Greg Guenthner:

Allbirds Traded More Than JPMorgan and Exxon Mobil Yesterday

After a surprising announcement that the tech bro shoemaker would be pivoting to AI on Wednesday, shares of Allbirds (BIRD) were flying high – soaring nearly 600% by the end of the day in record trading volume.

Before the latest pop, Allbirds had a miniscule market cap of some ~$22 million. Yesterday, some $3.8 billion changed hands in BIRD – with the company’s market cap ending the session at a still small $148 million.

That means that the company turned over more than 25x its market cap in trading volume. Indeed, there were no other stocks with a market cap less than $1 billion that traded more than $1 billion yesterday – something of an outlier, to say the least.

Though this was perhaps more of a meme stock story than an AI story, those two worlds are starting to overlap, as retail traders have bought up anything adjacent to AI – particularly in the last couple of weeks, as risk-on assets have ripped higher since geopolitical risks have (seemingly) abated and indexes are back to all-time highs.

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James Altucher:

Quantum Stocks on Pace for a Massive Week After Nvidia Debuts AI Models To Boost the Tech

Quantum stocks climbed on Thursday, adding to a massive week-to-date rally fueled by enthusiasm for Nvidia’s new open-source artificial intelligence models designed to advance the burgeoning computing technology.

Since the start of the week, IonQ shares have skyrocketed 50%, as have shares of D-Wave Quantum. Quantum Computing and Rigetti Computing have surged more than 20% each.

The rally comes on the heels of Nvidia’s unveiling of Ising, a new family of open-source models aimed at accelerating the adoption of quantum computing. The chip giant named Ising after a famous mathematical model.

Nvidia explained further in a press release that Ising “provides high-performance, scalable AI tools for quantum error correction and calibration – two of the most critical challenges in building hybrid-quantum classical systems.”

Nvidia’s announcement aired on what’s become known as “World Quantum Day,” ever since an international group of scientists announced in 2021 that April 14th should be used to promote public awareness of quantum technology.

Proponents tout quantum computing as a transformative technology that can accelerate drug discovery and solve problems impossible to answer on everyday computers. The U.S. government and technology giants are investing heavily in advancing it.

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Davis Wilson:

Video Shows Amazon Delivery Drone Dropping Package Directly Onto Concrete, Smashing Its Delicate Contents

Over the past few months, Amazon has been rapidly deploying its Prime delivery drones to cities across the U.S., from Arizona to Florida.

The drones promise to enable the delivery of small parcels to suburbanites in under two hours, for a modest fee of $4.99. But as more and more videos are starting to show, they might also be delivering a lot of broken glass.

In one example, influencer Tamara Hancock explored what happens if you order something fragile. To test it, she bought a container of blue raspberry syrup, to be delivered by drone.

After Hancock waited an hour or so for the drone to descend, the moment arrived and the drone plopped Hancock’s syrup directly onto the concrete. When Hancock surveyed the damage, she found a sticky mess of ooze. The bottle ended up being plastic, so if that can’t survive, it’s extremely unlikely a glass one will.

Hancock's example is one of many. Prime drones keep a healthy distance of 10 feet away from the ground at all times. This means that when a drone drops its load from an underside compartment, the package tumbles straight to the ground – potentially shattering the contents.

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