BofA lifts Alphabet EPS estimate 189% to $8.38 on Cloud strength

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[1] Alphabet could crush estimates on Cloud strength, Anthropic windfall: BofA (https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/ ...)[2] Alphabet (GOOGL) Price Prediction: How Much a $7,500 Investment Could Be Worth by 2027 (https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/07/16/al ...)[3] SaaSpocalypse Part II? IBM's Preliminary Earnings Report Rattles Software (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4922502-saas ...)[4] Bank of America Corp. (https://www.barrons.com/market-data/stocks/ba ...)[5] Carlyle Group Inc. (https://www.barrons.com/market-data/stocks/cg ...)

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Jul 16 2026, 20:08

Fireworks raises $1.5B at $17.5B valuation as AI infrastructure demand surges

**Nvidia-backed Fireworks surpassed $1B in annualized revenue and raised $1.5B as enterprises shift from frontier models to customized open-source AI.** Fireworks, the AI infrastructure startup backed by Nvidia, surpassed $1 billion in annualized revenue — up fivefold from a year earlier — as companies increasingly customize open-source models rather than renting frontier AI from big labs. "There are two paths forward for AI. In one, intelligence belongs to a few big labs, and everyone else rents it. In the other, every company in the world builds specialized intelligence of its own," Lin Qiao, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fireworks, said. The company now serves more than 40 trillion tokens daily, nearly triple the 15 trillion it handled during its last funding round. Ninety-five percent of tokens processed on Fireworks come from models that have been customized, the company said. The Series D round, led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures and TCV, values Fireworks at $17.5 billion — more than four times its $4 billion valuation from October. The fundraising reflects a structural shift in enterprise AI strategy. Companies including Uber, Shopify and Doximity are using Fireworks to train open models on proprietary data, creating what Qiao calls "specialized intelligence" that can match or beat closed models on specific tasks at lower cost. Fireworks said its pricing is five to 10 times cheaper than equivalent closed models. Fireworks competes in the inference cloud market alongside startups such as Together AI and Baseten, and has expanded into GPU provisioning for training, putting it in competition with neocloud providers CoreWeave, Lambda and Nebius. CoreWeave, which raised $1.5 billion in an initial public offering last year, is now valued at $42 billion. The company's customer base has diversified significantly. As of last year, about half of Fireworks' revenue came from AI coding startup Cursor, which SpaceX agreed to acquire in June for $60 billion in stock. "We are much more diversified right now," Qiao said. Other clients include Elastic, GitLab and MongoDB. In March, Fireworks announced a partnership with Microsoft, allowing customers of the Windows and Office company to draw on models through Fireworks' platform, which relies on computing power from more than 20 suppliers. "Through Microsoft we can get much bigger reach," Qiao said. Fireworks employs about 200 people and expects to reach 600 by the end of 2026. The company hired former Salesforce executive George Hu as its president in April and plans to build a dedicated sales team after years of relying on self-serve customer sign-ups. The new capital will also fund additional GPU capacity and engineering hires. The funding round included participation from Nvidia, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Menlo Ventures and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, among others. Nvidia, which trades at about 35 times forward earnings, has invested in multiple AI infrastructure startups as it seeks to broaden the ecosystem for its GPUs beyond the handful of large cloud providers. Fireworks' daily token volume of 40 trillion now rivals Google's disclosed rate of about 27 trillion tokens per day and OpenAI's roughly 22 trillion. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Jul 16 2026, 20:07

US strikes Iran for fifth night as Hormuz shipping collapses to 13 vessels

The US military struck Iranian targets for a fifth consecutive night Thursday, hitting areas around Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed to about 10 percent of pre-war levels and Iran warned the waterway was an "unbreakable red line." "If America's hostile actions against Iran continue, the Islamic Republic's response will be beyond the enemy's calculations, and new arenas of confrontation will be formed," Iranian army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia said, according to state-affiliated media. Only 13 merchant ships transited the strait on Thursday, data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler showed — eight leaving the Persian Gulf and five entering. Just one vessel used the southern route near the Omani coast that the US has promoted as safer. Brent crude traded at about $85 a barrel, more than 15 percent above pre-war levels but well below the nearly $120 peak reached earlier in the conflict. The US reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports Wednesday and struck an oil tanker heading toward Iran's Kharg Island export terminal. The collapse of the April ceasefire and the renewed blockade threaten to reignite the oil supply crisis that sent global energy prices surging earlier this year. The International Energy Agency has warned that global crude stockpiles are dwindling after a 360-million-barrel drawdown between March and May, eroding the buffers that have helped cushion the market from the worst supply shock in decades. The latest escalation began after Iran attacked commercial shipping using a US-patrolled alternative route through the strait, which Tehran says it has the right to control under the interim agreement signed in June. The US responded by reimposing its naval blockade and launching airstrikes that have now reached as far north as Semnan province, east of Tehran, home to Iran's ballistic missile production facilities. Iran's health ministry said the strikes have killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 300. Among the sites hit was an area near a children's cancer hospital in Ahvaz, forcing the evacuation of 211 patients, state media reported. ## Iran's Two-Track Strategy — Threats and Diplomacy Behind the military escalation, both sides have kept diplomatic channels open. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Iran "is still in communication with the United States and wants to reach a deal." Iran's top negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, said Tehran "must always be prepared for fighting" but also "use diplomacy." At the same time, Iran has escalated its threats. A military spokesperson warned that if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to strike Iranian bridges and power plants, Iran would destroy "all infrastructure throughout the region." Separately, Reuters reported that Iran has told Yemen's Houthi rebels to prepare to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if the US attacks Iran's power grid — a move that would threaten the Suez Canal shipping route and potentially cut off another major energy artery. ## Global Supply Chains Under Pressure The shipping crisis is already rippling through global supply chains. India ordered shipowners not to deploy Indian seafarers on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz after two Indian sailors were killed in drone attacks. An estimated 15,000 Indian seafarers remain stranded west of the strait, according to the Forward Seamen's Union of India. The IEA's executive director Fatih Birol warned that while increased production from outside the Middle East and alternative pipeline routes have helped cushion the blow, "this cannot last very long because global crude stocks are going down." The world has relied on strategic oil stockpiles to absorb the loss of more than 1 billion barrels of oil since the war began in February. Pakistan, a principal mediator in the conflict, said it remains "actively engaged with key interlocutors" to bring both sides back to the negotiating table, though it acknowledged that path is becoming increasingly difficult. *This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.*

Jul 16 2026, 20:05

Euro slides as US jobless claims drop to 208,000, boosting dollar

**The US labor market remains resilient, with weekly jobless claims falling to the lowest level in 10 weeks and reinforcing the case for the Federal Reserve to keep rates elevated.** The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 208,000 in the week ended July 11, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That came in well below the 217,000 consensus estimate from economists polled by Reuters and the 219,000 forecast by FactSet, pointing to continued stability in the labor market. "The claims data shows employers are still reluctant to cut head count despite the broader economic slowdown," said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING. "This gives the Fed cover to maintain its cautious stance on rate cuts." The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, declined by 4,750 to 214,250. Continuing claims, a proxy for hiring, fell by 16,000 to 1.805 million in the week ended July 4. The data follows the Fed's Beige Book report Wednesday, which said "employment rose on balance" in early July, with five of 12 districts reporting modest to solid gains. The stronger-than-expected labor market data pushed the dollar higher against major peers, with the euro falling 0.3 percent to $1.0875 as traders trimmed bets on aggressive Fed easing. The dollar index rose 0.2 percent, extending its recovery from last week's lows. Currency markets have been on edge as traders weigh the resilience of the US economy against slowing growth signals from Europe and China. Thursday's claims report adds to a mixed picture of the US jobs market. The government's June employment report showed employers added just 57,000 jobs, less than half the prior month's total, while the unemployment rate edged down to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent — a decline driven partly by workers leaving the labor force. Weekly claims have stabilized in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the economy emerged from the pandemic recession, a level economists describe as consistent with a "slow hire, slow fire" labor market. The data matters for the Federal Reserve's policy path because a tight labor market keeps upward pressure on wages and services inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly said the central bank needs to see "greater confidence" that inflation is moving sustainably toward its 2 percent target before cutting rates. Markets currently price a 58 percent probability of a quarter-point rate cut at the Fed's September meeting, down from 68 percent a week ago, according to CME FedWatch data. For the euro, the divergence between a resilient US economy and a struggling euro zone is the dominant driver. The European Central Bank cut its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent in June, its first reduction since 2019, and markets expect another cut in September as growth stagnates. German industrial production fell 2.5 percent in May, the biggest drop this year, while the euro zone composite PMI has lingered below the 50 expansion threshold for much of the second quarter. The next major test for the dollar and the euro comes with next week's US retail sales data and the Fed's July 30-31 policy meeting, where officials are widely expected to hold rates steady at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.