Tech markets faced legal and operational friction as Apple was ordered to pay over $5.7 billion in a patent infringement verdict, and Meta lost a misleading practices lawsuit in New Mexico. Meanwhile, e-commerce saw significant moves as Amazon expanded its Seller Central platform to competitor channels, and Shopify shares jumped 7% on new AI and acquisition news.
01Market mover
Oracle Shares Drop Following Report of Force Majeure Notice on Data Center
Oracle issued a force majeure notice to Blue Owl regarding its 165 billion dollar Project Jupiter in New Mexico. The notice allows Oracle to pause rent payments if the 2.45-gigawatt facility misses its 2028 completion target. Project Jupiter is designed to supply computing capacity for OpenAI under the Stargate initiative, but it faces severe permitting delays and local opposition. Regulatory hurdles have blocked pipeline approvals and air permits for the site's Bloom Energy fuel cells, pushing the timeline toward 2029 or 2030. These delays have stressed 18 billion dollars in loans tied to the campus, which are trading below 90 cents on the dollar. Blue Owl shares fell 4 percent following the report, while Bloom Energy dropped 6 percent before later recovering.
Amazon Restricts Internal Use of Meta's Muse AI Agent Over Security Concerns
Amazon blocked Meta Platforms from accessing its retail site with the Muse agent over security concerns. Amazon stated that Muse browsed without identifying itself and raised unresolved issues regarding customer credentials, while Meta countered that the agent cannot view user passwords or payment details. The restriction erects a barrier between Amazon and Meta's fast-growing personal assistant, which has secured commerce integrations with rival retailers including Walmart, Best Buy, and Shopify. Amazon instead opened its seller platform to Anthropic's Claude via a new Selling Partner plugin that grants merchants direct access to inventory and pricing tools. Amazon has invested $13 billion in Anthropic with potential for another $20 billion, while Anthropic has committed over $100 billion to AWS infrastructure over the coming decade.
New Mexico Jury Finds Meta Misled Consumers Over Cambridge Analytica
Channelnewsasia.com reports that a New Mexico jury found Meta Platforms misled state residents in a lawsuit stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The verdict follows a two-week trial over a 2021 complaint brought by the state attorney general, who accused the tech company of misrepresenting how user data was shared and how it handled hate speech. Judge Francis Mathew will determine the monetary penalties Meta must pay for the violations. The trial follows an earlier March case in which a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties over youth safety on its platforms. A subsequent judge's ruling in that matter directed the company to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund. Meta later reached a settlement with 47 US states, agreeing to pay a maximum of about $16.7 billion to resolve claims regarding youth addiction while paying $459 million to a handful of states to resolve privacy claims related to Cambridge Analytica. New Mexico declined to join that settlement, allowing its own case to proceed to trial.
Shopify Rises Following Meta AI Partnership and Tailwind Labs Deal
Shopify shares climbed 7% on Tuesday following an sales partnership with Meta that integrates Shop Pay into the Muse agent and the completion of the Tailwind Labs . The Meta partnership links Shopify's commerce infrastructure directly to Meta's consumer traffic sources to let the Muse agent complete sales behind the scenes. Shopify trades at $142.25 per share, sitting about 21 percent below the average analyst price target of $210.47 while holding a 3-year total shareholder return of 160.67 percent. Recent trading shows a 24.55 percent gain over 90 days, contrasted against a 6.97 percent decline over 30 days and a 9.51 percent drop year to date. Consensus projections model Shopify reaching $26.3 billion in and $3.9 billion in by 2029, yielding a estimate of $171.15 per share. Meanwhile, lower estimates see revenue reaching $25.0 billion and earnings at $3.2 billion by 2029 amid risks that AI tools remain commoditised . The SWS discounted model values Shopify at $115.81 per share, putting the stock above that cash flow mark and raising questions about multiples against rising competition from other AI-enabled retail platforms.
US Jury Orders Apple to Pay $5.7 Billion in Haptic Patent Case
A federal jury in San Diego ordered Apple to pay more than $5.7 billion in damages to Taction Technology after finding that the tech giant infringed two haptic patents. The litigation centered on U.S. Patent Nos. 10,659,885 and 10,820,117, which cover vibration-based tactile transducer technology used to help users feel device responses. Taction argued that the Taptic Engine embedded in iPhones and Apple Watches utilized its proprietary innovations without a license. Apple denied the allegations, maintained that its hardware is fundamentally different, and stated it will appeal the verdict. Taction originally filed the lawsuit in 2021, and the case was later revived by the Federal Circuit after a 2023 dismissal. The jury concluded that the infringement was not willful.
Amazon Opens Seller Central to Walmart, eBay, Shopify, and TikTok Integration
Amazon is opening Seller Central to competing marketplaces and ecommerce platforms, allowing independent U.S. sellers to connect eBay, Shopify, TikTok, and Walmart accounts directly from its dashboard. The multichannel tools are rolling out gradually to U.S. sellers over the coming months at no additional cost. Independent sellers account for more than 60 percent of units sold on Amazon worldwide, and fees from those merchants brought in $46.8 billion in the second quarter. More than 95 percent of Amazon's independent sellers already sell across multiple channels. Under the new tools, sellers can link product listings, manage orders, and fulfill items across channels without separate logins. Amazon also expanded reporting to provide a view of profitability across connected channels by pulling in sales, advertising spend, and traffic data. Independent sellers previously created more than 12 million listings using Amazon's generative tools in 2025. The phased rollout continues over the coming months as adoption progresses.
Donald Trump Meets With Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei will join President Donald Trump for a private dinner at the White House on Sunday, CNBC reported, in the first one-on-one meeting between the two leaders. Amodei missed a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday due to a scheduling conflict, prompting the private invitation. The meeting comes as Anthropic prepares for a planned initial public offering following a turbulent year with the administration. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick temporarily imposed export controls on two of the company's models in June before later stating that Anthropic is back on the right side. Chief compute officer Tom Brown previously led negotiations with the Commerce Department after Amodei drew criticism for urging the industry to slow down advanced model development. Defense negotiations collapsed in February after the Department of Defense sought unfettered access for all lawful purposes while Anthropic resisted use in fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance. The Pentagon subsequently labeled Anthropic a risk, blocking the military and defense contractors from using its models. A federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., upheld the Pentagon's action on Friday, dealing a blow to the company's legal challenge.
Big tech faces mounting legal liabilities and aggressive platform competition. It remains unresolved whether regulatory penalties and mega-verdicts will slow AI integration and cross-platform commerce expansion.
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