Stocks

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36294939

Tech companies are giving the world artificial intelligence — but ironically, the tech sector itself is among those now feeling the most pain from AI.

The rise of AI tools that can write and develop code is clouding the outlook for the software industry, investors say, sending shares in those companies into a slump.

Software as a service, or “SaaS,” is a bread-and-butter business model that is now at risk of disruption because of AI, investors say, a microcosm of how AI could upend the way many businesses operate.

Shares in software giant Salesforce (CRM) are down 26% this year, making it the second-worst performing stock in the Dow.

Meanwhile, Adobe (ADBE) shares are down 19% this year. Shares in Atlassian (TEAM), which owns applications like Trello, are down 30% over the same time.

In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 is up 10% this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up 11%.

“Software valuations remain under pressure from the ‘death of software due to AI’ narrative, which likely drives continued volatility in the short term,” Matthew Hedberg, a software research analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in an August 12 note.

Sales drop 60-80% year-over-year as marketplace veterans cite economic uncertainty, increased costs, and platform algorithm changes affecting third-party merchants.

Hackernews.

Stock markets fell sharply on Friday, as U.S. unemployment rose and President Trump unveiled steep tariffs on a wide range of countries.

Trump's latest tariffs, announced late Thursday, are reigniting concerns about how these import taxes would impact the U.S. and the global economies.

On Friday morning, a weaker-than-expected jobs report amplified investors' fears about the consequences: Employers created only 73,000 jobs in July, fewer than the around 100,000 jobs economists had expected. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 fell more than 1% each. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 2%.

Part 1.

Why was Apple Sued for Securities Fraud?

Apple is a multinational technology company that engages primarily in the businesses of smart-devices and artificial intelligence (“AI”). Apple’s software includes a digital personal assistant called “Siri,” which was first introduced in October 2011. The complaint alleges that Apple misrepresented Siri’s advanced AI-based features as well as its ability to deliver them within the iPhone 16 product cycle.

In truth, as alleged, Apple lacked a functional prototype of Siri’s purported advanced AI-based features and misrepresented the time it would take to integrate such features into its devices.

The Stock Declines as the Truth is Revealed

On March 7, 2025, Apple announced it was indefinitely delaying several AI-based Siri features, citing development delays and pushing their release to sometime “in the coming year.” On this news, the price of Apple stock declined $11.59 per share, or almost 5%, from $239.07 per share on March 7, 2025, to $227.48 per share on March 10, 2025, the following trading day.

Then, on June 9, 2025, Apple hosted its Worldwide Developer Conference for 2025. Noticeably, Apple failed to announce any new updates regarding advanced Siri features. Analysts and media outlets described the WWDC as “underwhelming” and “disappointing,” with CNN stating that “it’s unlikely that any of the announcements made at Monday’s event will change the perception that Apple is behind its competitors in AI.” On this news, the price of Apple stock declined $2.47 per share, or over 1%, from $203.92 on June 6, 2025, to $201.45 per share on June 9, 2025, the following trading day.

In January, he described 2025 as “maybe the most important” in the company’s history, with the admittedly ambitious goals of releasing its long-promised robotaxi service and humanoid robots.

But Musk’s attention was monopolized by a high-profile role in the Trump administration as problems at Tesla began to mount. Even after stepping very far away from that role, Musk remains focused on a wide range of activities outside of Tesla, including starting a third political party and trying to fix problems at X, his social media platform.

That leaves Tesla — the most valuable automaker on the planet, employing 125,000 worldwide — missing one thing every other major company has: a full-time boss focused on its future.

Instead, the company has a chief executive who is so polarizing its costing the company sales and likely the ability to attract talent. While Tesla’s board and shareholders aren’t likely to show him the door, they probably should.

“To have one of the biggest companies in the world, not have a full-time CEO is unheard of,” said Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, an investment firm and one of the early investors in Tesla.

Gerber, a previous fan of the company and Musk, thinks he has now become a problem for Tesla.

“The fact of the matter is that Tesla is a massive company that needs a lot of attention, and it just isn’t getting it,” Gerber told CNN.

• Joby has quietly begun testing its long-range hydrogen-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the JAI 30. Joby does not appear to have discussed this model publicly.
• The JAI 30 has already demonstrated a flight endurance of more than nine hours, according to screenshots of tracking data that has since been taken down at the company’s request but was saved on the internet. Then Hunterbrook found the JAI 30 in person.
• Joby joins other major autonomous companies at the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Range.

Stock markets tracked U.S. stock futures lower early on Friday after Wall Street notched fresh record highs in the previous session. Late Thursday, U.S. President Trump said he would put a 35% tariff on imports from Canada effective Aug. 1, hard on the heels of his threat of a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports. Ahead of earnings season, though, stock markets have largely taken the most recent round of tariff broadsides in their stride.

• Pony AI Inc. (Nasdaq: PONY) is a hyped robotaxi company that went public in November 2024. Recent rumors around interest by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in PONY’s U.S. business have driven excitement around the company.
• Our research, including on-the-ground testing in one of the major cities in China and expert interviews, indicates that PONY has, in fact, very little to offer and is more akin to a smoke and mirrors show.
• There are serious allegations from an apparent insider that PONY actively falsified data for the algorithm of its self-driving software. Management is allegedly aware of the issue and was covering it up. We find this reckless and dangerous, especially for a company that develops autonomous driving software.
• While PONY likes to portray itself as an international player, the reality is that the company’s permit to conduct autonomous vehicle testing without a driver in California was revoked a few years ago after a crash. Pony had a similar incident in May 2025 in China, which reportedly led to the temporary suspension of the service in that district. It appears that PONY currently only has a permit to conduct autonomous vehicle testing with a driver in the U.S.
• We tested the company’s robotaxis in available districts in China. Based on our experience, it appears PONY has the least pick-up spots, longest waiting time, and overall worse customer experience than the industry leader there. In our opinion, PONY is clearly losing against Chinese peers such as Baidu Apollo and WeRide.
• Expert interviews confirm the issues we saw in our on-the-ground due diligence. PONY is lacking data, a high-definition map, and would need enormous funding and time to catch up with peers, according to industry experts.
• The economics of PONY currently appear dire. Financials worsened after the IPO and the company heavily relies on its related-party transactions. A big portion of PONY’s total revenue comes from an entity directly related to the Chinese military.
• PONY’s close ties to the Chinese Government caused Senators to call for a delisting of PONY from U.S. stock exchanges. We think these issues themselves make a potential acquisition of the U.S. business difficult despite management claiming a separation of the U.S. and Chinese businesses. PONY is trading at record valuations, and the recent expiration of the lock-up restrictions is poised to put pressure on the company’s share price.

• Microvast Holdings, Inc. (MVST) is a battery company that portrays hundreds of millions in revenue and exciting new clients to investors. We believe the company is fabricating a significant part of its business and capabilities.
• We conducted extensive on-the-ground due diligence on MVST’s main production facilities and cross-checked that data with satellite images. We literally counted for weeks the trucks going in and out, employees coming and leaving, cars in the parking lot, etc.
• We observed MVST’s Ludwigsfelde/Berlin plant extensively since its supposed production start in March 2021, where up to 250 people should be working to service MVST’s growing European market. After 41 random observations during business hours, we saw only two semi-trucks docked; for 39 out of the 41 visits, all 5 docks and 10 semi-truck lots were unused. The employee parking lot was filled with less than 30 cars on average and never exceeded 50 cars.
• MVST’s largest production facility is in China where over 2,500 employees are supposedly working, according to the company’s disclosure. Our site observations, along with Chinese Local Government documents indicate that the facility in fact only employs a shrinking group of approximately 1,400 people.
• MVST failed all of its U.S. business initiatives and lost dozens of millions of shareholders’ money in the process. Management has not been able to get a US based production facility off the ground.
• Given the devastatingly low activity levels over an extended period of time that cannot align with the financials MVST presents to investors, we must conclude that MVST’s reported financial statements cannot be relied upon.
• We looked deeper into MVST’s announced clients and partnerships and found that the vast majority (>95%) of MVST’s commercial counterparts outside of China, sometimes described as major wins or breakthrough partnerships, are tiny startups or prototype partnerships showing insignificant economic opportunities.
• MVST had been denied a $200 million grant for the construction of its U.S. facility due to its suspected ties with the Chinese government in the company. MVST’s management has explicitly and vehemently denied any involvement by the CCP. We found the paper trail that unrefutably proves that the Chinese government is in fact a shareholder in MVST’s main Chinese subsidiary.
• Our investigation has uncovered numerous, well-documented, and substantial falsehoods, which have been signed off by the same auditor we have seen in past frauds like “Gaotu Techedu Inc.” (GOTU, previous ticker: GSX).