Chip stocks had their worst session in years. Meta financed a $14B data center off its balance sheet. Coke hit an all-time high. Visa cut 7% of staff. The Fed decides tomorrow.
Chips Collapsed. The Dow Rotated Right Past It.
The Nasdaq closed down. The Dow closed up sharply. That gap is the whole story.
Investors sold chip stocks and bought everything AI had left behind. Consumer staples, materials, and healthcare led gains. Nvidia (NVDA) fell again. Micron (MU) dropped double digits. Corning (GLW) had its worst session since 2002.
WTI settled near $79, down sharply on the continued Iran diplomatic pause.
The Signal
Rotating out of chips into forgotten sectors is not minor repositioning. It is the market repricing the entire AI trade before the Fed decides tomorrow. Coca-Cola (KO) hitting an all-time high while memory stocks crater is the clearest possible version of that signal.
90% of AI Runs Through This Company
The biggest AI wins often come from companies you don’t hear about every day.
Case in point:
The database provider now embedded into the big three cloud platforms - with access to 90% of the market.
You’ll find the name and ticker of this newly-minted giant in our 7 AI Stocks to Invest in Today report, along with:
• The chip giant holding 80% of the AI data center market.
• A plucky challenger with 28% revenue growth forecasts.
• A multi-cloud operator with high-end analyst targets near $440.
Plus 3 other AI stocks set to take off.
AMD Down 10%. Corning's Worst Day Since 2002. The AI Trade Broke.
The U.S. chip selloff deepened the Asian session losses. AMD (AMD) fell roughly 10%. Intel (INTC) dropped about 8%. Micron lost more than 10%. Sandisk (SNDK) fell around 17%.
Corning beat both earnings and revenue estimates. It still dropped 16% because guidance was not raised. That is the new bar. The AI trade now requires upgrades, not beats. Corning had multibillion-dollar deals with Meta and Nvidia. None of it mattered.
The optical networking layer broke alongside it. Ciena (CIEN), Lumentum (LITE), and Coherent (COHR) each fell double digits.
What's Moving
- ASML (ASML) extended losses on reports China is producing its own chip-making machines
- Memory prices expected to peak in 2027 per Standard Chartered analyst call
- Apple (AAPL) briefly hit a $5 trillion market cap as Nvidia fell below it, it continues to serve as the tech infrastructure hedge
- AMD and Core Scientific (CORZ) announced a 500-megawatt data center deal
The Read
Corning beating estimates and falling 18% is the signal. The AI trade is no longer pricing growth. It is pricing whether growth justifies valuation. Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) capex commentary tomorrow either resets this or confirms it.
Meta and BlackRock Locked In $14 Billion. AI Debt Hit $270 Billion.
Meta and BlackRock (BLK) formalized their El Paso data center venture. BlackRock takes 80% for $4.9 billion in cash. Meta contributes $2.3 billion in land and keeps 20%. A BlackRock holding company then issues $12.5 billion in bonds to fund the rest. Meta gets a $1 billion distribution back.
Meta's balance sheet shows a lease, not a $14 billion capex line. That is exactly the point. AI-related bond supply has hit $270 billion this year, nearly double all of 2025. The bonds priced half a point wider than Meta's similar Louisiana project last year.
The Signal
Meta told bankers it needs hundreds of billions more and is in talks with Blackstone for additional funds. Tomorrow's Meta earnings are the first time investors can ask directly how much of the $600 billion commitment is already structured off-balance-sheet.
FREE Gold Ticker to Buy ASAP: (NYSE:___)
Jim Rickards – the world’s #1 gold expert – has just revealed one of his favorite gold plays… 100% FREE
As Jim sees it, we’re witnessing the biggest gold boom of the last 100 years – and those who keep their money on the sidelines are missing their chance at a fortune thanks to gold’s epic run.
But smart investors who get in now, could make 10X their money in the coming months.
Coca-Cola Hit an All-Time High. The Middle-Income Consumer Is Holding.
Coke beat earnings, raised guidance, and closed at a record. Global volume grew 5%. North America volume grew 3% during a quarter with gas above $4.50 and tariffs pushing prices higher. That is not what a breaking consumer looks like.
PepsiCo (PEP) warned of tightening budgets in Q2. The gap between Coke and Pepsi names the divergence as brand-specific, not category-wide.
What's Moving
- Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume climbed 16% in the quarter
- Mr. Pibb relaunch drove 20% volume growth for the brand
- Unilever (UL) jumped after raising its full-year outlook
- Stock up more than 20% year to date, closing at a record high
The Read
A consumer still spending through $4.50 gas and Section 301 tariffs does not justify a September dovish pivot. Coke's record high made the Fed hawks' case more persuasive today, not less.
Visa Cut 7% of Its Workforce. Stablecoins and AI Agents Are the Reason.
Visa (V) cut 2,600 jobs. Most hit technology and product teams. CEO Ryan McInerney cited agentic commerce and stablecoins as specific threats to Visa's core model.
Visa is not restructuring because business is bad. It is restructuring because the infrastructure underneath payments is changing. AI agents that execute transactions autonomously and stablecoin rails do not need a card network the same way.
The Read
Visa cutting its technology team while naming stablecoins and agentic commerce is the clearest signal that card networks see near-term structural threat. Mastercard (MA) reports tomorrow. Similar language there confirms this is industry-wide.
Ticker Revealed: Pre-IPO Access to the "Next Elon Musk" Company
We’ve found The Next Elon Musk… and what we believe to be the next Tesla.
It’s already racked up $26 billion in government contracts.
Peter Thiel just bet $1 Billion on it.
And you can get exposure — pre-IPO — through a 4-letter ticker symbol revealed in this free briefing.
A Startup Spent 63% of Its Funding on Compute. China Is Now Making Chip Tools.
Recursive Superintelligence signed a $410 million compute deal with Amazon Web Services (AMZN). It raised $650 million in May and immediately committed 63% to a multi-year AWS contract. Its CEO called it "likely one of the smallest" deals it will sign in coming years.
That ratio, 63 cents of every fundraising dollar going straight to compute, names AI training infrastructure as the primary bottleneck, not talent.
Running alongside it: Reuters confirmed China has begun producing its own immersion DUV lithography machines, the kind ASML dominates. About five tools this year. Roughly 20 planned for next year.
What's Moving
- Recursive CEO said products will be visible by October, months not years
- AWS is co-developing purpose-built infrastructure alongside the deal
- China's DUV machines are headed to SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, and CXMT
- ASML China accounts for roughly 16% of the Dutch company's total revenue
The Read
China producing its own chip-making tools while the U.S. threatens Entity List sanctions on Chinese AI companies is the specific hedge Beijing is building. The more progress China shows in chip tooling, the weaker the Entity List threat becomes as leverage.
Chips had their worst session in years. Meta financed $14 billion off its balance sheet with $270 billion in AI debt already issued this year. Coke hit a record while memory stocks cratered. Visa restructured for a world without card rails. Health care and financials hit all-time highs while chips hit May lows.
The Fed decides tomorrow. Every one of these stories reads differently by Wednesday evening.
