A Data Deluge Brings a ‘Moment of Truth' for Markets This Week
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Wall Street pros are staring down a pivotal week that will likely set the tone for the rest of the year in markets and the economy.
First and foremost is the conclusion of the Federal Reserve 's meeting on Wednesday, and although it isn't expected to cut interest rates, traders and investors will be poring over commentary for clues about the path ahead. Then there's a string of Big Tech earnings with Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. all reporting. And sprinkled throughout are some of the leading indicators on the state of the economy, from gross domestic product to nonfarm payrolls.
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Forbes
11 minutes ago
- Forbes
How ‘Vibe Coding' Is Creating A New AI Economy
In early January, 18‑year‑old Justin Jin launched Giggles — an AI-powered social entertainment app that's reportedly attracted over 120,000 waitlist sign-ups and generated 150 million impressions — all without a venture capital war chest, a marketing budget, or a traditional engineering team. Instead, he and his team of young co-founders leveraged AI to build an app for Gen Alpha and Gen Z, where users interact through AI-generated content, digital collectibles and gamified social engagements. A few weeks later, another startup arrived on the scene — Base44, founded by a non-technical creator who used AI to 'vibe code' a no-code development platform. Within six months and under ten people, it reached profitability, pulled in 300,000 users and sold to Wix for $80 million in cash, according to TechCrunch. Suddenly, a new archetype emerged: Companies not founded on traditional engineering teams, but shaped by creativity, culture and AI orchestration. This is the story of the moment. AI is redefining entrepreneurship, allowing people with a vision and cultural understanding — but not necessarily computer-science degrees — to ship platform-level products. But questions are mounting: Can this new model of entrepreneurship scale beyond prototype success without deeper engineering muscle? The Rise Of Vibe Coding Two years ago, the phrase 'vibe coding' barely existed. Today, it's everywhere. The term — coined by Andrej Karpathy, former AI lead at Tesla and cofounder of OpenAI — describes writing with AI by simply speaking ideas. 'You fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that the code even exists,' Karpathy tweeted in February. It's shorthand for a new era, where programming is done through a natural language like English. According to Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, many startups now use AI to generate up to 95% of their codebase — achieving results that once required teams of 50 to 100 engineers with fewer than ten people. Meanwhile, in a recent article for Business Insider, Alistair Barr highlighted how 'non‑traditional, AI‑native developers' are turning natural language into apps, fundamentally altering SaaS economics. This shift is democratizing entrepreneurship. Product managers, artists, even high-schoolers can now ship products faster than ever before, all without technical expertise. But it also comes with some problems. As Nigel Douglas, head of developer relations at Cloudsmith, cautioned in the Financial Times, 'If you're creating an app in your spare time, a 'DIY disaster' might just mean an ugly interface. But in a business setting, the wrong tool can do real damage and result in data breaches, service outages, or a compromised software supply chain.' GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke echoed this warning at the just-concluded VivaTech in Paris: 'A non‑technical founder will find it difficult to build a startup at scale without developers,' adding that tools like vibe coding don't provide the depth needed to justify serious investment. Even AI-native founders acknowledge the model's limitations. 'There's a need to build technical depth. We know that's important and are expanding engineering operations and bringing on advisors,' said Edwin Wang, co-founder of Giggles. 'The future, however, must be a community-governed and decentralized future where there's a balance between creativity and coding.' When Creativity Replaces Code: The Giggles Test Case Giggles is a microcosm of this transformation. Jin, alongside co-founders Edwin Wang and music artist Matthew Hershoff, built a system where users are rewarded for digital expression through game-like interactions — including AI-generated videos, collectible content, and daily quests. The result was a storytelling-centric platform developed without a traditional coding team — a structure that reflects the emerging blueprint behind many Gen Z–led apps. Jin previously founded Mediababy, which sold for $3.8 million, according to Reuters. That experience, he said, shaped his belief that platforms thrive when they prioritize user expression and fluid engagement over rigid structure. At Giggles, that belief translated into a product anchored in prompt-driven creativity, gamified feedback loops, and community-led interaction. As Wang noted, the company positions itself not just as an alternative to TikTok, but as a platform tailored for a generation it believes is increasingly disengaged from traditional social formats. And according to Hershoff, 'creators aren't limited to just posting photos and videos. They can vibe code a game, develop an app, create a whole virtual world and post it on Giggles.' Can AI-First Startups Scale? For all the momentum behind AI-native startups, there's a hard truth facing founders like Jin: culture can spark attention, but infrastructure sustains it. Platforms like Giggles, which thrive on virality and creator energy, eventually confront the same foundational question as any company with ambition. Can they scale securely, reliably, repeatedly and with technical discipline? At this stage, Giggles is less an anomaly and more a litmus test for how AI is transforming digital entrepreneurship. It's a living experiment in what happens when creativity, not technical expertise, drives product development. But to evolve from prompt-powered outfits into structured business ecosystems, these companies will need more than just vibes. They will need systems, safeguards and engineering depth. That's where founders must reckon with the limits of what vibe coding can achieve. Dohmke's warning at VivaTech isn't a dismissal of AI's potential, but a reminder of where the handoff happens. While AI can accelerate the zero-to-one moment, scaling responsibly requires the engineering rigor to turn a clever idea into a truly dependable platform. Jin and his team appear to recognize that. While Giggles was built without a traditional engineering stack, the company is now investing in its technical foundation. Wang, the platform's co-founder and lead developer, acknowledges that 'scaling creativity still requires coding discipline.' That doesn't diminish their AI-first origin; it refines it. The next test for Giggles — and others like it — isn't whether AI can launch a product. It's whether that product can become the infrastructure others depend on. A Hybrid Future For Founders What might the next decade yield? The trends point at a wave of hybrid founders: People with vivid creative vision and AI fluency who bring in veteran operators and engineers to solidify their product. That's the emerging blueprint: rapid prototyping, followed by structural discipline. Industry stalwart Reid Hoffman sees that promise, noting that 'bringing AI into your toolkit makes you enormously attractive.' But he and others caution that early AI advantage doesn't equal long-term lead. As AI-generated code gets better, so too must practices around testing, review, and security. In the end, the rise of vibe coding is real, but it's only half the story. Architecture, execution and human judgment are what matters most. While Giggles, Base44 and the rising 'AI-native' wave might be writing the prologue, the plot turns on whether these founders can turn vibe into real structure. 'In the end,' Jin told me, 'it's not just about who can build fast. It's about who can build something that lasts.'
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Yankees are paying 3 players a combined $43.8 million to not play for them
The New York Yankees have always been known for having a lot of money. They may not be the richest franchise in baseball anymore, though. The New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers seem to be shelling out even more dough. But the Yankees have one financial flex going for them, if it can be called a flex. And it's this: They're currently paying three players a combined $43.8 million not to play for them. Those three guys are DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Hicks and Marcus Stroman. The number works out to $43,785,714, to be exact. MORE: Cubs' Matthew Boyd has mastered the balk pickoff move Baseball contracts, unlike many of those in other professional sports, are fully guaranteed upon signing. That means when the Yankees get rid of Hicks in the past, or LeMahieu and Stroman this season, they're still owed their money. Stroman was just released after his last start, a bit of a surprise move. And like Stroman, both Hicks and LeMahieu were better before getting their latest Yankees contracts than they were afterward. MORE: Red Sox leapfrog the Yankees in the standings for first time since March As a big-market club with deep pockets, the Yankees can afford to make mistakes in contracts every once in a while. It's still not ideal that these mistakes are costing more than $43 million to guys not currently wearing the pinstripes in any form. The $43 million might not come in handy now, but it could matter greatly down the line. That's very real money that the Yankees won't have from production they aren't getting anyway. MORE MLB NEWS: White Sox batters have turned into 1927 Yankees Steven Kwan shows kindness on the most stressful day of his MLB career Marlins' Jakob Marsee starts his MLB career in a way no one ever has Rockies' Warming Bernabel is red hot Oneil Cruz makes one of the best throws in MLB history Red Sox phenom Roman Anthony makes MLB history not done since Elmer Valo in 1940
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
European Penny Stocks To Watch In August 2025
Amidst a backdrop of trade uncertainties and economic challenges, the European markets have shown resilience, with the STOXX Europe 600 Index recently experiencing a dip due to mixed reactions to a U.S.-EU trade deal. As investors navigate these fluctuating conditions, attention often turns to smaller or newer companies that might offer untapped potential. Though 'penny stocks' may seem like an antiquated term, they continue to represent opportunities for growth at lower price points when backed by strong fundamentals and solid balance sheets. Top 10 Penny Stocks In Europe Name Share Price Market Cap Financial Health Rating Lucisano Media Group (BIT:LMG) €0.97 €14.41M ★★★★☆☆ Maps (BIT:MAPS) €3.43 €45.56M ★★★★★★ Angler Gaming (NGM:ANGL) SEK3.60 SEK269.95M ★★★★★★ Angler Gaming (DB:0QM) €0.37 €302.19M ★★★★★★ IAMBA Arad (BVB:FERO) RON0.48 RON16.71M ★★★★★★ Cellularline (BIT:CELL) €2.90 €61.17M ★★★★★☆ Fondia Oyj (HLSE:FONDIA) €4.90 €18.32M ★★★★★★ Bredband2 i Skandinavien (OM:BRE2) SEK3.265 SEK3.12B ★★★★☆☆ Deceuninck (ENXTBR:DECB) €2.16 €298.22M ★★★★★★ Netgem (ENXTPA:ALNTG) €0.95 €32.37M ★★★★★★ Click here to see the full list of 338 stocks from our European Penny Stocks screener. We'll examine a selection from our screener results. Biohit Oyj Simply Wall St Financial Health Rating: ★★★★★★ Overview: Biohit Oyj is a biotechnology company that produces and markets acetaldehyde-binding products, diagnostic tools, and systems for research institutions, healthcare, and industry globally with a market cap of €47.08 million. 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Transferator Simply Wall St Financial Health Rating: ★★★★☆☆ Overview: Transferator AB (publ) is a public private equity and venture capital firm with a market cap of approximately SEK165.86 million. Operations: The company generates revenue of SEK55.19 million from its operations in Sweden. Market Cap: SEK165.86M Transferator AB (publ), with a market cap of SEK165.86 million, operates in the private equity and venture capital sector, generating SEK55.19 million in revenue from its Swedish operations. Despite being unprofitable, it has reduced losses by 13.7% annually over the past five years. The company's debt is well-managed, as operating cash flow covers 132.2% of its debt obligations and cash exceeds total debt levels. However, interest payments are not covered by EBIT, indicating financial strain on profitability aspects. Trading significantly below estimated fair value suggests potential upside if profitability improves while maintaining high volatility levels typical for penny stocks. Take a closer look at Transferator's potential here in our financial health report. Gain insights into Transferator's historical outcomes by reviewing our past performance report. One More Level Simply Wall St Financial Health Rating: ★★★★★☆ Overview: One More Level S.A. is a Polish gaming company that develops video games for consoles and PCs, with a market cap of PLN90.88 million. Operations: The company generates revenue from its Computer Graphics segment, amounting to PLN20.35 million. Market Cap: PLN90.88M One More Level S.A., with a market cap of PLN90.88 million, has shown financial stability with short-term assets exceeding both its long-term and short-term liabilities. The company's debt is well-managed, as operating cash flow covers 87.6% of its obligations, and it holds more cash than total debt. Recently profitable, it boasts an impressive Return on Equity of 46.8%. Despite high non-cash earnings, the Price-To-Earnings ratio (12.5x) remains below the Polish market average, indicating potential value for investors seeking exposure in the gaming sector while maintaining stable weekly volatility over the past year. Get an in-depth perspective on One More Level's performance by reading our balance sheet health report here. Understand One More Level's track record by examining our performance history report. Seize The Opportunity Embark on your investment journey to our 338 European Penny Stocks selection here. Searching for a Fresh Perspective? Outshine the giants: these 20 early-stage AI stocks could fund your retirement. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include HLSE:BIOBV NGM:TRAN A and WSE:OML. This article was originally published by Simply Wall St. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@ Sign in to access your portfolio
