Nvidia Hits $4 Trillion Milestone, PC Sales Rebound, and Grok Controversy

In this episode of Hashtag Trending, Jim Love discusses Nvidia's momentous achievement of briefly becoming the first public company with a $4 trillion market cap, primarily driven by the booming demand for AI chips. The episode also explores the rebound in global PC shipments, ahead of Windows 10's end-of-support deadline, with significant growth led by companies like Lenovo, Apple, and Asus. Additionally, Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok sparks outrage after it starts producing anti-Semitic content following tweaks to make it less 'woke,' leading to international backlash and the resignation of Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino. The episode highlights the ongoing challenges and controversies surrounding AI development and the tech industry's rapid evolution.

00:00 Nvidia Becomes First $4 Trillion Company
02:33 PC Shipments Rebound Amid Windows 10 Deadline
05:11 Elon Musk's Grok AI Controversy
08:27 Conclusion and Viewer Interaction

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Nvidia becomes the first $4 trillioncompany PC shipments rebound as
the Windows 10 deadline approaches.
And Elon Musk explainswhat went wrong with Grok.
Welcome to hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Let's get into it.
Yesterday, Nvidia briefly becamethe first public company to top

(00:21):
$4 trillion as their market cap.
AI defined chips have outpaced everyother tech trend, reshaping hardware,
economics, and investor priorities.
Nvidia shares surged to an interday high of $164 per share, which
took them over the 4 trillion markand before closing, they were just

(00:41):
under 3.97 trillion in market cap.
That's a tenfold jump inNvidia stocks since early 2023.
Driven by a relentless demandfor GPUs, powering data centers
and generative AI systems.
Analysts are still bullish.
CFRA, a leader in global stockresearch projects, the stock could hit

(01:05):
$196 within a year, taking NVIDIA'svaluation to near $4.8 trillion.
Some analysts are calling the momenthistorical call with this news and
with Tim Cook stepping down from Appleof fact that people hardly noticed
Jensen Huang is being celebratedas the leader of the tech industry.

(01:27):
Nvidia is now clearly far ahead ofApple, outpacing them by roughly
$900 billion in share value.
Juan's personal net worth hasclimbed to around $142 billion.
Not as much as Elon Musk, butlet's just say he's comfortable
. And other companies will be followingthe AI trend, hoping to get their

(01:48):
share of this enormous growth.
Microsoft certainly aiming to followNvidia to the $4 trillion mark Open
AI will be a big buyer of hosting withNvidia chips, but also Amazon, Google,
and Meta are going full steam with AIand they mean to collectively spend
more than $325 billion on AI this year.

(02:12):
Which means another wave ofdemand for Nvidia chips and
for rivals like AMD or Intel.
This is a bit of a wake up call.
Catching up is going to meanmore than incremental upgrades.
They're gonna have to make somehuge progress in the coming months.

(02:33):
Another bit of good news from the PCindustry, which has been flatlining
for a while now, according tonew data from Canalys, global PC
shipments climbed 7.4% in Q2 of 2025.
The growth was largely driven bycommercial buyers preparing for
Windows 10 end of support this October.
But while businesses are upgrading,consumers remain cautious and

(02:56):
future momentum could be cloudedby some looming tariff changes.
Nevertheless, notebook shipmentsrose 7% to 53.9 million units while
desktops jumped 9% to 13.7 million.
In terms of the number of unitssold, Lenovo LED with a 15.2%

(03:18):
gain shipping 17 million units.
Apple and Asus posted thebiggest growth up 21.3% and 18.4%
respectively, while Dell was the onlytop five vendor to decline by 3%.
Canalys Analyst, Kieran Jessop saidthe commercial refresh cycle is vital

(03:41):
right now, and a June poll showed thatover half of resellers expect further
sales growth in the second half of 2025.
But on the consumer side, as we've said,purchases are being pushed out into 2026,
as many users appear to be waiting outthe economic uncertainty and trying to
stretch out the lifespan of pandemicera devices, ices, but trade issues

(04:06):
could still upend this fragile recovery.
For example, US tariffs on Vietnamesegoods are set to kick in on August
1st with a 40% levy on anythingdeemed transshipped from China.
Beye principal analyst at Canalshas said that what began as a
straightforward China avoidance hasevolved into a complex regulatory maze.

(04:32):
Manufacturers moving supplychains to Vietnam now face tough
questions over how their productswill be classified, jeopardizing
cost stability, and for it buyers.
The Windows 10 deadlineis a now or never moment.
To refresh their fleetsunder predictable pricing.
But vendors need contingency plansas geopolitical risks threaten

(04:56):
to derail supply chain gains.
And consumers, of course, don'texpect them back in full force till
2026, just in time for a potentialCOVID era laptop replacement wave.
Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grokhad a spectacular meltdown this
week praising Adolf Hitler andcalling itself Mecca Hitler.

(05:21):
After Musk updated grok on July4th to be less woke, the chatbot
started spewing anti-Semitic content.
When asked which historical figurecould handle anti-white hate.
Grok responded, Adolf Hitler, no question.
He'd spot the patternand handle it decisively.

(05:42):
The bot even suggested anotherHolocaust saying Hitler would
round them up, strip rights, andeliminate the threat through camps.
And worse.
.And finally, Musk, who had vowed to fix Groks awoke stance,
came out with a statement.
Grok was too compliant to userprompt, too eager to please and

(06:05):
be manipulated, essentially.
That said, Musk is being addressed.
I. And that was it.
No apology, no detailed explanation of,of how his truth seeking AI turned into
a Nazi chatbot practically overnight.
So the best or most plausible explanationof what happened, XAI had updated Grok's

(06:28):
prompt to not shy away from makingclaims, which are politically incorrect,
as long as they're well substantiated.
And maybe Grok just followed theinstruction too well because it's
trained on Twitter data, and whentold to find politically incorrect,

(06:49):
but well substantiated information,it might have looked at Twitter and
concluded that anti-Semitic contentwas legitimate based on what it found
on Twitter and from the many linksto the content that Twitter contains.
That's a damning statement aboutwhat Twitter has become, and that's

(07:10):
just more damage done to Twitter'salready tarnished reputation,
but it can't be underestimated.
The reaction in the US could besummarized by the Anti-Defamation League's
comments that called it irresponsible,dangerous, and anti-Semitic.
Even internationally, Polandthreatened to report XAI to the eu.

(07:31):
Turkey blocked grok access . And itmight be a coincidence, but Linda
Yaccarino, the CEO of Twitter,announced her resignation yesterday.
She was hired to fix theadvertising disaster, and by most
accounts was actually succeeding.
But after all that hard work, you havean AI trained on Twitter data that

(07:54):
thinks Hitler praise is legitimate.
You've got Elon Musk potentiallyat war with Trump and a platform
so toxic, its own AI reflects thattoxicity back for someone brought in
to make Twitter advertiser friendly.
This was probably the writingon the wall and now Grok.

(08:16):
Is pretending yesterday never happened.
It actually is denying it.
Ever made these posts.
Now, where could it havelearned that behavior from?
And that's our show.
Love to hear what you think.
Drop us a [e-mail] or.ca.
Use the comment form.
If you're watching this on YouTube,just drop us a comment under the video.

(08:39):
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Have a thrilling Thursday.