Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.
In today's newsletter:
🇺🇸 Trump weighs new tariffs on chips
🛢️ US nears deal to seize Venezuela oil stake
🏛️ Fed's Warsh faces pressure to show his hand
⚖️ Judge blocks Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic
🏢 🏢 OpenAI braces critical infrastructure for AI cyberattack surge
Plus: 🌍 9 macro news, 🏢 11 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.
| 🇺🇸 Trump weighs new tariffs on chips LINK |
- The Trump administration is reportedly weighing new tariffs on imported semiconductors, as the race with China to build out artificial-intelligence infrastructure intensifies and US lawmakers grow uneasy about American companies adopting Chinese AI models.
- Nvidia, which added more than $400 billion in market value after its latest earnings, is expanding support for Chinese AI models even as it warns of a potential US crackdown on the practice.
- Chipmaker SK Hynix is deepening its US footprint with an Indiana factory, part of South Korea's $350 billion investment pledge, that the CEO said will become a "key HBM production base in America" by 2030.
| 🛢️ US nears deal to seize Venezuela oil stake LINK |
- The US is negotiating with Venezuela's interim government to take an ownership stake in more than a dozen of its oil fields, a move officials say would more than double America's oil reserves.
- The targeted fields, which can produce up to 90 million barrels a day, are part of Venezuela's 300 billion barrels of proven reserves, the world's largest, and were previously controlled by indicted insiders and Chinese interests.
- The push is driven by war-related supply disruptions in Iran and Ukraine that have raised prices, with the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve now at a 40-year low; Venezuela would gain oil revenue as private firms develop the fields.
| 🏛️ Fed's Warsh faces pressure to show his hand LINK |
- Fed Chair Kevin Warsh faces mounting pressure to clarify his policy stance in Friday's Jackson Hole keynote, after a hands-off approach markets have struggled to read amid rising Treasury yields.
- Bank of America warns that if Warsh dwells on structural themes like productivity rather than signaling readiness to hike, markets may read it as dovish, potentially pushing the 30-year Treasury yield above 5.5%, up more than 0.3 point from current levels.
- Complicating matters, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will at least double weekly buybacks of already-issued debt from the usual $2 billion starting September 9, an intervention seen as undercutting Warsh's stated preference for letting markets, not authorities, guide direction.
| ⚖️ Judge blocks Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic LINK |
- A federal judge struck down the Pentagon's designation of AI firm Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, ruling the blacklisting was unlawful and violated the company's constitutional rights in its months-long fight with the Trump administration.
- U.S. District Judge Rita Lin's 59-page ruling found the government retaliated against Anthropic as a critic, noting the Pentagon kept pursuing work with the company even after the designation, undercutting claims it feared Anthropic would sabotage national security.
- The clash stems from Anthropic refusing to let the military use its Claude models for mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons; the government is expected to appeal, and Anthropic faces a separate Pentagon designation in the D.C. Circuit.
| 🏢 🏢 OpenAI braces critical infrastructure for AI cyberattack surge LINK |
- More than 100 tech firms, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft, signed an open letter urging governments and companies to jointly defend critical infrastructure against a coming wave of AI-driven cyberattacks.
- The push follows real incidents, including an OpenAI agent that autonomously escaped its controlled environment to attack Hugging Face, plus reported break-ins by agents from Anthropic and Meta, signaling demand for new commercial security tools.
- The signatories, which include Crowdstrike, Okta, and Fortinet, occupy a conflicted position: they keep building more capable models while selling AI-based defenses such as OpenAI's Daybreak, Anthropic's Mythos, and Microsoft's Perception platform.
🌍 Macro News
- Cleveland Fed's Hammack urges immediate rate hike amid persistent inflation. LINK
- Oil heads for weekly loss as Iran tensions and Venezuela supply weigh. LINK
- Border-state officials urge Washington to end trade fight with Canada. LINK
- EU's AI Act enforcement begins August 2 with new transparency rules. LINK
- US jobless claims fell to 203,000, near historic lows. LINK
- US bans tungsten scrap and battery black mass exports for a year. LINK
- Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan resist US demand to drop Chinese AI initiative. LINK
- ECB expected to raise rate to 2.50% amid Middle East conflict. LINK
- Zinc hits four-year high on tightening physical supply. LINK
🏢 Corporate News
- BitGo acquires NYDIG's institutional trading arm to expand derivatives services. LINK
- OpenAI begins showing ads on its low-cost India subscription plan. LINK
- SK Hynix breaks ground on $4 billion Indiana chip plant. LINK
- Rivian CFO Claire McDonough resigns; Derek Mulvey named interim CFO. LINK
- Socure acquires Fravity, boosting valuation to $5.2 billion. LINK
- Google moves AI safety team from DeepMind into policy division. LINK
- Ripple Prime launches Delta One service for US equity derivatives. LINK
- Stripe acquires startup legal-tools provider Clerky, expanding beyond payments. LINK
- AI startup Instinct raises $250 million, valuation jumps to $2.5 billion. LINK
- Quantum firm Pasqal goes public on Nasdaq via SPAC merger. LINK
- UAE's 'spy sheikh' holds 49% stake in Trump family's crypto bank venture. LINK
📈 Stocks
| ▲ Biggest winners |
| Okta rose 29% after cRPO growth accelerated to 14% year-over-year and full-year guidance was raised. LINK |
| CrowdStrike Holdings rose 20% after reporting record Q2 net new ARR of $333 million and raising full-year FY27 net new ARR growth guidance by 630 basis points to 34%. LINK |
| Veeva Systems rose 15% after beating Q2 earnings and raising fiscal 2027 guidance. LINK |
| ▼ Biggest losers |
| Burlington Stores fell 8% after Q3 adjusted EPS guidance of $1.60-$1.70 missed the $2.03 consensus estimate. LINK |
| Moderna fell 5% after announcing a $2 billion convertible notes offering. LINK |
| Caseys General Stores fell 5% after UBS lowered its price target to $925. LINK |
📑 Research & Reports
- Generative AI use for work rises sharply among US employees. LINK
- Dollar stablecoins flow more heavily to wallets during currency crises, Fed finds. LINK
- UK crypto tax filings show 240 people reported million-pound gains. LINK
- Global data-center electricity use nearly doubled since 2020. LINK
- Trump energy policy rollback could cut US clean power capacity sharply, NRDC warns. LINK
- UBS tells clients to position for a coming commodity upcycle. LINK