Tobias

Intuit has partnered with OpenAI in a multi-year deal exceeding $100 million to integrate AI into its financial products like TurboTax and QuickBooks. The goal is to enhance user experience with personalized AI agents powered by OpenAI’s LLMs within Intuit’s GenOS. Users can securely connect their accounts to ChatGPT for tax-related and financial actions. Intuit emphasizes data privacy, keeping user information encrypted. This move aims to improve product development, marketing, and financial literacy, solidifying Intuit’s position in the AI-powered financial solutions market.

Stocks slid amid concerns about earnings, economic data, and AI’s impact. Tech stocks led declines, with Nvidia, Dell, and HPE falling. Apple dipped despite Alphabet rising on Berkshire Hathaway’s investment. Bitcoin dropped below $90,000. Home Depot missed earnings expectations, citing consumer uncertainty. Kevin Hassett warned AI may slow hiring. Larry Summers distanced himself after Epstein emails surfaced. Panera Bread is attempting a turnaround with its “Panera RISE” strategy. Finally, Zillow faces antitrust scrutiny, despite its disruptive impact on the real estate market.

On November 18, 2025, Cloudflare, a key internet infrastructure and cybersecurity firm, experienced a significant service outage, disrupting numerous websites globally. The disruption, traced to an oversized automatically generated configuration file, impacted platforms like Shopify, Indeed, and even Downdetector. While most services were restored within hours, the incident highlighted the reliance on intermediary services and the potential for cascading failures. The outage, which followed recent disruptions at AWS and Azure, underscores the vulnerability of concentrated internet infrastructure and raised questions about Cloudflare’s long-term stability, causing its stock to dip.

Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle unit, has launched its robotaxi service in San Francisco, challenging Waymo in a key urban market. The “Zoox Explorers” program offers free rides to select residents in designated areas. Zoox distinguishes itself with its purpose-built, steering wheel-free robotaxi design. Having also launched in Las Vegas, Zoox currently operates around 50 robotaxis. This move intensifies competition in the autonomous ride-hailing space, promising innovation in technology, safety, scalability, and regulatory frameworks.

Microsoft is diversifying its AI strategy by investing $5 billion in Anthropic, alongside Nvidia’s $10 billion stake. Anthropic commits $30 billion to Microsoft’s Azure compute and secures contracts for up to one gigawatt of compute capacity. Nvidia and Anthropic will collaborate on AI model and hardware optimization. This move follows Microsoft’s substantial investment in OpenAI, signaling a potential shift to broader AI partnerships. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang praised Anthropic’s work.

U.S. Senators Warren and Reed are urging investigations into World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto firm with Trump family ties, citing potential links to illicit actors in North Korea and Russia. Concerns stem from a report alleging WLF’s tokens were sold to entities connected to sanctioned groups. Senators highlight the Trump family’s significant financial stake in WLF, raising conflict of interest concerns and questioning the adequacy of WLF’s anti-money laundering controls and its expansions. Congress has been asked for enforcement actions by December 1st.

Global equities saw a sell-off amid valuation concerns and macroeconomic uncertainties. Markets await Nvidia’s earnings as a key AI sector indicator. European markets followed suit, with tech stocks declining. Analysts cite profit-taking, potential corrections, and “healthy skepticism” regarding AI spending and infrastructure. Concerns remain about future interest rate cuts, potential tariffs, cryptocurrency leverage, and data center power needs, suggesting a need for a multi-year perspective.

The Nasdaq fell 0.84% due to tech sector weakness, with Apple, Meta, and Oracle declining. Nvidia dropped nearly 2% despite a large order backlog, raising caution ahead of its earnings report. Analysts are divided, with some anticipating a year-end tech rally driven by cloud and SaaS demand. Others see an AI bubble risk. Separately, wealthy investors are leasing gold bars to refiners for income, capitalizing on high gold prices to generate yields.

Nvidia is expanding its NVLink Fusion technology to seamlessly integrate with Arm-based Neoverse CPUs, enabling custom infrastructure solutions for hyperscalers. This move allows tighter integration between Arm CPUs and Nvidia GPUs, crucial for AI workloads requiring high-speed data transfer. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are increasingly using Arm CPUs in their cloud infrastructure. This partnership highlights the increasing importance of Arm technology in AI server infrastructure and signifies Nvidia’s commitment to open innovation and diverse partnerships.

The Nasdaq fell 0.84% due to tech stock declines, including Apple, Meta, and Oracle. Investors are wary of tech valuations and capital expenditure, particularly for Nvidia, despite strong future order claims. Analysts are closely watching Nvidia’s upcoming earnings call. While some see potential for a year-end rally driven by rate adjustments and macro data, Bitcoin’s weakness is a concern. Other news includes India’s energy deal with the US and Fed officials’ divided views on interest rate cuts.