How Fords $19B Loss Became An AI Win [Tx01d45aCYy]
Ford just had its best two-day stretch on the stock market in six years, surging nearly 25% after the 123-year-old car company quietly announced it's now an energy company. The pivot turns a $19.5 billion EV write-down — three cancelled models and the killed-off F-150 Lightning — into a brand-new battery business that Morgan Stanley just pegged at $10 billion in enterprise value. Ford's new customer isn't a frugal Michigan car-buyer; it's a trillion-dollar tech company powering AI data centers. We break down how Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the AI infrastructure boom, and a shuttered EV plant in Kentucky combined to make Ford Wall Street's unlikeliest energy bet of 2026. Then: Burberry just posted comparable sales growth for the first time in two years, and the hero of the comeback isn't the $3,000 trench coat — it's the $300 scarf. The CEO said the word "scarf" 10 times on the earnings call, and Burberry has rolled out more than 200 "scarf bars" — wine-tasting-style stations in airports, department stores, and surprise pop-ups where you customize a cashmere scarf in front of you, monogram and all. Vogue just declared the silk scarf the official "Fashion Girl Summer Essential," and Burberry scarf sales are up double digits last quarter. We explain the strategy Burberry is running on its own product lineup — and which other brands, from Shake Shack to Apple, are quietly running the same playbook this summer. And: Trump just wrapped his first trip to China since 2017, with Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and Jensen Huang on Air Force One — over $10 trillion in market cap, half the S&P 500, all 35,000 feet above the ground. The headline deals: 200 Boeing jets (less than half what Wall Street expected, sending BA stock down 4%), a re-opened US beef trade after a year-long standoff, and a Chinese commitment to start buying American oil again. But by the afternoon, China had quietly slashed the number of approved US ranches from 600 to 200. We ran the numbers on what China actually committed to versus what Trump announced — and the answer flips the standard read on who's really got the leverage in the world's biggest trade relationship. CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:42 - Ford Stock Surges 25% On New Ford Energy Battery Business 05:19 - Burberry's Q2 Comeback: How 200 Scarf Bars Drove The Turnaround 09:06 - Trump's Beijing Summit With Musk, Cook, And Huang 13:16 - Takeaways 13:53 - Other Market and Business News 14:58 - The Best Fact Yet Buy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAY Austin, TX (2/25): SOLD OUT Arlington, VA (3/11): New York, NY (4/8): Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUT Get your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: NEWSLETTER: OUR 2ND SHOW: Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: NEW LISTENERS Fill out our 2 minute survey: GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: SOCIALS: Instagram: TikTok: YouTube: Linkedin (Nick): Linkedin (Jack): Anything else: About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.