Daily ideas

The FDA told uniQure a sham-surgery control is no longer required, moving the cost of rare-disease gene therapy onto delivery hardware and endpoint instruments.

Altius Minerals and Clearway Energy told 2026 earnings calls that fewer investors bid to finance US renewable projects; Altius took GBR from 29% to 50%.

Viant says over 80% of its CTV ad spend now clears through direct access to publisher ad servers, up from just over 50% in Q1, at 35% lower CPMs.

CEVA said a company that builds both its hardware platform and OS licensed its NPU design. Licensing revenue hit a three-year high; royalties stayed flat.

Alcon and Bausch + Lomb reported flat US cataract volume in Q2 2026; growth now comes from premium intraocular lenses, worth $15 million a point to Alcon.

AST SpaceMobile's Japanese GLEO award brings up to about $1 billion of non-dilutive, non-debt government capital, covering roughly half the cost of those satellites.

Hesai booked its first RMB 45 million of actuation revenue while XPeng said 85% of IRON's core parts are in-house, as humanoid joint actuators stay scarce.

Non-traded fund redemptions of 10-38% pulled bidders out of large sponsor loans; KBDC printed SOFR+566 and FSK saw spreads up to 75bp wider.

On 23 August 2026 Nuix and Tongdao Liepin repriced AI as governed access to their own data: AI billings nearly doubled on a paying base that grew 0.4%.

NAPCO radio unit sales rose 40% year over year and Chorus pulled copper retirement forward to end-2028 after regulators freed carriers to set the shutoff date.

Pivotree and Multiconsult both report already-funded projects failing to start, and both say money is not the reason: clients are waiting on AI, not on budget.

Guangdong approved the first commercial power station for China Heavy Gas Turbine's domestic 300MW-class F-class machine, opening blade, HRSG and ring-forging procurement.

Iran approved rial-denominated Hormuz transit fees on 23 August 2026 with seizures effective immediately, leaving Gulf sulfur, urea and aluminum feedstock stranded.

Talks collapsed on 21 August and a US 50% tariff on about $20bn of Canadian goods took effect on 22 August, with Canada retaliating from 8 September.

Nvidia has told customers AI server prices rise more than 15% on systems shipping from early 2027, moving memory inflation into list prices.

Applied Materials hands suppliers an eight-quarter build schedule and KLA is signing 2029 component capacity deals; Camtek's orders now ship in 2027.

Interior's 2026-08-21 Record of Decision cuts Lower Basin Colorado River deliveries by 1.25 million acre-feet a year and pays for at least 700,000 acre-feet of conservation.

China's May 2026 plan makes offshore brokers block mainland deposits and buy orders in their own apps; Futu says mid-single-digit percent of client assets left.

Trump waived out-of-quota tariffs on up to 300,000 tonnes of ground beef for 90 days on 2026-08-21. Burger chains rallied; the cattle and chicken side did not move.