A duo of leading artificial intelligence researchers at Alphabet’s Google are planning to leave for rival Anthropic, adding to a series of high-profile departures that risk undercutting the search giant’s position in AI. 

Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel, both viewed internally as key contributors to Google’s Gemini AI model, are set to move to the Claude maker, Bloomberg first reported citing unnamed sources. Adler worked on the company’s AI coding effort and Pritzel was involved in the process of training artificial intelligence systems. 

The two are only the latest to take part in what is becoming a brain drain out of the search giant: the company had already lost two prominent staffers, with Nobel laureate John Jumper heading to Anthropic and star researcher Noam Shazeer going to OpenAI. Their moves rattled investors and cast new doubt on Google’s ability to compete in the fierce race to build better models.

Another researcher, Arthur Conmy, wrote on X Wednesday that he was set to join Anthropic to work on AI safety. During his time at DeepMind, Conmy was a senior research engineer who contributed to the Gemini 2.5 model as well as AI coding, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bloomberg reported that two more Google AI employees are leaving Google for Anthropic, Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel.

Not to mention these two individuals who recently left as well.

Typically this is always a sign when a company is about to release a sub-par model. This… pic.twitter.com/Gj3fHeiRYP

— Chris (@ChrissGPT) June 24, 2026

Google, an early AI pioneer, spent much of the current AI boom playing catch-up with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic before hitting its stride late last year with more capable models and chips. However, the latest defections suggest that there is internal pushback against the company’s upcoming models.

The exits highlight the rising pressure Google faces from two startups that are on the cusp of going public, offering even tenured employees at Big Tech firms the chance at a rare payday by signing on before an IPO. In at least one case, a Google departure also appeared to be preceded by shifting priorities over how to allocate precious computing resources, an issue that has prompted other employees to leave the company entirely.

Shortly before Shazeer announced his plans to join OpenAI, computing power dedicated to one of his projects was reassigned to a London-based team at Google DeepMind, Bloomberg reported. The move was made in an attempt to boost collaboration across teams and streamline Google’s work on pre-training, the initial phase of AI development in which models learn from massive datasets.

A spokesperson for Google told Bloomberg the company remains confident in its position in the market for AI talent and pointed to Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis’s remarks earlier this week.

“There’s a lot of talent movement between all the leading labs and we win our fair share of the top talent. We have by far the biggest and broadest research bench of any of the labs out there,” Hassabis said at an event in Cannes. “It’s a ferociously competitive market right now, the most ferociously competitive it’s ever been in the tech industry.”

Shares of Alphabet closed down slightly after falling as much as 1.2% during the trading day Wednesday following the news.

According to the Bloomberg report, Shazeer’s career trajectory is emblematic of the intense talent wars that have defined the AI landscape. After co-authoring a seminal paper that helped catalyze the AI boom, he left Google in 2021 to found Character.AI, a chatbot startup, only to rejoin the firm in 2024 as part of an unusual licensing deal that valued his company at $2.5 billion.

Once back at Google, Shazeer co-led development of the company’s flagship Gemini AI model. Prior to his departure, he had also been working on a new AI architecture, two people said. The architecture was still based on the transformer, a technique that Shazeer and his colleagues introduced in 2017 that has become a staple of AI development in the years since, but it had been achieving promising results. Shazeer was both an admired and divisive figure within Google: his comments within Google about transgender identity and the Gaza conflict stirred controversy among some employees, bloomberg sources said.

Jumper, meanwhile, had emerged as a face of Google’s most ambitious AI efforts after winning the Nobel Prize for landmark research using AI to predict protein folding. Adler and Pritzel, both of whom are set to join Jumper at Anthropic, worked with him on that research.

Key members of Jumper’s team on the protein-folding research have exited Google DeepMind in recent months. Some have shifted to Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet spinout company working on AI-designed drugs. 

Anthropic, which both partners with Google and also competes with it, has aggressively siphoned talent from the tech giant. DeepMind engineers are nearly 11 times more likely to leave for Anthropic than the reverse, according to a 2025 industry analysis from the venture capital firm SignalFire. That appears to no longer be the case. 

Like Google, the Claude maker is exploring life sciences and healthcare applications in a bid to broaden the uses of its technology. Anthropic recently raised a new round of funding at a $965 billion valuation, overtaking OpenAI, and is considering going public as soon as this fall.

AI researchers in the UK, where DeepMind’s leadership is based, are often subject to lengthy non-compete agreements, which are enforceable under British law. Jumper would likely not begin work at Anthropic until next year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

WTI futures briefly fell below $70 a barrel for the first time since the US-Iran conflict erupted, as tanker flows through the Strait of Hormuz are showing further signs of normalization and physical market tightness continues to ease.

Bloomberg noted that option markets are positioning for ongoing normalization. Put volume is exceeding calls, with some of the heaviest trading in August and September expiries between $60 and $68. The September $60 strike put is one of the most active contracts, along with August $60, $65, and $68 strike puts. This only signals that traders are positioning for more downside as the war risk premium in crude oil evaporates.

This is why:

• Asian Refiners Swamped, Brace For Over 60 Million Barrels Of Oil Ready To Exit Hormuz

Earlier today, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the audience at the Reuters Global Energy Forum that roughly 72 ships carrying about 20 million barrels of crude moved through the strait over the past 24 hours. That figure is roughly one-fifth of global daily consumption.

“I could say roughly 72 ships in the last 24 hours, and 20 million barrels of oil,” Wright told the audience in New York. “We have normal flows today.”

He noted that even if the interim peace deal between the US and Iran fails, Tehran no longer has the ability to close Hormuz, saying the Trump administration has eroded one of Iran’s key points of leverage. 

“Iran will not have the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz going forward. That’s a critical thing, that’s their key leverage, and we’re taking that leverage away from them,” he added.

We pointed this out on Tuesday morning:

• “This May Be Iran’s First Misstep – And Proof Leverage Isn’t Total”

Wright said some ships are choosing not to transit the narrow waterway due to naval mine risks, instead moving close to Iran’s coast or along the southern route near Oman with military escorts. He said that full navigation could take several more weeks.

“To return to complete normalcy takes a demining of the strait, probably a few weeks’ effort,” he said.

Tehran’s leverage will all but disappear in the coming years as Gulf producers and oil majors are set to expand a network of pipelines and export routes that bypass the Hormuz chokepoint entirely, building on existing infrastructure designed to neutralize the risk. Read the full report.

Take-Two Interactive said that its Rockstar Games studio will begin long-awaited pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI on Thursday. The action-packed game is priced at $79.99 and is scheduled to launch on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

“Launching November 19, 2026, for the PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X|S games and entertainment systems for $79.99, Grand Theft Auto VI features a single-player experience set in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the series yet,” Take-Two wrote in a press release. 

The last major GTA release was GTA V, which launched on September 17, 2013. Gamers have been waiting 13 years for a major GTA installment.

Last week, Rockstar Games gave gamers the best look yet inside the new GTA game, which has excited players worldwide. This comes after years of launch delays.

Rockstar just gave us the best look yet at non-enterable buildings in GTA VI

It’s not a straight up png like in GTA V and other open world games with skyscrapers but at the same time, it doesn’t have anywhere near the detail as the rest of the game. What I’m really curious about… https://t.co/Q5ko9Gpawz pic.twitter.com/kVQTiGZ4VR

— Farzam (@farzam_plays) June 18, 2026

Raymond James analyst Andrew Marok said the pricing for GTA VI and launch data is “broadly in line with expectations.” 

Marok’s first take:

Rockstar announced pre-order and pricing details for Grand Theft Auto VI this morning. Preorders will begin at midnight local time on June 25, with two editions of the game available. The base game will retail for $80, with the Ultimate Edition (including an exclusive collection of ingame vehicles, weapons, and skins) priced at $100.

Base game pricing in line with our expectations. Based on commentary from management around pricing to value, and making the game as accessible as possible to the broadest player segment as they can, we did not expect aggressive pricing on the base game, and $80 feels like a fair trade in that department. It is slightly above the current industry norm of $70; some publishers including Nintendo have attempted to reset the bar at $80 with varying levels of success. However, if there is one game that can price at $80 without garnering significant player pushback, Grand Theft Auto VI is that game given its massive scale and anticipation.

Ultimate edition pricing also around expectations, but “high-end”/deluxe edition absent. Rockstar announced the Ultimate Edition for $100, which includes the base game plus a collection of exclusive in-game items including vehicles, weapons, character skins, and more. The Ultimate edition is priced at only a 25% premium to the base game, which would be the lowest percentage increase on an upsell edition in the post-GTA IV era for Rockstar (though given their convention of rounding to the nearest $10 for pricing, it is the closest figure they could have gotten to without “over-pricing” the SKU – $110 would have been a 38% increase).

We may not have heard the last word on premium editions. Interestingly, Rockstar announced only two editions of GTA VI in this morning’s release. That breaks with their pattern of three different launch SKUs per title, which was true for both Gen-7+ releases (GTA V and Red Dead 2). The key difference this time is that we have not yet heard any announcements about the GTA VI Online launch. Given that we would expect that virtual currency bundles and/or GTA Online exclusive in-game items to be part of any premium edition that exists when GTA Online is confirmed, we still see the possibility that there could be another deluxe SKU announced when the gaming public receives more detail on GTA Online.

Separately, BTIG analyst Clark Lampen initiated coverage of Take-Two earlier this morning with a Buy rating and a 12-month price target of $290, explaining:

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: We’re launching coverage of Take-Two Interactive with a Buy rating and a $290 PT. Later this year, Take-Two is scheduled to release the next installment of its most important and commercially relevant global gaming franchise – Grand Theft Auto VI (11/19 release date).

We expect the title to catalyze a sustainable, multi-year improvement in earnings power for the enterprise (BTIGe $10 in average earnings power over the FY27-29 timeframe) and based on other tentpole releases from the Rockstar label, there is precedent for multiple expansion throughout the prerelease marketing cycle. In tandem, we see a path to a higher share price over the balance of the year, which underpins our Buy rating and price target.

Related:

• Is Take-Two Sandbagging Guidance Ahead Of Grand Theft Auto VI Launch?

TTWO shares were muted on Wednesday morning following the release.

For the next leg up, shares need to trade north of $250.

Google is placing its nuclear bets through more than one channel. Elementl Power, the independent developer that received early-stage capital from Google in 2025 to prepare three US sites, has now made its first clear technology choice on at least one of them.

Elementl signed an Early Works Agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) to deploy BWRX-300 SMRs at a nearly 700-acre site in Meigs County, Ohio. 

The project targets up to 1.5 GW of power production. Elementl has already filed a PJM interconnection request for the initial 600 MW. Construction remains targeted for 2030 with commercial operation eyed around 2034.

Elementl positions itself as technology agnostic. Its selection of the BWRX-300 therefore stands out, as the design draws on decades of GE boiling water reactor experience rather than the novel fluoride salt-cooled, TRISO-fueled path Kairos Power is advancing. 

Google already holds a separate multi-plant agreement with Kairos targeting up to 500 MW of advanced reactor capacity by 2035, as we reported when that deal was first announced in October 2024.

Google now effectively supports two distinct reactor approaches through its capital and offtake commitments. One pushes the technological frontier with higher temperatures and new fuel forms via Kairos. The other, advanced through Elementl’s new Ohio project, favors a more conventional SMR that could encounter fewer first-of-a-kind regulatory and construction risks. 

Both address the same core need: reliable, around-the-clock carbon-free power for AI data centers that intermittent sources and gas alone cannot satisfy.

Timelines remain distant. Even with hyperscaler development dollars flowing and policy momentum building, first steel in the ground is years away. 

GE Vernova remains one of the most well-funded reactor developers, alongside Westinghouse, as their turbine business continues to see no end in sight for their backlog of data center related orders. The company now has multiple advanced stage projects underway including locations in Canada, Tennessee, and Europe. 

Summary

• Trump Hits Back, Seeks Narrative Control: “The war is going very well. As you know, we’re winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions.”
• Iran Declares MoU A US Defeat: Tehran says the Islamabad agreement proves Washington abandoned its pressure campaign.
• Hormuz Traffic Resumes under UN Auspices: About 72 ships carrying roughly 20 million barrels of oil transited the strait in the past 24 hours under a UN-backed framework.
• Brent Falls Below $75, Iran war low: Oil prices dropped to their lowest level since the Iran conflict began, erasing much of the war risk premium.
• Trump, Tehran still at Odds despite MoU Signing, Switzerland Summit with Vance: Trump claims Iran agreed to “NO TOLLS” or shipping fees in Hormuz, while Iranian officials continue disputing key US claims.
• Despite these Contradictions, Fragile Calm Persists: Qatar is urging direct US-Iran communication as questions remain over inspections, sanctions relief, and the long-term durability of the deal.

*  *  *

Trump Hits Back: Iran Forced to Make ‘Very Big Concessions’

President Trump claimed Wednesday that Iran was offering significant concessions, stated within hours after Iran’s lead negotiator, Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf told a Baku audience that Iran had secured ‘US defeat’…

“The war is going very well. As you know, we’re winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions,” Trump told reporters at the Capitol.

“We’ll see what happens — but it has been very, very, very powerful,” the US President added. Tehran has remained insistent it never agreed to allow nuclear inspector access, and that the Strait of Hormuz is opening on its terms.

Meanwhile, the latest on the Lebanon tenuous ceasefire and crisis:

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇱🇧The first day of the round of talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington ended yesterday without any progress and in a certain sense there was even a retreat, according to two sources briefed on the negotiations
🇺🇸🇱🇧🇮🇱One of the sources said that in some parts of the…

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) June 24, 2026

Tehran Provokes Trump: Deal to End War a ‘Declaration of US Defeat’

The post-war narrative battle between Washington and Tehran intensified Wednesday after Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed the recently signed Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – and confirmed in Switzerland – amounted to nothing less than a US capitulation.

Speaking in Baku during a gathering of parliaments from member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ghalibaf argued that the agreement validated Iran’s long-held position that negotiations only succeed when foreign powers abandon coercion and recognize the Islamic Republic’s rights.

“The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of the US defeat,” Ghalibaf said.

The remarks underscore the widening disconnect between how Washington and Tehran are portraying the agreement. While the Trump administration has presented the MoU as evidence that its pressure campaign forced concessions from Iran, Iranian officials continue to frame the deal as proof that the United States ultimately backed away from attempts to dictate terms.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that the Islamabad memorandum of understanding with Washington turned into “a declaration of US defeat.”
“The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of the US defeat,” Ghalibaf said in Baku,… pic.twitter.com/HRUltq012R

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 24, 2026

Ghalibaf further suggested that the agreement demonstrated dialogue can only produce results when the opposing side ceases efforts to impose its will and instead accepts Iran’s sovereign rights. Iran has lately stated that it asserted its red lines through ‘action’.

Energy Secretary: 72 Ships Have Exited Strait in Last Day

Several vessels have already navigated the Strait of Hormuz utilizing a fresh evacuation framework established by the United Nations’ shipping agency, an official confirmed on Wednesday. More via newswires:

US Energy Secretary Wright says roughly 72 ships have exited Strait of Hormuz in last 24 hours.

“Ships have already begun to pass under the plan,” stated a spokesperson for the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), though they opted not to disclose specific details regarding the transiting vessels.

According to the latest LSEG ship-tracking data Wednesday, at least two dry bulk carriers and one cargo vessel successfully crossed the strait under the new program within a 12-hour window.

An additional analysis of ship movements by Reuters, utilizing data from LSEG and MarineTraffic, indicated that at least 35 other commercial vessels – primarily dry bulk, cargo, and container ships – are gearing up to make the passage.

Brent Falls To Pre-War Levels

Brent crude oil prices fell below $75 a barrel late yesterday, marking the first time the global benchmark has traded under that level since the outbreak of the Trump-initiated Iran conflict.

The drop in crude prices could provide relief for consumers and businesses by easing pressure on fuel costs and inflation, a desired Washington outcome of the MoU signing – for which Trump has come under severe criticism from hawks at home. Speaking of escalating, we have another early morning Trump Truth Social statement, openly contradicting the consistent stated position of Tehran leaders.

Another Bombshell Trump Post Contradicting Iran’s Public Stance

Since the Switzerland high level talks led by Vance, there’s been a series of issues where Tehran and Washington have issued clearly contradictory statements. 

Trump says in the fresh statement that Iran informed the United States that there would be “NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND” imposed on vessels traveling through the strategic waterway.

Trump as is typical criticized media reports that had suggested Iran could seek payments from ships using the route, calling such coverage “Fake News.” He added that if the information provided by Iran proved inaccurate, ongoing negotiations between the two sides would end “immediately.”

The president also denied reports that the United States had provided funds directly to Iran or released Iranian assets without conditions. “No money has been given to Iran, or released from their money to them, by the U.S.,” he said.

However, Trump stated that Washington plans to make some Iranian funds available for agricultural purchases. According to the president, the money would be used to buy US farm products, including “Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, and more.” But Iranian leadership has vehemently rejected this narrative too.

“Food is desperately needed in Iran,” Trump said, adding that the purchases would be made “exclusively from the United States.”

Oil drops to Iran war lows on the Trump Truth social statement…

Qatar Pledges to Washington Will Hold a Firm Line on Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important energy shipping routes, and any disruption or additional costs imposed on vessels passing through the channel could have significant implications for global trade and oil markets. It is officially ‘open’ in the wake of the MoU signing – but the next few days and weeks will be telling.

Meanwhile, some new developments on the Hormuz opening front, and Qatar LNG:

Qatar’s prime minister said establishing a hotline between the US and Iran is essential to prevent rogue actors impeding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as he predicted that the Gulf state would resume normal liquefied natural gas production “within a few weeks”.  –FT

Trump is also asserting that Iran will allow IEAE inspectors in, something the Islamic Republic is also vehemently rejecting.

Just over two years ago, we first penned our views on “The Next AI Trade“, which looked beyond the hyperscalers and the data centers supporting the AI revolution, and instead focused on the energy and logistical needs that would be so very critical in allowing the US to dominate China in the existential race to first reach Artificial General Intelligence (which many have dubbed the next nuclear arms race due to its profound civilizational implications). It was here that we defined the “Power Up America” basket as the next AI trade. 

Yet as one can see in the chart below, after outperforming the AI Data center and the TMT AI baskets in 2024 and much of 2025, the Power Up America trade has lagged and clearly underperformed, as some investors have started to express doubt that the US would ever be able to “grow” into its massive AI computing needs… with dire consequences for record AI capex budgets, something the market has yet to grasp.

And unfortunately, with every passing day, the outlook for the US AI revolution looks increasingly more dim. 

That’s because, as Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas write two months ago, “the American data center boom is hitting a formidable wall of logistical friction.” He is referring to the latest outlook by Sightline Climate, which is also reinforced by recent articles from Bloomberg and others, and reveals a sobering reality for 2026: nearly half of the nation’s planned 16-gigawatt capacity faces cancellation or delay, with only 5 gigawatts currently under construction.

That’s right: half.

This collapsing inertia stems from a volatile mix of local permitting hurdles, community resistance, and a desperate reliance on overextended global supply chains for critical components like transformers and helium.

Taking a step back, despite over $800BN of expected 2026 hyperscaler capex, a number which seems to jump by $50bn or see every quarter,  nearly half of the data centers scheduled to begin operations in the US in 2026 “will either face delays or outright cancellations.” The data, which comes from Sightline Climate’s 2026 Data Center Outlook,  suggests that just 30% – 50% of the ~16 GW of planned US capacity for the year will face risks, with only ~5 GW currently under construction!

And the horizon only grows darker in the coming years. By 2027, the gap between ambition and reality widens further, as a mere fraction of the announced 21.5 gigawatts has actually broken ground. Worse, according to Futurism, data centers slated to open in 2027 are progressing far more slowly than anticipated. “Only about 6.3 gigawatts worth of computing infrastructure are actually under construction, compared to 21.5 announced gigawatts.”

And then visibility drops to virtually nothing beyond 2028 as uncertainty increases materially in the outer years. According to the article, “things get even dodgier in the coming years, with the vast majority of data centers planned for launch between 2028 and 2032 having yet to even break ground. There are a further 37 gigawatts of planned infrastructure which haven’t even received a firm completion date, only 4.5 [gigawatts] of which have actually begun work.”

This trend suggests an increasingly uncertain future for the industry, where power constraints and grid instability cast long shadows over projects slated through 2032.

But while one can pretend the future is irrelevant, the same limitations are visible in the here and now: according to the SightLine report, “at least 16GW of data center capacity is slated to come online this year across 140 projects. 53% will be grid connected, 3% will be powered solely by on-site power, and 25% have not disclosed their powering strategies. We expect 30-50% of these projects to be delayed. Only 5GW is currently in construction.”

And the punchline:

“We expect 30-50% of 2026 projects to be delayed, driven by power constraints (25% of projects have not disclosed powering strategies), increasingly effective community opposition, and potential grid equipment shortages. 11GW of 2026 capacity remains in the announced stage with no signs of construction, despite typical build times of 12 to 18 months. Itʼs still possible for this capacity to come online, but it would need to dramatically accelerate.”

As noted above, the market had been stubbornly ignoring the physical limitations in the data center rollout… until last night, when recently IPOed chipmaker Cerebras reminded everyone of just how profound the data center limitations truly are. 

Cerebras shares plunged in early trading after the newly public chipmaker gave an annual sales forecast that disappointed investors who were expecting the company to carve out a bigger slice of the AI data center market.

Like other rivals of Nvidia, Cerebras is navigating high expectations from investors who’ve grown accustomed to the rapid revenue growth and profits tied to a worldwide buildout of AI data centers. Nvidia and a small group of chipmakers have regularly blown past Wall Street estimates, creating an environment in which even solid earnings results don’t necessarily translate into share-price gains.

And at first glance, Cerebras fell into that bucket: the company said that revenue in 2026 will be $855 million to $865 million, above the sellside analyst estimate of $824.8 million. First-quarter sales jumped 94% to $193.4 million, beating estimates of $181.4 million. The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net loss of $14 million in the period ended March 31, also beating the estimated loss of $58.6 million. Cerebras’ hardware business generated sales of $110.6 million. Cloud and other services reported $82.8 million.

The company reported earnings for the first time since raising $5.5 billion in May as part of the biggest initial public offering in chip industry history. Cerebras has carved a niche for itself in artificial intelligence infrastructure with novel technology built around a massive chip that it says is better at running large AI models and generating fast responses for users.

And yet despite the solid earnings, the stock was punished, tumbling 15% below $200 and the lowest price since it broke for trading at $311 in early May (but still above its IPO price of $185).

Why the disconnect? After all sales easily beat estimates and grew at an impressive rate.

The answer: margins. The chip designer warned that annual profit margins ‌would undershoot first-quarter figures. Cerebras forecast adjusted gross margins of 38% to 41% for 2026, compared with the 47% it reported ‌for the first quarter.

The ⁠projection is far below those of rivals such as Nvidia’s mid-70% range and Advanced Micro Devices’ mid-50%, even as it ⁠came above analysts’ estimates of 29.58%. 

To be sure, analysts had flagged that gross margins could be pressured by the company manufacturing relatively larger-sized chips, and as it rents back ​its own ​systems from an existing client to ​meet short-term demand while it ‌builds out more data center capacity.

But according to the CEO, the biggest challenge right now is not the chip size, but – going back to what we said at the beginning – getting enough data center space. As CEO Andrew Feldman said , “It’s a grand irony that after all this technology that we’ve invented, and Nvidia’s invented, buildings are the limiting factor,” he said in an interview before the results were released.

The scarcity of data center space is leading Cerebras to rent back some of its own systems from a customer and “aggressively” build out its own capacity, CFO Bob Komin said on a conference call after the report. It is these costs that will hurt margins by about 10 to 15 points this year, he said.(Adds premarket share move starting in first paragraph).

Which begs the question: where the hell are all the massive orders of GPUs and memory going if there are no data centers to hold them? 

We don’t know but, like Canaccord’s George Gianarikas, we admit “we’re a little spooked.”

In a note published earlier this month, the Canaccord strategist wrote that “At this moment, count us as hand-wringers. Panicans. Doomers. We have been writing a series of notes for ~2 years called “Something’s Got to Give” and “Glitch in the Matrix” where we voice our concerns about the speed at which the necessary energy infrastructure for AI is being constructed. Add in data center moratoria. And, financing concerns. Throw in a dash of loopy circularity. Not to mention, eery similarities to the telecom bust.”

And yet, Gianarikas goes on, “the happenings of the past few months have been fascinating, historic, and head-scratching. In the face of all that glitching, hyperscalers continue to up the ante – deploying increasingly massive capital to expand data center capacity. While structural inflation and rising component costs are playing their part, the underlying catalyst is simpler (at least to us): an insatiable demand for “more cowbell”, driving perhaps the most profound cycle of FOMO in human history.”

To be sure, this spending is very much showing up in earnings results. Look no further than semis or power-related deal announcements (e.g., Generac and Fluence) or elements of the industrial supply chain or revenue growth at some of the hyperscalers.

Or look at US GDP. As we noted a month ago when we pointed out that AI now accounts for 75% of US GDP growth, “there is a troublingly disproportionate reliance on AI spending to anchor economic progress.”

But – the Canaccord strategist asks – “what about the power? Can the power keep up with the build plans? We don’t think so. Channeling our inner Scotty from Star Trek: “I can’t do it, Captain! I don’t have the power!””

Even the Wall Street Journal has taken taking notice. In an article published last month, they said that “America’s Data Center Build-Out Is Falling Way Behind Schedule”. Yes. Yes, it is.

As Gianarikas concludes, “Though macro market mechanics sit outside our mandate, we cannot ignore the parabolic split between the AI-enablers and the AI-dislocated. It is a stark tale of haves and have-nots – and it leaves us with a haunting question: What happens if the lights don’t turn on?”

We got one answer from Cerebras. But the bigger problem is what happens if there is simply not enough data center capacity to light all the unlit components? And what will the returns be on those hundreds of billions in debt spent to fund the AI rollout? We 

ROI is not the right metric for AI. The right metric is what is the ROI assuming all the planned data centers are built and energized for the IRR period.

SPVs have made funding a non-issue (for now). But if components remain unlit, they are a $1 TN inventory paperweight

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 5, 2026

Understandably, Canaccord is asking precisely that question: “where is the capital actually going? It has to be landing somewhere. The reality, we suspect, is that mountains of expensive compute hardware are currently operating as high-tech paperweights. While the industry boasts of sky-high capacity utilization, a closer look causes that narrative to fray – at least to us. “Lit” capacity may be humming, but how much remains in the dark?” 

The answer from Cerebras is clear: “a lot“… and as more AI companies admit the unpleasant truth, expect a reckoning as the market finally asks the trillion dollar question. 

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

Market operator Cboe Global Markets has entered the prediction markets business with the launch of Cboe Predicts, a platform debuting with binary contracts tied to the S&P 500.

The contracts are now available through Interactive Brokers and are expected to launch at Charles Schwab and other retail brokerage platforms in the coming months, according to a Tuesday press release.

The contracts allow traders to take “yes” or “no” positions on whether the S&P 500 will close above or below a specified price level.

Cboe is the latest traditional finance firm to expand into prediction markets as investor interest in outcome-based contracts grows. The launch comes days after reports that Charles Schwab was seeking to enter the sector through a partnership with Cboe that would offer customers similar S&P 500-linked contracts.

Contracts tied to the S&P 500’s daily closing price are already available on prediction market platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi.

Cboe launches XSP Binary Options in prediction markets offering. Source: Cboe

Traders seek more binary event contracts

Cboe’s customers are showing more demand for shorter-dated, outcome-based trading opportunities, which led to the debut of the prediction market offering, according to JJ Kinahan, head of retail expansion and alternative investment products at Cboe. 

Cboe’s new contracts are security options that will trade within the same regulatory framework as US-listed options, providing “institutional-grade liquidity” and transparency, Cboe said.

Meanwhile, prediction market platforms have drawn increased regulatory scrutiny over political betting and sports-related event contracts.

Kentucky was the latest state to sue five prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, accusing them of “operating unlicensed and illegal sports betting and gambling platforms,” as Cointelegraph reported on Thursday.

In January, US lawmakers proposed legislation aimed at restricting political prediction market trading by government officials after a Polymarket user netted over $400,000 on a contract related to the removal of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, fueling insider trading concerns.

With Case-Shiller reporting existing home price declines in half of America’s largest cities, New Home Sales were expected to rebound from April’s ugly decline.

But they didn’t… at all…

NAR reports that New Home Sales in May plunged 7.3% MoM (versus the 3.2% MoM rise expected). That print was below the lowest analysts forecast.

April’s 6.2% MoM plunge was revised up modestly to a 5.7% decline, all of which left new home sales down on a YoY basis…

Overall, new home sales have really gone nowhere for four years (but on the bright side, they are not as bad as existing- and pending-home-sales)…

It seems lower mortgage rates (admittedly having risen for the last month) did nothing to help move new home sales…

Finally, while existing home prices are lower, median new home price rose 2.0% MoM to $424,900, unchanged YoY…

Average and median new home prices continue to diverge as sales of ultra-expensive homes drag the average higher even as median price is dropping…

The biggest two-month jump in median new home prices in four years is more than offsetting any gains from lower mortgage rates.