Good morning. In this edition:

• 🫧 Are we in an AI bubble?
• 🏛️ Surprise Congress retirement
• 📸 Nat Geo’s top 2025 images

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.81-minute read (1,014 words).

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“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.”

–Earl Nightingale (1921-1989)

Massive hype around AI has helped power US stock markets to new all-time highs, with the top AI companies responsible for ~80% of all gains in US stocks in 2025, per a recent estimate.

But investors are growing increasingly concerned that recent AI fever could develop into a more dangerous condition: irritable bubble syndrome.

Last week, every member of the Magnificent 7 biggest companies, except for Alphabet, posted losses amid fears of an AI bubble, with Microsoft (-7%), Amazon (-6%), and Nvidia (-4%) staring down the biggest reductions in stock value.

• Other major players in the AI industry also saw major declines last week, including Oracle (-11%), AMD (-16%), and Micron (-16%).

There are some positive signs. The AI stock losses came despite a blockbuster earnings report from Nvidia on Wednesday, which revealed 60+% annual increases in sales and profits last quarter. "There's been a lot of talk about an AI bubble," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on the earnings call. "From our vantage point, we see something very different."

The arguments

Along with Huang, many other prominent AI leaders say fears of a bubble are overblown, and that the technology is simply in a major boom cycle due to excitement over its potential.

• JPMorgan Chase executive Mary Callahan Erdoes on Thursday called the idea of an emerging AI bubble "a crazy concept."
• "Right now, if you look at demand and supply and what’s going on and multiples against growth, it doesn’t look like a bubble at all to me,” prominent Silicon Valley investor Ben Horowitz said earlier this month.

On the other hand: Last week’s stock market rout indicates a growing number of investors have serious doubts about what’s going on under the AI industry’s hood.

Many experts and analysts note that Silicon Valley is taking on massive amounts of debt on the assumption that massive new revenues from AI will cover the tab.

• But if the market for AI services was to slow even a little, the situation could quickly turn many of the new, expensive AI data centers—and financed debt—into essentially worthless commodities.
• Critics also note how the leading AI companies are increasingly buying products, power, and services from one another, driving up their valuations in a circular loop that doesn’t reflect organic demand.

Looking ahead…At the core of the AI bubble debate is one major question: will all the spending on chips and research eventually lead to big enough profits to justify the huge outlays?

Morgan Stanley analysts estimate that Big Tech companies will spend $3 trillion in AI infrastructure investment through 2028, with their own cash flows only projected to cover half of that.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, is the US economy in the middle on an AI bubble?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏥 Eli Lilly reaches $1 trillion market valuation, becoming the first healthcare company in the four-comma club; Lilly’s shares have risen over 75% since launching flagship obesity drug Zepbound two years ago.
• 📺 Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly receives three different takeover propositions: one from Netflix, one from Paramount, and one from Comcast.
• 🏦 Client data for major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Morgan Stanley reportedly accessed in a hack of a tech vendor.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🧙 Wicked: For Good earns $150 million in its debut at the domestic box office this weekend ($226 million globally); it marks the biggest-ever opening for a Broadway adaptation.
• 🏟️ Italy wins third straight Davis Cup, aka “World Cup of Tennis,” becoming first country to do so in the modern era. | Las Vegas Grand Prix: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen earned the victory Sunday, with both McLaren racers DQed; result keeps Verstappen’s title chances alive as he chases McLaren’s Lando Norris.
• 🏈 CFB: Week 13 is in the books (recap). | NFL: See a full Week 12 recap (link).

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 Google’s new Gemini 3 model, which runs on the company’s own chips, has surged past ChatGPT and other competitors to become the most capable AI chatbot, per consensus industry-benchmark tests.
• 🚀 Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin unveils plans for larger, more powerful version of its New Glenn megarocket; new version would position the space exploration company to compete more directly with SpaceX for NASA contracts.
• 🧘 Regular, high-intensity yoga helps improve sleep quality more than most other forms of basic exercise, new study suggests.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🧑‍⚖️ Supreme Court temporarily restores Texas’ new congressional map while appeals process plays out; map aims to add five GOP House seats in next year’s midterms.
• 🏛️ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announces plans to resign from Congress at the start of next year; it comes one week after President Trump disowned her politically and offered to back her GOP primary challenger.
• 🌍 Top Ukrainian officials met in Switzerland yesterday with officials from the US, UK, France, and Germany to discuss next steps on the Trump admin’s new 28-point peace proposal aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war. (Dive deeper: The new Russia-Ukraine peace plan)

☝️ You’re looking at some of the top pics from National Geographic photographers’ thousands of shots across the globe this past year. Check out more of the top photos here.

🤔 Did you know? Ants basically enter airplane mode in the winter months where it gets cold. When temperatures drop, ants enter diapause, a hibernation-adjacent slowdown where they burrow deep underground, move in slo-mo, and burn almost no energy. This process enables whole colonies to survive for months on little to no food until warmer weather arrives.

📰 Worth a read: The 50-star American Flag was initially a high school project that received a “B-”

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• 9 ‘healthiest’ low-sugar fruits you can eat for a longer life
• Cold plunges and kombucha: Do winter wellness trends really work?
• What ‘67’ reveals about childhood creativity

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On Friday, we covered the reported framework of a new 28-point peace agreement proposed by the Trump admin that would essentially end the yearslong Russia-Ukraine war in exchange for various concessions by Kyiv.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support or oppose the reported details of the Trump admin’s new peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war?

• Support: 18%
• Oppose: 67%
• Unsure/other: 15%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 779 votes and 105 longform responses.

Monday: D.B. Cooper Day

Tuesday: Conference Board drops new US consumer confidence data

Wednesday: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery begins limited theater run; Zootopia 2 hits theaters; Stranger Things’ fifth and final season hits Netflix

Thursday: Thanksgiving Day

Friday: Black Friday

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words:

1. Ant
2. Caps
3. Dors
4. Kilo
5. Magn

🐝 Ten-year-old beekeeper Nicholas Bard recently won a showdown with city officials who tried to remove his hives. After thousands of neighbors rallied behind him, the city reversed course, letting Nicholas continue to care for his colonies.

1. Ant = Against (e.g., antagonist, antacid)
2. Caps = Case (capsule)
3. Dors = Back (dorsal)
4. Kilo = Thousand (kilogram, kilometer)
5. Magn = Great (magnificent)

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