1. Construction spending.

The US Commerce Department reported that private construction spending on data centers came to an annualized $75 billion in July, up $51 billion from the end of 2023. Over that same period, private construction spending on everything else—houses, shopping centers, offices, etc.—fell by $120 billion.

2. AI optimism will have to go through the Anthropic test.

Anthropic is likely to be the next mega-cap tech firm to list publicly, following the mammoth SpaceX IPO in June.
It hopes to raise as much as $100 billion, reports say, which could prove another risk to the AI trade as markets absorb surging big-tech bond sales to fund capital expenditure.
"When it comes to Anthropic and OpenAI, there will probably be massively frothy valuations," said Rory Dowie, multi-asset portfolio manager at Marlborough, in a nod to both companies' IPO prospects.
Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May. A $1 trillion IPO valuation would make it one of the world's largest listed companies.
"If investor appetite for this theme falters even briefly, there is no diversification cushion," said Violeta Todorova, senior research analyst at Leverage Shares.

3. Why satellites face capacity constraints in densely populated areas.

• Spectrum limitations: Satellite frequencies must be shared across massive geographic footprints (beams). They lack the bandwidth to support millions of individual direct-to-consumer (D2C) connections simultaneously. The average user throughput would be 2 Mbps, which is equivalent to basic 3G.
• High density: A single satellite beam covering a city cannot provide enough throughput to feed hundreds of thousands of smartphones at high speeds.
• Physical blockages: Tall buildings and urban canyons obstruct the line-of-sight required for stable satellite signals.

“We continue to expect satellite to reach only a low-single-digit penetration.”

Source: Helios Towers

4. World humanoid robot games 2026.

The 2026 Games gathered 666 teams and 2,056 robots. Physical capability gains impressed, with several humanoid sports records broken by wide margins (Tiangong ran 100m in 8.64s vs. Usain Bolt's 9.58s ). In applications, compared with 2025, the 2026 Games put much greater weight on multi-step tasks in real-world scenarios vs. single predefined motions. The 21 scenario competitions spanned factories, homes, hotels, retail, hospitals, and emergency response. In catering, for example, robots had to interpret a spoken instruction, retrieve and heat food, collect a drink, and deliver the order. Autonomy was explicitly rewarded, with fully autonomous execution receiving twice the scoring weight of remote operation in relevant scenarios.
Global shipments reached 19k units in 1H26, up 272% YoY, with Chinese players accounting for 97%.

Below: World Humanoid Robot Games Leaderboard

5. Batteries are taking over.

In just two years, batteries have gone from a minor contributor to dominating Australia’s morning and evening peaks.
Gas will still have an important role during longer periods of low renewable output. But for the routine morning and evening peaks, batteries are increasingly doing the job instead.

6. Engie is a buy, again.

Yes, all French stocks are suffering ahead of 2027 French budget discussions, which we think may impact sentiment and positioning on French utilities.
However, Engie has been upgrading its EPS guidance every quarter while the stock has derated.
Let’s not forget Engie’s data center plants as the company states in the release the following: “ENGIE continued to expand its data center activities, with a pipeline of projects reaching 7 GW data center load as of 30 June 2026, up 1 GW compared with the end of 2025. This pipeline now includes 4 GW of advanced stage projects, compared with 0.8 GW at the end of 2025, and 3 GW of early-stage projects.”
The stock trades on 11x FY27 P/E (vs peers at 16x), and a 6% 2027 dividend yield.
Technically, the stock is extremely oversold.

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