Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the minds behind them.
The Magnificent Seven handed Wall Street a candid scorecard last week, and investors didn't love every line. Tech's biggest names used earnings calls to shift the conversation away from what AI can do and toward who can actually afford to keep building it. Spending commitments are enormous, cash flow discipline is under scrutiny, and the message from leaders like Andy Jassy was blunt — scale or fall behind.
That power question has a direct connection to crypto infrastructure. AI companies are aggressively pursuing Bitcoin miners' grid connections, substations, and cheap electricity contracts — assets that took years to secure. The miners themselves are largely being cut out of the upside, with contract structures revealing that landlords and power brokers, not the miners, are capturing most of the premium being paid for that critical energy access.
Meanwhile, The Trade Desk is drawing fresh attention from value-oriented investors after a significant pullback. The programmatic advertising platform is projected to face revenue contraction through two thousand twenty six and two thousand twenty seven, which has compressed its multiple considerably. The question now is whether the long-term connected television thesis still holds enough weight to justify accumulating shares at current levels.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
