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Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home for Thursday, August 28, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Nvidia's earnings are okay, but maybe showing signs of normalizing. Copilot for your tv, a blockchain for your cloud. I catch you up on that whole nano banana image, AI craze sweeping the Internet and a summary of the Pixel phone reviews. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Over 10 years ago, Mizzen and Main invented and some might say perfected the performance fabric dress shirt. To this day, they continue to embrace that same entrepreneurial spirit by re engineering classic American styles with modern fabrics. The goal is to make it easier for guys to achieve and enjoy their version of success. So whether you're grinding away in an office in San Francisco or on site in Austin, they've got you covered. Know me, I'm a Polo guy. So personally I'm super into their Versa line of polos. Go to mizzenandmain.com techbrew and use promo code brew15 to get 15% off your first purchase. That's mizzenandmain.com TechBrew promo code brew15 although Nvidia's Q2 earnings came in above many analysts expectations, warning signs of a potential slowdown in AI spending unsettled some investors, Nudging NVID stock down roughly 3% in after hours trading, Though as I write this, I see the stock is nudging into positive territory. As trading begins this morning, Nvidia delivered strong quarterly growth. Revenue and profits beat estimates and net income surged about 59%, reinforcing the company's vital role in AI hardware supply chains. Yet caution also weighed heavily on sentiment. Its data center revenue, despite climbing around 56% year over year and making up around 88% of total sales, fell slightly short of the anticipated 40 $41.3 billion at $41.1 billion. Meanwhile, China related challenges persisted. Nvidia didn't ship any H20 chips tailored again specifically for the Chinese market last quarter due to tighter U.S. export restrictions, although it indicated two to five billion dollars in potential shipments of those chips this quarter if tensions ease. The company forecasted about $54 billion in revenue for the fiscal third quarter through October, aligning with street consensus but missing more bul of over $60 billion. This forecast, which notably excludes any H20 revenue from China, signaled a deceleration following a two year AI driven boom. From the earnings call, Business Insider flagged five major takeaways. Number one, H20 chip uncertainty shipments to China remain unresolved. CFO Colette Kress noted that revenue from potential 2 to $5 billion in H20 chip sales isn't included in the guidance. More on that in a second. Also, there was a bit of a modest sales outlook. Despite strong results, Nvidia tempered growth forecasts, suggesting that momentum is cooling there. Also, they wanted to highlight the massive AI infrastructure opportunity that's still ongoing. The company sees 3 to 4 trillion dollars in AI infrastructure spending by 2030 presenting a significant long term growth Runway. They also want you to know that robotics is their future. Demand for compute and robotics is accelerating, they said. The new Jetson AGX Thor platform is gaining traction among develop. Also there are those next gen Rubin chips coming Nvidia is on track to begin volume production of its Rubin architecture in 2026, promising continuity in innovation and product cadence. But Bloomberg underscored Nvidia's lackluster forecast, suggesting the modest revenue outlook, even though it is aligned with the consensus estimates, signals a slowdown following exceptional AI fueled growth. Quote the results showed hints that spending by giant data center operators could tighten the at the margins if near term returns from AI applications remain difficult to quantify, emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said in a note. Nvidia also noted that the US government hasn't yet codified its plan to take a 15% cut of revenue from China AI chip sales, and it acknowledged risks to enacting that policy. Any request for a percentage of the revenue by the U.S. government may subject us to litigation, increase our costs and harm our competitive position and benefit competitors that are not subject to such arrangements, Nvidia said in a filing. End quote actually as promised. More on that quoting Bloomberg Again, the US Government hasn't indicated how it will put regulations in place that require the chipmaker to make the payments, Nvidia said late Wednesday. Discussions between Nvidia and the government are ongoing, according to Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress. If the plan isn't codified, Nvidia should be able to proceed with China sales without paying the commission, kress said in an interview. We have been communicating, she said. If nothing shows up, I've got licenses. I don't have to do this 15% until I see something that is a true regulatory document. Interesting. Anyway, Nvidia remains bullish. Overall, global spending on AI infrastructure such as data centers and high performance computing systems is projected to reach $375 billion this year and climb to $500 billion next year. Long term demand for Nvidia's next generation products, including that Rubin architecture and its expanding footprint in robotics and edge computing continues to bolster optimism about its growth trajectory. Still, analysts warn that Nvidia's staggering ascent to a 4 trillion doll has raised the bar for investor expectations. The combination of slightly softer data center performance, muted guidance, and uncertainty in key international markets has introduced a note of caution, suggesting that the era of unbroken hyper accelerated growth could be transitioning to a more measured phase. For markets that have been treating Nvidia as a proxy for the health of the entire AI industry, this quarter's results signal both resilience and maybe the first hints of normalization in what has been the entire economy's hottest sector. Microsoft is expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming to Game Pass Core and Standard subscribers, dropping the Game Pass ultimate requirement and testing more PC game access. Quoting the Verge Microsoft currently restricts access to Xbox Cloud Gaming to Xbox Game Pass ultimate to get cloud access, meaning you have to pay $19.99 a month to get access to Xcloud. Xbox Insiders can now start testing the ability to stream cloud games included with Game Pass, Core and Standard subscriptions. As part of this insider experience, Xbox Game Pass Core and Standard subscribers will be able to stream cloud playable games included with their subscription or select cloud playable games they own, explains the Xbox Insider team. The expansion of Xbox Cloud Gaming to more Game Pass tiers comes just a week after Microsoft hinted at more affordable and accessible ways to access Xbox Cloud games. Microsoft was also previously working on a separate dedicated version of Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft has also hinted in the past that there could even be eventually a free version Xbox Cloud Gaming in exchange for ads. Microsoft is also expanding PC game access to Game Pass, Core and Standard subscribers. As part of testing, Xbox Insiders subscribe to Game Pass Core or Standard will for the first time gain access to PC versions of select titles, giving you even more flexibility and the choice to play on a PC or Windows Handheld, says Microsoft. If you want to try out Xbox Cloud Gaming and PC games on Game Pass Core or Standard, you can join Microsoft's Xbox Insiders program and then visit xbox.complay to access Cloud games or the Xbox app on Windows for the additional PC titles. Samsung has rolled out Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant to its 2025 lineup of TVs and monitors, letting users ask for movie suggestions, plot recaps and more. Quoting the Verge on TV Copilot takes on a friendly, animated presence that resembles the opalescent Copilot appearance Microsoft showed off last month, though in a color that makes it look more like a personified chickpea. The beige blob will float and bounce around your screen while its mouth moves in line with its responses. Copilot will automatically appear ON supported Samsung TVs, where you'll find it within the Samsung Tizen OS home screen, Samsung Daily plus and click to search. You can also access Copilot by using a voice command or selecting it with your remote. From there, hit the mic button on your remote and you can start speaking to Copilot. Microsoft notes that you can sign into the app for a more personal Copilot experience that allows the AI assistant to reference your previous conversations and preferences. Copilot is rolling out now on Samsung 2025 TVs, including Micro RGB, Neo, QLED, OLED, the Frame Pro, the Frame models, as well as the M7, M8 and M9 smart monitors. Microsoft has previously announced plans to bring Copilot to LG TVs as well. End quote Google Cloud says its Universal Ledger, a Layer one blockchain for financial products, is in a private test and plans to reveal more details at a later date. Quoting the block Google Cloud is building its own blockchain network named Google Cloud Universal Ledger or GCUL for the financial sector, according to Rich Widman, Google Cloud's Web3 head of strategy, who announced this on Tuesday. Widman wrote in a LinkedIn post that GCUL aims to provide financial institutions with a performant, credibly neutral blockchain platform that enables Python based smart contracts. Besides bringing to bear, Google's digital GCUL is a neutral infrastructure layer, Widman said in the post. Tether won't use Circle's blockchain and Adyen probably won't use Stripe's blockchain, but any financial institution can build with gcul. GCUL is currently in a private testnet and further details will be revealed at a later date. According to Widman's post, Google Cloud officially described GCUL as a new service for the financial market, accessible through a single API and programmable to enable payment automation and digital asset management. The company also stated that GCUL was designed with a focus on compliance and will operate as a private permissioned system, while Widman described GCUL as a Layer one network. The permissioned and private nature of Google Cloud's upcoming blockchain has resulted in community skepticism, with some arguing that it should not be mistakenly described as a decentralized blockchain. Google Cloud had previously announced the GCWL initiative in March in collaboration with with the CME Group, where CME was piloting solutions on the platform for use in wholesale payments and asset tokenization. End quote.