expense

Nvidia (NVDA 3.52%) enjoys great relationships with some of the biggest tech companies on the planet. Its customer base includes the three largest cloud service providers: Amazon (AMZN -0.16%), Microsoft (MSFT -0.30%), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG 1.04%) (GOOGL 1.06%).

However, Nvidia’s reach isn’t limited to the biggest of the big. It also works closely with many rising stars. CoreWeave (CRWV 0.39%) is arguably the most prominent example, especially considering that Nvidia has a multibillion-dollar stake in the AI-focused hyperscaler.

It stands to reason that Nvidia wants all these partners to succeed. But did the GPU giant just help Amazon, Microsoft, and Google at CoreWeave’s expense?

Image source: Getty Images.

Nvidia’s retreat

Nvidia launched DGX Cloud in 2023. The company billed the new platform as a way for enterprises to get immediate access to Nvidia’s AI supercomputers so they could train generative AI and other advanced AI models.

But Nvidia appears to be retreating from this market. The Information, a website that focuses on technology industry news, recently reported that Nvidia is primarily using DGX Cloud for internal use now instead of marketing the platform to customers.

Is there other evidence that supports the view that Nvidia is shifting its strategy? Maybe. In the past, Nvidia highlighted its DGX Cloud services when discussing cloud spending commitments in its quarterly 10-Q filings. In the company’s update for the second quarter of 2025, though, DGX Cloud wasn’t mentioned in this context.

Instead of marketing the DGX Cloud platform to customers, Nvidia appears to be focusing now on its Lepton GPU rental marketplace. CEO Jensen Huang explained in the May 2025 announcement of Lepton that the new service “connects our network of global GPU cloud providers with AI developers.”

Helping the “big three,” hurting CoreWeave?

Some industry observers saw DGX Cloud as a move for Nvidia to compete against the major cloud service providers. But Nvidia rented GPUs from CoreWeave to use with DGX Cloud. Could the company’s reported move to back away from marketing DGX Cloud help Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud while hurting CoreWeave? The short answer is “no.”

For one thing, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud host DGX Cloud. Although AWS didn’t, there’s no solid proof that Nvidia’s cloud platform hurt its business.

A retreat from DGX Cloud wouldn’t hurt CoreWeave, either. CoreWeave recently disclosed that Nvidia will purchase $6.3 billion of its unused cloud computing capacity through April 13, 2032.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Nvidia might not be retreating from DGX Cloud as reported by The Information after all. According to Data Center Dynamics, Alexis Bjorlin, who is Nvidia’s vice president and general manager for DGX Cloud, said, “DGX Cloud is fully utilized and oversubscribed, and we are expanding its scale.”

Winners all around

Whatever Nvidia’s strategy with DGX Cloud is, I don’t think CoreWeave has anything to worry about. My view is that all of these stocks — Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and CoreWeave — are poised to be big winners over the long run.

The AI boom doesn’t appear to be slowing down. That’s great news for Nvidia because more of its GPUs will be needed. It’s great news for Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and CoreWeave because their cloud platforms will continue to enjoy tremendous demand.

It’s possible that the momentum could even accelerate. I think Nvidia’s technological advances will play a key role, if so. For example, the company plans to launch Rubin CPX, a new class of GPUs built for massive-context inference, in late 2026. This new technology could pave the way for an explosion in the use of AI in software development and long-form video creation.

As the smallest of the group, CoreWeave might have the most room to run. However, I expect all five of these top AI stocks will deliver tremendous gains over the next 10 years and beyond.

enGene (ENGN -3.50%), a clinical-stage gene therapy company advancing treatments for bladder cancer, released its fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings on Sept. 11, 2025. The period was highlighted by key clinical and regulatory milestones, including reaching the target enrollment for its pivotal LEGEND trial cohort, and receiving Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) status from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its lead therapy, detalimogene (EG-70).

Net losses more than doubled year over year, while operating expenses increased by approximately 78%, but the company reported a strong cash position expected to last into 2027. The absence of new clinical efficacy data and lack of explicit commercial guidance leave some open questions, but overall, the quarter brought notable progress at the clinical and regulatory levels.

Source: enGene. Note: Fiscal 2025’s third quarter ended July 31, 2025. Fiscal 2024’s Q3 ended July 31, 2024.

About enGene: Fast-Moving Clinical Gene Therapy Business

enGene focuses on the research and development of gene therapies for urologic cancers, with a principal emphasis on non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Its lead investigational therapy, detalimogene (EG-70), is a non-viral gene therapy intended to trigger a localized anti-tumor immune response in patients whose cancer has not responded to standard Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) treatment. As a relatively young company, having been founded in 2023, enGene has yet to generate product revenues and remains firmly in the clinical development phase.

The company’s strategy rests on successfully developing and eventually gaining approval for EG-70 for high-risk, BCG-unresponsive NMIBC. This focus reflects a critical unmet need in bladder cancer, particularly for patients with carcinoma in-situ who have limited treatment options. Key to success will be the therapy’s final clinical data, successful navigation of regulatory review, the ability to differentiate the product from other therapies, and readiness to scale and commercialize once approvals are achieved.

Quarter in Review: Trial Milestones, Regulatory Wins, and Costs on the Rise

During the quarter, enGene reached several critical development milestones for its lead product candidate. Most notably, it achieved full target enrollment for the pivotal cohort of its LEGEND study, specifically enrolling 100 patients with high-risk NMIBC carcinoma in-situ whose disease did not respond to BCG. Management confirmed that this sets up for a pivotal data update in the fourth quarter of 2025 and a planned Biologic License Application (BLA) filing in the second half of 2026. These steps align tightly with previous goals and management commentary.

The quarter also brought a significant regulatory achievement as detalimogene received Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) status from the Food and Drug Administration. RMAT designation confers regulatory advantages such as earlier and more frequent agency interactions, as well as the possibility of rolling submission and priority review. This follows an earlier Fast Track designation, together expediting the therapy’s path toward potential approval. While the company achieved these procedural milestones, the quarter did not include new disclosures related to efficacy or safety results from its trial. Management reiterated that updated clinical data should be available in late 2025.

On the financial front, Total operating expenses climbed sharply to $29.9 million, an increase of approximately 78% compared to the same period last year. The main drivers were an $11.0 million increase in research and development spending, driven by higher manufacturing and clinical trial costs as well as personnel expansion. General and administrative costs rose by $2.2 million, linked to workforce expansion and greater reliance on professional services in preparation for commercialization. Net loss also widened substantially, reflecting the increased investment required to advance the clinical and regulatory agenda for the three months ended July 31, 2025.

Supporting its organizational build, enGene made several senior-level hires in regulatory and clinical leadership roles. These hires underscore its preparations to transition from a pure research organization into one that can support regulatory filings and future commercial activity. However, detailed plans for manufacturing scalability and go-to-market structures have not been disclosed.

Product Platform and Strategic Focus

Detalimogene (EG-70) is a non-viral gene therapy, administered directly into the bladder to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer cells. The technology uses enGene’s Dually Derivatized Oligochitosan (DDX) platform, which aims to provide localized gene delivery without the use of viruses, potentially avoiding some risks and complexities associated with viral-based therapies. enGene highlights this approach as well-suited to minimizing storage and delivery barriers.

The company continues to focus resources on bringing detalimogene from late-stage clinical development through regulatory review. While enGene points to the high unmet medical need, it has not yet disclosed how its candidate compares against other agents on efficacy, safety, or overall patient outcomes, leaving market positioning an open question.

Looking Ahead: Upcoming Data and Financial Perspective

Management’s outlook centers on future milestones. enGene expects to report updated pivotal cohort data from its LEGEND trial in the fourth quarter of 2025, followed by a BLA regulatory submission in the second half of 2026. No formal guidance was provided about future operating expenses, revenue expectations, or other financial performance metrics.

The company noted that its $224.9 million in cash and marketable securities will fund operations, debt obligations, and capital expenditures into 2027. ENGN does not currently pay a dividend.

Revenue and net income presented using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) unless otherwise noted.

BOSTON — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from making drastic cuts to research funding provided by the National Science Foundation.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston on Friday struck down a policy change that could have stripped universities of tens of millions of dollars in research funding. The universities argued that the move threatened crucial work in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, semiconductors and other technology fields.

Talwani said the change, announced by the NSF in May, was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law.

An email Saturday to the National Science Foundation was not immediately returned.

At issue are “indirect” costs, expenses such as building maintenance and computer systems that aren’t linked directly to a specific project. Currently, the National Science Foundation determines each grant recipient’s indirect costs individually and is supposed to cover actual expenses.

The Trump administration has dismissed indirect expenses as “overhead” and capped them for future awards by the National Science Foundation to universities at 15% of the funding for direct research costs.

The University of California, one of the plaintiffs, estimated the change would cost it nearly $100 million a year.

Judges have blocked similar caps that the Trump administration placed on grants by the Energy Department and the National Institutes of Health.

June 12 (UPI) — The House-passed budget reconciliation bill promoted by the Trump administration would benefit higher earners at the expense of lower-income Americans, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.

The CBO’s findings said between 2026 and 2034, after-tax federal benefits “would decrease for households toward the bottom of the income distribution, whereas resources would increase for households in the middle and top of the income distribution,” the report said.

“If you are a hardworking American that is struggling to take care of your family, you are going to love this legislation,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said during an interview on Fox News last week.

But the CBO report indicates that the top 10% of earners would receive the highest tax cuts.

The CBO analysis shows that households earning up to $107,000 yearly will see an average tax cut of $1,200 annually through 2034. People making up to $138,000 annually will see a $1,750 tax cut; those earning up to $178,000 will see a $2,400 yearly benefit; those bringing in $242,000 will see a $3,650 benefit; and households earning up to $682,000 a year can expect an annual $13,500 tax benefit.

A recent analysis by the Joint Taxation Committee reflected the results of the CBO report and also suggested that lower income Americans would benefit less from the legislation than higher earners.

The budget bill, which has seen staunch opposition from Democrats, faith leaders and social service advocates, faces a tough road in the Senate, where even some members of the GOP have expressed concern about the depth of the cuts, especially to Medicaid services and SNAP benefits, which would fall most squarely on the most vulnerable Americans.

Academics and scientists have also been critical of proposed reductions in research funding in the budget bill while adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.

NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to pay a $329,794 fine to settle an ethics board’s complaint that he misspent public funds on his security detail during his brief, failed run for U.S. president.

The deal, announced Wednesday by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, is the costliest repayment order in the ethics board’s history. But it allows de Blasio to avoid an even steeper penalty of $475,000 that was previously imposed, a reduction the board said came in light of the former mayor’s “financial situation.”

In exchange, de Blasio agreed to drop his appeal of the board’s finding. And for the first time, he admitted that he received written warning that his out-of-state security expenses could not legally be covered by city taxpayers.

“In contradiction of the written guidance I received from the Board, I did not reimburse the City for these expenses,” de Blasio wrote in the settlement, adding: “I made a mistake and I deeply regret it.”

The payments concern the $319,794.20 in travel-related expenses — including airfare, lodging, meals — that de Blasio’s security detail incurred while accompanying him on trips across the country during his presidential campaign in 2019. He will also pay a $10,000 fine.

The campaign elicited a mix of mockery and grousing by city residents, who accused the Democrat of abandoning his duties as second-term mayor for the national spotlight. It was suspended within four months.

Under the agreement, de Blasio must pay $100,000 immediately, followed by quarterly installments of nearly $15,000 for the next four years. If he misses a payment, he will be deemed in default and ordered to pay the full $475,000.

The funds will eventually make their way back into the city treasury, according to a spokesperson for the Conflicts of Interest Board.

An attorney for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., declined to comment on the settlement.

De Blasio had previously argued that forcing him to cover the cost of his security detail’s travel violated his 1st Amendment rights by creating an “unequal burden” between wealthy candidates and career public servants.

Since leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has worked as a lecturer at multiple universities, most recently the University of Michigan, and delivered paid speeches in Italy.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

Freddy Escobar stood on the sidewalk outside his former workplace waving a green thumb drive and a stack of papers that he said would clear his name.

The suspended president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City said he couldn’t get into the office where he’s worked since 2018. He said the union’s parent organization had changed the locks to the building and the gate code to the parking garage.

He rang the doorbell to deliver his evidence, including photos of receipts, to counter allegations that he hadn’t documented many of his credit card purchases. But there was no answer.

“Wow,” he said. As he turned to face news cameras, Escobar closed his eyes for a moment. “An organization that I would have died for is not giving me an opportunity now to present to them what they’ve been looking for.”

The dramatic scene unfolded Friday morning outside the union’s office in Historic Filipinotown, four days after the International Assn. of Fire Fighters suspended Escobar and two other union officers over financial improprieties, including “serious problems” with missing receipts.

The IAFF also placed UFLAC under conservatorship, a first for any of the local firefighter unions overseen by the Washington, D.C.-based organization, a spokesperson said. The unprecedented move followed Times reports about the IAFF’s financial audit as well as massive overtime payments to Escobar and other union officials.

IAFF General President Edward Kelly disclosed the audit’s findings in a letter to UFLAC members Monday.

From July 2018 through November 2024, Escobar initiated 1,957 transactions on his UFLAC credit card, totaling $311,498, the letter said. More than 70% of those transactions — amounting to $230,466 — had no supporting documentation.

“The auditors could not ascertain the purpose of these transactions,” Kelly wrote in the letter. He added that an additional 157 transactions — amounting to $35,397 — were only partially supported by required documentation.

“This means there is no way to determine whether $265,862.34 in dues money spent by President Escobar without documentation was for legitimate union expenditures,” the letter said.

The audit found that two other UFLAC officials — former Secretary Adam Walker and former Treasurer Domingo Albarran Jr. — together had more than $530,000 in credit card transactions with no receipts or partial documentation. Walker did not respond to a request for comment, and Albarran declined to comment.

In all, about $800,000 in credit card purchases were not properly documented, the letter said.

Vice Presidents Chuong Ho and Doug Coates were suspended and accused of breaching their fiduciary duties in “failing to enforce UFLAC policy.” Neither responded to a request for comment.

Escobar arrived at the union office Friday morning to speak to reporters at a press conference he had called to refute the allegations. He said he was unaware he was being audited and was never asked to provide his receipts.

Under UFLAC policy, receipts are required for all credit card expenditures, along with an explanation of the expense, including the names of those present and the business reason for the expenditure.

Escobar said the records he was holding included everything the IAFF said was missing. But he also said he did not tally up the totals and did not know how much money he was accounting for. All the receipts he was providing, he said, had already been uploaded into the union’s expense system.

“Whatever they say I don’t have, I have,” he said.

He said he compiled years of documentation, including more than 1,500 receipts, meeting minutes and explanations for his expenses, which included transactions for gas, food, hotels and Uber rides. He said none were personal expenses.

Asked why he expensed Uber rides when he had a take-home car provided by the union, he said the rides were for members doing union business.

Accounting problems had been flagged earlier by auditors for UFLAC, who in March 2024 highlighted “significant deficiencies” because officers were failing to properly document their expenditures.

Despite that warning, Escobar made 339 transactions in 2024 using his UFLAC credit card — for a total of $71,671 — without submitting a single receipt, Kelly wrote.

Escobar said the auditors never spoke to him.

“What’s a warning? It was an audit that said that we could always do better and that always occurs — we could always do better,” he said.

Asked what could have been improved, since he said he had all his receipts, he replied: “Probably more detail. … Explanations, fine tuning.”

He called on the IAFF “do the right thing” and reinstate him as president. In the meantime, he said he will go back to work as an LAFD captain at a fire station in Boyle Heights.

In a statement Friday, IAFF spokesperson Ryan Heffernan said that since March 2024 and as recently as last month, Escobar was “repeatedly urged — in written communication and face-to-face meetings — to fulfill his fiduciary duties to the members of Local 112 and submit proper documentation for all expenditures.”

“Despite this, the forensic audit, issued in May 2025, confirmed serious deficiencies in Mr. Escobar’s expense reconciliation and record-keeping practices between 2018-2024,” the statement said.

Last month, a Times investigation found that Escobar and other top union officers have for years been padding their paychecks with overtime while also collecting five- to six-figure union stipends.

Escobar made about $540,000 in 2022, the most recent year for which records of both his city and union earnings are available. He more than doubled his base salary of $184,034 with overtime payouts that year, earning more than $424,500 from the city in pay and benefits, payroll data show.

He collected an additional $115,962 stipend from the union, according to its most recent federal tax filing. He reported working 48 hours a week on union and related duties, while records provided by the city for that year show he picked up an average of roughly 30 hours of overtime a week on firefighting shifts — a total of about 78 hours of work each week.

On Friday, he disputed his total earnings, saying “it’s a lot less than that,” though he did not provide evidence.