Shares of Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) have declined over 25% so far in 2026, as investors are growing increasingly concerned about the effect of its aggressive artificial intelligence (AI) investments on debt, cash flow, and credit risk. Image source: Getty Images. The shift in perception is reflected not just in share prices, but also in credit markets. Oracle's five-year credit default swap (CDS) spread...
Shares of Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) have declined over 25% so far in 2026, as investors are growing increasingly concerned about the effect of its aggressive artificial intelligence (AI) investments on debt, cash flow, and credit risk. Image source: Getty Images. The shift in perception is reflected not just in share prices, but also in credit markets. Oracle's five-year credit default swap (CDS) spread has recently climbed to around 198 basis points, the highest level on record. This implies that bond investors are demanding higher compensation to hold Oracle's debt. With around $120 billion of Oracle's bonds included in the Bloomberg U.S. high-grade corporate bond index, Wall Street is increasingly worried about the company's high leverage level. Continue reading
US Nuclear Fusion Startup To Build Radioactive Batteries For Use In Space Authored by Ameya Paleja via Interesting Engineering , Avalanche Energy, a fusion energy startup, has won a $5.2 million contract to build radioactive batteries that can power a laptop-class system for months . The contract is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Rads to Watts Program, which aims to build ...
US Nuclear Fusion Startup To Build Radioactive Batteries For Use In Space Authored by Ameya Paleja via Interesting Engineering , Avalanche Energy, a fusion energy startup, has won a $5.2 million contract to build radioactive batteries that can power a laptop-class system for months . The contract is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Rads to Watts Program, which aims to build next-generation, compact, resilient nuclear batteries with higher densities. An early prototype of Avalanche Energy’s radiovoltaic converter for the DARPA Rads to Watts program is exposed to high-energy ion-beam irradiation.Avalanche Fusion Radioactive batteries aren’t an entirely new concept . They have been around for years and have made their way even to Mars on NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Another type of radioactive battery is used in medical implant devices and sensors, but all these devices face the same issue: low energy density. Lithium-ion batteries, which are used everywhere from wearables to grid-level storage facilities, have high energy densities, storing up to 300 watt-hours (Wh) per kilogram. In comparison, radioactive batteries generate only about 2 watt-hours per kilogram, which the Rads to Watts Program aims to address. What will Avalanche do? The contract awarded to Avalance aims to build a radioactive battery that can power a laptop-class system for months. However, the battery will weigh only a few kilograms and deliver more than 10 watts per kilogram of energy. This is a major jump in power output for radioactive batteries. However, given that DARPA projects typically have defense and space applications in mind, these batteries will also need to be resilient in challenging environments, such as extreme temperatures and radiation exposure in space, where conventional electronics degrade rapidly. Avalanche will work to build solid-state microfabricated cells that convert alpha particles emitted by radioactive isotopes into electricity (alph...