☕️ Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire chairman

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Finpresso.

In today's newsletter:

🎩 Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire chairman

🤖 Nvidia's Huang sees chip demand doubling in 2026

⚖️ Microsoft called AI scraping the 'largest theft of labor'

🇯🇵 Yen sinks to two-week low as BOJ hike disappoints

📈 SEC clears path for tokenized US stocks

Plus: 🌍 9 macro news, 🏢 11 corporate news, and 📑 6 research & reports.

📊 Before The Bell

• Warren Buffett, 96, is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the roughly $1 trillion conglomerate he ran since 1965, becoming chairman emeritus while staying on the board, with son Howard Buffett taking the chairman role.
• The move deepens the succession begun nine months ago when Greg Abel, 64, became CEO; under Buffett, Berkshire delivered a 19.7% compounded annual return, nearly double the S&P 500, with $44.5 billion in operating earnings last year.
• Berkshire shares are up just 1% in 2026 versus the S&P 500's 11%-plus gain, pressured by rising oil and investor appetite for growth stocks, leaving Abel under pressure to deploy the $365.5 billion cash pile after lifting buybacks to $4.5 billion last quarter.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in Scotland that the company expects to ship twice as many chips over the next year, powered by demand for artificial intelligence across industries and economies.
• The projection lifted Nvidia shares more than 2% to roughly $218 yesterday, part of a tech rally that pushed the S&P 500 up 1.1% and the Nasdaq up 1.6%, with Intel gaining 9%.
• Huang reiterated a forecast for 70% revenue growth in the year ending January 2028, near $673 billion in sales, and said revenue could double if production keeps pace with demand.

• Newly unsealed filings in The New York Times' copyright suit against OpenAI and Microsoft show a Microsoft executive privately calling the companies' AI training practices "the largest theft of labor in human history."
• The disclosures undercut the "fair use" defense central to the case, citing Microsoft's own data showing its Copilot cut click-through rates to the Times' website by as much as 93% versus traditional Bing search, a decline one internal document called a "doom loop."
• The filings quantify the copying for the first time, alleging OpenAI's datasets held more than 91,692 Times, Daily News, and Center for Investigative Reporting works, plus a separate dataset with at least 160,903 unique publisher works and 2 million documents from nytimes.com.

• The yen dropped to a two-week low against the dollar, with USD/JPY climbing to near 156.95, after the Bank of Japan's quarter-point rate hike failed to satisfy investors betting on tighter policy.
• The BOJ lifted its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 1.25% in a 7-2 vote, the highest level since April 1995, but the move wasn't enough to reverse the yen's slide against the dollar.
• A wide gap between US and Japanese interest rates, reinforced by the Fed's recent hike, keeps demand tilted toward the higher-yielding dollar, with traders now watching Governor Kazuo Ueda's press conference for signals on further tightening.

• The SEC issued an order Thursday creating an immediate regulatory pathway for trading platforms to offer tokenized versions of U.S. stocks, using its existing authority after crypto's market-structure bill stalled in the Senate two days earlier.
• The five-year "Innovation Exemption" grants platforms and liquidity providers relief to run tokenized stock trading, on the condition that token holders keep the same rights as regular shareholders and that companies can object to their shares being tokenized.
• Coinbase, Robinhood, Gemini and Kraken already offer tokenized equities offshore but not yet to U.S. customers; wider adoption could enable 24/7 trading, though the SEC warns of thinner liquidity and sharper price swings, plus an unresolved fight over voting rights.

🌍 Macro News

• CFTC drops enforcement plans against crypto developers routing users to regulated markets. LINK
• BoE holds rates at 3.75% despite inflation and Middle East energy pressures. LINK
• ECB's Vujčić says energy prices dominate eurozone inflation and rate-hike expectations. LINK
• Oil prices dip as hopes for increased Saudi supplies outweigh border-strike concerns. LINK
• US sanctions Iranian crypto exchange BitBank over alleged bitcoin transfers to IRGC. LINK
• Trump calls Fed rate hike politically motivated despite persistent above-target inflation. LINK
• US weekly jobless claims fell to 196,000, their lowest level since 1969. LINK
• Venezuela, opposition near deal to move $4 billion in gold to New York. LINK
• Binance denies commenting on reports Lagarde blocked its Greek crypto license bid. LINK

🏢 Corporate News

• Huawei will launch Ascend 960DT AI chip six months early in 2027. LINK
• Generac shares surged after Amazon committed up to $8 billion for generators. LINK
• Crusoe raised $3.9 billion, reaching a $30.9 billion valuation in Series F. LINK
• Anthropic opens biology lab to conduct hands-on experiments supporting overlooked drug development. LINK
• Bolt and Lucid target 25,000 self-driving vehicles across Europe, without firm orders. LINK
• CoreWeave shares fell after announcing debt and equity offerings to fund AI expansion. LINK
• Nebius shares pared gains after report Nvidia-backed provider plans higher AI-computing prices. LINK
• Revolut weighs dual London-New York listing to access deeper US capital markets. LINK
• Tata leadership dispute intensifies after heir Noel Tata calls chairman's reappointment illegal. LINK
• S&P Global agrees to acquire OpenZeppelin, expanding its digital-asset risk assessment business. LINK
• Coinbase, Stablecore enable banks to offer crypto services through existing apps. LINK

📈 Stocks

📑 Research & Reports

• 10 stocks set to soar in 2026: is MarketBeat's free pick list of the names it expects to outperform, with the thesis for each. Get the free list
• OpenAI and Anthropic generate tenfold Chinese AI models' combined revenue. LINK
• Goldman strategist warns AI spending and government borrowing are competing for capital. LINK
• Government-backed hackers now create half of malicious public-blockchain code, Chainalysis reports. LINK
• Credit-card installment usage surged to 36%, strengthening issuers' position in pay-later market. LINK
• JPMorgan says bitcoin could outperform gold if heavy ETF hedges unwind. LINK
• JPMorgan abandons oil forecast amid Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz uncertainty. LINK

📅 Market Calendar

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