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Wind and solar power have been under attack during Donald Trumps second term as president. He has called renewable energy a joke, canceled wind and solar projects, and taken actions to prop up coal and other fossil fuels as a way to secure the countrys energy independence. But the U.S. will struggle to have enough energy without wind and solarespecially as the tech sectors growing use of AI demands more poweraccording to Chuka Umunna, JPMorgan Chase & Cos global head of sustainable solutions, who spoke with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. The comments came as JPMorgan announced an initiative to invest $1.5 trillion toward security and resilience that includes investments for solar, battery storage, nuclear, and efforts to modernize the energy grid. The Trump administration has expressed support for expanding geothermal as well as nuclear energy. But Umunna said those wont be enough to help the country meet its energy demands, and succeed when it comes to AIwe will still need wind and solar as well. Its difficult to conceive of a situation in which they wont need to tap into those sources of energy, he said. We need more energy from all sources. Nuclear in particular takes years to come on stream, Umunna noted. Projects take an average of seven years, though the U.S. Government Accountability Office says nuclear power plants take 10 to 12 years to plan, license, and build. It can also take up to seven years to build new gas-fired turbines. Wind and solar, in contrast, are among the fastest (and cheapest) new sources of energy to build, with many projects taking just 12 to 18 months. Trump has also pushed his fossil fuel energy agenda as a way for the country to solve its energy emergency and achieve energy independence. But according to Umunna, renewables will actually help the country be more self-sufficient. The debate about sustainability, and whether or not to deploy renewable energy, is no longer a binary, he said: It involves complex issues of geopolitics and [economic] competitiveness as well. When it comes to green economy stocks, which have seen strong recent gains, investors see an advantage not only from the sustainability angle, but also around sovereignty, the strategic autonomy thematic, he added. JPMorgan has identified 150 stocks that benefit from both. JPMorgans Security and Resiliency Initiative is a 10-year plan to finance industries it says are crucial to economic security. It will invest in four main buckets: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies (including AI and quantum computing).
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E-Commerce
Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its 2025 sales forecast after reporting quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, and announced plans to spin off its orthopedics business into a standalone company. The healthcare conglomerate now expects product revenue of $93.5 billion to $93.9 billion, about $300 million higher than its prior forecast and above analysts’ expectations of $93.4 billion, according to LSEG data. Alongside the upbeat forecast, J&J said it plans to separate its orthopedics business into a standalone company named DePuy Synthes within the next 18 to 24 months, marking its second major spinoff since 2023. J&J’s orthopedics unit, which makes hip, knee, and shoulder implants, surgical instruments, and other products, generated around $9.2 billion last year, or about 10% of total revenue. J&J in 2023 announced a two-year restructuring program for its orthopedics business, saying it planned to exit certain markets and stop selling some products, after having recently spun off its $15 billion consumer unit into Kenvue. The company said it planned to focus on high-growth, high-margin areas as part of its separation plans, such as oncology, immunology, neuroscience, surgery, vision care, and cardiovascular. J&J Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk said the company was exploring multiple paths for the separation, with a primary focus on a tax-free spin-off, but remained open to other options. While the orthopedics business was profitable, Wolk said J&J believes the next phase of innovation in orthopedics was “beyond our scope and probably in better hands somewhere else.” Shares of the New Jersey-based healthcare giant rose nearly 2% in premarket trading. FORECAST RAISE, PROFIT BEAT Third-quarter sales of $23.99 billion edged past Wall Street expectations of $23.75 billion, according to LSEG data. The drugs and medical device maker posted adjusted earnings of $2.80 per share versus analyst expectations of $2.76. The company’s pharmaceuticals sales jumped 6.8% from a year ago to $15.56 billion, slightly outpacing analysts’ estimates of $15.42 billion. J&J saw gains from its oncology products, including blood cancer treatment Darzalex, which brought in third-quarter sales of $3.67 billion, about in line with forecasts of $3.62 billion. Its medical device sales also rose 6.8% to $8.43 billion, mainly driven by electrophysiology products. Patrick Wingrove, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba‘s cloud business unit has launched its second data center in Dubai, it said on Tuesday, nine years after its first, as it expands its global cloud computing services to meet growing demand. Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and artificial intelligence division, said in a statement the launch was part of the technology major’s pledge to invest 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years. No financial details were disclosed in Tuesday’s statement. “The Middle East’s advantageous position in fast-tracking AI adoption and its collaborative ecosystem are crucial enablers for private and public sector companies to thrive,” said Eric Wan, vice president of Alibaba Cloud International and regional general manager at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. The United Arab Emirates, among the world’s top oil exporters, has been spending billions of dollars on an AI push, and under a deal signed in May, it is building the largest AI campus outside the United States in partnership with technology giants such as Nvidia and OpenAI. The long-coveted agreement was a major win for the Gulf country, which has been trying to balance its relations with its longtime ally, the U.S., and its largest trading partner, China. However, Reuters reported, citing sources, that the deal has not been finalized amid U.S. security concerns around Beijing’s access to advanced semiconductors via third parties such as the UAE, where major Chinese companies remain active. Alibaba Cloud said in the statement on Tuesday that it had partnered with several companies from various sectors, including Abu Dhabi-backed digital lender Wio Bank, during tech and AI exhibition GITEX Global in Dubai to take advantage of its local infrastructure capabilities to accelerate AI deployment. Rachna Uppal and Federico Maccioni, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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