The Headlines - Nvidia’s Eye-Popping Profit, and Where Those Scam Calls are Coming From

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Plus, a surge in meat allergies caused by ticks. Here’s what we’re covering:Here’s what we’re covering:Nvidia’s Profit Jumps 65% to $31.9 Billion. Is It Enough for Wall Street? by Tripp MickleHoliday Hiring Slows, Frustrating Job Seekers by Kailyn RhoneTrump Loyalist Admits Grand Jury Never Saw Final Comey Indictment by Alan Feuer and Devlin BarrettSaudi Arabia’s Prince Has Big Plans, but His Giant Fund Is Low on Cash by Rob Copeland and Vivian NereimLawrence Summers Has Come Back From Scandals. Will This Be His Last? by Mark ArsenaultAfter a Mysterious Death, a Family’s Quest for Answers Leads to a Tick by Joseph GoldsteinAmericans Have Lost Billions to Online Scams. How Is That Possible? by Francesca RegaladoTune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, November 20th. Here's what we're covering. We start with a strong signal from the tech company with the single biggest influence over the market right now. The chip giant Nvidia, which has become the symbol of the AI boom, announced its quarterly earnings yesterday,

and eclipsed Wall Street's expectations. The company said its profits hit almost $32 billion, up 65% from a year ago, and over 200% from the year before that. NVIDIA's near total lock on the market for chips used in AI projects has helped it smash records, including becoming the first publicly traded company to ever be worth $5 trillion, a milestone it hit just a few weeks ago. There are questions, though, about if this trajectory can last, and, for how long? Essentially, is AI a bubble? Big names like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sam Altman of OpenA.I. and Jamie Diamond of J.P. Morgan have all said they're worried that the frenzy could be approaching a correction. What happens if all the money pouring into AI infrastructure,

like data centers and chip purchases, doesn't pay off with the revolutionary results companies are promising. There are fears that if those big tech companies stumble or even take a plunge, they could take the economy down with them, given how much is riding on them. Invidia, for example, now makes up nearly 10% of the value of the entire S&P 500. Meanwhile, Nvidia's success has become a prime example of another reality of the current stock market, how divided it is. Tech stocks with Nvidia in the lead have been heading up, while several companies that rely on consumer spending have slumped. Target said yesterday that holiday sales would be slower this year,

and said that factors like the government shutdown and the pause in food stamps had weighed on its business. Walmart is going to report its earnings today, which will be one to watch. Also today, the Labor Department's going to release jobs data for September. Numbers were delayed by the shutdown. And it'll give the latest snapshot of a labor market under stress. Already, employers are signaling they're not going all in on seasonal hiring for the holidays. The grocery chain Kroger, for example, said it will bring on fewer temporary workers.

And other companies that typically bring on extra workers this time of year like Macy's and UPS haven't released their hiring targets like they usually do. One economic research firm estimates that seasonal hiring could slip to the lowest level in a decade. Now, three updates out of Washington. In federal court yesterday, there was a hearing about the Justice Department's prosecution of James Comey, the former FBI director, who has a long history of clashing with President Trump. My colleague Alan Foyer was covering it. He said it was an extraordinary spectacle and excruciatingly awkward.

In theory, the hearing was to sort of figure out whether or not the, The prosecution of Comey was an act of vindictive retribution by President Trump. But it kind of went off the rails pretty quickly when the judge really put the prosecutors handling it through the ringer. Lindsay Halligan, Trump's former personal lawyer, has been leading the case against Comey, who's been charged with lying to Congress. Trump hand-picked her to oversee the case after multiple other prosecutors refused to touch it. Allen says that, facing sharp questions from the judge, Halligan admitted that, unlike how things are normally done. She never actually showed the final version of the indictment to the full grand jury before the four-person signed off on it. What the hearing really showed was just sort of how slapdash this prosecution has been, from its inception, the way that it's been handled by Lindsay Halligan, who this has heard the first criminal case she has ever taken part in.

And it really shows her lack of experience and the way that that has affected how the case has moved forward. Also, The partnership between our two nations is among the most consequential in the entire world. And together, the crown prince and I are making an alliance stronger and more powerful than it's ever been before. At a U.S. Saudi investment conference yesterday, President Trump capped off a high-profile visit by the Saudi crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman. During his meetings with Trump, bin Salman said that his kingdom would invest up to one trillion dollars in the U.S. But the Times has learned that the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which would be used for that kind of commitment, is actually running low on cash. According to interviews with more than 10 people briefed on its operations, including board members,

that's in large part because the prince has spent vast amounts of the country's oil wealth on failing projects. For example, there's been a coffee. coffee shop chain that only has one shop, a cruise line with only one ship, and a string of luxury resorts on the Red Sea that are mostly empty. Behind the scenes, representatives of the fund have begun telling global investors that it's basically unable to allocate any more money for the foreseeable future. A spokesman for the fund defended its status, telling the times, quote, our investments will be judged over generations, not quarters. And late last night, President Trump said he signed the bill calling on the Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days.

But there's been growing fallout for one of the most prominent people mentioned in the files that have already been made public. Larry Summers. Summers is an economist and the former president of Harvard. Previously, he's expressed regret for his longtime connections to Epstein. But emails between the two men that were released last week showed that. that they had a close relationship even after Epstein had served jail time for sex crimes with minors. Among other topics, the two talked about a woman that Summers was romantically interested in, and Epstein described himself as Summers's wingman. Since those emails came out,

Summers has resigned from his position on the board of Open AI. Harvard has opened a new investigation into him, and the Times has said that his contract as a contributing writer for the opinion section will not be renewed. More than a year ago, a 47-year-old man from New Jersey, who worked as a pilot for JetBlue, went to a summer barbecue. He ate a hamburger. He went home. He mowed the lawn.

He started to not feel well. He threw up. Soon, he was unconscious. And later that night, he died. The autopsy called it a sudden, unexpected. explained death. Now, a team of doctors think they may have an answer. They just published their findings in a medical journal that links his death to a growing health issue, an allergy to red meat that people can develop after a tick bite. It's called alpha-gal syndrome. It can make people

violently ill. The doctors who looked into the pilot's condition suggested this could be the first death linked to it, though an earlier study suggested there could be others. The CDC has estimated that somewhere between 100,000 and 450,000 people may have developed the allergy since 2010, although many may be unaware that they have it. Disease experts told the times that people should get tested if they find themselves feeling sick after consuming red meat. They also urged doctors in areas where ticks are common to consider that patients coming in because of vomiting could be in anaphylactic shock, not just facing a stomach bug.

And finally, I'm calling about the very serious virus on the computer right now. Your phone, lighting up with a call from an unknown number. Right now, the time is of the effort. Maybe from someone saying you've been hacked. Or telling you there's a problem at your bank and all they need is your account number to fix it. This kind of thing has just become a daily reality. The calls, of course, are scams, and the Times has been looking into a recent crackdown

on where many of them originate. Small cities in Southeast Asia. There, criminal gangs control compounds that look like condos or offices from the outside, but are full of scammers. Chinese gangsters, for example, have smuggled tens of thousands of people into Myanmar to work in these facilities. Authorities say many of them are held against their will and can face physical abuse. Some are from nearby countries, but others come from as far away as Brazil or Eastern Europe. In total, experts say the scams bring in around $60 billion each year. Now, the U.S. has joined with a number of other countries working to shut down the centers. This year alone, officials from Thailand, Myanmar, and China carried out raids to rescue people from some

compounds, and hundreds were flown back to their home countries. American authorities recently seized billions in cryptocurrency from a man they said was helping to run some of the schemes. And the Thai government even tried to fight back against one of the scam hotspots by just cutting off the electricity. Despite those efforts, one expert in organized crime told the times all of that will still probably not even make a dent in the profits. It's basically a game of whack-a-mole. This year, there's already been construction on new scam compounds in the region. Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily, more on the concerns about an AI bubble. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.