Good Afternoon. Markets keep rewriting records and Larry Ellison just leapfrogged Elon Musk on the billionaire leaderboard. Meanwhile, Apple wants to be your doctor, Zoox wants to be your driver, and Microsoft is literally bending light to win the AI race. Let’s get into it.
—Rosie, Wyatt, Evan & Conor

💰 Markets
S&P 500 | |
Dow Jones | |
NASDAQ 100 | |
iShares 7–10 Year Treasury | |
Bitcoin | |
Volatility Index |
🔍 Section Focus
🔥 What’s Hot: 🔥
Ellison’s AI Jackpot: Oracle’s stock soared 40% on a half-trillion-dollar cloud backlog, propelling Larry Ellison past Elon Musk as the world’s richest. AI may not solve everything, but it’s minting new kings in tech.
🥶 What’s Not: 🥶
Market Darlings: Novo Nordisk and Apple both slipped. Novo cutting 9,000 jobs to defend against Eli Lilly, Apple losing its shine as investors yawned at its latest iPhones. Turns out even trillion-dollar icons can’t outrun their competition forever.

Go from AI overwhelmed to AI savvy professional
AI keeps coming up at work, but you still don't get it?
That's exactly why 1M+ professionals working at Google, Meta, and OpenAI read Superhuman AI daily.
Here's what you get:
Daily AI news that matters for your career - Filtered from 1000s of sources so you know what affects your industry.
Step-by-step tutorials you can use immediately - Real prompts and workflows that solve actual business problems.
New AI tools tested and reviewed - We try everything to deliver tools that drive real results.
All in just 3 minutes a day
🇺🇸 U.S. News
1. Larry Ellison Surpasses Musk as World’s Richest Person
The News: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison overtook Elon Musk as the world’s richest person after Oracle shares surged more than 40% Wednesday. Ellison’s net worth now sits near $400B, edging out Musk’s $385B, according to Bloomberg. The rally came as Oracle announced a $450B-plus backlog of cloud contracts, including multibillion-dollar deals with Nvidia and OpenAI, with expectations that the pipeline will soon exceed $500B. Oracle’s market cap approached $1T during trading. Ellison, 81, has also expanded into media (Paramount takeover) and infrastructure (a $500B datacenter project with SoftBank and OpenAI).
Why It Matters: Ellison’s rise shows how the AI boom is rewriting the wealth leaderboard. We see it in the form of more AI-powered services and entertainment, while investors are reminded that the real winners may be the companies supplying the infrastructure, not just the apps riding on top of it. Oracle’s transformation from “old guard” database giant to an AI cloud powerhouse is being richly rewarded. And if Musk’s rocket dreams hit turbulence, he may have to ask Ellison for a loan to fund his Mars missions.
Source: nbcnews.com
2. Apple makes its biggest health push yet
The News: Apple unveiled new health features across its latest devices at Tuesday’s Cupertino event. The new AirPods Pro 3 come with built-in heart rate tracking in each bud, trained on 50M hours of fitness activity, plus upgraded hearing aid functions like “Conversation Boost” for noisy environments. Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 now monitor hypertension by tracking blood volume patterns over 30 days, alerting users if readings suggest chronic high blood pressure. Apple expects FDA clearance soon and estimates the feature could notify more than 1M people of undiagnosed hypertension in its first year.
Why It Matters: Although investors didn’t like Apple’s news yesterday, the stock is down more than 3% today, Apple is steadily transforming its wearables from lifestyle gadgets into frontline health monitors. For consumers, that means more proactive alerts about silent conditions like hypertension and better accessibility features baked into everyday devices. For investors, it’s a reminder that health remains one of Apple’s stickiest growth levers, creating both recurring service opportunities and deeper ecosystem lock-in. Apple’s pitch is simple: the best health device is the one you’ll actually wear every day. By baking medical-grade features into earbuds and watches, it’s making wellness checks as routine as checking your texts.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
3. S&P 500 Hits Record as Inflation Eases, Oracle Leads Rally
The News: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed to record intraday highs Wednesday after U.S. producer prices fell 0.1% in August, defying expectations of a 0.3% rise. The surprise inflation dip fueled bets on Fed rate cuts, with markets now watching Thursday’s consumer price report. Oracle surged more than 40% on cloud revenue forecasts topping $450B, sparking a rally in AI-linked stocks. Klarna jumped in its Wall Street debut, while Apple weighed on the Dow for a second day. Treasury yields slipped and gold flirted with fresh highs.
Why It Matters: Lower inflation is exactly what consumers and investors wanted to see, cheaper goods now, lower rates later. A softening price trend raises the odds the Fed will cut rates sooner, easing pressure on mortgages, credit cards, and corporate borrowing. For investors, it’s confirmation that AI remains the market’s engine, with Oracle’s blowout quarter pulling tech higher even as Apple drags.
Source: wsj.com
4. Zoox Debuts First Public Robotaxi Service in Las Vegas
The News: Amazon-owned Zoox launched the first fully autonomous, purpose-built robotaxi service open to the public on the Las Vegas Strip. Its 50 cube-like vehicles, built without steering wheels or pedals, are offering free rides at five pickup points, including Resorts World, Luxor, and New York-New York. The pods can hit 75 mph in either direction and feature wireless charging, climate control, and panoramic windows. While Zoox has regulatory clearance for demonstrations, it still needs approval before charging fares. Paid rides are expected “in the coming months,” with San Francisco and other U.S. cities next in line.
Why It Matters: This is a tangible step toward hailing rides that feel more like sci-fi lounges than taxis—no driver, no steering wheel, just a pod that whisks you down the Strip. For investors, it highlights how Amazon is positioning Zoox as a direct challenger to Alphabet’s Waymo and Tesla in the multibillion-dollar robotaxi race. Winning regulatory approval and scaling beyond pilot programs remain the real tests. But if Zoox can go from novelty rides to paid services, robotaxis could shift from “Vegas gimmick” to mainstream transport option and maybe even prime you for ordering your next Amazon package from the backseat.
Source: techcrunch.com
5. Covered Call Strategies Surge as Markets Hit Records
The News: With the S&P 500 up 30% since April and hitting new record highs, more investors are turning to covered call strategies to hedge risk and generate income. Portfolio managers estimate roughly $15T in concentrated stock positions, many tied to big tech, are ripe for this approach. Assets in ETFs focused on derivative income have ballooned from $7B in 2020 to $150B this July, with $40B flowing in during the first seven months of 2025 alone. Advisors say demand is strongest among executives, baby boomers, and investors with legacy holdings.
Why It Matters: Riding the rally is fun but managing the tax bill and volatility is not. Covered calls let investors squeeze income from stocks they already own while gradually diversifying away from oversized bets in names like Nvidia, Amazon, or Palantir. For everyday shareholders, it’s a way to stay invested but sleep a little better at night; for the market, it signals investors are locking in gains rather than chasing endless upside. In other words, options desks are getting busier just as Wall Street’s record run tempts everyone to take a little off the table. A covered call strategy is complicated and risky, if you don’t want / don’t know how to write options yourself, there are ETFs that run covered call strategies for you and its best to talk with your financial advisor about it first.
Source: reuters.com

🌎 World News
1. Novo Nordisk cuts 9,000 jobs amid Ozempic competition
The News: Novo Nordisk will cut 9,000 jobs, 11% of its workforce, to streamline operations and reinvest in growth. The move is CEO Mike Doustdar’s first major decision since taking over this year. Novo’s workforce swelled from 43,000 in 2019 to over 78,000 by 2024, but rising competition from Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound has eroded market share (down to 42.5% vs. Lilly’s 57%). The layoffs will cost DKK 8 billion ($1.25B) upfront, prompting a 6-point cut to 2025 profit growth guidance. Shares rose 3% on the news but remain down 46% YTD, with market cap sliding to $181B from a $650B peak.
Why It Matters: The shakeup shows how intense the weight-loss drug race has become. Greater competition should eventually mean more access and potentially lower prices for treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy, especially as pill-based versions reach the market. For investors, Novo’s pivot marks a reset: the company is trading efficiency for scale, redirecting billions toward R&D and commercial execution. That could pay off long term, but in the near term expect margin pressure, volatile earnings, and continued battles with Eli Lilly for dominance in the $100B-plus obesity and diabetes drug market.
Source: globalnews.ca
2. China and U.S. Unveil Competing AI Chip Breakthroughs
The News: Chinese and American researchers announced rival advances in AI computing. The Chinese Academy of Sciences unveiled SpikingBrain1.0, a brain-inspired model said to run 25–100x faster than Transformers while using <2% of typical training data. It operates on China’s MetaX chips, designed without U.S. technology, marking a push for independence from Nvidia. Meanwhile, Microsoft scientists published results in Nature on a light-based analog optical computer that processes calculations with photons, not electrons. Their prototype delivered up to 100x greater energy efficiency than GPUs, reconstructing medical images with just 62.5% of input data.
Why It Matters: Great, so what does all of that mean? In plain terms: faster, cheaper, greener AI. For everyday users, these breakthroughs could mean AI assistants that respond instantly, medical scans processed in seconds, and lower costs as energy-hungry data centers become more efficient. For investors, the implications are twofold: China is proving it can build advanced AI without U.S. chips, raising the stakes in the tech rivalry, while Microsoft is betting on an entirely new computing paradigm, literally bending light to try and beat Nvidia. If either approach scales, it could disrupt Nvidia’s dominance and reorder the trillion-dollar AI supply chain.
Source: chinadaily.com.cn
3. Klarna Hits $19B Valuation in Wall Street Debut
The News: Klarna shares surged 30% in their Wall Street debut, opening at $52 after pricing at $40 and raising $1.37B. The pop gave the Swedish buy-now, pay-later giant a market value of $19B, still less than half its 2021 SoftBank-backed $45B peak. Klarna processed $105B in transactions last year, serving 93M users across 26 countries, and generated $2.8B in revenue (+24% YoY). But profitability remains elusive: losses widened to $52M in Q2 2025 from $7M a year earlier, driven by higher U.S. costs.
Why It Matters: Klarna’s IPO shows the “buy now, pay later” model still has juice with consumers, especially as an alternative to credit cards, but scaling profitably is another story. For shoppers, Klarna promises flexible, interest-free payments; for investors, it’s a bet on whether the company can pivot from flashy growth to sustainable margins in a high-rate world. At $19B, the stock looks like a discount versus its pandemic-era hype, but also a reminder: fintech doesn’t operate on the same old banking math.
Source: bbc.com
🥸 Dad Joke of the Day
Q: What do you call a can opener that doesn’t work?
A: A can’t opener.
📝 To-Do List

✅ Digital Boundary Setting: When will you stop checking emails today? Set clear work-life digital boundaries.
✅ Explore Machu Picchu: Add the world’s most famous Inca citadel to your bucket list. Built in the 5th century, this 7,970-ft mountain ridge temple is a must-see.
✅ Pasta Water Starch: Save a cup of starchy pasta water before draining. Perfect for loosening and binding sauces.
✅ Investment Account Bonus: Many brokerages offer cash bonuses for new accounts or transfers. Free money for money you'll invest anyway.* See current offers.
*A message from our sponsor or affiliate link.

📖 LSAT® Vocab Word of the Day
Correlation:
A mutual relationship or connection between two variables, which does not necessarily imply that one causes the other.
“There is a correlation between ice cream sales and temperature, but one does not cause the other.”

📚 Recommended Reading
The Millionaire’s Playbook: Unlock the proven wealth strategies millionaires use to grow, protect, and automate their money. Over 30 pages of step-by-step guidance you can put to work today. Use Refer a Friend below and get it as soon as today.
⭐ Refer a Friend
💬 Your Opinion Matters
Tell us how we can make Afternoon Finance even better for you.