Chapter 1: What is the significance of TAE's merger with Trump Media?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis. Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, December 18th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far.
TAE Technologies, a long-running nuclear fusion developer backed by major technology and energy investors, is set to go public through a $6 billion merger with Trump Media and Technology Group, a milestone for the fusion energy sector amid surging electricity demand from AI data centers.
TAE is among the earliest privately funded fusion companies and has spent more than two decades pursuing nuclear fusion designed to deliver abundant, carbon-free power.
Chapter 2: How does nuclear fusion differ from conventional nuclear energy?
The company is backed by Alphabet, Chevron, Goldman Sachs, and several family offices. Unlike conventional nuclear fission, fusion generates energy by forcing hydrogen atoms to combine under extreme heat and pressure. releasing vast amounts of energy without long-lived radioactive waste.
TAE says years of research have enabled it to shrink reactor designs while lowering costs and simplifying system complexity, advances that it argues are essential for commercial viability.
Chapter 3: What impact does inflation have on the current market trends?
Longer term, TAE envisions deploying fusion plants capable of producing between 350 and 500 megawatts each. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the deal a major bet on nuclear fusion power, with the AI arms race underway, adding this will be the U.S. key play on nuclear fusion. In today's trading, stocks are higher but very choppy.
Micron's strong guidance is helping the AI trade, and a delayed November CPI report showed a much cooler retail inflation picture at face value. The numbers. Annual headline CPI fell to 2.7%, well below the 3.1% consensus. Core CPI fell to 2.6% versus the 3% forecast. The caveat, the BLS didn't collect October data and had to make assumptions and adjustments.
The biggest issue raised by Omer Sharif of Inflation Insights, the BLS just assumed rent and owner equivalent rents were zero for October, which will artificially lower year-over-year rates until April.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of OpenAI's potential capital raise?
Wells Fargo says take the numbers with the entire salt shaker. Inflation pressures are softening, but not to this degree, they say. Pantheon Macro notes that the November data collection only began on the 14th after the shutdown ended, so many price quotes would reflect Black Friday sales skewing lower. Fed rate cut odds rose only slightly.
Skyler Winand of Reagan Capital says the dovish numbers may actually keep the Fed on hold as it assesses whether inflation continues to improve and employment continues to weaken. And economist Joseph Bresuelis says it is better to state forthrightly that we do not have sufficient sense of price movements over the past two months.
Among active stocks, Birkenstock is tumbling after solid fiscal Q4 results were overshadowed by tariff headwinds and a weak outlook. The Sandalmaker sees tariffs impacting profit margins by 100 basis points in fiscal 2026.
Lilly announced its obesity pill, or Forglipron, delivered superior weight maintenance in a Phase 3 trial for obese or overweight adults who had previously received injectable weight loss drugs like Zepbound or Novo's Wegovii. And Accenture is under pressure after guiding fiscal Q2 revenues slightly below expectations.
The company also said it will be the last quarter it shares advanced AI bookings and revenues. In other news of note, OpenAI has held preliminary discussions to raise tens of billions of dollars, potentially up to $100 billion, at a valuation of around $750 billion.
The information said talks are still preliminary and key details could change, but if finalized, the deal would represent a roughly 50% jump from OpenAI's reported $500 billion valuation in October. And Meta's outgoing top AI scientist Yang Li-kun is looking to raise €500 million for his new startup focused on world models.
The FT said the capital raise would value the company, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, at about $3 billion. LeCun has tapped Alexandre Lebrun, founder of the French health tech startup Nabla, as AMI's CEO. And in the Wall Street Research Corner, you don't need an AI bot to know which way the risks go.
The technology bubble bursting has emerged as the overwhelming concern among investors heading into 2026. Deutsche Bank's annual investor survey shows 57% of respondents included a tech bubble among their three biggest risks, a record-breaking margin. We've never seen a single risk score so far ahead of the rest entering a new year, strategist Jim Reed noted.
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Chapter 5: What are the biggest market risks identified for 2026?
The number two concern, a new Fed share pushing for aggressive rate cuts and triggering market turmoil. A private capital crisis rounds out the top three, with Reed highlighting that this is a recurring theme in recent client conversations following the failures of First Brands and Tricolor. Rising bond yields and unexpected central bank hikes complete the top five.
Check out the full list in our story on Seeking Alpha.
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