CoreWeave signed a 15-year, $7 billion lease with Applied Digital for a 250MW AI data center in North Dakota.

Oracle disclosed it has laid off 21,000 workers over the past year, linking the move to its AI strategy and data-center buildout, intensifying scrutiny of how mega-cap tech funds model investments. Stocks extended volatility as tech and chip names sold off globally, dragging the S&P 500 and Nasdaq into the red while the Dow held up better but still traded choppily. The session's key driver was renewed concern about AI spending, memory weakness, and lofty valuations—pushing investors toward cash and currency liquidity, with VIX risk appetite rising alongside sharp sector rotations. Tech selloffs are hitting the core of global markets, with the move spreading from U.S. trading to Asia, raising volatility and forcing re-pricing of AI and memory growth assumptions. South Korea's KOSPI slumped 10%, triggering circuit breakers amid the tech sell-off. Chip weakness and memory volatility are colliding with index risk and analyst target resets, with Micron and SanDisk at the center of the pressure. Investors are weighing whether productivity gains will offset the labor churn and margin pressure from Oracle's restructuring.

A wave of U.S. housing legislation is advancing, centered on affordability and supply. The House advanced a bipartisan housing affordability bill that includes a ban on CBDC development through Dec. 31, 2030, setting up the key implementation fight with the White House. Congress also moved to limit the administration's Iran war powers after votes to curb executive flexibility. The U.S.-Iran endgame is entering a new legal and political phase as competing claims about inspections and hostilities continue to unfold. The CFTC has sued prediction market platforms in its first major push for oversight, with the move against Kentucky's actions setting clearer federal boundaries for prediction markets. Meta's next revenue play is taking shape as prediction markets go mainstream inside big tech, with Zuckerberg pushing for a Polymarket-like product. Prediction markets are facing direct regulatory scrutiny in the U.S., with CFTC litigation expanding compliance pressure and highlighting federal concern about how betting-like products interact with traditional markets and oversight.

Hormuz is back in focus as diplomacy and security incidents collide with energy markets, with shipping corridors, mines, and maritime traffic creating sustained risk premiums on oil flows and shipping insurance. Nuclear power is getting a major policy and financing push tied to data-center growth, with the loan program expanding the U.S. supply chain for reactor parts and marketed as a new nuclear renaissance for the power-hungry AI era. Quantum computing is shifting from hype to policy, with the U.S. government signaling accelerated funding and strategic deadlines. European and global data center and energy politics are colliding with AI infrastructure expansion, with opposition emerging not just in the U.S., but across cities and policy circles as concerns grow about power, water, and grid impacts. The dollar is gaining as rate-hike bets and risk aversion lift demand for safety and liquidity, becoming a key transmission channel into commodities, emerging markets funding, and global financial conditions.

North Korea unveiled a nuclear navy plan as 10,000-tonne warships move forward, raising the risk of further military escalation across the region and intensifying security concerns. Index construction is shifting as mega-cap tech further dominates the Dow, with Verizon replaced by Alphabet, underscoring how markets and index providers are treating communication and tech as the new industrial core. AI model governance is intensifying as U.S. agencies press for access and reviews, with the next fight being over who can evaluate models and under what conditions. Transportation and infrastructure disruptions are surfacing in Europe, with Germany's rail network hit by a nationwide IT outage, showing how operational outages quickly become logistics and labor-market shocks. Aircraft safety oversight is escalating as aviation regulators order inspections after structural cracks were found on Airbus A380s, raising near-term maintenance and operational uncertainty for a specific fleet segment. SpaceX's post-IPO turbulence is turning into a financial systems story, with credit, bonds, and investor risk appetite back under the microscope as the company's equity swings and debt plans reshape how markets value the latest tech listings.