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- A $7M Cybersecurity Insider Bet, Plus Two Setups Forming Before Earnings
A $7M Cybersecurity Insider Bet, Plus Two Setups Forming Before Earnings
A director just wrote a $7M personal check for a cybersecurity name that IPO'd last year. Worth a look.
Markets are busy chewing on the Iran-Hormuz situation, oil at a one-month high, and JPMorgan kicking off bank earnings this morning. Fine. Let them chew.
Under the noise, I'm watching three tech setups where the catalyst is still ahead of us. Not behind. One has an insider buying aggressively.
The other two report inside the next month, and the market hasn't started front-running either.
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Semiconductor
Tower Semiconductor Fires Up a $3 Billion Photonics Expansion
Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ: TSEM) is investing $3 billion to expand its advanced chip manufacturing in Japan, with $1 billion in government grants.
The expansion will focus heavily on silicon photonics, a technology that uses light rather than electrical signals to transmit data between processors.
AI data centers need faster connections because thousands of chips exchange enormous amounts of data simultaneously. Silicon photonics can increase bandwidth, reduce energy use, and prevent the connections between powerful processors from becoming a major performance bottleneck.
Japan Gets a Photonics Makeover
Tower will convert its Arai facility into a 300-millimeter silicon photonics production site during the first phase.
Full operations are expected by the fourth quarter of 2027, giving the company significantly more room to manufacture advanced components at scale.
A second phase will begin alongside the conversion, adding another 300-millimeter manufacturing facility next to Tower’s existing Fab 7 plant.
Silicon-Germanium Joins the Fast Lane
The new facilities will also expand Tower’s silicon-germanium technology, which combines two semiconductor materials to create faster and more energy-efficient components.
These chips are commonly used in high-speed communications, networking equipment, wireless systems, and data center hardware.
Tower is building the technologies that connect AI processors rather than competing to design the processors themselves. As AI clusters grow larger, the chips moving information around them could become just as important as the computing engines doing the work.
Consumer Software
Google Turns Waze Into a Smarter Driving Companion
Google’s parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is bringing Gemini deeper into Waze with conversational destination search. Drivers can now ask for nearby parking, open coffee shops, or lower-priced gas without typing a precise address.
Gemini interprets the request and returns relevant destinations inside the navigation app. The update gives Waze a more natural search layer while extending Google’s AI assistant into another everyday product.
Your Commute Learns Your Habits
Waze is also adding personalized navigation based on previous trips and local traffic patterns. Drivers who regularly favor highways, side streets, or particular routes will see those options prioritized automatically.
Personalization can be turned off, and alternate routes will remain available. Google is using AI to make navigation feel less generic without removing control from the driver.
Motorcycles Get Their Own Road Rules
A new Motorcycle mode accounts for two-wheeler restrictions, shortcuts, and hazards that standard car navigation may overlook. Waze can flag potholes, raised crossings, narrow bridges, shoulder endings, and other road conditions that matter more to riders.
Drivers can also report closures and outdated addresses using natural speech, while a new less-chatty mode reduces unnecessary voice prompts. Together, the updates turn Waze into a quieter, sharper, and more adaptable navigation tool.
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Operating Systems
Apple Turns Siri Into the Brain of Its Software Empire
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has released the first public betas of its next major software generation, placing the long-awaited Siri AI at the center of the company’s platform strategy.
The assistant can now hold natural conversations, understand follow-up questions, analyze onscreen content, and complete multi-step actions inside apps.
Siri is moving from a voice-command tool into a system-wide intelligence layer that can follow users across phones, tablets, Macs, and watches. A dedicated app also stores conversation history, making the assistant feel more persistent and useful across daily tasks.
One Brain, Every Apple Screen
Apple is using the update to connect its devices through the same AI foundation rather than treating intelligence as a collection of isolated features.
Siri can assist with writing, understand visual content, build automations from natural-language requests, and surface relevant information without forcing users to jump between apps.
The broader Apple Intelligence system also brings smarter photo editing, image generation, webpage monitoring, password management, and workflow automation.
Each capability feeds into Apple’s larger goal of making AI feel native to the operating system rather than bolted onto individual products.
Speed Joins the AI Party
Apple is pairing its AI push with major performance upgrades across the software stack. Apps can launch faster, AirDrop transfers move more quickly, photos appear sooner, and external storage performance on iPad is approaching Mac speeds.
The result is a platform update built around intelligence and responsiveness. Apple is turning Siri into the connective tissue of its ecosystem while making the devices underneath it feel faster, smarter, and more unified.
Trivia: The stock ticker — the machine that changed financial markets forever — was invented by which American icon in 1869? |
Recent Tech Movers
E-commerce
MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI)
Latin America's Amazon Keeps Compounding
MELI has pushed higher over the past few weeks as Q1 GMV numbers reset the growth trajectory upward. Fintech unit Mercado Pago is now generating high-margin float revenue on billions in user deposits.
The Brazilian and Mexican consumer stayed sticky through the recent macro chop, and analysts have started nudging estimates up ahead of the August print.
Key takeaway: If you missed the entry, wait for a pullback toward the 50-day moving average before adding.
Risk: Currency swings in Argentina and Brazil hit reported dollar numbers hard. A stronger dollar into year-end pressures the growth optics even if the underlying business is fine.
Cloud Storage
Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX)
AI features are Starting to Show Up in Retention
Dropbox has moved higher after its Dash AI product started converting free users to paid tiers at a better rate than the Street modeled.
Buyback pace picked up too. Management has been aggressive on the share count for two years running, and the FCF profile supports it.
Key takeaway: Not a rocket ship. A steady improver with a shrinking float. Own it for the compounding math.
Risk: Cloud storage is a mature category, and AI features may not be enough to reaccelerate top-line growth past mid-single-digits.
Cross-border Commerce
Global-E Online (NASDAQ: GLBE)
Cross-Border Shipping is Having a Moment
GLBE has gained ground as Shopify's expanded partnership rollout drove merchant adoption higher than internal targets.
The company processes international checkout for thousands of DTC brands, and the take-rate math gets better with scale. Q2 print lands in early August.
Key takeaway: If you want a picks-and-shovels play on international e-commerce, this is one of the cleanest names on the board.
Risk: Concentration in Shopify's ecosystem cuts both ways. Any change in that relationship reshapes the model overnight.
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The Speculative Corner
The AI Marketing Platform Approaching Its Numbers Test
Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA)
Zeta runs an AI-powered marketing cloud that competes at the edges with Salesforce and Adobe. Smaller. Faster. Priced like the market has already written it off. That's the setup I want.
The customer data play
Zeta's edge is a proprietary identity graph built on 240 million+ opted-in profiles.
Marketers use it to target campaigns without depending on third-party cookies, which are going away whether Google delays them another quarter or not. Every quarter, cookies get harder to use, and Zeta's positioning gets stronger.
Growth is still accelerating
Last quarter, Zeta printed north of 30% revenue growth and guided the year up. Net new logo count keeps climbing. Enterprise deal sizes are expanding.
That's not a company in trouble. That's a company the market punished because it doesn't fit the mega-cap AI narrative.
The forward catalyst
Q2 earnings hit in early August. Options activity has been picking up in out-of-the-money August calls, which usually means someone smarter than me is positioning for a move.
Key takeaway: Swing-sized position, not a max-conviction bet. Enter ahead of the August print with a defined stop below recent lows.
Risk: Zeta's founder history has been questioned by shorts in prior cycles. Any renewed governance concerns hit sentiment hard, fundamentals be damned.
Everything Else
🏭 UMC has started mass production at its new Singapore facility, while Citi sees an improving outlook for the mature-chip market.
🧭 A free report names three small-cap stocks displaying gradual structural shifts that most investors overlook before obvious momentum takes hold.
🚀 SpaceX’s IPO pricing is putting a fresh valuation marker on one of the market’s most anticipated public debuts.
🔎 Swiss regulators are probing Google’s removal of Android’s search-choice screen, renewing pressure around default settings and competition.
🎬 California and 11 other states are suing to block Paramount’s $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery deal over concerns it could create a media behemoth with greater pricing power.
That's our coverage for today; thanks for reading! Reply to this email with feedback or any tech stocks you want me to check out.
Best Regards,
—Noah Zelvis
Tech Stock Insider