Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) have recently provided fresh evidence that High-NA EUV lithography is advancing in commercial manufacturing. At the SPIE Photomask Technology + Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography conference, the two companies announced several updates related to this technology and next-generation chip production.
While the update offers evidence of High-NA's manufacturing readiness, Intel faces a financial test about whether production improvements translate into better foundry returns. For ASML, it is whether greater manufacturing readiness ultimately leads to broader customer adoption and demand.
According to the companies, more than one million wafers have now been processed using High-NA EUV across early tool certification and testing, research and development efforts, and volume production on select layers for a subset of Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 processors, code-named Panther Lake.
The products that have been manufactured on Intel 18A using High NA for select layers continue to deliver performance, the companies noted, meeting or exceeding comparable layers patterned using the NXE platform.
This offers Intel early production experience with the technology. Back in July, ASML noted how Intel was the first company to ship a high-volume logic product manufactured using ASML's High NA EUV lithography technology.

#Intel #asml #technology #production

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Management is repositioning Brady from a classic industrial company to an industrial technology firm following the acquisition of Honeywell's Productivity Solutions and Services (PSS) business.
The acquisition immediately secures the number 2 market position in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) sector, expanding the addressable market to $14 billion.
Record performance was driven by 8.4% organic growth in the core business during the fourth quarter, while full year fiscal 2026 organic sales growth was 1.2%., particularly within wire identification for data centers and commercial construction.
Gross profit margin expansion of 110 basis points (adjusted) resulted from a shift toward high-margin printers and specialty adhesive materials, alongside benefits from prior facility consolidations.

#business #Margin #NVIDIA

Ares Management Corporation (ARES), headquartered in Los Angeles, California, operates as an alternative ******* et manager. Valued at $46.7 billion by market cap, the company invests in credit, real ******* ets, private equity, and secondaries market.
Shares of this leading global alternative investment manager have notably underperformed the broader market over the past year. ARES has declined 20.8% over this time frame, while the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has rallied nearly 20.5%. In 2026, ARES stock is down 12.6%, compared to the SPX's 12.1% rise on a YTD basis.
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#market #management #broader #corporation

Google (GOOGL) committed up to $40 billion to Anthropic, which is closing the competitive gap as OpenAI delays its public listing.
A $7 billion secondary share sale likely drove two senior OpenAI departures. Golden handcuffs tend to loosen once insiders can finally cash out.
OpenAI named Dali Rajic as replacement CRO the same day Dresser's exit broke, a deliberate move to preserve the IPO window.
Act now: the ******* yst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Google didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
OpenAI is on pace to reach annualized revenue of more than $40 billion, roughly double its run rate at the end of last year, and two of its senior executives just announced they are leaving. Those two facts are supposed to point in opposite directions. That they arrived in the same week is the story.

#Google #named #same

Sands Capital, an investment management company, released its "Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund" Q2 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the quarter, global equities rebounded sharply, with the MSCI ACWI posting its strongest quarterly gain since 2020, supported by broad market strength, easing geopolitical tensions, and continued enthusiasm for AI infrastructure. Information technology led the advance, with semiconductor and hardware companies accounting for most of the index's rise. The fund returned 26.9% (net) in the second quarter of 2026. The portfolio benefited from strong gains across memory, software infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other AI-related holdings, although its concentrated exposure to mega-cap chip designers and manufacturers weighed on relative performance as leadership broadened into CPUs, networking, and memory. Vertical software, internet, and financial holdings were modest detractors amid macro concerns and uncertainty over AI disruption. The fund remains focused on critical AI bottlenecks, including compute, memory, manufacturing, networking, and power, while retaining selected businesses that may use AI to strengthen their competitive positions. You can check the fund's top five holdings to learn more about its leading investment ideas for the year.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund highlighted Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX). Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX), an online gaming and virtual experience platform, supported by AI-driven innovation and infrastructure advantages, detracted from the performance this quarter. On August 7, 2026, Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) closed at $37.79 per share. The one-month return of Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) was -32.87% and its shares lost 72.42% over the past 52 weeks. Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) has a market capitalization of $27 billion.
Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund stated the following regarding Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
"Roblox Corporation (NYSE:RBLX) shares declined, reflecting more difficult user engagement comparisons and increased investment in safety features that pressured margins. We sold the business during the quarter. Roblox has strengthened its position as a platform since our initial investment, with engagement and monetization broadening beyond a small number of viral hit games. That progress drove a meaningful improvement in revenue growth and profitability. However, the stock has become more vulnerable to difficult comparisons following a surge in engagement, while incremental safety investments may weigh on near-term usage and monetization. Although we continue to see long-term potential in the business, we exited the position because the near-term setup had become less attractive relative to other opportunities."

#sands

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Management lowered full-year core FFO guidance primarily due to an upward shift in the forward SOFR curve, which reduced projected swap inflows by approximately $14.6 million.
Performance attribution is highly concentrated, with the Nashville market accounting for roughly 85% of the total same-store NOI reduction due to soft revenue and steep expense growth.
Operational efficiency improved through a centralized model and technology platform, leading to a 140 basis point reduction in the full-year same-store expense growth outlook.
The portfolio is benefiting from a significant affordability gap in the housing market, with the premium to own versus rent at 44% compared to a 17% long-run average.

#full #year #store #Growth

The Kroger Co. (KR), headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates supermarkets, multi-department stores, and fulfillment centers. Valued at $35.7 billion by market cap, the company offers meat, seafood, bakery, dairy, frozen, cleaning, kitchen, beverages, health, electronics, toys, vegetables, fruits, beauty, and household products.
Shares of this supermarket chain have underperformed the broader market over the past year. KR has declined 18.4% over this time frame, while the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has rallied nearly 21.8%. In 2026, KR stock is down 6.8%, compared to the SPX's 11% rise on a YTD basis.
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#market #cincinnati #valued #index

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Ares Management sees three major themes shaping the next phase of alternative investing: growing institutional demand for private credit, a rapidly expanding market for private equity secondaries, and artificial intelligence becoming a competitive advantage across investing and operations.
The comments came during the firm's second-quarter earnings call, where Ares reported record fundraising and said it is seeing improving deployment opportunities across credit, infrastructure and secondaries while increasingly using AI to improve investment decisions and operating efficiency.
Ares raised a record $36 billion during the quarter, pushing ******* ets under management to approximately $671 billion, up 17% from a year earlier, while fee-paying ******* ets climbed 17% to roughly $410 billion.
Don't Miss:

#ares #billion #across

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You thought gasoline prices have gone up? That's nothing compared with the soaring cost of memory chips, which have become not only incredibly expensive but also increasingly scarce relative to demand because of the AI buildout.
To see why, you only need to understand two things.
The first is compute, the most famous component of the AI buildout. In short, it's the hardware that provides the processing power to speed up AI and machine learning. As Big Tech hyperscalers and the major AI labs have raced to obtain as much processing power as possible for their more and more sophisticated advanced models, high-end hardware like Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) has become one of the world's most coveted resources. The demand transformed the semiconductor designer into one of the most profitable and valuable companies on earth.
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#daily #become #buildout #hardware

China's breakthrough in domestic chipmaking equipment sparked a major semiconductor sell-off, dragging down Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) despite strong fundamentals.
An announcement from a manufacturing facility in Shanghai on July 27, 2026, caused a severe summer downturn for the AI semiconductor market. State-supported Shanghai Aishengna reported the production of homegrown immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems for domestic fabrication facilities. It marks the first viable domestic substitute for technology ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) has exclusively controlled for twenty years, leading to an 8% decline in ASML's shares. But the loss did not stop here.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) fell over 8%, recording the steepest decline among its peers. The fall comes despite the core business metrics remaining steady. Merely a few months ago, the company reported a strong first-quarter performance, with earnings per share reaching $1.37, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29, and total revenue touching $10.25 billion against the forecasted $9.89 billion. Data-center revenue alone saw 57% year-over-year growth, reaching $5.8 billion. The 8% decline does not reflect a flaw in any of these fundamentals, because there were none.
Immersion DUV technology processes mature nodes. On the other hand, AMD's MI300 series and upcoming MI400/MI455X accelerators rely on TSMC's cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The related technology is exclusively supplied by ASML and goes beyond the current Chinese capabilities. Shanghai Aishengna's DUV equipment cannot produce these advanced accelerators. As such, their technology affects neither TSMC's supply chain nor AMD's pricing power. Additionally, Aishengna aims for just five units in 2026 compared to ASML's 130 in the same year. With EUV remaining inaccessible to domestic producers, investors' reaction is impulsive rather than based on an evaluation of the underlying technical reality.
The numbers remain solid even after the decline. Post-drop, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is trading near a forward P/E of 60 – approximately two times the industry median of 30x. Its EV/EBITDA is in the upper 80s, and its PEG is above 1.2 as compared to Nvidia at 0.5. Alongside these figures, AMD retains its position as the more expensive, lower-margin, second-place vendor. When valuation multiples carry the weight of a stock's worth, a sudden market shock will hit the stocks with the smallest safety margins the hardest. The fault is not with the company, but the elevated purchase price already set by investors.

#domestic #billion

The recent entry of Elon Musk's ***** eX (SPCX) into public markets has garnered investment interest on Capitol Hill, with half a dozen lawmakers taking stakes in the company, according to recently disclosed transactions.
The first apparent purchase was made by Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican and member of House Speaker Mike Johnson's leadership team. Her husband purchased between $100,000 and $250,000 in Musk's xAI in December 2025, before it was folded into ***** eX in February, giving the lawmaker and her family early exposure to the public debut on June 12.
SpaceX's initial public offering then saw five more lawmakers make purchases, according to the disclosures.
Rep. John James, a Michigan Republican, was first in, as his wife Liz bought between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of stock on the day of the IPO.
A spokesperson for the congressman told Yahoo Finance that "the James children are excited about ***** e exploration and Liz purchased stock for them through a brokerage firm, like other members of the public were welcome to do."

#lawmakers #Stock #elon

After years of record-breaking growth, major market indexes are stagnating. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is down 0.42% over the past month, as of this writing, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) has sunk by nearly 2% in that time.
Some market indicators are also raising red flags over valuations. The S&P 500 Shiller CAPE Ratio, for instance, is the highest it's been since the dot-com bubble, suggesting the index is trading at a premium. The Buffett indicator is also at a record high of 236%. For context, Warren Buffett himself noted that when this indicator nears 200%, investors are "playing with fire."
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 »
Now, this doesn't mean that a bear market is around the corner. But downturns are a normal part of the market's cycle, so it's not a matter of if we face a pullback, but when. Here's my number one piece of advice about how to prepare right now.
Volatility could be looming, but a century's worth of history proves one thing: The investors who win out are those who stay invested for the long haul.

#buffett

AirJoule Technologies: A Cool Shot at a Multibagger
Unilever (NYSE:UL) reported accelerating volume-led growth in the second quarter, prompting the consumer products company to raise its full-year outlook as it expects pricing to become a larger contributor in the second half.
Underlying sales rose 4.8% in the first half, including 4.2% from volume and 0.6% from price, Chief Financial Officer Srinivas Phatak said on the company's results call. Second-quarter underlying sales growth accelerated to 5.8%, driven by 5.5% volume growth, which management described as Unilever's strongest quarterly volume performance since 2010.
→ MarketBeat Week in Review – 07/20- 07/24
McCormick & Company Falls to Value Levels Income Investors Love

#volume #second #company

Nano Nuclear Energy (NASDAQ: NNE), as its name suggests, is designing microreactors. Picture, for a second, a nuclear reactor packed into a shipping container. That, in an image, is what Nano is trying to accomplish.
The company isn't earning commercial revenue from its reactors yet, nor does it have an NRC-approved design. As such, it's very much an early-stage nuclear company with high ambitions and plenty of "unknowns" that could ruin them.
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 near-term path for this nuclear stock will be more turbulent than comforting -- risk-tolerant investors only at this point -- but if you can hold fast without letting go, this nuclear stock could be a long-term winner, possibly even growing 15 times by 2040.
How could that happen? Let's run a quick scenario. Let's ******* ume Nano has 70 million shares outstanding (it currently has about 52.1 million, but dilution will likely happen). If those shares were worth about $250 apiece, the company would carry a $17.5 billion market cap. Now, supposing Nano trades at 5 times annual sales, then its annual revenue would need to be about $3.5 billion.

#NVIDIA #term #Stock

USA Rare Earth has named Serra Verde CEO Thras Moraitis as its next chief executive officer, signaling a leadership shift as the company moves toward completing its planned merger with the Brazilian rare earth producer and focuses on operational execution.
Moraitis will ******* ume the CEO role on October 1, succeeding Barbara Humpton, who will retire as chief executive and board director after leading the company's transformation into an integrated rare earths platform. Until then, Moraitis will serve as president of the combined company following the anticipated completion of the Serra Verde transaction by the end of August.
The company also appointed current board chairman Michael Blitzer as executive chairman, effective immediately.
The leadership change comes as USA Rare Earth advances its strategy to build a Western "mine-to-magnet" supply chain spanning mining, processing, metal production and permanent magnet manufacturing. The proposed acquisition of Serra Verde, announced earlier this year, is expected to give the company control of one of the few large-scale producers of key magnetic rare earth elements outside Asia, strengthening efforts to diversify global supply chains away from China.
Humpton, who joined the company in 2025, oversaw major strategic milestones, including public-private partnerships and expansion across critical minerals processing, metals and magnet manufacturing. She said the approaching completion of the Serra Verde deal makes this an appropriate time to hand over leadership as the company's priorities shift from building its platform to executing its growth plans.

Apple (AAPL) at a 33x forward PE offers just 0.2% ****** yst upside; American Express (AXP) is down 3% year to date and rates a Buy.
Coca-Cola (KO) has surged 20% year to date, doubling the S&P 500, leaving only 4.5% implied upside and making it a Hold.
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)
Three of Warren Buffett's most iconic holdings sit at very different crossroads right now. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at $314.86 is a Hold, American Express (NYSE:AXP) at $355.06 is a Buy, and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) at $83.08 is a Hold.
Berkshire Hathaway has been reshaping this trio. Apple was trimmed heavily, Coca-Cola was surpassed by Alphabet as the fourth-largest holding, and American Express is closing in on Apple for the top slot. Each stock now has to stand on its own numbers.

Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (NYSE:WAB) is one of the Best Railroad Stocks to Invest In According to Billionaires. As of Q1 2026, 20 billionaires held the stock. On July 8, Stephens resumed coverage of Wabtec with an Overweight rating and a $320 price target. The firm said the transport cycle was broadly improving and saw more fundamental upside than downside, with momentum potentially carrying into 2027. Stephens also said rising earnings could continue to command historically elevated valuation multiples.
A long freight train moving across the landscape, full of cargo transported by the company.
Wabtec's business gives it exposure to both new rail equipment and the aftermarket. According to its 2025 annual report, the company has an installed base of nearly 24,600 locomotives. Wabtec said this base creates aftermarket opportunities in replacement parts, technology upgrades, maintenance, overhauls, and modernization work. The company also noted that customers often look to original equipment suppliers for safety- and performance-related parts and upgrades. This gives Wabtec a revenue base tied not only to new locomotive deliveries but also to equipment already operating across global rail networks.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (NYSE:WAB), commonly known as Wabtec, provides equipment, systems, digital solutions, and value-added services for freight rail, transit rail, mining, marine, and industrial markets.
While we acknowledge the potential of WAB as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

We recently published Jim Cramer Insisted Recent AI Chip Selloff Wasn't A Bottom & Discussed These 17 Stocks. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is one of the stocks discussed by Jim Cramer.
While Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has been one of the hottest stocks in 2026, the shares have struggled recently. Over the year and year-to-date, the stock is up by 343% and 165%, respectively. However, in July, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)'s stock is down by 23%. On June 29th, Cantor Fitzgerald raised the share price target to $150 from $90 and kept a Neutral rating on the shares. As part of its coverage, the financial firm remarked that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) at the center of a generational semiconductor cycle driven by the booming demand for AI chips. Cramer discussed the recent movement in the shares and cautioned against reading into the dip too much:
"GEV, CAT, INTC–no top just a brutal rotation"
Aoris Investment Management discussed Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
"Customer needs evolve, and good businesses evolve with them. Those that don't are more vulnerable to technological change. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) perhaps knew more about microprocessors than anyone two decades ago, but it was rigid and inflexible in its thinking. With its belief that what matters most is the computational power of its chips, it missed the rising importance of battery life and with it, the vast opportunity in mobile phones."

M&A in the energy sector is soaring as developers of AI projects look to bypass the growing practical and regulatory hurdles to launching new power generation projects.
The total value of global energy M&A reached an estimated $217 billion in Q2, growing 62% from the prior quarter and nearly fivefold year-over-year, according to PitchBook's latest Global M&A Report. That figure lands just shy of the $220.3 billion record for the energy sector set in Q4 2023.
Deal count shows a more modest growth, rising roughly 13% year-over-year to an estimated 409. North America alone accounted for 77% of total deal value, at $166.9 billion.
The momentum was propelled by a mega-trend: the need to meet explosive electricity demand driven by the breakneck expansion of AI data centers.
It's now the largest driver of M&A activity in this sector, if not the only one, said KPMG partner Stephen Binz.

LM Funding America, Inc. (NASDAQ:LMFA) is one of the 8 Best Crypto Penny Stocks to Buy Now.
On June 24, 2026, LM Funding America, Inc. (NASDAQ:LMFA) announced a strategic expansion into high-performance computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company ordered its initial AI GPU server hardware for deployment at its Oklahoma facility and is marketing available power capacity at both facilities to qualified AI co-location and power hosting customers. The expansion uses LM Funding's 26 megawatts of wholly owned, operational power infrastructure, with average power costs of approximately $0.046 per kilowatt-hour.
In mid-May, LM Funding America reported financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2026. Total revenue was $2.1 million, down 10.9% sequentially and 11.1% year-over-year, with the sequential decline reflecting lower average Bitcoin prices. The company mined 26.1 Bitcoin during the quarter at an average price of approximately $75,700, compared with 22.0 Bitcoin in Q4 2025 at an average Bitcoin value of approximately $99,700 and 24.3 Bitcoin in Q1 2025 at an average Bitcoin value of approximately $93,600.
Image by drobotdean on Freepik
Mining margin was 24.1%, compared with 38.5% in Q1 2025. The company generated approximately $368,000 in curtailment and energy sales for the 2026 quarter, compared with $150,000 in Q1 2025. LM Funding also incurred a $3.8 million negative fair market value adjustment on mined digital ***** ets and a $3.2 million negative fair market value adjustment on Bitcoin collateral receivable in Q1 2026.