Hello there.
Happy Friday! Welcome to America, TikTok! We, uh, do things a little differently here…
Plus, we’re gearing up for what might be the biggest launch (or dud) of the year!
This week:
📱 TikTok Struggles to Navigate the New World
⚡️ Tesla Limps on as an Overhyped Storage Facility
🚀 Elon’s 3 Big Companies Becoming 1?
🤖 What’s Another $2B From CoreWeave?
🎙️ A Tale of Power Plays and Preference Shifts
T-minus nothin’ to liftoff. Let’s go. 🚀
In partnership with Critical Infrastructure Technologies Ltd
This Defense Story Is About Infrastructure, Not Weapons
A $1.5 trillion U.S. military budget is driving money into defense stocks, but most investors are focused on weapons and platforms. The real bottleneck is infrastructure. Power, connectivity, and rapid deployment are becoming mission critical, and this layer is only starting to get attention.
📱 TikTok's New Owners Can't Catch a Break
Remember that $14 billion deal that was supposed to save TikTok? Well, the newly minted TikTok US had barely finished its paperwork before the app started glitching out for millions of American users. New posts stuck at zero views, old videos on repeat, and the For You page suddenly not living up to its name.
TikTok blames a data center power outage at Oracle's facilities. Critics have a spicier take: political censorship. Some users reported that content critical of Trump's immigration policies was getting buried, and that for a few wild hours, the app apparently flagged the word "Epstein" in DMs. California Governor Gavin Newsom promptly announced an investigation, claiming his office "independently confirmed instances" of suppressed content. However, Oracle has stated that any issues were just a result of the data center outage due to the ice storm last weekend.
Regardless of the cause, the stakes at play over any in-app issues here are absurd. Top TikToker Khaby Lame just signed a $975 million brand licensing deal. Creators at that level are probably watching this chaos closely, since any serious exodus from the app would tank engagement and ad revenue.
🎤 What do you think?
⚡️ The Tech Ticker
Tesla's energy storage business saved its earnings report from disaster, with Megapack and Powerwall deployments up 48% year-over-year.
Spotify rolled out group chats for up to 10 users, letting people share podcasts and playlists with connections they’ve made through Jams or Blends.
Microsoft shares dropped 12% after reporting slowing Azure cloud growth, though the company now has 15 million paid 365 Copilot users.
Snap is spinning its AR glasses team into a separate company called Specs Inc. ahead of a consumer launch later this year, with a retail price tag of $3,499.
Samsung teased a privacy feature that blocks onlookers from viewing your screen, likely launching with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
🚘 SO, Tesla and SpaceX and xAI Might Merge
This is wild. There are reports circulating that Elon Musk’s SpaceX might merge with Tesla instead of becoming a publicly traded company of its own (which was the previous outlook).
More wild? xAI might ALSO merge with Tesla. Which means that Tesla might become a super company with the capability to reach a $25T market cap (Musk’s own figure).
Underlying the rumor headlines of possible mergers, there’s a much more real development taking place: Tesla is no longer a car company. Musk made it clear on Tesla’s earnings call yesterday that his car company is retiring the Models X and S in order to make more Optimus humanoid robots.
“Someday” is now here, and Tesla is pivoting into robotics head-on. All according to plan, too; Musk was the one who said that 80% of Tesla’s value will eventually come from the robots.
🤖 All Eyes on AI
Nvidia invested $2 billion in CoreWeave and expanded its partnership to help the neocloud vendor build AI factories with 5 GW of power capacity by 2030.
Meta plans to spend up to $135 billion on AI this year, nearly double last year. Zuckerberg is telling investors the company remains "capacity constrained".
Google launched its $7.99 AI Plus subscription in the US, offering access to Gemini 3 Pro and video creation tools as the company battles OpenAI.
Nvidia unveiled new AI weather forecasting models through its Earth-2 platform, promising 15-day global forecasts and kilometer-scale predictions.
LinkedIn is partnering with Replit, Lovable, and others to let users display verified AI coding proficiency on their profiles.
🤡 Meme of the Week
🎙️ A Tale of Power Plays and Preference Shifts
In this episode of The Best One Yet, you’ll get the lowdown on the geopolitical chess match between the US and China and the collapse of Diet Coke in favor of Coke Zero - and how they just might be connected.
📻 Tune in to:
Break down who really holds the upper hand as TikTok changes hands and the US–China tech cold war enters a new phase.
See why Diet Coke’s decline and Coke Zero’s rise isn’t just about taste—but about status, identity, and generational psychology.
Understand how Madison Square Garden’s evolution turned one company into a hidden choke point for NYC’s entire financial and cultural economy.
🎧 Listen on:
⭐️ What did you think of today's edition?
That’s all for today. Write us and let us know your thoughts on the market, the newsletter, or the weather—we’d just love to hear from you.
Till next time,
— Brandon and Blake
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