Happy Monday, N2K reader!

Fredick Schmitt won this week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ about the snowstorm bringing us all together, with this beauty:

When he heard about his win, Frederick emailed us to say, “Be the neighbor you’d want living next door.”

Congrats, Frederick! Here’s your congratulatory gif!

And here’s how y’all voted on Frederick’s competition:

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Snow, shovel, shiver | dig out a needy neighbor | uncover a friend ~ Frederick Schmitt (232)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ School's out, power's out, Warm friends invite us over. Snow angels abound! ~ Merrilee McCay (77)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Baby prams don't slip | on snow plowed walks and porches. It takes a village. ~ Sam Sigelakis-Minski (11)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Gratitude to who | Climb the lines in frigid air | So we can have heat. <3 ~ Lisa Webb (96)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Bread and milk she said | Can do, this is my last run | In that case, wine too ~ Allison Matthews (140)

556 Votes via @beehiiv polls

This week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ is about how Waymo is under federal investigation after a driverless car hit a child near a school. It’s a heavy topic (thankfully, the child survived), but I believe that you, yes, you, dear reader, can craft a worthy haiku on the subject that will bring moral and spiritual clarity to the moment, just as you do each and every week. So: Send me your entry — to our spiffy new email address, haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET Thursday, for consideration by your Cheddar peers!

And now for something completely different.

Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

• Which version of Kevin Warsh are we gonna get?

• Microsoft sheds 10% of its market value as AI spen …

• Waymo probed after driverless car hits child

• Do you want a nuclear dump in your backyard?

• Blue Origin pauses space tourism flights to focus …

• Poll of the day: Would you like to host a Nuclear …

What’s the stock market up to, eh?

$SPX ( ▼ 0.2% ) $DJI ( ▲ 0.53% ) $NDX ( ▼ 1.24% )

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

$JPM ( ▲ 0.7% )  $MSFT ( ▲ 0.69% )$GOOGL ( ▼ 1.89% )  

Which version of Kevin Warsh are we gonna get?

President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Kevin M. Warsh to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday. If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh, a former Fed governor, will take over from Jerome H. Powell when Powell’s term ends in May. Trump’s pick comes amid his ongoing criticism of the Federal Reserve for its cautious approach to interest rate cuts.

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump praised Warsh, stating, “He will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting’ and will never let you down.” During remarks at the White House, Trump expressed confidence that Warsh shares his preference for lower interest rates, noting, “He certainly wants to cut rates; I’ve been watching him for a long time.” However, Trump also clarified that no explicit commitment on rate cuts had been made.

Stocks fell, silver and gold plunged, and the dollar strengthened after Trump made his announcement. Some market participants see Warsh as a relatively safe option. Still, his nomination has sparked questions about the potential direction of the central bank under his leadership. Previously known as a “hawk” advocating for higher interest rates to control inflation, his more recent endorsement of lower rates now aligns with the Trump administration’s goals.

“The question is, which Warsh are we going to get?” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan asked the New York Times.

Microsoft sheds 10% of its market value as AI spending spooks investors

Microsoft’s $MSFT ( ▲ 0.69% ) stock took a sharp dive as the tech giant lost $360 billion in market value on Thursday, its worst single-day percentage drop since the height of the pandemic in 2020. Shares fell 10% after the company reported a massive 66% year-over-year surge in data center spending, totaling $37.5 billion in the last quarter alone. This steep investment, designed to support its growing AI ambitions, has left investors uneasy about Big Tech’s ability to monetize such large-scale expenditures.

“The scale of spending is so high that there’s a laser focus on the monetization of it,” Venu Krishna, head of U.S. equities strategy at Barclays $BCS ( ▼ 3.63% ) told the Financial Times. While Microsoft exceeded analysts’ expectations for adjusted net income and revenue, concerns over slower-than-expected cloud growth added fuel to the sell-off.

Investors are particularly anxious about Microsoft’s heavy reliance on OpenAI, the ChatGPT creator that accounts for 45% of Microsoft’s $625 billion future cloud contracts. The Nasdaq Composite also dropped as much as 2.6% before trimming losses, reflecting broader market jitters. As the AI narrative shifts to a “winners and losers” phase, which side would you rather be on?

Waymo probed after driverless car hits child

In Santa Monica, California, a child was struck by a driverless Waymo $GOOGL ( ▼ 1.89% ) vehicle near an elementary school during drop-off hours two weeks ago, sparking concerns about safety protocols for autonomous vehicles in school zones. The incident occurred as the child ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Fortunately, the child sustained only minor injuries and is expected to recover fully.

Waymo, in its public statement, reassured the public about the vehicle’s response. “Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle. The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made,” the company explained.

After the accident, the autonomous vehicle moved to the side of the road, called 911, and waited for law enforcement to clear the scene.

It seems to me that the company is trying to blame the child and suggest that any other driver would have made the same mistakes, but what do you reckon?

The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation has launched a probe to assess Waymo’s safety precautions around elementary schools during high-traffic hours and to examine the company’s post-incident actions.

Song of the Day: Noah Kahan, ‘The Great Divide’

This cut from Noah Kahan’s fourth album has listeners excited, praising the song’s complex themes, with many interpreting the "divide" as a metaphor for religious trauma, faded friendships, or the gap between Kahan's past self and his current fame. In other words, it sounds a lot like this newsletter.

Do you want a nuclear dump in your backyard?

The Department of Energy has announced a bold initiative to reshape the nuclear energy landscape by building “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.” 

These facilities would streamline the nuclear fuel cycle—from enrichment to, er, “recycling”—and potentially include advanced reactors, power generation, and co-located data centers for, you know, “AI,” whatever that is. The move arises as demand grows for emissions-free energy, particularly for power-intensive industries like, you know, “AI,” whatever that is.

“Unleashing the next American nuclear renaissance will drive innovation, fuel economic growth, and create good-paying American jobs while delivering the affordable, reliable, and secure energy America needs to power its future,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Encouraging state participation, the DOE hopes these campuses will reflect regional priorities and align with President Trump’s vision to revitalize nuclear energy in the U.S.

Remarkably, only about 5% of the energy value in nuclear fuel is currently utilized, with the rest often sent to “storage” sites like Yucca Mountain. By exploring commercial-scale uranium “recycling,” the DOE believes it can reduce waste and minimize logistical hurdles of transporting fuel across multiple locations.

The initiative is expected to attract up to $50 billion in private sector investments.

In other words, you too could pretty soon have a nuclear dump in your backyard, and not just because you ate some bad cheese. I’d just like Jeff Bezos to take one of these puppies on as an experiment. It seems, however, that he’s intent on leaving the planet for the off-world colonies…

Blue Origin pauses space tourism flights to focus on the moon

Did you know that Blue Origin offers space tourism flights? Well, they did, but now they don’t: Blue Origin will pause its space tourism flights for at least two years as it shifts resources toward lunar exploration. “The decision reflects our commitment to the nation’s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence,” said the company in a statement.

The announcement comes as Blue Origin prepares for the third launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket, tentatively scheduled for late February. The launch is expected to play a key role in NASA’s Artemis program, as Blue Origin’s robotic lunar lander nears completion at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. These developments align with President Donald Trump’s push for NASA to land astronauts on the Moon before the end of his second term, fostering a contest between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos competition among private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

The New Shepard program was previously paused in 2022 after a booster failure during an unmanned flight. Despite the setback, Blue Origin has continued to push boundaries. “Our focus on the Moon reflects our belief in advancing human space exploration to its next frontier,” the company emphasized.

That would be a frontier it previously crossed in 1969? No?

Should you check your 401(k) today?

👎️ 

No.

Poll of the day: Would you like to host a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus™?

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