"A viral doomsday scenario aims to shake Europe out of its AI complacency"

As we've said, in this race being eighteen months behind doesn't just mean you're eighteen months behind. It means you are behind forever.

From The Guardian, June 20:

Does a thought-experiment about US ascendancy in the technology say as much about AI jitters as it does about the reality? 

It’s 2031 and the US and China are about to tear Europe into pieces.

The US ploughed vast sums into datacentres and the EU did not. China built robots and Europe did not. American companies “restructured” their workflows around AI and fired people, while EU workers went on long lunch breaks and handed over administrative tasks to the AI model Claude.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Europe’s economy is a shambles because it does not have its own AI. Populism is surging, the euro is wobbling, cyber-attacks are shredding EU businesses. Brexit seemed like a good idea. It looks like the end of the European Union.

That, at least, is the vision of a speculative thought experiment, called Europe 2031, penned by Brussels-based thinktankers and published fortuitously one day before the Trump administration decided to block “foreign nationals” from using a much-hyped AI model built by Anthropic, called Fable.

In the heady week of G7 talks that followed, the scenario has gone viral – feeding a feverish discussion of the urgency for EU tech sovereignty. It has been read by members of the European parliament and, say its authors, was brought up in track 1.5 discussions between British and German officials earlier this week.

Its authors say they feel “vindicated”, by the attention it has received and by the fact that one of their predictions – that the US would restrict global access to advanced AI models – appears to have briefly come true. They hope the scenario will spur Europe towards a dramatic course-correction on AI.

The piece is part of a burgeoning genre of fictional AI doomsday scenarios, created by obscure figures, which have gained surprising traction among policymakers over the past year. In 2025 there was AI 2027, a thought experiment which culminates in a superintelligent AI killing all of humanity to make way for more datacentres; in February, another speculative scenario imagined AI upending the US economy. (The first was read by US vice-president JD Vance, the second contributed to a stock market wobble.)

One complication of all this might be that their thought experiment is at times based on current developments in AI whose outcome is uncertain or in doubt.

Maximilian Negele contributed to Europe 2031, he says, because of the “incredible translation barrier” between Brussels and San Francisco, where AI is being developed. Formerly at US thinktank Rand, he left his job this year to focus on the project.

“As somebody who travels to San Francisco quite a bit and talks to people there, what is happening in Europe just seemed like a slow-moving car crash to me,” he says.

The scenario unfolds from the perspective of a fictional bright-eyed Brussels staffer, Caroline Dubois, who has a German friend, Christian Vogt, with a startup in San Francisco. On a visit, she’s impressed by America’s “70 or 80-hour” working weeks and discomfited by the conviction among tech bros that everything is about to change....

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Capital Markets: "Sterling Proves Resilient as Starmer says Good Bye"

 From Marc Chandler at Bannockburn Global Forex:

Conflicting news from the Middle East initially lifted oil prices and weighed om risk-taking appetites, but US-Iran negotiations continue and both sides report progress. Oil prices have come back off. The dollar is mostly firmer but so far has held above last week’s lows against the euro and sterling. The yen snapped a five-day slide ahead of the weekend but is softer today, and the greenback is knocking against the recent high (~JPY161.80). The Canadian dollar is extending is slide into the eighth consecutive session. 

Given the light economic diary today, politics are in the spotlight. The UK’s sixth prime minister since Brexit a decade ago has resigned and will oversee the selection process of his successor. Sterling was initially sold but has come back to record near session highs late in the European morning. US-China tensions have taken a turn for the worse. Apparently in response to the US decision this month to add some of China’s largest companies to a list of companies that aid the military, Beijing has sanctioned two US rare earth companies. It maybe mostly symbolic as the two companies reported have reported largely cut off inputs from China....

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"Secretive Wall Street powerhouse Jane Street seizes the AI spotlight"

From the Wall Street Journal via MSN, June 19: 

Mystery has long shrouded Jane Street, the Wall Street trading giant. Its traders rely on proprietary algorithms, making it hard to understand how the firm generates all its profits. It’s privately owned and only trades with its own money, so its moves are difficult to track. It’s also an unusually flat organization, with no one leader at its helm to speak on business television or serve as its public face. 

The firm’s location adds to its enigma. Jane Street occupies a nondescript office building in Brookfield Place across from the World Trade Center, rather than the Greenwich Village street it randomly picked for its name.

Now, as the firm pushes to become an artificial-intelligence powerhouse, it’s edging into the spotlight.

Jane Street has surged in size from a handful of staffers when it was founded 26 years ago to 3,500 employees, and it wants to get much bigger, with plans to recruit more than 500 employees this year. To become a major AI investor and supercharge its trading with the technology, it needs to catch the attention of AI startups and talent.

Jane Street executives say they never set out to build a secretive firm. Rather, many of them are engineers, mathematicians and others who are naturally uncomfortable in the public eye.

“We are culturally insular,” said John Daniel Case, a Jane Street trader who works on AI investments, during a rare interview at the firm’s headquarters. “But we’re expanding to businesses that are more public-facing.”

The firm’s culture is on display across its 40,000-square-foot trading floor, where young staffers—mostly male—sit at their desks in T-shirts, some in shorts and flip flops. Throughout the day, the lighting changes color to match the circadian rhythms of its traders: amber in the morning, blue-white at midday and an amber glow late in the day. 

During breaks, employees play videogames or poker, a nod to geeky math culture the firm has embraced. Among the few well-known details about Jane Street: the famously complicated puzzles and problems it gives job candidates.

Staying out of the spotlight has gotten a lot harder as Jane Street has grown, with its profits now topping those of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, helped in part by gains from investments in Anthropic and other private companies. Its activities are increasingly drawing scrutiny, too, including accusations of market manipulation.

Jane Street is leaning in to its wonky image to attract new recruits, portraying itself as more akin to a college math department than a hedge fund.

In a recent ad on the Dwarkesh Podcast, an influential tech show, host Dwarkesh Patel said Jane Street offered employees courses and lectures, and that its apprenticeship model produces “some of the most competent researchers and engineers in the world.”

“If you’d like to work for a place like this, Jane Street is hiring,” Patel said.

The firm also wants to get the word out about its AI investments and deals for computing power, eager to let AI companies know that it’s eager to make new investments—and wants to be a partner for their businesses.

The shift is catching some by surprise. In April, Jane Street cut a deal to invest $1 billion in AI computing company CoreWeave and spend $6 billion to use its AI cloud platform. After inking the transaction, the firm asked CoreWeave to publicize the deal in a press release.

“We said, ‘Wait, what?’ ” says Brannin McBee, a CoreWeave co-founder who was familiar with Jane Street’s penchant for secrecy. He said it was a smart way to signal to job candidates that the firm would have ample computing power for their AI work

Like many quant firms, Jane Street has long relied on machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to build the trading models that dictate its moves. But it accelerated its focus on AI after the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, which set off the AI revolution.

Jane Street now has a portfolio of private companies worth $20 billion. That figure includes a stake in Anthropic that was purchased in 2024 from the estate of FTX. The bankrupt crypto exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is one of Jane Street’s most famous alums and worked at the firm from 2014 to 2017, roaming the office in a hoodie and no shoes....

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"The Tight Family Trust That Reigns Over The New York Times"

The writer doesn't much care for dual-class/super-voting shares. He's not alone.

From Richard Pollock's The World in Crisis substack, May 19: 

How a Family Trust Insulates The Times From Public Accountability 

A great deal already has been written about the dishonest Nicholas Kristof New York Times column which alleges Israeli atrocities against Palestinian prisoners.

But behind this latest case of deceitful Times coverage is the fact that from its inception, the ownership of the company has been controlled by a family trust, deliberately designed to be insulated from any public accountability.

The dirty little secret is that the “New York Times Company” has two classes of stock: Class A and Class B.

Class B was created in the 19^th century by founder Adolph Ochs-Sulzberger. Class B shares are solely controlled by an iron-clad family trust. This structure was intentionally designed to protect the Ochs-Sulzberger family power as it published the paper as it saw fit, and eliminated any potential interference from its public stockholders, known as Class A.

If you go to AI, it observes, “The Ochs-Sulzberger trust is a powerful family trust that controls the majority of the Class B voting stock of The New York Times Company. Established to maintain independent, family-led stewardship, it effectively prevents hostile takeovers and keeps editorial and corporate control in the hands of the descendants of Adolph S. Ochs.”

AI adds, “It ensures that power and financial stakes are passed down to the succeeding generations of the Ochs-Sulzberger clan.”

Presently, 70% of the Times board is chosen by the family. Thirty percent of the board is decided by stockholders.

The author Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones exposed this primitive form of family control in their scathing,1999 book on the Sulzberger empire titled, The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times.

They wrote, “The New York Times is uniquely insulated when it comes to its own newsroom. This structure was intentionally designed by the founding Ochs-Sulzberger family to protect the newsroom from corporate takeovers or activist investors.”

Tifft and Jones were given full access to the Sulzberger family and to the Times archives.

They describe many of the Times’ most fatal reporting errors.

According to Christopher Ogden in a New York Times book review of the Tifft-Jones book, during World War I the paper demurred on unconditional German surrender. “Ochs’ failure to press editorially for an unconditional German surrender…prompted criticism that the paper was treasonous.”

Later, during World War II, the Times continually downplayed the consequences of the Holocaust on the Jews. And when the Times.published a front-page story on the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau, it never mentioned the word Jew, according to Tifft-Jones.

Adolph Ochs, the founder, ”toiled to ensure that The Times never earned the moniker ‘too Jewish,’ according to Anna Baldwin in a review of the Tifft-Jones book.

“Ochs assiduously declined to promote Jewish editors,” according to Baldwin.

After Adolph, Arthur Hays Sulzberger led the paper from 1935 to 1961. He was a reform Jew. Sulzberger was an enthusiastic supporter of the American Council for Judaism, founded in June 1942 to oppose Zionism. It was Hays who ignored the Holocaust and the plight of the Jews.

In a 2001 article for the Times, former Executive Editor Max Frankel wrote that Arthur Hays Sulzberger downplayed the Holocaust. The editorial page “was cool to all measures that might have singled [Jews] out for rescue or even special attention.”

Here is the line of descendants:

Arthur Gregg (A.G) Sulzberger is the current Chairman of the New York Times Company. He is the fifth-generation descendant of the Ochs-Sulzberger clan to serve as chairman.

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., (known as Punch, Jr.), A.G.’s father, was publisher of the company from 1992 to 2017. He was chairman from 1997 to 2020. He currently is Chairman Emeritus. Punch, Jr. reportedly was raised in his mother’s Episcopalian faith and later stopped practicing religion, according to the Times of Israel.

Punch, Jr.’s grandfather, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Sr. (known as “Punch, Sr.) was publisher of the Times from 1963 to 1992. When Punch Sr. stepped aside as chairman, he was “ceding the crown of the multibillion-dollar public company to his son, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., in an exercise of divine right that Arthur of Camelot would have appreciated,” according to Christopher Ogden in his review of the Tifft-Jones book for the New York Times.

Gabriel Sherman, wrote in New York Magazine as the 2015 succession fight emerged among three family members. He then counted six family members in top positions at the Times: “A total of six fifth-generation cousins currently hold positions at the Times.”....

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We've looked at the issue from a few different angles.

In 2011 "Mispricing of Dual-Class Shares: Profit Opportunities, Arbitrage, and Trading". 

In the 20-teens we saw "Zeitgeist: "Zuckerberg’s control over Facebook ‘akin to a dictatorship,’ says California pension fund" (FB)". 

And "Why Uber Won’t Fire Its CEO" 

In 2009 it was "The Berkshire Hathaway Arbitrage (BRK.A: BRK.B)" 

A good overview was "Perpetual Dual-Class Stock: The Case Against Corporate Royalty"

The author is a commissioner on the SEC and a recovering academic.
(enough footnotes to make Matt Levine envious)

Another: "The Untenable Case for Perpetual Dual-Class Stock"
From The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: 

 

So it goes. 

(no word on Vonnegut's thinking re: super-voting shares) 

And nota bene: if you think you've found an arbitrage rather than a pair trade, check whether "A" is good delivery for "B" and vice-versa, if you prefer your vice-versa.

Our out-the-door flashback from 2017:

Zuckerberg says he has no plans to run for president: report (FB)
Mr. Zuckerberg still has to resolve the shareholder lawsuit on his "Ya got it, ya sell it, ya still got it"*  controlling shareholder plan, now, after discovery, with more Andreessen.

Then he's going on his 50-state "meeting people in small towns-2017 tour".
Then he has to talk with President Obama's campaign wizard David Plouffe about whether David is happy in his brand-new perch at the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.

Then he...
Hell who knows, 2020 seems a long way off and right around the corner at the same time....

*I think the "...Got it, sell it, still got it" formulation is the punchline to "Why do Goldman bond salesmen envy hookers" or something, now used as voting control strategy in the Valley, see for example GOOG-GOOGL-GOOGLIEST (class B for Larry and Sergei with 10x votes). 

Strait of Hormuz: "Iran Waived the Toll and Built the Tollbooth"

Saudi Arabia is not-at-all pleased with the current and prospective state of affairs regarding the Persian Gulf.

From House of Saud, June 20:

Iran's post-waiver "insurance fee" invokes UNCLOS Art.26(2) — the only legal basis for charging vessels in its territorial sea. Saudi exposure: $2B/year.

LONDON — Iran charged nothing for the first sixty days of Hormuz corridor transit, and eighteen of twenty vessels used the route on Day One — which was the point. The “insurance fee” Tehran plans to impose when the free window closes around mid-August is not a toll in softer language but a precise legal construction: an invocation of UNCLOS Article 26(2), the only provision in international maritime law that permits a coastal state to charge vessels during innocent passage, applied to a 5-nautical-mile corridor that Iran designed to ensure innocent passage — rather than the unchargeable transit passage regime through international waters — is the only available option.

The distinction is geographic before it is legal. The standard Hormuz Traffic Separation Scheme runs through international waters under UNCLOS Article 38, where fees are categorically prohibited — Article 44 bars strait states from “hampering” transit, and tolls are conspicuously absent from the permissible regulations in Article 42. Iran’s Larak-Qeshm corridor routes vessels inside its 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, switching the governing legal regime from transit passage to innocent passage, which carries a narrow exception for charges linked to “specific services rendered.” The entire architecture of the post-waiver fee rests on that five-nautical-mile shift, and Saudi Arabia — facing approximately $5.5 million per day in exposure at full throughput — has the least political room of any Gulf state to challenge it, because a formal challenge would grant the corridor the legal standing it currently lacks.

Table of Contents

• Five Nautical Miles Inside Iran’s Territorial Sea
• What Does UNCLOS Article 26 Actually Permit?
• The Insurance Label and the Article 26 Fit
• Why Can No Court or Institution Block This?
• How Did Ninety Percent of Vessels Comply Before a Fee Was Charged?
• The Treaty Iran Cites but Never Ratified
• Can Saudi Arabia Challenge the Fee Without Legitimizing the Corridor?
• What Iran Built While the Fee Was Free
• Frequently Asked Questions

Five Nautical Miles Inside Iran’s Territorial Sea

The Strait of Hormuz has operated under the UNCLOS transit passage regime — Article 38 — since the convention codified the rules for international straits in 1982. Under transit passage, ships and aircraft enjoy the right of continuous, expeditious movement through straits used for international navigation, and Article 44 places an explicit obligation on bordering states: they “shall not hamper transit passage.” Article 42 lists the regulations that strait states may lawfully impose — safety of navigation, pollution prevention, customs enforcement at loading and unloading points — and the omission of fees from that list, as the Dubai-based maritime law firm Hadef Partners noted in their May 2026 analysis via Lexology, “is deliberate.”....

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One possible solution that I have not seen discussed anywhere else, is to demand the toll be payable in TrumpCoin and only TrumpCoin.

And then, prior to the toll being imposed do an airdrop (distribution) of TrumpCoin to the Arab shippers.

Also at House of Saud and reflecting the Saudi zeitgeist:

Kuwait Ships First — at Saudi Arabia’s Cost 

Qatar PM Arrives for Iran Nuclear Talks That Exclude Saudi Arabia 

The Fault(s) Dear Brutus: "California’s tectonic systems at highest levels of stress in 1,000 years – study"

From The Guardian, June 16:

San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems in ‘critically loaded state’, increasing chance of ‘big one’ quake in future 

Southern California’s San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems are at their highest levels of tectonic stress in 1,000 years in what scientists describe as a “critically loaded state”, according to a study published earlier this month.

“Our results show that stress levels on multiple fault segments are now at or above the highest values seen in the past millennium and that the region may be capable of a large through-going rupture involving both fault systems,” Liliane Burkhard, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, said in a statement.

Cajon Pass, which sits at the junction of the faults, could play a key role, acting as an “earthquake gate” that can block large ruptures from traveling between the faults or involve both systems in one event, according to the research. It has been more than a century since the last major event, and stress “has continued to accumulate and is now at unprecedented levels”, which has increased the chances of a large quake in the future.

“The conditions that determine whether the ‘earthquake gate’ at Cajon Pass opens or stays closed appear to be related to how closely the stress levels on the two fault systems are aligned with each other at the time of rupture,” said Burkhard.

“Right now, with stress at historically high levels across the region and more than 160 years elapsed since the last major rupture, the system is in a critically loaded state.”....

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Fluid Dynamics: A Glorious Day For Canada And Therefore The World

Although the research wasn't performed in Canada you know the keepers of the global strategic maple syrup reserve were watching with intense interest.

From Nautil.us, March 6, 2026:

Physicists Uncover How Long It Takes to Get the Last Drop of Syrup
How to tackle a common kitchen problem with fluid dynamics 

No one likes to waste food, not even the stubborn remnants of ketchup at the bottom of the bottle. So what do you do? Turn it upside down, obviously. Unfortunately, this tried-and-true method can take quite a bit of time. Now, new research published in Physics of Fluids can tell you just how long the wait will be.

Physicists Thomas Dutta and Jay Tang of Brown University were motivated to tackle this culinary conundrum based on their own experiences in the kitchen. Tang wanted to know the best way to empty water from a cast iron wok, while Dutta was inspired by his grandmother’s routine of getting the last drop of liquid from every condiment jar.  

“In both cases, the relevant physics involves the flow of thin layers of fluid on a surface,” Dutta said in a statement. “This physics is everywhere in our regular research as well, so we decided that this would be a nice training exercise.”

Their regular research, investigating how colonies of bacteria spread on moist surfaces, involves the work of another team-up: Claude-Louis Navier and Sir George Gabriel Stokes. Developed in the 19th century, their Navier-Stokes equations describe the movements of viscous liquids and were instrumental in their most recent research....

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We have quite a few posts on turbulence and fluid dynamics. The post (probably) most remunerative for the reader is:

"Think You're Smart Don'tcha: Figure This Out And Make A Million Bucks" in 2021:

In last week's post "Fluid Dynamics (and the filth on your phone)" I made the assertion "This is one of those fields of study that are so mind-bogglingly complex that....", without supplying any supporting statements or facts.

(in these situations the reader can assume I am relying on the Charlie Munger all-purpose turnaround: "Think about it a little more and you will agree with me because you're smart and I'm right.")

 

But for folks who require a bit of backup, here is Ars Technica, followed by the Clay Mathematics Institute, along with a cameo by Feynmann for added "Appeal to Authority":...

And in 2023 by "Figure This Out And Make A Million Bucks: Now With Penguins":....

I Don't Think The Wars In The Middle East Have Ended

The first reason to think there is more to come is the fact this fellow is still alive:

August 5,  2024 - Iran: "Advisor to IRGC Commander: Zionist Regime Will Not See 80th Birthday, Heavy Blow Awaiting It" 

Lifted in toto from Iran's Fars News,

An advisor to the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) emphasized that the Zionist regime, through its mistake in assassinating Hamas leader martyr Ismail Haniyeh, will receive an unpredictable blow, adding that the Israeli regime will not see its 80th birthday.

On Sunday morning, Hossein Taeb, speaking to a gathering of Basij university professors in Mashhad in Northeastern Iran, referred to the anti-Zionist operation " Al-Aqsa Storm" carried out by Palestinian resistance factions as the pinnacle of the defeat of the Zionist regime and the United States. 

He said Israel wants to compensate for its defeat in this operation by fomenting war in the region and dragging the US and the West into these conflicts.

Taeb said the operations to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh and the commander of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, were carried out by Israel with American permission.

He stated that the Zionist regime, through its mistake in assassinating Haniyeh, will suffer an unpredictable blow.The advisor to the IRGC commander, referred to the power of the resistance front, adding that today the resistance, despite its asymmetric warfare tactics, is a coordinated front whose elements operate in harmony from Yemen to Iraq and Lebanon.

A quick check of the encyclopedia puts the birthday bash at May 14, 2028. 

And even when he perishes, there are more like him among the Ayatollahs and mullahs and the IRGC, Twelver Shia, lusting after apocalypse as religious destiny.

Regarding Iranian proxies, Hamas still rules Gaza and seems oblivious to the history of Black September. As noted ten days after the perverted atrocities of October 2023:

October 17, 2023 - Dead Man Walking: "Far from Gaza hardships, Hamas chief and family enjoy easy life in Qatar"

I would expect the Israelis to hunt down and kill every Hamas leader that they don't find in Gaza. 

Operation Wrath of God which followed the 1972 Munich massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic team members would be the template. And this time, since we are talking the slaughter of 1300 people, including dual-nationals and foreign citizens, the Western governments might be more inclined to turn a blind eye to any mysterious deaths on their territory.

As for Qatar, we shall see....

Which was followed by "Israel: "Shin Bet has new unit to eliminate perpetrators of the Hamas massacre"" on October 21, 2023. 

On May 21, 2026 the Times of Israel quoted the Wall Street Journal:

Israel has list of all Oct. 7 participants, aims to kill or arrest each one — WSJ 

Regarding Hezbollah in Lebanon, they will be used by Iran to disrupt the timing and timeline of any negotiations with the U.S. From The Times of Israel liveblog, June 20, 2026

27 said killed in south Lebanon strikes; Hezbollah says it attacked IDF troops overnight
ToI Staff
Israeli military says it's targeting terror group after some 50 projectiles fired at troops just hours after ceasefire * Lebanese soldier among those killed 

The Houthis remain in control of Yemen with the geographical mastery of the Bab el Mandab strait and the approaches to the Suez Canal.

So no, I don't think the wars in the Middle East have ended. When I raised this point in a conversation last week I was directed to "The Peace of Amiens, 1802". 

Which was followed by "The Redeclaration of War, 1803: The 'Truce' of Amiens". 

If interested see also Muhammad and the Treaty of Hudaybiyya.

"AI data centers just got a government-mandated fast lane to the grid"

From TechCrunch, June 18:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told grid operators on Thursday to fast-track interconnection requests from data centers and other large electricity users.

Under the orders, six major grid operators have to show that data centers are “able to connect to the transmission system in a timely and orderly manner.” Data centers will be responsible for paying the costs of the interconnection. Commissioners approved the orders unanimously.

FERC also provided an opening to grid tech startups, directing grid operators to consider “alternative transmission technologies.” The commission didn’t name specific technologies, but the directive could include things like solid-state transformers or superconducting transmission lines.

Grid operators now have 30 days to submit a report detailing how much generating capacity they have to spare, if any. They also have 60 days to “defend or revise” electricity rates within their regions. FERC also directed grid operators to be more accommodating to behind-the-meter power for data centers.

While FERC’s directives gave data centers a fast lane to connect, they did not address the shortage of generating capacity.

Grid connections have been slow to materialize in part because new power plants are also having problems connecting. At the end of 2023, grid connection requests for power plants exceeded the total capacity of the existing power plant fleet, meaning the line to get on the grid was longer than the grid itself could theoretically serve.

Against this backdrop, electricity demand from data centers is expected to nearly triple through 2035. Grid operators, which had grown accustomed to near-zero demand growth over the last two decades, have strained under the load. Some, like PJM, the country’s largest grid operator, have descended into something resembling chaos, with major utilities threatening to withdraw....

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"Oil prices turn negative after U.S. official says Israel, Hezbollah agree to ceasefire"

 From CNBC, June 18/19:

• U.S.-Iran follow-up talks in Switzerland were canceled, raising doubts about a lasting peace.
• Oil prices fluctuated as traders reassessed risks around the Strait of Hormuz.
• OPEC rejected forecasts that global oil demand will peak soon. 

Oil prices turned lower after Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire from 4 p.m. local time on Friday (9 a.m. ET), a U.S. official told CNBC.

The report comes shortly after follow-up talks between the U.S. and Iran in Switzerland were abruptly called off, underscoring lingering uncertainty over efforts to turn an interim agreement into a lasting peace settlement.

International benchmark Brent crude futures for August were last seen 1% lower at $79.02 per barrel, erasing earlier gains, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for July traded 0.8% lower at $75.96. Both contracts were on track for a weekly loss of about 8%....

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XTX Markets sues Dell over $70m price increase for data centre servers

What I think happened is a couple traders tried to include a laptop and 27" gaming monitor in the corporate order and, well, things sort of spun out of control when fatfinger forgot to review the cart before proceeding to checkout.

From The Irish Times, June 15:

Dell sued by Finnish company over $70m price increase for data centre servers
Technology group XTX Finland OY claimed the price had been fixed 

The Irish-registered Dell technology firm is being sued by a Finnish company over a price increase of up to $70 million (€60 million) sought for providing servers for a 15,000 sq m data centre.

Global algorithmic trading and financial technology group XTX Finland OY has brought High Court proceedings against Dell Products Unlimited Company of Dublin, a global supplier of technology products.

The case was admitted to the fast track Commercial Court yesterday by Judge Rory Mulcahy on consent between the parties.

Paul Gallagher, barrister for XTX, said the case concerned 1,680 servers which are now going to be delivered but the dispute is over the uplift in price. It was his client’s position that there was a fixed price and some $70 million put into escrow but they were anxious to get that money as soon as possible....

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More seriously, as noted exiting April's "Jane Street Signs $6 Billion AI Cloud Agreement with CoreWeave":

...That last paragraph is key, the lines between trading houses and AI shops is disappearing. 

Previously on XTX:

December 2022 - Volatility Is Our Friend: "Ex-Deutsche Bank Trader Builds $6 Billion Fortune on Trading Boom"

December 2024 - Attn: Math Mavens - Billionaire Trader Alex Gerko Is Willing To Bet Up To $1 Million On You & AI/Machine Learning

January 2025 - Quantitative-Trading Firm XTX Markets To Build €1 Billion Finnish Data Hub in Machine-Learning Bet

January 2026 - "Quants, lawsuits and politics: Inside London’s ‘super-secretive’ trading firms"

"Marvell details vision of optically-interconnected data centers spanning across thousands of kilometers..." (MRVL)

From Tom's Hardware, June 15:

A data center that never ends? 

While hyperscalers rush toward expansion amid the swelling demand for AI data centers, Marvell last week shared its vision for an optical interconnect solution that can theoretically pool resources between discrete data centers across thousands of kilometers.

Optical interconnections are steadily being deployed across the industry, over both short and long-distance connections, and we're going to be seeing much more in the future, according to Matt Murphy, Chief Executive at Marvell, speaking at Computex 2026.

"Imagine future data centers, a globally optically interconnected data infrastructure," Murphy said. "These rigid boundaries we have today, and the systems we have, they begin to disappear. Compute can now be pooled, memory can be pooled, and infrastructure can be composed dynamically at scale."

Constrained by distance

Murphy says that workloads no longer fit within one data center, which is why hyperscale cloud service providers increasingly need to build entire campuses consisting of multiple data centers connected by high-speed links, as clusters are becoming larger than a single data center.

 

Today, connecting multiple data centers within a single campus is not easy or cheap, but relatively straightforward. However, Marvell envisions that in the future it will need to connect data centers that are located at considerable distances from one another.

This is why Marvell is working on coherent optics and long-haul scale across optical networking technologies, which will connect data centers separated by thousands of kilometers. Marvell already has products which enable such connectivity today, including the Colorz 1600 1.6 Tb/s coherent optical solution based on a 2nm DSP, which targets inter-data-center connectivity and will sample later this year.

In addition, Marvell says it will offer the Ara 1.6 Tb/s family of interconnect solutions for data centers (with 3nm DSPs) as well as the Teralynx T100 102.4 Tb/s Ethernet switch, which supports 512 ports running at 200 Gb/s or 64 ports running at 1.6 Tb/s.

Murphy argues that today's architectures are constrained by distance because of copper interconnects: CPUs sit near memory because latency matters, GPUs sit near memory because bandwidth matters. As a result, workloads must be partitioned according to those physical limits. The head of Marvell claims that once optical interconnects penetrate scale-up interconnects, scale-up domains will not be limited by copper cable lengths, and those constraints will begin to disappear.

Nowadays, scale-up AI solutions, such as Nvidia's NVL72, are connected using copper wires, but scale-out connections tend to use optical interconnects. Once the number of AI accelerators within scale-up systems increases, they will also have to move to optical links, according to Marvell. This means that virtually all data center-grade interconnections will become optical, which might inspire hardware developers to reconsider the architecture of data centers.

Pooling resources
Murphy presented a rather interesting vision: firstly, optics will expand scale-up domains from 72 or 144 accelerators to 1,000 or more. But after that, optical connectivity will enter servers themselves. This will enable developers to disaggregate CPUs, accelerators (Marvell calls them XPUs), and memory into separate pools as distance will no longer matter, enabling better configurability and utilization....

....MUCH MORE

Once more, to quote the grizzled old traders of my youth, "Pay attention or pay the offer."

March 31 - Photonics: "Nvidia Invests $2 Billion in Marvell, Announces Partnership" (MRVL; NVDA)

And many more. 

Average U.S. Gasoline Price Falls Below $4.00, First Time Since March*

 Granted, the average price didn't clear the round number by much, $3.9990 last.

But we take what we can get. 

Here's the AAA map and commentary. 

And state by state. 

*March 31: $4.02 

Nio's CEO William Li Warns of 15% To 20% Decline In China's New Car Market This Year

Hi-ho, it's off to Europe we go.

From CNEV Post, June 14:

Nio's William Li warns of China auto sales drop while backing own growth 

• William Li expects domestic retail sales in China's auto industry to fall by 15% to 20% this year.
• He also reaffirmed expectations of Nio achieving a 40% to 50% annual sales growth this year.

William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO), issued a stark warning that domestic retail sales in China's auto industry could fall by 15% to 20% this year. At the same time, he reaffirmed expectations for the company to achieve strong growth against the broader market trend.

Speaking at the China Auto Chongqing Summit on June 13, Li painted a grim macroeconomic picture for attendees. He noted that China's auto industry has entered the most brutal final stage of competition starting this year. The entire market is undergoing a fundamental shift from an era of incremental expansion to a saturated market driven by replacement demand.

Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, the Chinese EV maker remains highly optimistic about its own growth....

...Regarding the overall domestic market, Li pointed out that any illusions within the industry about a sales rebound should be completely shattered. In the first five months of this year, the domestic auto retail market fell by 19.5% year-on-year.

Entering June, the decline widened further, with the drop in the first few days even exceeding 22%, he noted.

Li emphasized that the auto industry is a marathon on a muddy road....

....MUCH MORE 

"Nvidia Takes the Lead in Another AI Market Beyond Chips...." (NVDA)

From TipRanks, June 18:

Story Highlights

• Nvidia became the top vendor in data center Ethernet switching for the first time.
• IDC said Nvidia’s switching revenue jumped 193% year-over-year in the first quarter.
• The gain shows Nvidia is expanding beyond GPUs into a larger share of AI infrastructure spending.

Nvidia is best known for its AI chips, but the company has now taken the lead in another fast-growing corner of the AI market. According to new data from market research firm IDC, Nvidia became the top vendor in data center Ethernet switching by revenue during the first quarter of 2026. The company generated $2.1 billion in switching revenue during the quarter, up 193% from a year ago, giving it a 21.5% share of the data center Ethernet switching market.

The huge win highlights how Nvidia is becoming much more than a chip supplier. As companies build larger AI systems, they need not only powerful GPUs but also high-speed networks that can connect thousands of those chips together....

....MUCH MORE

If there is any money to be made from artificial intelligence Mr. Huang seems bound-and-determined that it go to Nvidia. 

In other news, the move to optical and photonics from wires is real and accelerating.

From Nvidia's blog, June 16:

Coherent Breaks Ground on Expanded Texas Facility, Scaling AI’s Optical Backbone 

Coherent’s expansion at its Sherman, Texas, campus scales what it calls the world’s first volume production 6-inch indium phosphide fab, a key supplier across NVIDIA’s AI stack. 

AI runs at the speed of light. More and more, that light is made in Texas.

Coherent broke ground today on an expanded manufacturing building in Sherman, Texas. 

The company makes the lasers, optical components and compound semiconductors that wire AI systems together — and runs what it calls the world’s first 6-inch indium phosphide fab. 

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Coherent CEO Jim Anderson were on hand for the ceremony, joined by Sherman Mayor Shawn Temann and Adriana Cruz, executive director of Texas Economic Development and Tourism, who delivered remarks.  

The expanded building will scale production of the same InP wafers that carry data between chips, servers and data centers at the speed of light — the optical backbone of modern AI infrastructure.

It’s the kind of milestone that turns a commitment into construction: a concrete step in expanding advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.

“AI is the ultimate general-purpose technology,” Huang said during a conversation with Anderson at the groundbreaking. “Because intelligence is fundamental — the ability to process information, to reason and solve problems — it affects every single industry.”

Public programs like the CHIPS Act, funded at roughly $50 billion, were designed to bring chip manufacturing back to the U.S. 

As part of today’s event, Coherent is announcing a $50 million CHIPS Act grant to help finance the expanded Sherman facility — building on roughly $17 million in earlier support from the Texas CHIPS program and the Sherman Economic Development Corporation.

NVIDIA’s own commitment to produce up to $500 billion of AI infrastructure in the U.S. through industry partnerships with new sites in Arizona and Texas adds private-sector momentum....

....MUCH MORE 

Previously:

March 2 - Connecting it all together: "Nvidia to invest $4 billion in two photonics companies" (NVDA; LITE; COHR)

March 12 - FrenchTech: "Nvidia-backed startup Scintil Photonics starts testing laser chips"

March 31 - Photonics: "Nvidia Invests $2 Billion in Marvell, Announces Partnership" (MRVL; NVDA) 

April 8 - Photonics: "How Nvidia learned to embrace the light in its quest for scale" (NVDA)

And many more going back to NVLink in 2015.

As noted exiting from that March 2 post:

...This network stuff is not new. You may recall that Nvidia purchased networking gear specialist Mellanox for just under $7 billion in 2019, back when a billion was real money. 

"Connecting The Dots On Why Nvidia Is Buying Mellanox" (NVDA)

A year later we saw Mellanox InfiniBand system interconnects in five of the world's top ten fastest supercomputers. (and more than half of the Top500).

In the most recent earnings report, "NVIDIA Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript - February 25, 2026 (NVDA)" this was highlighted:

Networking revenue -- $11 billion for the quarter, over 3.5x year over year; full-year Networking exceeded $31 billion, up more than 10x versus fiscal 2021 (year of Mellanox acquisition [sic]). 

n.b. 2020 was the year Mellanox was integrated into NVDA, not 2021. 

Mr. Huang is not fooling around. 

Well maybe fooling around a little bit. He is a master showman/salesman and would not turn down an opportunity to do a photo op for a partner company:

 

Nice Words For Quanta Systems From The Dow Jones Empire (PWR)

Quanta has been a member of our hyper-concentrated electricity mini-portfolio for going-on three years. 3-Year performance: up 285.94% vs the S&P's +68.27%. 1-year performance: up 99.53% vs. +24.03% for the S&P 500. Year to date: up 69.45% vs. +8.39%.

They are the class act of heavy-duty electrical contracting. 

First up, the older of the two articles, this from The Trader column at Barron's June 12:

Quanta Services’ AI-Fueled Run Isn’t Done 

Key Points

• AI-related and growth stocks experienced a midweek selloff, with the Nasdaq Composite falling 2% amid investor reassessment of valuations.
• Quanta Services benefits from AI’s energy demands, leading to a record $48.5 billion backlog and a 50% share price increase. 
• Earnings are projected to rise 26% this year. A $1 billion share repurchase plan was authorized.

Artificial intelligence stocks have reached dizzying levels this year, and some investors are suddenly finding they have a fear of heights. Nothing could be more grounded than Quanta Services.

Tech stocks led the midweek selloff, with the Nasdaq Composite falling 2% on Wednesday, just a few days after it suffered its worst one-day point decline on record on June 5. It’s not surprising that these highfliers would take the brunt of the pain, given how quickly they’ve risen and with old worries like geopolitics and inflation reminding the market that the real world isn’t as cut and dry as a ChatGPT jaw session.

“After a powerful rally, especially in AI-related and growth stocks, investors are reassessing how much they’re willing to pay for future earnings in an environment where interest rates could remain higher for longer,” notes David Miller, chief investment officer at Catalyst Funds.

Quanta Services was caught up in the AI tumult, and that wasn’t a surprise either....

....MUCH MORE 

And from their confreres at Investor's Business Daily, June 16:

IBD Stock Of The Day: AI Data Center, Power Grid Company Trades In Buy Zone  

Power plant and grid builder Quanta Services (PWR), a big beneficiary of the AI data center boom, is the IBD Stock of the Day as shares trade in a new buy area.

The nation's largest electrical construction company has seen its backlog swell to a record $48.5 billion as not just data centers but other construction trends sustain growth. At its investor day in March, Quanta drew a path to doubling its adjusted earnings per share by 2030, thanks to growth in electric utility, power generation and large-load markets.

Under its latest forecast, Quanta expects full-year revenue of between $34.7 billion and $35.2 billion and adjusted earnings per share range of $13.55 to $14.25. That would represent a 23% increase in revenue at the midpoint and a 43% increase in EPS.

Analysts' 2026 consensus sales estimates are $34.961 billion in sales and $13.96 in EPS, per FactSet.

Quanta Services Named Top Analyst Pick 
Last month, UBS analysts named Quanta one of their top picks in the industrial sector, citing expected spending in electric grid, data centers and power generation, with additional supporting growth from telecom providers.

Analyst Steven Fisher said the company's mix of large, fixed price and high voltage grid projects should boost margins. Plus, management is making operational improvements, such as improving communications across its organization in order to enable more resource sharing.

More than 30 analysts cover Quanta. Some 71% have buy or outperform ratings, according to FactSet. Another 23% have hold ratings, and 6% give underperform ratings.

On May 22, the company authorized a new stock buyback of up to $1 billion. That would amount to about 1.375 million shares at current prices, or less than 1% of the floating supply of shares, according to MarketSurge.

Quanta Stock In Buy Zone

After climbing to a record high on May 6, Quanta Services stock pulled back for a quick dip below the 50-day moving average. In just a couple of sessions, the stock was back above the line. That rebound from support also offered an entry at the 21-day exponential moving average, around 703. In addition, the stock moved above a trendline on Monday, providing another entry.

Quanta shares have shot up nearly 300% from a breakout in December 2023, a period that roughly traces the construction boom in data centers....

....MORE, including a bit of chartology. 

Coming into the open the stock is up $13.43 (+1.88%) at $728.00 after trading down $4.44 yesterday.

PWR trails another component of the mini-portfolio, GE Vernova at one and three years but is a bit ahead year-to-date. 

Capital Markets: "Dollar Glows After the Fed's Hawkish Hold"

From Marc Chandler at Bannockburn Global Forex:

The Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish hold yesterday. The jump in US rates spurred a strong dollar advance that has been extended a little today. The new Fed chair received mostly high marks and dealt a blow to those narratives that saw him as beholden to the president’s wishes. He repeatedly underscored his and the Fed’s commitment to price stability. Warsh appears to harken back to Greenspan’s era before greater transparency replaced ambiguity in the communication. Less is more. On Tuesday, the Fed funds futures were discounting 21 bp of tightening this year, and now it is near 40 bp. 

Three other G10 central banks met today, Norway’s Norges Bank, the Swiss National Bank, and the Bank of England. All three kept policy unchanged. Norway signaled another hike is likely this year. The swaps market has it discounted for September. The Swiss National Bank kept its deposit rate at zero. The BOE’s target rate remained at 3.75% and the swaps market anticipates at least one hike by year end. Today’s byelection in Makerfield will shape the near-term course of national politics and set the stage for a formal challenge to Prime Minister Starmer. Lastly, reports indicate ships are beginning to transit the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices are extended their slide....

....MUCH MORE 

Last I saw the DXY futures were at 100.51. 

"South Korea's SK hynix drops degree requirements for new hires"

This seems to be a worldwide human resources trend.*

From Korea's Asia Today via United Press International, June 17:

Chipmaker will prioritize job skills, experience and growth potential as it recruits hundreds of entry-level employees 

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix said Wednesday it had eliminated college degree requirements for entry-level applicants as the company shifts its hiring focus from academic credentials to practical skills and growth potential.

The new policy applies to the company's rolling recruitment campaign that began Wednesday.

SK hynix plans to hire hundreds of new employees across major areas, including semiconductor design and other technical positions.

Previous job postings required applicants to hold at least a bachelor's degree from a four-year university. Those requirements have been removed.

Applicants will instead be evaluated on their experience, job-related abilities, potential for development and compatibility with the company's workplace culture, SK hynix said.

The company said candidates may apply and be selected regardless of their educational background as long as they demonstrate the capabilities required for the position.

"The competitiveness of future talent in a rapidly changing AI environment cannot be explained solely by a particular degree or standardized qualifications," an SK hynix official said.

The company said it changed its hiring standards to identify candidates capable of solving complex problems creatively and responding quickly to technological change....

....MUCH MORE
*Yesterday: "AI Revolution: Replacing Degrees with Digital Prowess in Germany"

Fiscal Problem In the KSA: "The Price Collapsed Before Saudi Barrels Could Move"

From House of Saud, June 18:

Brent fell 40% to $75.49 while Saudi Arabia's Hormuz exports remain blocked by mines. Markets priced Iranian supply before Saudi could ship a single barrel.

DHAHRAN — Brent crude has fallen 40% from its 2026 conflict peak to $75.49 per barrel while not a single commercial tanker has transited the Strait of Hormuz. The oil market has priced in an Iranian supply resumption that remains physically impossible for Saudi Arabia — whose exports are blocked by naval mines for an estimated 40 to 180 more days — creating a structural inversion in which the kingdom absorbs the full price collapse before recovering a single export barrel.

Saudi Arabia now faces a $32–36 per barrel gap between market price and its $108–111 fiscal breakeven, translating to roughly $160–175 million in lost revenue per day. When Saudi crude eventually resumes flowing through Hormuz, it will price into a market already repriced downward by the anticipation of Iranian barrels that have not yet arrived either. The mechanics of that inversion run across six dimensions: the price signal, the physical blockade, the fiscal damage, the insurance barrier, the PGSA fee layer, and the precedent set by similar episodes in 2015–16 and 2011. 

The Price Moved Before the Barrels 
In a functioning commodity market, a supply deal benefits the exporting country once the supply comes online. The sequence runs: agreement, then production, then price adjustment. What has happened with Hormuz since mid-June 2026 inverts that sequence entirely. The market moved first, marking down crude on the expectation that Iranian barrels would flow — and in doing so, it repriced the barrel that Saudi Arabia has not yet been able to ship.

Brent fell from approximately $83.17 on June 15 — the day the MOU was confirmed — to $75.49 by June 18, a drop of $7.68 per barrel in 96 hours, according to Trading Economics. That 9.3% decline occurred while Hormuz remained closed to commercial traffic, while BIMCO’s CONWARTIME clause was still triggered, and while the Lloyd’s Market Association maintained its safety designation. The price moved on a signal. The barrels did not.

The beneficiary of that repricing is, in theory, the consumer. The cost is borne by the producer who cannot ship. Saudi Arabia’s Aramco had already cut the Arab Light July OSP by $6 per barrel — the largest reduction since 2022 — publishing the cut on June 8, a full week before the MOU signing. The Asian premium collapsed from $19.50 to $9.50 per barrel between May and July, a 51% decline, compressing revenue on cargoes that had not yet loaded.

That compression is structural, not cyclical. When Saudi exports do resume, they will enter a market already repriced downward by anticipated Iranian supply. The kingdom does not recapture the spread it lost while its exports were physically blocked. It absorbs the loss and prices into a lower market on the other side.

How Far Has Brent Fallen From Its Conflict Peak? 
Brent crude has fallen approximately 40.3% from its 2026 conflict peak of $126.41 per barrel to $75.49 on June 18, according to Trading Economics and Barchart.com data. From the April–early May high of roughly $114 per barrel, the decline measures 33.8% in approximately six weeks — one of the fastest sustained drops in crude prices outside a global recession.

The decline did not occur in a single move. The first leg, from the $126 peak to the low $80s, tracked ceasefire optimism and the early stages of MOU negotiations through late May and early June. Goldman Sachs cut its Q4 2026 Brent forecast from $90 to $80 per barrel on June 16, projecting Gulf export normalisation by end-July, according to Reuters and InvestingLive. The bank’s 2027 full-year projection stands at $75 — a level that assumes sustained Iranian supply at volumes Iran has not produced since before the conflict.

The second leg, from $83 to $75, was concentrated in the four days surrounding the MOU signing confirmation. That acceleration coincided with PBS and NPR reporting that markets expected “a gush of 100 million barrels” from stranded ships, even as energy analysts quoted in the same reports cautioned it would take three to six months to restore the pre-war status quo. The market priced the gush. It did not price the delay....

....MUCH MORE 

Also at House of Saud, June 17: 

 The Sequence: Iran’s Crude First, Everyone Else’s Later

They do not sound pleased. Not at all. 

"Wave of Persian Gulf oil set to leave Asian refiners swamped"

From Bloomberg via The Japan Times, June 18:

An impending wave of oil that’s been trapped inside the Strait of Hormuz is set to be unleashed on Asia, which would suddenly swamp a region that had managed to make up for lost supply in recent weeks.

Around 31 supertankers, capable of carrying about 62 million barrels of crude, are stuck inside the Persian Gulf and set to sail out once the waterway opens up, according to Signal Group data. The actual tally may still be higher yet, with some vessels possibly turning their satellite transponders off.

The gush could happen soon after the U.S. and Iran signed an interim deal that will see the strait reopen. The oil would take about one week to get to India, or three weeks to East Asia.

The crude, however, is coming at a time when refiners in Asia are already well supplied for this month and next after scrambling to replace Middle Eastern flows, according to traders familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly. They’d also cut processing rates as high prices curbed demand for fuels.

It’s a stark reversal from the early stages of the war, when prices were spiking and the oil market was warning of dramatic shortages. Refiners locked in purchases from places such as the U.S., while China had largely stayed out of the market, and countries such as Japan tapped local storage.

At the same time, Persian Gulf sellers such as Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. have been marketing supply and getting some of their barrels out of Hormuz. Oil production in Iraq has also jumped and is set to continue climbing.

Already, more tankers are moving out of the Persian Gulf. Three oil supertankers controlled by Bahri, Saudi Arabia’s national shipping company, emerged in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday after last being seen inside the Persian Gulf about two months ago....

....MUCH MORE 

 Both Brent and WTI futures are down over 2%.

Nukes: Here Are Three More Small Modular Reactor Awards That Will Be Going To Rolls-Royce

From ReMix, June 12:

Czechia plans three small modular reactors as part of wider European nuclear push
The projects are planned for Temelín, Dětmarovice and Tušimice as Prague looks to secure a role in the Rolls-Royce SMR supply chain 

Czechia is preparing to build three small modular reactors as part of a wider strategy to expand nuclear power and position domestic industry inside a growing European supply chain.

The planned sites are Temelín, Dětmarovice and Tušimice, while officials are also examining other possible locations, Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček said after visiting Škoda JS in Pilsen with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

As cited by Echo24, Havlíček said the program should not be viewed only as a domestic energy project, but as part of a broader European nuclear effort in which Czech companies could play a major manufacturing role.

“At the moment, we have three locations, and we are looking for other possible locations, but this is already a fairly decent number. Not to mention that our ambition is to be in the supply chain. This means that for us this is not just a Czech project, but at least a pan-European one,” Havlíček said.

The minister said the government wants Czech industry, including Škoda JS, to capture a significant share of future SMR production, adding that components made in the country could become part of around 10 percent of small modular reactor deliveries worldwide.

Škoda JS, which is part of the ČEZ group, was selected in May by Rolls-Royce SMR as one of two suppliers of key components, including reactor pressure vessels, internal reactor parts and primary circuit equipment. ČEZ has held a 20 percent stake in Rolls-Royce SMR since last year.

Rolls-Royce SMR is expected to build its first three small modular reactors in Wales. Havlíček said the first British unit is expected in the mid-2030s, with the first Czech reactor likely to follow within about a year.

Škoda JS chief executive Karel Bednář said the Pilsen-based company is working to establish itself firmly in the Rolls-Royce SMR supply chain.

“We have signed contracts for the preparation of the production of major components with a long-term deadline, such as the reactor vessel and the installation of internal parts....

....MORE 

June 17: BritTech: "Sweden's Vattenfall picks Rolls-Royce SMR for nuclear power project" 

"Hollywood’s Mass Exodus: Why Film and TV Production Is Fleeing L.A. and What Can Be Done About It"

From Variety, June 16:

“Baywatch” was a staple of low-budget, first-run syndication in the 1990s, as natural to Los Angeles as David Hasselhoff’s chest hair and as defining of the city in that era as the O.J. trial and the Sunset Strip.

By the time it ended its run in 1999, it had become too costly to produce at a profit.

But the show’s red trunks and swimsuits returned to L.A. lifeguard towers in March of this year. Like an endangered pelican reintroduced to its native habitat, the Fox reboot was hailed as a triumph for the industry’s hometown, which is suffering through a long slide in production activity. Gov. Gavin Newsom bragged that the show was back “where it belongs,” at a cost to the state of $21 million.

Soon, however, the producers ran into obstacles. Officials from the county Beaches and Harbors Department and the California Coastal Commission told them they couldn’t park their trucks overnight, light fires or drive on the sand. 

“We’re a lifeguard show,” “Baywatch” co-creator Greg Bonann remembers saying. “What do you mean we can’t drive a truck on the beach?”

Suddenly the show was at risk of becoming the wrong kind of symbol: this one, a victim of California’s tangle of regulations. No one in power — not Newsom or L.A. Mayor Karen Bass — wanted to read the headline about “Baywatch” bailing out of Los Angeles. When elected leaders were summoned to the Fox lot to smooth things over, the show held all the leverage. “After a while, you have to sit down with the right people and say, ‘Guys, do we want to have this show here or not?’” Bonann says.

Los Angeles has been the world’s entertainment capital for 100 years and still has an unmatched concentration of talent and infrastructure. But in an age of globalization, with easy international travel and communication, the city is losing its edge.

Everything costs more in L.A., starting with labor, due to the high cost of living and elaborate union agreements. Other states and countries have developed crew bases of their own, are more solicitous of producers’ needs and offer more generous incentives. Producers are also under pressure from the audience to deliver ever more spectacular experiences. Creating a premium product — at a price — often means going overseas.

These trends have been underway for 20 or 30 years. But since the end of the streaming bubble in 2022, America has lost 73,000 production jobs — two-thirds of them in Los Angeles — bringing the issue of foreign competition to a rapid boil.

In the chaotic race for L.A. mayor, the candidates have clashed over who lost Hollywood. At a debate in May, Councilmember Nithya Raman accused Bass of failing to cut red tape. “That’s what happened in ‘Baywatch,’” she said. “The city and county weren’t talking to each other.” Spencer Pratt, the reality star who conceded last week, bemoaned the sorry state of California’s incentive program: “Even Massachusetts has better tax credits than Hollywood.”

The contenders for governor are also battling to show that they can revive the industry with the right package of incentives. Newsom doubled the state program to $750 million in 2025. Everyone seems to agree it should be more — maybe a lot more — and that it should cover above-the-line salaries for actors, writers and producers.

“In my understanding, California’s rebate is one of the least beneficial for anybody who is financing motion pictures and television,” says Charles Roven, co-founder of Atlas Entertainment and producer of “Oppenheimer” and “Wonder Woman.” “It’s capped and it has no above-the-line.”

But the state can do only so much to compete with the 81 countries that have embraced filming as an economic development tool. The U.K. alone spent $2.2 billion on film and TV subsidies in 2024, and national incentives are often stacked on top of local rebates.

California “went into this knife fight without a weapon, and now folks are bringing guns,” says Xavier Becerra, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who is the favorite to succeed Newsom.

As she runs for reelection, Bass has to walk a fine line between projecting confidence in the city’s ability to retain production and lobbying for more federal help for Hollywood. “I don’t feel like we’re going to lose our industry,” Bass says, noting that studios and networks are still grappling with the business changes wrought by the streaming revolution. “When all of that settles, I feel confident that we can maintain our industry.”

Once a pipe dream, the idea of a federal film subsidy now seems like a real possibility.

“In order to save this industry in America, we need to be competitive with tax credits,” says Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is working on introducing an incentive bill in Congress. “We have a lot of our influence around the world as a result of American film and TV. We don’t want to lose that soft power.”

Advocates warn that unless the U.S. responds to foreign subsidies, Hollywood is at risk of becoming Detroit, which has bled jobs as automakers pursued low-wage labor and generous incentives in other states and abroad....

....MUCH MORE 

The list of shows that are not shooting in Hollywood surprised me. 

BritTech: "Sweden's Vattenfall picks Rolls-Royce SMR for nuclear power project"

Bastards. 

From Reuters, June 15: 

• Rolls-Royce picked over GE Vernova for new Swedish nuclear project
• Deal is worth several billion British pounds, UK government says
• Reactors could add 12 terawatt hours (TWh) per year 

OSLO, June 15 (Reuters) - Swedish utility Vattenfall said on Monday it ‌has selected Rolls-Royce SMR, opens new tab to supply small modular nuclear reactors, choosing the British company over U.S. rival GE Vernova (GEV.N), in a deal worth several billion pounds. 

Sweden's parliament last year passed legislation to finance a new generation of reactors, the first built ​in Sweden for more than 40 years and which the government says is necessary for ​energy security and achieving net zero emissions by 2045. 

The Rolls-Royce SMR agreement was ⁠a significant step towards building new nuclear power and would result in lower electricity prices for consumers, ​Swedish Energy Minister Ebba Busch told a press conference.

 

The British government, which had lobbied for Rolls-Royce to ​secure the contract, said it expected it would be a "multibillion-pound deal", although final terms will be decided at a later time.

 

"This deal is a major win for Britain's economy - showcasing UK engineering on the world stage and securing high value ​jobs, investment and export growth for years to come," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.

 

Sweden ​has said it is prepared to spend several hundred billion crowns, or tens of billions of dollars, to revive ‌its nuclear ⁠energy industry.

 

Last August, Vattenfall said its Videberg Kraft venture planned to order either five BWRX-300 reactors from GE Vernova or three Rolls-Royce small modular reactors (SMRs)....

....MORE 

 

Previously: 

August 2025 - When going Small, go big or go home: "Vattenfall Narrows SMR Field to Two Finalists: GE Vernova’s BWRX-300 and Rolls-Royce SMR" (GEV; RR.L)  

 

October 2025 -  "What Will Rolls-Royce Gain From the UK–US Nuclear Deal?"
Although this reads a bit like a Rolls-Royce promotional piece it is good background. The company will be popping up in more and more discussions of small modular reactors.*   

 

December 2025 - "Sweden's Vattenfall Seeks State Funding for New Nuclear Reactors" 

 

February 2026 at Yahoo News - Rolls-Royce drops plan for nuclear reactor on the moon  

April 2026 - "Reeves hands Rolls-Royce £600m to build mini-nukes in Britain"