Just don’t blame me if the bubble pops. Nvidia, whose chips sit at the center of the global AI boom, delivered an exceptional earnings report on Wednesday, temporarily alleviating concerns of a potential economic implosion.

With investors, analysts, and laymen alike anticipating a possible bubble amid the massive AI craze, Nvidia had to put up prime Lebron numbers to dissuade the disbelievers… and they did just that:

Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, said sales of the company’s next-gen Blackwell chips are “off the charts” and cloud GPUs are “sold out,” topping off an already spectacular quarter for the world’s most valuable company.

Finally, some good news: The results come after weeks of AI stock selloffs and comparisons to the late-1990s dot-com bubble, but Nvidia’s strong performance helped ease anxiety (for now) that the rapid expansion of the AI-hardware market could be slipping into bubble territory.

Let’s do a brief recap. Since late 2022, the S&P 500’s record rally has been driven largely by the “Magnificent Seven,” which are responsible for roughly 75% of the index’s gains.

At the same time, companies like OpenAI, Nvidia, CoreWeave, AMD, Microsoft, and Oracle are tied together through a circular web of multibillion-dollar investments (see visualization).

Some think it’s a recipe for disaster: The tight loop of investment has fueled worries that if the big tech companies (and the AI firms driving most of the spending) scale back their AI ambitions, it could set off a damaging chain reaction across the economy.

The verdict marks a significant shift in the country’s political landscape. Early this week, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court handed down death sentences to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her home minister, ruling them responsible for last year’s violent crackdown on student-led protests.

Officials said the punishment reflects Hasina’s responsibility for the government’s violent suppression of mass protests that opposed public-sector job quotas. According to court documents:

After deliberation, the court deemed Hasina and Khan were guilty on multiple counts of crimes against humanity and sentenced them to death. Meanwhile, a former police chief who cooperated with prosecutors was handed a five-year sentence.

How did the protests start? Unrest erupted after a 2024 court ruling restored government job quotas for descendants of 1971 freedom fighters, but even after most quotas were scrapped, it evolved into broader frustration over limited private-sector jobs, high unemployment, and rising prices.

Looking forward: Hasina and Khan, who have been living in exile in New Delhi since August 2024, dismissed the verdict as politically biased. As of writing, India has not granted Bangladesh’s request to extradite them.

It’s the first time the phenomenon has ever been documented. New research revealed parasitic ant queens can take control of another species’ colony by using chemical signals that manipulate workers into assassinating their own queen.

The study, released this week (read here), is the first to show how a newly mated queen species manipulates worker ants into performing lethal tasks, and it plays out like a Shakespearean drama:

From there, the parasitic queen assumes control of the nest, lays her eggs, and is cared for by the workers of the former host, taking over the entire colony in only a few hours.

The ant kingdom is a brutal one: Research shows that ants sometimes commit matricide by killing their own queen and biological mother when she is no longer fertile, and invading queens have been observed committing regicide, eliminating rivals by beheading or biting their throats.

Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.

Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.

Learn more.

Sorry for getting the song stuck in your head. Pinkfong, the South Korean studio behind the global hit “Baby Shark,” went public on Seoul’s Kosdaq market this week, raising 76 billion won (~$53 million) in its IPO.

Depending on who you ask, “Baby Shark” is either the perfect tool to keep kids entertained or the bane of musical existence. Regardless, there’s no disputing the fact that it’s a global earworm:

Building on its breakout success, Pinkfong broadened its strategy by creating new characters, franchises, games, and live productions, eventually transforming into a full-fledged intellectual property studio.

Aiming to expand beyond just toddlers’ screens and viral hits, the South Korean studio wants to prove its capable of transforming into a global entertainment brand. However, Pinkfong needed more money to pair with its heightened ambitions, so it went public:

The listing valued the company at about 596 billion won ($406 million), so it’s safe to say investors have faith in the inevitable “Baby Shark” cinematic universe that’s soon to come.

As for the future… look to see a lot more “Baby Shark”. The company is looking to use AI and big-data tools to quickly expand into new IPs, more premium animated content, and international pop-up stores.

Hurry! Act like you know who Edmund Leighton is and grab some wine. After three sluggish years in the auction world, Sotheby’s just hammered down a record-breaking sale that might hint at a revival among high-end collectors.

After a competitive, roughly 20-minute bidding session, a Gustav Klimt portrait named “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” sold for $236.4 million to an anonymous buyer. It’s an unprecedented sale for modern art:

The six-foot painting, completed around 1914–16, also has a complex wartime history, as it helped its subject Elisabeth Lederer, who was a Jewish woman, avoid Nazi persecution.

How does a painting help one escape the Nazi’s, you might ask? Before the Nazi invasion of Austria, the Lederers were among Vienna’s wealthiest families, and they seized much of their art, sparing only family portraits.

Due to its historical significance, the sale of Klimt’s painting was one of the headline lots in an evening that also featured many other major works and renewed demand for rare modern masterpieces.

However, not all of them were masterpieces, per se: One of the more provocative artworks (if you can call it that) was a fully functional 18-karat gold toilet, named America, that sold for about $12.1 million.

> Raccoons in major US cities have developed noticeably shorter snouts than rural populations, which experts say is a surefire sign of self-domestication.

> Scientists built a digital copy of a mouse brain using a supercomputer, which will examine nearly 10 million neurons and 26 billion synapses, to study brain diseases and test treatments virtually.

> Thai police stopped a car near the Cambodia border and arrested two men after finding 81 live monkeys and crystal meth stashed in the vehicle.

> Record numbers of young women—around 40%—say they want to leave the US permanently, nearly four times the amount recorded in 2014.

> Scientists have created a breakthrough diabetes treatment that can deliver insulin through a skin cream, offering a possible alternative to injection-based treatments.