In today’s newsletter we discuss Robert Downey Jr. hanging up his Iron Man suit for good, Apple and Goldman Sachs’ relationship could use some counseling, AMD is getting on the AI chip train and riding the stock market upwards, Richard Branson says no more money for Virgin Galactic, and the future combined USFL/XFL won’t have NBC as a TV partner.

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Grand Theft Auto 6 Trailer Leaks, Video Gets 100M+ Views!

Business

All isn’t well in the Apple-Goldman Sachs relationship. News that they are looking to get a divorce in their credit card partnership hits the wires this week. While the partnership has been wildly successful for Apple, Goldman Sachs is left feeling neglected, and they may even have lost money on the deal. This article does a great job of diving into the details, which I’ll spare you - but it does show the power that Apple has over it’s partners, and should be a cautionary tale.

Apple is trying to unwind its Goldman Sachs credit card partnership

Tech

Jealous of Nvidia much? Announce you’ve come out with your own AI chip. That seems to be what one chip maker has decided to do.

AMD has announced that they are launching their own in-house designed AI chip, and boy has it sent their stock flying - which I can’t help but think was the real reason behind the announcement in the first place.

Already both Microsoft and Meta have committed to using AMD’s new chip. AMD’s new AI chips will start shipping in 2024.

Analysts estimated that AMD could end up with about 10% of the total AI chip market. So yea, a good business if you’re into chipmaking!

AMD stock spikes after company launches AI chip to rival Nvidia

Entertainment

Robert Downey Jr. has answered for the last time the question Will he or won’t he return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark/Iron Man.

The news that Robert Downey Jr. will not be resuming his role as Tony Stark in any future Marvel movies was revealed by none other than Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios and master of all things Marvel-related. He has said there are no plans to resurrect the character of Tony Stark after his last appearance in the 2019 movie “Avengers: Endgame.”

Marvel fans are shedding a tear right now at that news I’m sure, myself included, but it shouldn’t really be a surprise. Like all good things, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Iron Man characters had a great run, racking up a total of $4,401,889,200 billion at the box office over a span of 9 movies including Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming which may-or-may not be in the correct order of appearance, but I digress.

Ultimately all good things come to an end, and now Tony Stark’s Iron Man has now officially ended his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is until they bring him back, because this is Marvel we’re talking about, and no one is ever really dead - well except Gamora, and Black Panther, and Black Widow, so actually yea some characters really can’t come back. My bad.

Robert Downey Jr. won’t be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark

Space

That’s it. Richard Branson has officially turned off the money spigot for Virgin Galactic. So what does that mean for the struggling space company?

In a surprising interview with the Financial Times, Richard Branson revealed that he will no longer invest money into the space tourism company Virgin Galactic that he founded in 2004.

So what effect do you think this had on Virgin Galactic’s stock? If you guessed it dropped like a lead weight you’d be right, with the stock sinking 15 percent.

What changed? Well, Virgin’s balance sheet is what’s changed. They don’t have “the deepest pockets” anymore according to Sir Richard Branson. He also mentioned that Virgin Galactic should have “sufficient funds to do its job on its own.” The company has reported that they have all of the funding they need in place through 2026.

According to Virgin Galactic’s CEO Michael Colglazier he said “With our third quarter cash and marketable securities position of approximately $1.1 billion, we forecast having sufficient capital to bring our first two Delta ships into service and achieve positive cash flow in 2026.” Is that enough funding for them to reach profitability? I’m guessing that answer is a “Hell no!”, and they’ll need to do a new funding round in 2025, but what do I know? I’m just a content creator.

Richard Branson said he still has mad love for the space project (my words, not his, but minus well be), but he’s just done forking over cash.

Virgin Galactic has completed 6 spaceflights in the last 6 months, not a bad track record. Then came November and they announced they were suspending all flight operations for the next 18 months to save money for the development of their new and larger Delta class spaceship.

And did this news come with any layoffs you might be asking? Well of course it did. Virgin Galactic is laying off about 18 percent of its workforce to save money. The company is hoping and wishing upon a prayer that the successful completion of their Delta spaceship will result in “positive cash flow.” based on their simple math that a bigger spaceship will mean more room for the cattle, I mean paying passengers.

Richard Branson Is Cutting Off Virgin Galactic

Sports

Spring football just can’t ever seem to catch a break. I wonder if the NFL has anything to do with that?

While it’s not yet official, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s XLF is in talks to merge with the USFL before the upcoming 2024 spring football season.

For the 2023 spring football season the USFL’s games were televised on NBC, Fox and ESPN/ABC, but for the 2024 sprint football season NBC can said categorically that they will not televise any USFL/XFL games.

So what gives?

Well, the hopeful to be combined USFL/XFL plan to start their season earlier than last year, and that has thrown a wrench in NBC’s schedule.

With the new The new USFL/XFL league debuting in less than four months they better figure things out quickly.

NBC won’t televise games of combined USFL, XFL

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris