Around June 25, within the same information and trading cycle, global technology and risk assets gave divergent signals across multiple dimensions: in the U.S. stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.35% on that day, while the S&P 500 index slightly declined. Behind the mild fluctuations of the index lies the overall weakness of AI concept stocks, with AeroVironment's decline exceeding 4.63%. At the same time, Strategy's preferred stock STRC fell to $80.26 during trading, far below its $100 par value, setting a new low since its listing. Additionally, it was reported that Google DeepMind lost two key contributors to the Gemini project, who were poached by competitors. The market began to price the risks associated with the cost of the AI “arms race” and talent loss together. However, on another front, OKX announced the launch of CARDS (Collector Crypt) spot trading on June 25, continuing to introduce new targets into the cryptocurrency market, while storage chip manufacturer Kioxia disclosed plans to issue and list ADRs in the U.S. in April or May next year under the same emotional backdrop, showing that the hardware supply chain is still trying to amplify capital leverage by leveraging overseas financing windows. This seemingly scattered market behavior and news jointly point to a shift in risk appetite for technology and cryptocurrency chains, moving from generalized chase to more refined screening of target quality, cycle position, and liquidity premiums.
Weakness in AI Stocks: AeroVironment Leads the Decline
On the same trading day, the three major U.S. stock indices showed significant divergence: the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up about 0.35%, indicating that traditional heavyweight blue chips still had support, while the S&P 500 index, with higher growth and tech weighting, fell slightly. This suggests that capital has shifted from "indiscriminate chasing of technology" to a more defensive and balanced allocation at the index level.
One of the core suppressors of the S&P performance is that the previously sharply rising AI concept stocks are under overall pressure, with market reports bluntly stating that "AI concept stocks are generally declining." Among them, AeroVironment's decline exceeded 4.63%, leading among related targets, having certain indicative significance. Considering that the AI sector previously had significant gains in the U.S. stock market and is at a high valuation, this round of correction seems more like a process of capital realizing profits concentrated at high levels and compressing valuation premiums, rather than an isolated event of a single company’s fundamentals. The divergence of indices combined with significant pullbacks in individual stocks reflects a clear cooling in short-term capital's risk appetite for high-elasticity AI trades, as the market begins to distinguish between "stories" and "realization capabilities," no longer giving high premiums uniformly to all AI-related targets.
STRC Preferred Shares Drop to $80.26
On the same trading day when risk appetite clearly cooled, Strategy's preferred stock STRC fell to $80.26, nearly a 20% discount compared to its $100 par value, with the "safety cushion" and premium space that could have been gained from the par value entirely disappearing in this price range, entering a significant discount trading state. According to historical performance since its listing, $80.26 is already the lowest price for this preferred stock since its listing. This new low is not a simple technical fluctuation, but a direct reflection of investors requiring higher risk compensation by lowering prices in the current emotional environment, indicating that the repricing force regarding future uncertainties for related assets is intensifying.
Two Key Members from DeepMind's Gemini Project Depart
In the news cycle of repeated emotions regarding technology and risk assets, Google DeepMind has been reported by the media to have "once again" lost core AI talent: two members who made significant contributions to the Gemini project have been poached by competitors. Gemini is one of the core projects for large models and AI products within Google, and the loss of backbone engineers and researchers suggests that some experiences and methodologies in key areas like model architecture, training processes, and productization paths may accelerate spread between different companies due to personnel migration.
For the market and industry, what is more critical is that this is not an isolated incident, but yet another signal of accelerated talent movement between leading large model teams. Core members of top model projects often directly participate in end-to-end decision-making from parameter scale, training strategies, and computing power scheduling to practical product implementation. Their movement not only raises visible costs like salaries and equity but also amplifies the hidden uncertainty that makes replicating technological routes and pricing changes in the competitive landscape difficult. In this amplified scrutiny of the AI arms race, DeepMind's loss of Gemini backbone reinforces the consensus that a leading advantage increasingly relies on the continued retention of key talent, which is precisely one of the hardest variables for all participants to manage at present.
OKX Launches CARDS Spot Trading
In the same information cycle where AI concept stocks collectively cooled and technology stock valuations fluctuated more intensively, cryptocurrency exchanges continued to choose to increase their supply of risk assets. OKX announced the launch of CARDS (Collector Crypt) spot trading on June 25, corresponding to the market for the actual buy and sell targets themselves, rather than being limited to contract or leveraged products, providing a new cryptocurrency asset option for on-site capital at a time when traditional stock market emotions were fluctuating.
In terms of timing, this new action appeared concurrently with the Dow Jones index's small rise on June 25 and the S&P 500 index's pullback, while AI concept stocks saw broad declines: on one side, the public market is repricing AI valuations and the costs of the talent war, while on the other side, the cryptocurrency platform continues to launch new targets including CARDS to create new segmented narratives and trading hotspots. Capital has not overall contracted its risk appetite due to the adjustment of AI stocks but has partially shifted toward higher volatility, more disparate pricing mechanisms in the cryptocurrency asset track, trying to amplify beta exposure through participation in spot trading of such new tokens during macroeconomic and technological expectation swings, which itself is a direct reflection of global risk capital still actively searching for high-volatility return opportunities.
Kioxia Plans U.S. ADR: Hardware Financing Heating Up
Amid the overall correction of AI concept stocks, the STRC preferred stocks falling below par value to $80.26 set a historical low, DeepMind losing another Gemini backbone, and CARDS launching on OKX attracting high-volatility capital within the same emotional fluctuation, Kioxia disclosed plans to issue and list ADRs in the U.S. in April or May next year, opening a new overseas financing window for storage and broader semiconductor hardware chains. In contrast to the concentrated devaluation of front-end application layer stock prices and the discount in preferred stocks, hardware assets aimed at underlying computing power and storage demand are still able to plan for medium-term financing in the U.S. capital market, showing that capital has not simply retreated from "technology" as a whole, but is conducting structural redistribution between different risk/duration assets: on one side, it is discounting expectations for existing high-potential assets like AI stocks and STRC, while on the other side, it is providing funding support for infrastructure financing like Kioxia ADR and new tokens like CARDS. The current array of seemingly contradictory signals together indicates a reordering of risk preferences between tracks and tools, rather than a unilateral shutdown of technology and cryptocurrency-related assets.
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