TheChek News Flow

Huang’s competitive move ruffled feathers at large cloud providers—especially at AWS—that are Nvidia’s biggest customers.

The deals Nvidia made to rent its own chips for DGX Cloud served a dual purpose: making sure large enterprises could access Nvidia’s graphics processing units “without having to wait,” Huang said at the time, and boosting younger cloud providers such as CoreWeave and Lambda—which also provided AI chip servers to Nvidia for DGX Cloud.

Nvidia wanted to do deals with those younger providers to increase competition in the cloud market, partly at the expense of AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. Those bigger clouds account for half of Nvidia’s revenue, increasing the risk that that chipmaker could end up relying too much on them. AWS, Google and Microsoft have also developed their own AI chips to lessen their reliance on Nvidia’s, posing a threat to Nvidia’s dominance.

By August 2023, Huang told investors that DGX Cloud was “an enormous success.” In late 2024, CFO Colette Kress said the company’s software business, a category she had said included DGX Cloud, was generating revenue at an annualized rate of $2 billion.

Now, though, Nvidia uses most of the DGX Cloud server capacity for its own internal efforts, according to the person with direct knowledge of the service. And in its most recent quarterly report, Nvidia stopped stating that its cloud spending commitments are partly for DGX Cloud, despite doing so in previous quarters. The disclosure change implied Nvidia was no longer prioritizing the service for external customers.

In an interview, Alexis Black Bjorlin, who runs DGX Cloud, disputed that Nvidia’s strategy had shifted. “Our internal researchers need significant computing, so do all of our customers,” she said. “So our strategy is still the same.”

DGX Cloud customers typically sign short-term contracts of less than a year, then find GPU servers to rent from a larger cloud provider, according to someone with direct knowledge.

For Nvidia, one benefit of renting GPU servers from cloud providers for its researchers is it won’t have to spend the money and time to set up data centers on its own.

Nvidia’s Other Cloud Play

Nvidia still wants some business customers to come to Nvidia to rent GPUs. Earlier this summer, Nvidia launched another kind of cloud service, DGX Cloud Lepton. Though similar to the original DGX Cloud, Lepton is a “marketplace” in which companies access GPUs from a network of cloud providers.

Cloud providers choose to list their available GPU server capacity on the marketplace, rather than Nvidia signing multi-year contracts to rent that capacity to customers the way it does with DGX Cloud.

The marketplace didn’t get off to a fast start. Executives at several of the cloud firms that are listed in the Nvidia Lepton marketplace said they viewed the new service as competitive to their own because it gives the chip designer direct relationships with their customers, The Information previously reported.

Representatives of two of the nearly two dozen cloud providers listed in the Lepton marketplace said they participated in the service because Nvidia asked them to be a part of a marketing push for it, not because they wanted to be a part of it.

Jenni Kayne’s eponymous brand returns to New York Fashion Week with a new proposition: color

Can a beige sweater be a gateway drug? First-time buyers of the brand Jenni Kayne often come for its bestselling $495 cashmere cocoon cardigans or other cozy, neutral knits, then return for different pieces and colors. Some start stocking their bathroom cabinets with Kayne’s clean skin-care line Oak Essentials. Others level up to filling their homes with the designer’s bouclé chairs and travertine coffee tables, or attend knitting circles and sip-and-shop events at one of the 31 Jenni Kayne stores across the country.

“I don’t even like calling it a brand,” said Grace Cohn, an entrepreneur and account executive who lives in downtown New York. “I feel like it’s a community, a lifestyle and a culture of empowered women.” Since setting foot in the Jenni Kayne store at Marin Country Mart, a luxury shopping center near her hometown in Northern California, a few years ago, Cohn has become one of the label’s very important customers. She’s a member of its monthly book club and recently splurged on a “big girl purchase,” a storage hutch made of burl-wood from the home line that retailed for $7,595.

It definitely is a brand. Jenni Kayne, the designer, has expanded the clothing line she started in 2002 at age 19 into a profitable business on track to make $140 million in revenue this year, the same as 2024, the brand said. She’s tapped into a customer base—mostly women in their 30s to 50s, Kayne says—willing to spend a little more on basics to look a little better. And after years diving deeper into her niche of cozy, California chic, she’s returning to New York Fashion Week this month for the first time in 14 years, tapping celebrity stylist Kate Young to show pieces that include big pants, striped sweaters and red suede slide sandals that echo The Row.

For Kayne the person, it wasn’t enough to create the uniform of an effortless California life—she wanted to build a whole world. The daughter of investor Richard Kayne and philanthropist Suzanne Kayne, the 42-year-old designer grew up in Los Angeles and never left. (Until last year’s $8 million series A investment round for Oak Essentials, her dad was her only investor.) “I was born and bred here. I love it. Seventy [degrees] and sunny,” said Kayne. “I don’t really know how to describe it more.”

When she started out, her fashion label was edgier: sequined miniskirts, suiting in loud colors, an occasional fur. In 2013, the brand had its first viral success with a more classic style: a pair of d’Orsay flats. “This really big Chinese blogger blogged about them and when I went into the store the next day, there were shoeboxes stacked to the ceiling [waiting to be shipped out],” she said. “Our manager thought we had been hacked.”

In the late 2010s, Kayne found her niche with the elevated basics that are beloved by her customers today: soft sweaters and flowy skirts and dresses, all of which come in shades like taupe, oatmeal, camel and warm ivory. Her brand is built around uniform dressing and the idea that most people pretty much wear the same things over and over again.

“I always say that everything that we do speaks one language,” Kayne said. “It’s always grounded in nature, always trying to find this kind of softness and neutrality. How do you want to feel in your home? I want to come in and kind of exhale. That’s what drives every category.”

Online reviews of her clothing are mixed; many complain about how quickly the sweaters pill. The brand says they use the highest quality materials but due to the delicate nature of cashmere, pilling may occur over time. Still, over 80% of first-time customers return to the brand. Meghan Markle and Jennifer Garner are fans.

Kayne was a driving force during the postpandemic “quiet luxury” boom, but that’s falling out of fashion in favor of color, maximalism and bold prints. She is making adjustments. For the last year, the designer said, her customers have been saying they want more color. As she prepares to return to New York Fashion Week, Kayne is delivering on that in her spring summer 2026 collection. “It’s a lot of mixing these bold colors in a way that maybe I wouldn’t have done on my own,” Kayne said.

Young, who is known for her classic styling on clients including Dakota Johnson, Julianne Moore and Scarlett Johansson, said of the brand’s appeal, “The clothes are not for a concept of a woman or a concept of a life that doesn’t exist. It’s nice to be in Jenni’s spaces and in her world.”

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After 12 months from the opening of the will and within 18 months at the most, Armani's Foundation, which inherits the company, could sell an initial 15 percent to either LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, EssilorLuxottica or L’Oréal.

MILAN – Giorgio Armani left not one but two wills, one dated March 15 and the other April 5.

They were made public on Friday morning on several media outlets. Accordingly, Armani, who died on Sept. 4 at 91, decided that his namesake foundation will manage the fashion group.

After 12 months from the opening of the will and within 18 months at the most, an initial 15 percent of the his namesake company could be sold to either LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, EssilorLuxottica or L’Oréal.

All three companies have over the years been rumored to have made ouvertures to Armani, but no deal ever materialized.

Pantaleo Dell’Orco, known as Leo, Armani’s longtime partner in charge of the men’s division, has a key role with 40 percent of voting shares.

Armani does not rule out other companies besides LVMH, EssilorLuxottica or L’Oréal as potential buyers, as long as they are operating in the world of fashion and luxury and of equal standing.

Between the third and fifth year, the plan is to sell a stake of between 30 and 54.9 percent to the same buyer of the first group of shares.

In the case that LVMH, EssilorLuxottica or L’Oréal are not willing to proceed with the acquisition, in five years and within eight, Armani stated that the a public listing should be considered, in Italy as a priority but also on other markets of equal standing. Even following the potential listing, the foundation would keep a 30.1 percent stake of the group to ensure its control.

Dell’Orco is part of the tight-knit circle of friends and collaborators that Armani called family. The designer’s closest relatives include his nephew Andrea Camerana, the son of Armani’s sister Rosanna, who also works in the company, and Roberta Armani, who is the daughter of the designer’s late brother, Sergio, and who has been in charge of the group’s celebrity relations for years, often acting as Armani’s deputy on social occasions around the world as the face of the company. Her sister Silvana is part of the design team.

Asked for a comment, EssilorLuxottica said: “We are proud of the trust that Mr. Armani has placed in our group and in our management. We will carefully evaluate, together with the board, this evolutionary prospect, which deserves thorough consideration in light of the deep ties that already unite the two groups.”

The designer revealed details about the future of his company for the first time in 2016, confirming he had established the long-rumored Giorgio Armani Foundation, which, while aiming to fund social projects, also ensured that his fashion group would live on.

Never leaving anything to chance, Armani carefully detailed the foundation’s guidelines in his will.

The foundation is expected to ensure that the activities will be managed “ethically, with moral integrity and correctly.”

The priority is to continue to develop the Armani name at a global level and abide by a “careful diversification strategy and segmentation of the different company brands maintaining consistency in design, image, product, and communication.” It is expected to stay true to “an essential modern, elegant and not ostentatious style with attention to detail and fit,” paying “attention to innovation, product excellence, quality and research.” The approach to acquisitions must be “cautious” and “aimed solely at the development of competences that do not exist internally from a market point of view, by product or channel.” The level of investments should be maintained adequate “for the continuous development of the brands,” and financial management should be “ balanced” with limited access to debt. Finally, profits should be adequately reinvested in the company with the goal to support cash generation in time.

Later on Friday, the executive committee of the Armani company issued a statement underscoring that “it is immediately clear” that the designer’s “intention to safeguard strategic continuity, corporate cohesion and financial stability for long-term development is confirmed at every stage, in line with what he had repeatedly shared with the press and his closest collaborators.”

While “all short- and medium-term strategic decisions” will be taken by Dell’Orco and the family, supported by the Fondazione, the statement highlights that “these decisions were guided by Mr Armani himself, both in terms of the brand’s mission and in possible actions with implications for the Group’s medium- and long-term structure. In this light, the will makes reference to a stock market listing as well as the opening to a minority partner of recognised standing and genuine interest in the brand. The responsibility for decisions and management of this process will remain with Mr Dell’Orco and the family, under the guidance of the Fondazione, but always within the principles and rules defined by Mr Armani.”

The Fondazione’s first duty will be to propose the name of the new chief executive officer.

“In the coming days, with a thorough reading of the documents and the publication of the company’s new Articles of Association, the remaining details of Mr Armani’s wishes will be clarified,” concluded the statement. “However, even now, we affirm, also on behalf of employees and collaborators, our commitment to supporting this path in full respect of his wishes, united by the shared goal of securing the best possible future for the company and the brand, in accordance with the principles he established.”

Back in 2016, Armani explained that he decided to create the foundation “in order to implement projects of public and social interest. The foundation will also safeguard the governance assets of the Armani Group and ensure that these assets are kept stable over time, in respect of and consistent with some principles that are particularly important to me and that have always inspired my activities as a designer and an entrepreneur.”

While vocal over the years about his aversion to sell, take on a business partner or publicly list the company, rumors about Armani contemplating forming a foundation first emerged in 2012. The foundation reflected a key priority for Armani — independence, which he sought to maintain over the years, especially since 2000 when rumors about a possible sale to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton or the-then Gucci Group and L’Oréal swirled around the fashion house.

At the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Goldman Sachs is wrapping up three and half days of its annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.

Attendees were mostly in a buoyant mood, but not because this week is on track to be the biggest of the year for initial public offerings. Instead, the biggest pop during the conference came from Oracle, a 48-year-old tech stalwart, whose stock jumped 36% on news that its future contract revenue would soar 359%, mostly due to a deal with OpenAI.

Nvidia and OpenAI were the two hottest tickets in the Palace Hotel. Both presented shortly after lunch, so eager investors claimed the good seats and sent their colleagues to grab lunch boxes. The main ballroom was full 20 minutes before the presentation and attendees filled three overflow rooms. Meta and Alphabet only filled two overflow rooms.

For companies that don’t build artificial intelligence data centers, make AI chips or develop AI models, the mood was less optimistic. Software makers in particular were put under the microscope for their AI progress or the lack of it.

“We're in a phase where software companies felt that they had to change their narrative very quickly because customers were demanding it,” said Matt Lucas, managing director of Goldman Sachs’ tech, media and telecom investment banking group.

Software companies were given a friendly greeting on stage by Kash Rangan, a Goldman Sachs managing director and software analyst. “AI is not going to kill software, but it's actually going to make software a flourish,” he said Monday when he introduced Confluent, which provides data streaming and analytics services.

Investors don’t share his enthusiasm. Several of them told me they had simple questions for software makers: how are customers using AI and are they paying for it, or will they soon?

Some companies did answer some of those questions. Investors told me that customer engagement software maker Twilio discussed in a closed-door session how revenue will pick up from tools that help power AI agents to transcribe text to speech. It also disclosed $260 million in 12-month revenue from AI startups in its January Investor Day, but didn’t provide an update here or in last quarter’s earnings.

“As of last quarter, our 10 largest AI startup customers that were founded in the last three years, are all spending at a six-figure revenue run rate, and a few have eclipsed a seven-figure revenue run rate,” a Twilio spokesperson said.

Dating app Grindr said its latest AI features would help drive premium subscriptions. CEO George Arison said AI would scan all conversations on the site to generate a list of hot prospects for Grindr’s premium subscriber-only A-list.

“It’s clear that corporates are still figuring out how AI is going to change their businesses and at what pace,” Lucas said in an interview. “That's creating some strategic tension within software companies as they consider opportunities to transform.”

Google’s cloud chief Thomas Kurian grabbed the audience’s attention when he said Google “made billions already using AI.” He gave details about how the company was monetizing AI and showed off who is buying their AI infrastructure and agents’ offerings. The audience took photos of almost every slide Kurian showed.

The other lovefest was between investors and database companies like Databricks, Snowflake and MongoDB. Their role in AI is clear: to support the AI infrastructure, to categorize the massive data AI generates, and query and analyze that data.

Shares of Snowflake are up 43% this year and shares of MongoDB by 37%. Databricks just raised a $1 billion round and disclosed recently passing $1 billion in annualized revenue from AI products.

In a hastily scheduled meeting, Kenvue’s Kirk Perry sought to dissuade the health secretary, arguing there is no clear link

Kenvue CEO met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to argue there’s no clear link between Tylenol and autism, ahead of an upcoming report.

Kenvue defends Tylenol’s safety for pregnant women, citing a lack of safe alternatives and research.

The FDA has not found clear evidence to date that the appropriate use of acetaminophen during pregnancy causes adverse effects, according to its website.

Kirk Perry, the interim CEO of Tylenol maker Kenvue, had a private meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week to deliver a message: There is no clear link between the drug and autism.

In a hastily scheduled meeting, Perry sought to dissuade the health secretary from including the over-the-counter medication as a potential cause in a coming report about the causes of autism, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Kennedy plans to cite the use of acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol—by pregnant women as a potential cause of autism in their children, among other potential causes. The autism report is expected from the Department of Health and Human Services later this month.

The news knocked Kenvue’s stock price down 9% in one day—and sparked concern among its leaders.

Kenvue is the Summit, N.J.-based consumer-health products company that was spun out of Johnson & Johnson in 2023. The pain reliever Tylenol is one of its top-selling brands, along with Band-Aid and Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. The product has famously withstood reputational challenges, including the 1982 cyanide poisonings of Tylenol bottles, and a series of product recalls for defective manufacturing in 2009. Its possible inclusion in the autism report could pose yet another significant challenge for the brand.

In the meeting with Kennedy, Perry and Chief Scientific Officer Caroline Tillett made the case that there is no clear link between acetaminophen and autism, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Kenvue executives also argued that there are few safe alternatives to acetaminophen to reduce fevers in pregnant women. Medical societies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration say that taking alternatives such as ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs at certain times of a pregnancy can cause birth defects. Some studies have suggested that fevers during pregnancy can cause autism, neural tube defects and other issues in children.

HHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Kenvue said in a statement: “As we would with any regulator who reaches out to us, we engaged in a scientific exchange with the Secretary and members of his staff as it relates to the safety of our products. Our position remains the same: in evaluating available science, we continue to believe that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism, and global health regulators, independent public health organizations, and medical professionals agree.”

Concerns about Tylenol and autism have been mounting for several years as studies have suggested a link. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry in 2019 found that higher concentrations of acetaminophen in umbilical cord blood samples taken at birth were associated with higher risk of autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Still, when the link was studied further, scientists’ findings have been inconclusive. An August analysis published in BMC Environmental Health found that a majority of past studies reported associations between acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy and increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. The researchers said their analysis wasn’t evidence of causation, but recommended that women should use the drug judiciously during pregnancy.

A study published in JAMA in 2024 of nearly 2.5 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019, found no increased risk of autism in children whose mothers used acetaminophen during pregnancy. This analysis compared the children exposed to acetaminophen prenatally with their siblings who weren’t exposed to the ingredient while in the womb—a type of comparison that researchers said reduces confounding factors like differences in the health of the mothers.

Some families are still convinced that products like Tylenol are behind their child’s autism diagnosis. Hundreds of people filed lawsuits against Kenvue and pharmacy chains selling private-label acetaminophen, alleging prenatal exposure to the drug caused autism or ADHD. A federal judge, however, ruled in 2023 that there wasn’t sufficient evidence of a link, leading to the dismissal of the federal suits, though some lawsuits have been filed in state courts.

Some medical societies, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have continued to recommend acetaminophen for pain relief during pregnancy. “Despite recent unfounded claims, there is no clear evidence linking prudent use to issues with fetal development,” ACOG said in a statement last week.

The FDA hasn’t found clear evidence to date that the appropriate use of acetaminophen during pregnancy causes adverse effects, according to its website. The FDA recommends women speak to a healthcare professional before using it in pregnancy.

If the autism report does cite acetaminophen, the company plans a full-throated defense of Tylenol, according to the person familiar with the matter.

The challenge to Tylenol comes at a tumultuous time for Kenvue. Activist investors have pressured the company to improve its performance. Earlier this year, Kenvue agreed to appoint three new directors as part of a settlement with one of the investors, Starboard Value. The company’s shares are trading about 15% lower than their initial public offering pricing in 2023.

Kenvue’s former CEO, Thibaut Mongon, was pushed out in July, and the company launched a strategic review of the business. Some analysts see the company as a takeover target, with possible buyers including Procter & Gamble.