Credit bureau and credit-scoring: FHFA Director Bill Pulte ends FICO monopoly

Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) faces significant challenges following the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) decision to allow competing credit scoring models, impacting its core business. 

FHFA Director Bill Pulte announced effective immediately all lenders can use rival VantageScore for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.

• Pulte explicitly declared on X: "FICO has enjoyed a monopoly. No more." citing 1,800% price hikes since 2020.
• Mortgage scoring generates majority of FICO's high-margin Scores segment revenue, making this a direct threat.
• Pulte also criticized VantageScore owners (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) but prioritized ending FICO dominance.  
• The Fair Isaac Corporation introduced the first FICO scoring model to lenders in 1989. According to the company, FICO® scores are used today by 90% of top lenders to make lending decisions. 
• The three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—created VantageScore (ranging from 300 to 850) in 2006 as an alternative to the traditional FICO score.

Vera Rubin rack

A Vera Rubin rack is an advanced, rack-scale server system built by NVIDIA to power large-scale agentic AI and complex reasoning workloads.

• Memory now accounts for a much larger share of the cost of Nvidia’s newest AI systems. According to Morgan Stanley estimates, it could cost roughly $2 million in a $7.8 million Vera Rubin rack, or about a quarter of the total.

• Vera Rubin (1928–2016) was a pioneering American astronomer whose groundbreaking research on galaxy rotation curves provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter.

Key Features of Vera Rubin Racks

Agentic AI Design: Built to handle multi-step problem solving and long-context workflows.
Cable-Free Build: The compute trays slide in with no loose cables, hoses, or fans, connecting through a printed circuit board midplane.
Liquid Cooling: Fully liquid-cooled to handle extreme compute densities efficiently.
Automated Assembly: The hardware trays are manufactured using automated robotics for rapid deployment.

The Five Rack Types

The Vera Rubin platform combines five purpose-built rack systems to act as a single supercomputer:

NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72: The primary compute rack integrating Vera CPUs and Rubin GPUs.

NVIDIA Vera CPU Rack: Provides dense, liquid-cooled CPU capacity for code execution and tool use.

NVIDIA Groq 3 LPX: Optimized for high-throughput decode inference.

NVIDIA Vera BlueField-4 STX: Manages storage operations and infrastructure security.

NVIDIA Spectrum-6 SPX Ethernet: Handles high-speed, scale-out network connectivity.

Generational Comparison: Blackwell Ultra vs. Vera Rubin NVL72

Specification	GB300 NVL72 (Blackwell Ultra)	VR NVL72 (Vera Rubin)
GPU Count	72 Blackwell Ultra GPUs	72 Rubin GPUs
CPU Count	36 Grace CPUs	36 Vera CPUs
CPU Cores	72 ARM cores per CPU	88 Olympus ARM cores per CPU
FP4 Inference Performance	1.44 ExaFLOPS	3.6 ExaFLOPS
NVFP4 per GPU (Inference)	20 PFLOPS	50 PFLOPS
NVFP4 per GPU (Training)	10 PFLOPS	35 PFLOPS
GPU Memory Type	HBM3e	HBM4
GPU Memory Bandwidth	~8 TB/s	~22 TB/s
NVLink Generation	NVLink 5	NVLink 6
NVLink Bandwidth (per GPU)	1.8 TB/s	3.6 TB/s
Rack-Scale NVLink Bandwidth	130 TB/s	260 TB/s
Scale-Out NIC	ConnectX-8 (800 Gb/s)	ConnectX-9 (1.6 TB/s)
CPU-GPU Interconnect	NVLink-C2C (900 GB/s)	NVLink-C2C (1.8 TB/s)

Robotaxi news

• July 30, 2026: Amazon-owned robotaxi service Zoox has been given the green light from federal regulators to begin charging customers for rides, a first for a company with a purpose-built autonomous vehicle that lacks conventional controls. 
• Until now, Zoox has been offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco with its specialized AV, which resembles a toaster on wheels. So far, more than half a million passengers have tested out the robotaxi. Unlike some vehicles from competitors like Waymo or Tesla’s Robotaxi service, Zoox’s robotaxi doesn’t have a steering wheel or brake pedals.
• July 21, 2026: Tesla expands its robotaxi service to Orlando and Tampa, signaling continued scaling of its autonomous ride-hailing network ahead of Q2 earnings.
• June 24, 2026: Amazon’s Zoox unveils redesigned toaster-shaped robotaxi ahead of upcoming expansion.  The upgrades include more comfortable seats and headrests, and relocated “bidirectional reflectors” that make it easier for riders and others to distinguish the vehicle’s front from its rear. Zoox is plotting expansion in additional markets later this year, and preparing to charge for rides.
• June 18, 2026: Alphabet's Waymo is recalling 3,871 robotaxis in the U.S. after identifying a software defect that could allow its autonomous vehicles to enter closed freeway construction zones and continue driving at highway speeds, according to a Reuters report that cites NHTSA data.
• June 1, 2026: Uber (UBER), and Autobrains  announced a strategic collaboration to launch a robotaxi program in Munich, combining Uber’s ride-hailing platform, Autobrains’ agentic autonomous driving intelligence, and Nvidia Drive's (NVDA) robotaxi-ready level 4 Hyperion platform to support scalable autonomous mobility for commercial ride-hailing.
• May 31, 2026: Waymo is slowly rolling out its new Ojai all-electric, purpose-built robotaxi minivan designed to be roomier, more accessible, and cheaper to operate than its current Jaguar I-Pace fleet. The robotaxi minivan is launching with Waymo's (WAYMO) sixth-generation autonomous driver system. Ojai vehicles are already giving free rides to select public riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix via the Waymo One app.
• Dec 14, 2025: Tesla testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin, Texas. “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car,” CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on his social network X over the weekend. 
  

Jiffy Lube acquired by Monomoy Capital Partners for approx. $1.3 billion

Jiffy Lube sold to Monomoy Capital Partners, a private equity firm, for approximately $1.3 billion. The deal—which officially closed on July 1, 2026

• Jiffy Lube has over 2,000 franchised service centers across North America.
• Monomoy Capital Partners is a private equity firm that is privately owned and operated by its founding partners. The firm is led by Co-CEOs Justin Hillenbrand and Dan Collin, who co-founded the company in 2005. 

AI news

 

• Aug 26, 26: AI’s expensive memory problem: Memory now accounts for a much larger share of the cost of Nvidia’s newest AI systems. According to Morgan Stanley estimates, it could cost roughly $2 million in a $7.8 million Vera Rubin rack, or about a quarter of the total.
• Aug 26, 26: OpenAI’s homegrown chip takes aim at Nvidia: OpenAI said its new Jalapeno chips outperformed Nvidia’s current lineup in testing, marking a significant milestone in the company’s push to develop AI processors in-house. The tests measured how much AI work the chips could handle per unit of power, as well as how quickly they returned responses, suggesting OpenAI is stepping up its challenge to Nvidia as it builds more of its own computing infrastructure.

• July 7, 26:  Anthropic signed a 20-year lease for a major data center in Kentucky owned by the crypto mining company turned artificial intelligence compute play TeraWulf (WULF).  

The deal is worth an estimated $19 billion in revenue, according to TeraWulf. Anthropic will lease up to 401 megawatts of compute from Terwulf's data center in Hawesville, Kentucky, located about 75 miles southwest of Louisville. 

Anthropic had recently signed a similar deal with SpaceX (SPCX) to lease compute from its Colossus data center in Tennessee. The AI lab is also rumored to be in talks with the energy-efficient data center operator Iren (IREN).

• July 7, 26: TeraWulf (WULF) announced it would be selling its 50.1% stake in an upcoming data center project in Abernathy, Texas to an investor group led by its partner in the venture, Fluidstack, for $450 million. Originally established in 2025, the Abernathy facility is plans to develop a 168 megawatt AI data center.

• July 2, 26: Anthropic's valuation reaches $380B after raising more cash. The maker of the Claude family of artificial intelligence models raised $30B in a Series G funding round at a $380B valuation.

The round was co-led by D. E. Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ, and MGX, Anthropic said in a statement. It also includes several asset managers, hedge funds, and venture capital firms, as well as some of the previous money that came from Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA).

• June 15, 26: According to various reports, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raised concerns with senior Trump administration officials about possible security risks in Anthropic’s most advanced AI models. The discussions reportedly helped lead to a U.S. government order restricting foreign access to Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.

Anthropic said in response that it disabled both models for all users globally to comply with the order. The company said the directive applied to “any foreign national,” including foreign nationals inside the U.S. and foreign-born Anthropic employees.

Amazon’s involvement makes the story more complicated. The company is a major Anthropic investor, a key cloud partner, and a distributor of Anthropic models through AWS. Amazon did not confirm the details of its talks with government officials but said it is common for governments to seek its view on security risks.

• May 28, 26: Dell Technologies (DELL): Dell’s servers designed to run AI workloads are attracting customers from companies that rent computing power like CoreWeave Inc. and Nscale Global Holdings Ltd., as well as corporate clients and major AI providers. The company booked $24.4 billion in AI orders and generated $16.1 billion in AI server sales in the quarter ended May 1, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said in the statement. “The AI opportunity shows no signs of slowing.”
• Oct 5, 24: Masayoshi Son, an artificial intelligence evangelist, thinks the technology will soon run households. AI darling Nvidia expanded a partnership with technology consultant Accenture as part of an effort to drive adoption of AI within businesses. OpenAI, for its part, completed a deal to raise $6.6 billion in new funding, making the firm one of the three largest venture-backed startups, alongside SpaceX and TikTok owner ByteDance. 
• Sep 25, 23: Amazon to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, a rival to ChatGPT developer OpenAI. 

The two firms said that they are forming a strategic collaboration to advance generative AI, with the startup selecting Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider. Anthropic will also use custom AWS-designed semiconductors to train the foundational models that underpin its AI applications. 
Anthropic was founded roughly two years ago by former OpenAI research executives and recently debuted its new AI chatbot called Claude 2.  Anthropic already counts some high-profile backers, including Google and Salesforce Ventures.

• June 1, 26: Softbank’s billion-dollar data center investment in France: The company’s largest AI infrastructure investment in Europe involves building 3.1 GW of AI data centers in the northern Hauts-de-France region by 2031, including in Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain. The Japanese investment giant is partnering with French engineering company Schneider Electric  to establish a large-scale industrial production hub in Dunkirk as part of the broader buildout.

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) stocks

 

1. WELL Welltower Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 157.93B; senior housing
2. PLD Prologis Inc REIT - Industrial 131.02B
3. EQIX Equinix Inc REIT - Specialty 107.26B
4. AMT American Tower   REIT - Specialty 78.61B; a leader in communications infrastructure (cell towers)
5. SPG Simon Property Group REIT - Retail 73.12B; the largest retail and mall REIT
6. DLR Digital Realty Trust Inc REIT - Specialty 67.62B
7. O Realty Income Corp REIT - Retail 57.85B
8. PSA Public Storage REIT - Industrial 56.32B
9. VTR Ventas Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 43.50B
10. IRM Iron Mountain Inc REIT - Specialty 38.99B
11. CCI Crown Castle Inc REIT - Specialty 34.71B
12. EXR Extra Space Storage Inc REIT - Industrial 32.48B
13. VICI VICI Properties Inc REIT - Diversified 28.36B
14. AVB Avalonbay Communities REIT - Residential 26.41B
15. EQR Equity Residential Properties Trust REIT - Residential 25.17B
16. UDR UDR Inc REIT - Residential 20.53B
17. SBAC SBA Communications  REIT - Specialty 19.19B
18. ESS Essex Property Trust Inc REIT - Residential 18.98B
19. WY Weyerhaeuser Co REIT - Specialty 18.57B
20. INVH Invitation Homes Inc REIT - Residential 17.77B
21. KIM Kimco Realty Corp REIT - Retail 17.21B
22. HST Host Hotels & Resorts Inc REIT - Hotel & Motel 17.11B
23. NLY Annaly Capital Management Inc REIT - Mortgage 16.53B
24. MAA Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc REIT - Residential 16.48B
25. WPC W. P. Carey Inc REIT - Diversified 16.34B
26. LAMR Lamar Advertising Co REIT - Specialty 15.66B
27. CPT Camden Property Trust REIT - Residential 15.36B
28. DOC Healthpeak Properties Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 15.00B
29. REG Regency Centers Corp REIT - Retail 14.69B
30. SUI Sun Communities Inc REIT - Residential 14.61B
31. OHI Omega Healthcare Investors Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 14.18B
32. JLL Jones Lang Lasalle Inc Real Estate Services 14.09B
33. GLPI Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc REIT - Specialty 12.76B
34. ELS Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc REIT - Residential 12.61B
35. AGNC AGNC Investment Corp REIT - Mortgage 12.19B
36. AMH American Homes 4 Rent REIT - Residential 11.98B
37. BXP BXP Inc REIT - Office 11.50B
38. EGP Eastgroup Properties Inc REIT - Industrial 11.00B
39. FRT Federal Realty Investment Trust REIT - Retail 10.83B
40. AHR American Healthcare REIT Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 10.62B
41. BRX Brixmor Property Group Inc REIT - Retail 9.85B
42. LINE Lineage Inc REIT - Industrial 9.70B
43. CTRE CareTrust REIT Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 9.40B
44. ARE Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc REIT - Office 9.29B
45. CUBE CubeSmart REIT - Industrial 9.24B
46. ADC Agree Realty Corp REIT - Retail 9.13B
47. NNN NNN REIT Inc REIT - Retail 8.82B
48. FR First Industrial Realty Trust Inc REIT - Industrial 8.65B
49. JAN Janus Living Inc REIT - Residential 8.33B
50. RHP Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc REIT - Hotel & Motel 8.26B
51. CDP COPT Defense Properties REIT - Office 7.95B
52. VNO Vornado Realty Trust REIT - Office 7.81B
53. REXR Rexford Industrial Realty Inc REIT - Industrial 7.56B
54. MAC Macerich Co REIT - Retail 7.51B
55. STAG STAG Industrial Inc REIT - Industrial 7.47B
56. HR Healthcare Realty Trust Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 7.04B
57. TRNO Terreno Realty Corp REIT - Industrial 6.95B
58. RYN Rayonier Inc REIT - Specialty 6.62B
59. EPRT Essential Properties Realty Trust Inc REIT - Retail 6.57B
60. STWD Starwood Property Trust Inc REIT - Mortgage 6.16B
61. NSA National Storage Affiliates Trust REIT - Industrial 6.03B
62. KRG Kite Realty Group Trust REIT - Retail 5.89B
63. PECO Phillips Edison & Company Inc REIT - Retail 5.85B
64. FRMI Fermi Inc REIT - Specialty 5.61B
65. OUT Outfront Media Inc REIT - Specialty 5.57B
66. RITM Rithm Capital Corp REIT - Mortgage 5.20B
67. SBRA Sabra Healthcare REIT Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 4.87B
68. CUZ Cousins Properties Inc REIT - Office 4.81B
69. SKT Tanger Inc REIT - Retail 4.72B
70. MRP Millrose Properties Inc REIT - Residential 4.61B
71. EPR EPR Properties REIT - Specialty 4.52B
72. KRC Kilroy Realty Corp REIT - Office 4.40B
73. COLD Americold Realty Trust Inc REIT - Industrial 4.26B
74. IRT Independence Realty Trust Inc REIT - Residential 4.05B
75. BNL Broadstone Net Lease Inc REIT - Diversified 4.03B
76. APLE Apple Hospitality REIT Inc REIT - Hotel & Motel 4.00B
77. SLG SL Green Realty Corp REIT - Office 3.86B
78. NHI National Health Investors Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 3.70B
79. CURB Curbline Properties Corp REIT - Retail 3.31B
80. HIW Highwoods Properties Inc REIT - Office 3.22B
81. LXP LXP Industrial Trust REIT - Industrial 3.21B
82. UE Urban Edge Properties REIT - Retail 3.12B
83. AKR Acadia Realty Trust REIT - Retail 2.95B
84. PK Park Hotels & Resorts Inc REIT - Hotel & Motel 2.93B
85. BXMT Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc REIT - Mortgage 2.93B
86. DX Dynex Capital Inc REIT - Mortgage 2.82B
87. IVT InvenTrust Properties Corp REIT - Retail 2.80B
88. UNIT Uniti Group Inc REIT - Specialty 2.78B
89. FCPT Four Corners Property Trust Inc REIT - Retail 2.75B
90. MPT Medical Properties Trust Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 2.60B
91. DRH Diamondrock Hospitality Co REIT - Hotel & Motel 2.55B
92. DHC Diversified Healthcare Trust REIT - Healthcare Facilities 2.28B
93. SHO Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc REIT - Hotel & Motel 2.16B
94. PEB Pebblebrook Hotel Trust REIT - Hotel & Motel 2.14B
95. ARR ARMOUR Residential REIT Inc REIT - Mortgage 2.13B
96. GTY Getty Realty Corp REIT - Retail 2.05B
97. NTST Netstreit Corp REIT - Retail 2.03B
98. LTC LTC Properties Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 1.97B
99. DEI Douglas Emmett Inc REIT - Office 1.95B
100. SMA Smartstop Self Storage REIT Inc REIT - Industrial 1.95B
101. WSR Whitestone REIT REIT - Retail 1.94B
102. GNL Global Net Lease Inc REIT - Diversified 1.91B
103. XHR Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc REIT - Hotel & Motel 1.88B
104. IIPR Innovative Industrial Properties Inc REIT - Industrial 1.77B
105. RLJ RLJ Lodging Trust REIT - Hotel & Motel 1.76B
106. EFC Ellington Financial Inc REIT - Mortgage 1.71B
107. SILA Sila Realty Trust Inc REIT - Healthcare Facilities 1.68B
108. CBL CBL& Associates Properties Inc REIT - Retail 1.63B
109. AAT American Assets Trust Inc REIT - Diversified 1.51B
110. ESBA Empire State Realty OP LP REIT - Office 1.43B
111. ARI Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc REIT - Mortgage 1.41B
112. ORC Orchid Island Capital Inc REIT - Mortgage 1.38B
113. ALX Alexander's Inc REIT - Retail 1.36B
114. TWO Two Harbors Investment REIT - Mortgage 1.30B; TWO will be delisted from the NYSE and become a wholly owned subsidiary of CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC (July 2026).
115. LADR Ladder Capital Corp REIT - Mortgage 1.30B
116. UMH UMH Properties Inc REIT - Residential 1.29B
117. PDM Piedmont Realty Trust Inc REIT - Office 1.16B
118. DEA Easterly Government Properties Inc REIT - Office 1.13B
119. CIM Chimera Investment Corp REIT - Mortgage 1.13B
120. SAFE Safehold Inc REIT - Diversified 1.12B
121. SVC Service Properties Trust REIT - Hotel & Motel 1.10B

Charts:

• by change from open https://finviz.com/screener?v=211&t=WELL,PLD,EQIX,AMT,SPG,DLR,O,PSA,VTR,IRM,CCI,EXR,VICI,AVB,EQR,UDR,SBAC,ESS,WY,INVH,KIM,HST,NLY,MAA,WPC,LAMR,CPT,DOC,REG,SUI,OHI,JLL,GLPI,ELS,AGNC,AMH,BXP,EGP,FRT,AHR,BRX,LINE,CTRE,ARE,CUBE,ADC,NNN,FR,JAN,RHP,CDP,VNO,REXR,MAC,STAG,HR,TRNO,RYN,EPRT,STWD,NSA,KRG,PECO,FRMI,OUT,RITM,SBRA,CUZ,SKT,MRP,EPR,KRC,COLD,IRT,BNL,APLE,SLG,NHI,CURB,HIW,LXP,UE,AKR,PK,BXMT,DX,IVT,UNIT,FCPT,MPT,DRH,DHC,SHO,PEB,ARR,GTY,NTST,LTC,DEI,SMA,WSR,GNL,XHR,IIPR,RLJ,EFC,SILA,CBL,AAT,ESBA,ARI,ORC,ALX,TWO,LADR,UMH,PDM,DEA,CIM,SAFE,SVC&ta=0&o=-changeopen
• by vol: Stock screener - REITs by vol

©Artremis / EAS (6/25/26)

Novo Nordisk launches major obesity research program

The Company Foundation is funding a new pan-European initiative to accelerate drug discovery and the development of next generation therapeutics for cardiometabolic diseases. 

The initiative addresses one of today's most pressing global challenges: Translating promising research into improved care for people living with CMDs. Despite Europe's strong position in CMD research, many promising discoveries fail to progress beyond the academic laboratory.

To address this challenge, a new initiative, CardioMetabolic Bridge, will support selected academic research projects with funding, scientific and commercial mentoring from entrepreneurs and industry experts and access to state-of-the-art facilities. The initiative is backed by up to DKK 450 million (EUR 60.2 million) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation over six years. This month, the initiative's first lab space will be opening in London followed by sister sites in Italy and Germany.

• Novo Nordisk Foundation (majority owner) unveiled DKK 450M (~$69M) CardioMetabolic Bridge initiative
• Pan-European incubator network to speed drug discovery for obesity, diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases
• First lab opening in London June 2026, followed by hubs in Italy and Germany over 6 years
• Boosts sentiment amid Wegovy pill hitting 3M prescriptions and strong oral GLP-1 uptake

(monthly, live)