Nasdaq Confirms Entry into Correction Zone, Brent Crude Surges to $108. Chip Smuggling Case Burns from Court to Capitol Hill, Apple Transforms Siri into an AI Supermarket.
1｜Nasdaq Confirms Correction, Oil Prices, War, and AI Fatigue Crushing Tech Stocks Simultaneously
The Nasdaq fell 2.38% on Thursday, marking an 11% cumulative decline from its historical high on October 29 of last year, officially confirming its entry into correction territory. The S&P 500 dropped 1.74% to 6477 points, recording its largest single-day decline since January. The Dow fell 1.01% to 45960 points.
Tech stocks are the hardest hit. Meta dropped nearly 8%, with a ruling on social media addiction being the direct trigger. AMD fell over 7%, Nvidia fell over 4%, and the Philadelphia semiconductor index declined 2.9% in a single day. Micron has seen a nearly 20% decline over five trading days, as the market continues to digest the impact of Google’s TurboQuant algorithm significantly reducing AI memory demand.
The underlying drivers are oil prices and war expectations. Brent crude rose 5.66% to $108, while WTI increased 4.61% to $94.48. European Central Bank President Lagarde warned the same day that the Iran conflict would drive up inflation, hinting at potential interest rate hikes. The market is pricing in a question: Is this a 2025-style buying opportunity during a correction, or the starting point of a triple pressure from war, inflation, and AI valuation reassessment?
(Source: CNBC / The Motley Fool / Reuters / The Street)
2｜Senators Call for Freezing Nvidia Export Licenses, Chip Regulation Review Powers Come to the Fore
Senators Warren and Banks wrote to the Department of Commerce, demanding an immediate halt to the approval of Nvidia’s export licenses for China and Southeast Asia, covering regions including China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. The two are simultaneously pushing the “Chip Security Act,” the core provision of which is to transfer export license review powers from the Department of Commerce to Congress.
The timing of this letter is not a coincidence. The Super Micro case exposed a fact: Export licenses issued by the Department of Commerce are being systematically circumvented, with $2.5 billion worth of hardware flowing to places it should not reach through shell companies. Warren and Banks’ logic is straightforward: if the executive branch cannot control the licenses, then the legislative branch should take over. The focus of chip regulation is shifting from technical enforcement issues to a power struggle in Washington.
(Source: CNN / Fortune / Tom’s Hardware)
3｜Iran Builds a Renminbi Toll Station in the Strait of Hormuz
Iran has not only blocked the Strait of Hormuz. Fortune and Al Jazeera report that Iran is charging passing vessels tolls of up to $2 million, with at least two transactions settled in renminbi, facilitated by a Chinese maritime service company as an intermediary. CIPS (Cross-border Interbank Payment System) saw its transaction volume hit a new high for the year in March. As of March 23, at least 20 vessels have passed through this “pay-per-use channel.”
Shipowners must submit a complete set of documents to intermediaries designated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, including IMO numbers, cargo lists, destinations, and crew lists, which are reviewed one by one by naval personnel of the Revolutionary Guard. The Iranian parliament is drafting legislation to make the temporary tolls a permanent system.
Trump announced the same day that the deadline for strikes against Iranian energy facilities would be extended to April 6. But the signal here is not a timeline for war escalation; it is about settlement currency. Iran has turned the world’s most critical energy choke point into a renminbi-priced toll machine using wartime control. (Continued from the previous report)
(Source: Fortune / Al Jazeera / Asia Times / Foreign Policy)
4｜Apple Opens Siri to Gemini and Claude, End of OpenAI’s Exclusive Era
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Apple plans to open Siri to third-party AI assistants in iOS 27. Users will be able to select whether to direct questions to Gemini or Claude, rather than just ChatGPT. Apple is expected to make an official announcement on June 8 at WWDC. This means OpenAI will lose its exclusive partnership with Apple.
On the same day, two side signals completed the picture. Apple is providing its iPhone design team with rare retention bonuses, as OpenAI is aggressively poaching Apple hardware engineers. Meanwhile, OpenAI is also shifting direction; FT reported that Altman issued an internal “Code Red” alert late last year because enterprise customers were three times more likely to choose Anthropic when first procuring AI than OpenAI. OpenAI’s share of the enterprise market has dropped from 50% in 2023 to 27%.
Apple acknowledges it cannot produce top-tier AI, but it intends to allow every AI to compete for the entry to 1 billion users. What OpenAI is losing is not just a partner, but an exclusive channel.
(Source: Bloomberg / MacRumors / FT / Entrepreneur / TechCrunch)
5｜Fannie Mae Accepts Crypto-Backed Mortgages for the First Time, Bitcoin Enters Housing Credit System
Coinbase and online lender Better have jointly launched the first crypto-backed mortgage product approved by Fannie Mae. Borrowers can pledge Bitcoin or USDC as collateral for the down payment while retaining ownership of the assets, avoiding taxable events triggered by sales. Interest rates are 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points higher than standard 30-year rates. A key provision is that there are no additional margin requirements, meaning a plummet in Bitcoin prices will not trigger forced liquidation; only accounts that are overdue by 60 days will enter the liquidation process.
On the same day, another line is progressing in parallel. The White House has approved a review of crypto access rules for 401(k) retirement accounts, which, if ultimately lifted, will open the crypto asset door to a $10 trillion retirement market.
This is not a victory party for the crypto industry; it is traditional financial infrastructure deciding to absorb crypto liquidity. When Fannie Mae’s name appears on crypto products, the signal is clear: the federal housing credit system has accepted Bitcoin as an asset class.
(Source: CoinDesk / Bloomberg / WSJ / Fortune)
6｜Shield AI Valuation Rises 140% in a Year to $12.7 Billion, Wartime Economy Reshapes Military Capital
Defense AI startup Shield AI announced it has raised $2 billion at a valuation of $12.7 billion (with $1.5 billion in equity and $500 million in preferred shares), up from a valuation of $5.3 billion a year ago. The lead investors are Advent International and JPMorgan’s Strategic Investment Division. The direct reason for the valuation jump is that Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomous flight system was selected for the U.S. Air Force’s collaborative combat drone project, providing software for Anduril’s Fury unmanned combat aircraft.
On the same day, FT reported that Carlyle and KKR are building two data centers for the U.S. Army, each costing $2 billion. Traditional PE giants are treating military infrastructure as an asset class for allocation.
Shield AI’s valuation could not have risen 140% in peacetime. The real signal is the source of capital; it’s not venture capital but institutional investors like JPMorgan and Advent betting that the wartime economy is a long-term state.
(Source: TechCrunch / Reuters / Bloomberg / FT)
Also Worth Knowing ↓
David Sacks’ 130-day term as AI+Crypto Czar has expired, transitioning to Co-Chair of PCAST. The White House will no longer appoint new czars. During his tenure, Sacks pushed for the crypto executive order and Bitcoin reserve plan, but legislation on stablecoins and market structure remains unfinished. (Source: CNBC / Axios)
Goldman Sachs estimates that the Iran war will eliminate 10,000 jobs monthly, hitting leisure hotels and retail hardest. Economist Pierfrancesco Mei’s model shows Brent crude’s average price in March was $105, and it could surge to $115 in April. Gen Z has the highest concentration in the hotel and dining industry and will be the most impacted. (Source: Fortune / Goldman Sachs) (Continued from the previous report)
JPMorgan states that Bitcoin has shown safe-haven demand during the Iran war, while gold and silver have dropped due to ETF redemptions. $14 billion in Bitcoin quarterly options will expire on Friday, the largest amount this year. The traditional narrative of safe-haven assets is loosening. (Source: CoinDesk / The Block / JPMorgan)
Cohere and Mistral released open-source voice models on the same day, entering a price war in the AI voice market. The Cohere model has 2 billion parameters and can run on consumer-grade GPUs. The Mistral model can run on smartwatches. ElevenLabs’ paid moat is narrowing. (Source: TechCrunch / VentureBeat)
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, together with more than 40 units, has released the first industry standard in the field of embodied intelligence, effective June 1. The standard covers benchmark testing methods and system frameworks. On the same day, Suton JuChuang announced its first quarterly profit, with annual sales of 300,000 robotic lidar units, ranking first globally. (Source: 36Kr / CCTV News)
Helium shortages are beginning to impact the tech supply chain. Executives from multiple semiconductor companies confirmed the effects at CERAWeek. Helium is a key cooling material for chip manufacturing and fiber optic production, and the Iran war and Qatar’s production disruptions have exacerbated supply tightness. (Source: Reuters)
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