WS #12619

The US-Iran conflict continues to escalate sharply, with President Trump threatening to bomb Iranian bridges or power plants for each attack on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. This marks a significant escalation from previous rhetoric, directly threatening Iranian infrastructure. Brent crude has breached $95/barrel, and oil prices are up ~4% pre-market. Multiple sources (Bluesky, CNBC, Al Jazeera) corroborate the threat, and Polymarket shows elevated trading on Iran-related outcomes. The dominant theme is ESCALATING. In corporate news, AMD and Anthropic announced a strategic partnership to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs, with AMD committing up to $5 billion in equity investment. This is a major validation of AMD's AI chip strategy and could boost AMD shares while pressuring Nvidia. Separately, OpenAI's planned cloud spending hits $750 billion per WSJ, and OpenAI plans a $20-30 billion data center in Georgia, underscoring massive AI infrastructure buildout. Apple has sued OpenAI, alleging theft of trade secrets. Samsung launched new foldables and smart glasses, raising prices due to chip costs. GE Vernova slid despite raising revenue guidance as Q2 core profit missed. Pegasystems plunged 16% pre-market on weak Q2 results, citing AI-driven client delays. Oatly shares rose on better-than-expected Q2 results and raised FY outlook. Halliburton missed profit estimates on weak fracking revenue. Rocket Lab won a $266 million Space Force contract. The AI stock selloff continues broadly, but the AMD-Anthropic deal provides a strong counter-narrative for AMD specifically.