Meta Platforms

Here’s a profile by CNBC of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the $Meta Platforms(META.US) trial in Oakland, CA where a group of state attorney generals seek up to $1.4 trillion in damages.

Jeffrey Kopp

$Tesla(TSLA.US) remains the worst YTD performer (-20%) of all Mag 8 stocks, with only $Meta Platforms(META.US) (-15% YTD) which is facing an existential threat to its core business given a $1.4 trillion consumer liability trial that got underway this week also in the red. NDX overall is up +16% YTD, fueled by $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) (+16%), $Apple(AAPL.US) (+15%.), and $Amazon(AMZN.US) (+12%). TSLA’s troubles are due to lower than expected auto gross margins in its core EV business and a slower than expected scale up of its unsupervised autonomy efforts due to efficacy and safety concerns/an abundance of caution.

Like tobacco litigation 30 years ago, $Meta Platforms(META.US) is being sued by California and a multi-state coalition of attorneys general who have argued that $Meta Platforms(META.US) designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and teens, improperly collected their data, and misled the public about the platforms' safety. The trial in federal court in Oakland before U.S. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers who was appointed by Barack Obama is likely to overhang the stock until the advisory jury renders a verdict in October. The advisory jury is hearing the evidence and issues a verdict; the judge is the ultimate decision-maker on liability, penalties, and remedies. On appeal, the case would go to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is widely viewed as one of the more liberal circuits in the U.S. federal court system.

In the spring, Meta (along with $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) ‘s YouTube) lost a landmark social media case in California, in which a jury found the companies liable for harming a young user with certain design features in their apps and awarded her $6 million. Then, earlier this month, $Meta Platforms(META.US) was ordered to pay more than $940 million in the state of New Mexico for being a public nuisance and causing psychological harm to children. In the current state AG case in Oakland the plaintiffs are asking for compensatory and punitive damages which could total $1.4 trillion, essentially equal to META’s market cap.

14 years ago today, Peter Thiel turned $500K into $1B

When Facebook IPO'd in May 2012 at $38 a share, Thiel played it better than anyone

Thiel wrote Facebook's first outside check in 2004 for roughly 10%

And here's how he profited $1B:

• 2004: Thiel invests $500,000 for roughly 10% of Facebook

• May 18, 2012: Facebook IPOs at $38 a share

• May 18, 2012: Thiel sells 16,800,000 shares in the IPO, banking $640,000,000

• Same day: he sets up a plan to sell the rest, before the stock has traded for a single hour

• Aug 16-17, 2012: the first lockup expires and Thiel sells 20.6M more shares between $19-$21

• Aug 20, 2012: the filing goes public and Facebook closes at $20.01 that day

‣ Thiel's cash-out: ~$1,000,000,000

‣ Retail's position at the time: -47% from IPO

In the end, he kept 5,600,000 shares and his board seat

Meritz Securities: CSPs flooding requests to secure HBM supply for 2028.

$Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $Microsoft(MSFT.US) $Meta Platforms(META.US) $Amazon(AMZN.US) $DRAM $Micron Tech(MU.US) $EWY

A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY.

Here's a full recap:

1. Moderna $Moderna(MRNA.US) and Merck $Merck(MRK.US) said their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran, combined with Keytruda slowed melanoma recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial. The Phase 3 study was stopped at its first interim analysis after positive results, though detailed efficacy data have not yet been released. If the benefit holds, this would mark the first randomized Phase 3 validation of a personalized neoantigen cancer vaccine and could significantly expand the use case for mRNA technology beyond traditional vaccines. $Moderna(MRNA.US) surged 175% today, became the 2nd-best performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, and triggered an estimated $4.8B loss for short sellers. It was also the largest one-day percentage gain ever for an S&P 500 stock.

2. Crypto rallied sharply today as $Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF(BTC.US) Bitcoin jumped roughly 8%, briefly touching about $70,000 for its biggest move since March, before settling near $68,500–$69,500. The move liquidated an estimated $1.4B–$1.7B of short positions and was driven by a mix of lower-yield pressure from Treasury buybacks, regulatory optimism, and today’s White House crypto meeting. $ETH Ethereum, $Emeren(SOL.US) Solana, and other major alts also traded higher, while crypto-linked stocks like Coinbase and Circle rallied. President Trump urged Congress to pass a “fair version” of the Clarity Act, said the U.S. should remain the leader in Bitcoin, crypto, prediction markets, and AI, and said he would listen to recommendations on whether the U.S. should accumulate more Bitcoin or crypto. Trump also said the CFTC is working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. in a fully compliant way, helping send HYPE higher. Overall, the tone was strongly pro-crypto, though the Clarity Act still faces political hurdles in the Senate.

3. Nebius $Nebius(NBIS.US) announced a proposed private offering of $4.5B of convertible senior notes. The offering includes $2.75B of notes due 2030 and $1.75B of notes due 2034, with an option for an additional $675M. Key terms, including interest rates and conversion prices, will be determined at pricing. Nebius was down 9.87% today.

4. U.S. national debt just crossed $40T, with the latest $10T added in roughly 4.5 years. The debt now equals about $116,481 per citizen and $360,794 per taxpayer, while the debt-to-GDP ratio sits around 122.7%. Federal spending is running at roughly $7.26T, compared to federal tax revenue of about $5.59T, leaving a federal budget deficit near $1.68T. Net interest on the debt is now running above $1.1T, making it one of the largest line items in the federal budget.

5. The U.S. Treasury announced it will double the size of long-term government debt buybacks after the rapid surge in Treasury yields. Repurchases of $2B will now increase to at least $4B, with the Treasury saying the move is meant to provide “liquidity support” for bonds maturing in 10 to 30 years as total U.S. debt nears $40T. The situation is like someone with a 30-year mortgage at 3.25% refinancing into a 1-year adjustable-rate loan at 5.75% because the market won’t absorb the longer-term debt cleanly. In other words, longer-duration, lower-cost debt is being replaced with shorter-term, higher-cost financing. Now apply that dynamic across trillions of dollars in U.S. government debt. That is the pressure Treasury is trying to manage as long-term yields keep rising.

6. Starlink is reapplying for India approval for its Gen 2 network, seeking authorization for nearly 30,000 LEO satellites operating at 340–615 km, including direct-to-device connectivity. India previously approved only Starlink’s 4,408-satellite Gen 1 network after rejecting the earlier Gen 2 application. The move comes as India is still finalizing D2D rules and satellite spectrum pricing, with Jio, Amazon Leo, and OneWeb also competing for the market, according to ET.

7. Goldman Sachs is preparing a roughly $1.15B junk bond to finance a Virginia data center leased to CoreWeave $Coreweave(CRWV.US). The deal is expected in September, with Goldman moving forward even as investors demand higher yields for AI infrastructure debt tied to CoreWeave. The financing comes after a separate $3.5B CoreWeave-backed deal recently priced at a 10% yield, underscoring how capital-intensive AI data center buildouts have become and how much credit markets are now focused on AI infrastructure risk.

8. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $Tesla(TSLA.US) with 2.9M contracts, $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) with 2.6M contracts, $Apple(AAPL.US) with 1.9M contracts, $Amazon(AMZN.US) with 1.0M contracts, $Intel(INTC.US) with 932K contracts, $Micron Tech(MU.US) with 886K contracts, $Strategy(MSTR.US) with 789K contracts, $Microsoft(MSFT.US) with 745K contracts, $SpaceX(SPCX.US) with 694K contracts, and $Meta Platforms(META.US) with 658K contracts.

9. Nvidia $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) has reportedly discussed investing in AI data supplier Mercor as part of a funding round that would value the startup at $20B, according to The Information. Mercor hires specialists across science, law, finance, and other fields to train and evaluate AI models, producing higher-quality data for complex tasks. Nvidia paid Mercor tens of millions of dollars last quarter and used its data to develop its two latest Nemotron models, with several Mercor employees now reportedly focused almost entirely on Nvidia-related work. The relationship is expanding as Nvidia invests more heavily in Nemotron, its open AI model family. Mercor has also worked with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, while annualized gross revenue reportedly reached $2B in June, double its level from the start of the year.

10. Webull $Webull(BULL.US) reported Q2’26 revenue of $198.8M, beating estimates of $181M, up 51% YoY and 24% sequentially. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.12 versus $0.03 expected, up 140% YoY, while net income reached $24.4M and adjusted operating profit was $62.6M, representing a 31.5% margin. Trading-related revenue rose 66% YoY to $147.7M. Customer assets grew 79% YoY to $28.5B, registered users reached 28.2M, funded accounts hit 5.13M, equity notional volume rose 73% YoY to $279B, and options contract volume increased 68% YoY to 213M. Webull also launched Vega Analyst and announced the acquisition of Pi Securities in Thailand.

11. President Trump is reportedly set to reduce tariffs on automobiles imported from Canada from 25% to 15% as part of a broader trade deal, according to Bloomberg. The current tariff applies to the non-U.S. content of vehicles produced in Canada, and that same content provision is expected to apply under the new 15% rate. U.S. and Canadian negotiators have also discussed whether to expand the exemption to include additional content, though no final decision has been made.

12. U.S. margin debt fell by a record $85B in July to $1.42T, marking the largest monthly decline ever and the first monthly drop since March. For context, the prior record decline was $80B in January 2022, right as the bear market began. The pullback follows a massive $198B surge in margin debt across May and June, the largest two-month increase on record. Even after July’s historic decline, margin debt is still up $518B, or 58%, since the start of 2025.

WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

Source: amit