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Micron finished the week in the red despite a blockbuster earnings report. But falling oil prices was good news for the fight against inflation. View More

Wall Street spent the week debating who the biggest winners and losers of the artificial intelligence boom will ultimately be. Memory chipmaker Micron's blockbuster earnings reinforced the fervent demand for computing resources, but it also led investors to question whether the AI buildout is becoming too expensive for the hyperscalers funding it. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.6% for the week, while the S & P 500 slipped 1.95%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend, edging up 0.6%, as lower oil prices benefited economically sensitive names and a rotation away from AI lifted healthcare stocks. Here's a closer look at what drove the market this week. Micron reignites the AI trade — for a day Semiconductor stocks came under pressure on Tuesday after a brutal sell-off in South Korea's Kospi Index spilled over to Wall Street. Shares of Korean memory giants Samsung and SK Hynix plunged overnight, dragging AI stocks on Wall Street lower and fueling concerns that the chip trade had finally run too far, too fast. Micron fell roughly 13% on Tuesday alone, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.2%. Those fears eased Wednesday evening when Micron reported earnings. The company delivered a blockbuster quarter , more than quadrupling revenue from a year ago and issuing guidance for the current quarter well above Wall Street's expectations. Micron also announced 16 long-term supply agreements spanning data center operators, automakers and other customers, giving investors greater confidence that the memory upcycle has years to run. In response, Micron soared 16% Thursday, lifting peers across the memory-and-storage complex. That includes chipmakers SanDisk and Western Digital , as well as companies that make equipment used to build chips, such as Applied Materials and Lam Research . The report reinforced one of Jim Cramer's biggest themes in this market : AI-related companies with product shortages continue to benefit from extraordinary demand and pricing power, boosting profits. The excitement spilled over to Club holding Corning , whose fiber-optic products have become increasingly critical to AI data centers. Shares climbed to fresh record highs Thursday, prompting us to trim a small portion of our position and lock in a gain of roughly 160% on shares purchased in October 2025. The stock also had a strong day Wednesday for reasons we couldn't fully explain . We remain bullish on Corning's long-term prospects, but our discipline is to take some profits when a stock's advance seems to outrun its current fundamentals. The enthusiasm for many chip stocks didn't last. A basket of chip stocks fell over 5% Friday after reports that OpenAI is considering delaying its initial public offering until next year raised fresh questions about the durability of funding for the AI infrastructure boom. Investors worried that pushing back one of the market's most anticipated IPOs could make it harder for AI companies to fund their massive spending plans. Micron fell 6.7% Friday and ultimately finished the week down 0.15% — encapsulating the week's volatility. The broader semiconductor trade fared even worse, with Club names Nvidia , Broadcom , Intel , and Arm ending the week down 8.6%, 12.3%, 4.2% and 23.9%, respectively. The hyperscalers run into a brick wall If Micron's earnings showed who is winning from the AI boom , Apple highlighted who is paying for it. Shares of the iPhone maker sank 6.1% Thursday after the company announced price increases across several MacBook and iPad models, citing soaring memory and storage costs. It marked Apple's first formal move to pass higher component prices on to consumers after CEO Tim Cook acknowledged last week that the company could no longer absorb the increases . Apple wasn't alone. Every member of the " Magnificent Seven " finished the week in the red as investors continued to shy away away from the companies funding the AI buildout and toward the businesses supplying it. That's exactly what Jim argued in his Sunday column : the hyperscalers have run into a hardware bottleneck. Amazon , Alphabet , Microsoft and Meta have the financial resources to continue investing aggressively in artificial intelligence, but the surge in demand has created supply shortages that are driving the cost of inputs like memory sharply higher. Earlier this year, Microsoft and Meta both cited rising component costs as contributing to their ballooning AI capital expenditures, while Apple's price hikes showed even the world's most valuable consumer electronics company isn't immune. Meanwhile, the companies supplying those critical components have become some of the market's biggest winners. For now, Jim thinks investors are better off owning the suppliers than the buyers — though our long-term investment horizon keeps us from trading in and out of names. Nevertheless, until supply and demand become less imbalanced, the companies selling the picks and shovels of the AI boom appear better positioned than the companies writing the checks. Falling oil helps inflation picture While technology struggled, falling oil prices gave some economically sensitive stocks a boost. Even after President Donald Trump accused Iran on Friday of violating the ceasefire agreement by launching attack drones at commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the oil market barely flinched. U.S. standard West Texas Intermediate crude ended Friday at roughly $69 a barrel, while international benchmark Brent hovered around $72, erasing nearly all of the gains sparked by the conflict earlier this year. Traders last week instead focused on signs that tanker traffic was returning to the vital shipping route for global energy and chemical supplies. To be sure, a wrinkle arrived after the market closed Friday, with the U.S. military disclosing it conducted strikes against Iran in response to the "unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces." It remains to be seen how the market will digest that news in the week ahead. But last week, at least, declining oil prices helped ease inflation concerns, pushing Treasury yields lower and reducing fears that the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates multiple times later this year. That gave sectors sensitive to economic growth — including industrials, financials, and transportation stocks — a lift. Gains in Sherwin-Williams , Caterpillar and Home Depot , helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average cling to a modest weekly gain even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq remained under pressure. Healthcare stocks like Club name Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth were another source of strength for the blue-chip index. J & J ended Friday at a record close, as did our two other healthcare stocks in Eli Lilly and Cardinal Health . The oil backdrop made last week's earnings from FedEx and FedEx Freight particularly important because both companies spend a lot of money on fuel and had implemented surcharges to cover the recent spike. Slowing economic activity tied to the energy crunch is a risk for them. On Tuesday night, FedEx initially sold off after issuing what some viewed as disappointing guidance, but we believe investors missed the bigger story within a noisy print. The company topped Wall Street's expectations on both revenue and earnings, while management pointed to continued momentum in higher-margin businesses such as healthcare, aerospace, automotive and AI-related data center logistics. We took advantage of the post-earnings weakness to build up our position in Wednesday's session. The recently spun off FedEx Freight reported on Thursday night. While the quarter itself contained few surprises, management struck an encouraging tone on the freight market, saying demand is beginning to stabilize after a multiyear downturn. The stock's pullback following earnings created an opportunity for us to buy some additional shares of FedEx Freight. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Cassandra Tresl and Alex Ninman moved in with Tresl's grandfather in the Czech Republic in 2020 and closed on a house in Abruzzo, Italy, in 2022. View More

My 5-year-old daughter will start primary school in Italy this September. Watching her prepare for this next chapter has made me reflect on how much our lives have changed.My husband, Alex Ninman, and I were both born and raised in the U.S., but our daughter wasn't. We left New York City, where I worked in operations at a tech startup and my husband was a butcher at Whole Foods, to move to Europe in 2019. We were staying with my grandfather in the Czech Republic when we welcomed our daughter in 2020.  Today, we live in a small town in Italy's Abruzzo region, about three hours outside Rome. While many Americans who move abroad are drawn to larger cities or well-known destinations like Florence, we chose a place that most tourists have never heard of.We found a different way of life, and I can't imagine moving back to the U.S. in the coming years. Going abroad Like many Americans, my husband and I grew up surrounded by the idea that success meant constantly upgrading — larger homes, newer cars, bigger achievements, and busier schedules. Over time, we started questioning whether any of those things were actually making us happier. Cassandra Tresl, her husband Alex Ninman, who were both born and raised in the U.S., now live with their daughter live in the Abruzzo region of Italy.Martin Errichiello for CNBC Make It While we weren't chasing a fantasy version of life abroad, we did want more time, more flexibility, and a stronger sense of connection to the people around us.Italy offered us so many of the things we felt were missing. Buying a house in Abruzzo Living in a small town made it possible for us to buy a home in cash without taking on the kind of financial burden that often comes with homeownership in the U.S. We paid 11,500 euros, or about $13,100, for our home — a two-floor, two-bedroom house just under 1,076 square feet, with a third bedroom in the basement as well as an attic — and I'd estimate that we put in another roughly 15,000 euros, or about $17,100, toward renovations.  The fact that Tresl and her husband were able to buy their home in cash "felt unbelievable," she says, adding that she feels "a sense of relief" not to have a monthly rent or mortgage payment.Martin Errichiello for CNBC Make It Food, childcare, and other expenses are more affordable here. The lower cost of living gave us breathing room and allowed us to focus less on earning more and more. I kept my tech job and worked remotely at first. But once we settled in, I felt free to let it go. I make less now doing marketing for an Italian travel company and creating content, but the tradeoff has been worth it.My flexible schedule allows me to take my daughter to preschool in the morning, pick her up in the afternoon, and spend more of her childhood present for the everyday moments. It also gives our family the freedom to travel, explore new corners of Italy, and pursue projects we're passionate about. Tresl and her family live in a traditional hilltop town, she says: "That means we have these magnificent views all around us."Martin Errichiello for CNBC Make It Our decision to settle here was more than financial. We were drawn to the sense of community. We wanted to become part of a place and contribute to it, rather than looking for a temporary adventure or an expat bubble.Buying a house felt like a commitment to building a future in a community that welcomed us. Finding a different kind of community In our town, people don't keep quite the same distance from one another that we often experienced growing up in the U.S. Neighbors stop to talk in the street. Friends drop by unexpectedly. It's not unusual for someone to pop in for a quick visit or check in simply because they haven't seen you in a few days. It isn't considered intrusive; it's part of looking out for one another. "We found a place where we could enjoy life and feel connected," Tresl says.Martin Errichiello for CNBC Make It That sense of connection becomes especially visible during the summer. When school is out, life shifts into the piazza and the streets. After dinner, families gather outside while children run from one end of town to the other playing games together. Local festivals fill the calendar and August often feels like one long community celebration.It's common to see toddlers, school-age kids and teenagers still in the piazza at 11 p.m. or midnight while parents and grandparents sit nearby talking with friends.When we first arrived, it felt completely foreign. Now it feels normal. In the U.S., people might assume the children are unsupervised. Here, we take comfort in the fact that they're surrounded by a community that knows and cares for them. Watching our daughter grow up Our daughter started preschool shortly after turning 2 and has spent nearly her entire childhood immersed in the local culture. This fall, she'll begin primary school alongside children she's known for years.Alongside English, Czech, and Italian, she's beginning to absorb the local dialect — a language tradition that has been passed down through generations in this region. In a small way, she's becoming part of the effort to carry that culture forward. For Tresl and Ninman's daughter, Italy and their small town in Abruzzo is home.Martin Errichiello for CNBC Make It For my husband and me, Italy will always be a country we chose and Italian a foreign language we have to work at. For our daughter, it's simply home. Living with less and gaining more Life here isn't perfect. We miss our family and friends in the states. And Italian bureaucracy can be frustrating, with things often moving at a slower pace than we're used to. Simple tasks have often involved more paperwork, appointments, or follow-up visits than I expected. At one point, I even had to provide a copy of my health insurance card while setting up home internet service. I've learned that patience is often part of the process. Tresl "can't imagine moving back to the U.S." anytime soon.Martin Errichiello for CNBC Make It But we've also gained things that are harder to quantify. We spend less time driving and consuming, and more time walking, talking with neighbors, participating in local events and being present in the mundane. Daily life feels less focused on material accumulation and more focused on relationships.In our small town here in Abruzzo, we found a place where we could enjoy life and feel connected to the people around us. This is the kind of life we want for ourselves and our daughter, who we hope will continue to grow up with a deep sense of belonging. Cassandra Tresl is a writer, content creator and curious observer of everyday life in rural Italy. She lives in Italy's Abruzzo region with her husband, Alex, and their daughter, and shares stories through Rootless in Italy about family, community and building a life that looks a little different from the one she grew up expecting.Want to get ahead at work? Then you need to learn how to make effective small talk. In CNBC's new online course, How To Talk To People At Work, expert instructors share practical strategies to help you use everyday conversations to gain visibility, build meaningful relationships and accelerate your career growth. Sign up today! Take control of your money with CNBC Select CNBC Select is editorially independent and may earn a commission from affiliate partners on links.What credit score do you need to qualify for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card?How much should a honeymoon cost? Here’s the average price tag — and how to pay for yoursThe best hardship loans for bad credit of July 2026You can expect gas prices to remain elevated. Here’s how to saveCan you pay student loans with a credit card?

The Google parent's homegrown silicon is a big advantage in the AI compute race. View More

Alphabet has squashed concerns that artificial intelligence will destroy its Google tech empire. One of its biggest weapons in the fight: homegrown silicon chips. Google's in-house tensor processing units (TPUs) serve as the engine to the company's Gemini chatbot, which has bolstered its image in the past year against rivals like OpenAI's ChatGPT. They also represent an integral part of Google's fast-growing cloud-computing business, where customers — including buzzy AI startup Anthropic — rent access to the chips; in some cases, they can now buy TPUs for their own data centers. Google also has a new AI compute venture with asset management giant Blackstone, built around the TPU. Google's compute business is seeing strong demand, with Wall Street projecting Google Cloud revenue to surge roughly 64% this year, to $96 billion, according to FactSet. Analysts see robust expansion continuing in 2027, with growth modeled above 50%. With demand for AI computing power surging, Google's TPUs are increasingly seen as a compelling alternative to Nvidia's market-leading graphics processing units (GPUs). They position Alphabet as a major force in AI infrastructure, even as Google Cloud still trails Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in revenue. That status benefits both Google's internal AI efforts and helps win outside customers — a lucrative one-two punch that figures into Jim Cramer's admiration for the stock. Google is "probably the most underappreciated competitor of Nvidia," said Brad Gastwirth, global head of market research and market intelligence at Circular Technology , a supply chain services firm focused on compute infrastructure. While AI computing is a complex process, the appeal of the TPU comes down to a widely understood idea in life: making your money go further. In this case, the goal is to obtain the most computing power for every dollar spent, an increasingly critical consideration as companies race to deploy AI at scale. Main stages of AI computing At the simplest level, there are two primary stages of AI computing. Training: This happens first. Training teaches an AI model by feeding it massive amounts of data so it can learn patterns and improve its responses. This is the phase in which companies develop large language models such as Gemini. It requires enormous computing power, making it one of the most expensive parts of building AI systems. Inference: The process by which a trained AI model makes predictions or decisions based on new data. Inference is much less computationally heavy than training on a per-task basis. But once a model is deployed, inference is theoretically occurring all the time. So, the cumulative inference costs for a model can exceed its training costs over its lifetime. Put simply, the purpose of training is to learn, while the purpose of inference is to make predictions. The nature of TPUs enables them to deliver strong performance on AI tasks while reducing the cost of running those systems. TPUs belong to a class of chips called application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs. Gastwirth likened ASICs to a custom suit — but instead of being tailored to a person's body, the processors are designed specifically for certain tasks. TPUs are optimized for machine learning tasks like training models and running them in real time, a process known as inference. Google co-designs the chips with fellow Club name Broadcom . The specialization of TPUs gives them an edge in efficiency, with William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart noting that they can deliver more computing output with less power. "Most ASICs consume 20% to 40% less energy than Nvidia processors, allowing for greater performance-per-dollar," Schackart continued. Those cost advantages, Schackart said, allow Google to charge about 20% to 30% less for excess compute capacity, which is attracting AI unicorns to Google's offerings, including its cloud business and enterprise services. To be sure, Google's AI computing ambitions face plenty of competition, and investment in innovation is required to stay on the cutting edge. Additionally, everyone in the AI compute business faces risks related to component availability — from memory chips to other input materials — and limited manufacturing capacity. Elevated memory costs, in particular, have weighed on the stocks of megacap tech stocks this week. More generally, the tight supply chain can cause delays to server and data center builds and be a limiting factor on growth. Another question mark around Google's AI efforts has emerged in recent days, specifically the loss of talented AI researchers to OpenAI and Anthropic. While these employees worked on developing AI models rather than TPU development, the company's success has come from having capable AI systems running on optimized, well-designed hardware; they complement each other. Shares of Alphabet are down 16% from their early-May peak, coinciding with a broader period of weakness among hyperscalers. For the year, though, Alphabet shares are still up about 8%, outperforming Microsoft , Amazon , and Meta Platforms . The leader Nvidia is the biggest player in AI compute. The company's GPUs offer more flexibility than an ASIC such as a TPU — after all, GPUs were originally designed to render better 3D computer graphics before their processing power was harnessed for a broader range of tasks, including AI. Today, Nvidia's data center GPUs hold a dominant position in training AI models and are also used for day-to-day inference. In many ways, they are the default chips for the AI era. In addition, Nvidia holds a major advantage with its CUDA software system, which developers have built around for years. CEO Jensen Huang also frequently argues that Nvidia's presence in all the major clouds is a big advantage, saying on an earnings call last year: "The reason why developers love us is because we're literally everywhere." The downside to GPUs? They're expensive, power-hungry relative to specialized TPUs, and hard to get, given their high demand. Nvidia remains the "broad ecosystem leader," with its dominant market share insulated in the near future, analysts at Stifel wrote in a May research note. However, they argued Nvidia's "moat is increasingly being tested." With AI adoption growing, analysts said the market is shifting from a "training-led regime toward inference-led regime by the end of 2026." After ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, the first wave of AI computing was dominated by training as companies raced to create new models. ChatGPT grew up on Nvidia chips and still relies on them, while also broadening its compute portfolio to include other types of silicon. Fast forward to today, and AI models are seeing rapid adoption from consumers and enterprises alike. That's why the split toward inference is accelerating. The evolution is placing greater focus on compute costs and return on investment, which analysts said is accelerating hyperscalers' interest in homegrown ASICs and alternative AI chips, sometimes called AI accelerators. Advanced Micro Devices is another competitor in the GPU space. Wait ... what about CPUs? In recent months, central processing units (CPUs) have seen a surge in demand after initially being overlooked during the AI compute boom. That's true — and we haven't forgotten about them. But they play a slightly different role in the AI compute landscape than GPUs and custom accelerators like TPUs. CPUs work in conjunction with accelerator chips, handling more general-purpose tasks, doing much of the "orchestration" for the entire AI system, and keeping the accelerators fed. The main reason for the current CPU renaissance is that agentic AI systems perform many of those general-purpose tasks, such as browsing the web, managing files, and combing through databases. Both Nvidia and Google have designed their own CPUs. AMD and Intel , which is another Club stock, are longtime CPU giants. Club name Arm Holdings is another notable CPU player. Another factor driving interest in custom silicon: Soaring demand for AI computing has created a tight supply environment. It's pushing companies with the capital to take matters into their own hands and develop specialized chips to meet their rising compute demand. Outside of Google's TPUs, Amazon has developed a lineup of custom chips, including its CPU, Graviton, and its AI accelerator, Trainium, which are used internally and sold to customers to power their applications. Microsoft developed its own in-house silicon called Maia to power its cloud infrastructure and reduce costs. Meanwhile, social media giant Meta Platforms is developing its MTIA (Meta Training and Inference Accelerator) processors, designed to run AI models across its family of apps, including Instagram and Facebook. ChatGPT creator OpenAI is also rolling out its first in-house chip later this year , designed in conjunction with Broadcom. Google's TPU discovery Google has been at it the longest. The company's TPU discovery came in 2013, when Google leadership produced an alarming projection that demand for computing on its products would outpace its current infrastructure. "We did some back-of-the-napkin math looking at how much compute it would take to handle hundreds of millions of people talking to Google for just three minutes a day," said Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist, in a company blog post from 2024. "In today's framing, that seems like nothing. But at the time, we soon realized it would take basically all the compute power that Google had deployed. Put another way, we'd need to double the number of computers in Google data centers to support these new features." After realizing the market didn't offer anything that met the demand for even basic machine learning workloads to operate their products, the team began laying the groundwork for its first TPU. Google's first version of the TPU was deployed internally in 2015 and quickly became a critical component across different areas at Google. "We thought we'd maybe build under 10,000 of them," Andy Swing, principal engineer on Google's machine learning hardware systems, said in the same blog post. "We ended up building over 100,000 to support all kinds of great stuff, including Ads, Search, speech projects, AlphaGo, and even some self-driving car stuff." Before powering AI models like Gemini, the chips were used across a wide range of machine-learning applications, including Search, YouTube recommendations, and advertising systems. Today, in the company's words , TPUs "serve as the backbone for AI across nearly all of Google's products." A new milestone Since then, Google's TPUs have become more advanced and efficient across generations. The upcoming generation marks a notable milestone in their existence. Google's latest eighth-generation TPUs, announced in late April at the Google Cloud Next conference, mark the first time the company has split its chip lineup into two specialized variants for training and inference: the TPU 8t for model training and the TPU 8i for inference or the ongoing running on AI models after users submit prompts. These two TPU chips are designed to meet demanding AI workloads, including autonomous AI agents to get things done on people's behalf. The TPU system will work closely with CPUs. Google said the chips are up to three times faster for AI model training, offer 80% better performance per dollar, and can run more than 1 million TPUs in a single cluster. "This gives us the ability to create the largest training cluster in the world," said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai at Google's I/O developer conference last month. A training cluster is a massive network of thousands of chips that work together as a single supercomputer to train AI models. "For model builders, this means training larger, more capable models in weeks, rather than months," Pichai said. In general, TPUs are lowering Alphabet's cost of running AI while giving the tech giant more flexibility in how it prices cloud services, improving its bottom line. Pichai has also pointed to a 78% reduction in Gemini serving unit costs across 2025, powered in part by TPU efficiency gains. Circular Technology's Gastwirth said the margin benefit comes from not having to rely as heavily on Nvidia's high-priced chips. Google is not "spending 80% gross margin from Nvidia," he said, adding that its inference costs are likely among the best in the industry because the chip is built specifically for that task. That price-performance ratio has attracted some of the top AI labs in the industry. Anthropic has committed to using multiple gigawatts of Google TPUs to increase its computing resources as demand for its models and services surges. Meta Platforms also signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with Alphabet in February to use Google's TPUs. Google's TPUs are also finding customers outside Silicon Valley tech giants. "TPUs [are] becoming more general-purpose infrastructure," said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian on the Future Forward podcast on April 25. Kurian noted he's seeing TPU demand beyond AI labs, into other market segments like finance, energy, and other high-performance computing customers. For example, financial firm Citadel Securities is using Google's TPUs for high-performance financial modeling , and all 17 U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories use AI co-scientist software — an AI framework developed by Google and powered by Gemini — built on the chips. Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi said Google Cloud backlog nearly doubled sequentially to $472 billion by the end of the first quarter, driven by strong demand for enterprise AI offerings and the inclusion of TPU hardware sales for customers' own data centers. That's a departure from how customers historically have accessed TPUs — but it now represents another growth driver for its cloud business. Analysts at Citizens last month forecasted that Google will generate about $3 billion of revenue from TPU-related infrastructure in 2026, before jumping to $25 billion in 2027. Alphabet's TPU sales revenue would be included within the Google Cloud segment. "Importantly, we believe TPU monetization is not fully reflected in current consensus estimates, indicating meaningful upside potential," analysts wrote in early May. Kurian said Google wins no matter how customers are accessing TPUs. "We make great margins no matter which way we're selling it because we own our own IP," Kurian said in a Future Forward podcast interview published in April. He also explained that since chip demand is likely to exceed supply for years, in an already capacity-constrained environment, "unit economics get more expensive, and in our case, because we control our chip, the unit economics remain attractive." That gives Alphabet the opportunity to keep monetizing an already powerful and growing business segment and opening it to more hardware sales and partnerships, such as the TPU cloud venture with asset management giant Blackstone. Blackstone is committing $5 billion in initial equity to the venture, with plans to bring 500 megawatts of capacity online by 2027 and scale from there. Google will supply the hardware, software, and infrastructure expertise. A job posting on LinkedIn is currently available for the chief operating officer of the "Blackstone and Google TPU Cloud Company." The joint venture with Blackstone is "another vote of confidence in TPUs and allows Google to increase its commitment to Cloud without the significant capital requirements," Piper Sandler wrote last month in a research note. Analysts called it a "capital-light way for Google to keep driving TPU momentum." There are still plenty of questions about Alphabet's strategy in the AI arms race. For now, the TPU isn't one of them. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long GOOGL, NVDA, ARM, INTC, META, MSFT, AMZN, and AVGO. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

The SpaceX IPO euphoria is over, but the bullish trend in space economy jobs remains in place within a labor market where many other sectors have slowed hiring. View More

In this articleSPCXFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT The first four NASA commercial crew astronauts in 2018 address employees at the SpaceX factory under the first Dragon Capsule that went into space and returned to Earth.The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images Clearly, there's money to be made in space. SpaceX's historic initial public offering minted a $2 trillion company. And even as shares in Elon Musk's company come down from their IPO high, there remains an underlying boom in the space economy that is creating a new job market for Americans.The space economy is growing domestically and around the globe, at an annual rate of 9%, according to the World Economic Forum. In the U.S., gross output in the space economy increased by nearly $51.5 billion from 2012 to 2023. The sector's total value reached an all-time high of $613 billion in Q2 2025, according to the Space Foundation. As the space economy grows, it is spurring national job creation. In the private sector alone, over 373,000 employees work space-sector jobs, according to the most recent estimates from the Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. That remains a small fraction of the total U.S. private-sector workforce, but one that is growing rapidly. Space-sector employment increased by 27% in the decade through 2024, far outpacing total private-sector employment growth at 14%, and with its rate of growth accelerating in the more recent years. From 2019 to 2024 alone, the space economy's job market grew by 18%.Young workers in particular have played a major role in this growth. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly half of the new jobs being added to the space economy are filled by workers under the age of 35, accounting for a 3% total increase in young workers' share of its workforce from 2014 to 2024. Across most major lines of work in the space sector, there has been an increase in the share of young workers employed. That means the sector isn't just growing, but also defying the trend of decreasing young worker share seen throughout other Census-surveyed sectors, including professional services and media. Dean Boerner, a lead data scientist at Revelio Labs, found in his recent research looking across tens of thousands of postings from hundreds of space sector companies that the industry is significantly outperforming the broader labor market in providing current career opportunities."Active postings by companies operating within the space economy are up more than 40% year-over-year as of this month (and have generally been elevated this entire year, compared to 2025)," Boerner said. "U.S. postings overall are down about 5%, making the rise in opportunities within aerospace particularly striking," he added. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Compensation for aerospace-centered work is attractive. The private space sector boasts a combined annual payroll of around $57.9 billion, with median annual salaries varying by occupation, but typically within the range of $100,000 to $135,000. Base salaries, however, are only one part of the employee compensation packages seen in the private sector. Large private space market employers often offer stock options, giving employees the opportunity to get in early on what could become a major publicly-traded company. In the case of SpaceX's historic IPO, thousands of current and former employees became millionaires overnight thanks to their pre-owned shares. Over 100 saw a newfound net worth of over $1 billion. "This job market is competitive, often with thousands of applications for each entry-level role," said Dave Baldwin, director of talent acquisition at Firefly Aerospace, which went public last August.And yet, thousands of positions at these companies remain unfilled on any given day. In fact, despite the attractive roles and seemingly promising upward trends in an increasingly lucrative field, employment in the space economy has largely failed to keep pace with industry scaling. Space sector companies of all varieties, in recent years, have seen prolonged hiring periods, high employee turnover rates, and persistent labor shortages. One reason is that the work relies heavily on highly skilled labor, disproportionately within the realm of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).Recent estimates indicate that over half of private-sector space economy jobs "require STEM skills," approximately double the national average. STEM skills, as important as they are, pose a real hurdle for firms looking to recruit and retain new talent. Only about a quarter of the American workforce has formal STEM training, a far smaller fraction of which has the specific vocational background needed in aerospace production. For employers building out their presence in the space economy, this means continually competing for the select pool of workers who possess the skillsets needed to sustain current operations and long-term growth.  SpaceX, in its own S-1 filing ahead of its IPO, acknowledged this issue as a potential risk for investors, stating: "We depend on our ability to recruit and retain employees who have advanced engineering and technical skills, and intense competition for such employees may increase costs and affect our ability to meet development and production timelines.""The current tight labor market has adversely impacted our ability to recruit qualified personnel, including engineers, particularly with respect to our AI segment," the filing noted, underscoring the challenges posed by rapid space economy expansion.Revelio Labs' data shows the magnitude of the issue, with the 45% delta in active postings between the sector and the rest of the economy (40% growth in postings for space jobs and 5% decline for all U.S. jobs). Several active, high-profile employers in the aerospace sector are at the forefront of hiring struggles. Lockheed Martin has the second-most open postings among all employers, with 10,614, a figure that has increased by over 5,000 from this time last year. RTX Corp leads all employers with 12,871 openings globally. According to Boerner, the most in-demand roles are, in order, Safety Engineer, Information Security, Integration Engineer, Reliability Engineer, and Hardware Engineer, with each role requiring at least a bachelor's degree in a related field of study. A 2025 Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) report, carried out in collaboration with McKinsey & Co., found that the attrition rate for the aerospace industry, from 2021 through 2024, sat at nearly 16%, over 10% higher than any other industry category. Seventy-six percent of all AIA member organizations worldwide reported "sustained challenges" in consistently hiring engineers. Skilled labor for space manufacturing is in short supplyThe labor challenges in the sector also extend to key manufacturing roles, with 56% of the organizations reporting challenges in hiring and sourcing skilled manufacturing talent. Nearly 30% of the work that takes place in the space economy revolves around skilled manufacturing, labor that is necessary for the production of space vehicles, space weapons, and satellites. Satellites, in particular, have been driving recent growth as the space markets shift away from exploration, at least in the near-term, and to commercialization. In 2024, according to Space Foundation estimates, the commercial space products and services industry comprised well over half of the economy's total value, a shift largely attributed to the enhancement and expansion of satellite technology. It's a trend that is being supported by the value of satellite-based data across the global economy, for example, in optimizing fleet routing in unprecedented ways and improving globalized supply chains, allowing companies to make their industrial capacity more efficient and extend their global consumer reach. But the industry doesn't have a monopoly on the talent that is required."The challenge is there's a limited pool of machinists, welders, and technicians to meet the demand," Baldwin said. "There are multiple industries (e.g., automotive, semiconductor, biotech) in addition to aerospace that are competing for the same types of skilled workers," he added.For Firefly and peer space economy employers, investing in early talent at the right stages is a critical issue. The AIA report revealed that among space sector companies struggling with hiring and retention, just 20% had taken steps to develop or expand training programs. In fact, creating and expanding training programs lagged behind referral bonuses for current employees, increasing geographic recruitment areas, and changing compensation models."It's critical for commercial space companies to partner with local high schools, community colleges, and universities to develop skill-based programs and help increase the supply of available skilled labor," Baldwin said. "We've been scaling up these efforts at Firefly, providing the opportunity to get hands-on experience working on proven launch, lunar, and in-space programs. We also offer training and apprenticeships to help veterans transition into the workforce as part of the DoD SkillBridge Program."Club for the Future, an early education foundation established under the Jeff Bezos-led space company Blue Origin in 2019, states its mission as "to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space." Since 2021, the foundation has donated tens of millions of dollars to educational programs alongside space-based charities. Nearly every large private aerospace manufacturer funds extensive internship programs year-round, although the programs tend to be extremely competitive, and their frequency wanes among smaller employers.  While SpaceX is likely to remain a volatile stock, it is becoming more embedded in the market, soon to be added to the Nasdaq 100 index. If SpaceX bulls are correct, the early education investments will pay off in the decades ahead for employers and the workforce. Early SpaceX investor Ron Baron says the company will grow more quickly than many people expect. The billionaire fund manager recently told CNBC he didn't sell a share in the IPO and expects the company to be valued in 10 years at a minimum of $20 trillion. "Normally, our economy doubles roughly every 10 years," Baron told CNBC's Becky Quick. "What he thinks is, by the innovations and the work that he's doing, he's going to make the economy grow 10 times in 10 years, not double." watch nowVIDEO7:5507:55Ron Baron on his $25B SpaceX stake: We're going to make hundreds of billions of dollarsSquawk Box Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Hollywood is having its best summer since the pandemic putting the annual box office on pace to cross $10 billion for the first time in seven years. View More

In this articleGOOGFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO3:2903:29The summer box office has had a surprisingly strong startCNBC Digital Original Video Hollywood is having its best summer since before the pandemic, and that hot streak is putting the annual box office on pace to cross $10 billion for the first time in seven years.The season, which runs from the first weekend in May through Labor Day, has tallied $1.8 billion so far through Sunday. That's down less than 2% from 2019 levels, or just about a $30 million lag. Industry analysts keep a close eye on this period of the year because it typically accounts for about 40% of the total annual domestic box office."The summer box office is incredibly important," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at movie data company Rentrak. "It's vitally important in terms of what the overall health of the industry looks like and what that portends for the entire year."What sets this summer apart is that it didn't kick off with a blockbuster action film or superhero team-up. Instead, the first major hit of the season came with the release of Disney's "The Devil Wears Prada 2," followed by Universal's "Obsession" and A24's "Backrooms," two low-budget horror films from YouTube creators-turned-filmmakers. It was further fueled by residual ticket sales of Lionsgate's "Michael," the Michael Jackson biopic, which debuted in late April.Together, those four films have contributed nearly $850 million to the domestic summer box office since the start of May, according to data from Rentrak. Notably, that's about how much Disney and Marvel's "Avengers: Endgame" had tallied for the 2019 box office during the same period.  Still from Pixar's "Toy Story 5."Disney Last week's release of Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story 5" delivered another boost, posting a franchise-best opening of $160 million.Combined, the handful of upside surprises is making for a stronger-than-expected domestic box office and a promising foundation for the second half of the year as the industry chases pre-pandemic levels. As of Sunday, the 2026 box office has tallied $4.4 billion domestically, about 15% behind the $5.2 billion the 2019 box office had collected during the same time period. Currently playing in theaters Contributing to the surprisingly strong ticket sales is movies like "Michael," "Obsession" and even Amazon MGM's "Project Hail Mary," which was released in March, that are holding strong at the box office week after week.Typically, after opening weekend, a title will see sales drop anywhere from 50% to 70%. But these films were seeing drops of between 20% to 40% each week. "Obsession" has pulled off an even rarer box office feat as ticket sales actually increased in its second and third weekend in theaters, up 39% and 14%, respectively, according to data from The Numbers. That success is a sign that films are getting solid word of mouth from audiences and that it's driving new moviegoers to cinemas."It's just been one after another after another," said Alex DelVecchio, general manager of Rutgers Cinema in Piscataway, New Jersey. "I always said this whole year was about getting to June 19. Because once you get to June 19 you hit this six weeks in a row. It's Toy Story, 'Supergirl,' Minions, 'Moana,' ['The Odyssey'] and Spider-Man."The combined efforts of those six films could boost the summer box office to $4.2 billion, Dergarabedian said. The summer box office has only surpassed $4 billion once since 2019, and that was thanks to the dual efforts of Warner Bros. "Barbie" and Universal's "Oppenheimer" in 2023, according to Rentrak data.That threshold would mark a return to normal cadence for the summer box office, which collected more than $4 billion practically every year between 2013 and 2019 before Covid shut down cinemas. Movie posters for "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are pictured outside the Cinemark Somerdale 16 and XD in Somerdale, New Jersey, in 2023.Hannah Beier | The Washington Post | Getty Images Universal's "The Odyssey," directed by Christopher Nolan, is currently tracking for a $100 million-plus opening weekend and is expected to benefit significantly from premium large format screenings. Sony's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," which was made in collaboration with Disney's Marvel Studios, could perform even better, with some analysts predicting between $200 million and $250 million for its opening weekend."'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' could be the biggest opening weekend of the year," Dergarabedian said. "And that opens on July 31st. What's that going to mean for August? Well, a lot, because that's going to add and contribute a lot of box office to the month. Then that sets up a fall and a holiday period [where] I think we're not going to see really that much of a slowdown." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Health Ministry says initiatives include ‘citizen-facing applications, provider-focused solutions, interoperability frameworks, registries and data standards’ View More

From concerts to train reservations, automated bots have become the latest target in the fight against ticket scalping. View More

In this articleBABA3690-HKXAU=Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Purchasing concert tickets has long been a high-stakes affair, with popular events often selling out within minutes. Increasingly, however, fans are competing against automated ticket-buying programs, commonly referred to as bots, that can snap up seats in seconds before reselling them at higher prices.This has distorted access not only to concert tickets but also to everyday services such as train ticket reservations. Purchasing a ticket has always been "very luck-based," said Bryce Sng, a 23-year-old concert enthusiast. The added competition of bots "feels very unfair," he added. Half the joy when fighting for tickets is the stress, Sng said, using a bot feels like "it takes away from that experience."It's a sentiment shared by nearly 65% of respondents in a December 2025 survey by the Consumers' Association of Singapore, who said ticket scalping prevented genuine fans from attending events. The survey's focus group participants also cited bots that snapped up tickets within seconds before reselling them at higher prices.Governments, including South Korea and China, have responded by tightening rules against automated ticket-buying.South Korea expanded its anti-scalping laws on Jan. 29 to target conduct that disrupts fair ticket purchasing for resale, while Chinese regulators have repeatedly warned third-party platforms against using automated ticket-grabbing software.On Feb. 12, Beijing market regulators met with 12 companies, including JD.com, Didi and Tencent, over train ticket sales that had drawn "strong public criticism." In an April 10 announcement, regulators said seven third-party platforms, including Ctrip, Alibaba's Fliggy and Meituan, were summoned for regulatory talks. In the first three months of 2026, China's railway system handled over 1.13 billion trips, according to the National Railway Administration. Passengers are passing through the gate at Fuyang West Railway Station in Fuyang, China, on April 29, 2024. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Laws aren't enough Ticket scalping is an inevitable "function of supply and demand," said Marc Hershberg, director of business and legal affairs at Music Theatre International. While banning bots may help to some extent, Sng said that policies alone may not be effective."Knowing humans, they will always find a different way [around the rules]," he added.For companies defending against bots, there is more to consider than just "a single signal," said David Irecki, chief technology officer at data software company Boomi. Detecting bots requires analyzing patterns in user data, including transaction and payment signals, purchase speed, buying patterns and credit card activity, rather than relying on just a single indicator.To combat bots, Ticketmaster, the primary ticketing platform for many concerts, blocks automated software, identifies and shuts down fake accounts and cancels orders that violate its policies."Brute force bot attacks… only represent one part of the battle we're fighting against scalpers," the company told CNBC in an email."These are highly sophisticated networks that strive to mimic human fan behavior to blend in." Beyond bots Yet bots are only one part of a much larger problem. Hershberg said the limited number of tickets available to the general public often compounds the problem. In late 2022, Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster faced widespread backlash after mishandling ticket sales for Taylor Swift's 2022 'Eras' tour. The Live Nation website arranged on a laptop in New York, US, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images Several lawsuits have been filed against the company, alleging monopolistic practices and harming consumer interests. Live Nation reached a $9.9 million settlement with the District of Columbia in April over allegations it advertised deceptively low prices before adding mandatory fees and used misleading tactics that created artificial urgency. Live Nation denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement."For at least a decade, Live Nation and Ticketmaster boosted profits by charging predatory, hidden fees — taking advantage of DC residents buying tickets for their favorite artist or team and pricing others out entirely," said District of Columbia Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb. Face-value tickets for Swift's "Eras" tour ranged from $49 to $450, while VIP packages started at $199 and reached $899. On the secondary market, some tickets were listed between $800 and $20,000 each.The same issue extends across the entertainment industry, Hershberg said."Shows like Hamilton… are having tickets sold on the resale market for, let's say, $2,000, but the top ticket price is around $800 on Broadway. That shows that they're not setting it at an amount that is clearing the market."However, demand far outstrips supply, and people are clearly willing to pay higher prices. But producers who still want to make shows accessible are unwilling to charge what they consider unreasonable prices.Compounding the problem, some consumers do not realize they are buying tickets from resellers online. Hershberg pointed to Broadway.com, a resale ticketing platform whose name often leads many buyers to mistake it for an official distributor of Broadway tickets. CNBC reached out to Broadway.com but did not receive a response from the company by the time of publication.The problem goes beyond a singular fix, Boomi's Irecki said."It's not just about one tool because you need regulation or business policy, but it needs to be supported again, by well-connected systems." Scalpers are the primary beneficiaries of those markups, Hershberg added, rather than "the actual people who are putting up with the risk and the artists and other people working on the show." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

India is poised for AI leadership, with large businesses rapidly adopting advanced systems. However, millions of MSMEs lag due to traditional operational visibility issues. Bridging this gap by embedding intelligence into existing MSME systems is crucial for economic growth and realising India's AI ambitions. View More

With a growing macroeconomic ecosystem, India is fast becoming part of a crucial era of AI leadership. The NASSCOM AI Adoption Index reveals that 87 percent of large businesses in the country have incorporated AI capabilities into their processes. Advanced organizations are moving swiftly beyond simple digital experimentation, evolving into frontier firms where autonomous systems and advanced modeling guide strategic planning, client interactions, and core business operations. Yet, this accelerated transformation highlights a profound macroeconomic disparity. While corporate India rapidly modernises, millions of smaller enterprises remain constrained by traditional operational visibility. The scale of India’s technological future resides with MSMEs. This vital segment contributes almost 30 percent to GDP and employs millions. This creates a distinct challenge. India is scaling AI at the macro level, yet the operational foundations of MSMEs remain isolated from these modern capabilities. Resolving this disparity should be the economic priority for the next phase of India’s digital growth. As we celebrate International MSME Day (June 27), it is an important milestone and a reminder that we have a huge task ahead of us in making this community the torchbearer of AI growth in India. Here is how I believe we can make a difference: The reality of untapped data assets India’s ecosystem of over 63 million MSMEs is frequently characterized as data-rich but intelligence-poor. Over the last decade, foundational public digital infrastructure has successfully onboarded small businesses into structured networks. Platforms like UPI, the GST network, digital logistics trackers, and e-commerce platforms capture billions of data points daily, tracking real-time shifts in consumer demand and local supply chains. Live Events However, crucial operational information remains siloed across physical invoices, independent logistics receipts, and unorganized spreadsheets. This fragmentation prevents business owners from gaining an integrated view of their operations, forcing leaders to make critical decisions based on intuition rather than empirical evidence. The opportunity embedded in this gap is considerable. Applying targeted analytical capabilities to these fragmented data stores can produce meaningful gains in day-to-day operational performance. For enterprises functioning on thin margins, that intelligence represents a direct lever to strengthen the bottom line and a path toward operational maturity. Transitioning from isolated tools to integrated systems The historical barrier to technology adoption for small businesses has been structural complexity. Expecting an independent MSME to hire machine learning engineers or acquire specialized computational licenses is impractical. Widespread AI adoption will not come from standalone software installations that require dedicated resources for deployment and maintenance. It will become possible by embedding intelligent capabilities directly into the operational layers these businesses already depend on. This approach aligns with modern enterprise architecture, where a unified data and context layer serves as the foundation for automated task execution. When ecosystem partners manage this data consolidation on behalf of small businesses, MSMEs can transition immediately from reactive management to predictive execution. Scattered accounting records begin informing real-time decisions, and manual document workflows execute with far less friction. In a highly competitive market like India, where margins leave little room for error, speed matters as much as the quality of the decision. A retail merchant with access to automated analysis of ordering trends can calibrate inventory ahead of seasonal pressure rather than scrambling to respond to it. For a small business seeking working capital, organized financial data means a lender can complete a credit assessment in minutes rather than weeks. What AI delivers here is not a replacement for human judgment; it is a force multiplier, equipping leaders with the insights needed to make complex, enterprise-grade decisions quickly and accurately. Establishing trusted, accessible analytical foundations The success of any intelligent system is only as reliable as the data it draws from. Accuracy, governance, and data security determine whether the outputs actually serve the business. The approach gaining ground in modern deployments prioritizes processing data within its native environment, keeping proprietary information secure. This is critical for Indian MSMEs, where trust is a prerequisite for technology adoption. Small businesses will readily engage with digital networks that promise data privacy, transparent usage policies, and clear business outcomes. Therefore, the ecosystem needs cloud-native AI platforms designed to build trust as infrastructure, enabling businesses to benefit from shared analytical capabilities without exposing the operational insights that give them their competitive edge. Furthermore, true accessibility in a linguistically rich country requires localized delivery. Integrating open-source tools and models can drastically reduce AI costs while meeting the needs of local businesses in their natural language, allowing owners to literally "talk to their data" and navigate these platforms with ease. A democratic approach to economic acceleration India's AI future will not be measured by the sophistication of its frontier models. It will be measured by how much of that capability reaches the 63 million businesses that form its economic spine. Equipping this segment with embedded intelligence, sound data infrastructure, and accessible automation is the foundation for India’s growth agenda. The path to a $5 trillion economy by 2030 runs through MSME productivity. Businesses that make faster decisions, manage working capital with greater precision, and anticipate demand rather than react to it do not grow in isolation. Their collective gains will build national economic resilience to realize India’s AI ambitions. The author is Managing Director- India, Snowflake .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!

For India Inc., including MSMEs, the focus appears to have shifted from stabilisation to optimisation, as confidence grows on account of digital adoption, proactive policy changes and responsive tax administration. View More

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are essential to India’s economic growth, employment generation and to offer larger industries, the access to cost-effective solutions. Once viewed as among the most burdened by GST compliance , MSMEs are now showing clear signs of adaptation and increasing acceptance of the unified tax regime as India’s Goods and Services Tax completes nine years. Deloitte India ’s GST@9 survey of 1,096 senior business leaders across eight industries, including MSMEs, has reposed faith in GST. Policymakers and industry leaders are now pushing for the next phase of reform supported by the strong vote of confidence in the GST regime. More than 99 per cent of businesses now report a positive or neutral experience with GST, indicating near-universal acceptance among MSMEs. Survey findings suggest that structural and operational reforms have gradually reduced friction for smaller enterprises, with the Quarterly Return Monthly Payment (QRMP) scheme emerging as a key enabler. Acceptance of quarterly return filing among MSMEs rose from 12 per cent in 2023 to 67 per cent in 2026, a five-fold increase that reflects stronger awareness and meaningful relief from monthly compliance requirements that once burdened small businesses. Threshold relaxations have also been well received, with 57 per cent of MSME respondents recognising their positive impact and relevance across industries. Apart from return filing, supply chain efficiency has become a valued benefit. The removal of cascading taxes and the creation of a unified national market have made procurement and logistics more predictable and cost-effective. Live Events The Road to GST 2.0 for MSMEs For India Inc., including MSMEs, the focus appears to have shifted from stabilisation to optimisation, as confidence grows on account of digital adoption, proactive policy changes and responsive tax administration. MSME priorities include cross-utilisation of CGST credits, widening the scope of inverted duty structure refunds to cover capital goods and input services, and allowing year-end refunds of accumulated ITC balances to ease liquidity constraints. Key reforms that merit focus in the next phase of GST 2.0 include: 1. An overwhelming 88 per cent of MSME respondents support invoice-based ITC eligibility with relaxed matching requirements, nearly double the 41 per cent recorded in 2025. MSMEs are particularly affected by compliance complexity, including ITC denial arising from retrospective cancellation of supplier registrations. When a vendor’s GST registration is cancelled retrospectively, the MSME buyer may lose ITC already availed, despite having limited ability to monitor supplier compliance. Streamlining this mechanism is viewed as one of the most practical ways to improve MSME cash flows. 2. Around 89 per cent of MSME respondents support automatic interest on delayed GST refunds, given the cash flow pressures such delays create. Exporters and manufacturers have historically been among the most affected. Timely refund disbursal emerged as the top priority, cited by 53 per cent of respondents, indicating continued gaps in adherence to prescribed timelines. Another 43 per cent identified reduced manual intervention and fewer discretionary queries from the tax department as key reform priorities. 3. A perceived pro-Revenue approach during audits remains a key concern for businesses. Survey results indicate that input tax credit eligibility disputes are among the main drivers of GST litigation. A harmonised dispute resolution mechanism, supported by a consistent, predictable and fair framework, could reduce interpretational issues and litigation costs, particularly for small businesses. 4. GST technology stabilisation has also emerged as an important expectation from GSTN 2.0. Around 65 per cent of MSME respondents believe compliance digitalisation, including real-time reporting and data analytics, is both a priority and a key driver of value creation under GST. In addition, 61 per cent of MSMEs prefer a unified dashboard to monitor compliance ratings, ITC mismatches, and notices. Expectations from the GSTN portal are therefore evolving from standalone functionalities to a more integrated system. As GST enters its next phase, India Inc., including MSMEs, is seeking reforms that deliver faster refunds, clearer input tax credit rules, simplified registration, and greater certainty through a more business-friendly tax framework that helps Indian small businesses remain competitive. The author is Partner, Deloitte India. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!

With the Budget setting the policy direction and the RBI directions providing the regulatory foundation, TReDS is well positioned to move from a platform that has demonstrated value to one that can deliver MSME liquidity at scale. View More

The Union Budget 2026-27 positioned the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) at the centre of India’s MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprise) liquidity infrastructure, announcing four measures: mandatory TReDS settlement for central public sector enterprise (CPSE) purchases; Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro & Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) backed credit guarantees; Government e-Marketplace (GeM) integration; and securitisation of TReDS receivables as asset-backed securities. Policy intent, however, needs regulatory architecture to become operational. That architecture has arrived in June 2026 with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s Master Directions for TReDS, the formal instrument that gives legal force to what the Union Budget proposed. Together, they signal the most substantive overhaul of the TReDS framework since its launch in 2014. Two barriers, one reform agenda TReDS operates on a non-recourse principle. Once a buyer accepts an invoice and a financier discounts it, the seller’s obligation ends. Funds flow directly to the seller’s KYC-verified bank account, and the financier recovers from the buyer on the due date. The seller carries no default risk by design. The barriers to wider TReDS adoption, therefore, have never primarily been about seller creditworthiness. They are two-sided. On the financier side, buyer credit quality determines the financier’s entire risk exposure. Invoices from lower-rated or unrated buyers attract few or no bids, effectively excluding the MSMEs who supply those buyers. On the seller side, a mandatory due diligence requirement at onboarding has kept smaller and informally operating enterprises off the platform entirely, even where willing buyers and financiers exist. The Union Finance Minister acknowledged this gap in the Budget speech, noting that while TReDS has already facilitated over Rs 7 lakh crore in MSME financing , its addressable market remains significantly underleveraged. Fixing one barrier without the other is insufficient, and the 2026 reforms are expected to take aim at both. What the RBI directions change The first and most immediate change addresses the seller-side barrier directly. RBI has dispensed with the mandatory due diligence requirement for MSME sellers at onboarding entirely. The friction point that has historically kept smaller enterprises off the platform is removed. Payment security is preserved through the downstream control that has always existed: funds are disbursed only to the seller’s KYC-verified bank account, and the onboarding gate is lifted without any compromise to the payment safeguard. Live Events The second change formally permits financiers to avail guarantees from National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) against factoring units. This is the regulatory counterpart to the Budget’s CGTMSE commitment. Where the Budget announced the policy intent, the RBI directions create the legal foundation for guarantee-backed integration on the platform. Since financiers bear buyer credit risk entirely under the without-recourse structure, this guaranteed backstop directly addresses why they have historically avoided invoices from lower-rated buyers, and in doing so, unlocks financing for the MSMEs who supply them. This sits alongside the platform’s existing requirement to register every discounted receivable with the Central Registry (CERSAI), which already protects against double-financing and gives each receivable a clean, enforceable status as it moves toward eventual securitisation. What this means in practice Taken together, these reforms mark the next phase of TReDS as a financing platform. The without-recourse structure has always protected MSME sellers from buyer defaults. What the RBI directions now add is the regulatory and policy scaffolding to extend that protection to a far broader base of participants. It removes the due diligence burden of onboarding sellers and gives financiers the guarantee cover they need to back a wider range of buyers. With the Budget setting the policy direction and the RBI directions providing the regulatory foundation, TReDS is well positioned to move from a platform that has demonstrated value to one that can deliver MSME liquidity at scale. Prakash Sankaran is MD & CEO, Invoicemart. Views are personal .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!