The latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
0646 GMT - China is likely to continue to raise spending in AI in the next few years, according to BofA Securities in a research note. BofA expects China's AI data-center capital expenditure to grow from $91 billion in 2025 to $330 billion in 2030, driven by leading internet and cloud platforms, alongside government funding. Within commodities, copper is among BofA's top picks as powering AI will indirectly drive demand for the metal on persistent supply tightness, the analysts say. Minor materials, such as rare earths, tungsten and uranium, are small in volume but critical in value, they note. BofA has buy ratings on Zijin Mining and JL Mag Rare-Earth. (tracy.qu@wsj.com)
0646 GMT - Optical fiber sector is likely to benefit from China's AI data center expansion, according to BofA Securities in a research note. Optical fiber demand is shifting from telecom to AI, driving strong growth in high-end segments, the analysts say. "While overall supply is sufficient, constraints in preform capacity are tightening availability of high-spec fiber and supporting pricing," they say. BofA has a buy rating on Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology on fiber price upside, subsea recovery, and grid growth. Shares last traded at 54.12 yuan. (tracy.qu@wsj.com)
0503 GMT - Private credit's high-profile software defaults are largely seen as growing pains for the sector, instead of the beginning of the end for the asset class as portrayed by some, says Man Group in its 2H credit outlook report. The investment management firm reckons credit quality and disciplined manager selection will remain crucial for private credit. The private-credit sector will likely have to distinguish between software companies that deploy artificial intelligence to enhance and entrench their competitive positions, versus those whose core product is being displaced by it, says Man Group. "Mission-critical enterprise software with deep customer integrations, high switching costs, and strong pricing power is a very different credit proposition than a point-solution, commoditized [software-as-a-service] product," it adds. (megan.cheah@wsj.com)
0306 GMT - The AI ecosystem is moving towards physical AI, Bernstein analysts say in a note. Robots and autonomous systems powered by large language models and agentic reasoning add the dimension that pure software agents cannot: operating in an unstructured, unpredictable, physical world, they note. Tech giants, including Nvidia and Google, are all training AI agents in digital twin simulations and deploying them into physical systems, they say. Physical AI agents are built on three key blocks: perception, cognition and actuation, the analysts note. After physical AI, the technology will approach artificial general intelligence, the ultimate form of AI that "can do all of it, in any context, without being told how," they say. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)
1525 GMT - Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood isn't going anywhere after his company is acquired by Fox. Wood highlights the continued participation in the upside of the combined company through the stock portion of the $25 billion deal consideration, Morgan Stanley analysts say in a research note. "We note that while Wood holds >50% voting power in Roku through Class B shares, FOX will pay equal consideration for both Class A and Class B ROKU shares," they write. Wood is additionally expected to remain involved in the combined company following closing and join Fox's board. Meanwhile, Fox has emphasized the strategic importance of Roku remaining an open, partner-friendly ecosystem moving forward. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
1520 GMT - Fox's roughly $25 billion deal for Roku, will accelerate its strategy to increase exposure to streaming and connected TV, Morgan Stanley analysts say in a research note. "The acquisition of Roku would expand Fox's position from content owner and distributor into platform ownership, providing direct access to >100 million streaming households," the analysts write. They note those households are largely in the U.S., and that international markets present an emerging growth opportunity. "We believe the combination has the potential to boost FOX's content reach through Roku's distribution and provide value through Roku's first-party data," the analysts write. "While some peers are making a bet on owning content assets, Fox is making a clear bet on the future of distribution." Fox shares fall an additional 5% on Tuesday, falling sharply on Monday. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
1230 GMT - A U.S. Commerce Department block on the use of Anthropic's latest Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models outside of America could benefit the AI model maker in the long term, Deutsche Bank's Adrian Cox writes. "Even if Anthropic has to keep its most advanced models in a cage in the short term, in the longer term its reputation will likely have received a significant boost." The marketing boost for the Claude owner is especially important in the context of Anthropic's competition with OpenAI. As both companies vie for investor attention ahead of public offerings expected later this year, a reputation for strong models will help Anthropic, Cox says.(josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
1224 GMT - Elon Musk is putting profit from SpaceX's historic IPO to use, striking a $60 billion deal to buy Cursor, an autonomous coding agent. The deal--expected to close in the third quarter--cements an earlier agreement between the companies. SpaceX said in a post on X in April that the companies had been working closely together on coding and AI, and that it had an option to buy the startup. "The combination of Cursor's leading product and distribution to expert software engineers with SpaceX's million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer will allow us to build the world's most useful models," SpaceX said at the time. Shares climb 8.5%, to $208.89, in premarket trading. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
1150 GMT - Most investors believe that investing in semiconductors is the most crowded trade across global markets, according to Bank of America's global fund manager survey. Four in five fund managers say being long global semiconductors is the most crowded trade--a record high in the history of the survey. Crowded trades occur when large amounts of investors hold the same position, raising the risk of a sharp correction in an asset's value if investors look to sell at the same time. A gauge of semiconductor stocks has more than doubled in value so far this year, and has risen close to 15% over the last three trading days.(josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
1107 GMT - Artificial intelligence doesn't represent a major risk for Renishaw's core business at the moment, Chief Executive Will Lee says at the company's capital markets day. The engineering company is mainly focused on accelerating software development cycles and implementing new software tools to significantly boost operational productivity, he adds. Shares are up 2.8% at 52.80 pounds. (najat.kantouar@wsj.com)
1026 GMT - SpaceX investors are looking to hold the company's stock over the long term, Interactive Investor's Richard Hunter writes. The Elon Musk-run company has seen huge participation from retail investors following its initial public offering last week. However, the stock's strong performance suggests investors aren't looking to make quick profits on their shares, Hunter writes. "The early indications are clearly that this is a stock which investors are adding to their growth portfolios." Shares rise close to 10% premarket to $211.64, which is 56% above the stock's IPO price of $135, and builds a close to 20% gain in the last session. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
0852 GMT - Momentum for AI adoption rates in the U.S. shows Anthropic has overtaken Open AI, which is considering lower pricing to counter the trend, drive usage, and reclaim market shares, says Julius Baer analyst Enrico Chinello. They key differentiation is in customer bases, he adds. Around 85% of Anthropic's revenue is enterprise-based, while the majority of Open AI's turnover originates from ChatGPT consumer subscriptions, the vast majority of which are free tier, he says. Anthropic's advantage among enterprise users provides a clearer path to profitability, he says, adding that Open AI's profitability remains in question. Recent trends suggest token pricing across the industry has generally moved higher, indicating AI labs may still have pricing power without materially sacrificing profitability. (jiahui.huang@wsj.com; @ivy_jiahuihuang)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 17, 2026 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT)
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