Daily Pulse · · 14:00 CET · market · GOOGL

Five of the seven megacaps under a stadium spotlight, the semiconductor index towering behind them — the market grading the AI spenders against the vendors of the spree.

Show-Me Time — Crunch Hour for the Other Five of the Mag 7

A thesis read for the first night of the show-me window — companion to this morning's Morning 10, which has the tape and the four-print calendar. This is the frame behind it.

The market stopped paying for ambition

For two years the AI trade rewarded a story. Announce the datacenter, name the model, raise the capex line, and the stock followed. That reflex is gone. The market has quietly switched from paying for AI ambition to demanding a credible path to monetize the spend — and the tape has already handed out grades, well before a single one of this fortnight's prints. Set Tesla and Nvidia aside; the story is the other five. Two of them own the customer and got paid. Three are caught between spending like an infrastructure company and watching agentic AI question their own core business, and they were sold. This is what the twelve months into Tuesday's close look like.

Name12-month9-month6-month
Alphabet+81.9%+38.9%+8.0%
Apple+53.5%+25.1%+33.1%
Nvidia+24.3%+14.6%+16.6%
Tesla+14.1%−14.4%−9.6%
Amazon+8.8%+11.5%+7.2%
Meta−8.4%−12.0%+6.8%
Microsoft−20.7%−22.7%−12.1%
Nasdaq-100 (QQQ)+26.9%+16.4%+16.9%
Semis (SOXX)+128.0%+90.2%+64.0%

C — free account

The free C account unlocks the full Daily Pulse — every section of this read.

One tap with Google or one email — no password, no card. You are signed in until you sign out, on this browser, from then on.

Join the Look — free

Already joined on this browser? The full edition shows automatically — if it doesn't, sign in again here. Looking for the archive, portfolios and realtime? That is C+.

One more block on our desk — tomorrow's levels and what we're watching into the next session. Join the Look — it’s free.

Money Temperature One number for risk appetite across eight instruments — updated through every trading day. Take the temperature →
The signals behind this Each line links to the tool it comes from