US Steel Stock Dips As Nippon Acquisition Faces Delays, Political Opposition But Retail Sentiment Remains BullishStock market today: Wall Street wavers at the start of a holiday-shortened week
This is how five top CEOs characterized AI's meteoric rise this year in interviews with CNBC's Jim Cramer. CEOs from Nvidia, CrowdStrike, Snowflake, AMD and Generac described how the new technology is affecting business and the broader tech sector. Throughout 2024, CNBC's Jim Cramer discussed the seemingly boundless rise of artificial intelligence with dozens of CEOs across the tech world. Here is how five top enterprise leaders characterized AI's meteoric rise this year. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the "AI computing ramp" is only beginning and will last years. Huang in March painted a picture of the AI landscape, saying investments in the new technology remain in the early innings. He predicted years of growth ahead and suggested that AI can drive innovation in a variety of fields, including science and healthcare. Nvidia is a titan of the AI revolution, as it designs and sells advanced technology essential for the technology. The company is the top supplier of GPUs, which are used to develop and implement new AI software like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Big Tech broadly is clamoring for Nvidia's products, with customers including Meta , Tesla , Microsoft and Amazon shelling out billions. Nvidia stock is currently up more than 176% year-to-date, and at times this year it surpassed Apple to become the most valuable company on the market. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said cybercriminals are leveling up: "It’s going to be the battle of AI in the future." Kurtz in February described how his cybersecurity company is fighting cybercrime that is "more active than ever," as hacker ranks grow and become more advanced with new AI technology in their arsenals. He said generative AI is democratizing "very esoteric techniques and attacks," so less-skilled cybercriminals can still carry out advanced attacks. "What we talked about in the earnings call is the ability to create more adversaries with lower skill levels, but operating at a much higher skill level, leveraging generative AI," Kurtz said, "Of course, on the security side, we leverage generative AI to help protect our customers, so it's going to be the battle of AI in the future." Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said generative AI will keep him "busy for many years to come." Ramaswamy took the reigns at Snowflake in February, and he described the way the data analytics software maker plans to use new AI technology. "We have so much ambition to do more, whether it is applications running on top of Snowflake, or, of course, using the power of generative AI, which I've been focused on for the past year, to democratize access to enterprise data, to have even more people be able to get at the data quickly to get value from it," Ramaswamy said. "So I think there's a huge opportunity in the world of data applications and AI that'll keep me busy for many years to come." Snowflake has collaborated with Nvidia, and in May, Ramaswamy teased a new project with the AI darling. According to him, Snowflake's product pipeline, "especially in AI, has been in overdrive." AMD CEO Lisa Su described competition with Nvidia: "There’s no one size fits all in computing." Although Nvidia leads the pack in the red-hot semiconductor design industry, competition is stiff, with companies like AMD and Intel vying for customers who are willing to pay top dollar. But in September, when asked about competition with Nvidia, Su suggested there is room for more than one major player in the sector. According to her, the "technology ecosystem" works properly when there's competition and partnership, and customers want the ability to choose between several solid options. "The way to think about it is, there's no one size fits all in computing," Su said. "There's no, you know, only one architecture. Actually, you're going to need the right compute for each application." Su said she believes "AI will impact everyone's lives," and that the world is just beginning to realize what the new technology can do. She also said people shouldn't be impatient about AI's impact because "tech trends are meant to play out over years, not over months." Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld CEO said pressure on the power grid "is only going to get worse" from weather and technology. Jagdgeld warned that pressure on the power grid is only going to increase as demand for data centers and other technology related to artificial intelligence continues to grow. 40% of the generator company's business comes from commercial and industrial-type products, he said, like backup for manufacturing plants, distribution centers, hospitals and data centers. "This has become a massively critical discussion point," Jagdfeld said. "This is only going to get worse." Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market. Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Nvidia, AMD and CrowdStrike. Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.comThere were funeral speeches — eulogies, if you like — tears and sadness. But there were also beach balls, cheers, flags and fireworks. In between there was racing — a lot of racing — with more than 140 drivers taking to the track in almost anything that had wheels and an engine before the final car crossed the finish line just before midnight. Irwindale has long been home to the weird, wacky and wonderful, from trailer and figure-8 races to all-female demolition derbies and RV auto soccer. It was where drifting got its start in the U.S., the wide, banked asphalt track perfectly suited for what has become one of the fastest-growing racing series in the country. And it was where a radio-controlled car hit a world-record speed of 111 mph. The track is — was? — historic and iconic so its closing after a quarter-century is another blow in what has been a long, slow decline of auto racing in southern California. A generation ago there were nearly a dozen tracks hosting regular events, from the Riverside International Raceway and the hulking Ontario Motor Speedway in the Inland Empire to Ascot Park’s half-mile dirt track near Gardena and Saugus Speedway, a third-mile oval built in a former rodeo arena in Santa Clarita. Just a handful are left with even NASCAR at least temporarily pulling up stakes, selling most of the land Auto Club Speedway stood on in Fontana and leaving Southern California off its racing schedule for just the second time since 1997. That has left racing fans out in the cold while depriving up-and-coming drivers of the time they need behind the wheel to learn the sport. “It’s devastating,” said 26-year-old Evelyn Vega, who has been making the 10-mile drive from San Dimas to Irwindale for more than half her life. “It’s just so close that we would come as a weekend activity,” Vega said as her 18-month nephew, Maximilliano, sat behind the wheel of a Menards Series West car in the garage area. “My dad loves the racing. We grew up with it.” Nearby, Donna Gunther, 67, who has been driving race cars twice as long as Vega has been alive, strapped into her battered No. 88 car — she would finish sixth in street stocks. Gunther’s home is Las Vegas and she once had several tracks scattered between here and there at which to race. No longer. “That’s what makes it so hard to race in Southern California,” said crew member Matt Jackson, who has seen more than a half-dozen tracks close. Land value Most of Southern California’s tracks met their demise in the final decade of the 20th century when the land they sat on became more valuable for warehouses, shopping centers, storage yards and townhouses. Even the 71-year-old Willow Springs International Raceway in Kern County, a 600-acre complex of eight tracks that is home to the oldest permanent road course in the U.S., is up for sale, although spokesman Rick Romo said plans are to keep the site a racetrack. Irwindale, which opened in 1999, was meant to help fill the void created by all those track closings, but it got off to an inauspicious start when a 23-year-old sprint-car driver named Casey Diemert died after hitting the wall during the track’s first practice session. The $7-million facility was unique because of its versatility, boasting half- and third-mile banked oval tracks, a drag strip and a 6,500-seat grandstand. And its location in the armpit of the 605 and 210 freeways made it easily accessible from anywhere in the Southland. In their heyday the tracks, nestled atop a former rock and sand quarry, were staples of NASCAR’s West Coast-based regional series, hosting nationally televised events, including the Toyota All-Star Showdown and NASCAR Cup Series drivers such as Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler and J.J. Yeley. But the track’s owners filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and plans were made to demolish the facility and replace it with an outlet mall. Those plans changed when Tim Huddleston, a former champion driver who won 45 races at the track — ranking him among the top 10 drivers all-time — took over management at Irwindale in the final week of 2017, giving the facility a second chance. That rebirth was short-lived, however, with Los Angeles-based IDS Real Estate purchasing the 63-acre site in 2022, then announcing in September the track would give way to an industrial park and commercial development. “Losing a track like Irwindale is definitely going to be a big blow to auto racing, NASCAR circle-track racing,” said Ryan Vargas, who watched his first race at Irwindale as a 9-year-old and returned to run in Saturday’s final event, only to have his night end in a crash with six laps left in the pro late model main event. “Irwindale was my home. There will definitely be a hole in that market.” But track closings aren’t just an issue in Southern California. Vargas, a La Mirada native who has relocated to North Carolina, said iconic short tracks have also been shuttered recently in places like Greenville, S.C., and Midland, N.C., the heart of stock-car country. “There’s so many drag strips, so many short tracks falling victim to land development and stuff like that,” said Vargas, who called Irwindale the best short track in the country. “It’s happening everywhere. It’s a really tough world for racing because of all the valuable real estate.” Many tracks, such as the ones in Riverside and Santa Clarita, were built in rural areas when the land was cheap. As suburban sprawl pushed cities farther and farther out, that land became more valuable for shopping centers and warehouses while neighbors began complaining of the noise from the thundering, angry bark of the stock-car engines. Promoters were also hurt by falling attendance, which cut into their already narrow profit margins. “These race tracks, they’re passion projects right? They don’t really turn big profits,” Vargas said. “These tracks don’t have TV dollars. These tracks just have ticket sales and entry fees. That’s their only source of income. “That’s difficult. It’s hard to keep up with the changing times.” Drivers affected That’s bound to have an impact on the development of young drivers, who have traditionally depended on short tracks to learn their craft the same way baseball players rely on the minor leagues. “That teaches you racing right there,” said Ron Hornaday Jr., who began his career driving stock cars at Saugus Speedway and went on to become a four-time champion in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series. “It taught you moving people out of the way and getting moved out of the way, of not running into them. And doing it with finesse. “You can’t teach that; just being in a race car and making laps.” Consider Vargas’ driver’s education. After watching that first race from the stands at Irwindale, he was hooked on the sport and by age 12 he was racing Bandoleros — entry-level cars that are slow to accelerate and top off at 70 mph — at the track. He quickly advanced to super late models and before his 20th birthday he had graduated to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he now races full time. “This is where I learned to race,” said Vargas, who brought his family back for Saturday’s finale, which seemed appropriate since Irwindale has long been a family track, with sons — and daughters — following their fathers and grandfathers from the stands to the pits and into the driver’s seat. Huddleston’s son Trevor dominated Saturday’s first race, an ARCA Menards Series West exhibition, and will finish as Irwindale’s all-time leader with 87 career wins, according to track officials. “Everybody likes to think of NASCAR as being an East Coast, Southern sport,” said Vargas, 24, whose primary sponsor is Santa Fe-based Swann Security. “But there a lot of very, very talented drivers on the West Coast. Without having a short track there, they may not even have a chance.” That was especially true for Vargas, who couldn’t drive himself to the races in those early days since he wasn’t old enough to get a license. If there hadn’t been a track 15 miles from his parents’ house, Vargas might never had gotten the opportunity to race. There are still places that provide that in Southern California, but they are shrinking in number. The Orange Show Speedway, a quarter-mile asphalt oval in San Bernardino, has been around for 77 years, helping launch the careers of NASCAR Cup champions Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch. It still offers races in various stock car divisions as does the Perris Auto Speedway in Riverside County and the Ventura Raceway. Meanwhile Huddleston, who squeezed a few final seasons out of the Irwindale track, is moving to Bakersfield, where he has teamed with Harvick, a Bakersfield native, to refurbish the former Kern County Raceway Park as Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, a 120-acre motorsports facility with a half-mile asphalt oval and a one-third-mile dirt one. Yet for beginning drivers from L.A. and Orange County, who are struggling to race on a shoestring budget, that track might just as well be on another planet. “It’s just a two-hour drive but that’s gas money, that’s towing a trailer, that’s potentially hotel stays,” Vargas said. “So it’s a struggle if you’re operating on a budget. When we were getting our foot in the door we drove to Bakersfield and then drove home the night of practice because we didn’t want to buy a hotel room.” Getting started in racing has always been expensive and for many drivers — and fans —- Irwindale’s closing will raise those costs. So as much as Saturday’s finale was a party and a wake, it also marked the end of an era for racing in Southern California when Jeffrey Peterson took the final checkered flag in track history. Sometime in the wee hours Sunday morning, the lights over the speedway went dark for the last time.Lakers' Pelinka Thanks D'Angelo Russell After Trade, Hypes Finney-Smith's 'Toughness'
The NFC’s No. 1 seed will come down to the final week when the Detroit Lions host the Minnesota Vikings. The winner takes the NFC North and gets a first-round playoff bye and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl. The loser becomes the No. 5 seed and must play on the road in the wild-card round. The Vikings (14-2) held on for a 27-25 victory over the Green Bay Packers to set up the high-stakes showdown in Week 18. The Lions (13-2) visit the San Francisco 49ers (6-9) on Monday night in a rematch of the NFC title game. Win, lose or tie, they have to beat the Vikings again. Detroit beat Minnesota 31-29 in Week 7. The Philadelphia Eagles clinched the NFC East and locked up the No. 2 seed with a 41-7 rout of the Dallas Cowboys. However, coach Nick Sirianni has a tough decision to make this week. Saquon Barkley is 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season record for yards rushing in a season. Sirianni has to decide whether to rest Barkley and most of his starters to prepare for the playoffs or let his star try for the 40-year-old record. The Los Angeles Rams (10-6) were on the verge of clinching the NFC West. They would lock it up Sunday night if the Commanders beat the Falcons. The outcome of the Atlanta-Washington game has a major impact on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7). If the Falcons win, they’d remain first in the NFC South and would win the division with a victory against Carolina next week. If the Falcons lose, the Buccaneers would take over first place and would secure the division with a victory over New Orleans next week. The Commanders would secure a wild-card spot with a win against Atlanta. If they lose, Seattle stays mathematically alive for a wild card and the Buccaneers could also find a path to the playoffs as a wild-card team. Three teams in the AFC have already secured their seeds. The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (15-1) won the AFC West weeks ago and clinched the No. 1 seed. The AFC East champion Buffalo Bills (13-3) are the No. 2 seed. The AFC South champion Houston Texans (9-7) are the No. 4 seed. The Baltimore Ravens (11-5) would win the AFC North and get the No. 3 seed with a win or tie against Cleveland next weekend or a loss or tie by Pittsburgh, which hosts Cincinnati. If they don’t win the division, the Steelers have already clinched a wild-card berth. The Los Angeles Chargers (10-6) also secured a wild-card spot. They’ll be no lower than the sixth seed. The final AFC playoff spot comes down to the Broncos (9-7), Dolphins (8-8) or Bengals (8-8). Denver clinches with a win or tie against the Chiefs. The Dolphins need the Broncos to lose and they must beat the Jets on the road to get in. The Bengals must win and the Broncos and Dolphins have to lose for them to get in. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLExtradite Hasina for trial, B’desh writes to India
New York can be a magical place for museumgoers. It also can be overwhelming and overcrowded at times, especially at the biggest, most famous museums. Luckily, the city has scores of great museums to choose from: Everything from small and quirky, to elegant gems housed in historic mansions, to preserved Lower East Side tenement apartments and hands-on experiences that might surprise even longtime New Yorkers. “Going to the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the American Museum of Natural History is fantastic. But they can be like a big super-sized coffee drink, while we’re more like a cup of espresso,” says Alex Kalman, director of two of the city’s tiniest museums, Mmuseumm1 and Mmuseumm2. One is built into an old elevator shaft in a downtown alleyway. At other small museums you’ll find a cozy, Viennese-style coffee shop; kosher Jewish comfort food; and edgy gift shops. You could view the chair that George Washington sat in before giving his inaugural address to Congress. Or you might make seltzer or solve math puzzles. Here’s some of what’s happening at NYC’s “other” museums: 1048 5th Ave. This museum, housed in a 1914 Gilded Age mansion that was once home to society doyenne Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, focuses on art and design from Austria and Germany. Its Cafe Sabarsky is a destination of its own, with 1912 upholstery, period decor, and a grand piano in the corner used for cabaret, chamber and classical music performances. On view now is “Egon Schiele: Living Landscapes” and “Austrian Masterworks from the Neue Galerie.” 227 W 27th St. Tucked inside the Fashion Institute of Technology, behind the big sculpture in front, is the city’s only museum solely devoted to fashion. And it’s free. Opening in February is “Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities,” exploring connections between cabinets of curiosities and fashion. 1109 5th Ave. at 92nd St. On view now are “Illit Azouley: Mere Things,” the first solo exhibit in a U.S. museum dedicated to the Berlin-based artist, and “Engaging with History: Works from the Collection.” Other displays include the “Tel Dan Stele,” a 9th century BCE stone monument fragment containing the earliest mention of the royal House of David outside of the Bible. The gift shop features an impressive array of specialty gifts, including works by artist Oded Halahmy. There’s a cafe with updated takes on traditional bagels, blintzes, herring and house-cured salmon. 2 East 91st St. One of the city’s two Smithsonian museums, the Cooper Hewitt focuses on innovative design. Its gift shop rivals MoMA’s, and there’s a private garden and small restaurant. The museum is housed in the former home of industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie. Completed in 1902, the mansion was the first in the U.S. to have a structural steel frame, and one of the first in the city to have a passenger elevator and central heating. It is now LEED-certified and features other cutting-edge technologies. A major exhibit on now, “Making Home: Smithsonian Design Triennial,” explores design’s role in shaping concepts of home, physically and emotionally. It sprawls over the entire mansion and will be on view through Aug. 10. 1 Bowling Green The other Smithsonian in town, it’s at the lower end of Manhattan inside the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House, now a city landmark. Admission is free, and current exhibitions include “Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes,” “Native New York” and “Infinity of Nations.” The gift shop features authentic Native American art, crafts, apparel and jewelry from a wide representation of groups, in addition to books by and about Native Americans. 103 Orchard St. With something for all ages, the Tenement Museum is housed in two preserved tenement buildings, one from 1863 and the other from 1888. Each apartment is a kind of time capsule, telling the story of a different immigrant or migrant family who lived there. The museum also offers walking tours of the neighborhood. “What is most unique about the Tenement Museum is that it shines the spotlight on ‘ordinary people’ — working-class families who never imagined they’d one day be the subject of a museum,” says Tenement Museum President Annie Polland. 170 Central Park West A great way to learn more about the city’s history, including the fact that Washington was inaugurated here. A permanent gallery on the fourth floor features a detailed recreation of the White House Oval Office in Washington, D.C., where presidents have worked since 1909. The Meet the Presidents Gallery traces, through artwork and objects, the evolution of the presidency and executive branch. Also on view is the chair from Washington’s inauguration at Federal Hall, on Wall Street, the only presidential inauguration held in New York City. Other current exhibits include “Pets and the City,” “Fred W. McDarrah: Pride and Protest.” There’s a permanent “Gallery of Tiffany Lamps.” 225 Fifth Ave. A hands-on museum with all kinds of math-oriented puzzles and thought-inspiring curiosities, like a tricycle with square wheels that rides smoothly on a zigzagged surface. In an exhibit called “Human Tree,” visitors can make successively smaller images of themselves that combine to make a “fractal tree” that sways in response to their movements. 474 Hemlock St, Brooklyn An interactive museum and factory tour run in partnership with the city’s oldest seltzer works, a family business now in its fourth generation. The museum, inside Brooklyn Seltzer Boys’ active factory, is “dedicated to preserving and promoting the effervescent history of seltzer water,” and celebrates “the manufacturing of seltzer, the science of seltzer, and seltzer as a cultural force in New York City and the world beyond.” Not to mention, guests can spritz each other with seltzer. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
