BGood morning, Wednesday. The Kobeissi Letter is out with a story about Nvidia that starts with a phone call.
AA phone call?
BThey say 22 months ago they published an analysis raising concerns that Nvidia's AI chips were being routed to China through Singapore.
AAnd Nvidia's head of PR called them directly. Less than 24 hours later.
BThat's the claim. Kobeissi says the sales to Singapore were up sharply since DeepSeek was founded.
AThat number is their own analysis, not independently confirmed. But the underlying probe was real.
BUS officials did investigate whether DeepSeek got Nvidia chips through third parties in Singapore.
ANvidia and Singapore both said there was no evidence of diversion. Nvidia said Singapore revenue is mostly bill-to for US and Western customers.
BBut that's the whole problem, isn't it? Bill-to versus ship-to. The invoice says Singapore, the chips go somewhere else.
ASingapore is a trade hub. Companies centralize invoicing there. It doesn't prove the chips went to China.
BNo, but it makes the reported surge look suspicious. Singapore doesn't have that many data centers.
AWhich is exactly why officials looked. And in October, they were reported investigating a Singapore firm called Megaspeed over possible diversion to Chinese tech firms.
BSo the story isn't over. Kobeissi is saying, we raised this early, and Nvidia's PR came after us.
AA PR person calling a critic isn't a scandal. It's a Tuesday.
BFair. But the chip routing question is a real one for anyone building AI.
AOne reply put it well: AI compute supply is now a question of trust as much as capacity.
BTraceable provenance matters. For developers and policymakers alike.
ASpeaking of trust, Jim Cramer was busy last night.
BHe gave Nvidia a path out of purgatory. Multi-step plan, no magic bullet.
AAnd he thinks they're taking it. He also says Anthropic might be worth much more than the price talk we're hearing.
BThat's a bold call. Anthropic's bankers may raise the IPO price above the 70 to 78 dollar range, according to the FT.
AThat report isn't confirmed. But some are saying heavy investor demand could lift the valuation to 1.5 trillion or more.
BCramer's also watching CoreWeave on Squawk Street this morning. He thinks it'll be very positive.
ADemand for AI data centers, dispelling the negatives. We'll see.
BDifferent world entirely: the UK's emergency preparedness campaign is moving product.
ABig jumps in bottled water, canned food and hand sanitizer sales. That's the claim from Polymarket.
BThose specific numbers aren't confirmed. But the direction is interesting.
AA government tells people to prepare, and they actually do it. That's notable.
BOr they panic-buy hand sanitizer again. Old habits.
AEither way, it's a real shift in how people are thinking about risk.
BAnd one more from overnight: the EU has approved its first military mission presence on Ukrainian soil.
AThat's unconfirmed for now. But if true, it's a significant step.
BThe quote in the post is 'make no secret of it.' That's a change in posture.
AWe'll wait for official word. But it's worth watching closely.
BMeanwhile, the market selloff from Thursday is still echoing.
AOne account says the S&P 500 plunged sharply in one day, with billions of dollars gone.
BAnother says it was one of the worst days in history, with the major indexes down sharply.
AThose figures are similar across posts, but we couldn't independently verify the exact close.
BThe question everyone's asking: is the bull market over, or just another correction?
AHistory says sharp selloffs happen. But the overnight reversal in Nasdaq futures after midterm results was wild.
BDown sharply, then up strongly off the low. Wiped out the losses.
AThat's the kind of volatility that makes people nervous. But it's also how markets find a floor.
BQuick one from crypto: Ripple's former CTO David Schwartz says he sold nearly all his crypto.
ADown from about 26 million XRP, 1,500 Bitcoin and 40,000 Ether to roughly 3 million XRP, 1 Bitcoin and 6 Ether.
BLow risk tolerance, he says. That's one way to put it.
AThose numbers are his claim, not confirmed. But if true, that's a massive exit.
BA man who helped build Ripple, holding almost no crypto. That's a statement.
AOr a very expensive lesson in risk management.
BAnd that's the morning brief. Back with more after the break.