• Intel shares dropped more than 25% on Friday after disappointing earnings.
• The chipmaker said it expects revenue to drop in Q4 as its PC business faces headwinds.
• Computing is facing "one of the most significant supply shortages in history," its CEO said.

Intel shares plummeted 28% on Friday after the chipmaker warned about a weaker market as supply shortages linked to the AI boom bite.

Shares in the California-headquartered company were trading at $65.79 soon after the open, down from $92.07 at Thursday's close.

On Thursday, it reported third-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion, up 20% from a year earlier. However, it forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion and earnings per share of $0.25 — down from $0.52 in the third quarter.

The AI boom is increasing demand for memory and server chips needed to train and run AI models, creating shortages that have pushed up memory prices. That makes PCs more expensive to build and buy, prompting computer-makers to order fewer Intel chips.

"The industry continues to navigate one of the most significant supply shortages in history, driven by the unprecedented demand for super intelligence," Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said on Thursday's earnings call.

Intel's client-computing group, which sells chips for PCs, generated $8.1 billion in the third quarter, down 9% from the previous quarter.

The company said it expects the division's revenue to decline by more than 20% in the fourth quarter.

Intel's share price has boomed in 2026, climbing more than 130% as of Thursday's close. That rise has stalled in recent weeks amid a wider sell-off in the tech sector. After Friday's open, its year-to-date rise is around 67%.

Friday's sharp drop comes during a busy earnings week, with other tech firms also reporting disappointing numbers. On Thursday, Google recorded the largest single-day market cap loss in its history, shedding $500 billion in value after worse-than-expected revenue from its AI search tool pushed shares down 12%.

Chip shortages hit home

Intel said higher memory prices and limited availability were making computers more expensive. It expects global PC sales to decline about 12% this year, and by roughly another 10% in 2027.

"We do not expect a sustained recovery until memory availability improves and pricing begins to normalize," said Dave Zinsner, the chief financial officer.

The company's data-center business offered some hope, with revenue up nearly 80% year over year to $7.3 billion.

However, Intel said it could not meet all the demand for its server chips.

It cited a two-week shutdown at its Israeli plant following what Tan called "an unfortunate and tragic accident," which it expects to cut fourth-quarter revenue by about $300 million.

• Gen Zers have started calling Diet Coke a "fridge cigarette" thanks to a viral TikTok.
• Coca-Cola's CEO appeared unimpressed when asked about the nickname in an interview this week.
• "The most important thing to us is that we don't position Diet Coke in that way," he said.

If you've ever cracked open a bubbly, icy-cold "fridge cigarette," Coca-Cola's CEO would like a word.

The beverage giant's CEO, Henrique Braun, was asked about the phrase — a popular slang term for a can of Diet Coke — in a Tuesday interview with Yahoo Finance, and appeared unimpressed.

He first answered by promoting the company's growth, before being pressed for his thoughts on the nickname.

"The consumers call it the way they want to call it," Braun said. "The most important thing to us is that we don't position Diet Coke in that way."

"It's a great-tasting product, which connects with the consumer in a very unique way."

Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Merriam-Webster defines "fridge cigarette" as "a cold, refreshing, and addictive soft drink," noting that it's especially used to refer to Diet Coke.

The phrase first gained traction with Gen Z through a viral TikTok video in 2025, which has nearly 4 million views. It showed a woman opening a can of the soda, with the text: "Overheard someone call a Diet Coke a 'fridge cigarette' and nothing's been more true to me since."

It makes sense that Braun would rather avoid any comparisons to cigarettes, especially given some previous bad media for Diet Coke.

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in the soda, made headlines in 2023 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified it as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

However, this classification only means there is limited evidence in humans and less-than-sufficient evidence in animals. Health bodies and regulators globally have maintained their acceptable daily intake levels of aspartame. An adult weighing 150 lbs would have to drink at least 17 cans of Diet Coke a day to exceed the safe amount.

Diet Coke contains more caffeine, the use of which can lead to dependence, than regular Coca-Cola.

To most people, "fridge cigarette" instead evokes the relief from drinking a soda. An excuse to step away from work for a moment and indulge with a gratifying treat.

Rachel Reno, who posted the viral TikTok, told The New York Times in 2025, "I feel like it's one of those things that doesn't need a lot of explanation."

She added that people who understand it know that "the crack of the can is like the spark of a lighter," and then after the first sip, "all the worries and cares in the world go away."

Braun's interview came the same day as Coca-Cola's quarterly earnings, which narrowly beat estimates with $13.4 billion of revenue.

The CEO told investors on an earnings call that Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero grew by double digits. Coca-Cola's share price is up 33% since the start of the year.

• Alphabet shed around $500 billion in market value on Thursday after its stock tanked 13%.
• If the losses persist, it will be the second-largest one-day drop in market cap for any company.
• Shares of Google's parent company fell after its earnings disappointed investors.

Alphabet is on track to suffer its biggest-ever one-day market-cap wipeout, and the second-largest value drop in stock-market history.

Shares of Google's parent company slumped by as much as 13.5% in early trading on Thursday, slashing Alphabet's market capitalization by over $500 billion, from around $3.9 trillion to $3.4 trillion.

If the losses persist until the close, it would be the second-largest one-day loss of market capitalization ever. Only AI chipmaker Nvidia has lost more value in a single day, when it shed close to $600 billion on January 27, 2025, on fears that China's DeepSeek would steal its lunch.

Alphabet's shares slumped after its earnings report on Wednesday showed about $9.1 billion in negative free cash flow as it spent heavily on AI infrastructure, and profits that fell short of Wall Street's forecasts.

Google's AI search revenue also lagged expectations, despite CEO Sundar Pichai saying on the earnings call that AI helped search queries grow at the fastest year-over-year pace in five years.

Search revenue of $63 billion came in below analysts' estimates and was virtually flat compared to the previous quarter.

That came as a shock because search revenue had beaten Wall Street's estimates in each of its four previous quarterly earnings reports.

"It's worth noting that the strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact because of the lower monetization we were seeing in AI Mode," Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, said on the call.

He also announced that Google is introducing ads in AI Mode to more users, including in international markets for the first time.

The rise of generative AI has shaken up Google's core business as chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude give people an alternative way to search. While Google has its own chatbot, Gemini, and has integrated it into its search engine with AI Mode, revenue is lagging behind its popularity.

"Just like our shift to mobile over a decade ago, we are focused on building the best Search user experience, followed by monetization," Pichai said.

As well as one of the market's biggest-ever single-day value losses, if Alphabet stock closes more than 9.77% lower on Thursday, it would be the company's worst post-earnings percentage drop since going public in 2004.

"In the AI trade you need a clean story to pique investor interest. But it only matters if numbers track in the right direction," Mark Shmulik, a senior analyst at Bernstein, wrote in a note.

"Is Google an AI winner? Probably, but not today."

• United's CEO thinks Starlink is now the second-most important factor in customers' flight choices.
• Scott Kirby said some passengers are flying on regional airlines to guarantee Starlink access.
• United's speedy Starlink rollout is the airline's "biggest competitive advantage," Kirby said.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby believes passengers are more interested in Starlink than ticket prices when picking which airline to fly with.

"I think Starlink, behind the schedule, is the most important thing for customers to choose an airline now," Kirby told the "Cheeky Pint" podcast on Tuesday's episode.

United is leading the way in the US in installing Starlink, the high-speed WiFi service from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The airline was one of the first to sign up in 2024 and has since equipped almost half of its planes with Starlink.

While Starlink is on all United's regional airplanes — those operated under the United Express brand — it is on less than 3% of its wide-body jets that fly long-haul routes, according to the airline's tracking tool.

Some travelers are choosing flights on these smaller regional airplanes to ensure they can access Starlink, Kirby told "Cheeky Pint."

Kirby said that when passengers told him this, his reaction was: "Holy cow!"

He also recalled booking a recent flight and ensuring he wouldn't be in the air when the Milwaukee Brewers were playing, so he could watch the game on TV. "Whereas if I had known for certain that my flight was going to have Starlink, I would have booked it during the game," he added.

American Airlines has also made a deal with Starlink, but it is not due to begin installing the terminals until early next year. Delta Air Lines has instead signed up for Amazon Leo, a similar service due to launch in 2028, which has attracted considerable criticism from Musk.

Although Musk has called for Delta CEO Ed Bastian to be fired, Kirby disagreed. "He's not going to lose his job over it," he said.

However, United is trying to win over Delta customers who might want Starlink. This month, it ran a promotion offering to match travelers' loyalty status on Delta or American, advertising "the fastest WiFi in the sky."

Thousands of customers signed up within two weeks, United said, and status match applications were up 275% compared to before the campaign.

"We're going to get customers that have been loyal to other airlines that try us for Starlink and stay because the technology is better," Kirby told the podcast.

While he called Starlink "the biggest competitive advantage," he also said it won't last forever.

"Everybody eventually is going to have high-speed, low Earth orbit. It's going to be a must-have."

• Rishi Sunak has senior advisor roles with Anthropic, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs.
• Sunak, who was the UK's prime minister between 2022 and 2024, makes up to $10,000 an hour from them.
• Goldman paid him about $1.5 million, compared with Anthropic shares valued at about $500,000.

How much is Anthropic paying for the advice of the UK's former prime minister? A lot less than Microsoft.

Rishi Sunak, who led the country from 2022 to 2024, last year took on senior advisor roles with Anthropic, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs.

As he still serves as a member of Parliament, the payments are detailed in a public register of MPs' financial interests. The most recent register, published Monday, shows Sunak earned more than £2.2 million, or over $2.9 million, from the three jobs.

Sunak, who started his career as a Goldman analyst before completing an MBA at Stanford, donated these earnings to charity. He and his wife Akshata Murthy set up The Richmond Project, which works to improve people's numeracy skills.

The couple is jointly worth about $750 million, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, with much of that wealth coming from Murthy, whose father founded Indian tech firm Infosys.

Anthropic hired Sunak as a senior advisor last October, paying him with equity in the AI firm. The register shows the shares were worth £373,000, or $495,000, when his one-year contract began.

Working an estimated 70 hours a year, that translates to about $7,000 an hour.

Also last October, Sunak started advising Microsoft. The tech giant paid him £741,735 a year, or almost $1 million. For an estimated 96 hours of work, per the register, that works out to about $10,200 an hour.

Sunak's role with Goldman is the most lucrative. He was paid nearly £1.1 million a year, or about $1.5 million.

The register shows the role involves an estimated 175 hours of work a year, suggesting he earns about $8,300 an hour.

Alongside his work in tech, Sunak writes a column for The Sunday Times. He also donates this money to charity, but it pales in comparison to the income from his other jobs. The register shows he earns £28,500 a quarter for five hours of work a week — about $580 an hour.

Sunak's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

• United CEO Scott Kirby says that so far he has found AI most useful for vibe coding.
• "I can read my calendar. I don't need to summarize my day," he told the "Cheeky Pint" podcast.
• Kirby said he had an "epiphany" after vibe-coding a sports-gambling tool.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby loves gambling, and now he's using AI as an ace up his sleeve.

Speaking on the "Cheeky Pint" podcast, Kirby said that over the past eight months, he's had an "AI epiphany" about the tech's best uses, which was triggered by one of his favorite pastimes — sports betting.

"Summarizing documents and all that crap, I think it's ridiculous," Kirby said. "I can read my calendar. I don't need to summarize my day."

Instead, he has found vibe coding far more valuable.

Kirby told "Cheeky Pint" host and Stripe cofounder John Collison that he hired a tutor for three hourlong sessions, then used AI to make a webpage for sports gambling.

"I've always been into gambling. For better or worse," Kirby said.

Between sets in a two-and-a-half-hour gym session, he typed prompts on his iPad to vibe-code a page with "four or five" drop-down menus for different sports, dates, and bets. Kirby said it links to four sportsbooks and pulls up the best odds; then he can enter a dollar amount, and it places the bet for him.

"I could do it with three hours of tutoring on my own, could write a program to do that, was an epiphany for me," Kirby said. "I think I called them on that Saturday, our team, and like, 'We're all in on this.'"

His appetite for risk has helped Kirby make bets on airline strategy that have paid off. For example, when carriers around the world retired their airplanes during the pandemic, United instead ordered hundreds of new jets — buoying the airline when travel demand boomed after lockdowns ended.

The United CEO previously spoke about his love for gambling in an April interview with The Wall Street Journal, where he described being kicked out of casinos for counting cards before he started in the airline industry.

He told "Cheeky Pint" that he went back to Las Vegas when the Super Bowl was held there in 2024.

After setting up a credit line to play poker, he had to hand over his ID.

"It was like 15 years ago that I got barred at the Bellagio last time," he said. "The manager comes over, and he's like, 'Mr. Kirby, you're welcome to play any game in the casino, but just so you know, still no blackjack.'"

• One of soccer's biggest stars is in hot water in China over joking about Chairman Mao Zedong.
• Kylian Mbappé referred to Mao as a "Chinese dictator" during a podcast talk about his favorite memes.
• Two Chinese brands ended deals with Mbappé, while shares in shoemaker On, which sponsors him, fell.

Chinese brands are cutting ties with Kylian Mbappé, one of the world's biggest soccer stars, after he joked about Mao Zedong on a podcast.

Mbappé, who plays for Real Madrid and captains the French national team, has been nicknamed "The Dictator" for his confidence and influence over the teams he plays for. The nickname has spawned countless memes, many of which compare him to historical leaders, including Mao.

The controversy was sparked by a clip circulating on social media from an interview with "The Bridge," a French podcast co-hosted by one of Mbappé's teammates.

In it, Mbappé said the meme that made him laugh the most was one where his face was superimposed onto that of "some guy — I think he's a Chinese dictator." The video then cuts to an image of Mao with Mbappé's face.

While millions died under Mao's leadership, he is still revered by the Chinese Communist Party for his role as the founding father of modern China. Jokes about him remain a social taboo in China and are considered disrespectful.

Dongpeng, a drinks company whose ads and packaging feature Mbappé, announced on Tuesday that it would no longer work with him.

"Our company firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for actions that hurt national feelings," it said in a statement. "Effective immediately, we are ending all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé."

Mengniu, the country's largest dairy producer, also released a similar statement: "Effective immediately, our company is ending all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé. Mengniu firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."

Soon after it was posted, Dongpeng's statement became the top-trending topic on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

Mbappé apologized in a statement on Tuesday morning, calling the comment "ill-judged."

"I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world," he said in the statement, which was posted in English, French, and Mandarin.

"I apologize to everyone my words have upset. This was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry."

Mbappé is one of soccer's biggest stars. On Monday, he came second in voting for the prestigious Ballon d'Or and was the top scorer at this summer's World Cup.

In 2017, while still a teenager, he commanded a transfer fee of over $210 million, and he has since become one of the most marketable athletes in global sports.

In September, he became the face of Swiss shoemaker On's expanding soccer business, leaving behind a long-term deal as one of Nike's top ambassadors. On's share price was down more than 4% in early trading on Tuesday.

On top of that deal, Mbappé is the face of EA Sports' hugely popular FC game series, and has endorsement deals with brands like Swiss watchmaker Hublot and Oakley.

Soon after Dongpeng and Mengnui's statements, EFE Noticias, a Spanish news agency, reported that Chinese state TV has suspended broadcasts of La Liga — the top division of Spanish football where Mbappé plies his trade.

"We convey our respect to China, its institutions, and its people, and we deeply value the support of the millions of fans who follow us each week," La Liga said in a Tuesday X post, adding that it was working with partners in China to address the situation.

• President Donald Trump isn't giving up on his plan to rename the Atlantic to the "American Ocean."
• While he said last week that Google's CEO pushed back on the idea, he raised it again at a rally.
• "We have a lake, and we have a gulf. Now we need a river and an ocean," Trump told supporters.

Donald Trump is eyeing up new names for more bodies of water, despite pushback from Google's CEO.

"We have a lake, and we have a gulf. Now we need a river and an ocean," he said at a rally in Mississippi on Monday.

The president spoke about renaming the Atlantic Ocean to the "American Ocean" and quipped: "I think Europe will be thrilled."

Trump previously raised the idea last Wednesday at a rally in South Carolina, where he said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai had tried to change his mind.

Trump said that he called Pichai, joking that Google was "still rattled" from his renaming of the Gulf.

Google Maps previously changed its labels for the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario to the Gulf of America and Lake America following Trump's executive orders. The tech giant said the decision aligns with its policy to draw on official government databases. Users outside the US still see the original names followed by Trump's names in brackets.

However, Trump said that when he pitched the idea of renaming the Atlantic, Pichai replied, "This time I'm not doing it."

"Oceans are different, sir. They cover really a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that."

"So I'll probably pass," Trump told the crowd last week. "I think let's keep it the Atlantic Ocean."

The president first brought up the idea at a Tennessee rally earlier this month, where he floated renaming either the Atlantic or the Pacific as "Trump Ocean" or "Ocean of the Americas."

While he also spoke on Monday about renaming a river, he told the Mississippi crowd that the state's namesake river won't be relabeled.

"The Mississippi River, I'm not changing the name of the Mississippi," Trump said. "I promise."

• EasyJet announced a deal with Starlink on Monday.
• It means two of Europe's three major budget airlines have now signed up for Elon Musk's service.
• The move puts pressure on budget titan Ryanair after its CEO feuded with Musk over Starlink.

Elon Musk's Starlink has won its latest customer, a budget airline that could put pressure on one of the WiFi service's biggest critics.

EasyJet announced on Monday that the high-speed WiFi service would be deployed on its airplanes from the first half of next year. The British airline, which carries 100 million passengers a year, hopes to have Starlink installed across its 300-strong fleet by early 2028.

The deal means two of Europe's three biggest budget airlines have committed to Starlink.

Wizz Air, a Hungarian carrier that flies about 70 million passengers a year, signed up in June.

That leaves Ryanair, the continent's largest airline and the world's third-largest, as the only one of Europe's biggest budget carriers without the service.

Its CEO, Michael O'Leary, is well-known for being outspoken and took aim at Starlink earlier this year, leading to a spat with Musk.

"We don't think ‍our ⁠passengers are willing to pay for WiFi for an average ⁠one-hour flight," O'Leary told Reuters in January.

While Starlink is typically offered free to passengers, O'Leary also complained about increased fuel costs due to the aerodynamic drag of a Starlink terminal, installed on the top of airplanes.

Musk responded in an X post, arguing that Ryanair — which carries over 200 million passengers a year — would lose customers to airlines that do have internet access.

Over the next week, the two CEOs called each other idiots while Musk called for O'Leary to be fired and joked about purchasing the airline.

But Ryanair appeared to have the last laugh, using the publicity to launch a "Big 'Idiot' Sale" with 100,000 tickets starting at £16.99, or about $23.

The situation has some parallels with the US's Big Three airlines. While United Airlines has Starlink on almost half of its fleet and American Airlines is starting installations early next year, Delta Air Lines has instead tapped Amazon Leo, beginning in 2028.

This has led Musk to insult Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian, and call for his firing.

But American passengers are wealthier and more interested in premium offerings than their European counterparts. That trend has also prompted US budget airlines to offer comfier seats and package deals.

Adding free amenities for passengers is at odds with the typical no-frills budget-airline business model that relies on extra charges to turn a profit.

However, easyJet and Wizz may see Starlink as a way to gain an edge over Ryanair.

That may not last forever, though. In a January earnings call, O'Leary said, "I think as the WiFi technology improves over the next four or five years, we'll all be offering free WiFi access."

• Shares in neocloud companies are falling over concerns about their levels of debt.
• CoreWeave and Nebius, two major public neoclouds, have seen their stocks drop sharply in recent weeks.
• On Sunday, Elon Musk questioned the sector, saying that "some will make it through, but not many."

Neocloud companies are sliding even lower.

Shares dropped further on Monday after Elon Musk warned that many of them face "guppy-level death."

CoreWeave and Nebius have both fallen more than 30% over the past month, largely due to growing concerns about the debt they've taken on to build more data centers.

Soon after Monday's open, shares in both companies were down a further 4%, while Iren, another publicly traded neocloud, fell 2%.

The declines follow a string of X posts from Musk on Sunday evening questioning the neocloud business model.

"As of the past few weeks, debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for any company that doesn't have substantial revenue independent of AI data centers," he said.

"That means the 200+ neoclouds are going to see guppy-level death and consolidation," he added. "Some will make it through, but not many."

Musk said that while SpaceX has closed $40 billion in debt to buy GPUs, his company makes money through Starlink and rocket launches.

Meanwhile, investors are worried that a slowing AI boom could leave debt-heavy neoclouds struggling to service their loans.

After one X user posted arguing that Musk was trying to drive down the share prices of neocloud companies to acquire them, Musk replied: "SpaceX is not buying any neoclouds. Pointless."

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang remains bullish about the sector. "The demand for the neoclouds is off the charts," he told CNBC last Thursday.

Nvidia holds significant stakes in CoreWeave, Nebius, and other cloud-computing companies.

A CoreWeave spokesperson said: "The AI cloud market is not a monolith," and that lenders distinguish between speculative capacity and businesses with contracted revenue and a record of delivery.

They added that the company is "already a market leader operating at scale" with expertise, which it sees as key for opportunities to finance further growth.

A recent Bernstein Research report analyzed thousands of planned US data centers and estimated that only about 35% of the announced capacity will be built.

"Press releases are cheap … concrete is not," Bernstein analysts wrote in a research note.