LikeFolio Weekly Roundup: The Latest AI Scare Meets an $8 Billion Reality

AI investors got another scare this week.

Some of the biggest names in AI called for slowing down the race to build more powerful models. Stocks sold off as investors started asking a familiar question: What happens to all this AI spending if development slows?

Then Amazon (AMZN) went out and signed a deal tied to as much as $8 billion in payments for backup power at its data centers. That comes one week after its major infrastructure deal with Qualcomm.

Google is spending aggressively, too. But it has $514 billion in cloud backlog behind that buildout. And our data shows consumers are considerably more bullish on Google than investors right now.

We see a lot of fear around AI stocks. We don’t see companies pulling back on the infrastructure.

And then there’s Tesla (TSLA).

On Oct. 1, we’ll finally get a look at the Roadster Elon Musk has spent years teasing – including what could be one of Tesla’s wildest demonstrations yet.

There’s a lot happening inside three of our Infinite Holds. Here’s what we’re watching this week.

Infinite Hold Updates

Tesla (TSLA) Is About to Show Us What the Roadster Can Really Do

We’ve been waiting years to see what Tesla ultimately does with the next-generation Roadster.

On Oct. 1, we should finally get our answer.

Tesla announced the Waco, Texas, unveiling date over the weekend. And Elon Musk has spent the run-up making some enormous promises.

He’s called it a potential “most memorable product unveil ever.” Last month, The Information reported that Tesla plans to demonstrate a Roadster equipped with SpaceX thrusters designed to lift the car off the ground – potentially with enough force that spectators would need to stand hundreds of yards away.

We’re excited to see it. And we don’t care that the Roadster will never be a high-volume vehicle.

The Roadster is Tesla showing off what it can build when practicality takes a back seat. If Musk delivers anything close to what he’s been teasing, Tesla is about to put a car onstage unlike anything consumers have seen before.

That fits a company whose ambitions now stretch well beyond selling EVs.

We’re already seeing huge enthusiasm around autonomous driving in our consumer data. First-time users try it, then start thinking about trusting it with their 16-year-old kids or 80-year-old parents. Optimus and Cybercab are generating plenty of anticipation, too.

Now Tesla gets another chance to capture people’s imagination.

Oct. 1 is circled on our calendar. We want to see if Musk can deliver the Roadster he’s spent nearly a decade promising.

Amazon’s (AMZN) $8B Generac Deal Shows the Scale of Its AI Buildout

Amazon just made another move that shows how seriously it’s taking the AI buildout.

This time, it went after the part almost nobody thinks about until it fails: backup power.

Amazon signed a long-term supply deal with Generac (GNRC) for generators that will keep its data centers running when the grid can’t. Generac expects initial deliveries to total $2.4 billion in 2027 and 2028, with the agreement tied to as much as $8 billion in payments over time. Amazon also received warrants to buy up to 1.69 million Generac shares.

For investors, the bigger story is how Amazon is building AWS.

Last week, it struck a major infrastructure deal with Qualcomm (QCOM). Now it’s locking down backup power. These are very different businesses, but they solve the same problem: Amazon needs an enormous amount of reliable infrastructure to keep adding AI capacity.

And the company clearly believes that demand will justify the build.

We’ve already seen AWS demand running ahead of supply. Amazon is spending heavily because customers are waiting for more computing capacity – and every new data center needs much more than chips. It needs power, cooling, networking, and enough redundancy to stay online around the clock.

That makes this Generac deal more than another supplier agreement.

Amazon is securing critical pieces of the AI supply chain before it needs them at full scale – and using warrants to give itself upside in the companies helping make that expansion possible.

AWS is getting bigger, and the infrastructure behind it has to grow with it. Amazon isn’t waiting around for that capacity to show up. It’s locking it down now – and positioning itself to profit as the AI buildout gets much bigger.

Google (GOOGL): Main Street Is 17 Points Ahead of Wall Street

We don’t need a big Google headline this week. The story we’re watching is already sitting inside our data.

Google’s Main Street Score is 86 out of 100. Its Wall Street Score is 69.

That 17-point spread tells us consumers are more bullish on Google than investors are right now.

The Main Street Score measures the strength we’re seeing from consumers. The Wall Street Score captures signals from the investor side. Put them next to each other, and we can quickly spot companies where consumer strength is running ahead of investor sentiment.

Wall Street has plenty to digest as Alphabet pours money into AI infrastructure. We covered that spending recently, along with the $514 billion in Google Cloud backlog supporting it.

Consumers don’t have to model capital spending. They vote with their attention and activity across Google’s products. Right now, those signals are stronger than the signals we’re seeing from investors.

Investors are debating the cost of that buildout. Consumers are all-in anyway.