May 25, 2026 · AM edition

Huawei chips, World Cup squads, and a Fed plumber nobody asked for

The Fed wants to fix the plumbing, Huawei wants to rewire the house, and Bitcoin just bought the land underneath both of them.

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Full recap

Happy Memorial Day weekend hangover, everyone. While you were grilling and pretending to care about the Indy 500, Huawei dropped a new chip architecture called LogicFolding - because apparently U.S. export controls are just a suggestion when you're sufficiently motivated. The Chinese telecom giant keeps finding new ways to build better semiconductors despite Washington's best efforts, which is either inspiring or terrifying depending on which side of the Pacific your portfolio lives on. Speaking of the Pacific, U.S. and Chinese officials walked out of APEC with three clear signals that the two superpowers are still very much in a trade Cold War, Trump-Xi photo op notwithstanding. Differing priorities is diplomat-speak for 'we fundamentally disagree on everything and someone's going home angry.' The summit happened, smiles were forced, and the gap remains roughly the size of the South China Sea. On the bright side - if you squint - analysts are telling investors to just buy China AI stocks and stop worrying about the macro. Slower economic growth? Tariff drama? Doesn't matter. Just point at anything with 'artificial intelligence' in the name and hit buy. We've seen this movie before. It ends with a congressional hearing and a lot of people pretending they saw it coming. Back stateside, Kevin Warsh is reportedly planning a 'regime change' at the Fed - not the dramatic kind, but the boring, structural, deep-in-the-plumbing kind. He wants to shrink the Fed's day-to-day market role and set clearer rules for intervention. This is either fiscal discipline or a man who really wants to touch the pipes no one else bothers with. Either way, Wall Street is nervous, and nervous Wall Street means volatility, which means Bitcoin looks smarter by the day. In sports, Felix Rosenqvist won the Indianapolis 500 in what is being called a historic victory - historic being the word sports media uses when they're shocked someone they weren't watching did something remarkable. Meanwhile the Spurs and Thunder are tied in the playoffs, the Knicks are one win from a sweep, and somewhere a New York sports fan is already planning the parade and the inevitable heartbreak. The FIFA World Cup roster chaos is heating up and it's already unhinged. Spain announced a squad with zero Real Madrid players for the first time in recorded history - which is either a bold tactical statement or proof that club politics have fully metastasized into international football. Meanwhile England boss Thomas Tuchel called up Ivan Toney, which sent British pundits into the kind of spiral usually reserved for Brexit negotiations. Antonio Conte is leaving Napoli, and the rumor mill is spinning hard about him returning to manage Italy. Nothing says 'fresh start' like going back to the job that broke you the first time. The man loves a rebuild, loves a fight, and apparently loves being screamed at on the touchline. Italy at a World Cup on home soil - or close enough - with Conte? The chaos potential is off the charts. So here's your Monday alignment: Huawei is out-engineering sanctions, the Fed wants to rewire itself quietly, World Cup squads are already a soap opera, and Felix Rosenqvist just won the most American race on the calendar as a Swede. The system is working exactly as intended - which is to say, not at all.

Highlights

  • Huawei's new chip design tells U.S. export controls to go touch grass - LogicFolding is real, and the semiconductor rivalry just got a third competitor nobody was ready for.
  • Spain's World Cup squad has zero Real Madrid players for the first time ever, proving that even in soccer, the brand sometimes outlives the relevance.
  • Kevin Warsh wants to be the Fed's plumber - less intervention, clearer rules, quieter pipes - which is either genius monetary discipline or just a really boring way to start a revolution.
  • Antonio Conte leaving Napoli to potentially manage Italy is the geopolitical equivalent of China buying U.S. treasuries - everyone knows it's complicated, but the incentives are just too juicy to walk away from.

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