China's Top Rival to Tesla Bot Headlines Robot Games in Beijing
The Hangzhou-based company's H1 robot won gold in a 1,500-meter humanoid race with a listed time of 6 minutes and 35 seconds, beating the average mile time on Strava by close to four minutes. Another Unitree machine also made it to the podium in a race that highlighted day one of the World Humanoid Robot Games.
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Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
After Gaining $394 Billion in Market Cap in 3 Days, Is Apple Stock on Its Way to Joining Nvidia and Microsoft in the $4 Trillion Club?
Key Points Apple's U.S. manufacturing investment could lower its tariff expense. The company's results are improving, but growth is still sluggish. Apple needs to justify its lofty valuation with AI-related product upgrades that are well-received by its diverse user base. 10 stocks we like better than Apple › After closing at $202.69 per share on Aug. 5, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock soared a staggering 13% in just three days to finish Aug. 8 at $229.09 per share. The move pole-vaulted the tech giant's market cap to $3.404 trillion -- a whopping $394 billion gain. That's like creating a company the size of Home Depot out of thin air. After languishing for most of the year, let's determine if Apple has what it takes to join Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) in the $4 trillion market cap club, and if the growth stock is a buy now. Apple's massive news Apple's sudden pop came in response to its $100 billion manufacturing program. Announced last week, the program will create American jobs and onshore some of Apple's complex supply chain. Due to Apple CEO Tim Cook's visit to the White House and Apple's manufacturing commitment, President Trump said that Apple would be 100% exempt from a specific tariff on imported semiconductors. The potential for Apple to reduce its costly tariff expense, and maybe even get government support for its onshoring efforts, is undoubtedly a boon for the company's near-term prospects. Apple isn't the only mega-cap company that is trying to work with the current administration on tariffs. On Monday, reports indicated that Nvidia made a deal with President Trump, allowing the chipmaker to resume exporting its H20 chips in exchange for giving the U.S. government 15% of its revenue from China. The H20 is a scaled-down version of Nvidia's most advanced chips, which are custom-built for Chinese markets to comply with trade restrictions. The current administration intends to retain certain tariffs, but it also appears willing to negotiate deals with big businesses. Apple's manufacturing news is positive, based on the near-term impact of tariffs. The investment could help Apple reduce its sensitivity to trade tensions and geopolitical risk. However, it's unclear how it impacts Apple's long-term investment thesis. Apple has mastered the art of managing a global supply chain to achieve cost advantages and boost its profit margins. Onshoring some of its supply chain could lead to higher costs. However, Apple has yet to make a meaningful splash in artificial intelligence (AI) -- which is one of the main reasons why the tech giant has been lagging behind the performance of other, more defined AI winners like Nvidia and Microsoft. In Apple's defense, the company has built on Apple Intelligence and released a new design update called Liquid Glass. Overall, the market is not impressed with the company's AI efforts, considering how sluggish Apple's growth has been in recent years. Apple's earnings growth doesn't justify its lofty valuation Apple has heavily relied on its high-margin services segment and stock buybacks to drive earnings to offset weak results from its product segment. Apple's services, which include iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple TV+, have been the standout for years now. But Apple's bottom line depends more on key products, like iPhone, Mac, iPad, and wearables. Investors breathed a sigh of relief after Apple's latest quarter -- the third quarter of fiscal 2025 -- which showed a significant improvement in its product segment. Revenue grew 10% and diluted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 12% including double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac, and services. Despite the solid quarter, Apple's net income has slightly declined over the last three years, so its earnings are only up due to buybacks. But the stock price has gone up substantially, which has made Apple relatively expensive. Apple's results are headed in the right direction, but the valuation is far from cheap. In fact, Apple's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is the stock price divided by analyst consensus EPS estimates over the next 12 months, is higher than its five-year and 10-year median P/E ratios. Even if Apple performs as expected and the stock price doesn't move for a year, it will still be relatively expensive. Apple has to earn $4 trillion the hard way Apple is taking the right approach to integrating AI across its product suite. Apple's competitive advantages are its design, user-friendly products, seamless integration of software and hardware, and comprehensive product offerings for consumers and businesses. In other words, the everyday usefulness of Apple's AI features is the most important performance indicator. Investors who agree with Apple's deliberate approach to AI may still want to consider buying the stock now, despite the premium valuation. However, given how pricey Apple is, its road to $4 trillion in market cap will likely need to come from earnings growth rather than valuation expansion. With a market cap of $3.418 trillion at the time of this writing, Apple would have to jump 17% to cross $4 trillion. It could certainly grow earnings by that much in a year or two. And if investors like what the company is doing with AI, it could maintain its higher-than-historical valuation. All told, I expect Apple to cross $4 trillion in market cap by the end of 2026 -- but investors shouldn't expect the company to get there overnight -- even after adding $392 billion in market cap in just three days. Should you invest $1,000 in Apple right now? Before you buy stock in Apple, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Apple wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $663,630!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,115,695!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,071% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Daniel Foelber has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Home Depot, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. After Gaining $394 Billion in Market Cap in 3 Days, Is Apple Stock on Its Way to Joining Nvidia and Microsoft in the $4 Trillion Club? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
3 Tech Stocks That Could Go Parabolic
Key Points IonQ has the opportunity to be the big winner in quantum computing. SoundHound AI is looking to be a leader in voice and agentic AI. AppLovin has a huge opportunity to expand its AI adtech to areas other than gaming apps. 10 stocks we like better than IonQ › When it comes to investing, there are times when you're going to want to swing big. Not all these investments will pan out, but if one hits, your portfolio will greatly benefit. Just remember that these types of riskier picks should only account for part of an overall diversified portfolio. Let's look at three growth stocks that have the potential to go parabolic. 1. IonQ IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) is moving quantum computing from theory into the real world. The company is already delivering systems to commercial, government, and academic customers while working toward fault-tolerant machines that can run at scale. That's the breakthrough the industry needs to achieve mainstream success. IonQ is working from a position of strength. Following a recent equity offering, the company now has $1.6 billion in cash (as of July 9, 2025), making it one of the best-capitalized players in the field. In addition, the company is spending its money wisely by making key acquisitions to both expand its talent base and add new capabilities, such as space-based quantum networks. Its partnership with AstraZeneca, Amazon, and Nvidia, is working to demonstrate a quantum-accelerated computational chemistry workflow. This collaboration involves integrating IonQ's quantum processing unit with Nvidia's CUDA-Q platform, powered by Amazon's AWS infrastructure. It's showing early signs of success, with AstraZeneca seeing a 20-fold speed-up in drug development workflows. It has also recently formed a quantum networking division, making a move to become a leader in this space, as well. If quantum computing fulfills its promise, the market could be enormous. IonQ's combination of financial strength, key partnerships, and technology leadership puts it in a prime position to be one of the biggest winners in the space. 2. SoundHound AI SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) is looking to carve out a leadership position in conversational and agentic artificial intelligence (AI). Its acquisition of Amelia last year gave it access to the company's advanced conversational intelligence, which it then combined with its "speech-to-meaning" and "deep meaning understanding" tech. The result is Amelia 7.0, a voice-first agentic AI platform that allows customers to create AI agents with little to no coding. These agents can complete tasks independently, which greatly expands the valuation proposition of SoundHound's platform. It's also added real-time AI visual recognition to its tech stack, making its platform even more powerful. SoundHound has long had a strong foothold in the automotive and restaurant sectors, where it continues to see strong success. Meanwhile, the Amelia acquisition gave it a solid foundation in other industry verticals, including financial services and healthcare, which are now major priorities. The strength of the combination was on full display in Q2, as SoundHound's revenue soared 217% year over year to $42.7 million, far outpacing expectations. It also raised its full-year guidance due to accelerating demand, and expects to reach adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) profitability by the end of 2025. This is still an early-stage, high-risk investment, but the market potential for voice-powered and multimodal agentic AI is huge. If SoundHound can become a leader in this space, the stock has tremendous upside from here. 3. AppLovin AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP) has been one of the market's most explosive growth stories, with its shares up more than 400% over the past year. However, its outperformance could be far from done. Following the sale of its legacy gaming app portfolio, AppLovin is now a pure-play adtech platform. Its secret sauce is its AI engine, Axon 2.0, which optimizes ad targeting, bidding, and placement, driving strong results for its gaming app clients. It sees the gaming app market alone growing at a 20% to 30% annual pace for the foreseeable future. However, it has more growth drivers ahead. It's currently testing its platform with e-commerce and web-based ads, expanding beyond just gaming apps. It also plans to open its platform to advertisers outside the U.S. and launch a self-serve ads manager next year. Management believes this will be the foundation for its next leg of growth, expanding its customer base and use cases well beyond gaming. While short-sellers have taken shots at the company, AppLovin has continued to deliver strong revenue, earnings, and free cash flow growth quarter after quarter. If Axon 2.0 proves as effective outside gaming apps as it has within them, the stock could continue its vertical ascent. Should you invest $1,000 in IonQ right now? Before you buy stock in IonQ, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and IonQ wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,106,071!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, AppLovin, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends AstraZeneca Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Tech Stocks That Could Go Parabolic was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNET
37 minutes ago
- CNET
Start Saving Now: An iPhone 17 Pro Price Hike Is Likely, Says New Report
The iPhone 16 series dropped last year with the same US prices as the iPhone 15 series. But the iPhone 17 might come with the first price increase in years. James Martin/CNET Apple's annual iPhone event is likely just a few weeks away but we're still seeing new rumors surface. One of the latest leaks is that the iPhone 17 Pro will get a $50 price increase. The rumor surfaced on the Chinese social media site Weibo from a user named Instant Digital (Setsuna Digital) and corroborates an earlier prediction from Jefferies analyst Edison Lee. Lee expects that to change this fall. He says that the iPhone 17 Air (17 Slim), 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max will get a $50 price increase to offset the higher costs of components and tariffs, as reported by Business Insider. He didn't mention the regular iPhone 17 getting a price hike. If true, that would mean that the starting prices for the iPhone 17 series will be: iPhone 17 - $829 iPhone 17 Air - $979 iPhone 17 Pro - $1,049 iPhone 17 Pro Max - $1,249 Instant Digital also thinks that the baseline iPhone 17 Pro will come with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB like the iPhone 16 Pro. Since what President Donald Trump touted as "Liberation Day," the possible effect of tariffs on the iPhone's price has been widely discussed. And yet, despite tariffs and politics, iPhone prices have remained the same so far this year. News on the price hikes follows a May report by The Wall Street Journal that Apple is considering a price increase and could attribute the rise to new and updated features instead of tariffs. But the launch of the rumored iPhone 17 this fall will likely come with a higher price, no matter what Trump says or does. Apple is the third-largest company in the US, and most of its products are manufactured in China. Clearly, the iPhone's ubiquity has made it a symbol for the ongoing uncertainty of the US economy and politics. But even without higher component costs or tariffs, the iPhone has been overdue for a price increase. The last price increase was five years ago. From left: the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Regardless of everything that's occurred in 2025, the price of the phones has remained the same. James Martin/CNET Historically, five years is the longest stretch of time Apple has gone without an increase since the five years between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 7, which ended with the iPhone 8 launching at a higher cost. We can learn a lot by looking at how the company has handled earlier price hikes (and a one-time drop) and what that means for the iPhone 17. To figure out how likely we are for a price hike, I grouped iPhone models into a few categories: the standard, the flagships and the behemoths. The standard includes models like the original iPhone, the iPhone 8, the iPhone XR and the iPhone 16. The flagships include variants like the iPhone X, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro. And the behemoth's designation is for phones like the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone XS Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max. There are other versions that Apple sold, like the iPhone 5C, the SE series, the iPhone Mini line and the current iPhone Plus line, that don't factor into this analysis. Also, I use the US starting price for each iPhone before any carrier discounts are applied. Let's dive in. All Things Mobile: Our iPhone 16 Pro 7-Month Check-In All Things Mobile: Our iPhone 16 Pro 7-Month Check-In Click to unmute Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Skip Backward Skip Forward Next playlist item Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 6:14 Loaded : 1.59% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 6:14 Share Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. 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All Things Mobile: Our iPhone 16 Pro 7-Month Check-In Standard iPhone prices The iPhone 16 launched in 2025 with a starting price of $829, the same as the iPhone 12 did in 2020. James Martin/CNET Since its debut in 2007, the standard iPhone has had four price increases and one correction. Many folks might remember paying $199 for the original iPhone, but in reality, the phone cost $499 off-contract. In 2008, Apple raised the price $100 with the launch of the iPhone 3G to $599, where it would stay for four years. Then, in 2012, the iPhone 5 was introduced with a taller, 4-inch screen and a higher $649 price tag. Fast-forward to 2017, the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, and the iPhone 8 debuted at a cost of $699, a $50 increase. Every year between 2017 and 2019, the price for the standard iPhone changed. In 2018, the iPhone XR launched at $749. The following year, the iPhone 11 came out, and the price dropped back to $699. And what makes that drop interesting is that the iPhone 11 was the first standard Apple phone with two rear cameras: a wide-angle and ultrawide. Up till then, all other standard iPhone models had only a single rear camera. From 2007 to 2019, when Apple increased prices, it was in $50 increments, except between the first and second iPhone models. Then 2020 happened. It was a wild year for the iPhone and everyone because of the pandemic. But Apple managed to launch the iPhone 12, which cost $829, marking the largest increase for the standard iPhone: $130. Subsequent models all had the same price: The iPhone 13, 14, 15 and 16 all cost $829. If Apple follows its previous pattern, then the standard iPhone is due for a price increase. The last increase was in 2020, five years ago, and Apple has never gone six years without a price hike on the standard model. But will the company slowly increase the price over a few years like it did between the iPhone 7, 8 and XR? Or will it go all in like it did with the iPhone 12? The standard iPhone is Apple's most popular, and it's safe to expect that the iPhone 17 will cost more (and would have even if Trump hadn't been elected). Now we just need to wonder how much tariffs and politics might drive the price up even more. The flagship: iPhone Pro model prices The iPhone 16 Pro came out in 2024 with a starting price of $999, the same as the 2017 iPhone X. James Martin/CNET Apple hasn't always had an iPhone Pro variant but it did starting in 2017 with the launch of the iPhone X, which had a starting price of $999. The phone debuted next to the $699 iPhone 8, making the 8's $50 increase seem like nothing. But here's where things get interesting. Apple has never raised the price on the iPhone Pro model. The iPhone X, XS, 11 Pro, 12 Pro, 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 15 Pro and 16 Pro all cost $999. That's eight years without a price increase! What's even more shocking is when you correct for inflation: the 2017 iPhone X's $999 price would be $1,298 in 2025, according to the Consumer Price Index Inflation calculator. The iPhone Pro is overdue for a price hike, and I expect the iPhone 17 Pro to cost more. The behemoths: iPhone Plus, Max and Pro Max prices The iPhone 16 Pro (left) and iPhone 16 Pro Max. James Martin/CNET Since 2014, Apple has sold a big version of the iPhone. Some of these were nothing more than a larger version of the standard iPhone with a bigger screen and battery as well as some minor differences, like the iPhone 6 Plus having optical image stabilization on its camera while the iPhone 6 didn't. But beginning with the iPhone 7 Plus, the larger version started having "pro" features, like a second rear camera and portrait mode. In terms of pricing, the iPhone 6 Plus debuted at $749, which was $100 more than the iPhone 6. And that $749 price stuck around for the iPhone 6S Plus and 7 Plus. In 2017, Apple had three iPhone models: the $699 iPhone 8, the $749 iPhone 8 Plus (a $50 increase from the 7 Plus) and the $999 iPhone X. In 2018, Apple launched the $1,099 iPhone XS Max, which I consider the true successor to the initial iPhone Plus line. That means the big iPhone got a $350 increase in a single year, the largest Apple has ever made. I admit some people might not think the XS Max is a follow-up to the Plus and would deem it an entirely new iPhone variant. But this is my commentary. Like the iPhone Pro, the Max and Pro Max would have the same price for years. In 2023, Apple raised the barrier of entry for the Pro Max model and didn't offer a $1,099 version of the iPhone 15 Pro Max with 128GB of storage. Instead, you had to pay $1,199 for the 256GB variant, which technically cost the same as the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 256GB of storage. The iPhone 17 and 17 Pro's prices No one knows how much the rumored iPhone 17 will cost, except Apple. Apple/Viva Tung/CNET Even without tariffs, it's safe to assume that the iPhone 17 lineup's prices will be higher for some models. But when you factor in everything that's happened this year, it's hard to gauge just how much the price will go up and whether that'll affect just one or two models, or apply across the entire iPhone 17 line. This year, Apple raised the price on its most affordable model. Although it lacks the SE branding of the previous low-cost iPhone, the iPhone 16E came with a $599 price tag, $170 more than the $429 iPhone SE (2022). Apple doesn't talk about unreleased products or their prices. But we do have an unusual-for-Apple clue as to how these tariffs could affect the company. "Assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a quarterly earnings call on May 1. Obviously, that $900 million number wasn't just for the iPhone but for all Apple products. And that was three weeks before Trump threatened another tariff aimed purely at the iPhone. But $900 million is a lot for any company to swallow and eventually that added cost will need to be recouped. That usually means higher prices, even if Apple is pressured by Trump to attribute the increase to "new designs and features." If there's one thing for certain, we'll know exactly what those prices will be when Apple launches the next generation of iPhone models at its September event. Apple didn't respond to a request for comment.
