What We Learned This Week

AMD Momentum Builds: AMD shares jumped 9% this week after CEO Lisa Su defended Big Tech’s record levels of AI spending, calling it “the right gamble.” In an interview with CNBC, Su argued that heavy investment in computing power will accelerate innovation rather than signal excess, noting that many of AMD’s largest customers have increased spending as AI adoption reaches a key inflection point. The company expects revenue to grow roughly 35% annually over the next three to five years and to capture a double-digit share of the data center AI chip market in that time. Her confidence stood in contrast to recent skepticism from high-profile investors like Michael Burry, who has raised concerns about inflated valuations and accounting practices among major AI players.

The broader backdrop is one of extraordinary capital flows into the AI ecosystem - more than $380 billion in announced spending from tech’s largest firms this year alone. Investors have largely rewarded that momentum among trillion-dollar market leaders, even as they take a harsher view toward smaller names offering similar guidance. Su’s comments reinforce the sense that this wave of investment is less a speculative bet than a structural shift in how the world’s biggest companies allocate capital. As with tariffs and other macro shifts rippling through corporate earnings this quarter, the pattern is clear: big players are leaning in hard on long-term bets, while everyone else is being forced to prove they can keep up.

GLP-1 Access Expands: In a major development for the GLP-1 landscape, the Trump administration reached landmark agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that could dramatically expand access to blockbuster obesity drugs. Under the deal, Medicare will begin covering GLP-1s for certain eligible patients starting in mid-2026, a meaningful shift for a population that historically hasn’t had access to these treatments. Lilly and Novo will also reduce the prices Medicaid programs pay to $245 per month, and states will have the option to opt into broader coverage. Between Medicare’s new pilot program and discounts on the administration’s direct-to-consumer platform, TrumpRx, millions of patients who were previously priced out of these drugs could now see out-of-pocket costs fall to roughly $50–$350 per month depending on dose and insurance.

The move has the potential to reshape the obesity-care and GLP-1 markets. Medicare coverage tends to set the tone for private insurers, which may face growing pressure to expand their own benefits as government plans adopt more inclusive policies. While eligibility criteria will still be narrower than FDA labeling, analysts estimate that roughly 80% of obese Medicare beneficiaries could qualify under the new framework. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies stand to benefit from significantly broader patient access just as they prepare to roll out next-generation oral GLP-1s. It’s too early to know how quickly commercial insurers, Medicaid budgets, and employers will adapt, but this deal marks the clearest signal yet that GLP-1s are shifting from niche, high-cost offerings to widely accessible chronic-disease therapies.