Tech optimism overrides Iran angst

Good morning. Tech optimism overrides Iran angst. Will.i.am has a message for young people fretting about AI. And a Bob Ross auction shows the fine line
between kitsch and collectibles. Listen to the day’s top stories.

— Angela Cullen

The US and Iran clashed near the Strait of Hormuz, an escalation that threatens to further fracture a fragile ceasefire as the two sides discuss a permanent end to the war. Futures resumed gains, though, as investors bet that a robust outlook for tech firms will continue driving stocks higher and help markets look through short-term swings. Brent traded around $100, raising questions about the durability of the record-breaking equities rally.

Iran is ramping up rail trade with China to counter a US blockade of its ports. Cargo trains from Xi’an to Tehran now run every three or four days, up from roughly once a week before the conflict, people familiar said. Meanwhile, the US suspects a key company behind Thailand’s national AI effort of helping to smuggle billions of dollars worth of servers containing advanced Nvidia chips to China, with Alibaba among the end-customers. All this as Donald Trump prepares to visit Beijing next week, the first by a sitting US president in almost a decade.

Black Eyed Peas co-founder will.i.am has a message for young people worried that AI will make it harder for them to get jobs: embrace it and make it work for you. The hip-hop artist believes it so much that he built a classroom in LA to teach college kids ways to boost their AI skills. Still, there’s no denying that AI is making digital fraud easier, faster, and harder to stop. From deepfakes to the dark web, digital scams are scaling up and getting more convincing.

The bar for qualifying for an H-1B visa is rising. An entry‑level software engineer in San Francisco would need to be paid $162,000 a year to get one under a Trump administration proposal—almost 30% more than today. In Dallas, the minimum would jump to $113,000 and in New York to $132,000.

Russians are growing gloomier about their prospects more than four years into the war in Ukraine. As Vladimir Putin prepares for his most downbeat Victory Day parade in years on Saturday, previously loyal commentators are pointing fingers at the Kremlin amid signs of waning support for his power structures.

Coming soon: Get the AI Today newsletter—chronicling the disruptions and threats of AI on businesses, workers, governments and economies with analysis from Bloomberg’s global newsroom.

Deep Dive: Intel CEO’s Tough Task

Photographer: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

He’s won over Trump and Elon Musk. Now Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has to convince people inside the company of his plan to fix products and manufacturing.

• What’s been a very good year so far for chip stocks is shaping up to be an amazing one for Intel, thanks to a blockbuster sales forecast that shows it’s finally benefiting from the AI spending boom.
• The processors it makes are back in demand, and Apple and Tesla are showing an interest. Intel is also joining Musk’s Terafab initiative.
• The White House announced a deal last fall that will likely see the US taxpayer owning almost 10% of the company’s common stock once certain conditions are met. Quite a feat for the man Trump had earlier suggested should step down from his job.
• So, can Intel reclaim its old “king of chips” crown? There’s still a long way to go, Tan says.

The Big Take

Photographers: Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Stein for Bloomberg Businessweek

The infamous Three Mile Island, the site of America’s worst nuclear accident, is being rebranded as the Crane Clean Energy Center to power Microsoft’s AI operations, uniting two transformative—and risky—technologies. First, its owner needs to get it working again.

Big Take Podcast

A Conversation with the Fed’s Susan Collins

Opinion

Using AI to forecast the weather is getting so good—and so cheap—that meteorological services are starting to retire the expensive physics-based systems they’ve relied on, writes Gautam Mukunda. But it’s not foolproof, and that’s a potentially big problem, not just for weather forecasting.

Howard Chua-Eoan

Pope Leo’s First Year Challenged Trump, AI and the Rich

Javier Blas

China’s Invisible Hand Is Rebalancing the Oil Market

Lara Williams

There Will Never Be Another David Attenborough

Play Alphadots!

Our daily word puzzle with a plot twist.

Today’s clue is: Provider of social security

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Before You Go

Source: Bonham’s

What’s a Bob Ross painting worth? Rarely sold, works by the “happy little trees” artist are being auctioned to raise money for public broadcasting, with a sale last month bringing in $730,000. It’s a fine line between kitsch and collectible.

A Few More

At the Venice Biennale, the Anger Isn’t About the Art

Italian Gelato Is Getting Weird and Not Everyone Likes It

Myanmar Says Giant 11,000-Carat Ruby Found in Mandalay Region

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