← All editions
Edition · 2026-08-27
More Top Stories
Nvidia (NVDA.O) forecasts a 70 percent increase in revenue for its fiscal year ending January 2028, projecting $108 billion in third-quarter sales. The outlook reflects sustained demand for AI computing despite ongoing component shortages. In its fiscal second quarter ended July 26, data center revenue more than doubled to $89 billion, beating the $85.08 billion estimate. Adjusted profit rose to $2.22 per share versus the $2.10 consensus. Shares rose about 5 percent in extended trading after an initial 1 percent decline. Nvidia estimates third-quarter revenue of $108 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $104.19 billion, according to LSEG data. The forecast exceeds the 44 percent average growth projected by analysts for the same period. Nvidia expects demand from AI labs to account for roughly a quarter of total revenue next year. Vera Rubin platform is projected to represent about one-fifth of data-center revenue in the current quarter. Nvidia and Amazon Web Services plan to deploy an additional two million Nvidia graphics processors across AWS’s global infrastructure in 2027 and 2028. Finance chief Colette Kress said margins are expected to be 71-72 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 74 percent in the third quarter, as memory prices and component costs remain high. Nvidia noted that supply constraints could limit growth. China’s data-center revenue was excluded from its outlook after shipments of its H200 chip remained limited. The forecast indicates continued AI spending, but execution risk remains tied to component availability and geopolitical factors affecting China sales.
Meta Platforms agreed to pay up to $18 billion over the next decade and impose limits on teenage use of Facebook and Instagram to settle a coalition of U.S. state lawsuits alleging that its platforms were designed to be addictive to minors and that the company misrepresented their safety. The agreement, announced on Wednesday, resolves a federal trial that had been scheduled to begin on August 18. Four states—California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey—had sought roughly $200 billion in civil penalties.
Under the settlement, Meta will restrict teen usage to two hours per day on Facebook and Instagram and block all usage from midnight to 6 a.m. unless parental consent is provided. It will also limit push notifications to teenage users during school hours (8 a.m.–3 p.m.) and improve age‑verification measures for age‑restricted content. The company says similar restrictions could be adopted by Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
Meta will pay about $16.7 billion to 47 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, with $12.7 billion guaranteed and an additional $5 billion contingent on comparable actions by Snap Inc., TikTok and YouTube. California is expected to receive $2.2 billion, New York $1.1 billion, and Texas a separate settlement worth more than $1 billion. Some funds will be allocated to children's mental‑health programs.
The settlement does not require Meta to eliminate personalized recommendations or targeted advertising, nor does it address all content identified by internal research as harmful to body image. Meta denied wrongdoing. California Attorney General Phil Weiser said the relief provided is meaningful and exceeds prior court orders. James Speta, a law professor at Northwestern University, noted that the restrictions are intended to reduce engagement. Meta shares rose as much as 4.1% and closed up 1.1% following the announcement.
The payout represents roughly three to four months of profit and about one month of revenue for Meta. The settlement follows other legal actions, including a $567 million New Mexico order and a $6 million judgment in a Los Angeles case involving Google. In Europe, the European Commission has threatened fines over content‑removal rules. The settlement may serve as a template for future actions against social‑media companies, though litigation continues in Florida and New Mexico.
Monthly personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose 0.2% in July after a 0.1% decline in June, keeping the annual rate at 3.7% for the 65th consecutive month and above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that consumer spending grew 3.4% in the second quarter, revised up from 3.2%, while personal incomes increased faster than inflation, suggesting potential for higher consumption later in the year.
Orders for durable goods, led by transportation equipment, rebounded in July, indicating continued brisk business investment, particularly in artificial intelligence‑related sectors. Corporate profits rose $400.9 billion in the quarter, the second‑fastest increase on record, a trend partially attributed to the recent corporate tax overhaul.
The estimate for annualized gross domestic product growth in the second quarter remained at 1.5%, but gross domestic income rose 2.2%, pushing the combined measure of economic activity to a 1.8% growth rate. Economists project Q3 GDP growth of at least 3%, double the Q2 pace.
Fed funds futures indicate roughly a 40% probability of a rate hike at the September 15‑16 meeting, up from about 36% before the data release. While the majority of the Federal Open Market Committee left the benchmark rate unchanged at 3.50%‑3.75% in July, some policymakers argue tighter policy is needed as inflation has remained above target since February 2021.
The upcoming Jackson Hole economic symposium, where Fed Chair will speak, will be closely watched for clues on the Fed’s next move amid persistent inflation and a strengthening economic outlook.
Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 29 U.S.
By · 57d ago · Source: bbc
Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 29 U.S. states on Wednesday, ending a five‑day trial that alleged the company harmed children through data collection under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The case centered on COPPA, a law enacted nearly three decades ago that restricts the collection of personal information from children under 13. The plaintiffs argued that Meta gathered data from minors without adequate consent.
The settlement, which does not admit wrongdoing, requires Meta to impose a two‑hour daily usage limit for identified teen accounts, mute notifications between midnight and 6 a.m. and during school hours, and hide likes for teenage users. The company also will enhance tools to identify child users, a process expected to take up to one year to roll out fully. Internal documents showed Meta was aware that opt‑in safety features often had low adoption, and some executives said the firm considered paying fines rather than changing practices. Whistleblower Arturo Bejar, a former Instagram engineer, said accountability must be based on results, not on announced measures. The settlement avoids a potential maximum penalty of about $1.4 trillion, calculated from a hypothetical scenario of daily use over a 12‑year period. While Meta’s revenue depends on social media advertising, the company has focused recent resources on artificial intelligence. The agreement includes provisions that other platforms, such as TikTok and Snapchat, may adopt similar safety settings if the industry moves toward stricter child protection.
The rollout of the new safety features will begin within six months, but their effectiveness will be judged by independent assessment and by whether other social media companies follow suit. The long‑term impact on user engagement and on regulatory approaches remains uncertain.
AI‑directed bank accounts could move deposits quickly among banks, weakening a funding advantage that supports long‑term credit, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas analysis released August 25. Deposits typically remain at banks for years and usually earn lower rates than market rates, giving them a long effective duration that helps banks hold assets sensitive to interest‑rate changes. The analysis measured duration using weighted average life multiplied by one minus the deposit beta, which reflects how responsive deposit rates are to short‑term rate movements. Instant settlement and programmable AI rules could allow yield‑sensitive customers to shift balances rapidly. In June 2026, The Clearing House announced a plan to develop 24/7, interoperable tokenized commercial‑bank money for automated commerce. Using balance‑sheet data as of July 15 and its own duration assumptions, the Dallas Fed estimated about $7 trillion of asset‑side interest‑rate exposure in 10‑year equivalents, of which roughly $5.84 trillion derived from the duration characteristics of non‑time‑deposit balances. Under a scenario assuming a 10 percent increase in deposit price sensitivity and a four‑year weighted average life, the model showed a reduction of about $700 billion in duration‑risk appetite. A separate scenario with a 10 percent reduction in weighted average life cut projected maturity‑transformation capacity by about $580 billion. The model linked the $5.84 trillion of deposit‑backed assets to a $700 billion potential decline in duration‑risk appetite if deposit sensitivity rises. The analysis noted that banks might respond by issuing more term debt or increasing reserves and Treasury holdings, which could raise borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. A 2025 Central Bank of Brazil paper found that broader use of the Pix instant‑payment system increased liquid‑asset holdings and reduced liquidity transformation, illustrating how instant payment systems can affect bank liquidity behavior, though Pix is not a direct analogue to tokenized deposits. The authors emphasized that tokenized deposits are still early in development, the magnitude of the effect is uncertain, and the views expressed should not be attributed to the Dallas Fed or the Federal Reserve System.
Bitcoin rose nearly 25% last week to above $80,000, marking its strongest weekly gain in more than three years. The increase was driven by robust inflows into bitcoin exchange‑traded funds and a U.S. Treasury bond buyback announcement.
CoinDesk Research said that market depth on major spot exchanges remained high during the rally, indicating that genuine demand, rather than isolated large orders, supported the price movement. The 0.5% market depth on August 18 was roughly $9.6 million when bitcoin traded around $64,000, and stayed near $8.7 million on August 25 as the price reached $80,000. Depth levels were comparable to those recorded during previous record highs and did not thin significantly around the $80,000 price point. Analysts noted that the sustained liquidity suggested broad participation in the rally.
Traders returning from summer holidays could provide additional liquidity, supporting continued investment in scarce assets such as bitcoin and gold. Similar patterns were observed in ether and solana order books, with 0.5% depth holding steady on August 25 compared with October.
The market’s liquidity remained robust throughout the surge, suggesting genuine demand, though the durability of the price level will depend on future trading activity and macro‑economic factors.
Nvidia reported fiscal Q2 results that exceeded Wall Street expectations, with revenue of $96.2 billion and earnings per share of $2.22, and projected $108 billion in revenue for Q3, above analysts' forecasts of $103.9 billion. The company's data center segment generated $89 billion, surpassing the $85.4 billion estimate, while gross margin guidance for the next quarter was lowered to 74% from 75% in Q2, a change that contributed to a modest after‑hours decline in the stock. Analyst Thomas Monteiro of Investing.com noted rising memory, financing and infrastructure costs are pressuring margins, and that the sequential margin decline may limit the ability to pass costs to customers amid higher borrowing costs for technology firms. CEO Jensen Huang said during the earnings call that Nvidia is working with memory suppliers and securing capacity for power, land and data‑center infrastructure to meet excess demand, and that a price increase scheduled for the first quarter could help offset higher expenses. The long‑term AI opportunity remains strong, but the pace of margin expansion and cash flow generation will determine how much of the projected growth translates into sustained profitability.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sent a proposal to amend custody rules for investment advisers and investment companies to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on August 25. The White House Office of Management and Budget must review the proposal before the SEC can vote on it and open it for public comment.
The amendment would clarify how firms may hold cryptocurrency assets for clients under the Investment Advisers Act and the Investment Company Act. The SEC says the changes are intended to eliminate uncertainty about custody of digital assets. The rule has not been made public.
The SEC’s regulatory agenda lists the amendment as part of a broader effort to develop clearer rules for digital assets. Chair Paul Atkins, who assumed office in 2025, has moved the agency away from enforcement-focused actions and toward formal rulemaking. Several lawsuits, including the SEC’s case against Coinbase, have been dismissed.
The initiative follows the administration’s digital asset agenda, even though the CLARITY market structure bill remains stalled in the Senate and is slated for a cloture vote after the August recess.
The SEC will decide whether to publish the proposal for comment, a decision that may shape custody practices and the legislative path for the market structure bill.
David Fincher will direct a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, titled The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, which will premiere in IMAX theaters worldwide on November 25 and begin streaming on Netflix on December 23.
The original film, released in 2019, featured Brad Pitt as the stuntman Cliff Booth and was set in 1969 Hollywood. Netflix had previously teased the sequel in February and confirmed an exclusive two‑week IMAX engagement beginning November 25.
The sequel will take place in 1977, according to Netflix, and will star Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul‑Mateen II, Peter Weller, Matt Groce, JB Tadena, Corey Fogelmanis and Karren Karagulian. Fincher wrote the script based on Tarantino’s story, and Tarantino has not announced his tenth and final directorial film.
The project represents Fincher’s first directing credit in several years and adds to Netflix’s expanding slate of high‑profile film releases.
Rockstar Games released a deep dive revealing details about Grand Theft Auto 6, scheduled for release on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The feature list includes a return of a mechanic from San Andreas and a system that allows switching between two protagonists. Developers said the game will place greater emphasis on visual feedback, showing how actions affect character appearance and NPC behavior. The heightened realism may discourage players from engaging in unrestrained rampages. GTA 6 will launch on November 19, and further information will be provided closer to release.
This edition was assembled from neutral, agent-rewritten summaries of the day's aggregated news.
Why it matters: Every article was reviewed for loaded language, partisan framing, and missing attribution before publication.
New York
22°C
Partly Cloudy
London
16°C
Mostly Cloudy
Tokyo
24°C
Sunny