Silicon, Streams, and a Cloud That Prints Commitments

Author

Noah Zelvis
October 17, 2025

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The AI buildout is compounding.

One legacy heavyweight is morphing into a hyperscale landlord, stacking contracts, and talking 2030 like it’s next quarter.

If they keep shipping capacity, the multiple may have more room to breathe.

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Surf tourism is a $65B global industry, yet fewer than 1% of people live near real waves. Licenses sold across the U.S. and Australia, with plans for a first commercial park in the works.

3x world champ Tom Curren and surf icon Mark Occhilupo have joined as ambassadors and shareholders. Even actor Chris Hemsworth has praised Surf Lakes.

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Streaming

Apple and Peacock Just Dropped the Netflix-Killer Bundle

Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) latest move isn’t a new gadget — it’s a streaming tag team with NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

Starting October 20, the Apple TV and Peacock Bundle will give binge-watchers two platforms for the price of one-ish. 

For $14.99 a month, you get Apple TV and Peacock Premium, or $19.99 for the ad-free Premium Plus.

That’s over 30 percent off the usual combined price, which means you can now afford popcorn and a couch upgrade.

It’s also a clever play before the NBA season tips off on NBC and Peacock, because nothing says “streaming deal” like basketball and prestige drama.

Your Shows Are About to Mingle

In a fun twist, each service will let you sample shows from the other, like a streaming potluck.

Apple TV users get a taste of Peacock hits like Bel-Air and Twisted Metal, while Peacock viewers can sneak in a few episodes of Apple originals like Palm Royale and Slow Horses.

The Streaming Wars Just Got a Plot Twist

Apple’s bundling strategy looks like a quiet attempt to keep you from canceling yet another subscription. And for Peacock, it’s a golden ticket into Apple’s shiny ecosystem.

If this alliance clicks, it could mark a new phase of streaming détente where even rivals realize your credit card can’t take another $12.99 a month hit.

AI

Microsoft Turns Up the Heat on Windows 11 with a Smarter, Chattier Copilot

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) latest Windows 11 update gives Copilot a glow-up worthy of a tech thriller.

You can now say “Hey Copilot” to summon your AI assistant and let it handle tasks hands-free.

Copilot Vision is rolling out globally, too, meaning your PC can now analyze whatever’s on your screen and respond intelligently.

Think of it as Windows with eyes, finally ready to do more than sit there. There’s also a new Copilot Actions mode that brings AI beyond browsing and into your daily life.

Want dinner reservations or grocery orders handled straight from your desktop? Copilot’s got it covered.

AI Moves from Talk to Task

Microsoft isn’t stopping at conversation.

The update lets users interact with Vision through text as well as voice, making Copilot feel more like an integrated assistant than a separate chatbot.

On the gaming front, the new Gaming Copilot on Xbox Ally consoles can drop in real-time tips and recommendations mid-match.

Windows Just Got Some Personality

These updates mark a shift from passive AI helpers to active problem solvers. Copilot is becoming the center of the Windows experience, a multitasking brain built right into your computer.

Whether you’re booking a table or fixing a settings glitch, Windows 11 just became the most talkative roommate you’ve ever had.

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Autonomous Vehicles

Waymo’s Robotaxis Are Now Bringing You Tacos Instead of People

Phoenix just became the epicenter of another futuristic rollout as Waymo, part of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) empire, teams up with DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) for autonomous food delivery.

The pilot covers a 315-square-mile stretch of the city where DashMart customers could see a self-driving Jaguar I-Pace pull up instead of a human driver.

It’s a limited launch for now, but the companies plan to expand deliveries to more merchants and menu items soon.

From Passengers to Pizza

Waymo has long dominated the robotaxi scene, but this new venture tests whether its tech can handle fries instead of fares.

Orders will ride in the trunk of a driverless Waymo, and customers will have to walk outside and collect their food, a minor inconvenience in exchange for being part of a sci-fi delivery future.

It’s a clever move for both companies, combining Waymo’s AI navigation with DoorDash’s massive order network.

Phoenix, the Future’s Drive-Thru

With this partnership, Phoenix officially cements its role as the testing ground for autonomous everything.

Between Waymo’s driverless Jaguars and DoorDash’s growing fleet of delivery bots, the city is fast becoming a living experiment in AI-powered convenience.

Whether customers embrace the novelty or crave the human handoff, one thing’s certain: dinner delivery just leveled up.

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Recent Tech Movers

ASML Holding (Nasdaq: ASML)
Still the Tip of the Photolith Spear

ASML soothed 2026 jitters by saying next year shouldn’t come in below 2025, even as it signaled a significant decline in China sales.

Orders held up at about €5.4B and gross margin guidance stayed in the low-50s.

We basically heard the cycle has bumps, but the roadmap and that EUV/High-NA moat remain very much intact. 

What matters from here is foundry capex tied to AI. More HBM, more leading-edge nodes, more tools only ASML can ship.

Risks aren’t zero, with export rules, and a China mix, yet with Q4 sales guided to €9.2–€9.8B and margin still healthy, the chassis looks sturdy.

If TSMC and memory makers keep leaning into AI capacity, bookings can stay punchy even with geopolitics doing geopolitics.

Uber (NYSE: UBER)
Drive, Deliver… and Label Data?

Uber’s testing off-road earnings for drivers, bite-sized AI data gigs like uploading photos or recording short audio, so wheels-off time can still pay.

It’s very Mechanical-Turk-meets-rideshare, and it could smooth driver utilization while padding platform take rate.

Layer in a wider rollout of women driver–rider matching, rating preferences to dodge low-rated passengers, and a delayed-ride payout that shares pain when ETAs slip, and you’ve got a company trying to convert friction into retention.

Big picture, Uber keeps inching from transport app to labor marketplace.

Execution watch-outs are fair pay per task, quality control on the AI work, and making sure this doesn’t become a PR magnet for the wrong reasons.

Spotify (NYSE: SPOT)
AI Remix, but Make It Licensed

Spotify is linking arms with Sony, Universal, Warner, Merlin, and Believe to build responsible AI tools, and it’s staffing a dedicated research lab to get there.

After scrubbing tens of millions of spammy tracks and cracking down on impersonations, the strategy is clear: lean into AI features (DJ, AI Playlists) without detonating creator trust or label relationships. 

If it nails consent compensation and controls, engagement goes up, ad inventory gets smarter, and discovery improves without the legal hangover.

The tension to watch is the culture war around synthetic music. Partnerships help, but product choices will do the real talking.

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The Cloud Builder Printing $65B in a Month

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL)

Oracle just put numbers behind the narrative.

Management confirmed a fresh cloud deal with Meta and said it signed $65B in new cloud-infrastructure commitments over 30 days, spread across seven contracts and four customers, and none of them are OpenAI.

That’s demand visibility you can frame, and it dovetails with an internal glidepath to $20B in AI-powered database/data-platform revenue by FY2030, up from a low-single-digit billions base today.

Under the hood, this is a capacity and contracts story. Oracle’s playbook is simple to say and hard to execute.

Secure power and land, stand up data centers at speed, then slot in accelerators for customers who already signed the checks. 

Do that well and AI-infra pencils to 30–40% adjusted gross margins after the big fixed costs, while the database business hitchhikes on the same tide.

The company also sketched a destination of $225B revenue and $21 EPS by 2030, ambitious, yes, but materially derisked when counter-parties are deep-pocketed and multi-year.

What could jam the gears? Power constraints, construction timelines, and supply of top-bin silicon can all stretch delivery windows.

Renting accelerators isn’t a guaranteed slam dunk each quarter either; utilization is king. But the Meta confirmation, alongside other non-OpenAI megadeals, says this isn’t a one-logo story.

If Oracle keeps converting, we want capacity into contracted, energized racks; the stock has room to argue for a sturdier multiple.

Why this Setup Matters for Your Portfolio

  • You want momentum with receipts, not vibes. Oracle’s bookings burst checks that box.

  • You want a picks-and-shovels angle. ASML is literally the gatekeeper for leading-edge chips; cycle wiggles don’t erase that monopoly-ish position.

  • You want optionality. Uber’s side-gig-for-AI is early, but the platform flex is real. Spotify’s licensed AI path could widen its moat if it delights users without lighting up lawyers.

Bottom line: the AI buildout is broadening from GPUs in a vacuum to the messy, real-world stack, tools, power, rights, and labor.

This week’s tape says the winners are the ones turning that complexity into contracts, capacity, and cash.

Everything Else

  • 🤝 If you need a scorecard for the AI land grab, this handy guide to $1 trillion in partnerships maps who’s funding whom, and why your GPU keeps getting more expensive.

  • 🚗 Two Chinese self-driving upstarts, Pony.ai and WeRide, are steering toward Hong Kong IPOs as the robotaxi race goes truly global.

  • 🏗️ Data-center builder nScale is revving up for public markets after a fresh nScale eyes IPO tied to a $14B Microsoft deal, because AI needs somewhere to live.

  • ⚖️ A U.S. lawmaker warned that a TikTok algorithm licensing deal would raise “serious concerns,” keeping the regulatory spotlight squarely on the app.

  • 🇨🇦 Lyft is setting up a Toronto tech hub, doubling down on engineering north of the border as it pushes beyond the U.S. market.

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