Key Highlights

• Alphabet’s Google is committing $15 billion to Missouri infrastructure development, featuring a major data center facility in New Florence within Montgomery County.
• The development will generate thousands of construction positions during the building phase and hundreds of long-term employment opportunities.
• Google has secured more than 1 gigawatt of fresh power generation in Missouri, with an additional 500 megawatts being developed alongside utility provider Ameren.
• According to 2025 Missouri law, Google must fund 100% of electricity and infrastructure expenses associated with the data center operations.
• A new $20 million Energy Impact Fund will be established by Google to assist in lowering residential energy expenses across nearby counties.

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL), has announced a $15 billion investment in Missouri infrastructure, marking one of the most substantial technology investments the state has ever witnessed.

Alphabet Inc., GOOGL

The investment focuses on constructing a cutting-edge data center in New Florence, located in Montgomery County. At the time of the public announcement, GOOGL stock experienced a 0.32% increase.

The development will create thousands of employment opportunities for construction workers throughout the building period. After completion, the facility is expected to maintain hundreds of full-time staff positions.

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe praised the announcement, noting it reinforces the state’s emerging position as a major destination for technology and innovation investments. In recent years, Missouri has been steadily attracting substantial infrastructure projects.

Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat indicated the company intends to combine the infrastructure expansion with workforce training initiatives and energy cost reduction programs.

Regarding power arrangements, Google has already secured contracts for over 1 gigawatt of additional generation capacity throughout Missouri. The company is collaborating with Ameren to develop another 500 megawatts of capacity.

Martin Lyons, Ameren’s Chairman and CEO, characterized the project as the most significant economic development undertaking in the utility’s Missouri operations — a notable declaration considering Ameren’s extensive presence throughout the region.

According to Missouri legislation enacted in 2025, Google must assume 100% of the electricity costs and infrastructure investments directly tied to the data center’s functions. This requirement protects local utility customers from shouldering these expenses.

$20 Million Fund for Community Energy Relief

In conjunction with the infrastructure investment, Google is establishing a $20 million Energy Impact Fund focused on communities within Montgomery, Clay, and Platte counties.

A portion of these funds will support residential weatherization and energy efficiency improvements administered through the North East Community Action Corporation. The remaining resources will finance construction apprenticeship programs and skilled trades education initiatives throughout Missouri.

The data center design prioritizes water conservation. Google states the Montgomery County installation will incorporate sophisticated air-cooling technologies, limiting water usage primarily to standard non-industrial applications such as kitchen facilities.

Artificial Intelligence Fueling Infrastructure Expansion

The magnitude of this investment demonstrates the escalating power and computing requirements driven by artificial intelligence technologies. Major cloud providers — Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta — have been allocating billions toward data center infrastructure throughout the United States.

Utility companies across the Midwest and Southeast regions have reported increased electricity demand projections directly attributed to this infrastructure expansion.

Google’s Missouri investment represents part of the broader competition to establish computing capacity before market demand exceeds available supply.

Ameren’s Lyons reaffirmed that this project stands as the largest economic development initiative in the utility’s Missouri operational history, emphasizing the facility’s substantial scale once it reaches full operational capacity.

Key Highlights

• SpaceX submitted its S-1 registration statement to the SEC, pursuing a valuation reaching $1.8 trillion
• The Starlink division delivered $11.4 billion in sales during 2025, representing roughly 50% growth compared to the prior year
• SpaceXAI and xAI operations recorded a $6.36 billion operating deficit in 2025, offsetting gains elsewhere
• Investment in Starship development has exceeded $15 billion, surpassing initial projections
• Elon Musk controls approximately 42% of SpaceX equity; a successful offering could elevate his wealth beyond $1 trillion

SpaceX has submitted its S-1 registration document to the Securities and Exchange Commission, formally launching its journey toward becoming a publicly traded entity on the Nasdaq exchange with the ticker symbol SPCX. The investor roadshow is scheduled to commence on June 5.

The aerospace manufacturer recorded $18.67 billion in total sales during 2025, while simultaneously reporting a net deficit of $4.9 billion. The opening quarter of 2026 showed $4.69 billion in revenue alongside a $4.3 billion net loss.

SpaceX maintains $102 billion in total assets against $60.5 billion in outstanding liabilities.

The organization is pursuing a market capitalization of up to $1.8 trillion, positioning it as potentially the most significant initial public offering in American financial history.

Elon Musk maintains ownership of approximately 42% of the company. Should SpaceX achieve a $1.6 trillion market value, his holdings alone would propel his personal wealth beyond the $1 trillion threshold, establishing him as humanity’s first trillionaire.

Starlink Powers Financial Performance

The Connectivity division, predominantly composed of Starlink operations, represents the primary revenue driver. This segment delivered $11.39 billion in sales throughout 2025, marking nearly 50% annual expansion, while generating $4.42 billion in operating profit.

During the first quarter of 2026, Starlink alone produced $3.26 billion in revenue with $1.19 billion in operating earnings.

As of March 2026, SpaceX maintained more than 9,600 satellites in orbital deployment serving 10.3 million paying customers.

The launch services operation, designated as the Space segment, contributed $4.09 billion in revenue throughout 2025 but operated at a $657 million deficit.

SpaceX has committed over $15 billion toward Starship development, its advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle, beyond original cost estimates. The Starship program is preparing for its twelfth test flight this week.

Artificial Intelligence Operations Drain Resources

The artificial intelligence division, designated as SpaceXAI and incorporating xAI technology, continues burning through capital rapidly. This unit recorded a $6.36 billion operating loss during 2025 and accumulated an additional $2.47 billion deficit in Q1 2026 alone.

Musk has indicated intentions to eliminate xAI as a separate entity and integrate AI capabilities directly under SpaceX corporate structure.

The registration document revealed that Anthropic, creator of the Claude AI assistant, has committed to $15 billion in annual payments for utilizing data center infrastructure connected to xAI facilities.

SpaceX and Tesla unveiled Terafab, a collaborative initiative focused on establishing internal semiconductor manufacturing capabilities to supply SpaceX satellite systems, Tesla automotive platforms, and xAI computing requirements.

The IPO documentation highlights numerous legal exposures, including litigation claiming Grok, xAI’s conversational AI system, enabled deepfake creation, along with intellectual property disputes, European Union content regulation proceedings, and cybersecurity breach allegations.

The forthcoming roadshow will provide SpaceX and its investment banking partners opportunity to present the offering to major institutional capital allocators before final pricing determination and commencement of public trading.

Fundamental Background

On 14–15 May, a high-level US–China summit took place in Beijing, where both sides discussed the potential easing of trade tensions and certain mutual concessions. Against a backdrop of positive expectations, the S&P 500 closed above 7,500 points for the first time, while the Dow Jones returned to the psychologically significant 50,000 mark.

At the same time, markets continue to feel pressure from US debt-related risks: the country’s credit rating remains below the highest tier, while the growing federal budget deficit and accumulated debt burden are increasing investors’ sensitivity to fiscal risks. The combination of trade optimism and budgetary vulnerabilities is creating a mixed and more volatile fundamental backdrop for the S&P 500.

Technical Picture

Since March 2026, the S&P 500 has remained in a medium-term uptrend, and between 29 April and 14 May it formed a new trending leg within the broader trend, reaching a peak around 7,520. The trend was subsequently broken, while trading volume increased noticeably, signalling heightened market participation. As a result of the standoff between equally matched buyers and sellers, the index has shifted into sideways movement and is currently determining its future direction.

The POC zone within the profile is concentrated around 7,385–7,390 — this is where the main area of confrontation is forming.

At present, the price remains above this zone (POC), but below the upper profile boundary at 7,425. Should the price resume its trend movement, the red resistance level at 7,455 may act as a limiting factor. The green support level at 7,345 remains a potential reference point should quotations move below the profile. RSI + MAs currently show readings of 51, 46 and 51 — the oscillator indicators remain in neutral territory, with no clearly defined directional momentum.

Key Takeaways

The index has completed its short-term bullish impulse and moved into sideways consolidation. RSI readings near neutral levels, without a pronounced directional impulse, reflect the current balance in the market — investors are weighing uncertainty surrounding trade negotiations against the backdrop of continued sensitivity to fiscal risks.

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MAPO, the native token of Map Protocol, has collapsed by 96% after attackers exploited the Butter Network cross-chain bridge to mint an enormous amount of unauthorized tokens.

According to blockchain security firm Blockaid, the attacker created a quadrillion MAPO tokens through a flaw in the bridge’s Solidity contract layer before dumping roughly 1 billion tokens into Uniswap liquidity pools. 

The sales drained around 52 ETH, valued at nearly $180,000, while the attacker continued holding close to a trillion MAPO tokens that could still threaten other liquidity pools and exchange markets.

CoinGecko data showed MAPO falling from about $0.003 to nearly $0.0001 within hours as the exploit overwhelmed the token’s legitimate circulating supply.

Map Protocol later confirmed that the issue originated from the Solidity contract implementation rather than compromised keys or failures in its light client infrastructure. The project said it had paused the mainnet and started a migration process while the investigation remains ongoing.

In a follow-up statement, the team said a new contract address and asset snapshot timeline would be announced separately. Tokens controlled by attacker-linked wallets would be excluded from future conversion events and invalidated during the migration process, according to the project.

Forged retry message triggered unauthorized mint

Additional analysis from Blockaid showed the attacker first submitted a legitimate oracle multisig-signed message before deploying a malicious contract at a targeted address. Afterward, the attacker resent what appeared to be an identical “retry” message, although the payload had been modified.

Because the bridge validated the manipulated retry request as authentic, the protocol executed the unauthorized mint and released the newly created MAPO tokens into circulation, according to Blockaid.

The firm said the exploit was not tied to stolen private keys or broken cryptographic verification. Instead, Blockaid described the incident as a “classic Solidity vulnerability involving multiple dynamic fields.”

Cross-chain bridge exploits tied to forged or improperly validated messages have surfaced repeatedly across the DeFi sector this year. Earlier this week, the Verus Protocol Ethereum bridge lost more than $11.5 million after attackers allegedly used forged cross-chain transfer instructions to siphon reserve assets from the protocol.

At the time, Blockaid compared the Verus incident to the 2022 Nomad Bridge and Wormhole exploits, where fake transfer payloads reportedly tricked protocols into releasing funds. ExVul later said the Verus exploit appeared to involve a forged cross-chain import payload that bypassed verification checks inside the bridge mechanism.

GoPlus Security separately stated that the Verus exploit was likely linked to a cross-chain message validation failure, withdrawal bypass issue, or access control weakness.

TON-TAC bridge recovers 80% of stolen assets

Elsewhere in the cross-chain bridge sector, TON-TAC, a bridge built as an extension for The Open Network, published a post-mortem Thursday covering its $2.68 million exploit from May 11.

According to the project, the incident originated from missing validation checks inside the sequencer software. A counterfeit TON wallet lacking proper code-hash and minter verification was reportedly accepted by the system, leading to another unauthorized token mint.

TON-TAC said recovery operations have secured nearly 80% of the affected assets. Even so, the bridge remains paused while an independent audit reviews the patched sequencer infrastructure and liquidity restoration process.

Map Protocol operates as an omnichain network that connects Bitcoin with ecosystems including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Tron, and Solana for cross-chain asset transfers involving Bitcoin, stablecoins, and tokenized assets.

Meanwhile, attacks targeting interoperability infrastructure have continued mounting across decentralized finance. Alongside the MAPO exploit, protocols such as THORChain, Transit Finance, TrustedVolumes, Echo Protocol, Ekubo, and RetoSwap have also reported security incidents in recent weeks.

Singapore’s central bank has pulled the crypto payment license of Bsquared Technology Pte. Ltd., stripping the firm of its right to provide digital payment token services after uncovering a series of breaches.

In a Wednesday announcement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it revoked Bsquared’s Major Payment Institution Licence after an on-site inspection found weaknesses in the company’s risk management practices and conflict-of-interest policies, as well as failures to comply with the regulator’s outsourcing guidelines.

MAS said Bsquared provided false or misleading information on multiple occasions, from its initial license application through the inspection itself.

Bsquared, also known as BSQ, obtained its license 16 months ago after receiving approval to offer digital payment token services under Singapore’s Payment Services Act 2019.

Related: Singapore’s OCBC launches tokenized gold fund on Ethereum and Solana

MAS orders Bsquared to submit a closure certificate

The company is required to submit a closure certificate from its auditors confirming that all customer funds have been returned to their recipients. Bsquared told MAS it held no outstanding customer assets.

“MAS takes a serious view of the breaches committed by BSQ, and is reviewing the responsibilities of key officers of BSQ,” the central bank added.

MAS revokes Bsquared’s license. Source: MAS

MAS has granted 37 digital payment token services licenses so far, and revocations remain uncommon. Last year, MAS rejected an application from AmazingTech, the operator of Tokenize Xchange, and the Commercial Affairs Department subsequently launched a probe into the company.

Related: Crypto dispute over Resupply exploit lands in Singapore harassment court

Singapore pushes deeper into digital asset infrastructure

Singapore has built a reputation as one of Asia’s leading crypto hubs, home to regional offices of Coinbase and Ripple, as well as the global headquarters of Crypto.com.

The city-state is also cementing its position as a leading hub for integrating traditional finance with digital assets.

Last month, Singapore Gulf Bank launched a service allowing institutional clients to mint and redeem stablecoins directly from their bank accounts via the Solana blockchain, enabling 24/7 settlement between fiat and digital assets.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026

Binance has launched perpetual futures that allow users to trade the anticipated valuations of private companies before they go public. The first contract to go live is tied to SpaceX, a company expected to debut at a valuation of $2 trillion or more.

The “Pre-IPO Perpetual Contracts” are designed to provide retail traders with early exposure to high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs), a market segment historically reserved for institutional investors and venture capital firms. The first listing, SPCXUSDT, will be margined and settled in the dollar-pegged stablecoin tether USDT$0.9992 and is based on the expected market valuation of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX).

The move marks the expansion of Binance’s derivatives product suite into traditional finance territory.

“Pre-IPO perpetual futures is another example of how Binance is democratizing access to market opportunities by combining crypto-native infrastructure with major financial events. As interest in public listings continues to grow, we’re giving users a more flexible way to engage with anticipated IPOs earlier,” Shunyet Jan, head of spot and derivatives business at Binance, said in the press release shared with CoinDesk.

“This launch reflects our vision for Binance as a financial super app — one that offers access to an expanding range of financial opportunities that have traditionally been more difficult to reach,” Jan added.

These pre-IPO contracts are built on the same perpetual futures rails used for crypto trading. Before a company’s public debut, the contract price will reflect publicly available signals, such as private funding rounds and announced IPO price ranges. Once the stock begins trading on a secondary exchange, the contract will transition to reflect the shares’ live market performance.

SpaceX filed its S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, disclosing holdings of 18,712 BTC at a cost basis of roughly $35,000 per bitcoin. The filing also revealed $4.69 billion in first-quarter revenue and a $4.28 billion net loss and suggests at a possible Nasdaq debut next month.

Traders on the decentralized betting platform Polymarket are pricing in more than a 70% chance that the IPO will ultimately close above $2 trillion. Reuters reported that SpaceX is targeting a valuation of around $1.75 trillion for its planned listing.

Binance’s recent listing of SpaceX pre-IPO futures follows comparable offerings from OKX, Crypto.com, and Hyperliquid’s Trade.xyz. Trade.xyz’s SpaceX perpetual futures launched on May 18 with a reference price of $150 per share, implying a $1.78 trillion valuation, and generated an impressive $33 million in trading volume on the first day alone.

The growing number of SpaceX pre-IPO markets may be taking capital and, more importantly, attention away from major cryptocurrencies.

It could be more than a coincidence that bitcoin’s price rally ran out of steam at around $80,000 a week ago and prices have since pulled back to under $78,000.

Traditional market analysts are concerned that SpaceX’s upcoming IPO, expected to be the largest stock debut in history, could divert significant capital away from other segments of the U.S. market, including European IPOs.

Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster captured the sentiment on X, noting that SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO filing on Wednesday “sucked the air out of the NVDA quarter,” even as the AI chipmaker delivered blowout quarterly earnings. Nvidia shares still ended the day flat at $220.60.

“Yes, NVDA crushed earnings,” Munster said. “But SpaceX’s positioning as a sovereign AI company offers a more compelling long-term (10-year) growth story.” He added that Nvidia and SpaceX together could reach a combined market capitalization of $7 trillion.

Key Highlights

• Nvidia exceeded Q1 earnings projections with adjusted EPS of $1.87 versus the Street’s $1.77 expectation, while revenue reached $81.6B against a forecast of $79.19B.
• The company’s Q2 revenue outlook of $91B significantly surpassed analyst predictions of $87.36B.
• Management authorized an $80B stock buyback initiative and dramatically increased its quarterly dividend from 1 cent to 25 cents per share.
• Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, introduced the “Vera” CPU platform, positioning it as an entry point into a $200B addressable market with projected sales of $20B by fiscal year-end.
• Shares declined approximately 1.6% during after-hours sessions as market participants assessed intensifying competition from proprietary chip development.

Nvidia’s shares settled at $223.47 during Wednesday’s regular trading session ahead of its post-market earnings announcement. The stock retreated roughly 1.6% in after-hours activity despite delivering impressive financial results.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

The chip giant recorded fiscal first-quarter revenue of $81.62B, surpassing the analyst consensus of $78.86B. Adjusted earnings per share reached $1.87, exceeding the Street’s $1.77 projection by ten cents.

The company’s data center segment generated $75.2B during the quarter, outpacing the $72.8B estimate. This division continues to serve as Nvidia’s primary growth driver.

For the current quarter, management issued guidance of $91B with a 2% variance in either direction, comfortably beating Wall Street’s $87.36B projection. The upper boundary suggests potential revenue approaching $92.8B.

The company unveiled an $80B share repurchase authorization while simultaneously raising its quarterly dividend payment from 1 cent to 25 cents—representing an extraordinary 2,400% increase.

Vera CPU Launch Targets Massive New Opportunity

During the earnings conference call, Jensen Huang highlighted Nvidia’s newly announced “Vera” central processing unit, describing it as an entry into a $200B total addressable market. The executive stated that Nvidia anticipates generating $20B in Vera-related revenue by the conclusion of the current fiscal year.

Importantly, this $20B projection was excluded from Nvidia’s previous $1 trillion revenue estimate that encompassed Blackwell and Rubin AI accelerators through 2027. Huang indicated that Vera is expected to emerge as the company’s second-largest revenue generator outside that trillion-dollar framework.

“All of our customers are quite excited about Vera,” Huang stated during the analyst call.

However, he acknowledged a significant challenge. “My sense is that we’ll be supply-constrained through the entire life of Vera Rubin,” he noted, referencing the integrated platform scheduled for release later this year.

To address potential supply chain bottlenecks, Nvidia’s supply commitments expanded to $119B in Q1, marking an increase from the previous quarter’s $95.2B.

Rising Competitive Pressures

The after-hours price decline appears linked to mounting concerns among investors regarding custom chip development by Nvidia’s largest customers.

Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft are projected to allocate more than $700B toward AI infrastructure investments in 2025, representing a substantial increase from approximately $400B in 2024. A meaningful portion of these expenditures is directed toward proprietary semiconductor solutions aimed at decreasing dependence on Nvidia’s products.

Intel and AMD are simultaneously expanding their presence in the inference chip space, which is gaining prominence as artificial intelligence workloads transition from model training to deployment and execution.

Nvidia has responded proactively. Earlier in March, the company introduced a new central processing unit and AI system incorporating technology from Groq, a startup specializing in inference-optimized chips.

Huang highlighted an emerging subsector within the data center business—AI-focused cloud service providers—where revenue levels matched those from major hyperscale operators while demonstrating superior sequential growth. “We should be growing faster than hyperscale capex,” Huang remarked.

According to InvestingPro data, Nvidia has received 34 upward EPS revisions against just one downward revision over the past 90 days, with the platform assigning its financial health an “excellent performance” rating.

The stock has appreciated 17.73% during the previous three-month period and has gained 69.55% year-over-year.