Apple’s ultrathin iPhone impresses fans but not investors

2 hours ago 1

Good morning.

Hello. It’s Jeremy here. First up, I want to wish Andrew, who normally writes this newsletter, a big congratulations on the birth of his new baby boy, who made his world debut yesterday!

Andrew had to leave Fortune Brainstorm Tech early to greet his new arrival, but let’s catch him and you up on a few things he missed. Here were some highlights from yesterday:

Walmart CEO John Furner told Fortune’s Phil Wahba that he expects staffing levels at the retail giant to remain steady, despite the deployment of lots of AI throughout its operations.
The CEO of electric vehicle maker Slate, Chris Barman, tried to see the silver lining of the elimination of EV tax credits in the U.S., telling the conference that it has opened capacity among suppliers, potentially helping Slate source better and better-priced components, such as batteries. (Lipstick on a pig, anyone?)
And former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr. discussed the impact chess, of all things, has had on his life and why he decided to become an investor in chess.com.

And don’t forget that you can watch the livestream of the conference’s final day here.

Apple’s big “awe-dropping” hardware show yesterday ended up being more like a “meh dropping” (doesn’t quite have the same ring to it), at least as far as the company’s investors were concerned. The stock drifted lower in after-hours trading.

While the new iPhone Air is impressively svelte and got phone aficionados talking, many of the other announcements—updated Apple watches, new AirPods—were more niche and unlikely to alter perceptions that the company has lost some of its former mojo. Fortune’s Dave Smith has a breakdown of the announcements below.

Today, the tech world is eagerly awaiting another sort of debut—fintech Klarna’s IPO on the NYSE. The Swedish buy-now-pay-later financing firm is expected to price its shares at $40, valuing the company at about $15 billion. That will earn a nice 6x return for venture capital firm Sequoia, which invested about $500 million in Klarna starting back in 2010, according to a story in The Information. But it’s a lot less than the $46 billion valuation the company achieved in a Softbank-led round in 2021 (a round that Sequoia pointedly did not participate in.) We’ll see how much the stock pops today on opening. Beatrice Nolan has more on Klarna in the news section below.

Before we go, be sure to check out Leo Schwarz’s great profile piece on Ramp, the fast-growing fintech that is automating how corporate finance departments work.

And also worth a read is Sharon Goldman’s feature on Cohere, the Canadian AI company that many considered an also-ran in the AI race but which is making a bid for renewed relevancy with a big hire from Meta, a new CFO, and a $7 billion valuation.

Onwards…

—Jeremy Kahn