MF3d/iStock via Getty Images By Zeno Mercer I just got back from HumanX, the enterprise AI conference held last week in San Francisco. Now in its second year, HumanX has already hit a remarkable milestone: over 6,500 attendees and hundreds of speakers, ranging from Al Gore, to Fei-Fei Li (widely known as the godmother of AI), and Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s CSAIL and strategic advisor for the R...
MF3d/iStock via Getty Images By Zeno Mercer I just got back from HumanX, the enterprise AI conference held last week in San Francisco. Now in its second year, HumanX has already hit a remarkable milestone: over 6,500 attendees and hundreds of speakers, ranging from Al Gore, to Fei-Fei Li (widely known as the godmother of AI), and Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s CSAIL and strategic advisor for the ROBO Global Index suite. Zeno Mercer (front right) at Daniela Rus’ (center) more intimate roundtable discussion that occurred right after her panel “Building AI Systems That Sense, Decide, and Act” at HumanX 2026. The Biggest Takeaway? That there are now two types of companies in the world. The first treats headcount and agentic workflows + token usage/optimization as equally important inputs into how the business runs. The second is still in discovery, without a real AI strategy. The gap between them is widening by the quarter. To leaders across the world, whether it’s executive leadership, government, academic institution, or nonprofit, it is time to lock in. Others already have. If your AI strategy is rolling out Gemini or Copilot seats and tracking license utilization, you are measuring the wrong thing. The step change is not seat count. It is whether your organization knows how to design, deploy, and manage agentic workflows, including for roles that were previously considered “non-technical”. Look at how Jack Dorsey is rebuilding Block ( XYZ ) as an AI-first company. As an internal AI agent that now handles roughly 90% of code submissions, headcount came down 40%, and guidance went up. That is what an operating model built around agents looks like, not a dashboard counting chat prompts. It is also the direction that we will eventually see the majority of companies head - industry and context depending - over the coming years. The Big 3 Takeaways Trust (and budget, and access to compute) is the bottleneck, not capability. Twenty-three panels centered on the disconnect b...
The AirPods Pro 3 are $50 off, which is one of the biggest discounts we’ve seen this year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you missed out on Amazon’s recent spring sales event, Best Buy’s Ultimate Upgrade Sale presents yet another opportunity to score steep discounts on some of our favorite gadgets. The five-day sale runs through April 19th and features deals on a wide range of te...
The AirPods Pro 3 are $50 off, which is one of the biggest discounts we’ve seen this year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you missed out on Amazon’s recent spring sales event, Best Buy’s Ultimate Upgrade Sale presents yet another opportunity to score steep discounts on some of our favorite gadgets. The five-day sale runs through April 19th and features deals on a wide range of tech, including 4K TVs, Apple gear, smartphones, smart home devices, and more. Whether you’ve had your eye on LG’s budget-friendlier B5 OLED or Bose’s latest QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds , several Verge favorites are either at or near their record-low price. Even products released just last month — including Google’s Pixel 10A and the new 11-inch iPad Air — are on sale, so it’s not just older devices. Best of all, competing retailers like Amazon are matching many of these prices, so you can snag the same deals no matter where you shop. LG B5 OLED TV LG’s B5 TV is a great way to get OLED picture quality for less. It features support for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, along with a 120Hz panel and four HDMI 2.1 ports for hooking up the latest gaming consoles. It also runs LG’s webOS platform, supports Amazon Alexa, and provides easy access to a wide range of popular streaming apps. Where to Buy: $1299.99 $599.99 at Best Buy (48-inch) $1499.99 $799.99 at Amazon (55-inch) $1499.99 $799.99 at Best Buy (55-inch) AirPods Pro 3 The AirPods Pro 3 have a new design that improves their fit, superior noise cancellation, better bass, and fairly accurate heart rate sensors. Read our review . Where to Buy: $249.99 $199.99 at Best Buy $249 $199 at Amazon $249 $199.99 at Walmart Google Pixel 10A Google’s new Pixel 10A introduces faster wired charging, Satellite SOS, and new AI tools like Camera Coach and Auto Best Take. Otherwise, it’s basically the Pixel 9A, with the same Tensor G4 chip and a dual-camera system. Read our hands-on impressions. Where to Buy: $499 $449 at Amazon (128GB) $499 $...
Iran’s military threatened on Wednesday to shut down Red Sea trade unless the US lifted its naval blockade on Tehran’s ports, saying the ceasefire was at risk. State media reported that the commander of Iran’s joint military command warned that Iran would completely block exports and imports across the Persian Gulf region, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea. “Iran will act with strength to defend it...
Iran’s military threatened on Wednesday to shut down Red Sea trade unless the US lifted its naval blockade on Tehran’s ports, saying the ceasefire was at risk. State media reported that the commander of Iran’s joint military command warned that Iran would completely block exports and imports across the Persian Gulf region, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea. “Iran will act with strength to defend its national sovereignty and its interests,” said Ali Abdollahi. He added that the US blockade is “a...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) today is up +0.36%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI ) (DIA ) is down -0.391%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) is up +0.63%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26 ) are up +0.37%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) today is up +0.36%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI ) (DIA ) is down -0.391%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) is up +0.63%. June E-mini S&P futures (ESM26 ) are up +0.37%, and June E-mini Nasdaq futures...
Edison SpA said it has replaced most Qatari gas supplies disrupted by the war in the Middle East, and sees no immediate risk to serving its customers in Italy. The Italian utility, owned by Electricite de France SA , had 10 Qatari liquefied natural gas cargoes scheduled for delivery between April and mid-June — equivalent to about 1.4 billion cubic meters — that were cancelled after QatarEnergy de...
Edison SpA said it has replaced most Qatari gas supplies disrupted by the war in the Middle East, and sees no immediate risk to serving its customers in Italy. The Italian utility, owned by Electricite de France SA , had 10 Qatari liquefied natural gas cargoes scheduled for delivery between April and mid-June — equivalent to about 1.4 billion cubic meters — that were cancelled after QatarEnergy declared force majeure. The last deliveries to Edison from Qatar date back to March. Qatar is a key gas supplier to Europe, and Italy is its largest buyer in the continent, receiving roughly five cargoes a month under long-term contracts. Edison has since secured seven replacement cargoes on the spot market, six of which are sourced from the US. The first replacement cargo arrived on April 11, a second is expected imminently, a third will arrive later in April, and the remaining deliveries are scheduled along May and June. These purchases allow the company to cover most of the shortfall and maintain supply commitments. Edison’s Executive Vice President Fabio Dubini said, however, that a force majeure declared by QatarEnergy could be extended if constraints persist, adding it’s “reasonable to expect” it may be prolonged given the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the disruption, Edison described QatarEnergy as a highly reliable long-term partner, highlighting a 25-year contract in place since 2009 and a track record of meeting obligations even during past crises. The company said global gas markets remain tight but supplied, with stronger competition from Asia pushing prices higher.
Gloo (NASDAQ: GLOO) stock has been making wild swings in Wednesday's trading, but it's currently in the red on the daily session. The company's share price was down 2.3% as of 1 p.m. ET. Gloo shares had been up as much as 15.9% early in today's trading but then saw a substantial bearish reversal. The company's share price had also been down as much as 4.7% in the session before regaining some grou...
Gloo (NASDAQ: GLOO) stock has been making wild swings in Wednesday's trading, but it's currently in the red on the daily session. The company's share price was down 2.3% as of 1 p.m. ET. Gloo shares had been up as much as 15.9% early in today's trading but then saw a substantial bearish reversal. The company's share price had also been down as much as 4.7% in the session before regaining some ground. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Exclusive: ministers consider restricting pesticide-based treatments, which can get into waterways and harm wildlife Pet owners across the UK could be banned from buying flea treatment for cats and dogs under new government rules. Ministers have begun an eight-week consultation on letting only veterinary practitioners or pharmacists give out the potent, pesticide-based flea treatments, to ensure “...
Exclusive: ministers consider restricting pesticide-based treatments, which can get into waterways and harm wildlife Pet owners across the UK could be banned from buying flea treatment for cats and dogs under new government rules. Ministers have begun an eight-week consultation on letting only veterinary practitioners or pharmacists give out the potent, pesticide-based flea treatments, to ensure “correct usage”. At the moment, the flea and tick treatments can be bought from any pet shop. Continue reading...
On Tuesday, reports emerged that United Airlines ( UAL ) has been eyeing a merger with rival American Airlines ( AAL ), just one week after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he saw room in the sector for more M&A activity. We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Chris DeMuth Jr. and Dhierin Bechai which airlines they thought might pursue M&A deals in the near future. Chris DeMuth Jr. : Allegiant's ...
On Tuesday, reports emerged that United Airlines ( UAL ) has been eyeing a merger with rival American Airlines ( AAL ), just one week after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he saw room in the sector for more M&A activity. We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Chris DeMuth Jr. and Dhierin Bechai which airlines they thought might pursue M&A deals in the near future. Chris DeMuth Jr. : Allegiant's ( ALGT ) and Sun’s ( SNCY ) merger should close this summer after it gets final regulatory approvals. After that, Spirit ( FLYYQ ) will probably take another try at selling, perhaps to JetBlue ( JBLU ) or Frontier ( ULCC ), the two companies that tried to buy it in the past. JetBlue needs to do something but would be better off as a seller than a buyer. United ( UAL ) will probably try to do some sort of asset purchase. Will they succeed in buying all of American ( AAL )? Probably not—that would be a heavy lift on the regulatory front. Dhierin Bechai : United Airlines ( UAL ) is seemingly interested in a combination with American Airlines ( AAL ). Given the debt load and the antitrust complexities, I do not believe a combination among the Big 4 or Big 5 would be the most logical. The need for better cost amortization is highest among the smaller airlines and the low-cost carriers. That remains the most logical space for combinations, given that low-cost carriers have already started implementing better cabin segmentation but are now seeing higher fuel costs as an added cost pressure. Out of the Big 5, Southwest Airlines ( LUV ) may be best equipped to acquire another airline, but there are no all-Boeing operators that would make sense for their business model, given that Allegiant ( ALGT ) is already set to acquire Sun Country ( SNCY ). JetBlue ( JBLU ) may be a better-suited acquisition candidate for both American ( AAL ) and United ( UAL ). Government officials are now well-disposed to M&A. This follows the government’s realization that blocking prior mergers and acquisit...
The Senate is getting ready to vote on a bill to resurrect IRS Direct File, the free tax filing service axed by the Trump administration in 2025. On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will seek unanimous consent to pass the Direct File Act, where it will either get fast-tracked to the House of Representatives or forced back into the standard, slow-moving lawmaking process if all 100 senators ...
The Senate is getting ready to vote on a bill to resurrect IRS Direct File, the free tax filing service axed by the Trump administration in 2025. On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will seek unanimous consent to pass the Direct File Act, where it will either get fast-tracked to the House of Representatives or forced back into the standard, slow-moving lawmaking process if all 100 senators don't agree. Launched in 2024 as a pilot program , IRS Direct File allowed Americans to file taxes directly with the government for free. It spread to 25 states before IRS Commissioner Billy Long declared it "gone" last fall. But Warren and Rep. Bra … Read the full story at The Verge.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) hasn't come out with a blockbuster new product for a long time. And that didn't change with its latest announcements in March. The biggest new product it released is a low-end laptop computer, the MacBook Neo. It complements the iPhone 17e release, which rounds out the bottom of its iPhone lineup. Both are priced at $599. That price is notable. It's the same as what was charge...
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) hasn't come out with a blockbuster new product for a long time. And that didn't change with its latest announcements in March. The biggest new product it released is a low-end laptop computer, the MacBook Neo. It complements the iPhone 17e release, which rounds out the bottom of its iPhone lineup. Both are priced at $599. That price is notable. It's the same as what was charged for the iPhone 16e last year, despite hefty price hikes for some major components. Continue reading
Cadence Design Systems and Nvidia are partnering to further the development of artificial intelligence for robots, the CEOs of the two companies said on Wednesday. Cadence, which is one of the major suppliers of the software used in designing advanced computing chips, is working with Nvidia to integrate its physics engines, which predict how real-world materials interact, with Nvidia AI ...
Cadence Design Systems and Nvidia are partnering to further the development of artificial intelligence for robots, the CEOs of the two companies said on Wednesday. Cadence, which is one of the major suppliers of the software used in designing advanced computing chips, is working with Nvidia to integrate its physics engines, which predict how real-world materials interact, with Nvidia AI models designed to train robots inside computer simulations. Training robots inside such simulations can be faster than training them in the real world.
FinkAvenue/iStock Editorial via Getty Images I address this article directly to Nvidia Corporation ( NVDA ) bulls who are patiently waiting for the stock to break through a very crucial resistance level of $200, which the stock has been unable to do since it briefly crossed to the upside in November 2025. At $196, that time may soon be nigh, but over that time-window, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ...
FinkAvenue/iStock Editorial via Getty Images I address this article directly to Nvidia Corporation ( NVDA ) bulls who are patiently waiting for the stock to break through a very crucial resistance level of $200, which the stock has been unable to do since it briefly crossed to the upside in November 2025. At $196, that time may soon be nigh, but over that time-window, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) and NVDA have been leapfrogging over each other. One should note that although both stocks are down by mid to high single digit percentages, AMD's periodic bounce-backs have exceeded those of the incumbent data center and AI GPU leader. Data by YCharts Last month, I penned an NVDA-exclusive piece that outlined the opportunity cost that was accruing to shareholders, and despite the stock being up 14 percent since March 30, it still lingers in the mid-$190s as of this writing. For context, and so the title does not confuse readers, I still maintain my Strong Sell on NVDA, but my rating is based on trimming the holding down to the extent that it matches an AMD component on a 1:1 basis by share count. One should note that a dollar-equivalent match will not yield the same results because one would be lower-weighted to AMD due to its higher share price. Mathematically, $1000 in NVDA and $1000 in AMD will get you (at current prices) 5.28 NVDA and 4.05 AMD, and that is not what one wants. However, one can choose to stay flexible based on whether to increase or decrease risk. Going back a little further, in February, I wrote a piece urging NVDA shareholders to pair their holding with AMD as a risk-mitigation strategy, and this article is a continuation of that thesis. I shall show how an equal pairing backtested over the April 2025 to March 2026 period offered better risk-adjusted returns than a holding of either NVDA or AMD exclusively. My purpose with this article is multi-fold. Backtesting does help validate a thesis, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. The underlying ...
Getty Images We had finally started to see the broader equity market experience a pullback, and in the case of the tech-heavy Nasdaq, even enter correction territory. A correction is often described as anything seeing a 10% or greater decline, with a bear market at a 20% or greater decline. This is noteworthy because the last serious downturn in the equity space goes back to April 2025. At that ti...
Getty Images We had finally started to see the broader equity market experience a pullback, and in the case of the tech-heavy Nasdaq, even enter correction territory. A correction is often described as anything seeing a 10% or greater decline, with a bear market at a 20% or greater decline. This is noteworthy because the last serious downturn in the equity space goes back to April 2025. At that time, we were seeing pressure from Trump announcing wide-sweeping tariffs. The latest decline is on the back of surging oil prices due to the conflict in Iran. To be fair, from a year-ago level, the broader equity benchmarks are still up rather strongly. We've also seen quite a remarkable rebound in the last couple of weeks as well, not being down nearly as harshly and pushing toward positive YTD returns for the broader benchmarks. I also believed that we needed a breather as valuations started to get too far ahead of themselves, particularly in the mega-cap tech space. I think that the Iran conflict, causing oil prices to surge and expectations for inflation to potentially reinflate, was just the spark the market needed. YCharts With that said, perhaps to my detriment, I tend to always be the optimist and look at the longer-term opportunities. For that reason, I started to buy a bit more aggressively to put my cash pile to work. To be fair, I always buy at least something every month in my closed-end fund portfolio to help generate compounding cash flow—it is more simply that I put more cash to work than I received from the dividends/distributions alone in the latest month. #1 Calamos Strategic Total Return Fund ( CSQ ) As the market was initially pulling back, I wanted to add to one of my longstanding positions. CSQ is a fund that is tilted toward holding an equity portfolio but also incorporates convertibles and high-yield bonds. This all makes it relatively sensitive to broader equity movements. Being leveraged, that has worked to apply additional downward pressure on the...
hapabapa Google’s ( GOOG ) Waymo robotaxi service is making its service available to all riders in Miami and Orlando, Florida, ending its previous “invite only” model. The company has also begun testing its service on Miami’s highways, adding the Florida metro area to its growing list of cities with highway operations, including Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. “Our generalizable Driver, p...
hapabapa Google’s ( GOOG ) Waymo robotaxi service is making its service available to all riders in Miami and Orlando, Florida, ending its previous “invite only” model. The company has also begun testing its service on Miami’s highways, adding the Florida metro area to its growing list of cities with highway operations, including Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. “Our generalizable Driver, powered by Waymo’s demonstrably safe AI is what allows us to move confidently from one destination to another. Our progress in Miami and Orlando is a testament to our system’s ability to scale, bringing the future of mobility to more people across more places,” Waymo said on its website . More on Alphabet Alphabet: A Powerful Earnings Beat Likely Coming Again (Earnings Preview) Alphabet: AI-Powered Google Finance Is A Masterstroke Alphabet Stock Defies AI's Gravity Google Cloud partners with Thoma Bravo to advance AI adoption by enterprises Snapshot of Quant and Wall St. ratings for quantum computing stocks after Nvidia's latest push