💥 From Yoga Mats to AI Servers—Tuesday’s Big Moves

Good Morning, it’s Tuesday! 🧘‍♀️ Brace yourself- we’ve got a packed edition today!

If Monday was a simmer, Tuesday’s a full-on boil 🍵—and not just your chai. The rupee slipped, the AI cloud wars escalated, and everyone from seafood startups to yoga mat makers got their funding namaste. Meanwhile, the EU is speed-dialing the US before tariffs hit harder than a Mumbai monsoon. Ready? Let's pour out today's Masala Chai 👇

☕ Chai Shots

• 💸 Mittal & Warburg Eye 49% of Haier India for $720M: Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal and PE firm Warburg Pincus have offered $720M for nearly half of Haier’s India arm, which had originally hoped for a $2B valuation. The Chinese appliance giant may also grant a 2% employee stake and consider an IPO within two years. Talks come amid concerns over hefty brand fees and royalty costs.

• 🧠 CoreWeave to buy Core Scientific for $9B: Once a crypto miner, CoreWeave is now turning bankrupt bitcoin data centers into AI infrastructure goldmines in an all-stock power play. More in the Big Brew 👇

• 📉 Retail F&O traders lost ₹1.06 lakh crore in FY25: Retail participation in futures & options led to massive losses, up 41% from last year. Nine out of ten retail investors lost money, with SEBI’s new trading rules introduced in Nov 2024 slightly denting volumes but not improving profitability.

• ⚖️ Jane Street Battles SEBI Over $550M Ban: Wall Street trading giant Jane Street is contesting SEBI’s claims that it manipulated Indian markets via Bank Nifty trades. SEBI has banned the firm and demanded it return $550M in alleged profits. Jane Street calls the charges “inflammatory” and says its trades were standard arbitrage. It has 21 days to appeal, as SEBI expands its probe.

📈 Market Masala

• 🪙 Sensex ends flat as tariff deadline looms: Amid volatility and investor nervousness, the BSE Sensex closed just 9.6 points higher at 83,442.50, while the Nifty ended unchanged at 25,461.30. Concerns over the July 9 tariff deadline kept market players on edge, limiting intraday movement.

• 💸 Foreign investors continue selling ahead of tariff impact: FIIs sold ₹760 crore worth of Indian equities on Friday, as fears of fresh trade barriers and a weakening rupee pushed foreign capital into safer assets.

• 🛍️ Festive Sales Fire Up Early: Retailers Push Deep Discounts To Revive Spending: With high inventories and last year’s underwhelming festive sales, brands are aiming for a strong July–September quarter to build momentum ahead of Diwali. Online platforms like Amazon and Myntra are stretching sale periods, while even snack brands like Haldiram’s are rolling out seasonal packs for festivals like Teej. Early signs of a recovery in consumer sentiment have retailers optimistic for a better festive run this year.

• 💰 JioBlackRock NFO Hits ₹17,800 Cr In Just 3 Days: JioBlackRock's debut mutual fund offering wrapped up with a bang—pulling in ₹17,800 crore across three short-term debt schemes. With this splashy entry, the joint venture between Reliance’s Jio Financial Services and global giant BlackRock now ranks among the top 15 debt fund managers in India.

• 🏢 India Post Plots A Real Estate & Logistics Makeover: India Post is shifting gears—from letters to logistics. Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia says the department will lease out its prime land across 1.6 lakh post offices and turn each division into its own profit-making business unit. With new services like Aadhaar, passport help, express delivery, and mutual fund distribution, India Post is aiming to plug its ₹15,000 crore deficit and become profitable within 5 years.

🌍 Global Masala

• 🇺🇸 Trump Tariff Tsunami: 25–40% Duties Slammed On 12 Nations: The US just dropped a trade bombshell—President Trump is slapping fresh tariffs ranging from 25% to 40% on 12 countries, including Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Myanmar, and Laos. While Japan and South Korea were hit with a 25% import tax, South Africa was dealt a 30% blow, and Myanmar and Laos got the steepest hike at 40%.

• 🌍 EU rushes to strike US deal to avoid tariffs: With only weeks before a steep 50% tariff hike on exports to the US, the EU is scrambling to secure a provisional trade agreement. Brussels is lobbying hard for relief on aircraft, wines, and car parts. A longer-term deal is still in flux, as Trump doubles down on domestic manufacturing and tax funding.

• 🚗 Tesla Sheds $68 Billion After Musk Announces Political Party: Elon Musk’s new political side quest rattled Tesla investors—again. The EV giant’s stock tanked nearly 7% on Monday, wiping out a whopping $68 billion in market value after Musk revealed plans to launch the “America Party.”

🍺 The Big Brew: CoreWeave Mines Crypto Sites to Power AI Surge

Cloud computing unicorn CoreWeave is diving into Bitcoin’s leftovers to fuel the future of AI. It just announced a $9 billion all-stock acquisition of bankrupt crypto miner Core Scientific, marking one of the boldest pivots in AI infra yet.

• 🏗️ From crypto bunkers to AI hubs: Core Scientific’s sites were built for mining BTC, but now they’ll become low-cost, high-power AI data centers—the real estate of the AI boom.

• 🧾 Deal details: Core Scientific shareholders will get 0.1235 CoreWeave shares per unit, valuing their stock at $20.40—a 66% premium, though the market wasn’t thrilled.

• 📉 Investors are jittery: Despite the big premium, Core Scientific shares dropped 22% and CoreWeave fell 4.5%, hinting at investor nervousness over tech integration and costs.

• 💼 Bankruptcy to buyout in 2 years: Core Scientific went under in 2022, emerged in 2024, then partnered with CoreWeave before getting acquired—a comeback worthy of a Netflix doc.

• 🔋 Power is the new data: The acquisition highlights a growing reality: AI growth is bottlenecked not by chips, but by electricity. Owning energy-hungry facilities is now a huge strategic advantage.

What does this mean?
Bitcoin may be passé, but its power-hungry legacy is now powering the AI race. Data centers built for crypto are finding new life as AI compute hubs, with CoreWeave leading the charge.

🚀 Startup Scoop

• 🧘‍♂️ WiseLife bags ₹8 crore from Rukam Capital: Fresh off Shark Tank India, the yoga and home fitness startup will now scale its eco-friendly mat and gear range, aiming to become India’s top yoga brand.

• 🔱 Divine Hindu secures ₹1.56 crore seed round: Founded by two brothers, the spiritual D2C startup offers certified puja kits and sacred items. It’s now expanding globally and onto all major ecom platforms.

• 🏢 Incuspaze acquires VSKOUT to target GCCs: The coworking player will use VSKOUT’s real estate analytics to power white-label data tools and smarter site selection for large enterprises.

• 🍫 Rebel Foods may exit chocolate brand Smoor: With Smoor underperforming and IPO prep underway, Rebel is eyeing a stake sale of its 57% holding while consolidating operations in Mumbai.

• 🌾 Khetika raises $18M for clean-label food: The Mumbai brand plans to take its preservative-free Indian staples global, and expand manufacturing to meet rising demand in US, Europe, and the Middle East.

• 🐟 Captain Fresh preps for IPO: The B2B seafood startup has gone public (on paper) and is eyeing a $350–400M raise at $1B+ valuation, after growing revenue 71% and trimming losses in FY24.

🔮 What’s Brewing Next

• ⏳ July 9: Trump tariff deadline arrives: The 90-day suspension ends tomorrow—India could face an extra 26% duty on goods entering the US, impacting everything from textiles to metals.

☀️ That’s all for today!

If AI’s stealing crypto’s power plants and yoga mats are bagging crores, one thing’s clear—India Inc is flexing in every direction. From devotional beads to GPU-hungry data farms, the week’s off to a head-spinning start.

Catch you tomorrow with another hot pour of Masala Chai. Till then, may your rupee be strong and your startups funded 🫖🇮🇳