Andy Chen

Anthropic has agreed to spend $45 billion over the next six years to lease data center computing capacity from AI cloud infrastructure company Nscale at its Monarch campus in West Virginia. According to people familiar with the matter, the agreement involves approximately 460 megawatts of power capacity, which is enough to meet the simultaneous electricity demand of about 345,000 U.S. households.

On August 26 Eastern Time, Micron (MU) stock fluctuated near $940, approaching the lower boundary of its ascending channel. Meanwhile, expectations of rising HBM prices continue to strengthen. TrendForce projects that despite price caps in some long-term agreements, HBM contract prices could still rise by 70% to 140% in 2027.

On August 26 ET, Meta reached a proposed settlement with attorneys general from multiple U.S. states to resolve federal lawsuits alleging that Facebook and Instagram were intentionally designed to addict minors, misled the public about platform safety, and improperly collected children's data. Driven by the news, Meta Platforms rose over 4% in early trading before the stock came under pressure. As of press time, its gain narrowed to 0.27%, trading at $571.57.

U.S. Treasury yields fell for a second consecutive day, lifting market trading sentiment, while investors awaited Wednesday's release of July PCE data and Nvidia's earnings report. All three major U.S. stock indexes advanced, with chip stocks leading the gains and consumer stocks suffering losses. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.30% to 53,577.40; the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.66% to 26,151.30; and the S&P 500 Index climbed 0.32% to 7,677.28.

On August 25, Eastern Time, SpaceX (SPCX) shares fell by only about 1% following its second post-IPO lock-up expiration on August 20, as the market absorbed the additional share supply relatively smoothly. Meanwhile, catalysts for SpaceX's stock price continue to build. JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth maintained an "Overweight" rating on SpaceX and set a price target of $240, representing an upside of about 70% from current levels.

Morgan Stanley's latest estimates show that as external sales of Google's (GOOGL) proprietary TPUs gradually scale up, Alphabet's AI chip business could become a new growth engine for Google Cloud. The firm projects that TPU-related Google Cloud revenue could reach $84 billion and $108 billion in 2027 and 2028, respectively, totaling nearly $200 billion over the two-year period.

On August 25 (ET), international oil prices fell sharply, with both WTI and Brent crude dropping by more than 3%. Rich Privorotsky, head of Goldman Sachs' hedge fund business, noted in his latest client report that the importance of oil prices this week could very well surpass that of the Jackson Hole symposium. One of the market's current focal points is the U.S. Treasury's latest moves regarding sanctions on Iran.

OpenAI said on Wednesday that engineering samples of Jalapeno, its first custom chip jointly developed with Broadcom (AVGO), have been delivered and are currently undergoing laboratory testing. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan stated that early results show Jalapeno's operating costs could be approximately 50% lower than those of common AI GPUs under typical AI workloads.

Marvell Technology (MRVL) will report its Q2 FY2027 financial results after the market close on August 27, US Eastern Time. Over the past three months, its stock price experienced a distinct surge, pullback, and rebound: reaching an all-time high of $329 on June 18, falling to a recent low of $162.90 on July 29, and subsequently rebounding to around $243 currently.

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has filed a new financial disclosure. The filing shows that Pelosi significantly increased her position in Bloom Energy (BE) shares and options.

The US Treasury may use $950 billion from its Treasury General Account (TGA) to support US Treasury buybacks, easing US bond yields from their highs. However, Donald Trump's warning to raise tariffs on Canadian automobiles to 50% dampened market trading sentiment. The three major US stock indices ended mixed, as AI hardware stocks faced a sell-off and memory chip stocks led the declines. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.26% to 53,417.16; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.76% to 25,980.19; and the S&P 500 Index slipped 0.28% to 7,652.86.

On August 24 Eastern Time, constituents of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell across the board, with AI hardware stocks pulling back collectively. Memory, optical communications, and chip stocks led the decline.

Nvidia (NVDA) announced on Monday that SpaceX's (SPCX) artificial intelligence division, SpaceXAI, will deploy Nvidia Vera CPUs to develop and run next-generation agentic AI applications. The chips will be utilized across multiple projects, including the Grok chatbot, helping manage tasks among tool calling, code execution, data analysis, and model inference to reduce response times for AI agents.

On August 24, Eastern Time, Micron (MU) shares fell below the $900 mark again, dropping by as much as 7% intraday, but this does not indicate any change in the memory supply shortage landscape.

After Alibaba (BABA) announced a share placement, the market initially responded with a sell-off, but the stock price did not continue to slide. Meanwhile, several top investment banks maintain a positive outlook on the company.

Nvidia (NVDA) is set to report its second-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results after the market close on August 26, Eastern Time. Wall Street currently widely expects the company to maintain its pattern of "beating expectations and raising guidance." However, against the backdrop of elevated valuations and heightened expectations, a simple revenue beat may not be sufficient to drive the stock price higher.

Since hitting a record high of $793 in August 2025, Meta Platforms (META) shares have trended downward with volatility. As of August 18, Eastern Time, based on a stock price of around $550, the cumulative decline over the period reached approximately 30%.

Despite climbing U.S. Treasury yields, the U.S. August Composite PMI hit a four-year high, easing expectations of an economic slowdown and prompting a rebound in U.S. equities. All three major stock indices advanced, led by financial and gold stocks. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.98% to 53,277.01, the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.43% to 26,180.45, and the S&P 500 Index climbed 0.43% to 7,674.37.

Brent crude futures touched $93 per barrel, rising 1.41% on the day to hit a new high since July 24. Since August 5, Brent oil prices have gained over 20%. Currently, as renewed geopolitical tensions combine with accelerating global inventory drawdowns, market divergence over the trajectory of crude

Spot gold (XAUUSD) breached the $4,600 mark on August 21, Eastern Time, and is advancing toward $4,700, marking the first time gold has returned to this price level since May 15. The immediate catalyst driving the rally was the U.S. Department of the Treasury's unexpected expansion of its long-term Treasury buyback program. Although this does not constitute Federal Reserve quantitative easing nor will it reduce U.S. government debt, the policy signal reinforced market focus on fiscal pressures and long-end borrowing costs. As a result, gold has reaped a "dual-path benefit."