The Tech Sector’s Been DeFAANGed for New Bittersweet Rivalries

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FAANG-era winners are giving way to a new acronym: MANGO. Microsoft, Anthropic, Nvidia, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI now define the AI economy, each sitting at the center of the next trillion-dollar wave. Investors chasing exposure to artificial intelligence are watching these names like hawks.

Nvidia remains the crown jewel. HSBC just upgraded the stock to “buy,” hiking its price target to $320, implying nearly 80% upside from current levels. If that target is hit, Nvidia’s market cap would approach $8 trillion, making it the most valuable chipmaker in history.

OpenAI, meanwhile, is expanding beyond the enterprise crowd. Starting in December, verified adults will be able to access mature content on ChatGPT, part of a broader push to make the platform more customizable and “human-like.” I don’t buy it; just seems like a cash grab that appeals to people’s reptile brains.

The AI talking heads have turned to electricity lately. As data centers strain the grid, companies like Bloom Energy are cashing in. Its stock jumped more than 20% after Brookfield Asset Management announced a $5 billion plan to install Bloom’s fuel cells in AI data centers. These “AI factories” will run on natural gas, biogas, or hydrogen, offering off-grid power that can scale fast.

The energy crunch has become a defining feature of the AI economy. Nvidia and OpenAI’s plan to build 10 gigawatts of data centers (equal to New York City’s summer power use) shows how massive the demand has become. Investors are now looking beyond semiconductors to the companies that can literally keep the lights on.

And now the great robo-replacement has hit the trading room floor. Goldman Sachs is cutting more jobs as automation trims costs, while major banks like Citigroup are leaning on AI to streamline operations. AI may be in a bubble, but just because an asset is in a bubble doesn’t all of a sudden make the underlying tech not useful. AI will still be used a ton moving forward, whether the bubble pops or not.

This episode of This Week in Tech runs through why the Supreme Court’s shadow docket has people worried, the latest in home robots (including The Verge’s new Figure 3 humanoid), and a fraught copyright fight where Sony Music is even suing an ISP.

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Till next time,
— Brandon and Blake