Judith Murphy

Judith Murphy is a financial journalist and market analyst covering AI, technology stocks, and emerging market trends. She has contributed to multiple financial publications and brings a data-driven approach to her coverage of the technology sector and its impact on global markets.

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Judith Murphy · Jul 24, 2026 · 1:16 PM

Amazon orders sellers to label AI-generated people in product images after New York law

Amazon told third-party sellers on July 23, 2026 to label all product images featuring AI-generated people with metadata tags, responding to New York's synthetic performer disclosure law. Fines start at $1,000 per first violation and $5,000 for each subsequent image. The platform-level policy effectively extends New York's state law to every Amazon seller worldwide.

Judith Murphy · Jul 24, 2026 · 11:24 AM

Higgsfield AI tells creators they own their videos but quietly claims a perpetual worldwide license to train on them

Higgsfield AI's updated terms grant itself an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide license to train on and market with creator inputs and outputs, even as the company publicly says creators retain ownership. A side-by-side comparison with Runway, Pika, and Kling reveals where Higgsfield's terms diverge and what the gap means practically for any commercial creative workflow.

Judith Murphy · Jul 24, 2026 · 8:53 AM

America's emergency oil tank is nearly empty and the timing could not be worse

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 311.4 million barrels as of July 17, its lowest level since March 1983, after a 104-million-barrel drawdown tied to the US-Iran conflict. With Brent crude still elevated and the Strait of Hormuz risk unresolved, Washington has almost no buffer left for the next oil shock, with direct consequences for inflation, Fed rate cuts, and business costs.

Judith Murphy · Jul 24, 2026 · 6:19 AM

Meta and BlackRock's $12 billion El Paso bond deal shows the AI arms race is finally moving the credit market

BlackRock is raising more than $12 billion in bonds for Meta's 1-gigawatt El Paso data center via Project Sopaipilla Holdings, one of the largest single infrastructure financings on record. Rising coverage ratios and softening investor demand signal that the AI debt boom is pushing borrowing costs higher, with Morgan Stanley forecasting $570 billion in AI-related bond issuance in 2026 alone. The deal's off-balance-sheet structure is becoming the new template for hyperscaler infrastructure financ

Judith Murphy · Jul 24, 2026 · 3:39 AM

Progress Software pays $400 million for Domo's operating business as Josh James eyes his next act

Domo's board approved a $400 million cash sale of its entire operating business to Progress Software on July 22, 2026, with the deal expected to close by November 30. Founder Josh James retains a publicly listed shell company holding $246 million in cash and $900 million in net operating loss carryforwards, positioning him for his next venture or acquisition play.

Judith Murphy · Jul 24, 2026 · 12:56 AM

Patreon cuts 93 jobs and names AI transformation as the forcing function

Patreon cut 93 employees, 20% of its workforce, on July 23, 2026, with CEO Jack Conte explicitly naming AI transformation as the forcing function. The move puts a creator-economy platform at the center of a broader rhetorical shift, where tech executives are now naming AI directly in layoff announcements rather than hiding behind restructuring language.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 10:16 PM

Nvidia's Jetson chips are becoming the default AI layer for Moon missions

Lunar Outpost and Firefly Aerospace both announced Nvidia Jetson deployments on July 23, with Lunar Outpost deploying edge AI across upcoming Moon rovers including Artemis IV support, and Firefly placing Jetson in lunar orbit for the first time via its Ocula imaging service on Blue Ghost Mission 2.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 6:56 PM

Brent crude oil crosses $100 a barrel after Houthi forces attack Saudi tankers in the Red Sea

Brent crude crossed $100 a barrel on July 23, 2026, after Houthi forces attacked Saudi oil tankers and declared a maritime embargo. Goldman Sachs now projects Brent above $120 in Q4 if Hormuz disruptions persist, while the Federal Reserve's rate-cut path has effectively collapsed, compounding pressure on late-stage startups and AI infrastructure budgets already strained by rising electricity costs.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 4:15 PM

Intel's stunning 2026 revival faces its biggest test as Q2 earnings land today

Intel reports Q2 2026 earnings today after a year in which its stock tripled, Apple and Nvidia signed foundry deals, and Q1 revenue hit $13.6 billion with EPS of $0.29 against forecasts of $0.02. The comeback is real. The harder question is whether a stock already up 278% in 2026 can keep climbing on good news.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 1:32 PM

AMD bets $5 billion on Anthropic and gets tens of billions in chip orders back

AMD confirmed a $5 billion equity investment in Anthropic on July 22, 2026, paired with a commitment from Anthropic to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 Series GPUs. The circular deal , AMD buys equity, Anthropic buys chips , represents one of the largest chip supply commitments in AI history and the most direct competitive threat yet to Nvidia's dominance of AI infrastructure.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 11:41 AM

UK Parliament opens inquiry into banks blocking crypto payments as £1 billion in transactions gets rejected

A UK cross-party parliamentary group launched a formal inquiry on July 21 into British banks blocking nearly 40% of crypto payments, with one exchange reporting close to £1 billion in rejected transactions. The six-week evidence call runs until August 31, arriving just as the FCA's new crypto authorization regime is set to open.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 9:10 AM

Hyundai's 35,000 striking workers just forced the first real test of who controls humanoid robots on the factory floor

Thirty-five thousand Hyundai workers in Ulsan staged the auto industry's first humanoid robot walkout from July 13-22, demanding a binding veto over Boston Dynamics Atlas deployment before a single unit enters the factory floor. The outcome could set the legal template for every manufacturer deploying physical AI.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 6:26 AM

Cursor Router picks your AI model for you and cuts coding costs by 60%

Cursor launched Router on July 22, automatically selecting the optimal AI model for each coding task. Internal benchmarks show 60% cost savings in A/B tests, with Intelligence mode costing $6.76 per commit versus $7.34 for Anthropic Opus 4.8 and $12.69 for Fable 5.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 3:46 AM

Google Cloud grew 82% in Q2 2026 and the $514 billion backlog tells you everything about who is winning the AI race

Alphabet's Q2 2026 results showed Google Cloud growing 82% year-over-year to $24.77 billion, with a $514 billion contract backlog signaling years of locked-in AI infrastructure demand. Revenue hit $119.8 billion, up 24%, as Alphabet raised its 2026 capex guidance to $205 billion.

Judith Murphy · Jul 23, 2026 · 1:10 AM

Brent crude hits $95 as Iran strikes and a double chokepoint threat upend the Fed's rate-cut math

Brent crude hit $95 a barrel on July 22 as eleven consecutive nights of US strikes on Iran collapsed fresh diplomacy prospects and both the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb faced simultaneous disruption. The double chokepoint scenario is pushing retail gasoline past $4 per gallon nationally and forcing markets to reprice the Fed's rate-cut calendar heading into the July 28-29 FOMC meeting.

Judith Murphy · Jul 22, 2026 · 10:27 PM

Monday.com cuts 620 jobs and raises its margin outlook in the same breath

Monday.com cut 620 employees, roughly 20% of its global workforce, on July 22, 2026, while simultaneously raising its operating margin guidance. The move is the clearest public example yet of an established SaaS company restructuring its entire headcount model around AI, not just adding AI features, but using AI as the structural reason to shrink its workforce and expand its margins.