Business
Which Musk Stock Is the Better Buy in 2026?
With SpaceX now trading publicly alongside Tesla for the first time in history, investors face a genuinely new decision: choosing between two Elon Musk-led companies that occupy very different points in their corporate life cycles, carry sharply different valuations relative to their current profitability, and may even end up merged into a single entity within the next year. Here’s what the numbers actually show.
Where the Two Stocks Stand Right Now
Tesla and SpaceX stock price comparisons are now a real public-market exercise, since SpaceX listed under the ticker SPCX on June 12, 2026. Tesla is a mature public stock; SpaceX is a newly listed public stock with fresh IPO momentum. The two companies attract similarly high investor attention, but they are being judged on entirely different criteria. Tesla is being judged on execution and margins. SpaceX is being judged on IPO demand, scarcity value, and whether its public valuation can be supported by long-term fundamentals.
That distinction showed up clearly in trading data following the listing. On June 16, 2026, Tesla’s stock experienced a decline of 1.6%, closing at $404.66. Meanwhile, SpaceX saw a significant surge, increasing nearly 5% to $201.80 per share. The market capitalization of SpaceX has now surpassed $2.6 trillion, compared to Tesla’s nearly $1.8 trillion.
The Valuation Gap Surprised Many Observers
Perhaps the most striking fact in this comparison is that SpaceX, a company with no history as a public stock until just over a week ago, has already surpassed Tesla in total market value. The targeted SpaceX valuation, somewhere between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, was notable because it would put SpaceX above Tesla on day one of trading. That range proved conservative — the rocket and satellite specialist’s market cap has since climbed well beyond even that ambitious target.
So how does a company that lost approximately $4.9 billion last year leapfrog an automaker generating more than $22 billion in quarterly revenue? The answer has less to do with rockets than with what the rockets put into orbit — namely, the combination of Starlink’s growing satellite internet business and the broader artificial intelligence ambitions now consolidated within the company following its merger with xAI.
Tesla’s Case: Profitability Pressure, but a Pivot Toward AI
Tesla’s bull case increasingly rests on a transformation story rather than its traditional electric vehicle business. Tesla’s soaring capital expenditures are projected to yield only $2.06 in earnings per share in 2026, resulting in a price-to-earnings ratio above 160 — a figure highlighting the market’s heavy reliance on future growth rather than current profitability.
That capital spending reflects a deliberate strategic shift. Tesla’s first-quarter 2026 results showed negative free cash flow as the company increased capital expenditure toward a guided $25 billion for the year, primarily for AI compute and robotaxi fleet infrastructure. First-quarter revenue rose 16% to $22.4 billion, but vehicle deliveries of 358,023 missed expectations, with management telling investors the company’s near-term focus is shifting away from pure vehicle volume growth.
The company also weathered its first full year of declining annual revenue. The electric vehicle and energy company just emerged from its first year of annual revenue decline, with 2025 sales falling for the first time in its history as a public company — a notable setback that has pushed analysts toward valuing Tesla increasingly on its autonomous driving and robotics ambitions rather than its traditional car business.
SpaceX’s Case: Scarcity, Starlink, and Unproven AI Bets
SpaceX’s bull case centers on different fundamentals entirely. SpaceX’s newly consolidated artificial intelligence segment, which folds in xAI following a February merger that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion, lost $6.4 billion in 2025 and another $2.5 billion in the first quarter. The company has said it expects to begin deploying orbital AI compute satellites “as early as 2028” — a timeline that places much of its AI ambitions several years into the future.
Critically, only a small fraction of SpaceX’s total shares are currently available for public trading, a dynamic that has amplified price swings in both directions. The successful IPO raised $75 billion and achieved a market cap exceeding $2.1 trillion, with less than 5% of shares available for trading, reflecting both strong insider confidence and intense market demand for the limited float available.
One analyst offered a blunt assessment of the disconnect between SpaceX’s current price and its underlying financials. The numbers at $200 per share do not independently justify the current price. SpaceX lost $4.9 billion in 2025 and $4.28 billion in Q1 2026 alone. Its only profitable segment, Starlink, is excellent, but even a generous standalone valuation for Starlink produces a fraction of the current market cap.
The Merger Wildcard
Perhaps the single biggest variable hanging over any comparison between the two stocks is the possibility that they may not remain separate investments for much longer. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has put the probability of a confirmed Tesla-SpaceX merger at 80 to 90% for the first half of 2027 — a scenario that, while not confirmed and still firmly in the rumor category, has been treated as a live possibility by enough analysts that it belongs in any honest accounting of what could change the investment thesis for either stock.
Separate commentary has noted that a potential SpaceX-Tesla merger, while speculative, continues to attract institutional attention given SpaceX’s target valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion — a figure that, if a merger were to occur, could meaningfully reshape the combined entity’s overall risk and growth profile in ways that are difficult to predict from today’s vantage point.
Analyst Price Targets Reflect Genuine Disagreement
Wall Street’s formal coverage of both stocks shows a wide range of opinions, reflecting genuine uncertainty about how each company’s specific growth bets will play out. Third-party Tesla stock forecasts range from $364 to $600 as of early June 2026, reflecting disagreement over the pace and profitability of the company’s transition from a pure electric vehicle manufacturer toward AI and robotics.
For SpaceX, one valuation model places the company’s GF Value, a fair-value estimate, at $287.69 against a current trading price of $404.66 for Tesla specifically — suggesting Tesla itself may be roughly 41% overvalued by that particular methodology, even before factoring SpaceX into the comparison.
What “Both” Would Mean for an Investor
For investors considering holding both stocks rather than choosing one, it’s worth recognizing that both companies remain deeply intertwined through Musk’s leadership, overlapping technology bets in AI and robotics, and the looming possibility of an eventual corporate combination. That overlap means an investor holding both stocks is not necessarily achieving the diversification that holding two genuinely unrelated companies would typically provide — a consideration worth weighing given how closely both stocks’ near-term performance may end up tracking similar underlying catalysts, from AI infrastructure spending to Musk’s own public statements and strategic decisions.
The Bottom Line
There is no universal answer to which stock represents the better buy, and the dramatic disagreement among professional analysts — with Tesla price targets spanning from $364 to $600, and SpaceX’s valuation already exceeding even the high end of its own pre-IPO targets — reflects how genuinely unresolved the investment cases for both companies remain. Tesla offers a longer public track record but faces real questions about near-term profitability amid its costly AI and robotics pivot. SpaceX offers explosive growth potential tied to Starlink and orbital AI infrastructure but carries a valuation that, by several analysts’ own admission, isn’t yet supported by current financial results.
As with any investment decision, particularly one involving two stocks this volatile and this closely tied to a single individual’s leadership and public statements, it’s worth doing your own research, considering your personal risk tolerance and time horizon, and consulting a qualified financial advisor before making a decision — this overview is meant to lay out the facts and competing perspectives, not to tell you what to do with your money.
Business
Publix expands GreenWise frozen berry recall amid E coli outbreak
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Publix is recalling all lots of its GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries sold across eight states over concerns they may be contaminated with E. coli, expanding an earlier recall tied to a single lot of frozen blueberries.
The Lakeland, Florida-based grocery chain said Wednesday it is voluntarily recalling all lots of the frozen fruit products “out of an abundance of caution” after public health officials’ trace back and epidemiological investigation linked them to a multistate E. coli O145 outbreak.
The recalled products were distributed to Publix stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The company said it implemented an internal stop sale at the end of June, and the products remain unavailable for purchase.
ABOUT 1.5M RECHARGEABLE HAND WARMERS RECALLED AFTER 1 DEATH, HUNDREDS OF BURN INJURIES REPORTED

A package of Publix GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries is shown. Publix recalled all lots of its GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries over potential E. coli O145 contamination. (FDA / Unknown)
The expanded recall follows a July 3 recall by Chilean supplier Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. involving a single lot of GreenWise Organic Blueberries. Publix said it broadened the recall to include all lots of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries based on information gathered during the ongoing public health investigation.
Customers are being urged not to consume the recalled products and should either throw them away or return them to any Publix store for a full refund. The affected products are GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries in 10-ounce packages (UPC 41415-06453) and 48-ounce packages (UPC 41415-12053), along with GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries in 10-ounce packages (UPC 41415-06753) and 48-ounce packages (UPC 41415-12153).
According to the Food and Drug Administration, Escherichia coli O145:H28 is a Shiga toxin-producing strain of E. coli that can cause severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that may be bloody and vomiting. While most healthy people recover within about a week, some infections can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially serious complication that is more likely to affect young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.
POPULAR GROCERY CHAIN RECALLS COOKIES IN 9 STATES AND DC AFTER LABELING ERROR

A package of Publix GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries is shown. The retailer expanded its recall to all lots of the frozen berry products following a public health investigation into a multistate E. coli outbreak. (FDA / Unknown)
FOX Business reached out to Publix for additional comment, including whether any illnesses have been linked to products sold at its stores and what prompted the company to expand the recall to all lots. Publix did not immediately respond.

The entrance to a Publix Super Market on July 30, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Customers with questions can contact Publix Customer Care at (800) 242-1227 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. Additional information about the outbreak investigation is available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Publix, the largest employee-owned company in the U.S., operates more than 1,400 stores across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Business
Grand designs on CBD spaces
Perth’s new city architect is on a mission to communicate the value of design.
Business
Ocoopa recalls 1.5M hand warmers after 350 burn injuries, death
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Ocoopa Direct is recalling about 1.5 million rechargeable hand warmers following hundreds of burn injuries and one reported death.
The lithium-ion batteries in the recalled products can overheat and catch fire, posing a risk of “serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards,” according to a notice Thursday from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Ocoopa Direct has received 1,480 reports of the hand warmers overheating, including 15 fires and 350 burn injuries, the CPSC said.
POPULAR GROCERY CHAIN RECALLS COOKIES IN 9 STATES AND DC AFTER LABELING ERROR

Ocoopa Direct has received 1,480 reports of the hand warmers overheating, including 15 fires and 350 burn injuries, the CPSC said. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)
An 83-year-old consumer in San Diego died in February after an incident involving one of the hand warmers, according to the agency.
The recall covers Ocoopa rechargeable hand warmers with model numbers UT3053, UT3056, ZLS-118, ZLS-118S, ZLS-118D, H01 and H01(PD).
The hand warmers were sold in various colors and designs, according to the CPSC.
BROOKLYN ROASTING COMPANY RECALLS COLD BREW SOLD IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY OVER BOTULISM RISK

The lithium-ion batteries in the hand warmers can overheat and catch fire, posing a risk of “serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards.” (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)
“The dual-sided, rechargeable hand warmers were sold in varying colors and designs, in packs of two warmers that can magnetically be joined and with a charging cable,” the announcement noted.
The products were sold online through Amazon, Ocoopa and Walmart between September 2018 and May 2026 for $15 to $60.
TARGET, KROGER, MEIJER FRUIT PURÉE POUCHES RECALLED OVER PLASTIC RISK: FDA

The products were sold online through Amazon, Ocoopa.net and Walmart.com between September 2018 and May 2026 for $15 to $60. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)
“Consumers should stop using the recalled hand warmers immediately and contact OCOOPA Direct for a full refund in the form of an Ocoopa gift card or the original form of payment,” the announcement said.
The CPSC also warned consumers not to throw the recalled products in the trash or place them in regular recycling or battery collection bins.
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For more information about the recalled products, visit the CPSC’s website.
FOX Business reached out to Ocoopa Direct for comment.
Business
Amazon Stock: Growth Acceleration Sends A Huge Message (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Jonathan Weber holds an engineering degree and has been active in the stock market and as a freelance analyst for many years. He has been sharing his research on Seeking Alpha since 2014. Jonathan’s primary focus is on value and income stocks but he covers growth occasionally. He is a contributing author for the investing group Cash Flow Club where along with Darren McCammon, they focus on company cash flows and their access to capital. Core features include: access to the leader’s personal income portfolio targeting 6%+ yield, community chat, the “Best Opportunities” List, coverage of energy midstream, commercial mREITs, BDCs, and shipping sectors,, and transparency on performance. Learn More.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of GOOG, MSFT either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Business
Thames Water boss says leakage targets ‘not realistic’
Water companies have performance commitments on issues such as leakage.
It is illegal to release raw sewage into rivers and seas during “normal” weather conditions, but firms are allowed to do so when it rains heavily, to prevent homes being flooded.
Thames is the UK’s largest water company, supplying water and wastewater services to 16 million customers across London and parts of southern England.
Speaking to the BBC’s Big Boss Interview podcast, Weston said the company treats 4.3 billion litres of waste a day, and “99.5% of the time” it gets treated successfully, although “sometimes something goes wrong”.
“We want to do better when it comes to pollutions,” he said, but added, “the targets that the company is expected to make are not realistic.
“[For example], we have to hit a certain level of leakage, but it is so far in excess of what we are capable of doing, I think anyone would be capable of doing, however much money you invested, that it is not going to be achievable.”
The chance of getting to zero pollution was “very, very slim”, he added.
Ofwat told the BBC: “With around a fifth of water put into supply still lost through leakage, companies must deliver on the commitments they have been funded to achieve.
“Water company targets are intended to be ambitious and drive better outcomes for customers and the environment.”
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “[We] and the public expect Thames Water to comply with the law,” adding that the agency would continue to hold companies to account where performance falls short.
James Wallace, chief executive of campaign group River Action, said: “Thames Water’s tactics of opacity and deflection fool no-one. Telling the public to save water while this wasteful profit-obsessed corporation leaks 570 million litres of treated drinking water every day is offensive.
“There is nothing ‘realistic’ about accepting sewage pollution as inevitable. The choice is simple: keep propping up a failed privatised financial model, or put Thames Water into special administration and rebuild it as a public utility serving customers, rivers and the public.”
Business
What the Winner Would Take Home
The Powerball jackpot climbed to $707 million after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday night, making it the second-largest lottery prize awarded so far this year, though the eventual winner will end up taking home considerably less once taxes and deductions are applied.
Wednesday’s drawing produced the numbers 30, 36, 40, 42 and 57, along with a red Powerball number of 2. With no winning ticket sold, the jackpot rolls over and grows ahead of the next scheduled drawing on Saturday night.
Whoever eventually wins the jackpot will face a choice between two payout structures. The winner can select the full $707 million prize distributed across 30 annual installments, or opt for a one-time lump-sum cash payment of $309.7 million, the option most lottery winners historically choose given the immediate access to funds it provides.
Either path comes with a substantial tax bill. If the winner selects the cash option, a mandatory 24% federal withholding tax is applied immediately, reducing the $309.7 million prize to $235.4 million. Because lottery winnings of this size push winners into the highest federal tax bracket, the winner would likely face an additional marginal tax rate as high as 37% depending on their overall taxable income, further reducing the final payout to approximately $195.1 million.
Winners who instead choose the 30-year installment option would receive annual payments of roughly $23.5 million before taxes, a figure that drops to approximately $14.8 million per year once the top 37% federal marginal tax rate is applied to each installment.
State taxes add another layer of variation to how much winners ultimately keep, depending on where they live. Some states, including New York, tax lottery winnings at rates as high as 10.9%, while other states, including Texas, Florida and California, do not tax lottery winnings at the state level at all, meaning a winner’s home state can meaningfully affect their final take-home amount regardless of which national payout option they select.
This week’s drawing marks the first time UK lottery players have had the opportunity to win the Powerball jackpot, following an expansion that began last week allowing British players to participate in the U.S.-based game. Lottery officials have said the addition of UK ticket sales to the overall prize pool is expected to produce faster-growing jackpots over time, since a larger pool of participating players across both countries increases how quickly unclaimed prize money accumulates between winning drawings.
The rules differ somewhat for UK winners specifically. If the Powerball jackpot winner turns out to be a UK ticket holder, they will not have the option to select the lump-sum cash payout available to U.S. winners, and can only receive their prize distributed across the standard 30 annual installments. The advertised jackpot amount for UK players is listed separately at £377 million, or approximately $503.5 million, a figure that appears notably lower than the $707 million U.S. prize. According to the UK National Lottery, that lower advertised figure reflects the estimated total a UK-based winner would actually receive over the full 30-year payout period, after accounting for currency exchange rate fluctuations and UK-specific tax requirements applied to the winnings.
Wednesday’s rollover keeps the Powerball jackpot on track to become the second-largest completed lottery prize of the year, behind only the $800 million Mega Millions jackpot claimed by a Florida ticket buyer earlier this week. The largest Powerball jackpot actually won so far in 2026 stands at $250.8 million, claimed by a lottery player from Arkansas.
The odds facing anyone attempting to win the Powerball jackpot remain extraordinarily long. A single ticket faces roughly 1-in-292.2 million odds of matching all the numbers required to claim the jackpot, a figure that is itself slightly worse than the already remote 1-in-290.4 million odds associated with winning the Mega Millions jackpot, the other major multistate lottery game played across the United States.
Despite the astronomically long odds, both Mega Millions and Powerball continue to draw significant public interest whenever their jackpots climb into the hundreds of millions of dollars, driven in part by extensive media coverage of rising prize totals and the relatively low cost of purchasing individual tickets compared with the potential winnings on offer. Ticket sales for both games have historically accelerated sharply as advertised jackpots grow larger, a pattern that has repeated again this week as the Powerball prize has climbed toward its current $707 million total following Wednesday night’s rollover.
With no winner emerging from Wednesday’s drawing, attention now turns to Saturday night’s Powerball drawing, when the jackpot is expected to grow further still if once again no ticket matches all six numbers, continuing a stretch that has already produced one of the largest prize totals of the year across America’s two major national lottery games.
Business
Apple warns of future ‘supply constraints’ for Mac, iPhone, iPad
Apple spooked Wall Street on Thursday with a warning it would likely take a “significant” hit from expected supply constraints for some of its popular products.
Shares in the company fell in after- hours trading by more than 7%, even as Apple showed a 16% increase in revenue to $109b (£81b) thanks in part to unexpectedly high iPhone sales, and a 26% increase in profits to $29b.
Outgoing chief executive Tim Cook said while certain supply constraints had already shown up this year with the availability of Mac computers, that was expected to worsen. It will also spread to affect iPhone and iPad products.
“We’re seeing some very significant constraints currently with limited flexibility in the supply chain to remedy it,” Cook said.
One of the supply constraints was in key chip components of Apple’s products, the firm said.
Devices such as Macs and iPhones require microprocessors with “advanced nodes” – essentially computer chip technology that allows them to operate more quickly – most of which Apple has manufactured through TSMC, which is based in Taiwan.
However, Cook insisted that the core issue was unexpected demand, mainly for iPhone and Mac products. Sales of those products grew 22% and 25% respectively during the June quarter.
Earlier this year, Apple said its iPhone 17 was so in demand that its launch was the biggest in the company’s history.
“This is not a regular supply issue, it’s a demand forecast issue to be candid,” Cook added. “We’ve got a quarter ahead where we’ll be scrambling on the supply side.”
Apple also noted that its gross margin, or the amount of money it keeps from every sale, was 2% larger than it otherwise would have been during the last three months because of tariff refunds. That would mean the company received roughly $1.1b in such refunds, according to calculations by the BBC.
Cook said Apple intended to “reinvest the tariff refunds into the US”.
The company previously said, external it intended to put $600b toward building out more domestic manufacturing over the next four years. China is currently the largest manufacturer of Apple’s products.
Cook also addressed Apple’s impending public relaunch of Siri, an AI assistant that the company has seemingly struggled to make competitive in an era of proliferating AI chatbots from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
While the new version of Siri AI is still in public beta, essentially a testing phase before broader release, Cook said it is part of “an enormous opportunity for Apple going forward in AI.”
“The ability to run on device is also very strategic, and sort of a competitive weapon, if you will,” Cook said.
He added that negotiations with authorities in the European Union about releasing the new version of Siri are ongoing with the goal of making it available “to everyone, everywhere at the same time.”
Business
KOSPI Falls for a Third Consecutive Day as Even Samsung’s Record Earnings Fail to Halt the Selloff Today
South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index fell for a third straight session Thursday, extending one of the steepest market corrections in the country’s history even as Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly earnings, underscoring how deeply investor anxiety over artificial intelligence spending and semiconductor valuations has come to dominate trading in Seoul.
The KOSPI closed at 5,593.56, down 69.68 points, or 1.23%, after briefly attempting to reclaim the 6,000-point threshold earlier in the session. The index opened higher, up 18.53 points, or 0.33%, at 5,681.77, and at one point in the morning posted gains of more than 5%, before that momentum reversed and losses deepened through the afternoon. The KOSPI has now dropped 1,162.19 points, or 17%, over the past three trading sessions alone.
The tech-heavy KOSDAQ index fared even worse Thursday, closing at 644.78, down 17.90 points, or 2.70%, marking its own third consecutive daily decline. Trading throughout the day showed extreme intraday volatility across both indexes, reflecting continued uncertainty about the semiconductor sector even as some investors moved to buy shares they viewed as oversold following the market’s historic recent selloff.
The session’s central paradox centered on Samsung Electronics, which reported record second-quarter earnings but still could not lift the broader index. Samsung’s semiconductor division posted operating income of 89.2 trillion won, or roughly $62 billion, more than 250 times higher than the prior year and modestly ahead of analyst estimates, driven by surging demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence hardware. Samsung shares themselves rose 1.44% on the news. But SK Hynix, the country’s other dominant chipmaker, told a starkly different story, falling 9.6% even after also reporting record profits, as investors focused instead on the company’s earnings falling short of the loftier expectations that had built up around AI-related chip demand. Both chipmakers together account for roughly half of the KOSPI’s total market capitalization, meaning SK Hynix’s decline weighed heavily on the broader index even as Samsung posted gains.
By sector, the session showed a notable split between more defensive, domestically focused industries and technology-linked stocks. Pharmaceuticals rose 3.51%, chemicals gained 2.56%, metals climbed 2.49%, transportation equipment and parts advanced 2.19%, and insurance stocks added 1.96%. On the other side of the ledger, electrical and electronic stocks fell 3.08%, medical precision instruments dropped 2.10%, and manufacturing declined 1.83%, reflecting continued pressure specifically within technology and chip-adjacent sectors even as other parts of the Korean economy showed relative resilience.
Investor flows offered a somewhat more encouraging signal beneath the headline index decline. Foreign investors were net buyers of Korean shares Thursday, purchasing a net 1.3329 trillion won worth of stock, marking the first session in four trading days that foreign investors posted net buying on the main exchange. Institutional investors also bought a net 66.6 billion won in shares. Individual retail investors, by contrast, were net sellers, offloading a net 1.4199 trillion won worth of stock, suggesting that larger institutional players may have viewed the recent sharp declines as an opportunity to accumulate positions even as retail sentiment remained more cautious.
Thursday’s session capped a month of extraordinary volatility for Korean equity markets more broadly. The KOSPI dropped below 8,000 points on July 2, triggering an automatic sell-side sidecar that briefly suspended program trading on KOSPI-listed shares within minutes of that day’s opening bell, part of a pattern of trading halts that has already made 2026 a record year for market volatility in South Korea, surpassing even the sidecar and circuit breaker activity recorded during the 2008 global financial crisis.
Regulators have moved to address the volatility directly. Beginning July 31, the basic deposit requirement for single-stock leverage products will rise to 30 million won from the previous 10 million won, a change market participants will be watching closely to see whether it succeeds in reducing the intraday volatility that has repeatedly gripped large-cap semiconductor stocks and the broader KOSPI throughout the year.
The broader selloff in Korean chip stocks has tracked similar turbulence in U.S. markets, where the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.66% in the session preceding Thursday’s Korean trading, and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF lost 5.4%, with U.S. memory chipmakers Micron Technology and Sandisk each falling more than 10% amid renewed concerns about memory chip pricing and oversupply. That transpacific link between American and Korean chip stock performance has become increasingly pronounced this year, as global investors reassess the sustainability of the capital spending surge tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure.
With the KOSPI now trading at its lowest level since early April, according to data from Trading Economics, and both Samsung and SK Hynix having posted record earnings without providing a durable lift to the broader index, market watchers said the coming days are likely to remain volatile as investors continue weighing genuinely strong underlying chip industry profitability against mounting concerns about whether current valuations across the sector have run too far ahead of what near-term demand can sustainably support.
Business
Nebius Group Shares Surge 31% After $1 Billion AI Compute Deal and Microsoft’s Cloud Earnings Beat Today
Shares of Nebius Group soared 30.72% in Thursday morning trading, climbing $45.53 to $193.75, after the artificial intelligence infrastructure company announced a major new computing power deal and rode a wave of bullish sentiment sparked by Microsoft’s blockbuster cloud earnings results.
Nebius, a Netherlands-based “neocloud” provider that offers graphics processing unit-based AI computing capacity to enterprises and AI-native companies, said it had signed a multiyear agreement worth more than $1 billion to sell computing power to Reflection AI, with the deal running through 2029. News of the agreement sent shares climbing more than 4% in premarket trading, before the stock’s gains accelerated dramatically once regular trading began Thursday morning.
The rally builds on additional momentum from Microsoft’s quarterly earnings report, released Wednesday afternoon, which showed the technology giant’s cloud business growing at its fastest pace in years. Microsoft reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $90.01 billion, up 18% year over year and above the $87.62 billion analysts had expected. Microsoft Cloud revenue climbed 27% to $59.3 billion, while revenue from Azure and other cloud services surged 43%, an acceleration from 40% growth in the prior quarter. Azure’s annual revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time in the company’s fiscal 2026, up 41% year over year. Because Nebius operates as a smaller peer to hyperscale cloud providers like Microsoft’s Azure, Microsoft’s strong results have reinforced investor confidence that underlying demand for AI computing infrastructure remains robust, a dynamic that has directly benefited smaller, more specialized providers like Nebius.
Thursday’s surge caps an extraordinarily volatile stretch for Nebius shares over recent weeks. The stock has swung dramatically, running from the low $180s in mid-July to above $220, before sliding sharply back down to close near $148 on Wednesday, a steep correction that traders said reflected a rapid shift in sentiment from euphoria to caution. The stock’s 52-week range spans from a low of $50.00 to a high of $299.86, illustrating the scale of volatility that has characterized Nebius shares throughout the year.
The company has drawn significant investor attention in recent months due to its high-profile relationship with Nvidia. Nvidia disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it owns 22,256,412 shares of Nebius through common stock and prefunded warrants, amounting to a 9.3% equity stake in the company valued at roughly $5 billion at the time of the disclosure. That stake, revealed publicly on July 20 through an SEC 13G filing dated July 13, sent Nebius shares up nearly 19% in a single session when the news first emerged. Nvidia and Nebius had previously announced a strategic partnership in March, when Nvidia committed a $2 billion investment intended to help Nebius deploy more than 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity by the end of the decade.
Nebius has continued to expand its roster of major technology partnerships beyond Nvidia. The company has announced multibillion-dollar infrastructure deals with technology giants including Microsoft and Meta Platforms, and has said it has already secured more than $40 billion in total contracted revenue from customers across its business, a figure the company expects to grow substantially further as demand for AI computing infrastructure continues expanding.
Not every recent development has been positive for the stock. Meta Platforms’ disclosed plans to sell excess AI computing capacity of its own rattled sentiment toward smaller neocloud providers like Nebius in recent weeks, contributing to a sharp pullback in the stock of between 12% and 15% at one point, though at least one analyst characterized that decline as an overreaction. Separately, a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data center construction in New York state has introduced additional regulatory uncertainty into the company’s expansion plans, though some analysts have suggested the restriction could simply redirect Nebius’s growth toward other, more accommodating states rather than meaningfully constraining the company’s overall trajectory.
Nebius has continued posting substantial revenue growth even amid the stock’s dramatic price swings. The company reported revenue of $530 million for the prior fiscal year, a significant increase from $92 million the year before, and turned a profit of $102 million, reversing a loss of $641 million from the previous year. Over the trailing 12 months, Nebius has generated $878 million in total revenue, according to recent financial data, with the broader neocloud infrastructure market projected to exceed $53 billion by 2030.
Despite the company’s strong revenue growth trajectory, some analysts have flagged Nebius’s valuation as a significant risk factor for investors. With a market capitalization of approximately $50 billion prior to Thursday’s rally, the stock has traded at more than 70 times trailing earnings and more than 50 times sales at various points this year, multiples that some market observers describe as reflecting elevated valuation risk given the stock’s history of dramatic price swings tied to individual news events.
Nebius has also drawn attention as a favored trading vehicle among retail investors active on social media platforms, with the stock’s wild price swings repeatedly tracking spikes in attention from communities such as WallStreetBets, reinforcing its reputation as a high-beta, momentum-driven stock closely tied to shifting sentiment around the broader artificial intelligence infrastructure trade.
With Nebius scheduled to report its own second-quarter earnings soon and additional major technology earnings still due later this week, investors are likely to continue watching closely whether the current wave of positive catalysts, spanning the new Reflection AI deal, Microsoft’s strong cloud results and continued validation from Nvidia’s equity stake, can help stabilize the stock’s notoriously volatile trading pattern in the sessions ahead.
Business
Modi charisma key factor in BJP’s bid to retain all 26 seats in Gujarat
Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on May 7. Counting of votes will be held on June 4. Anti-incumbency, unemployment, inflation, education and healthcare facilities are some of the other important issues in the election, where the ruling BJP in Gujarat will attempt to retain all the 26 Lok Sabha seats it won in 2019.
Gujarat is among the states which will play a crucial role in deciding the outcome of the elections to the Lower House of Parliament. In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party won all the 26 seats in the state.
Here are some issues that will play a decisive role in the elections in Gujarat:
PM Narendra Modi’s charisma: The ruling BJP has a trump card in the form of the prime minister, who hails from Gujarat and was its chief minister from 2001 to 2014 before occupying the top post of the country. His sway over the followers in his home state is still intact.
Anti-incumbency: Observers feel that the opposition will try to take advantage of any anti-incumbency sentiment during the last 10 years of BJP rule at the Centre. They feel that “floating voters” who do not vote on the basis of ideology can be swayed by the opposition if they offer proper alternatives.
Inflation: Low and middle-income households are the worst-affected in terms of the effects of inflation. So this will be a decisive factor considering how the price rise has impacted the lives of people in the last 10 years. The opposition has been constantly targeting the Modi government over this issue.
Unemployment: This is another point that the opposition parties have been using to hit out at the Centre. Since this issue directly affects the lives of common people, this will be high on the mind of voters when they exercise their franchise. Lack of basic education and health facilities in remote areas: If school classrooms are constructed in remote rural areas, there is a dearth of teachers. The lack of primary health centres and doctors also adversely affects health services in rural pockets. Farmers’ issues: Issues like lack of adequate compensation for crop loss due to excess rains, non-availability of fertilisers and land acquisition for project development will also play a major role in affecting voter sentiment, the observers said.
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