gm.
midweek catch-up. five things that moved since monday.
the 5
after 15 years running apple, tim cook officially stepped down as CEO on august 31. his successor is john ternus (apple's former head of hardware engineering, who's been with the company since 2001). the transition was announced back in april, so this isn't a surprise, but monday was the last time cook officially ran the company. cook remains at apple as executive chairman, focused mostly on policy and government relations.
context: cook took over from steve jobs in 2011, when apple was worth about $350 billion. under his 15 years, apple grew to over $4 trillion (roughly 11x). he's now handing off during one of the most complicated moments in apple's history: iPhone sales plateauing, siri/AI trailing competitors, tariff pressure on manufacturing, and a foldable iPhone rumored for september. ternus is a hardware guy, not a services guy, which tells you something about where apple thinks its next chapter goes.
2. google just won its biggest antitrust case.
on tuesday, federal judge leonie brinkema rejected the DOJ's request to break up google's ad tech business. the DOJ had asked the court to force google to sell off AdX (its ad exchange, the middleman platform where advertisers bid for ad slots on websites across the internet). instead, the judge ordered "behavioral remedies" (things google has to do or stop doing, rather than break up).
this is the third time in a year that a federal judge has rejected a DOJ request to break up a big tech company. that's a big deal because "just break them up" has been the biggest weapon the government has against tech giants, and courts are now increasingly saying that's not the right fix. the ruling essentially preserves google's ad business as-is, and the market reacted (google stock jumped on the news).
3. openai's new AI chip is claiming to beat nvidia.
openai shared the first performance results from "jalapeño," a custom AI chip it built with broadcom. openai's data claims jalapeño delivers 1.5x to 1.9x more useful AI work per watt of power than nvidia's flagship GB200 chip, and 1.7x to 3.6x lower latency (meaning faster responses). semianalysis (an independent chip research firm) called it "better than nvidia blackwell."
context: this is a big deal because 90%+ of AI computing today runs on nvidia chips. jalapeño is designed only for AI inference (running trained models, not training them), but that's actually the bigger and growing part of AI spending. deployment starts by the end of 2026. openai's broader deal with broadcom targets 10 gigawatts of custom AI chips through 2029, which would meaningfully reduce openai's dependence on nvidia. the "anyone but nvidia" trade just got another data point.
4. stan kroenke just agreed to buy the LA angels for a record $4 billion.
on monday, stan kroenke reached an agreement to buy the angels from longtime owner arte moreno. the price: $4 billion, a record for major league baseball (beating the padres' $3.9 billion deal earlier this year). the deal is expected to close in early 2027.
here's the wild part: kroenke already owns the LA rams (NFL), denver nuggets (NBA), colorado avalanche (NHL), colorado rapids (MLS), arsenal FC (english premier league), and colorado mammoth (lacrosse). the angels give him a team in every major US pro sport, plus one in europe. that makes him arguably the single most influential sports team owner in the world. sports team valuations keep going vertical, driven more by scarce-asset appreciation than by underlying operating profits.
5. kalshi has a massive under-21 problem.
kalshi users under 21 have traded about $3.9 billion on sports contracts this year, according to a fortune report. total trading by users aged 18-21 across all kalshi markets is closer to $5.4 billion. the loophole: kalshi is regulated as a financial exchange by the CFTC (not as a sportsbook), so 18-year-olds can legally trade sports contracts on kalshi even in states that require you to be 21 to bet on sports.
new york state is now suing kalshi to shut it down as unlicensed gambling. kalshi is pushing back with deposit limits, risk alerts, and a $2 million donation to the national council for problem gambling. this is the biggest test yet for whether prediction markets get classified as financial products or as gambling.
see you monday.
not financial advice. aggregated community trends and commentary.