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This Quiet Chip Player Is Trying To Crash The AI Party |
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Not every AI winner gets keynote lights and stadium-sized valuations. | Some just move data faster, use a little less power, and quietly show up in more racks, sensors, and video gear each quarter. | Today's focus is on one of those behind-the-scenes chip players trying to turn all that AI traffic and device chatter into a long runway for growth. |
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The AI Race Just Went Nuclear — Own the Rails. |
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Meta, Google, and Microsoft just reported record profits — and record AI infrastructure spending: |
Meta boosted its AI budget to as much as $72 billion this year. Google raised its estimate to $93 billion for 2025. Microsoft is following suit, investing heavily in AI data centers and decision layers.
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While Wall Street reacts, the message is clear: AI infrastructure is the next trillion-dollar frontier. |
RAD Intel already builds that infrastructure — the AI decision layer powering marketing performance for Fortune 1000 brands. Backed by Adobe, Fidelity Ventures, and insiders from Google, Meta, and Amazon, the company has raised $50M+, grown valuation 4,900%, and doubled sales contracts in 2025 with seven-figure contracts secured. |
👉 Invest in RAD Intel |
This is a paid advertisement for RAD Intel made pursuant to Regulation A+ offering and involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. The valuation is set by the Company and there is currently no public market for the Company's Common Stock. Nasdaq ticker "RADI" has been reserved by RAD Intel and any potential listing is subject to future regulatory approval and market conditions. Investor references reflect factual individual or institutional participation and do not imply endorsement or sponsorship by the referenced companies. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.radintel.ai. |
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Cloud | Amazon Drops a $50B AI Bomb for Uncle Sam | | Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is investing $50B in AI and supercomputing for U.S. agencies, and the scale of the project borders on absurd. | You get nearly 1.3 gigawatts of compute power woven into AWS Top Secret, AWS Secret, and GovCloud regions. | The goal is simple: give federal workloads a massive tech backbone that no traditional system can handle. You are watching the government go from dial-up energy to full hyperscale mode. | Data Centers Built for Missions, Not Marketing | The upcoming data centers will rely on next-gen compute racks and high-speed networking to support heavy research, defense simulations, and real-time analytical models. | These are the types of environments where lag is not an inconvenience; it is a liability. | With that much horsepower, agencies can run AI models that previously broke their systems. Everything from climate prediction to national security analysis gets a serious lift. | AI Pipelines That Actually Keep Up | Expect new workflows where tasks that used to take days drop to minutes. The scale gives researchers room to push into large-model territory without hitting walls. | Government teams finally get tech that does not crumble under pressure. And you might see new AI tools emerge from agencies that have never had this kind of raw compute. | AWS Becomes the Quiet Backbone of Washington | Work begins in 2026, but the long game is obvious. Amazon is positioning AWS as the unseen engine behind America's most complex digital operations. | This is not a cloud deal; it is a full infrastructure takeover. And AMZN is now deeper inside the federal tech stack than ever. |
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Chips | Meta Eyes Google's AI Chips for a Mega Power Swap | | Meta is exploring a major shift in its data center playbook as it considers billions in spending on Google's tensor processing units starting in 2027. | A rental plan kicks off earlier with access to TPUs through Google Cloud next year. | The move signals a strategic detour for a company that has relied heavily on Nvidia for its AI horsepower. | You can feel how quickly the industry is scrambling for alternatives as demand spikes and supply tightens. | TPUs Become the Budget Turbocharger | Google's TPUs are being pushed as a cost-efficient path for companies drowning in GPU bills. | They target workloads that need high security and predictable performance without waiting in line for scarce Nvidia hardware. | Meta is eyeing this option to widen its compute stack, reduce bottlenecks, and avoid being boxed in by one vendor. The shift gives its AI pipelines more flexibility at scale. | Meta's Infrastructure Appetite Keeps Exploding | The company already plans to pour $600B into U.S. infrastructure and AI buildouts over the next three years. | That roadmap includes new data centers, faster networking, and compute clusters for every product group. | With more than 3B daily users to serve, Meta is building systems that can handle massive model workloads without breaking stride. | Google gains a deeper foothold in enterprise silicon. Meta gains breathing room. Nvidia gains more competition. | And you get a front row seat to the silicon turf war powering the next decade. |
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Momentum Rising Quietly (Sponsored) | | | The biggest market winners often start with quiet signals then explode into full-blown breakouts.
This setup has appeared before, triggering a massive move from $1.05 to $28.60 in record time.
Now, similar indicators are emerging again.
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Robotaxi | Tesla's Hidden FSD Zones Hint at a Wild New Phase for Autonomy | | Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) pushed a new software update packed with stealth geofenced zones scattered across the Bay Area. | Owners never saw a notification, yet the maps now carry invisible boundaries that look suspiciously like early testing grounds for unsupervised Full Self Driving. | Fresh coordinates align with Tesla's existing robotaxi routes across San Francisco, Palo Alto, and surrounding cities. | Drivers suddenly find themselves sitting atop a digital grid that raises big questions about what comes next. | Robotaxi DNA Slips Into Consumer Vehicles | Tesla historically separated customer cars from robotaxi builds. That firewall now looks thinner than ever as both software branches start inheriting the same geospatial backbone. | The rollout reflects a broader pattern: map the territory, deploy the code, and test the waters before flipping the autonomy switch. | California's dense DMV footprint makes the region the perfect proving ground. | A Quiet Build Toward a Bigger Reveal | Tesla's autonomy playbook usually follows the same rhythm: deploy code, instrument routes, and then flip a capability live when no one expects it. | These geofenced zones fit that pattern perfectly. | More surprises could be hiding in future updates, and early California testers may end up getting a front row seat to the first wave of unsupervised FSD. |
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Trivia: What was the original purpose of the U.S. Secret Service when it was founded in 1865? |
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Recent Tech Movers |
GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB) |
Ship Code, Not Chaos
GitLab has spent most of the year in the red, but the story is still pretty straightforward. |
Big companies want one place to plan, write, test, secure, and ship software instead of juggling five different tools, and GitLab is trying to be that one place. |
The newer focus is AI built directly into the workflow. Think of it as a coding buddy that lives inside the platform rather than yet another browser tab. |
Growth expectations are still high teens on both revenue and earnings next year, and analysts see decent upside if GitLab can keep winning larger customers. |
The risk for you: this is still priced like a growth name in a crowded market, so execution needs to stay sharp. |
EPAM Systems (NYSE: EPAM) |
Consultants Who Actually Build Stuff
EPAM's thing is helping big clients turn buzzwords like digital transformation and generative AI into real products and services. |
That means a mix of design work, software engineering, and longer-term support that keeps the lights on after the launch party. |
The last couple of years knocked the shine off the stock, but EPAM is nudging its way back with steady, if not explosive, growth and a louder push into AI projects. |
Expectations for next year sit in the high single digits for revenue and close to that for earnings, with modest upside in analyst targets. |
This looks more like a slow repair job than a moonshot: you own it if you want a solid builder that might re-rate as budgets thaw, not because you expect it to triple by Tuesday. |
Onto Innovation (NYSE: ONTO) |
Microscopes For The Chip Boom
Onto lives in the boring-but-critical part of the chip world: checking that increasingly tiny features are actually built correctly and helping customers package everything together. |
As chips get more complex and AI workloads grow, that kind of quality control turns into a growth engine rather than a side hustle. |
Management is calling for a healthy pickup in sales into year-end, helped by strong demand for its latest tools and a recent acquisition that broadens the product lineup. |
Wall Street has mid-teens growth penciled in for revenue and almost 20 percent for earnings next year, with targets that sit comfortably above today's price. |
Translation: this is a cyclical name that hurts in down years but can move fast once spending returns. You just have to be okay with a bit of whiplash. |
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The Quiet Connector Riding The AI Datacenter Buildout |
Semtech Corp. (NASDAQ: SMTC) |
Semtech is not the hero of the AI story. It is more like the stage crew, dragging cables and boxes around so the headliners can have their big moment. |
The company sells parts that help move data quickly and efficiently inside and between data centers, and it also has a strong position in low-power wireless tech for sensors and industrial gear. |
That combination puts Semtech in the middle of two powerful trends: bigger AI data centers that need faster connections, and an endless stream of connected devices quietly sending information back home. |
It is not as glamorous as selling the chips everyone tweets about, but the demand is very real. |
Next year, analysts expect roughly ten percent revenue growth and mid-20s earnings growth, which is solid for a mid-cap semiconductor name. |
Targets on the stock sit in the mid-teens above recent trading on average, with some calling for much more if everything breaks right. |
What The Market Is Rewarding |
Investors like that Semtech touches several different end markets rather than betting everything on a single gadget cycle. |
When AI buildouts accelerate, its high-speed connectivity parts get pulled along. When cities and factories get smarter, its low-power radios and related tech ride that wave too. |
The Pro AV and video gear business adds another leg to the stool. |
The flip side is the price tag. The stock changes hands at a rich earnings multiple, which means the market already expects that growth and margin improvement will show up. |
This is not the sleepy value play you forget about in your brokerage account. |
Where This Could Go Wrong |
If AI data-center spending takes a breather, the parts that live closest to that cycle feel it quickly. Projects that depend on connected devices can get delayed when budgets tighten, which slows LoRa and other wireless rollouts. With expectations already high, even a normal quarter can disappoint if guidance does not keep climbing. That is how you end up with sharp air pockets on the chart.
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What To Watch From Here |
Keep an eye on any color about data-center orders and design wins for its faster connectivity products. |
That is your live read on how plugged-in Semtech is to the next generation of AI servers. At the same time, watch updates on device volumes and new use cases for its low-power wireless platform. |
More regions, more industries, and more partners mean that side of the house is still growing, not just coasting. |
Margins matter too. As revenue climbs, you want to see operating leverage and stable or improving gross margins so that the earnings ramp matches the story you are being sold. |
How You Might Treat It |
If you are a builder, this looks like a classic satellite position: something you add slowly on bad days as a way to express a view on AI infrastructure and connected devices, without pretending it is a core holding. |
You are betting that a few years from now, there are simply more racks to connect and more sensors talking to each other, and Semtech gets paid for both. |
If you are a trader, this is a higher-beta way to play AI sentiment. |
Good headlines about data centers or wireless deployments can trigger sharp rallies, and disappointing guidance can cut just as quickly in the other direction. |
Tight stops and clear entry points are your friend. |
Bottom Line:
Semtech is not trying to be the star of the AI show. It is trying to be the cable, the connector, and the quiet wireless link working behind the scenes. |
If the world keeps building bigger server farms and stuffing more sensors into everything that moves, a company like this has plenty of ways to win. |
The question is whether it can grow into its price tag without tripping over the expectations that come with it. |
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Everything Else | 🪙 BlackRock's iShares bitcoin fund is seeing record outflows as crypto stumbles through its worst month since 2022, reminding everyone that "digital gold" still comes with motion sickness. 💾 SanDisk muscling into the S&P 500 after the Western Digital spin means index funds are swapping ad agencies for flash memory as the benchmark quietly rewires itself for the data era. 📟 OpenAI's hardware ambitions just got more real as the Jony Ive–Sam Altman duo shows off an early AI device prototype, aiming to turn chatbots into something you can actually put in your pocket. 👩💻 An internal memo shows Amazon pushing its Kiro coding tool as the default dev sidekick, nudging engineers toward the in-house AI helper instead of renting brainpower from rivals. 🎧 Spotify is lining up a U.S. price hike for early next year, betting that your daily playlists are sticky enough that you'll grumble, pay the extra dollar, and hit repeat anyway.
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That's our coverage for today; thanks for reading! Reply to this email with feedback or any tech stocks you want me to check out. |
Best Regards,
—Noah Zelvis
Tech Stock Insider |
