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Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

Table of Contents

• Market Rises on Bullish Nvidia Forecast for ‘27

• UEFA Preps Criminal Complaint on FIFA's Infantino

• Song of the Day: Junior Mesa, ‘The Cops Are Coming …

• Ring Takes Steps To Avoid ‘Surveillance’ Risk

• How AI Is Forcing Consultants To Learn Empathy

• Poll of the Day: It’s World-Famous-575™ Time

• Poll of the Day: Chicken, Indeed

What’s the Stock Market Up To, Eh?

$SPX ( ▲ 0.72% )  $DJI ( ▲ 0.2% )  $NDX ( ▲ 1.59% )  

Companies Mentioned in Today’s Newsletter

$NVDA ( ▲ 8.74% )  $AMZN ( ▼ 1.54% )  $FLOSZZX ( ▲ 1.89% )  

Market Rises on Bullish Nvidia Forecast for ‘27

Those waiting for the AI bubble to burst are to be kept waiting even longer, it seems.

AI chipmaker Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 8.74% ) delivered another blockbuster quarter of results on Wednesday evening, reporting $96.2 billion in sales, $4 billion higher than analysts’ expectations. And the company’s stock rose 9% after the firm projected 70% revenue growth for fiscal year 2028, far more than the 45% analysts had timidly predicted.

Of course, maintaining this dizzying trajectory requires some creative financial wizardry. To help cash-strapped AI startups afford its eye-wateringly expensive chips, Nvidia has been using its own balance sheet to guarantee loans, a practice some skeptics call circular financing.

The firm gracefully brushed this off: “We recognize the scale of this support, and we know some will call this circular financing,” said the CFO. “We see it differently.... The equity returns on our invested capital will be excellent.” 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang remained characteristically zen, declaring that these will be “some of the most consequential technology companies in history,” while dismissing threats of custom-chip competitors with a friendly shrug: “I'm delighted to be their friend.… I'm delighted that they're counting on us to scale up,” he said.

But not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid. Naveen Chhabra of Forrester told the Wall Street Journal, “Businesses are having a tough time bringing AI into production.… If AI projects don’t deliver to the current expectations... they will abandon those projects.”

Sure they will. Eventually. Meanwhile, check your 401(k).

Quote of the Day

UEFA Preps Criminal Complaint on FIFA's Infantino

European football's governing body, UEFA, has decided to swap the pitch for a Swiss courtroom by preparing a criminal complaint against FIFA President Gianni Infantino for “criminal mismanagement” of the body that runs the World Cup, reports the Financial Times.

The alleged crime? Last month’s grand, failed plan to sell a 20% stake in FIFA's commercial rights to private investors for $4 billion. The proposed new entity, "Fifa Forward Enterprise" (FFE), was set to be backed by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital, which is also trying to buy the Los Angeles Lakers right now.

UEFA caught wind of the math and scoffed, calling the implied $20 billion valuation “absurdly low.” After all, why let investors walk away with the crown jewels of football on the cheap? It’s no coincidence, either, that Kushner is the brother of the U.S. president’s son-in law. Question: Was this proposed deal a corrupt quid pro quo with DJT and his family for America’s hosting of the World Cup?

Following a fiery meeting in Monte Carlo, UEFA declared they would “pursue every available institutional, political, and legal avenue necessary to secure fundamental reform” and ensure FIFA is run “as an institution — not around one individual.”

Infantino, currently trying to run for re-election in March (and good luck with that, mate, seriously…) acknowledged the plans were “mishandled” and promised to conduct a review. UEFA’s response was a collective eye-roll, asserting that FIFA “cannot investigate itself and expect the football community simply to accept its conclusions.”

Meanwhile, Infantino’s buddies in Saudi Arabia are busy playing peacemaker. The totally not corrupt, no matter what anybody tells you, Saudi Arabian Football Federation chimed in, saying it “supports the continued efforts” of Infantino to “restore unity across the football family.” Translation: "Please don't ruin our 2034 World Cup party, or Google who ‘Jamal Khashoggi’ was.”

CIA Chief Warns Moscow Not To Attack NATO

The Director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe (pictured doing the best power move with his spectacles, above) took a surprise weekend getaway to Moscow this past weekend, in an administrative move treated with the absolute minimum of transparency. Ratcliffe’s mission, according to the Wall Street Journal? To politely, but very firmly, ask Vladimir Putin not to start World War III by launching an attack on a NATO country.

According to new U.S. intelligence assessments, there’s a creeping fear that Putin might try to "test" the alliance's “resolve” with a "limited assault" — ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale land incursion, most likely on a Baltic nation. Why now? Well, it turns out the West’s munitions cabinet is looking a little bare, depleted by prolonged transfers to Ukraine and something called “the war in Iran.”

The official spin on this high-stakes nuclear deterrence trip is a class in nonchalant downplaying. During a radio interview, President Trump casually dismissed the trip as “semi-routine” before swiftly pivoting to his efforts to secure peace in Ukraine. “Something may come out of it,” he said. “We’re working very hard to get that war ended and frankly they both want to see it ended at this point,” he said, about Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Ratcliffe met with Russian spy bosses but bypassed Putin (who was merely "briefed"). And the CIA’s official stance? A spokeswoman “declined to comment.” 

Say, how’s your blood pressure this morning?

Song of the Day: Junior Mesa, ‘The Cops Are Coming’

This track by California-based multi-instrumentalist Junior Mesa is an intoxicating, hyper-surrealistic dive into emotional obsession and self-sabotage. The track further cements Mesa’s reputation as an indie-pop innovator who masterfully balances heavy themes with infectious rhythms. So, it’s a lot like this newsletter.

Ring Takes Steps To Avoid ‘Surveillance’ Risk

For years, smart doorbells have existed in a delightful gray area between high-tech home security and community surveillance. But if you’ve ever had a creeping feeling that your front porch camera is quietly compiling an archive of your late-night pajama walks, Ring’s $AMZN ( ▼ 1.54% ) founder and chief inventor, Jamie Siminoff, wants to sell you some peace of mind.

Enter "Take," Ring's new end-to-end encryption standard designed to hand the digital keys back to the homeowner. Siminoff proudly compares it to a traditional lock: “You own the key, you can give a copy of it to your spouse or to your child, but you own keys, you control the lock.” It’s a bold “show not tell” security upgrade rolling out by default this September, ensuring that no one, not even Ring, can watch your videos without your explicit permission.

I’m not sure what they were doing with them before, but it’s probably safest not to ask. Of course, some skeptics might wonder if a camera on your door is inherently listening and watching a bit too closely. Siminoff brushes this off with a comforting, “we designed it not to do that.” He insists the company's identity has been misunderstood: “I'd like to think we always were a privacy-first company and a trust company,” he told us.

If that sounds slightly ironic for a giant network of internet-connected cameras, Siminoff’s philosophy on data sharing is surprisingly hands-off. When it comes to managing new features, like health monitors from Ring’s emerging app store, he argues the goal is “not to balance it. It's to put the control in the hands of the customer and let them choose.”

Siminoff hopes Take will become “a new standard” for the home security industry. Me, too. Meanwhile rival surveillance network Flock $FLOSZZX ( ▲ 1.89% ) is taking all kinds of heat for its slightly different approach, as readers of this newsletter heard earlier this week.

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How AI Is Forcing Consultants To Learn Empathy

The promises of the AI revolution were beautiful: We’d automate the boring stuff, work from a beach in Bali, and let our algorithms handle our slide decks. Instead, the rise of AI has achieved the impossible: It’s dragging junior consultants kicking and screaming right back to the physical office, the FT reports.

It turns out that when AI can easily handle routine technical work, the only value left in a junior consultant is their ability to act like an actual human. Sayeh Ghanbari, UK head of consulting at Big Four firm EY, put it bluntly: Sitting at home is “just not the route to success in the world of AI.” EY is now slashing flexibility to resuscitate those pesky "soft skills." According to Ghanbari, firms “dropped” training in areas like empathy, storytelling, and leadership during the remote-work boom. Her solution? “We need to go back to the future” because we “have to be face to face once the agents are remote.”

So, how does a corporate monolith teach a Gen-Z recruit how to be human?

By any means necessary. The Boston Consulting Group is luring juniors back with chess, padel, and netball clubs. And top-10 firm Azets has the real masterstroke: They’ve lowered academic entry requirements and partnered with pubs and hotels to help graduates develop their soft skills.

As Lisa Fernihough of KPMG notes, “The speed of learning… face to face is going to be much quicker” than doing it online, with colleague Callum Licence adding it is “more important than ever for those starting out in their careers to have opportunities to learn directly from others.”

So prepare yourselves, juniors: AI can build your consulting models, but only you can learn to play padel and drink at a hotel lobby with a client. I wish you all the best with it.

Should You Check Your 401(k) Today?

👍️ 

Yep.

Poll of the Day: It’s World-Famous-575™ Time

Poll of the Day: Chicken, Indeed

We asked: Is there a cognitive dissonance between what you'd like to think about the way chickens are treated and your ability to eat chicken meat as a consumer?

You answered:

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No. I'm aware of how chickens are treated in battery farms and as a result, I'm a vegetarian. (61)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes. I'm aware of how chickens are treated in battery farms and yet I manage to conveniently forget about that when I'm choosing between organic chicken for $12 a pound at Whole Foods and the GOOD OL' CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS I buy on sale for 99 cents a pound. (193)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No. I'm unaware of how chickens are treated in battery farms because I have been deliberately obtuse on this subject and now would you please pass the McNuggets for $3.99 a six-piece, please, Dorothy. Dorothy? DOROTHY? (49)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Cognitive dissonance? What the heck is this? I'm too busy smoking cigarettes, eating unhealthy, and polluting the environment while I believe in healthy living to look up complicated terms in the dictionary. This is America, God Damn It. (37)
340 Votes

via @beehiiv polls

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