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Market Data Table

Breakfast News: Smart Money Still Likes AI Odds

September 8, 2026

Friday's Markets
S&P 500 7,719 (-0.37%)
Nasdaq 26,507 (-0.29%)
Dow 53,414 (-0.51%)
Bitcoin $79,800 (-2.41%)

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1. Chipmakers Chase AI Demand Beyond Silicon Valley

Chart comparing the market performance of Nvidia and ASML to that of the S&P 500 over the past three years, with Nvidia up 410%, ASML up 173%, and the S&P up 72%.

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You've probably never heard of Mistral. It's private, French, and off-limits to retail investors. Yet, it just pulled off the biggest funding round in European tech history. Who signed the check matters to AI investors in the U.S.

Samsung led a 3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) round for the loss-making Mistral, doubling its valuation to $24 billion in just one year. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) joined in, making all three stakeholders in a lab that markets itself as Europe's answer to America's AI dominance. Here's our biggest takeaways for U.S. investors.

Global AI capex isn't slowing down: Mistral's round proves it. Demand is also no longer locked within Silicon Valley. Semiconductor companies are building multiregional demand pipelines beyond OpenAI and Anthropic. For chip giants like Nvidia, every new well-funded lab building its own compute means more demand for chips, power, and data centers.
Private AI valuations are worth reading: When three of the most sophisticated tech corporate investors double a loss-making AI lab's valuation in a year, it shows how confident smart money remains on AI. And a useful context the next time someone tells you AI valuations are pure froth!

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2. Ionis Falls 10% as an Entire Drug Class Wobbles

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) ran an 8,323-patient trial of pelacarsen, a drug it licensed from Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS), a Rule Breakers recommendation. Pelacarsen sharply lowered lipoprotein(a), a hereditary, cholesterol-like particle linked to heart disease, and did it safely. That drop didn't produce a statistically significant fall in heart attacks, strokes, and cardiac deaths versus placebo. Both Ionis and Novartis shares fell over 10% in pre-market trading.

The science, not just the sales pitch, took the hit: Shrinking Lp(a) didn't cut cardiovascular events. That challenges the core idea behind the whole drug class. Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) are chasing the same bet with their own Lp(a) drugs.
The verdict waits on Novartis's data, not this headline: An upcoming medical meeting will reveal the full results. If the highest-dose patients still benefit, the Lp(a) hypothesis survives one flawed drug. Otherwise, a flat effect across doses sinks the whole approach. It's Ionis's second partnered cardiovascular miss this year, after eplontersen trial with AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) failed in July. Ionis holds mid-teens to low-20% royalties plus $650 million in milestones riding on pelacarsen working.

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3. Braze, ServiceTitan, and Casey's: The Guide Is the Real Test

We usually preview the week in Breakfast News on Mondays, but since yesterday was a public holiday, we'll look ahead today instead -- starting with three recommendations from Team Rule Breakers reporting later!

Braze's (NASDAQ:BRZE) revenue of $211 million last quarter topped Wall Street's estimates, marking the fourth straight quarter of organic revenue growth. Earnings missed, though, meaning today's report should prove that the customer-engagement software maker's momentum is compounding, not peaking.
ServiceTitan (NASDAQ:TTAN), the home-services software company, says its AI product Max/AI is turning into real profit. Full-year fiscal 2027 guidance calls for revenue of around $1.14 billion at the midpoint. It also calls for mid-point non-GAAP operating income of $144.5 million. Today's report should prove that the range is moving up.
Casey's General Stores' (NASDAQ:CASY) same-store sales are its real growth engine. Investors want to see the pizza-and-fuel chain's sales and margins hit the top of full-year guidance. The business is also integrating roughly 200 acquired CEFCO sites and targeting 120-plus new stores this year.

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4. Oracle, Adobe, and Chewy: Growth Has to Be Real, Not Rented

Later this week, more notable companies are set to report, with a different test for each on their own growth path.

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) will report on Thursday after the closing bell. Last quarter, results triggered a 12.9% intraday drop as investors balked at the pace and cost of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's data center build-out. Expect the same scrutiny on AI capital expenditure (capex) and enterprise demand this time around.
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) enters Q3 with strong momentum, having reported a record revenue in Q2, up 13% year over year. AI-first annual recurring revenue more than tripled to over $500 million for the Team Rule Breakers rec. The real test for fiscal year 2027 is whether AI usage converts into durable, paid growth and its enterprise tools can survive rising AI-native competition.
Chewy's (NYSE:CHWY) management warned last quarter that the consumer pet environment is getting tougher. Recent acquisitions could help to boost Q2 earnings for the Rule Breakers rec. However, Fool analyst Alicia Alfiere cautioned Chewy earlier this summer, saying, "growing through acquisitions can allow a company to grow a business segment faster than starting from scratch. But it carries risk too. We'll be watching closely to see how it goes."

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5. Rubrik Reinvents Itself Every Nine Months

Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK) sits near the top of two scoring systems at once, which almost never happens. Team Hidden Gems gives the data security company a Superscore of 82, our all-in quality grade that blends dozens of factors into one number, and Team Rule Breakers lands within two points of that at 84. Both teams have bought it, roughly seven months apart and at very different prices. Shares have gained about 8% since Team Hidden Gems bought through Moneyball Portfolio in August 2025, and about 65% since Team Rule Breakers followed in March through Leadership Portfolio.

Recovery in hours: Rubrik assumes attackers will get in. Its software hunts for malware during routine backups, so a breached hospital or bank restores clean files the same day. Legacy backup tools drag customers through weeks of cleanup afterward. Buyers keep coming back, and net retention above 120% shows existing accounts spend a fifth more each year than they did the year before.
Reinvention on a clock: CEO Bipul Sinha thinks product cycles now shrink too fast for any single winning product to hold its lead. "You have to reinvent your company every 6-9 months," he says. His results support the approach. Revenue grew about 38% in the fiscal second quarter reported in August 2026, to $427.3 million, and Rubrik swung to a non-GAAP profit of $0.20 per share from a loss a year earlier.

Team Hidden Gems has a 5-year price prediction of $199.58.

Team Rule Breakers has a 5-year price prediction of $262.

Even the more conservative of those two figures would more than double a share bought near today's $92, which explains why two teams with different lenses both want to own Sinha's next reinvention.

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6. Today's Question

Biotech stocks can make money, but the science can be confusing. Do you invest in companies you don't fully understand? Why or why not?

Discuss with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying!

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