Markets moved, unicorns ballooned, and Reddit pulled a surprise win. Here’s what stirred headlines this week — from Meta’s ad machine to Apple’s China comeback:

• Bitcoin or Bust? Strategy Inc. (ex-MicroStrategy) is now a $30B Bitcoin vault. No more software — just one massive crypto bet.

• Meta’s Ad Engine Won’t Quit: $46.6B in revenue, 3.48B daily users. AI talk aside, ads are still Meta’s money-maker.

• iPhones and a China Surprise: Apple crushed earnings. iPhone sales soared, and China came through with $15B in revenue.

• Novo’s Fall From the Top: Novo Nordisk lost half its value as rivals challenge Ozempic. The weight-loss crown is wobbling.

• Reddit’s Big Ad Win: Revenue jumped 78%. Users hit 110M. Reddit’s not just surviving — it’s thriving.

Strategy Inc.: Software No More

Statista

→Share this with the one friend who treats Bitcoin like a personality

Formerly MicroStrategy, now Strategy Inc., the firm has gone full crypto-core since 2020 — ditching its software-first identity to become the world’s biggest corporate Bitcoin whale. 🐋💰

Led by Michael Saylor, the company’s game plan? Issue debt, buy Bitcoin, hold forever. So far, it’s working: the stock is up 3,500% 📈 since August 2020, with Bitcoin holdings now worth $30B+ — about 3% of all Bitcoin ever mined.

Critics call it risky. Fans call it genius. Either way, the company’s fate is now fully tied to Bitcoin’s volatility ⚡ — a bold bet that could either compound further or collapse fast.

3.48 Billion and Counting

Sherwood News

→Send this to your friend who still thinks Meta is dying

Meta $META ( ▲ 0.29% )  crushed Q2 earnings, with revenue hitting $46.6B, up 21% YoY — and 98% of that came from its Family of Apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. 📈💬

While investors fixated on AI and Meta’s shiny new “superintelligence” team 🤖, the real hero was plain old ad sales. Ad prices jumped 9%, and the number of people seeing them keeps climbing — Meta now reports a jaw-dropping 3.48 billion daily active users, up 1.38B since 2019.

The AI arms race is cool. But Meta’s growth machine? Still powered by your scroll.

Services, iPhones, and a Surprise in China

Sherwood News

→ Forward this to your Apple fanboy friend who thinks Tim Cook can do no wrong

Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 0.22% ) delivered a clean beat on earnings Thursday, reporting $1.57 EPS and $94B in revenue — both ahead of Wall Street estimates. 📈

iPhone sales soared to $44.6B 📱, smashing forecasts, while services revenue hit $27.4B ☁️. Even Greater China surprised to the upside at $15.37B 🇨🇳. The only miss? Slightly soft numbers in the Americas 🇺🇸.

Despite tariff worries (Apple estimated $900M in extra costs this quarter), the company posted solid gains and even saw a 3% after-hours pop, before settling up about 1%.

Now, all eyes turn to how Apple plans to catch up in AI 🤖, a space where it still lags rivals.

Europe’s Pharma Giant Just Shrunk

Chartr

→ Send this to the person in your group chat who keeps quoting Ozempic stats

Last year, Novo Nordisk $NVO ( ▼ 2.62% ) was Europe’s heavyweight champ — riding high on Ozempic and Wegovy, with a $660B+ market cap 🏆. Fast-forward to now? The company has lost more than half its value 📉, and just suffered its worst trading day ever, sliding 23% after slashing its sales and profit outlook.

With Lilly’s $LLY ( ▼ 0.89% ) Mounjaro and Zepbound outperforming Ozempic in trials — and new players like Hims $HIMS ( ▲ 0.41% ) and Noom crowding the space — Novo’s GLP-1 dominance is fading fast. 😬

Reddit Just Posted. Investors Upvoted

Sherwood

→ Share this with your tech friend who thinks Reddit isn’t a “real company”

Reddit $RDDT ( ▲ 1.49% ) popped 12% after hours 🚀 following a blowout Q2 earnings report. While EPS came in light at $0.45 vs. $0.69 expected 😬, revenue crushed expectations, hitting $500M, up 78% YoY and well ahead of Reddit’s own forecast.

Ad revenue did the heavy lifting — $465M, up 84%, now accounting for 93% of total sales. Meanwhile, daily active users hit 110.4M 👥, up 21%, with lurkers growing faster than logged-in users.

Reddit also raised its Q3 revenue guidance to $535–545M, way above analysts’ $473M prediction. And with its rich user data, some believe Reddit could quietly become an AI goldmine 🧠📊.

💡Read what makes Reddit different from other social media names.

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The AI frenzy is rewriting startup history, burritos are losing their sizzle, and Tesla just hit a speed bump. Here’s what’s making waves this week:

• AI Startups Dominate the Unicorn Rankings – OpenAI hits $300B, leaving rivals in the dust.

• Chipotle’s Growth Story Falters – Same-store sales drop for the second straight quarter.

• LA Times Eyes a Risky IPO – The print giant bets on going public despite heavy losses.

• Opendoor Becomes Wall Street’s Meme Darling – Out-trading Meta and Netflix in a single day.

• Tesla’s Revenue Slumps – Misses earnings as vehicle sales and regulatory credits decline.

AI Startups Are Eating the Unicorn List

→Send this to your friend who can’t stop talking about ChatGPT

The AI boom isn’t slowing down — OpenAI is now valued at a jaw-dropping $300B, making it the highest-valued AI unicorn and one of the biggest startups on Earth. 🤖🚀 Backed by Microsoft and $64B in capital, OpenAI’s dominance dwarfs rivals like Databricks ($62B) and Anthropic ($61.5B), the company behind ChatGPT competitor Claude.

In total, four AI firms — including Elon Musk’s xAI — sit among the world’s top 10 most valuable unicorns. The U.S. owns the AI leaderboard, with only Germany’s Celonis ($13B) representing Europe.

A newer player, Safe Superintelligence, is already worth $30B after just one year, aiming to build a superintelligent AI that’s, well… safe.

Wall Street Says ‘Hold the Burrito’

Sherwood News

→Share this with your foodie friend who lives on Chipotle bowls

Chipotle $CMG ( ▼ 0.06% ) tumbled 13% Thursday after posting a 4% drop in same-store sales, worse than Wall Street’s -2.9% forecast. 📉

While Q2 earnings ($0.33 per share) and revenue ($3.1B) met expectations, this marks the second straight quarter of comparable-store sales declines — the first back-to-back drop since 2020. The burrito chain also cut its full-year outlook, now expecting flat sales instead of growth.

Chipotle stock is now down 25% YTD, as investors lose their appetite for its growth story.

Print Is Dying. LA Times Still Wants to Go Public

Sherwood News

→ Send this to a friend who still reads the Sunday paper🤭

The Los Angeles Times is planning to go public again despite a tough year marked by $50M in losses, a 20% newsroom layoff ✂️, and a 26% drop in daily print readership.

Owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper for $500M in 2018, says an IPO could happen “within the next year.” But with print circulation falling industry-wide — and the LA Times missing the top 50 English-language news sites in May — convincing investors could be a challenge.

Unlike The New York Times, which has puzzles and recipes to bolster revenue, the LA Times lacks a similar digital side hustle to soften the blow of print’s decline.

Opendoor Out-Traded Meta

→ Your finance-nerd group chat will love this one

Opendoor $OPEN ( ▼ 2.73% ) had its wildest trading day ever on Monday, with $7B in shares changing hands — more than Netflix, Meta, and JPMorgan. 🤯

The frenzy, fueled by a wave of options trading, saw Opendoor’s trading volume hit 298% of its market cap in a single day — a stat that puts it close to GameStop’s 2021 meme-stock peak (316%).

Not bad for a stock that was recently trading in penny-stock territory.

Tesla Hits a Revenue Roadblock

Statista

→ Forward this to your Tesla-obsessed friend

Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 0.44% ) just posted Q2 earnings that missed across the board: revenue fell 12% to $22.5B, while operating profit dropped 25% below forecasts. The culprit? A steep 16% decline in vehicle sales, especially in Europe, and shrinking revenue from regulatory credits.

Tesla’s once-lucrative emissions credits — worth $10.6B since 2019 💰 — are drying up thanks to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which scraps penalties for legacy automakers and removes the $7,500 EV tax credit ⚡. Analysts expect credit revenue to vanish by 2027, wiping out $2–3B annually. For a company built on growth, Tesla’s engine is sputtering.

A quick sip before we dive in...

Visual Brunch is officially growing up. 🥐✨

What started as the Sunday visual edition of The Latte is now its own standalone newsletter and brand. Why? Because so many of you loved it, shared it, and told us it deserved its own space.

Nothing’s changing about what you love — beautiful charts, bite-sized business stories, and market visuals every weekend.

(P.S. It now drops every Saturday — so your weekend brunch gets even better.)

Now, let’s jump into this week’s top stories:

• Hawaii Tops the Charts Again: A new poll crowns Hawaii as America’s most loved state, leaving D.C. at the bottom.

• Uber vs. Airbnb: Uber’s $42.8B bookings crush Airbnb’s slow “experiences” play.

• Valuations Revisit Covid Boom Levels: The S&P 500’s forward P/E ratio jumps past 22x, echoing 2021’s hype cycle.

• BlackRock Hits $12.5T AUM: But a $52B client withdrawal puts a dent in the celebration.

• FTSE 100 Smashes 9,000 Points: UK’s “Jurassic” index beats the S&P 500, driven by defense and energy stocks.

Aloha Always Wins

→ Forward this to someone who needs a Hawaiian break today.

Apparently, everyone agrees on one thing: Hawaii slaps. 🏖️😎

A new YouGov poll found that 68% of Americans view the Aloha State favorably — making it the most liked state in the country (again). Alaska came in second, despite only 12% of Americans having ever been there. 🐻✈️

Turns out the further away a state is, the more Americans seem to love it. Meanwhile, Washington D.C. scored last in the poll — ouch. 😬

Beaches, volcanoes, and a little Aloha go a long way.

One App Leveled Up. The Other Made a Tour Guide

→ Your travel buddy who swears by Airbnb needs to see this 👀.

Airbnb $ABNB ( ▲ 0.32% ) and Uber $UBER ( ▼ 0.01% ) were once Web 2.0 twins. But while Uber stock hits new highs, Airbnb seems stuck in neutral. 📉🛏️

Uber’s pivot into food delivery and logistics — plus its AI-adjacent Waymo collab — has paid off big, with $42.8B in Q1 bookings. Airbnb? Just $2.3B in revenue on a much lower take rate, despite efforts to diversify into “experiences” like private chefs and massages. 🍽️💆‍♂️

It’s not that Airbnb isn’t evolving — it’s just evolving more like a vacation… slowly.

Covid Boom Valuations Are Back

Sherwood News

→ Forward this to your market-obsessed friend.

The S&P 500’s forward P/E ratio just climbed above 22x, a level we haven’t seen since the 2021 stimulus-fueled boom — and before that, the dot-com bubble. 😳

Traders are piling into “story stocks” like Aeva $AEVA ( ▲ 4.54% ) (up 500% YTD despite 4 straight quarters of losses) and OptimizeRx $OPRX ( ▲ 5.39% ) , betting on hype around AI, crypto, and tech narratives rather than fundamentals.

Strategists warn the rally looks pricey — Bank of America $BAC ( ▲ 0.02% ) flagged small caps as “back to expensive,” and Deutsche Bank sees “pockets of exuberance.” But retail dip-buying remains relentless, keeping the market flying. 🚀

$12.5 Trillion — and Falling?

Chartr

→ Your finance-nerd group chat needs this

BlackRock $BLK ( ▲ 0.91% ) just crossed a mind-boggling $12.5 trillion in assets under management — thanks to a surging S&P 500 and a weaker dollar. 📈💼

But the milestone wasn’t enough to keep investors happy. Shares dropped 5% on Tuesday after a massive $52B withdrawal from a single institutional client dented deposits. Ouch.

Now, CEO Larry Fink’s eyeing private markets (think private credit and loans to companies) as the next growth lever, with plans to attract $400B into higher-margin private capital by 2030.

Jurassic Stocks, Record Highs

Sherwood News

Britain’s FTSE 100 surged past the 9,000-point mark this week, up 10% YTD and outperforming the S&P 500’s 6%. Not bad for an index once dubbed the “Jurassic Park” of stocks. 🦖📈

The FTSE’s heavyweights? AstraZeneca $AZN ( ▼ 1.47% ) ($217B), HSBC ($214B), and Shell $SHEL ( ▼ 0.5% ) (~$206B). Defense names like BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce are soaring 60%+ this year, boosting the index’s $3T value.

Despite its old-school vibe — finance, energy, and defense dominate — investors are loving its stability amid global trade and tariff turbulence.

Another week in the books — here’s what moved the needle across markets, tech, and the world of weird economics:

• Spending Cuts = Political Suicide? Both Elon Musk and UK Treasury chief Rachel Reeves tried to rein in spending — and both got roasted. Markets say: deficits are here to stay.

• Substack Just Outranked the WSJ: In June, Substack pulled more U.S. web traffic than The Wall Street Journal or CBS. The newsletter flywheel is spinning faster than ever.

• Lucid’s EV Drove 749 Miles on One Charge: That’s a Guinness World Record — and over 100 miles more than the previous best. Long road trips just got way more electric.

• Cava’s Winning the Gourmet Lunch Wars: While Sweetgreen struggles, Cava is scaling fast — robot kitchens, new menus, and a $10B+ valuation are driving the slop bowl crown.

• Nvidia’s Market Cap Per Employee? $111 Million: With just 36,000 staff, Nvidia’s value per worker is higher than any big tech peer. Lean, mean, trillion-dollar machine.

Fiscal Fixers Get Burned

Sherwood News

Tesla’s $TSLA ( ▼ 0.44% ) Elon Musk and UK Treasury chief Rachel Reeves had one thing in common: they were both hired to slash government spending… and both got publicly scorched. 🔥

Musk’s stint running Trump’s DOGE agency sparked a Tesla rally — until political drama sent shares down 14%. Reeves vowed to fix Britain’s finances but got iced by her PM in Parliament, pushing UK bond yields higher.

Macro pro Jon Turek says the takeaway is clear: no one actually wants fiscal discipline. Governments are still spending, deficits are still climbing, and those trying to stop it? Politically toast. 🍞📉

Yield curves are likely to steepen — cuts may come, but long-term borrowing costs will stay elevated.

Substack > WSJ? It Just Happened

Chartr

In June, Substack clocked 73.9 million US site visits — beating The Wall Street Journal and CBS News for the first time ever. 😳✍️

The newsletter platform, once just a creator playground, is now a major news destination. From business and tech to culture and niche obsessions, readers are flocking in — even without counting custom domains like Matthew Yglesias’ slowboring.com.

It’s a flywheel: top writers bring big audiences → that draws more writers → which draws even more eyeballs. And with 88% growth last year, the stack is rising fast. 🔥📬

749 Miles. One Charge. No Joke

Chartr

California-based Lucid just cruised into the record books — its $110K Air Grand Touring EV went 749 miles on a single charge, breaking the Guinness World Record. 🏆🔋

The epic trip? From snowy St. Moritz in Switzerland to sunny Munich, putting Lucid a full 100 miles ahead of the previous EV record set by Mercedes-Benz. 🇨🇭🚗🇩🇪

But let’s pump the brakes: gas still wins the long game. The top distance on one tank? A Škoda Superb clocking 1,759 miles. 🛢️🥇

Still, for EVs — this was a milestone worth flexing.

Sad Desk Lunch Goes Gourmet — and Robotic

Chartr

Chipotle $CMG ( ▼ 0.06% ) built a $77B empire off burrito bowls. Now Cava $CAVA ( ▲ 5.24% ) and Sweetgreen $SG ( ▲ 4.71% ) are fighting for the “premium slop bowl” crown. 🥙🥗

Cava’s winning for now — with 382 stores, a $10B+ valuation, and a clear path to 1,000 locations by 2032. Sweetgreen? Still deep in the red, losing $28.5M last quarter, and seeing same-store sales drop.

Both chains are going full sci-fi: robot kitchens, steak menus, and $16 salads aimed at office dwellers. But with growth slowing and margins thin, investors are asking: have we hit peak slop bowl?

Nvidia Just Made Small Towns Look Cheap

Chartr

With just 36,000 employees, Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 4.25% ) has become the first public company to hit a $4 trillion market cap — meaning Wall Street now values each worker at a jaw-dropping $111 million. 🧠💸

For perspective, that’s like turning a town the size of Westerville, Ohio into the economic engine of the century. Nvidia’s growth, margins, and scale? Unmatched. Its valuation per employee even beats lean darlings like Palantir $PLTR ( ▲ 2.82% ) . 🤯

Sure, it’s not how you should value a company — but it’s a flashy stat for what might be the most capital-efficient org on Earth.