Yes, AI can improve your writing, analyze your data, help you determine strategy, or mock up designs for a new customer website. But it can also help your manufacturing run more smoothly, prevent defective products from leaving your facility, and figure out the most time and energy efficient ways to move goods. A recent study from Strategy& predicted that in the next three to five years, physical AI will transition from early pilots to scaled commercial development worldwide—and the global market for the technology will be worth nearly $500 billion by 2030.

I talked about physical AI in the enterprise, how it works and how to get started with HCLTech’s CTO Vijay Guntur. He works with companies worldwide to add physical AI features into their facilities to help improve efficiency, safety and cost. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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Employment was stronger than expected in May, according to BLS data released last week. The country added 172,000 nonfarm jobs last month, far exceeding expectations of 105,000. But fewer people are working than in years past. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3%. Data from ADP showed that small businesses drove the growth last month, as companies with 50 employees or fewer added 67,000 of those new jobs.

While these figures look great for the economy and job market, they translated to a bad day on Wall Street. On Friday, all of the major indexes fell more than 1%, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq falling more than 4%, because investors feared the positive job numbers will make the Federal Reserve less likely to lower baseline interest rates at its meeting next week. Tech stocks had an especially rough day because higher interest rates could mean higher prices for infrastructure investments. Analysis from TS Lombard last week put the expense of the AI buildout in perspective: The U.S. is expected to spend nearly 2% of its GDP on AI infrastructure this year—nearly all by private companies and investors.

Despite the wavering on Wall Street—not to mention sticky inflation and high energy prices due to the ongoing war with Iran—consumer spending remains strong. Last week at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said data from its research institute showed spending was up 5% in May compared to a year ago. Higher spending rates are especially coming from older generations, Moynihan said.

The (really) big day is almost here: SpaceX is set to make its IPO on Friday. Elon Musk’s space exploration, AI........

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