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Spotify Wrapped dropped yesterday, with Bad Bunny reigning as Spotify’s global top artist and Taylor Swift coming in second place. Since its 2015 launch, Wrapped has only gained more online traction with each iteration, as searches for “spotify” peak around the time that Wrapped goes live. With competition in the music streaming space mounting — and Spotify’s ever-rising subscription prices making it the costliest service of the bunch — we did a deep dive into how the platform’s ultra-personalized roundups translate to business for the company.

Despite most BATMMAAN stocks trading lower, with only two rising, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 gained yesterday thanks to a broad-based rally. The Russell 2000 outperformed, as a surprise decline in private sector jobs further solidified expectations of a rate cut at next week’s Fed meeting.

The AI trade is dominating markets coverage these days, but even its biggest boosters realize that nothing can last forever, and that exponential growth can only continue so long until it becomes just your standard incremental growth. So, what’s the next big thing? This week offers some clues. 

“Each successive Tectonic Shift in Computing surprised investors with new workloads, and created stock performance of 100x-to-1,000x for full-stack ecosystem leaders,” Lipacis wrote. “To be clear, with over 40 quantum companies competing and no clear-cut leaders, we expect a shakeout, but to capture full-alpha, history shows you need to get in 10-years before the Tectonic Shift actually happens.”

I know we said that these are trades for what comes after AI, but honestly, they too are part of the AI trade — just a nascent spin-off. It’s not a surprise that some of the robotics companies’ biggest fans are at the heart of the AI boom. 

While the Politico report frames that robotics announcement as a shift in focus by the White House from AI toward robots, it’s really a variation on that same theme. Leading AI firms like Nvidia are positioning themselves to be heavily involved in “physical AI,” which is effectively a catch-all for the brains behind robotics and autonomous technology. This week, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son detailed how it’s not mechanical robotics that will change the world, but rather the “physical AI with embodiment into robots.”

Nasdaq indexes are more than just benchmarks – they are the blueprint of what’s next. 

Nasdaq’s "Blueprint of Tomorrow" campaign spotlights the transformative impact of Nasdaq indexes, and how they empower global investors to participate in the growth of innovative industries, build long-term financial success, and help create the building blocks of tomorrow’s economy. 

From the evolution of tech-driven investing to the rise of income-generating strategies, hear directly from Nasdaq Global Indexes' partners around the globe as they share how they are turning bold ideas into investable index-based products – expanding investor access, fueling innovation, and channeling capital toward the engines of global growth.

It’s an all-out battle among Comcast, Paramount Skydance, and Netflix to capture the spoils of winning the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery and become the king of entertainment.

Right now, it seems Netflix, which is said to be targeting WBD’s streaming assets and studio business but not its networks, is ahead in the race after making a reportedly mostly cash offer, but there’s a problem: 

Paramount Skydance and Comcast have also reportedly freshened up their pitches, and Comcast too wants only a piece of the WBD pie, while Paramount wants the whole kit and caboodle. To understand what each is bidding for and what they’ll get, Chartr created this helpful Sankey diagram. 

In a particularly dramatic-sounding Bank of America note earlier this week, a group of analysts wrote: “The global media industry stands at the precipice of historic transformation.” Meanwhile, no matter who comes out on top in the bidding war, one winner is clear: analysts forecast the bidding war could propel Warner Bros. Discovery’s value to around $70 billion, significantly above its valuation before the acquisition talks began.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, consulting’s share of total US employment has grown more than 4x since 1990. But the age of consulting as we know it, when armies of associates mercilessly grind through endless slide decks and dashboards, may be nearing an end after the industry hit a very specific, AI-shaped wall, as dramatically charted here.