Technology stocks were volatile on Monday as strengthening AI optimism following bullish Nvidia (NVDA) earnings last week clashed with increased odds of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in September. Rate-sensitive growth stocks like technology names tend to suffer when borrowing costs rise, since higher rates can weigh on valuations and increase the cost of the heavy capital spending that AI infrastructure demands.

The day carried particular significance for one company: Apple (AAPL). Longtime CEO Tim Cook steps down on Sept. 1 and will hand the reins to senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus. It is only the third CEO transition in Apple's history, following Steve Jobs's return in 1997 and Cook's own elevation in 2011, and it comes as the company works to establish itself in AI — an area where rivals such as Google and Microsoft have moved aggressively.

Cook was widely seen as a savvy operator who navigated the company through tariffs, supply chain snarls, and the launch of new products such as the Apple Watch and AirPods. He also quadrupled Apple's yearly revenue.

Elsewhere in tech, results were mixed. Semiconductor stocks edged higher on the whole, while software stocks wavered after a big week of decisively strong earnings. Several of the "Magnificent Seven" hyperscaler stocks dropped as concerns about higher borrowing costs and capital expenditures weighed on shares. The capital expenditure concerns reflect the tens of billions of dollars that major cloud providers have committed to data center construction this year.

Apple Stock Falls on Tim Cook's Last Day as CEO

Apple (AAPL) stock declined 1.5% in early trading on Monday as the iPhone maker transitioned to a new leader for the first time in 15 years. It was Cook's last day in the role before handing over to Ternus, a longtime hardware executive who has overseen engineering across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines.

Cook's tenure was notably positive for Apple investors: he grew the company's market value from $350 billion in 2011 to more than $4 trillion today.

Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley reported on the succession plan and Cook's legacy. Cook will stay on at Apple as its executive chair and "assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world," the company said in a statement.

During his time as CEO, Cook oversaw the launch of a variety of new products, including the Apple Watch, AirPods, and, more recently, the MacBook Neo. He was also instrumental in increasing Apple's Services segment revenue to more than $100 billion, the company's second-largest business behind the iPhone.

Steve Jobs hired Cook in 1998 and promoted him to executive vice president of worldwide sales in 2002 before appointing him COO in 2005. Cook took over as CEO from Jobs in 2011.

Tim Cook Shares Farewell Message on Last Day as Apple CEO

Cook sent a message to Apple employees, investors, and fans as he exited the top role at the iPhone maker. In it, he evoked the visionary ethos of Apple's founder Steve Jobs, urging employees to "leave our 'dent in the universe.'"

"We have both the opportunity and the responsibility to leave the world better than we found it," Cook wrote in a heartfelt message. "That purpose is part of what makes this place extraordinary."

Cook also shared a message of gratitude on X: "Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I'm excited for the next chapter!"

Nvidia to Invest $3.5 Billion in Taiwanese Chipmaker MediaTek

Nvidia (NVDA) agreed to invest $3.5 billion in Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek, according to a statement Monday morning, deepening Nvidia's already large web of investments across the AI ecosystem. MediaTek, one of the world's largest suppliers of smartphone and edge-device chips, has worked with Nvidia on automotive computing in recent years, and the new deal extends that collaboration deeper into data center AI.

"NVIDIA and MediaTek today announced a deepening of their longstanding collaboration to build the next generations of AI computing platforms — spanning AI infrastructure, local AI computing and automotive," the companies said in a joint statement, noting the combination will pair Nvidia's computing platforms with MediaTek's chip design capabilities. Nvidia shares trended up roughly 1% on Monday morning.

The deal broadens an existing partnership between the two companies. Under the investment, MediaTek will use Nvidia's NVLink Fusion technology, which functions as connective tissue allowing customers to plug their own chips into Nvidia's underlying data center architecture.

NVLink Fusion will allow MediaTek to "provide hyperscalers, cloud service providers and frontier model developers with a prevalidated path to develop custom XPUs and bring them into NVIDIA NVLink™-connected, rack-scale AI factories," the companies said.

The investment adds to the billions of dollars Jensen Huang's company has deployed across the AI ecosystem, as Nvidia increasingly positions its technology as the base architecture for the AI build-out, moving toward a future in which the entire AI ecosystem runs on Nvidia systems.

"The part that people don't see about our growth because we're practically singular because of the nature of how we deliver products. I mean we're the only company in the world that creates and builds, offers an entire AI factory platform, a full-stack system," Huang said on the company's second-quarter earnings call.

'Let Data Reign': Trump Champions Data Center Build-Out Amid Growing Backlash

President Trump threw his support behind the data center build-out on Monday, framing the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence as a matter of economic and national security.

"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump said in a social media post. "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign."

Trump called the US artificial intelligence lead "the Golden Goose" that every country wants, adding: "China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement."

His comments appeared aimed directly at the communities that could block Big Tech's ambitions, as a swiftly growing backlash against data center construction has taken hold in the US and some states have begun issuing moratoriums to slow new construction. That has led some strategists to note that the biggest bottleneck in the AI build-out may not be securing enough high-powered chips or energy to run the data centers — it could be the public's permission.

In the lead-up to the midterm elections, the politics of data centers has grown thornier, with supporters pointing to AI as the next engine of economic growth while critics raise concerns about rising energy bills and a general mistrust of Silicon Valley. Local opposition has increasingly centered on the enormous electricity and water demands of the facilities, which often compete with residents and other industries for grid capacity.

SpaceX Stock in Focus as OpenAI Ends Cursor Access to AI Models

SpaceX (SPCX) stock was in focus on Monday after news over the weekend concerning its AI coding tool Cursor and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT).

OpenAI said late Friday evening that Cursor would no longer be allowed access to its AI models. SpaceX closed its acquisition of Cursor earlier this month in a $60 billion deal. The decision is the latest flashpoint in the long-running rivalry between Elon Musk and OpenAI, which Musk co-founded in 2015 before departing and later suing the company.

"We notified SpaceX that we intend to wind down our contract providing OpenAI models to Cursor, with a proposed shutoff date of November 12, 2026," OpenAI said. "We are making this choice because we cannot be confident that SpaceX will use our technology within our terms of service, based on our experience with Elon Musk's companies violating contracts."

Despite the decision, SpaceX stock was higher in early trading. The episode also highlights a broader question in the AI industry: as coding assistants like Cursor become central tools for software developers, access to frontier models from providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic has become a strategic dependency for the companies that build on top of them.

Source: Yahoo Finance