What We Learned This Week

Been a While: Nike finally delivered a bit of an upside surprise, something that’s been in short supply for a while. The company beat expectations on both revenue and earnings this quarter, with sales up 1% year over year versus analyst forecasts for a 4% decline. CEO Elliott Hill pointed to progress in three key areas - wholesale, running, and North America - all contributing to the better-than-expected results. The long-anticipated Nike x SKIMS collaboration also launched to strong early demand. Expectations were admittedly low going in, but the report shows there’s still some spark left in the brand.

That said, the turnaround is far from complete. Margins continued to decline as the company works through excess inventory, and China sales remain soft. Hill appears focused on undoing some of the missteps of the prior leadership (like distancing Nike from core retail partners) while re-centering the company around sport, innovation, and athlete connection. The brand still faces headwinds from rising costs and tariffs, and management is guiding for softer sales through the holidays. Still, there are early signs of life, and if Nike can stick to the fundamentals that built its dominance, the long road back could be well worth the run.

Cheaper Model 3 and Y: Tesla made some subtle but notable lineup changes this week, introducing new base versions of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan. The move followed social media teasers that had sparked speculation about something more dramatic - like the long-awaited Roadster or Tesla’s long-promised mass-market car. It turned out to be neither, and the stock gave back early gains once that became clear. Still, the additions aren’t insignificant. The Model Y now starts just under $40,000 and the Model 3 around $37,000, roughly $5,000 below the next trim levels, offering solid range and core features at more accessible price points.

To hit those prices, Tesla trimmed some costs - smaller wheels, simplified lighting, fewer paint options, different seat materials, and the removal of heated rear seats and the backseat display. Even so, both models still deliver over 300 miles of range, more than enough for most drivers. The timing is strategic: federal EV credits are expiring, consumer adoption remains uneven, and the market is more crowded than ever. This move keeps Tesla competitive on price and reinforces its position at the center of the EV conversation, though expectations for something bigger likely tempered the market’s excitement.

More Chip Deals: For once, a big AI hardware story that doesn’t involve Nvidia. AMD shares jumped this week after OpenAI announced plans to buy billions of dollars’ worth of AMD chips as part of its massive data center expansion. The partnership could ultimately give OpenAI up to a 10% ownership stake in AMD if certain milestones are met. It’s a strong signal that AMD’s next-generation products are gaining real traction with the biggest players in AI infrastructure—an area long dominated by Nvidia. For AMD, the deal represents both validation and opportunity as it works to prove its chips can handle the kind of heavy AI workloads that define this new era of computing.

The scale of OpenAI’s data center ambitions is almost hard to fathom, and this deal only adds to the momentum. AMD, still far smaller than Nvidia with a roughly $400 billion market cap compared to Nvidia’s $4.6 trillion, stands to benefit enormously if it can secure even a modest share of the buildout. Despite speculation that this might signal a shift away from Nvidia, the reality is that OpenAI is buying aggressively from both. The takeaway is simple: the AI hardware race isn’t cooling off anytime soon—and the demand behind it still seems almost limitless.