Gas prices cross a familiar threshold

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**Kimberly Adams** (1:01)
Gas prices cross a familiar threshold.
From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. We're more than a week into renewed fighting between the US and Iran after the ceasefire collapsed. The escalation is starting to show up at the gas pump, sending prices up to more than $4 a gallon, according to AAA. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzler has the details.

**Nancy Marshall-Genzer** (1:23)
AAA says the national average price for a gallon of regular gas is now just over $4.
That's 13 cents a gallon more than we were paying last week. The average price a year ago was $3.14 a gallon. As the US continues air strikes on Iran, Iran has been attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming they're using unauthorized routes. Iran's Revolutionary Guard says no oil, gas, or fertilizer can go through the strait as long as the US attacks continue.
AAA says the price of diesel fuel is now above $5 a gallon. That's partly because Russia is banning exports of some of its refined products after Ukrainian strikes on its refineries. Russia is now trying to import diesel, adding to demand. I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.

**Kimberly Adams** (2:11)
Brent Crude is now trading at $88.38 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate Crude is at $82.33 a barrel.
Apple and Nvidia are neck and neck for the title of the world's most valuable company. Not because Apple is gaining in value, but because Nvidia stock is losing value. Investors have been selling off the chipmaker's shares amid a broader market rethink over how much artificial intelligence related companies should actually be worth. Marketplace's Nova Safo has more.

**Nova Safo** (2:41)
When Apple briefly overtook Nvidia on Friday as the world's most valuable company, Daniel Newman, CEO of the tech advisory firm, The Futurum Group, had a pithy response.

**Daniel Newman** (2:52)
I actually tweeted something out that just had one word and it said dumb.

**Nova Safo** (2:57)
Because he says while Apple will likely keep selling lots of iPhones and make lots of money, it's not anywhere close to what we expect Nvidia to do in the future years. Newman says what's happening in the markets now is that investors are growing a bit more cautious after two years of exuberance over AI.
Darren Asimoglu of MIT, who researches the economic underpinnings of the AI boom, says caution is warranted.

**Darren Acemoglu** (3:23)
The whole industry could have a shakeup.

**Nova Safo** (3:25)
A shakeup that would happen if profits, when and if they materialize, don't justify the enormous spending on AI, forecast at $2.5 trillion globally this year alone.

**Darren Acemoglu** (3:36)
I don't think anybody has come up with a reasonable scenario in which in two or three years' time, we're going to see trillion dollars of revenue.

**Nova Safo** (3:45)
Meanwhile, there are questions about whether big tech firms will keep spending massively to build data centers. Daniel Newman of the Futurum Group says earnings reports this week from Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and others will be key.

**Daniel Newman** (3:58)
Everybody's been waiting for who blinks. Is any of these hyperscalers going to say, we're not going to spend what we said we're going to spend?

**Nova Safo** (4:06)
If they say that, he says, that would likely spark a further sell-off in stocks related to the AI buildout. I'm Novasafo for Marketplace.
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