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OpenAI developing $300+ AI speaker to challenge Amazon Alexa

Yahoo Finance Tech Editor discusses reports that OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) is developing a $300+ puck-sized smart home device designed to compete directly with Amazon (AMZN) Alexa and Google Home Video Transcript 00:00 Speaker A We got to talk about Open AI because they are coming after Alexa and Siri. They're going into the home market here. Uh reportedly developing a hockey puck-sized AI device that could cost more than $300 and uh they want to build more consumer or new consumer hardware built around artificial intelligence rather than apps. So, what are some of the details here? 00:24 Dan Yeah, this is uh from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and he said it's kind of like a hockey puck donut kind of looking thing. uh which yeah, sure, why not? Why not? Uh uh basically what Open AI is doing is uh uh apparently putting together this device that would have kind of some, you know, anthropomorphic qualities to it and that uh it would kind of react to you in certain ways and there would be some kind of movement uh related to the the device itself kind of indicating that it's listening uh or that it's uh doing some uh uh yeah processing, trying to give you an answer to a question or provide uh you with an update on a task that it's running in the background, things along those lines. It'll have lights on it that indicate when it's thinking, um, thinking. Uh and then uh kind of in that price range, it would be more expensive than what you would get out of a a small Google home or or an Alexa, uh you use Alexa Plus, but the the big deal here is that it's running on Open AI's models or would would run on Open A AI's models. And so, you know, you would think that people are comfortable using chat GPT at this point. Perhaps that's kind of a an an additional way to increase market share that OpenAI has with chat GPT getting into the home space 01:54 Dan is interesting though, because when you look at something like Alexa uh and the uh Echo that that Amazon sells or or Google home, the the Alexa was originally built as a means to get people to buy more from Amazon's website. It was a way for people to say, you know, buy me more laundry detergent or something. and you would just add stuff to a list over time. And so it would reduce friction and get people to buy more. Uh didn't really work out that way. It became a way of just kind of asking what the time was or what the weather was or, you know, what's on my my schedule or what's traffic like, nothing really too deep beyond that. And so they've come out with Alexa Plus, they're trying to expand on that with different capabilities, uh agentic capabilities overall. Uh uh uh Google's doing the exact same thing. And so, obviously OpenAI being what they are, want to be in this space and try to dominate it. and we'll just have to see, but, you know, it also comes as uh Apple is suing OpenAI for uh alleged uh uh uh trademark uh uh trade secrets, uh theft. And so, 03:09 Dan you know, this doesn't sound like anything Apple has. Uh we don't know if they're working on something like that, but I guess we'll just have to see. Um, but yeah, this this could be a very interesting product and an interesting move for Open AI. 03:22 Speaker A Yeah, an always-on anthropomorphic Open AI device in my home. I don't know, but thank you for the report, Dan. 03:29 Dan View Comments

Nvidia’s (NVDA) Alpamayo Launch and the Robotaxi Bet

On August 4, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) opened up commercial use of Alpamayo 2 Super, a reasoning model built for robotaxis and self-driving cars. The move signals where the company wants its next growth chapter to come from, even as investors argue over what its core chip business is worth today.Nvidia's (NVDA) Alpamayo Launch and the Robotaxi Bet Bull Case: A Foundation Model Built To Be Licensed Alpamayo 2 Super is the newest entry in what Nvidia calls the most downloaded family of open reasoning models for autonomous driving on Hugging Face, with the lineup topping 500,000 downloads. It ships under OpenMDW 1.1, the Linux Foundation's open license, which lets automakers and suppliers fine-tune and sell products built on it without asking Nvidia for extra permission. That turns a research release into a business: developers can build proprietary self-driving stacks on Nvidia's foundation without paying frontier-model prices for every task. On the LingoQA driving benchmark, Nvidia says the model beat Gemini 2.5 Pro by 15.1 points and GPT-4o by 23.2 points, and it can output a full driving trajectory alongside a plain-language explanation of its reasoning, a feature built for safety reviewers as much as for a leaderboard. That expansion sits on top of a business already growing faster than its size would suggest. Trailing 12-month revenue climbed 71% to $253 billion, and the pace has been accelerating rather than cooling, moving from 56% growth a year ago to 85% in the most recent quarter. Data center revenue, the business autonomous-vehicle compute rides on, rose 92% year over year to $75.2 billion, and Nvidia raised its quarterly dividend from a penny to $0.25 a share while authorizing an $80 billion buyback. Demand from its biggest customers backs that up: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) raised its 2026 capital spending guidance toward $195 billion to $205 billion, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) lifted its own estimate toward $220 billion, and SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO Elon Musk said his company is "exclusive to Nvidia" for its next computing architecture. Bear Case: A Price Tag The Market Refuses To Get Excited About The market's response to all that growth has cooled. Nvidia's stock has fallen or barely moved after each of its last several earnings reports, even on beats, and it reports fiscal second-quarter results again on August 26. Some of the caution is arithmetic. Nvidia's market capitalization has reached roughly $5 trillion, about a sixth of annual US economic output, a size that makes the kind of percentage gains that built early fortunes in the stock difficult to repeat. Story Continues Growth is also expected to decelerate, from an 82% pace this fiscal year to about 43% the next, and views on the multiple differ, from around 21x forward earnings to a P/E near 32. That gap is the real tension: a price built for a fairly ordinary company sits on top of a business still compounding at an extraordinary rate. If that compounding slows further, or AI infrastructure spending pauses, a stock priced mostly on next year's earnings could take a hard hit, especially with some of Nvidia's largest customers already designing their own chips. What The Positioning Data Shows Hedge fund ownership rose from 264 to 275 funds in the most recent quarter, which points to building rather than fading institutional interest. Short interest sits at just 1.39% of the float, thin enough that organized bets against the stock remain rare. Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings ratio comes in at 22.88, noticeably below the 32 multiple one estimate above attaches to the stock and closer to the roughly 21x figure another calculates, a reminder that how "expensive" Nvidia looks depends heavily on which earnings base gets used. Where The Argument Goes From Here Alpamayo 2 Super is a small piece of Nvidia's business today, but it points to how the company wants to extend its reach beyond chip sales into the software that runs on top of them. The core financial pi

Explainer-How could New Mexico's $567 million ruling change Meta?

By Dietrich Knauth Aug 7 (Reuters) - A New Mexico state court ordered Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, to make major changes to its platforms and pay the largest sum yet in a growing wave of U.S. litigation over claims that social media harms young people. Here ‌is a look at the decision and its potential consequences. HOW MUCH MUST META PAY? The court in Santa Fe ruled on Thursday that Meta must ‌pay $567 million into a New Mexico fund for teen mental health prevention and treatment. In an earlier phase of the case, a jury awarded New Mexico $375 million on related consumer protection claims. The combined $942 million ​far exceeds other penalties in youth-related social media cases including a $6 million verdict against Meta and Alphabet's Google, owner of YouTube, in a California case in March. Meta said the claims misrepresented the facts and that it will appeal the ruling. WHAT CHANGES DID THE COURT ORDER META TO MAKE? Judge Bryan Biedscheid in Santa Fe ordered Meta to implement measures for users in New Mexico intended to protect youth on Facebook and Instagram. The ruling does not affect other states. Meta must introduce more stringent age verification, restrict users under ‌18 to no more than 90 hours a month and ⁠shut off push notifications overnight and during school hours. Parents must consent to the number of "likes" on a child's post being shown, the ruling said. Meta must also ban sexualized chatbot interactions with minors and blur images suspected of containing nudity. The judge rejected some ⁠of the changes New Mexico requested, including modifications to Meta's algorithms and features such as infinite scroll and autoplay videos. The company said during the trial that some changes the state sought were not technologically possible and could force it to exit the state. WHAT WAS THE BASIS OF THE JUDGE'S DECISION? Biedscheid ruled that Meta created a public nuisance, agreeing with ​New ​Mexico's claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed in ways that addicted young users and did not ​adequately protect them from sexual exploitation. Reuters last year reported on ‌company documents that showed Meta's AI chatbots could "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." The judge rejected Meta's call to dismiss the case under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally shields online platforms from liability over user content. WHAT IS A PUBLIC NUISANCE? Public nuisance claims traditionally have been used in cases involving threats to public health or safety, such as pollution. More recently, governments have brought them in lawsuits against companies that sold or marketed tobacco and opioids. Story Continues In the New Mexico case, the judge found that the harms from Meta's platforms extended beyond individual users and imposed broader costs on families, schools, hospitals and law enforcement. Meta argued ‌at trial that it had not violated any public right such as access to air ​or water, that its social media platforms are not the only ones used by the state's young ​residents and that the case ignored the impact of other apps. HOW DOES ​THIS AFFECT OTHER CASES? The New Mexico case does not directly impact thousands of other pending lawsuits by children and families or ‌public nuisance claims by more than 40 states and 1,300 school ​districts. But New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez ​has called the decision a "blueprint" for governments seeking to force changes on social media platforms through the courts. A federal trial scheduled for August 12 in Oakland, California, will test claims by 29 states that Meta illegally collected and used children's data, designed Facebook and Instagram to addict young users and ​misled consumers. The case could expose Meta to massive damages ‌and potentially sweeping changes to its products. Meta has denied allegations that it harmed young users or misled the public about the safety of ​its platforms. The company has pointed t

Congress Eyes Boosting Quantum Funds as Global Race Heats Up

(Bloomberg) -- US lawmakers from both parties are seeking to boost federal funding for quantum computing as China and other countries race to transition from research to deployment of the nascent technology across defense, intelligence and cybersecurity. Most Read from Bloomberg OpenAI's New Device Will Be Hockey Puck-Sized and Cost Over $300 Iran Wants to Bar US, Israeli Ships From Hormuz in Peace Accord Trump Administration Considers Order on Autism and Vaccines Iran Says Agreement on Hormuz Shipping Reached With Oman Walmart Tests Fulfillment Cart Changes After Child Hit in Store The House later this year is expected to debate defense funding legislation that would increase annual military spending on quantum development and application by 68% to $567 million. A similar effort is underway in the Senate to fund the nascent technology, which researchers believe could provide a range of new capabilities in everything from drug discovery to computing encryption standards. The congressional moves buttress work within the Trump administration, which in May announced plans to pour more than $2 billion into the industry through direct federal investments. In June, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at advancing quantum research and development and another mandating federal agencies take steps to insulate their IT systems against quantum computer-based cyberattacks. Despite a slate of recent technological breakthroughs, investors remain skeptical of the industry's near-term commercial success, according to Philip Singerman, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Shares of leading pure-play quantum companies including D-Wave Quantum Inc., Infleqtion Inc. and Rigetti Computing Inc. have fallen sharply since the start of the year as investor enthusiasm for the technology, which had been hailed by analysts as the next market-defining computing revolution after artificial intelligence, has cooled. Global X's AI and Technology ETF, which holds a basket of top AI and semiconductor stocks, has risen 20% over the same period. Another quantum company, College Park, Maryland-based IonQ Inc., last week closed its $1.8 billion acquisition of semiconductor foundry SkyWater Technology Inc. after federal regulators ended their review of the deal without taking any action to stop it. IonQ on Wednesday raised its full-year revenue forecast, and its shares have recouped most of their losses for the year. Nonetheless, funding quantum has quickly become a political priority as governments line up financing in the race for superiority on a technology that ultimately could pose security threats, breaking the systems that protect banks and government data. Story Continues A mix of startups and large firms, including Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, are trying to apply quantum physics to make computers exponentially more powerful than today's machines. These companies are betting that the nascent field, which uses the rules of subatomic particles to manipulate and transmit information, is getting closer to delivering real-world progress in fields like drug discovery and finance. There's also the race against China, which has established a $10 billion National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences, while Europe and the UK combined have committed nearly three times as much public money as the US to develop the technology, according to estimates compiled by industry consultancy QBN. "In China, you see a massive push toward quantum leadership," said Darío Gil, under secretary for science at the Department of Energy. "That's the one that I'm most focused on." White House Summit One sign of quantum's growing political salience in Washington is an uptick in interactions between policymakers and industry insiders, according to Infleqtion Inc. Chief Executive Officer Matt Kinsella. Quantum executives and lobbyists are increasingly engaging with politicians to explain the technology's complexities an

Catalyst Watch: Inflation reads, AMAT earnings, Google Pixel event, and MLB on Netflix

[Lower Manhattan Cityscape] Art Wager/E+ via Getty Images Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch - a breakdown of some of next week's actionable events that stand out. Read more about the events that may impact stock prices next week. MONDAY - AUGUST 10 * VOLATILITY WATCH - SpaceX (SPCX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPCX]) and Rocket Lab (RKLB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/RKLB]) have seen options volatility increase over the last week. The most overbought stocks per their 14-day relative strength index include SMJ International (SMJF [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SMJF]), Chime Financial (CHYM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CHYM]), and Utz Brands (UTZ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UTZ]). The most oversold stocks per their 14-day Relative Strength Index include QumulusAI (QMLS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/QMLS]), Capricor Therapeutics (CAPR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CAPR]) and Solowin (AXG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AXG]). Short interest is elevated again on Virgin Galactic (SPCE [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPCE]) and BigBear.ai (BBAI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BBAI]). * DIVIDEND WATCH - Companies that have an ex-dividend date coming next week include Apple (AAPL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AAPL]), IBM (IBM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/IBM]), Alcoa (AA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AA]), and Target (TGT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TGT]). * IPO WATCH - Londian Wason New Energy Tech (FOIL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FOIL]) is expected to price its IPO and begin to trade. The Chinese copper giant is aiming for a valuation of $1.7B. The quiet period ends on Csquare (CSQR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CSQR]) and Standard Nuclear (STDN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/STDN]) to free up analysts to post ratings on the volatile semiconductor stock. * EARNINGS WATCH - Notable companies due to report include Simon Property (SPG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPG]), Barrick Mining (B [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/B]), Rocket Lab (RKLB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/RKLB]), and Archer Aviation (ACHR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ACHR]). Traders will also be watching AlTi Global (ALTI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ALTI]), which reports amid M&A reports. * ALL WEEK - The conference schedule heats up with the Canaccord Genuity Growth Conference, Oppenheimer Technology, Internet & Communications Conference, Needham AI Infrastructure Conference, Deutsche Bank Industrials Summit, and Keybanc Technology Leadership Forum all taking place. * ALL DAY - Amazon's (AMZN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AMZN]) Zoox will begin charging fares for robotaxi rides in Las Vegas. * 10:00 A.M. Micron (MU [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MU]) executives will participate at the KeyBanc Capital Markets Technology Leadership Forum in Deer Valley, Utah, TUESDAY - AUGUST 11 * EARNINGS WATCH - Notable companies due to report include Coreweave (CRWV [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CRWV]), Sea (SE [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SE]), Cardinal Health (CAH [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CAH]), On Holding (ONON [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ONON]), and CAVA Group (CAVA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CAVA]). Options trading implies a double-digit move for Rackspace Technology (RXT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/RXT]) and Firefly Aerospace (FLY [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FLY]) after their reports are released. * ALL DAY - The Monster Beverage (MNST [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MNST]) 2-for-1 stock split will become effective. * ALL DAY - The New York Fed will release its Q2 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit and hold a press call. * 10:00 A.M. The Existing Home Sales report will be released by the National Association of Realtors. WEDNESDAY - AUGUST 12 * EARNINGS WATCH - Notable companies due to report include Cisco (CSCO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CSCO]), Coherent (COHR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/COHR]), Brinker International (EAT [https://seekinga

Beyond NVIDIA and GPUs: The Next AI & Quantum Winners Leading 2026

The artificial intelligence boom has created enormous wealth over the past three years, with NVIDIA NVDA emerging as the undisputed leader of the AI infrastructure revolution. But as the market matures, investors are asking a different question: where will the next wave of AI winners come from? The answer may lie beyond traditional AI infrastructure. The momentum behind AI remains strong. According to the Stanford AI Index 2026, global private investment in AI continued to accelerate in 2025, with U.S. investment reaching $285.9 billion, far outpacing Europe ($20.9 billion) and China ($12.4 billion). The data underscores that capital continues to flow aggressively into AI innovation, even as the investment landscape broadens beyond GPUs.Standford University Image Source: Standford University Hyperscalers including Microsoft MSFT, Amazon, Alphabet, Oracle and Meta are collectively on track to spend more than $700 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, with AI infrastructure accounting for a significant share of those investments, signaling that the AI investment cycle is far from over (S&P Global, May 2026 article). At the same time, governments worldwide are accelerating funding for quantum computing, viewing the technology as a strategic asset for economic competitiveness and national security. The convergence of these two megatrends is creating an investment opportunity that extends well beyond today's AI leaders. AI Spending Expanding Across the Technology Stack The first phase of the AI boom rewarded semiconductor companies, particularly NVIDIA, as enterprises raced to build AI computing capacity. But the investment cycle is now broadening beyond chips. As stated earlier, major hyperscalers have collectively guided hundreds of billions of dollars in capital expenditures this year, with AI infrastructure accounting for a significant share of those investments. The spending extends beyond GPUs to custom AI accelerators, networking equipment, memory, storage, data centers and power infrastructure needed to support increasingly sophisticated AI models. Enterprises are moving from pilot projects to production-scale AI deployments, driving demand for AI servers, cloud services, cybersecurity, data management and software platforms. This expanding ecosystem has created opportunities not only for semiconductor companies but also for networking providers, cloud infrastructure vendors and enterprise software firms. Companies such as Broadcom AVGO and Marvell Technology MRVL are gaining from AI networking and custom silicon. Arista Networks is capitalizing on data-center networking upgrades and Palantir is benefiting from growing enterprise AI software adoption. Story Continues Analysts currently expect AI-related capital expenditures to remain elevated for years as businesses transition from AI experimentation to production-scale deployment.Standford University Image Source: Standford University According to the Stanford AI Index 2026, 88% of organizations globally reported using AI in 2025, up from 78% in 2024 and 55% in 2023. Governments Are Betting Big on Quantum Government support is becoming a key catalyst for the quantum computing industry. In the United States, the federal government continues to fund quantum research through the National Quantum Initiative, while agencies including the Department of Defense, DARPA and the Department of Energy are awarding contracts for quantum computing, networking and sensing technologies. Europe is advancing commercialization through its Quantum Flagship program, while the U.K. recently expanded its National Quantum Strategy with long-term funding aimed at building a globally competitive quantum industry. China also continues to invest heavily in quantum communications and computing infrastructure. Pureplays like D-Wave QBTS continue to secure government-backed research collaborations, while Rigetti has benefited from defense and public-sector contracts. As governments prioritize quantum

The Stock Market Is Finally Rising Again—and It’s Getting Cheaper, Too

In a “shrinkflation” world, investors might want to stop and appreciate the stock market, which is giving them more for less. While the is up 22% in the past year, valuations have actually come down, with the forward price/earnings ratio falling from 22.1 times forward earnings to 20 times, per Bloomberg data. Simply put, the “E” is rising faster than the “P.” Second-quarter earnings season has been one for the ages, with 86% of companies beating earnings estimates, above the average of 78%, and S&P 500 companies growing earnings by a startling 50.4% from one year ago, per FactSet. Continue Reading

Jim Cramer Reveals How Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Can Reverse Recent Weakness

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s shares are up by 80% over the past year and by 12.3% year-to-date. Cramer has turned increasingly positive on the firm over the past couple of months. Most of his praise has focused on Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s cloud computing business and its AI platform. The shares dipped after the firm reported its second-quarter earnings. The development didn't sit well with Cramer as he was "shocked" by the dip. The CNBC TV host also discussed Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a series of tweets after Amazon reported its second quarter earnings. He outlined that the shares should be higher after the report and the firm had to follow a similar strategy to regain lost investor sentiment: "Watch Alphabet, it is about to take out the $355 level where the secondary took place. A critical level as i will talk about in my Sunday Club Thinkpiece "Yes Google should be up more off of Amazon, which told you about the line of sight. Google has to rethink how it does its call as it truly was suboptimal "Best in show: Amazon for explanation of what the heck it is doing to get line of sight..and it has it. Now Google has to do the same thing... "As you know from my piece this weekend, the one to buy on any downturn is Amazon..." So what were the results that had the CNBC TV host excited? Well, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported its second-quarter earnings on July 30th. The results saw the firm post $200.6 billion in revenue and $1.97 in earnings-per-share to beat analyst estimates of $196.47 billion and $1.82. Additionally, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services' $42.2 billion in revenue also beat estimates of $40.53 billion. The debate surrounding Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is quite straightforward given its businesses. The central issue relates to its artificial intelligence initiatives and lingering government antitrust actions. Starting from the former, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s aggressive spending continues to raise questions from the bear camp due to their impact on margins and bottom-line profitability. They argue that the hits to profitability might not be justified by the return that Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) makes through AI. However, the bulls argue that the firm's cloud business continues to perform well and it is also monetizing the Gemini models. Additionally, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s custom AI chips called TPUs are another source of optimism. On the antitrust front, a lawsuit by advertiser Teads Holding, the Justice Department's latest filing with the D.C. Court of Appeals and pressure by advocacy against payments to Apple are some points from the bear camp. Story Continues As for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the issue remains the same, with capital expenditure also driving the debate. As with Google, the bulls and the bears are also divided by the future returns of the current capital outlays. Therefore, naturally, the revenue growth for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s cloud business is key to the bull's argument of optimism. In the second quarter, the cloud business grew revenue by 37% annually and beat estimates for 31% growth. Additionally, the firm also posted a $496 billion AWS backlog. However, the bears point towards the massive $220 billion in capital expenditure that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) aims to incur in 2026 to fuel its growth. They outline that the firm's trailing-twelve-month free cash flow was an outflow of $7.6 billion due to the spending. Looking at hedge fund sentiment, Insider Monkey's data shows that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the top stock held by hedge funds in Q1 2026, as 353 out of 1,022 funds held a stake. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) ranked in fourth place with 265 hedge fund stakeholders. Short interest as a percentage of float was between 1% to 1.35% for both firms as of mid-July. Fisher Asset Management was the largest stakeholder in both firms. Additionally, the two are also part of our list of 10 Blue

A Guide to Nasdaq ETF Investing

After a strong 2025 and solid gains in the first half of 2026, the big question for investors is whether the stock market rally can keep going in the second half of the year. Much of Wall Street's recent strength has been driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and the broader technology sector. The Nasdaq Composite has gained 13.7% so far this year while the Nasdaq-100 has added 16.6%. With technology stocks dominating the Nasdaq, investors are now wondering whether this tech-led momentum has enough steam to continue through 2H 2026 and deliver meaningful gains for the Nasdaq Composite and the Nasdaq-100. Let's take a closer look. Factors That Favor Nasdaq Investing in 2H 2026 AI Boom Still Has Room to Run The AI boom has dominated the broader market for the past three years, and the wave is showing no signs of retreating. Strong demand for AI chips, cloud infrastructure, data centers and software is continuing to fuel technology spending. Major tech companies are ramping up AI investments as businesses increasingly adopt AI to improve productivity and efficiency. In 2025, major tech companies incurred $410 billion in capital expenditures, while AI spending among hyperscalers is projected to touch $765 billion this year, before rising to nearly $1.2 trillion in 2027, according to Goldman Sachs, as quoted on CNBC. Decent Valuation of the Nasdaq-100 Index As of July 31, 2026, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index's forward price/earnings (P/E) ratio stood at 32.61X, almost in line with the year-ago P/E of 32.67X, per WSJ. This is a reassuring sign given that the Russell 2000 Index's forward P/E ratio rose 15.6% from the year-ago level. Meanwhile, the S&P 500's forward P/E ratio inched up 1.5% from the year-ago value. Notably, the Nasdaq-100 has gained just 0.7% over the past month (as of Aug. 6, 2026), compared with a 2.8% advance in the S&P 500. The recent pullback in technology stocks has helped ease some of the Nasdaq's elevated valuations, creating a more attractive entry point for tech investors. Solid Earnings Growth for Big Tech Q2 earnings for the "Magnificent 7" or "Mag 7" group of companies (i.e., NVIDIA, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Tesla) are expected to be up 85.5% from the same period last year on 27.5% higher revenues, per the Earnings Trends issued on Aug. 5, 2026. NVIDIA (NVDA), Micron (MU) and Alphabet (GOOGL) are material contributors to the Tech sector's growth profile in Q2 2026 and the coming quarters. Barring the contribution from these three tech players, Q2 earnings growth for the rest of the Zacks Tech sector dropped to +31.4% (from +93.6%). Story Continues For the Mag 7 group, total 2026 earnings are expected to increase by 43.4% on 20.9% higher revenues, which would follow the group's 2025 earnings growth of 24.8% on 15.5% higher revenues. Excluding the Mag 7 contribution, total earnings for the remaining S&P 500 companies are expected to grow 20.1% in 2026, which compares to 9.8% growth in 2025, 4.4% growth in 2024, and a 4.4% decline in 2023. Factors That Go Against Nasdaq Investing in 2H 2026 Rising Rate Worries Sticky inflation and rising rate fears are putting pressure on markets. Treasury yields climbedsharply following the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged at the July-end meeting without offering clear forward guidance. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield closed July at 4.75%, its highest level since January 2025 (per CNBC), while the 30-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.27%, the highest since 2007. There is a 54.5% chance of a 25-bp Fed rate hike in the September meeting (at the time of writing), per CME FedWatch Tool. Investors grew increasingly concerned that elevated borrowing costs could pressure equity valuations. Rising interest rates hurt growth sectors like technology more because higher bond yields cut the present value of future corporate earnings, hitting growth companies (that eye distant profits) hardest. AI Payoff Timeline Concerns Despite the

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