basically the same price. That's disappointing, no doubt, but SpaceX's peers fared worse over the past month. The market cap of Elon Musk's space company sits at $1.96 trillion, making SpaceX one of the largest listings ever and by far the biggest name in the sector. That scarcity value may have helped to shield SPCX stock from the broader sector rotation. Peers Sold Off, SpaceX Held the Line It's been a challenging month for the space sector overall. Speculative, high-beta space names have been hit with profit-taking and cooling risk appetite over the past four weeks, though SpaceX evidently refused to participate on the downside. Over the trailing month, Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) is down 45%, Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) is down 40%, and Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) is down 22%. AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) is down 16%, and Planet Labs (NYSE:PL) is down 15%. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks -- and Rocket Lab didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. The takeaway isn't that SpaceX rallied, since it actually popped and dropped. Being flat versus the opening price still counts as a win in this hard-hit sector. The Space Sector Proxy Confirms the Rotation The Procure Space ETF (NYSEARCA:UFO) is down 10% over the same month, though it did cushion the space sector group's drawdowns with satellite operators and aerospace specialists. The UFO ETF is a narrow, volatile thematic fund with concentration risk, though it's not leveraged. The fund's top holdings include Planet Labs at 6% and Rocket Lab at 5%, both of which weighed on the UFO ETF.
SpaceX vs. the Last 5 Biggest IPOs in History. How Did Those Stocks Perform a Year Later?
Two notable trends continue to bolster the capital markets landscape. Of course, investor appetite for businesses in artificial intelligence (AI) remains robust. The view is that this is a groundbreaking technology that will have a meaningful impact on the economy. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " Additionally, the market is captivated by anything Elon Musk is working on. His grand visions drive excitement. These factors created the perfect backdrop for the most anticipated initial public offering (IPO) ever. On June 12, Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public. It raised $86 billion, after underwriters exercised their greenshoe option. The company currently sports a massive $2 trillion market capitalization. And the stock has traded 13% up from its opening price (as of July 9). The hype is hard to overstate. But how will SpaceX's shares perform over the 12-month period following its IPO? Investors can try to glean insights by looking at the five largest previous deals. A wide range of industries The five largest IPOs prior to SpaceX are ranked by the amount of capital raised. The list includes Saudi Arabian Oil ($26 billion raised in 2019), Alibaba Group ($22 billion in 2014), SoftBank Corp. (not the investment holding company) ($21 billion in 2018), NTT DoCoMo ($18 billion in 1998), and Visa ($18 billion in 2008). Investors will notice that these deals come from different industries. Whether it's energy, technology, communication services, or financial services, no single sector dominates. Their subsequent 12-month performances are a mixed bag. Saudi Aramco shares were down by a single-digit percentage. Alibaba's stock price tanked 30%. SoftBank's shares were up about 10%. NTT Mobile soared 68%. And Visa's stock was essentially flat one year later. These figures are all over the place. It's telling that these companies were able to raise such massive amounts of capital. However, the timing of their IPOs, as well as their competitive positions, management teams, and financial performance, all weighed on their respective stocks' performances. Based on these volatile numbers, investors can't come to a definitive conclusion about where SpaceX shares will be trading 12 months after its IPO. It's really a toss-up at this point.
Elon Musk's SpaceX Just Joined the Nasdaq-100. Now What?
Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) entered the Nasdaq-100 index on July 7, and investors will hope it provides additional support for an already successful initial public offering (IPO). But what does the index inclusion really mean, and what can SpaceX investors expect in the future? Where next for SpaceX? The Nasdaq-100 index inclusion does matter. It triggers forced passive buying of the stock by funds (including exchange-traded funds, or ETFs) that track the Nasdaq-100 index. In addition, many actively managed funds may invest only in stocks listed in the Nasdaq-100 index, and others may require holdings in SpaceX stock to meet their fund's weighting requirements. All of this is likely to provide some support for the share price. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " While this will occur, investors also need to be mindful of periodic bouts of selling as SpaceX's lock-up expiry dates approach. Digging into the company's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings makes it clear that the potential for periodic supply hitting the market is real. For reference, around 639 million shares were sold at IPO, and SpaceX has 13.17 billion shares outstanding. Data source: Space Exploration Technologies SEC filings. As you can see, significantly more shares could come to market than were sold at IPO, and that could prove more impactful than the Nasdaq-100 listing. Should you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies, consider this:
Palantir CEO: "Something Has Gone Completely Wrong" With OpenAI and Anthropic
* Karp slammed OpenAI and Anthropic's token model as broken while PLTR posted 85% revenue growth and raised full-year guidance to 71%. * Palantir expanded its NVDA partnership for custom government AI models as enterprises like UBER push back on runaway token costs. * Despite explosive growth, PLTR trades at 91x forward earnings and is down 29% YTD, with Michael Burry holding puts on 5 million shares. * This lithium producer surpassed a $1B private valuation, joining some of America's most powerful startups. Now you can invest in EnergyX alongside global giants like General Motors, but only through July 16. (sponsor) Palantir CEO Alex Karp used a July 1 appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box to criticize the closed-model AI economy. He told viewers that when it comes to OpenAI and Anthropic, all is not well inside the AI boom. "I'm not throwing shade at them, but something has gone completely wrong." Shares of Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) rose 8% that day as Karp reframed the AI debate around token economics and data ownership. The Quote That Moved the Stock Karp's argument was that businesses are exhausted by paying for tokens. As he put it: "The basic view among enterprises in this country is I'm going to chillax and waste my time with tokens." According to CNBC's Samantha Subin, Karp took aim at the token model used by OpenAI and Anthropic as AI costs skyrocket. He further argued customers are shifting away from "tokenmaxxing" toward ROI and open-weight models that deliver similar work at a fraction of the cost. July 16 is the Final Day to Tap Into the Lithium Boom (sponsor) General Motors, POSCO, and 50,000+ everyday investors have already backed lithium producer EnergyX. Here's why you should do the same before their July 16 investment deadline: lithium prices are up 75% this year, with demand projected to grow a staggering 5X by 2040. With tech that can recover up to 3X more lithium than traditional methods, EnergyX is preparing to unlock up to 15M+ tons. Become a private-stage EnergyX investor before the July 16 deadline. Ahead of the interview, Palantir posted a 9-point "AI sovereignty" manifesto on X. Earlier that week, the company expanded its partnership with Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) to build custom models for U.S. government agencies. Karp's framing of that alliance was revealing: "What aligns me with Nvidia, and I think is what the technical customers want, which is control over their compute, their models, their data stack and their alpha. They want to know they own the means of production. It's not being transferred to someone else."
Jim Cramer: "Anthropic Is the Winner Now" as Enterprises Move to Slash Tech Budgets in Half
* Cramer called Anthropic the enterprise AI profit winner as CRM sinks 37% and MU surges 233% on exploding memory demand. * Starbucks evaluating a 50% cut to its $400 million tech budget signals every SaaS incumbent faces imminent re-underwriting. * Chinese open-source AI models pose the biggest threat to Anthropic's pricing power if CFOs find cheaper tokens that clear their ROI bar. * Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks -- and Salesforce didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. On CNBC's Squawk on the Street on July 9, 2026, Jim Cramer argued that the real profit engine of the enterprise AI wave sits at the model layer, which is collecting the checks hyperscalers are writing. "Anthropic is the one that's actually making a lot of money doing some work on Salesforce," Cramer said, going on to call the company "the winner now" even as he added, "I don't like them. They're bullies. Anthropic. They're doing very well." Cramer paired the Anthropic call with a warning that enterprise software budgets are about to get squeezed. He cited Starbucks, which under CEO Brian Niccol is spending roughly $400 million on tech and evaluating cuts of up to 50%. If large customers like Starbucks are willing to review major tech spending and consider deep cuts, SaaS incumbents may face the tougher question of whether AI agents will generate enough new revenue before they start replacing old software seats. The Three AI Spending Buckets: Cybersecurity, Memory, and Tokens Cramer leaned on a framework he attributed to Key analyst Jack Snader: enterprises are funneling AI dollars into three categories, in order: cybersecurity, memory hardware, and tokens. "They're calling in George Kurtz," (CrowdStrike's CEO) Cramer said of the first wave. "Cyber... cybersecurity. And then next is actually hardware. And that's why we see Micron go up." He also flagged that Anthropic salespeople have been told to throttle back due to token constraints, a demand signal that speaks louder than any guide-up. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks -- and Salesforce didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Salesforce Is Caught in the Budget-Cut Crosshairs Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) sits directly in the crosshairs of the Starbucks-style budget review. Marc Benioff's defense is Agentforce, which he described as "the biggest growth opportunity for our customers, and for Salesforce." The numbers back the pivot: Agentforce ARR hit $1.2 billion in Q1 FY27, up 205% YoY, with combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR of roughly $3.4 billion. The stock tells the other side of the story CRM shares are down 36.79% year-to-date and 38.60% over one year, trading around $162. Investors are asking whether agents will replace seats faster than Salesforce can monetize them.
Trump Praises SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell's 'Extreme Generosity' After Her $325 Million Trump Accounts Stock Donation
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. President Donald Trump expressed his gratitude to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband, Robert Shotwell, for their donation of SpaceX stock to help children achieve the American Dream through the Trump Accounts. Late Wednesday, Trump took to Truth Social to acknowledge the Shotwells' $325 million contribution of SpaceX stock. He praised the couple's "extreme generosity" and highlighted the positive impact their donation will have on thousands of children. Trump Accounts Gain Support The President's post came in response to Shotwell's announcement that she and her husband would donate SpaceX shares to "Trump Accounts" for more than 2 million American children. The gift is intended for children aged 11 to 17 from lower-income households, with a particular focus on those living near the Shotwells' central Texas home. The Shotwells' donation comes as part of the Invest America program, which aims to provide financial support to children in need. The funds are automatically invested in an S&P 500 index fund, and additional contributions can be made by families, employers, and other parties up to $5,000 annually. See Also: Avoid the #1 Investing Mistake: How Your 'Safe' Holdings Could Be Costing You Big Time Trump's recognition of the Shotwells' contribution comes after he expressed confidence that CEO Elon Musk might also donate SpaceX stock to the program. The president has expressed confidence in his relationship with Musk, despite past disagreements over electric vehicle mandates. The donation adds Gwynne Shotwell to a growing list of wealthy supporters of Trump Accounts. Michael and Susan Dell of Dell Technologies Inc. pledged $6.25 billion to provide $250 to 25 million children, while Ray Dalio and his wife Barbara committed at least $75 million for over 300,000 children in Connecticut. Ray Dalio has said the program can help teach young people about finance, investing and capitalism. According to Robinhood Markets Inc. CEO Vlad Tenev, the growth of Trump Accounts has outpaced that of many of America's most successful tech companies. As of June, nearly 6 million children had enrolled in the program.