Meta will receive custom AMD Instinct high-performance GPUs based on the MI450 architecture and optimized for its workloads, with shipments commencing during the second half of 2026. AMD has announced a multi-year partnership with Meta to deploy Meta’s AI infrastructure in 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs. “We are proud to expand our strategic partnership with Meta as they push the boundaries of A...
Meta will receive custom AMD Instinct high-performance GPUs based on the MI450 architecture and optimized for its workloads, with shipments commencing during the second half of 2026. AMD has announced a multi-year partnership with Meta to deploy Meta’s AI infrastructure in 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs. “We are proud to expand our strategic partnership with Meta as they push the boundaries of AI at unprecedented scale,” says Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD. “This multi-year, multi-generation collaboration across Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and rack-scale AI systems aligns our roadmaps to deliver high-performance, energy-efficient infrastructure optimized for Meta’s workloads, accelerating one of the industry’s largest AI deployments and placing AMD at the center of the global AI buildout.” The partnership brings AMD and Meta’s roadmaps together for GPUs, CPUs, and software to deliver scalable, energy-efficient AI platforms. Meta will also integrate AMD’s 6th Gen EPYC CPUs, codenamed “Venice,” across its AI infrastructure for workload density and efficient performance. AMD granted Meta a performance warrant for up to 160 million shares, linked to GPU shipment targets and stock price benchmarks. The partnership is also anticipated to deliver a multi-year increase in revenue for AMD, and help Meta achieve its next step of global innovation with AI. AMD and Meta are working together on the AMD Helios rack-scale architecture, which was defined through the Open Compute Project to help enable large-scale AI infrastructure. This deal further establishes AMD’s foothold in the AI space and aligns with Meta’s objective to enhance AI-dominated solutions and experiences. Related Previous Article: Nexcom launches NDiS B340 targeting scalable industrial edge deployments Article Topics AI infrastructure | AI/ML | AMD | CPU | GPU | Meta
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A teenage girl dreams of escaping her controlling father, in this sparkling coming-of-age romp haunted by trauma Alex Kadis establishes a jaunty tone from the very first pages of her debut about Connie Costa, a music-loving teenager stuck at home in east London in the mid-1970s, longing to break free from her smothering Greek Cypriot extended family, and in particular her restrictive father. Dubbi...
A teenage girl dreams of escaping her controlling father, in this sparkling coming-of-age romp haunted by trauma Alex Kadis establishes a jaunty tone from the very first pages of her debut about Connie Costa, a music-loving teenager stuck at home in east London in the mid-1970s, longing to break free from her smothering Greek Cypriot extended family, and in particular her restrictive father. Dubbing him “the fat murderer”, she has dreamed endlessly about killing him ever since the car accident a year before that took the lives of her mother and younger brothers. Lively, opinionated, and slightly chubby in her groovy 70s gear, Connie has two imaginary friends in the form of Marc Bolan and “bloody David Bowie”, with whom she communes via the posters on her bedroom wall. Marc she adores, but Bowie can be a bit snide, as well as having dubious taste in fashion. She’s starting to develop a keen interest in the male trouser region (Marc’s is placed at eye level). In the case of her father’s friend, Peter Pervy Roy, who wears “trousers so eye-wateringly tight that they squashed his knob and bollocks into a weird flat patty”, actual proximity can be off-putting. Far more appetising is her childhood friend Vas, similarly suffering from growing up while Greek. Vas displays his willy on demand: “It’s definitely getting bigger.” Everyone else assumes he’s gay because he reads poetry. Continue reading...
War is always in the background, but the focus is on a kindly father, his long-suffering wife and young sons struggling to make a profit from working the land Georgian film-maker Elene Mikaberidze’s first feature-length work is a gentle, sweet-natured and deeply embedded documentary that observes a working-class family over a year and a half as they start a blueberry plantation. The opening text i...
War is always in the background, but the focus is on a kindly father, his long-suffering wife and young sons struggling to make a profit from working the land Georgian film-maker Elene Mikaberidze’s first feature-length work is a gentle, sweet-natured and deeply embedded documentary that observes a working-class family over a year and a half as they start a blueberry plantation. The opening text informs us that Soso, father of the family, was originally an engineer but has chosen to pack in his profession and take up farming partly because the Georgian government is offering attractive credit incentives, particularly for those who work the land near the border with Abkhazia, once part of Georgia but effectively a puppet state of Russia since the 2008 Russia-Georgia war . The film starts tracking the family from April 2021, so war is very much on the minds of everyone here, even Soso’s irrepressible 10-year-old son, Lazare, who proudly shows off his pictures of soldiers and explosions in a school art show. Elsewhere, Lazare, his older brother, Giorgi, and another kid chat about the region’s politics and history after a Christmas-meal, speculating on how great it would have been if the Germans had killed Putin’s mother during the second world war. Continue reading...
Chinese technology firms, including internet giants Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance, are offering easy or inexpensive access to OpenClaw, the popular open-source AI agent software amid a “lobster fever” in the country. Tencent on Tuesday officially launched QClaw, an artificial intelligence assistant built on OpenClaw that can connect to the company’s super app WeChat. After ...
Chinese technology firms, including internet giants Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance, are offering easy or inexpensive access to OpenClaw, the popular open-source AI agent software amid a “lobster fever” in the country. Tencent on Tuesday officially launched QClaw, an artificial intelligence assistant built on OpenClaw that can connect to the company’s super app WeChat. After download and installation on a computer that takes about three minutes, users can remotely control their laptop by sending a command via WeChat on the phone, according to its website. Shares of Hong Kong-listed AI companies MiniMax and Zhipu AI surged 22 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, on Tuesday, as they took steps to incorporate OpenClaw tools. MiniMax integrated its voice and music generators with the OpenClaw ecosystem, while Zhipu released AutoClaw, which can deploy a local version of OpenClaw within one minute. Advertisement Alibaba on Monday released a comprehensive guide for integrating OpenClaw with DingTalk, its enterprise communication platform. DingTalk is offering unlimited API calls, or interactions, with OpenClaw until March 31. Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud, the company’s cloud unit, has launched tutorials and resources that allow developers to deploy OpenClaw for as low as 9.9 yuan (US$1.4). Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Advertisement TikTok owner ByteDance’s cloud unit Volcano Engine on Monday unveiled ArkClaw, marketing it as an “out-of-the-box” version of OpenClaw that runs entirely in the cloud, eliminating the need for complex local environment configuration.
The LinkedIn post seemed like yet another scam job offer, but Katya was desperate enough to click. After college, she’d struggled to make a living as a freelance journalist, gone to grad school, then pivoted to what she hoped would be a more stable career in content marketing — only to find AI had automated much of the work. This company was called Crossing Hurdles, and it promised copywriting job...
The LinkedIn post seemed like yet another scam job offer, but Katya was desperate enough to click. After college, she’d struggled to make a living as a freelance journalist, gone to grad school, then pivoted to what she hoped would be a more stable career in content marketing — only to find AI had automated much of the work. This company was called Crossing Hurdles, and it promised copywriting jobs starting at $45 per hour. Katya clicked and was taken to a page for another company, called Mercor, where she was instructed to interview on-camera with an AI named Melvin. “It just seemed like the sketchiest thing in the world,” Katya says. She closed the tab. But a few weeks later, still unemployed, she got a message inviting her to apply to Mercor. This time, she looked up the company. Mercor, it seemed, sold data to train AI, and she was being recruited to create that data. “My job is gone because of ChatGPT, and I was being invited to train the model to do the worst version of it imaginable,” she says. The idea depressed her. But her financial situation was increasingly dire, and she had to find a new place to live in a hurry, so she turned on her webcam and said “hello” to Melvin. It was a strange, if largely pleasant, experience. Manifesting on Katya’s laptop as a disembodied male voice, Melvin seemed to have actually read her résumé and asked specific questions about it. A few weeks later, Katya, who like most workers in this story asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation, received an email from Mercor offering her a job. If she accepted, she should sign the contract, submit to a background check, and install monitoring software onto her computer. She signed immediately. She was added to a Slack channel, where it was clear she was entering a project already underway. Hundreds of people were busy writing examples of prompts someone might ask a chatbot, writing the chatbot’s ideal response to those prompts, then creating a detailed checklist of criteria t...
CreativaImages/iStock via Getty Images All eyes will be on the situation in the Middle East and the energy markets this week, and for good reasons, with oil just having its biggest weekly gain since oil futures came into being in 1983. However, investors should not take their eyes off the deteriorating credit markets and rising concerns around private credit. BBC Bear Stearns collapsed on March 16...
CreativaImages/iStock via Getty Images All eyes will be on the situation in the Middle East and the energy markets this week, and for good reasons, with oil just having its biggest weekly gain since oil futures came into being in 1983. However, investors should not take their eyes off the deteriorating credit markets and rising concerns around private credit. BBC Bear Stearns collapsed on March 16, 2008, and was a major milestone of the Great Financial Crisis. However, some people forget some of the lesser events that happened before the investment bank's implosion. It was obvious in 2007 there were significant and growing problems in the housing market, just like it is obvious there are some cracks developing in the credit markets now. Ben Bernanke issued his now infamous quip about the subprime crisis being " contained " at the end of March of that year. A few days later, New Century Financial, which financed risky mortgages, declared bankruptcy , resulting in more than 3,000 job losses. And just like what we are seeing now, investment funds started to " gate" redemptions from investors. Wharton Asset Management, which was one of London’s oldest and largest hedge funds, halted redemptions at its flagship fund, 'Y2K Finance,' in September 2007. This followed BNP Paribas, France's largest bank, disclosing that it was freezing 1.6 billion euros worth of funds from redemption that August. The bank cited U.S. subprime mortgage sector problems for the halt in redemptions. However, the major "tell" on how bad things were getting came from Bear Stearns. In mid-July 2007, it announced that two of its funds were "essentially worthless " and then two weeks later the investment bank halted redemptions in a third fund. So, let's recap the recent cracks in the credit markets that have recently appeared this cycle. In late summer of last year, both Tricolor Holdings and First Brands went unexpectedly bankrupt, totaling a combined $10 billion to $15 billion in liabilities. This l...
Out of work and with 2 teens, this mom may lose food stamps under Trump's changes toggle caption Caroline Yang for NPR Although Mara is unemployed, she is busier than ever. When she is not taking care of her two children, Mara is at her desk applying for jobs. She is surveying her belongings to see what she can pawn off to buy toiletries. Or she is sifting through bills, calculating which ones can...
Out of work and with 2 teens, this mom may lose food stamps under Trump's changes toggle caption Caroline Yang for NPR Although Mara is unemployed, she is busier than ever. When she is not taking care of her two children, Mara is at her desk applying for jobs. She is surveying her belongings to see what she can pawn off to buy toiletries. Or she is sifting through bills, calculating which ones can wait and which need to be paid right away. Soon, Mara, a single mom in Minnesota, may have another task on her busy schedule: figuring out how to afford food for her and her family. That's because of new work requirements for people receiving aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps. Sponsor Message "It would be so beyond hard" to lose SNAP benefits, Mara said. "Without SNAP, there's no funds for food." Mara asked for her last name to be withheld given the stigma tied to receiving government assistance. She is also worried that speaking publicly will affect her chances of getting a job. Previously, SNAP recipients with children under 18 were exempt from work requirements mandating that recipients work, volunteer or participate in job training at least 80 hours a month. But now, under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that exemption only applies to those with children under 14 — which is how old Mara's youngest child turned in December. toggle caption Caroline Yang for NPR The Trump administration has argued that the mission of the nation's largest anti-hunger program has failed. "SNAP was intended to be temporary help for those who encounter tough times. Now, it's become so bloated that it is leaving fewer resources for those who truly need help," the White House said in a statement in June. But policy experts say the SNAP changes do not fully take into account the unique challenges faced by single parents like Mara or the sluggish job market in many parts of the country. They argue that losing food assistance wi...
Why Congress rarely pushes back when presidents deploy military force toggle caption The White House/Screenshot by NPR The Constitution gives Congress alone the power to declare war, but modern presidents have asserted broad authority to use military force. Congress has done little to push back, including last week, when lawmakers voted down a resolution to halt President Trump's military action a...
Why Congress rarely pushes back when presidents deploy military force toggle caption The White House/Screenshot by NPR The Constitution gives Congress alone the power to declare war, but modern presidents have asserted broad authority to use military force. Congress has done little to push back, including last week, when lawmakers voted down a resolution to halt President Trump's military action against Iran. Democrats have sparred with Republicans and the administration over the legality of the strikes. "We shouldn't be at war without a debate or vote," said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. "That is what the framers intended." "We've overcomplied with the law and what it requires," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after briefing lawmakers last week. "This is an action by the president to address a real threat." The Constitution says the president is commander in chief. It also says the power to declare war rests with Congress. But making that delineation in practice has proved complicated and contested. Sponsor Message To understand how that happened, it helps to trace the evolution of the debate over war powers, beginning in the early days of the republic. How tension between Congress and the president evolved Columbia University law professor Matthew Waxman, an expert on war powers who served in several positions in the administration of George W. Bush, says this separation of power between the executive and legislative branches in this space did not create much tension at first. "There just really wasn't much of a standing force," Waxman says. "The president would have to go to Congress to fund military forces in order to wage military campaigns abroad." toggle caption AP/ And that's what presidents did, up through President Franklin D. Roosevelt in World War II, the last time a president asked Congress for a formal declaration of war. The U.S. emerged from that war as a global superpower — a superpower with nuclear weapons. "So these are fundamental changes ...
Why the 'mad scramble' to fill hormone therapy prescriptions for menopause toggle caption SVPhilon/iStockphoto/Getty Images With the removal of the black-box warning on hormone therapy for menopause, some providers and patients report shortages or delays, waiting for a pharmacy to restock transdermal estrogen patches. When Jennifer Skoog Mondesir headed to the pharmacy to pick up her estrogen patc...
Why the 'mad scramble' to fill hormone therapy prescriptions for menopause toggle caption SVPhilon/iStockphoto/Getty Images With the removal of the black-box warning on hormone therapy for menopause, some providers and patients report shortages or delays, waiting for a pharmacy to restock transdermal estrogen patches. When Jennifer Skoog Mondesir headed to the pharmacy to pick up her estrogen patch, she never knew what she'd find. Mondesir, who is in her late 40s and in perimenopause, relies on the patch to help improve symptoms, including low energy. She lives in Jersey City, N.J. But last summer, she started running into a frustrating wall. "I went to CVS. I can't tell you the amount of times I've been there and they're like, 'We're out of patches,'" she says. Or they'd tell her to check back tomorrow. "So it was like a monthly mad scramble," Mondesir says. Sponsor Message Mondesir is not alone. Doctors who prescribe hormone therapy to manage menopausal symptoms report rolling shortages and delays, which are, in part, due to rising demand. It's a reversal from the early 2000s, when the treatment fell sharply out of favor. Dr. Nora Lansen, chief medical officer of Elektra Health, says use of hormone therapy has grown steadily over the past several years as both clinicians and patients have taken a fresh look at the evidence. "Over the past four to five years, demand has picked up as clinicians have familiarized themselves with current research and patients have become more interested," Lansen said. The shift is a turnaround from the early 2000s, when hormone therapy use plummeted. Back then, the Food and Drug Administration placed a black box warning — the strongest safety label — on estrogen products following results from the large Women's Health Initiative study. It found women on hormone therapy faced increased risks of heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary embolism, "which of course incited grave concern among users and prescribers," Lansen says. Last year, the...
One year later: Mahmoud Khalil remains in limbo but ready to fight toggle caption Stephanie Keith/Getty Images Last year, Mahmoud Khalil helped his wife pick out a name for their baby while he sat in immigration detention. For more than 100 days, Khalil waited in immigration custody to learn if he would be allowed to live in the U.S. with his son, whose birth he missed, or be sent to a country he ...
One year later: Mahmoud Khalil remains in limbo but ready to fight toggle caption Stephanie Keith/Getty Images Last year, Mahmoud Khalil helped his wife pick out a name for their baby while he sat in immigration detention. For more than 100 days, Khalil waited in immigration custody to learn if he would be allowed to live in the U.S. with his son, whose birth he missed, or be sent to a country he had never lived in. A year after Khalil was detained outside his New York apartment, his legal odyssey continues. The detention last March of Khalil, then a Columbia University graduate student, marked the start of a nationwide effort to deport noncitizens who speak out about Israel's war in Gaza. He now sits at the vanguard of a legal battle over immigrants' due process and civil rights pitted against the Trump administration's mass-detention and deportation policies. Sponsor Message "One year after, the government has not charged me with any crimes or presented any evidence that I committed wrongdoings whatsoever," Khalil told NPR in a recent interview. "I was absolutely targeted for what I represent, which is a student movement that erupted against the U.S. support for Israel." Most recently, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked President Trump to drop the cases against Khalil. Khalil's experience showcases the impact of Trump policy's to detain and deport people in the country. The Homeland Security Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on the status of Khalil's case. Life is different now for this legal permanent resident. He wears a baseball cap to cover his face. He looks over his shoulder while walking on the street. He doesn't go out alone with his son for fear he could be detained again. Khalil's legal fight became a full-time job Over the last year, Khalil has made his legal defense his job — learning the ins and outs of the already complex immigration law system, and the complicated ways the Trump administration was trying to stri...
Georgia special election to replace MTG tests the power of Trump's endorsement toggle caption Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. ATLANTA — Voters in Northwest Georgia are choosing who should replace former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Voting closes in the district's special election on Tuesday night. The election will test the weight...
Georgia special election to replace MTG tests the power of Trump's endorsement toggle caption Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. ATLANTA — Voters in Northwest Georgia are choosing who should replace former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Voting closes in the district's special election on Tuesday night. The election will test the weight of President Trump's endorsement of one of the candidates in a crowded race. Some voters say the president's choice is not who they think would best support the conservative MAGA movement championed by both Trump and Greene. Greene resigned at the beginning of this year, leaving Georgia's 14th Congressional District without representation in Congress — and slimming the GOP's majority in the House — following a bitter split with Trump. Sponsor Message Greene rose to prominence over five years in office as a strong ally of Trump, bombastically attacking critics and pushing the MAGA movement's "America First" policy. Yet the two had a very public clash after she pushed for the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Greene has also been sharply critical of Trump's actions abroad, saying he has strayed from his promises to focus domestically. With Trump now in the second year of his second term, other high-profile spats with key parts of his MAGA coalition have erupted over his administration's handling of other issues, including sweeping tariffs, immigration policy and more. More recently, rifts have emerged over the war with Iran. Some, like Greene, argue that though Trump helped create the "America First" worldview, he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like. Most of the GOP candidates in the special election have said they want to focus on Trump's priorities and the concerns of their district, rather than become headlines themselves — an approach they say Greene embraced in her public disputes with Democrats and even with members of he...
The US welcomed Bolivia back to its sphere of influence last weekend by returning a family heirloom to President Rodrigo Paz : the golden cross his father, who was also president, gave to George H.W. Bush in 1990. The younger Paz is attempting to lead the South American nation out of an economic crisis and realign its foreign policy with Washington after two decades of a socialist government that ...
The US welcomed Bolivia back to its sphere of influence last weekend by returning a family heirloom to President Rodrigo Paz : the golden cross his father, who was also president, gave to George H.W. Bush in 1990. The younger Paz is attempting to lead the South American nation out of an economic crisis and realign its foreign policy with Washington after two decades of a socialist government that favored China, Russia and Venezuela. Foreign currency reserves remain low, and inflation is stubborn at 17%. The White House has thrown its support behind the 58-year-old Paz, promising to work with the mineral-rich nation to remove barriers to investment. Donald Trump had his first face-to-face meeting with Bolivia’s president on Saturday at the Shield of the Americas summit in Doral, Florida, attended by Latin American leaders leaders from across the Western Hemisphere. Paz, in turn, is seeking to revamp Bolivia’s finances with an eye on boosting foreign reserves while servicing its debt with international lenders. It’s a daunting challenge, even for a leader whose path to power has the feel of destiny — Bush had predicted that one day the US would give back the cross when one of the elder Paz’s children rose to the presidency. “There is a clear intention to open Bolivia to the world and the world to Bolivia,” Paz said in an interview. The president, who took office in November, said his administration is drafting new legislation on investment, hydrocarbons, mining and energy to attract foreign companies. Already, Elon Musk’s satellite Internet service Starlink has started operations in Bolivia, while others “are conducting market assessments and exploring potential investments,” he said. The country holds one of the world’s largest lithium deposits and significant mining and hydrocarbons potential, but a lack of investment in exploration helped drag its hydrocarbons exports to $1 billion last year from a peak of $6.6 billion from 2013 to 2014. That’s contributed to an ec...
Policymakers around the world are readying measures to absorb surging energy and commodities prices triggered by the Middle East war that now threaten the global economy with its biggest shock since the pandemic. What were cast as dire scenarios when the conflict began have quickly become reality, with Brent crude surging Monday to almost $120 a barrel from around $72 dollars before the war with I...
Policymakers around the world are readying measures to absorb surging energy and commodities prices triggered by the Middle East war that now threaten the global economy with its biggest shock since the pandemic. What were cast as dire scenarios when the conflict began have quickly become reality, with Brent crude surging Monday to almost $120 a barrel from around $72 dollars before the war with Iran started. While oil fell back below $100 after President Donald Trump indicated the war would be resolved “very soon” and said he plans to waive oil-related sanctions, it remains unclear how the conflict ends and how long it’ll take to unwind the energy supply problems. That’s injected fresh uncertainty into a global growth outlook facing a host of disruptors from AI and tariffs to rising debt. Beyond oil, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has led to a spike in prices for LNG, fertilizer, jet fuel and other key commodities, stoking fears of a new wave of global inflation, slower growth and supply snarls as factories are forced to slow production. Before the US and Israel’s Feb. 28 attacks, the World Bank’s Global Supply Chain Stress Index was already hovering at its highest level since the pandemic. After an initial wait-and-watch response, governments are now studying options that include releasing oil from strategic reserves, price caps to help households and subsidies and tax relief to cushion business and farmers. Bloomberg Economics: Iran, Oil and Inflation — Three Scenarios South Korea’s President has called for a cap on fuel prices; the UK government has floated support for households; the Philippines has switched government offices to a four-day week; and Indian officials are considering whether measures to offset spiking energy costs are needed. Short-Term Fixes “All of these are sticking plasters that can help absorb some degree of the energy shock in the short term, but are unlikely to make much difference in the longer run if the conflict proves p...
Ad Age partners with executive search firm Taligence for a monthly look at the biggest CMO hires and employment trends. (Ad Age composite: Ezra Bailey/Getty Images)
Ad Age partners with executive search firm Taligence for a monthly look at the biggest CMO hires and employment trends. (Ad Age composite: Ezra Bailey/Getty Images)
Sheikhspeare Authored by James Alexander via DailySceptic.org, Hegel said everything important in world history happens twice . Marx added, grimly: “The first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” And here is my thrupenny bit. Everything important said by anyone in world history is said twice: the first time as farcical observation, the second as academic argument. As evidence I submit the follow...
Sheikhspeare Authored by James Alexander via DailySceptic.org, Hegel said everything important in world history happens twice . Marx added, grimly: “The first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” And here is my thrupenny bit. Everything important said by anyone in world history is said twice: the first time as farcical observation, the second as academic argument. As evidence I submit the following. A few weeks ago I took a brief look at the hypothesis that Shakespeare was a black lady. I accepted with grave pleasure the fact that Shakespeare is an anagram of A She-Speaker: but, of course I had to be caustic about the claim accompanying the staggering anagram. And against the argument that the name Shakespeare might allude to Shakti, the female power that lies underneath all existence, I solemnly ventured the observation that it might equally and oppositely – equality and opposition being essential to scepticism – allude to the Arabic word Sheikh, and the male power that lies underneath all existence. That was the farce. Now the academic argument. Today I received a notification from Academia.edu telling me about a piece written by Sushil K. Jain from Canada, entitled, and hold your breath, ‘Shakespeare, the Sheikh, Who Became a Peer’ , subtitled, ‘The Eastern Mind Behind the English Stage: A New Model of Shakespearian Authorship’, published 2026. There we are. First time as farce, second time as academic argument. I have printed it out and will let you know what it says. It is 120 pages long. Actually, it is not very academic, though it has a fair number of citations and is written in a sort of AI-neutral prose style. Right, I read it last night. The first thing I have to say is that the author nowhere says that he is guilty of a woeful pun. “The Sheikh who became a Peer”, indeed. Jain’s style – and I do not know how much any AI bot was involved in the writing of this: it is very smooth and laborious and explanatory and is very easy to skip through without missin...
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. press release ( ASUUY ): FY GAAP EPS of NT$60.00. Revenue of NT$688.94B (+25.6% Y/Y). More on ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Global PC shipments rose 9% in 2025; supply constraints cloud 2026 outlook Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Historical earnings data for ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Dividend scorecard for ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Financial information for ASUSTeK Com...
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. press release ( ASUUY ): FY GAAP EPS of NT$60.00. Revenue of NT$688.94B (+25.6% Y/Y). More on ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Global PC shipments rose 9% in 2025; supply constraints cloud 2026 outlook Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Historical earnings data for ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Dividend scorecard for ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Financial information for ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Lindt & Spruengli AG shares fell by the most in six years after the chocolate maker lowered its full-year sales guidance, citing geopolitical turmoil. The stock tumbled as much as 9.5% in Swiss trading, the biggest intraday drop since March 2020. The decline erased the gains for this year. Lindt now sees organic sales growth of 4% to 6% in 2026, down from a previous forecast of 6% to 8%, the compa...
Lindt & Spruengli AG shares fell by the most in six years after the chocolate maker lowered its full-year sales guidance, citing geopolitical turmoil. The stock tumbled as much as 9.5% in Swiss trading, the biggest intraday drop since March 2020. The decline erased the gains for this year. Lindt now sees organic sales growth of 4% to 6% in 2026, down from a previous forecast of 6% to 8%, the company said Tuesday. It reiterated its operating profit margin target on expectations the trend switching from quantity to quality chocolates will continue, Lindt said. The guidance cut reflects not only current geopolitical turmoil but also lingering uncertainty around volume growth, said Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy in a note. “This will likely fuel the bears’ doubts about Lindt’s ability to reignite volumes,” he said. Lindt has faced high cocoa prices and weak demand in its key markets. The Swiss chocolatier raised its prices by 19% in 2025 after cocoa costs reached record highs the previous year, a move that has weighed on sales volumes. Cocoa futures have more than halved in the past six months after reaching a peak in December 2024. The chocolatier also said it plans a share buyback program of as much as 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion).
Ignatiev/E+ via Getty Images Rocket Lab’s ( RKLB ) latest quarter may have appeared to be a solid one, as I discussed in earlier analysis , with revenue beating expectations, margins reaching new highs, and backlog reaching a record high. Yet the focus of the market continues to seem somehow obsessed with an event that has not occurred yet, the delayed launch of the company’s new Neutron rocket. I...
Ignatiev/E+ via Getty Images Rocket Lab’s ( RKLB ) latest quarter may have appeared to be a solid one, as I discussed in earlier analysis , with revenue beating expectations, margins reaching new highs, and backlog reaching a record high. Yet the focus of the market continues to seem somehow obsessed with an event that has not occurred yet, the delayed launch of the company’s new Neutron rocket. It’s a phenomenon that caught my attention almost immediately. The company reported $180 million in revenue for its Q4 earnings , representing 36% year-over-year growth, as well as record GAAP gross margins of 38%. The company’s revenue for the full year was $602 million, continuing its long-term growth trajectory that is now accelerating. This is not insignificant for a company that the market continues to treat as an experimental launch company. The focus, however, continues to remain centered around the delayed launch of the company’s new rocket, the Neutron, which is now expected to launch in late 2026 following the qualification tank failure. This is an incomplete way to look at the company to me, as the company is now transforming into a fundamentally different business than the way the market seems to think about it. Backlog Visibility Far Stronger Than Launch Headlines Suggest The $1.85 billion backlog should not be overlooked in favor of the launch headlines. Backlog in the aerospace industry is tricky, as the nature of these contracts often spans multiple years. So, while the number is certainly an important metric, the fact that the company disclosed that approximately 37% of this backlog is expected to convert into revenue over the next 12 months changed my perspective entirely. Q4 2025 INVESTOR UPDATE This represents approximately $685 million in revenue before the company even signs new contracts. This is to say that the vast majority of the revenue that the company will see in the following year is already represented in its current backlog. This is significan...
ismagilov/iStock via Getty Images Airlines are facing soaring jet fuel prices as a result of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, prompting carriers around the world to raise ticket prices and consider adding more flights for certain routes. Australia's Qantas Airways ( QABSY ) said it will hike airfares on its international routes this week and is exploring options to redeploy capacity to its Europe routes...
ismagilov/iStock via Getty Images Airlines are facing soaring jet fuel prices as a result of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, prompting carriers around the world to raise ticket prices and consider adding more flights for certain routes. Australia's Qantas Airways ( QABSY ) said it will hike airfares on its international routes this week and is exploring options to redeploy capacity to its Europe routes in the coming months. "Given the high demand for international flights, particularly to Europe, lower fare options are selling more quickly than usual," Qantas ( QABSY ) said. "More customers have also been choosing to travel to Europe via the United States, other Asian cities and Johannesburg." Air New Zealand ( ANZFF ) said it implemented initial fare adjustments, but it may take further pricing action if jet fuel costs remain elevated. "Jet fuel prices, which were around $85 to $90 per barrel prior to the conflict, have increased sharply to between $150 to $200 per barrel in recent days," the airline noted. It said the crack spread (jet fuel refining margins) widened from ~$22 per barrel before the conflict to as high as $115 per barrel. The conflict is expected to "meaningfully affect" Air New Zealand's ( ANZFF ) second-half earnings, because of which it suspended its FY2026 guidance until fuel markets and operating conditions stabilize. Cathay Pacific Airways ( CPCAY ) ( CPCAF ) is adding extra flights to London and Zurich this month, Reuters reported , while Hong Kong Airlines is raising its fuel surcharges by up to 35.2% this week. Indian airlines raised prices on long-haul routes by 15% and may hike fares further, Bloomberg News reported , while Vietnamese state media warned that airfares could rise as much as 70%. More on airlines US Global Jets ETF: Why I Would Stay Away (Rating Downgrade) Iran War Pressures Airline Stocks Through Oil And Demand Risks Five undervalued large cap airline carriers amid turbulent stock prices Global airlines: Fuel‑hedging winners an...