Greg Guenthner:

Bitcoin Bloodbath Erases Trump Gains

Bitcoin plunged below $64,000 on Thursday for the first time since 2024, wiping out all the gains it accrued after President Donald Trump’s election victory. 

Plunging prices, part of a wider sell-off across crypto and tech assets, have erased trillions of dollars of market value and reignited debate over the cryptocurrency’s resilience and role in investors’ portfolios.

The coin dropped around nearly 13%, marking its largest single-day decline in years as leveraged traders were forced to liquidate positions amid a broader de-risking in markets. Ether, the second-largest token, has suffered even larger percentage losses.

While Bitcoin rebound slightly Friday morning, hovering around $67,000, the retreat has nonetheless erased about half of its value since its all-time peak above $126,000 in late 2025, when optimism around pro-crypto policies and institutional adoption was at its height. 

The crypto downturn has occurred against a backdrop of widening losses across high-growth tech stocks and other risk assets. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both extended their slide this week, driven by renewed investor concerns about valuations and slowing earnings growth – especially in sectors tied to artificial intelligence spending.

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Enrique Abeyta:

Apple Is the Only Big Tech Company Whose Capex Declined Last Quarter

Earnings show Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft all spent record sums last quarter on purchases of property and equipment – largely tied to AI chips and data centers. And for the companies that offered forward-looking guidance, their capex plans for the year blew analysts’ already generous estimates out of the water.

Amazon expects its 2026 capex to surge to $200 billion. Google is aiming for $175 billion to $185 billion. Meta estimates it will spend between $115 billion and $135 billion. All of those figures came in well above expectations and, for the most part, have weighed on their stocks. Microsoft didn’t give a formal 2026 capex outlook, but if its peers are any indication, spending will likely exceed the roughly $114 billion Wall Street expects for the calendar year.

Of the Big Tech companies, just one stands apart this earnings season. Apple’s capital expenditure, already just a fraction of its peers, actually declined in the December quarter from a year earlier.

For better or worse, Apple has struck its own path with AI. In many ways, it’s embracing AI but is not an AI company. Instead, it’s chosen a hybrid model, relying on both first- and third-party data centers – keeping a significant amount of infrastructure spending off its balance sheet.

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Davis Wilson:

Xiaomi SU7 EV Battery Retains 94.5% Charge Even After 165,000 Miles of Driving

A user of the Xiaomi SU7 clocked a whopping 165,000 miles (265,000 km) with his brand-new electric vehicle (EV) in just 18 months. To his surprise, even after the vehicle’s near-commercial use, the battery health was recorded at 94.5%, well above the typical degradation EV makers suggest for this type of use. 

The distance travelled by the car is more than what Tesla expects its EVs travel in eight years. According to Tesla’s estimates, when its Model 3 or Y cars run 100,000 miles (160,000 km), the battery pack will retain about 70% of its capacity. 

Other EV manufacturers also expect their cars to take eight years to reach similar milestones and expect anywhere between 20-30% degradation. So, the SU7 Pro’s battery health is making the rounds on Chinese social media and even reached Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, who shared it further.

A single car is not representative of all cars that went into production, but the report on its battery pack is great advertising for the brand, which plans to bring in a refreshed version of its EV soon.

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