Google’s AI Breakthrough Hits Chip Stocks, Meta Bets on A $9Tn Future, Courts Rein in Pentagon as Crypto Mortgages Go Mainstream

The AI race is starting to reshape everything, from chip demand to executive pay and even government power. Alphabeth as unveiled a breakthrough that could dramatically cut memory usage in AI models, sending shockwaves through chipmakers like Samsung and Micron Technology. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms is tying massive executive payouts to an ambitious $9 trillion valuation target, underscoring just how high the stakes have become in the AI arms race. In Washington, a federal judge has blocked the Pentagon’s move against Anthropic, highlighting growing legal tensions between Big Tech and government. And in finance, Fannie Mae is opening the door to crypto-backed mortgages, signaling how digital assets are creeping into traditional systems. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Markets Around The World

Markets as of 26th March 2026. Cells in RED mean that the value is down, cells in Green mean the value is up.

MAJOR HEADLINES

• An AI Breakthrough From A Google Research Lab Craters Memory Chip Stocks

Google’s latest research which claims to make AI models more efficient is putting pressure on memory stocks, with investors concerned the breakthrough could see a slowdown in chip demand.On Thursday, shares of the world’s two biggest memory chipmakers, SK Hynix and Samsung, fell 6% and nearly 5%, respectively in South Korea. Japanese flash memory company Kioxia dropped nearly 6%. These moves followed falls in Sandisk and Micron in the U.S. on Wednesday. Both companies were lower in U.S. premarket trade on Thursday. 

Alphabet’s Google on Tuesday unveiled TurboQuant, a new compression method that it says could reduce the amount of memory required to run large language models by six times. The technique focuses on reducing the key value cache, which stores the past calculations of an AI model so it doesn’t have to run them again.  The technique is aimed at making AI models more efficient, a major goal of the leading labs.  Investors fear that this could reduce the demand for AI memory chips, which have been a critical component to train up huge LLMs from companies like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, called the research “Google’s DeepSeek,” referencing the efficiency breakthroughs made by Chinese AI firm DeepSeek last year which caused a massive sell-off in tech stocks.  

However, Ray Wang, a memory analyst at SemiAnalysis, said that the research from Google won’t necessarily lead to the need for fewer chips. The value cache is “a key bottleneck to address to have better models and hardware performance,” he said. Wang said it will be “hard to avoid higher usage of memory” as a result of improving model performance. “When you address a bottleneck, you are going to help AI hardware to be more capable. And the training model will be more powerful in the future. When the model becomes more powerful, you require better hardware to support it,” Wang told CNBC. CNBC

• Meta Promises Hefty Payout To Top Brass If Market Cap Hits $9T By 2031

The senior leaders of Meta Platforms (META) stand to earn hundreds of millions of dollars if they help the company reach a $9 trillion valuation in the next five years.

In SEC filings disclosed late Tuesday, the company awarded new stock options to its seven main executives, excluding CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which are exercisable only if the company's stock price surges at least 88% by 2031. Senior execs could enjoy the full benefit of Meta's stock options program if the company's share price jumps more than 500% within the provided time frame. Shares of Meta are down 4.2% in the past 12 months. In the past five years, the stock has risen 110%. "This is a big bet.  These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders.

As with all stock options, there is only value if the share price meaningfully exceeds the exercise price, and in this case, it must be on an exceedingly aggressive 5-year timeline," according to a Meta spokesperson. The move by the company comes amid heavy infrastructure and talent spending to stay ahead in the artificial intelligence race against rivals Google , Amazon, and Microsoft, while scaling back on efforts that haven't been profitable, such as the metaverse initiative by its Reality Labs division. SeekingAlpha

• Judge Blocks Pentagon’s Effort To ‘Punish’ Anthropic By Labeling It 'A Supply Chain Risk' 

A federal judge in California has indefinitely blocked the Pentagon’s effort to “punish” Anthropic by labeling it a supply chain risk and attempting to sever government ties with the AI company, ruling that those measures ran roughshod over its constitutional rights. “Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government,” US District Judge Rita Lin wrote in a stinging 43-page ruling.

Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said she would delay implementation of her ruling for one week to allow the government to appeal. But in her ruling, she made it clear she disapproved of the government’s actions, which she said violated the company’s First Amendment and due process rights. The ruling is the latest judicial broadside against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as he’s sought to use powerful tools at his disposal to push back against companies and individuals he’s tussled with in recent months. Earlier this month, a federal judge in DC ruled that the secretary violated the First Amendment rights of several reporters when he implemented a restrictive new press policy. And in February, a different judge in DC said Hegseth infringed on the free speech rights of a Democratic senator over the lawmaker’s urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders.

“We’re grateful to the court for moving swiftly, and pleased they agree Anthropic is likely to succeed on the merits,” an Anthropic spokesperson said after Thursday’s ruling. “While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic, our customers, and our partners, our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure all Americans benefit from safe, reliable AI.” The supply chain risk designation meant any company that works with the military would need to show it didn’t use an Anthropic product. The label, leveled by the Pentagon last month, had previously been used only for companies seen as connected to foreign adversaries. CNN

• Fannie Mae Accepts First Crypto-Backed Mortgage Product

Fannie Mae will now accept crypto-backed mortgages via a new product by mortgage company Better Home and Finance and Coinbase. It’s not the first crypto backed mortgage, but it is the first accepted by Fannie Mae, which is under government conservatorship. The offering allows homebuyers to use their crypto assets as collateral. Fannie Mae will purchase those loans just like any other conforming mortgage. “We have now finally created the infrastructure rails to enable any tokenized asset in America to be able to be pledged to help someone afford to buy a home,” Vishal Garg, CEO of Better, told CNBC in an interview. “

The idea is to serve Americans who have enough crypto assets to fund a mortgage down payment but do not want to sell those assets, which would both incur taxes and forfeit any future appreciation.  The new mortgage product allows them to keep the cryptocurrency and still secure home financing.  “Token-backed mortgages are a major first step to unlocking homeownership for the younger generations that have struggled with barriers to saving for a traditional down payment,” said Max Branzburg, head of consumer and business products at Coinbase, in a release. 

To use the product, a borrower must have a Coinbase account and would take out a regular mortgage with Better as well as a second loan, backed by either bitcoin or USD Coin. The second loan would fund the down payment on the first loan. Both loans are held by Better, and the crypto assets, once pledged, cannot be traded. Even if the value of the crypto falls, nothing changes on the loans, as long as the borrower keeps making the monthly payments.  CNBC

Minor Headlines

• Wall Street Bonuses Jump 6% To Record $49B for 2025 MSN

• Netflix raises the prices for all subscription tiers, again Yahoo.Tech

• OpenAI ads pilot tops $100 million in annualized revenue in under 2 months CNBC

• Carlyle and KKR Will Build $4B Data Centers For US Army Bisnow

• Microsoft will rent a Texas data center dropped by Oracle and OpenAI Bloomberg

• Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees, Citing Fortnite Slump New York Times

• Helium shortage has started impacting tech supply chains, execs say Reuters

Earnings Headlines

Investment Banking / Financial Services

• Jefferies missed Q1 estimates as record results in IB and equities trading were eroded by credit woes at collapsed First Brands and MFS (BBG)

Food / Alternative Protein (Consumer Staples)

• Beyond Meat delayed Q4 earnings (RT)

Retail / Gaming & Consumer Electronics

• GameStop missed 14% in Q4 revenue amid weak consumer demand and an industry shift to digital sales; the firm shifted its strategy to focus on trading cards and ​collectibles (RT)