Good Evening!
I call Wednesdays the Q3 of the week. And at the speed which June is moving, it will be Q3 the next time I blink.
Here are the 7 things you missed today:
1. ☁️ Oracle's Cloud Revenue Jumped 47% in a Record Quarter
Beating estimates apparently isn't the bar anymore. Oracle posted record fiscal Q4 results on Wednesday and the revenue up 21% to $19.2 billion while total cloud revenue up 47% to $9.9 billion, and infrastructure (IaaS) up 93% to $5.8 billion — yet the stock fell more than 7% after hours. The drag? Free cash flow ran negative $23.7 billion for the year as Oracle poured money into AI data centers, even as its contracted backlog swelled $85 billion in the quarter to a record $638 billion. Investors are betting big on that backlog converting to revenue, they just got a reminder of what it costs to build. (Reuters)
2. 💸 CEO Report Study Found Thousands in Ad Spend Misallocated
A reader had great results, but channel attribution was a nightmare.
I had my friend Paul from PMF Ninja run an audit. In Just 30 minutes, he found a 7.25x ROAS on one channel and a $6k budget leak!
Seeing the value, I convinced Paul to open 7 spots for readers to get a Full Growth Audit this week, for free! If you’re spending $10k, $25k, or $50k+/mo, you need this!
Every day you wait could mean more profit left on the table. Claim your free Full Growth Audit now and find out exactly where your next 2x–5x growth opportunity is hiding.
3. 📌 Pinterest Courts Creators With Amazon Storefronts
Pinterest wants back in the shopping conversation. The platform will now host creators' Amazon Storefronts, automatically applying a creator's affiliate link whenever they tag an eligible Amazon product. It's a play to lure creators who built their affiliate businesses on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube; and to lean on real human recommendations as users grow frustrated with "AI slop" flooding the feed. Pinterest says more than half its users come to shop, driving over 80 billion searches a month. (TechCrunch)
4. 😣 “How Do We Scale Creator Content Without Losing Control?”
Scaling UGC without diluting brand voice can feel impossible. More creators can equal more inconsistency, and now your team is worried about compliance, tone drift, and off-brand messaging.
Grapevine is your secret to authenticity at scale without brand risk. Top brands like Prose, Honeylove, and Home Chef all run Grapevine UGC because it works. They tap their vetted network to create content that already resonates with your target audience.
5. 💸 Amazon Borrows $17.5B as the AI Debt Pile Grows
The AI arms race is increasingly being run on borrowed money. Amazon signed a deal to borrow roughly $17.5 billion from a syndicate including Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, HSBC, and BofA just two days after a reported $14 billion Canadian bond sale, for about $31.5 billion raised in 48 hours. The structure lets Amazon draw the funds on its own timeline for "general corporate purposes." It's part of a broader borrowing wave (Alphabet recently moved to raise $80 billion and Meta $30 billion) and the question hanging over all of it is whether the returns will ever justify the spend. (TechCrunch)
6. 📉 Dow Sinks 953 Points as CPI Hits a 3-Year High
The jitters at the top of the market gave way to a broad sell-off. U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Wednesday — the Dow down 1.87% (953 points) to 49,918.78, the S&P 500 off 1.62% to 7,266.99, and the Nasdaq down 1.98% to 25,169.50 — after May CPI hit a three-year high of 4.2%. The inflation print, up from 3.8% in April, kept a possible Fed rate hike in play and hammered chipmakers, while Super Micro cratered roughly 28% after unveiling plans to raise $7 billion for AI server components. SpaceX's $1.75 trillion IPO Friday now looms as one more test of how much tech optimism the market can stomach. (Reuters)
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7. 🔋 Everyone Wants a Piece of Tesla's Battery Business
The hottest corner of the EV world isn't EVs. With U.S. EV sales stagnating, automakers are piling into energy storage, where installations have doubled in two years and are projected to top 110 GWh a year by 2030. The prize is Tesla's because it captured 82% of the 57 GWh installed last year, at gross margins around 30% which is roughly double of what it earns on cars. GM and Ford are the latest chasing it, though GM's new sodium-ion bet won't ship until later this decade. The slower pace choice will only pay off if the AI data-center boom holds up. (TechCrunch)
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