LIVE · WED, JUL 29, 2026 --:--:-- ET

Issue Nº 99 COST TOTAL $14994.86 ARTICLES TODAY 12 TOKENS TOTAL 9.72B

Running the wire

Chips LPDDR and SOCAMM memory gain traction in AI data centers as HBM supply tightens Policy Sam Altman meets White House chief of staff as Trump AI framework deadline looms Aug. 1 Breaking LangChain Deep Agents v0.7: 65% base-token cut via trimmed prompt harness; opt-in todos, middleware override Funding CoreWeave boosts yield on $2.6B loan for Anthropic compute via wider pricing spreads Market Microsoft Q4 earnings today; FY2027 capex guidance expected $255–260B (+35% YoY) Chips Seagate to qualify 50TB HAMR hard drives in late 2027, ship in 2028 Market Microsoft FY2027 capex guidance likely $255–260B; AI infrastructure spending up 35% YoY Market Meta Q2 capex expected to double Y/Y as $125–145B full-year guidance looms at earnings Chips AMD launches Helios rack; 15% more compute, 30% better tokens/dollar than Vera Rubin Market Seagate Q4 crushes estimates; guides $4.1B Q1 revenue on AI storage demand Market NVIDIA raises RTX GPU prices 20–30% in third hike of 2026; GDDR shortage expected to persist until 2028 Chips NVIDIA employee detained in Taiwan over Supermicro smuggling scheme; GPU export diversion persists despite whitelist Market Apple hits $5T valuation; Tim Cook's final earnings call faces memory crisis + AI strategy pressure Chips Lenovo doubles Whitsett NC AI server facility to 890K sq ft; targets 1,400 nodes/day capacity Market Meta partners BlackRock on $14B El Paso data center; BlackRock owns 80%, Meta operates Market Bloom Energy crushes Q2, raises FY guidance to $3.9–4.2B on AI data center fuel cell demand Funding Centralize raises $15M Series A to map enterprise deal relationships with AI Market Asian semiconductor stocks plunge; SK Hynix misses estimates despite record profit Policy xAI sues Minnesota over AI nudification ban; law takes effect Aug 1 Policy Judge approves Anthropic $1.5B copyright settlement; authors get ~$3,100 per work Chips LPDDR and SOCAMM memory gain traction in AI data centers as HBM supply tightens Policy Sam Altman meets White House chief of staff as Trump AI framework deadline looms Aug. 1 Breaking LangChain Deep Agents v0.7: 65% base-token cut via trimmed prompt harness; opt-in todos, middleware override Funding CoreWeave boosts yield on $2.6B loan for Anthropic compute via wider pricing spreads Market Microsoft Q4 earnings today; FY2027 capex guidance expected $255–260B (+35% YoY) Chips Seagate to qualify 50TB HAMR hard drives in late 2027, ship in 2028 Market Microsoft FY2027 capex guidance likely $255–260B; AI infrastructure spending up 35% YoY Market Meta Q2 capex expected to double Y/Y as $125–145B full-year guidance looms at earnings Chips AMD launches Helios rack; 15% more compute, 30% better tokens/dollar than Vera Rubin Market Seagate Q4 crushes estimates; guides $4.1B Q1 revenue on AI storage demand Market NVIDIA raises RTX GPU prices 20–30% in third hike of 2026; GDDR shortage expected to persist until 2028 Chips NVIDIA employee detained in Taiwan over Supermicro smuggling scheme; GPU export diversion persists despite whitelist Market Apple hits $5T valuation; Tim Cook's final earnings call faces memory crisis + AI strategy pressure Chips Lenovo doubles Whitsett NC AI server facility to 890K sq ft; targets 1,400 nodes/day capacity Market Meta partners BlackRock on $14B El Paso data center; BlackRock owns 80%, Meta operates Market Bloom Energy crushes Q2, raises FY guidance to $3.9–4.2B on AI data center fuel cell demand Funding Centralize raises $15M Series A to map enterprise deal relationships with AI Market Asian semiconductor stocks plunge; SK Hynix misses estimates despite record profit Policy xAI sues Minnesota over AI nudification ban; law takes effect Aug 1 Policy Judge approves Anthropic $1.5B copyright settlement; authors get ~$3,100 per work

Market Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 05:02 PM

Microsoft Q4 earnings today; FY2027 capex guidance expected $255–260B (+35% YoY)

Microsoft reports fiscal Q4 2026 earnings after market close today with consensus expectations of $87.62 billion revenue (+14.6% YoY) and $4.24 EPS. Azure cloud growth is guided at 39–40% constant currency. The real market focus is FY2027 capital expenditure guidance, with UBS and analyst consensus now expecting $255–260 billion—a 35% year-over-year increase from the $190 billion Microsoft committed to calendar 2026.

The $190B 2026 capex already stunned investors last quarter; Microsoft cited soaring memory and component costs (roughly $25B of the spend), finance lease impacts, and aggressive data center buildout to meet hyperscaler and enterprise AI demand. For FY2027, the expected jump reflects continued component inflation, the need to add GPU/CPU/storage capacity faster, and competitive pressure from Alphabet's recent capex raise to $205B. Management must convince the street that incremental spending maps to incremental revenue, not just a race to match Alphabet's infrastructure bet.

Investors will also track AI revenue (currently $37B annual run-rate, up 123% YoY) and Copilot adoption signals. Microsoft faces persistent supply constraints for external customers, and internal allocation decisions between research, Azure cloud, and OpenAI relationship obligations remain tense. Azure at 39–40% growth is the bar—anything below signals that capacity constraints are limiting customer demand monetization.

The earnings release arrives as MSFT has fallen 19% YTD amid fears that capex will outrun revenue growth. A beat on Q4 revenue and earnings is expected; the capex number and management tone on 2027 ROI will determine if the stock finds support or tests lower.

Sources