The Rundown - Intel Fumbles the AI Boom, TikTok Finalizes US Deal

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Market update for January 23, 2026Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode:Global investors quietly diversify away from U.S. assets, fueling gains in gold and emerging marketsIntel shares slide after the chipmaker admits it can’t keep up with surging AI data-center demandTikTok finalizes a deal to stay in the U.S., reshaping ownership but keeping its algorithm in placeNatural gas prices surge as a major winter storm threatens nearly half the countryCapital One stock falls after announcing a $5.15B acquisition of fintech BrexCollege football and the NFL deliver massive ratings, proving live sports still dominate TV

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, January 23rd. In today's episode, we'll tell you why international investors are quiet quitting U.S. assets. We'll also recap earnings from Intel and break down who owns TikTok now. Then stick around to the end of the show to learn a shocking stat about the college football championship game. We got a great show for you today. Let's go.

The Greenland Relief Rally continued on Thursday with the S&P 500 up about half a percent, and the NASDAG jumped nearly 1%. You know, investors were breathing a sigh of relief when President Trump walked back his tariff threats on European countries regarding Greenland. And this was like the classic taco trade playing out again. When markets start tanking, Trump tends to back off on his threats, and when he does, markets go back to rally. And I guess this will probably keep happening during this administration.

Now, with all this volatility and uncertainty, investors continue to push into gold. Gold is already up 13% this year and it's about to cross $5,000 an ounce. But beyond just gold, investors, especially international investors, are starting to look at other areas to invest in outside of the U.S. Bloomberg is describing this as global investors quiet quitting U.S. assets. International investors and central banks are selling U.S. treasuries and stocks. and putting that money into gold and also emerging markets. In fact, emerging market stocks are up 7% this year compared to roughly 1% for the S&P 500.

So early signs point to gold and international stocks outperforming U.S. stocks again this year. By the way, we're going to be talking to Kyla Scanlan about all the big things happening in macroeconomics, including the Greenland situation, how the bond market is acting as the fourth branch of government, and what's happening in the Japanese bond market and the impact that's having on markets all over the world.

We already recorded that conversation and it's going to be posted on Sunday morning, so keep an eye on your podcast feed for that. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Intel. Intel reported earnings last night, and investors are walking away disappointed because of underwhelming revenue and profit outlook, even as demand for AI data center chips continue to explode. Intel expects Q1 revenues to be between $11.7 and $12.7 billion, which is on the lower end of Wall Street. Street's $12.6 billion expectation. Now, what's crazy here is that Intel admitted that it underestimated how strong data center demand would be and that it simply doesn't have enough chips to meet orders in the current quarter. Their data center business did grow 9% year over year to $4.7 billion

in Q4, but executives said the company left meaningful revenue on the table because it was caught flat-footed on manufacturing capacity. On top of the weak guidance, Intel swung to a loss in Q4, and they anticipate deeper losses in the current quarter as it ramps up production of its newest chips and looks to solve its inventory shortage. So when you add all that up, and investors are pretty frustrated, Intel stock is down 13% at the time of this recording. You know, a lot is riding on Intel's turnaround plan. The company is trying to reinvent itself as a viable U.S. manufacturer of advanced AI chips. You know, they've received direct investments from the U.S. government along with NVIDIA, which invested $5 billion, and SoftBank, which invested $2 billion,

And it was all this hype and investment that pushed Intel stock up 84% in 2025. And the stock was already up another 35% this year. But this earnings report is a reality check on Intel's business. And what I don't understand is how Intel wasn't prepared for the surge in data center demand. Do they not see the hundreds of billions of dollars in CAPEX commitment from these hypers? Being caught flat-footed here is just crazy. What makes us even more frustrating is that Intel is being handed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be relevant. again during the biggest technological buildout we've ever seen, and they're not ready for it.

Now, CEO Lib Bhutan told analysts he was disappointed by the short-term inability to meet demand, but he reminded everyone that this is a multi-year journey. And while that may be true, we'll have to see if Wall Street and President Trump has the patience if Intel keeps missing the moment. Let's shift gears and talk about TikTok. After years of drama, TikTok has officially finalized a deal that lets it keep operating. here in the U.S. TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has spun out TikTok's U.S. operations into a separate

U.S.-based company owned mostly by American and non-Chinese investors. The big names involved here are the tech giant Oracle, also private equity giant Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, MGX. They each are getting a 15% stake in TikTok U.S. Biden's is keeping a 19.9% stake, which is the legal maximum under the 2024 law, that forced this whole situation in the first place. Now, Oracle will play a big role in TikTok's operations. They'll oversee the U.S. user data and monitor changes to TikTok's algorithm,

which has always been the core national security concern and the reason for the ban in the first place. U.S. lawmakers were worried that the Chinese government could potentially influence the algorithm, and by extension, the 200 million Americans that use TikTok every month. But here's the thing, though, BightDance's algorithm will still power TikTok U.S. The U.S. entity is licensing the algorithm from ByteDance. Now, apparently this algorithm will be retrained using American data, whatever that means. But some critics are saying that this sale doesn't meet the requirements of the 2024 law. Still, President Trump is calling this a win.

He posted on True Social last night that he was so happy to have helped save TikTok and he even thanked Chinese President Chi for approving the deal. So yeah, I guess the TikTok saga is officially behind us. It's not going anywhere. It will continue to operate in the U.S. Now, I'm still not sure who's really in control of TikTok these days. Is it still bite dance? Is it Oracle?

Maybe the U.S. government? I don't know. I guess we'll see if the platform changes over time. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Natural gas prices and companies are jumping as a major winter storm is expected to impact a big part of the U.S. this weekend, including here in Texas. New York City, by the way, is expected to get 14 inches of snow, according to our New York City resident and weather correspondent producer might. So yeah, because of this upcoming freeze,

natural gas prices are up 75% over the last five days because natural gas is the dominant heating source in the U.S. accounting for about 47% of residential heating demand. I'm just hoping that the power grid holds up here in Texas over the weekend. We've had some issues in the past with some previous winter storms. Now, on the flip side, Capital One shares are falling after the credit card giant reported mixed earnings and announced that they're buying the fintech start of Capital One is acquiring Brex for $5.15 billion in a mix of cash and stock as it looks to push deeper into the business payments and expense management space. Brex is known for combining corporate cards with software that helps companies track spending in real time. Now, what's interesting, though, is that Brex was once valued at $12.5 billion at its peak.

So this deal represents a pretty steep markdown. Meanwhile, you have Bricks' main rival ramp, which was founded two years after Brex. they're now valued at around $32 billion. Now, beyond the acquisition, Capital One's earnings were pretty mixed. Their revenues beat expectations, but their profits came in lighter than expected. The other issue for Capital One is the political attention on credit card rates right now. See, Capital One's net interest income was up 54% in Q4, thanks to rising credit card interest rates, but President Trump is now pushing for a 10% cap on rates.

If this cap actually becomes policy, it would hit Capital One especially hard, given how dependent its business is on credit card lending. So investors aren't loving the combo of the acquisition, along with the mixed earnings and the rising regulatory risk, and that's why Capital One stock is down more than 3% in pre-market trading. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. The college football playoff championship game between Indiana and Miami drew 30.1 million viewers making it the most watched college football championship games since 2015. That is a 36% job. jump from last year's matchup between Ohio State and Notre Dame. And to put this in the perspective, this was the most watched U.S. sports telecasts

outside of the NFL since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. So this was a very big game. Indiana University ended up winning the title, making it one of the greatest sports stories of all time. But they weren't the only winners here. Disney was also taking a victory lap because they broadcasted the game on ESPN and ABC. By the way, it's been a big week for Disney and ESPN because they also aired the Texans Patriots NFL playoff game,

which averaged 38 million viewers across ESPN and ABC. In fact, it was the single largest audience in ESPN's history and Disney's most watched sports event outside of the Super Bowl. Big picture takeaway here is that live sports just continue to be the only thing keeping cable TV alive. Like, I only subscribe to YouTube TV to watch sports. If I wasn't a sports fan, I probably wouldn't have it. And honestly, my mental health would probably be better as well.

I don't know why I chose to be a sports fan. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did, and you have like five extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast. If you are listening on Spotify,

don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out, and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening. and commenting, shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.