Rebels Edge · Thu, May 21, 2026
Quantum Funding Surges as AI Deals Explode
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The hosts discuss Nvidia’s earnings beat and muted stock reaction, reported federal funding for quantum computing, and continued demand for AI infrastructure. They also review Intuit’s selloff, Ralph Lauren’s strong results, and Applied Digital’s long-term AI hosting lease, maintaining a broadly bullish outlook on AI and quantum-related stocks.
- Nvidia beat earnings expectations, but investors wanted stronger guidance; both hosts remained bullish.
- The VIX hovered near 17 despite Nvidia’s decline, suggesting relatively subdued market volatility.
- Reported US government quantum funding of $2 billion lifted the sector, with Global Foundries reportedly allocated roughly $375 million.
- The hosts highlighted bullish unusual options activity in D-Wave and gains across quantum stocks.
- Intuit fell more than 20% despite an earnings beat and raised outlook, amid analyst target cuts and concerns about growth and AI competition.
- Ralph Lauren rose roughly 10% after strong quarterly results, which the hosts viewed as evidence of resilient higher-income consumers.
- Applied Digital rose roughly 20% after announcing a 15-year take-or-pay AI campus lease; the hosts emphasized miners’ existing power and permitting advantages.
- The hosts disclosed advisory-board involvement with Quantum Emotion and share ownership and paid advisory roles with Z Squared.
Full transcript
On today's Rebel's Edge, Nvidia reports earnings after the bell yesterday, beats top and bottom, but leaves some investors unimpressed.
President Trump, Manhattan Project 2.0 delivers big time for the quantum industry on news this morning that $2 billion would be invested from the US government, sending that sector soaring.
We had unusual activity in those names for a while now. And finally, is Adam Gase headed to Boca?
Rumors are swirling that this season may be his last. Jets fans are saying, "Good riddance. Have fun in retirement." We'll cover all that and more on today's Rebel's Edge.
>> [music] [music]
>> Believe it or not, folks, that is not Pete Najarian. I know it looks just like him. People think Pete and I are twins and now they'll think Mark LaPrarie.
Yeah. And I are triplets, apparently.
Yeah. [laughter] I have too much hair though, John. I'm not, you know, I'm not losing hair quickly enough to join that club yet. But it But it Listen, it's it's an exclusive and rarefied one.
Can barely get out of a restaurant with you guys without getting absolutely bombarded with all of your fan boys and girls. So, I don't mind it.
>> God only made so many perfect heads and the rest he covered with hair. Yes. Yes, this is absolutely true. Good to be with you.
Well, great to have you here, Mark. Um as Mark said, top of the show, folks, uh the earnings out of Nvidia did not impress in America, but they were very impressive overseas, Mark. Because when
I looked up the Nikkei 225, which was up 3% overnight, it was optimism over the strong earnings out of Nvidia and a little bit of easing of crude oil prices, but that was before the present supreme leader in Iran decided to say,
"You know, even if we go for some sort of peace deal, we're not giving up the uranium." Yes, you are. Yes, you are.
Yeah. Good luck with that one, sir. You will be joining your father very soon.
But, nonetheless, Mark, that was the way I viewed the macro picture today. How about you?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, listen, the the question is, and we've got lots of naysayers, lots of shorts out there that have been caught flat-footed with Nvidia, the AI chip sector and infrastructure in general, everybody calling for these names to sell off akin to the dot-com bubble. We've maintained, month after month, quarter after
quarter, that we think that the the demand side of the AI infrastructure picture is still underestimated and that we would expect to see names like Nvidia and AMD and the rest of their progeny continue to beat quarter after quarter.
But, the problem is, to keep impressing Wall Street and to keep impressing these traders with a voracious appetite for forward guidance that is nothing short of mind-blowing, even with beating $80 billion, $1.80 EPS, issuing forward guidance that does
indicate that the demand remains very robust, they still somehow wanted to see more. You know, I don't know, John. I think there's a little bit of temporary selling here. I think we end the day in the green and Nvidia is going higher is is my guess from here. I happen to be right with you on that, Mark. I don't
know if it happens today, but I agree. I think over the next week, I'll be shocked if Nvidia isn't pushing 230 rather than just under 220 where it is right now. All right, let's take a look at the VIX because the VIX contract
which tracks the S&P 500, a lot of you would be somewhat surprised perhaps to see that well, if Nvidia's down, the VIX must be up. Nope. If oil's up, the VIX
must be up. Nope. The VIX is 1726 barely holding on, Mark. to 17 and more likely that it's going to see 16 in the near future. And part of the reason is we've only moved about a quarter of a percent for the S&P 500. So, the VIX is doing
what it should do and that is losing some of that extra premium.
Yeah, that that is true. 17 and a quarter here is the live quote.
And looks like it's going down even lower. If the Nasdaq catches a bid, which I think we could see by midday today, John, you could see the VIX going even lower. We're starting to see the quantum names by the way. I know we're going to talk about it, but I'm super anxious to talk about it because we may have predicted this both from our
research reports and our UOA and what we've been saying at live events for months now. So, quantum names I think are going to start bringing up the Nasdaq more broadly if that happens today, which is my expectation. We could see the VIX moving even lower.
Yep. And I would not so much caution, but just point out that when you're the biggest company in the world over $4 trillion market cap, you move a percent or two, it's going to overwhelm everything else in the index, which it has. And still, we're not
seeing the give up for the Nasdaq of more than 3/10 of a percent right now.
And almost all of that attributable to Nvidia's soft reaction. All right, let's take a look at a prediction market play here Mark real quick because we'll cover the Spurs versus OKC in the sports at the bottom, but I thought people would get a kick out of this because Mark's
New York Knicks uh were led by Jalen Brunson and uh the number three seed up one zip heading into game two. And uh there you see it on your screen the prediction market folks. Um Cavaliers versus Knicks and as
you can see the Knicks likelihood of uh winning just keeps kind of climbing steadily after they made that fantastic comeback Mark that had the Big Apple happy for the first time since uh Mondami's been in office. Yeah.
Yeah, we we definitely need some things to cheer about here in New York. So it would be great to uh to have the Knicks back. You know, being a sports fan in New York City John is not the easiest thing um to put it to put it very mildly. But very interesting to see how the prediction market's playing this one
out. By and large, have they been as accurate in in these outcomes of of basketball and football as they have been in terms of things like earnings or do you think there's a divergence?
Um they have been. They have been quite accurate um but uh for the most part the accuracy has been oh will they beat not will the stock trade up. Right.
>> Um right now they've they've sort of uh not wanted to be in that box, I think Mark, uh because they're judged or they're overseen by the CFTC presently.
And I think the further they push over into stocks themselves, oh do you think Nvidia will trade up after earnings?
That's a little bit of a different question than do you think their earnings will beat or not? And uh we'll keep our eye on that for you folks. But like Mark said, um the prediction markets have been pretty good because it is people putting their money where their mouth is, but the money is like
this, folks. Even if it's a few million dollars on uh Nvidia potentially then beating estimates, which it was, uh and which they did, um that was versus the tens of millions, even hundreds of millions that were cast in
the options market alone on stocks like Nvidia or Micro Soft or the quantum names, which we're going to get to right after Intuit. So, take a look at this one, folks. Intuit shares plunging down more than 20% better than expected uh earnings results. They raised full-year outlook.
Many of you would say, "Well, the stock should be trading up, right?" Well, and they're going to cut 17% of their workforce, Mark. So, all of those things put together, you might say in a vacuum, the stock should be up.
They're cutting the workforce, that's overhead, of course. They're outperforming, but KeyBank and a number of other analysts cut their price target somewhat dramatically, right?
Yeah, I mean I I and and very dramatically. KeyBank from uh 520 down to 450, Barclays from 540 to 443, Wells Fargo 425 to 360.
These are not mild cuts in what the expected uh share prices, although they've maintained their uh I believe neutral ratings on the on the firm. Um you know, I think the concern here is that there is slowing revenue growth, but you know, John, I don't see that born out in in the numbers here. I think they
uh have a report about over 10% year-over-year revenue growth just under 9 billion um on on reduced expenses as you point out, but that was less than the street was expecting. So, it says we always say, folks, it is no more the rearview mirror report, right? Unless a company
substantially beats or substantially misses, it's about that forward guidance. That's how these things trade after earnings are reported, and I am surprised. I don't own it. I don't have options or equities in this one, John, but I am a little bit surprised to see it getting punished pretty severely
for for what they reported.
Yeah. Well, it it might be a reasonable shot to take, even though they've cut these targets and they're pushing it down. Might be a reasonable shot at some point here, Mark, but 20% for bookkeeping and tax work and all the other stuff that Intuit has part of their business.
I don't see that growing all that dramatically, and the more, as you always tell me about Claude, the more people that are using AI to do everything from bookkeeping to taxes, why wouldn't this company not see a slowing in their growth for forward-looking folks like KeyBank and
all these other analysts? Yeah, it could could be a little cesspocalypse hangover. Maybe the cesspocalypse is not completely over. It's entirely possible.
And when you look at the number of workers being laid off every single week, all of the news about Meta telling people, "Hey, maybe you'll work from home this week because if you come in, you may not leave with a with a job." But still, that is all AI, folks. AI is taking
human jobs at a greater rate than anybody has been expecting, which is why I keep saying it is remarkable how stable the labor market has been, how strong the economy has been, notwithstanding 20 to 30,000 jobs every week, by my estimates, getting sucked out of the labor market as a result of AI. And yet,
we still have uh, kind of economic environment that we do. John, let's talk about GFS Global Foundries. This is >> Yeah, I knew you'd be on this one. Mhm.
Yeah, because this is, uh, the the best tech trader in the world, folks, and it ain't Bill Ackman, and it isn't Warren Buffett, and it isn't, uh, Blackstone, BlackRock, or any of those guys. It's Donald Trump. I mean, when the Trumpster gets his, uh, uh, focus on a sector, Mark, uh, it
tends to lift that sector. And he's throwing money at, you know, look at Intel. It's up sixfold from when he made that investment. And now he's pushing the Commerce Department to push money, $2 billion, into the quantum names like
GFS Global Foundries. But the real quantum names like QBTS, these are the ones that you were citing just Monday at the mastermind in Miami that we did with Grant Cardone. So maybe, uh, tell the viewers and listeners what you were
telling Grant Cardone's high-end investors at WealthCon. Yeah, and and look, you know, loyal Rebels Edge watchers and members of the Market Rebellion community know we've been hot on quantum for a while now.
We issued our, uh, long-awaited, much-anticipated quantum research report on the 20th of April.
Um, that featured all of these companies, the QBTS, QUBT, RGTI, ARQQ, um, the D-Wave, uh, Righetti, uh, QNC, which is Quantum Emotion, which we are, uh, uh, on the board of the advisory board of. Um, all of these names were up
even before this morning's announcement.
And we did, by the way, John, predict on page 25 and 26 of that quantum report, and maybe, Producer John, we can drop a link in here for people to download it if they don't already have it. We said that as part of President Trump's Manhattan Project 2.0 that we would
expect to see investment, private sector investment from the government, DOW, other agencies in these quantum names.
We saw it coming, we talked about it, and if you were one of the investors that got that report back in April and picked up some of these names, especially if you played it with the options cuz we've had unusual activity in a lot of these names in that period of time, man, you are really, really happy as we're John, I've already heard
this morning from some of the folks that were at 10X Wealth on Saturday and at the Mastermind on Monday where I was able to get into more of the detail on this.
Folks are up, you know, 30, 34, 35% on the equities and I haven't even asked about the ones that were smart enough to watch D-Wave and play the options side of things, but always proud when we can see those trends. We issued, by the way, folks, just yesterday, it's all coming out today, and if you're watching this, you'll probably get a
copy cuz you're probably on our mailing list, our space report, which was, I think, also pretty well timed with the release of the SpaceX prospectus. You do not want to miss that one. And Global Foundries, of course, the ticker that we're talking about here, talking about how the Commerce Department, $375
million, maybe even a little more, to accelerate the build-out of their quantum business.
This is really, really good news for this company.
Total of seven names that are getting funding on this news this morning from the Commerce Department, including D-Wave, Rigetti, and INAQ, which I'm not as familiar with, but very exciting and just like with space, rising tide lifting all boats, we're seeing all the quantum
names, QNC included, catching a bid.
Some in some instances, a really big bid this morning. Congratulations to everybody that got in on that sector.
There's still more room for this to run.
Yeah, and today, Mark, today, the 21st of May, we saw the May 1 the May 30 calls being bought in big numbers that expire tomorrow. This is a $24 stock and they're betting that you know, on the 30s.
They're betting for next week's expiration, the 25 calls in May on the 29th expiration and June 18th expiration, they're betting on the 26 calls. So, a lot of bets stacked up in QBTS.
We'll keep an eye on that and we'll keep you guys updated on it next week because remember, this is the last Rebel's Edge of the week. We don't do the show on Fridays normally and Monday is a holiday. So, we'll have to catch you up on the rest of that next week.
All right, Mark.
Um Ralph Lauren.
Uh so, truly a discretionary spend. You don't have to have. Other than Mark Lapresti, nobody has to have Ralph Lauren or Armani. But, Mark Lapresti does have it.
>> No, I don't. I did I did throw on a polo in honor of of their earnings report though today, John. So, I am I do have a pony on today.
I appreciate that and I'm sure the viewers do. Oh, yeah. It was up 10% double-digit gain for the apparel maker stronger than expected fourth quarter earnings revenue up 16 and 1/2% year-over-year to nearly $2 billion in constant currency. I mean, this was a
great report for RL, Mark, and it's it's a sign that even though Walmart traded down fairly heavy today, we're seeing some of these consumer discretionary names do better rather than do worse.
Yeah, I mean, and and this is not insignificant. We're talking about double-digit growth, same store double-digit growth quarter over quarter. Um, it really is pretty remarkable and it does to me, I think, indicate a broader, as we've been saying, a lot of strength in the underlying economy, a lot of strength in
terms of the uh in the confidence of the American consumer. Albeit, this is a higher-end uh consumer, a higher-earning consumer, a consumer that is in the stock market and feeling pretty good about how feeling feeling like this they got a little bit of uh jingle in their pocket or or maybe
things to fold in their pocket. Um, so, yeah, very happy to see this out of Ralph Lauren. Any any continued positive uh reporting, John, from any of the consumer brands, discretionary or more importantly the non-discretionary, the stuff that people have to buy, makes me happy. That's why I was so happy to see what Home Depot reported at the
beginning of the week.
Well, let's wind it up, Mark, with Applied Digital, APLD.
And uh I don't think it's a big reach to say that uh companies like Hut, HUT, Hut 8, or Z Squared, which we are, you know, shareholders, we're paid advisors to that company, full disclosure. Um, the companies that really focus in here,
Mark, on um data center build-outs and so forth, many of them for artificial intelligence, of course, have pivoted from perhaps mining Squared, they've pivoted, so has Applied Digital, over
into the high-performance um hosting business. And this one up 20% today. It's nearly double on the year, Mark, and they announced a 15-year take-or-pay lease uh tied to their
Polaris Forge uh AI campus. This is a big deal. And more and more people are doing what Michelle Burke over at Z Squared talked about, Mark, when you and I were with her when she rang the bell, the closing bell at the Nasdaq less than 2 weeks ago, folks. And she was talking
about, "Look, permitting is a big deal.
Having um power, having enough megawatts so that you can run these data centers is a big deal." You know who has that?
Former miners. Yeah. Like Hut 8, like Z Squared, like APLD. And that's why you're seeing these big moves when they actually announce deals like the kind that APLD announced today, Mark. Yeah, you got to you got to love a 15 a decade and a half take or pay. I mean, that's basically guaranteed revenue. The only
thing that investors are looking at is what's the credit quality, right, of of the of the counterparty. Um and I think in this case it's it's pretty darn good.
And a lot of these companies it has not been like in the case of Z Squared, not a full pivot. They're not abandoning the crypto mining side of things. And what's interesting about that model is it enables the power to go to the highest and best and most productive use at the
right time. Um and you're absolutely right, John. 3 to 5 years, really closer to 5 is what I'm hearing on average if you are shovel-ready site for a data center um to take into account things like the permitting and the power depends and if you're in front of the grid, etc. So, really great to see and
obviously companies like Hut, my god, it's back over 100 today, up almost 6% last time I looked on the strength I think of all of sort of this AI infrastructure maintaining the positive outlook notwithstanding a little Nvidia sell-off. So, really really great to see
um and really happy to see um APLD announcing those results in that 15 year. Man, whoever negotiated that one, tough negotiator, 15-year take or pay, congratulations, and congratulations to everybody that held that stock.
Got a little piece Red Zone Sports, even though Pete's not here today.
That's right. Um and uh when Pete was last here, we had talked extensively about OKC, Oklahoma City. And OKC had a terrible situation, Mark, in their game one, where their big player, and I know these are all uh
uh a jumble of uh letters, folks, but OKC's top player, SGA, >> [laughter] >> um he shot seven of 28 or 26, something like that, in the first game. If your top player, you know, I I don't Michael Jordan ever did in the playoffs,
but if your top player shoots that poorly, it's hard to imagine somebody else picking up the slack, because those are a lot of shots that fell, got rebounded by the other team, some of them, and uh baskets scored against you.
They lost in double overtime. But this one, Mark, complete turnaround from game one, because in game two, uh that big kid, and he is a kid, he's a very young man, very talented guy, Wemby is his nickname, but he's 7'5,
and he scored 41 in Well, in this one, they held him to, I think, 20 or 21, Mark, and they did it by putting a big body on him, and that uh was something that they needed to do to stop him from being the scoring machine that he can be, and they did it.
And thus, uh because of that, they were able to not eke out a victory, but basically beat them every single quarter, except one. Um and uh the final score tells the story, right?
Absolutely. This kid's a freaking machine. Have the fans figured out how to pronounce his last name because I'm not even going to take a crack at it.
>> [laughter] >> Wembanyama, something like that.
>> Absolutely.
>> They make great tires as well.
Nobody can Yeah, you would expect to see that on a Formula 1 car and maybe Mark and I'll be coming to you from Monaco with some of that in a couple weeks. But anyway, um yeah, the >> That's a rumor still. That's just a rumor.
>> a rumor. Um the OKC center, by the way, just to give him a a little shout, Isaiah Hartenstein was absolutely a force in this one because he's a big man. He's the center for OKC and he did the job, which they didn't have done in the first game. So,
now it's even one to one, Mark. All right. Now, I know you wanted to talk about your former Jets quarterback, so I'll let you uh tell us exactly what's going on with one Aaron Rodgers with the Steelers. You know, listen, um there was a lot of hoopla, loyal rebel
Edge Watchers will recall when he came over to the Jets. I had the privilege of being invited to uh the the training day of, you know, which is just before the season opener. And literally almost every single player took the time to come over and meet with the VIPs and sign game balls and take pictures with the kids and this and that,
except for this guy. He was too busy planning his next ayahuasca trip or just finding himself or whatever. He wasn't even mixing it up or or talking much or mentoring with the younger players. I I I was super unimpressed, of course. He failed to deliver, failed to launch, if you will, um for the Jets. So, I got to
be honest with you, dude, when I heard this morning that uh Aaron Rodgers may be retiring and joining the rest of us in South Florida, um I wasn't too sad to hear it or to see him go. I don't know if Steelers fans will agree, but I I really never liked the guy very much. I got to be honest with you. Overrated.
Overrated.
Well, in his prime, you know, I think he's a four-time MVP. In his prime, Aaron was one of the best. And I still love his take on the game, but I if I'm a Steelers fan or a Jets fan, I'm I'm not feeling the commitment
that that he needs to bring. And thus, as a 42-year-old player, he announced that this is his final year. His final final year. So, that means that he needs to get out there and win. And that means that the Steelers need to start lining
up who's going to be the next quarterback for them since they're going to be relying on Aaron Rodgers this year, they need to see, okay, are any of these three guys we've got able to take that mantle on or do we have to draft somebody else? And they
haven't had much success drafting quarterbacks that could take over for Roethlisberger. So, now they got to get one that's going to take over for Aaron Rodgers in '27. But, he'll play this year. At least that's what's on the table right now, Mark. There you go. Hey John, I just got word from our good friend Liz Claman that I'm going to be
joining her today at 3:55 as the countdown closer on Fox Business.
You don't want to miss that. As John pointed out, we will not have Rebels Edge tomorrow cuz it's Friday. And Friday of Memorial Day weekend, I think we should expect some pretty low trading volume tomorrow, John, if my experience tells me anything. We'll return on
Tuesday, where I will have the pleasure of joining John again as the Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson on the Rebels Edge.
Pete's traveling on Tuesday, and look forward to seeing y'all then. Have a restful, safe, and happy Memorial Day weekend.
Everybody enjoy and tune in to Fox Business uh that 3:00 to 4:00 hour with the great Liz Claman and Mark probably offering some insights into some of those quantum names again. Oh, yeah.
>> So, have a great weekend, everybody. Bang.
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