Andy Chen

On August 17, Eastern Time, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a proposed rule seeking public comment on the implementation of the GENIUS Act to establish a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, with a 60-day public comment period.

Nvidia (NVDA) announced that it will provide up to $105 billion in credit support for a large-scale AI data center campus being built for OpenAI in Pike County, Ohio, and invest $1.5 billion in project developer SB Energy. The project will be constructed, owned, and operated by SoftBank-backed SB Energy, with OpenAI serving as the primary tenant under a 20-year lease.

On August 17, Eastern Time, Cerebras Systems (CBRS) surged 15% in a single day, breaching the $250 mark. Wedbush Securities stated in its latest research report that OpenAI disclosed the Ultrafast mode of GPT-5.6 Sol will be powered by compute capacity from Cerebras, indicating that collaboration between the two parties continues to make positive progress.

On August 13, Eastern Time, Oracle (ORCL) shares closed at $156.22, after touching an intraday high of $159.26. Since hitting a recent low of $114.50 on July 28, the company's stock has rebounded rapidly. Based on the August 13 closing price, the cumulative gain during this period reached approximately 36.4%, reclaiming the $150 mark. Even using $150 as a periodic benchmark, the rebound exceeds 30%, indicating that market pessimism surrounding its AI infrastructure business is beginning to ease.

SpaceX (SPCX) shares approached the $150 mark during intraday trading on August 12, Eastern Time. Just recently, the stock had dipped to a period low of $104.83 in early August; as of the close on August 12, it has rebounded by approximately 35%.

The S&P 500 Index pulled back slightly after hitting a record high yesterday, with all three major stock indexes edging lower. Memory stocks bucked the trend to gain, while select optical communication stocks moved higher. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.20% to 53,732.41; the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.28% to 26,729.16; and the S&P 500 Index dipped 0.17% to 7,785.76.

Financing risks behind Broadcom's AI expansion are drawing market concern. On August 14, Eastern Time, Broadcom's (AVGO) stock price fell below the $400 mark. Bank of America analyst Tom Curcuruto reportedly downgraded Broadcom's issuer and bond ratings, with the primary concern stemming from the AI XPV financing platform it co-established with Apollo and Blackstone.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he is encouraged by the recent cooling in inflation, but noted that similar improvements must continue over the coming months to confirm that inflation is moving back toward the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

As US inflation, employment, and consumption data continue to cool, market expectations for a Fed rate hike in September are rapidly receding. Currently, the probability of a September rate hike has dropped to around 30%. Jeremy Siegel, senior economist at WisdomTree and finance professor at the Wharton School, stated that as long as oil prices remain stable near $80 per barrel, the Fed will most likely not raise rates in September. Meanwhile, US stocks have begun pricing in "soft landing" expectations. The S&P 500 Index surpassed 7,800 points for the first time, with cooling inflation, corporate earnings growth, and AI-driven efficiency gains jointly driving a rebound in risk appetite.

US stock 13F filings have been released recently, disclosing the second-quarter holdings of Wall Street investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and UBS. Notably, the reports show that Micron (MU) was among the top five increased positions for both banks.

As US inflation data continued to show signs of cooling, risk appetite in US equities rebounded. All three major US stock indexes advanced, with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time high. Memory chip stocks led the gains. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13% to 53,839.99; the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.81% to 26,803.03; and the S&P 500 Index climbed 0.65% to 7,798.99.

On August 13 Eastern Time, Intel (INTC) shares broke through the $105 mark. The catalyst for the stock price was Intel's recently announced $20 billion financing plan. UBS stated that the $20 billion financing plan announced by Intel this week has likely eliminated the long-standing uncertainties hanging over its stock price. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri pointed out that, combined with the advance payments and financial commitments attached to several foundry agreements Intel is finalizing—with Google believed to have reached a deal on EMIB-T technology, Apple involved with M-series chips, alongside AMD, SpaceX, and other potential clients—this round of financing is sufficient to support the subsequent buildout investments for its foundry business.

Google (GOOGL) has launched Gemini 3.7 Flash, further accelerating the iteration of its low-cost agent models. As the latest release in the Flash series, Gemini 3.7 Flash focuses on coding, AI agents, and complex knowledge work scenarios, coming just three weeks after the launch of Gemini 3.6 Flash.

SanDisk (SNDK) has surpassed $1,500. The market is no longer trading just the NAND price cycle, but a longer-term thesis: As AI transitions from training to large-scale inference, can flash memory become an AI infrastructure asset that sits closer to compute and offers greater demand visibility?

On August 13, Eastern Time, risk appetite in U.S. equities rebounded. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.85% intraday to hit a record high of 7,816.7 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.04%; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.34%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index advanced 2.07%, serving as a major driver of the market's upward momentum. The core factor strengthening risk assets was the continuous signal of easing U.S. inflation data. Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on the same day showed that the July Producer Price Index (PPI) was flat month-on-month, below market expectations for a modest increase, while the year-on-year gain slowed from 5.5% in June to 4.7%.

U.S. July CPI met market expectations, dampening Federal Reserve rate-hike expectations as trading remained active. The three major U.S. stock indices ended mixed, with AI hardware stocks leading the gains. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.04% to 53,770.27 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.54% to 26,588.49 points; and the S&P 500 Index gained 0.26% to 7,748.50 points.

On August 12, Eastern Time, Cerebras Systems (CBRS), which went public in May this year, will report its second-quarter fiscal 2026 financial results after the market close. According to the company's previous guidance, its core revenue for the second fiscal quarter is expected to be approximately $194 million, up 88% from the same period last year.

SpaceXAI (SPCX) has officially launched Grok 4.6, further expanding into long-running agents, complex programming, and knowledge work scenarios. Upgraded from Grok 4.5, the model focuses on enhancing sustained execution capabilities for multi-step tasks, making it suitable for thematic research, information analysis, cross-codebase collaboration, and transforming product ideas into executable applications or work deliverables.

On August 12, Eastern Time, SK Hynix ADR (SKHY) shares climbed back above $150. Reports indicate that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix may announce new shareholder return plans as early as the end of August. The combined scale of returns from the two companies could exceed 200 trillion won (approxim

Dashed investor expectations for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz deepened market concerns over whether the U.S. and Iran can reach a resolution to their conflict; meanwhile, with U.S. July CPI data set for release tomorrow, cautious sentiment dominated market trading. The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower across the board, while memory stocks bucked the trend to move higher. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.34% to 53,791.85; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.60% to 26,445.45; and the S&P 500 Index dropped 0.32% to 7,728.20.