We could say that this week was dell-icious for some and explosive for others: Dell proved that rebirth is possible, while Anthropic continues to feed investors' insatiable hunger for AI. But to rain on the parade, credit card delinquencies reached their highest level in 15 years, the US is showing signs of stagflation, and Jeff Bezos learned that aerospace mistakes are paid for with explosions, in addition to dollars.
For now, here is what you need to know:
Dell secures a dell-icious contract with the Pentagon.
Anthropic is about to cross $1T* in private valuation.
Credit card delinquencies reached their highest level in 15 years.
More signs of stagflation in the United States.
Blue Origin puts on a fireworks show, only they weren't artificial.
*Trillion on the short scale.
1️⃣ Dell secures a dell-icious contract with the Pentagon
Dell crushed earnings expectations for the quarter, reporting earnings of $4.86 per share, versus the $2.96 expected; and revenue of nearly $44,000 million, representing an 88% year-over-year growth. The stock rose 30% after the report, and is already up 226% so far this year.
The driver of this madness was its infrastructure division for (let's say it in chorus) "AI." Revenue from AI-optimized servers skyrocketed by 757% thanks to a backlog of pending orders that already reaches $51,300 million.
Additionally, Dell secured a $9,700 million contract with the Pentagon to modernize its technological infrastructure.
And you might wonder, isn't Dell like an old, obsolete computer that students used to use? Well, yes… Dell was that old computer hidden in a drawer, but it suddenly made an upgrade and now looks like a supercomputer.
💡 What you should know: The market no longer sees Dell as a laptop assembler for students, but as another participant in the AI gold mine. The backlog of pending orders seems to guarantee a massive cash flow in the medium term.
2️⃣ Anthropic on the verge of crossing $1T* in private valuation
Anthropic announced the closing of its Series H funding round for a sum of $65,000 million USD. This cash flow raises the startup's valuation to $965,000 million, officially surpassing OpenAI (whose last valuation was $852,000 million). Clearly, both are on the search for that "trillion" in valuation.
We know that the term "trillions" has been used so much lately that we might lose the true impact they have. But for reference, with their current valuations, these 2 companies would be the 11th and 13th largest companies in the United States, with Walmart right in the middle. They have a market value greater than that of JPMorgan, Visa, Mastercard, Exxon, and many others.
Along with the announcement, Anthropic revealed that its annualized revenue crossed $47,000 million dollars, mainly due to the commercial success of Claude Code and the launch of its new model Claude Opus 4.8.
However, they are not yet profitable; both operating and net income are negative. But they are expected to report their first operating profit as early as next quarter.
💡 What you should know: Anyone who has used Anthropic's tools can tell you that it's not just hype. Indeed, there is a large part of value in the company's value proposition, and its aggressive focus on corporate data security and software automation are making it win the AI monetization race. In fact, they are growing at a faster rate than Google and Facebook grew during their pre-IPO phase. Even so, it is hard not to feel that something is about to break, it's just that this doesn't seem to be the case.
*Short scale trillion.
3️⃣ Credit card delinquency reached its highest level in 15 years
More and more people in the United States are struggling to pay off their credit cards.
According to data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 13.12% of card debt in the first quarter of the year was more than 90 days past due. This is the highest level in 15 years.
In addition, total card debt reached 1.25 trillion dollars (on a short scale), which is a record for a first quarter since the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began measuring this data in 1999.
Why is this happening? Mainly because life is more expensive, cards are too, and many people do not lower their spending levels despite economic difficulties. The average annual interest rate was 21% in February, whereas in 2022 it stood at 15%. As we well know, this means that when someone fails to pay their statement's full balance, the debt grows much faster.
💡 What you should know: Credit card debt in the United States has not stopped rising for years, and although this is concerning from every standpoint, it is even more concerning when people cannot make their payments. Life is expensive and cards are too. Avoid using credit cards if you cannot pay them in full each month. And if you are already in a position where you cannot pay them, there are always solutions.
4️⃣ More signs of stagflation
Moving to the macro level, the second official estimate for the United States macroeconomic outlook feels like a bucket of cold water.
Q1 2026 real Gross Domestic Product was adjusted downward to 1.6% from the 2% of the previous estimate, largely due to a slowdown in consumer spending and private investment.
Additionally, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index (the Fed’s preferred inflation metric) had an upward revision, rising to 4.4% from the 4.3% reported previously.
So, we have a slowdown in economic growth alongside quite stubborn inflation. It's not the best mix, and in fact, it's a sign that we could be headed toward stagflation, where stagnation in economic growth (GDP) and high inflation combine.
💡 What you should know: This combination is bad news for monetary policy because it leaves the Federal Reserve in a dead end. The chances of seeing interest rate cuts seem increasingly slim, keeping them high for longer than anticipated.
5️⃣ Blue Origin puts on a fireworks show (only they weren't artificial)
Bezos had his Roman Roy (from Succession) moment, where after eagerly watching the launch of his rocket, he witnessed its explosion.
During a static engine-firing test, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket suffered a booster anomaly, unleashing a giant explosion and a fireball that destroyed much of the launch infrastructure and also knocked down one of the 180-meter-tall lightning protection towers. Tremendous.
Bezos reported that "all personnel are safe with no injuries."
From what we gathered, static engine tests are designed to simulate the stress of liftoff while keeping the rocket anchored to the ground, and it is supposed to be a controlled fire. Clearly, the test failed, and it was astronomically expensive.
It is a good reminder that putting giant objects into orbit is very, very expensive, technologically hostile, and an excellent way to burn millions of dollars in seconds.
💡 What you should know: This accident represents a major delay in Amazon's plans to deploy its internet satellite constellation as soon as possible, as well as a delay for NASA's Artemis program. In investment terms, at least in our opinion, this significantly expands the commercial and operational dominance SpaceX holds over the rest of its competitors.
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