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Nintendo releases Switch 2 console: Here's what to know

Nintendo‘s flagship Switch 2, the successor to one of its most popular consoles, went on sale on Thursday with excitement and hype from fans leading to special store opening hours and shortages in some markets.

The Japanese gaming giant is hoping the console can help sustain a monster rally in its shares which have risen nearly five-fold since the original Switch was released in March 2017.

Nintendo is also hoping the Switch 2 can match the success of the original Switch, which has sold more than 152 million units and is the second-highest-selling device in the company’s history, behind the Nintendo DS.

And current demand looks strong, according to analysts.

“Today is the biggest console launch of all time, so as expected, there is a frenzy of Nintendo fans checking stock availabilities at their local stores or eagerly awaiting deliveries,” George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at advisory firm Omdia, told CNBC by email.

The Switch’s popularity is widely credited to its innovative portable design, which merged consoles with mobile gaming. People could play the game on their TV, then attach the controllers to the console’s display and take it with them.

Shortages and late store openings

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said in April that 2.2 million people in Japan had entered the lottery to purchase the Switch 2 on launch day.

Furukawa said it was “beyond” Nintendo’s expectations and is more than the company will be able to deliver to stores on Thursday.

The shortages in Japan are expected to persist.

“Demand in Japan for Switch 2 is sky high actually, perhaps higher than anywhere else,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games, told CNBC.

“You cannot walk into a store anywhere in Japan to pick up a Switch 2 without a pre-order, and this will not change over the next weeks and months.”

In China, major online retailer JD.com said it had received 400,000 reservations for the console which began shipping on Thursday. Not everyone who reserves a console will end up purchasing one.

In the U.S., Best Buy opened some stores across the country at midnight on Thursday (or late Wednesday depending on the time zone) for in-store purchases. Walmart said it was opening orders at midnight ET online as well as in-store at Supercenters at 6 a.m. ET. Walmart’s website currently shows the console as sold out.

In the U.K., there appears to be more availability. Amazon’s U.K. page shows the Switch 2 available for delivery on Friday. Other retailers, like Currys and toy store Smyth’s, also appear to have it in stock.

“Given the pent-up demand, a launch day sell-outs were inevitable. However, we believe Nintendo is well prepared and expect supply to stabilize in the weeks that follow,” Omdia’s Jijiashvili said.

Last month, Nintendo said it expects to sell 15 million units of the Switch 2 console in the fiscal year ending March 2026. However, analysts have said that is conservative.

Kantan Games’ Toto said he is forecasting sales of 20 million units in the first year. Omdia said it is expecting sales of 14.4 million Switch 2 consoles in 2025 alone, which would be ahead of the original Switch’s debut year.

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Spotify founder Daniel Ek stepping down as CEO, company names co-CEOs to replace him

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Spotify founder Daniel Ek stepping down as CEO, company names co-CEOs to replace him

Daniel Ek, founder and chief executive officer of Spotify, attends the Cannes Lions 2016 on June 22, 2016 in Cannes, France. 

Antoine Antoniol | Getty Images

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek will step down from his position and move to the role of executive chairman, the company said Tuesday.

Spotify shares dipped around 4% following the announcement.

Ek, who co-founded the streaming platform in 2006, will be replaced by current co-presidents and longtime executives Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström as co-CEOs, the company said in a release. The transition will happen Jan. 1, 2026.

“Over the last few years, I’ve turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustav–who have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase,” Ek said in a release. “This change simply matches titles to how we already operate.”

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Ek, who has been a member of the board since 2008, said his new role will focus on steering the company’s long-term strategy and providing support to its senior team.

“It’s been an honor of a lifetime for me to be able to lead Spotify for close to 20 years,” Ek said in an X post.

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Spotify year-to-date stock chart.

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Ring founder ‘backs the blue,’ says AI is helping Amazon-owned doorbell unit fight crime

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Ring founder 'backs the blue,' says AI is helping Amazon-owned doorbell unit fight crime

Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff

Courtesy of Ring | Brandon Friend-Solis

In 2023, Jamie Siminoff called up Amazon‘s former devices boss, Dave Limp, to say he was stepping down from leading the video doorbell company he sold to the e-commerce giant for $839 million in 2018.

Siminoff, who started Ring in 2013, said Limp and Amazon offered him the opportunity to work elsewhere at the company, but he declined.

“I said, ‘I think I have to leave,'” Siminoff recalled in an interview on Monday. “I don’t think I can be half in. I’m either all in or I’m all out.”

He wasn’t gone for long.

In April, Siminoff announced his return to Ring, replacing Liz Hamren, a former Microsoft and Discord executive whom Amazon had hired to succeed him. Now that he’s back at the helm, Siminoff says he’s restoring Ring’s original mission, to “make neighborhoods safer.”

And now his team has even more artificial intelligence technology at its disposal to supercharge those efforts.

Siminoff took the stage Tuesday at Amazon’s annual hardware event in New York to debut new Ring cameras, along with a feature called Search Party that uses AI to identify potential matches in camera footage. It’s aimed at “reuniting lost dogs” with their families, but Siminoff said there could be other applications in the future.

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During Hamren’s two-year tenure, Ring moved to adopt a softer, more whimsical image marked by silly videos of backyard animal encounters and family-friendly hijinks. It also removed a tool widely criticized by civil liberties and privacy advocates that let police request doorbell footage from users in its neighborhood watch app.

Siminoff, 48, said Ring’s cameras have many uses, including keeping an eye on pets and loved ones. Siminoff is based in Los Angeles and has two dogs, a Belgian Malinois and a Chihuahua.

“I’m focused on: How can I get the highest density of camera coverage in a neighborhood matched with AI to make neighborhoods safer?” he said. “It’s not just hard crime.”

Ring is part of Amazon’s vast devices and services division, which is overseen by Panos Panay, a former Microsoft hardware leader who joined the company in 2023. Beyond Ring, the unit spans Amazon’s Zoox robotaxis, Kindle e-readers, Echo devices and Kuiper, the company’s internet satellite service.

Ring’s security cameras typically start at $50 and range in price depending on coverage. Users can also pay up to $20 a month for its subscription service that lets them continuously record and access more cloud storage, among other features.

‘It was terrible’

Siminoff said a personal encounter with violence played a part in his return.

Several months earlier, Siminoff said he witnessed a shooting at a laundromat in South Central Los Angeles that left him feeling shaken.

“It was terrible,” Siminoff said through tears. “Kids are crying, it’s a whole f****** scene.”

Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff unsuccessfully pitched his company on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2013 before returning to the show as a guest judge.

Eric McCandless | Contributor | Getty Images

The incident reaffirmed his belief in Ring’s mission and its potential to aid law enforcement officers when they “don’t have time to go door to door,” he said.

Those relationships with police have been controversial over the years.

Amazon claimed a Los Angeles Police Department pilot program in 2015 found that Ring’s doorbells reduced burglaries in neighborhoods “by as much as 55%,” according to a 2018 release. But reports from several outlets have disputed whether Ring cameras lead to a decrease in crime.

Privacy advocates have expressed concern that the company’s cameras and accompanying Neighbors app have heightened the risk of racial profiling and turned residents into informants, with few guardrails around how law enforcement can use the material.

Siminoff, who said he’s “pro public safety” and “backs the blue,” said he felt some of the coverage of Ring’s video-request feature for police was unfair or inaccurate.

“That’s the stuff that irks me,” Siminoff said, referring to the claim that Ring gives camera access to police.

“We allow them to request footage from people in a super privacy centric, anonymous way that keeps their privacy. But that’s not a good headline,” he added.

Devin Hance | CNBC

A few weeks after Siminoff’s return, Ring reintroduced its community request tool through a partnership with Axon Enterprise, the maker of Tasers and police body cameras. Police can solicit footage from Ring cameras through Axon’s online evidence management system, and users can choose whether or not to share it.

“I don’t think we should be working directly with police,” Siminoff said. “It’s not the business we’re in in any way.”

Siminoff said Ring, which is profitable, is exploring other potential growth areas, such as security solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Ring isn’t currently exploring offering up its tech to a more homegrown customer — its sprawling parent company. At least when it comes to sticking its cameras in Amazon delivery vans or warehouses.

Siminoff has considered it, but “then you realize it’s just a distraction,” he said. “Amazon’s so big you could probably do something for everything.”

WATCH: Amazon comments on $2.5 billion settlement with FTC

Amazon comments on $2.5 billion settlement with FTC

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Firefly Aerospace stock tanks 24% after test rocket explosion

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Firefly Aerospace stock tanks 24% after test rocket explosion

A model of the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander during the company’s initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Firefly Aerospace shares sank more than 24% after its rocket exploded during a test flight on Monday.

The explosion occurred during a first-stage test flight of satellite-launching Alpha Flight 7 rocket at its facility in Briggs, Texas, Firefly wrote in an update.

“Proper safety protocols were followed, and all personnel are safe,” Firefly wrote. “The company is assessing the impact to its stage test stand, and no other facilities were impacted.”

The eight-year-old space technology company competes in an increasingly crowded space dominated by billionaire-backed ventures such as Elon Musk‘s SpaceX for deals with NASA and prominent government contractors.

Appetite is strong. Over the years, Firefly has partnered with NASA, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris Technologies. It recently won a $177 million contract with NASA and a $50 million investment from Northrop Grumman.

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At the time of its initial public offering last month, Firefly was the third significant space technology to debut in 2025 after Voyager Technologies and Karman Holdings.

High investor interest led to an upsized offering, with an initial share sale raising $868 million at a $6.3 billion valuation. Shares surged 34% on opening day to close at more than $60. The stock has since pulled back 50%.

“It’s all about execution,” CEO Jason Kim told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on IPO day.

He said the company is laser-focused on its Alpha rockets to meet heightened commercial and national security demands.

Firefly makes rockets, space tugs and lunar landers. Earlier this year, its Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully landed on the moon.

Rocket tests in the sector, historically, haven’t always been a smooth ride. Firefly’s sixth Alpha rocket failed in April. Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared Firefly to continue testing its Alpha rockets. SpaceX has also suffered mishaps, including a launch pad explosion this summer.

“We learn from each test to improve our designs and build a more reliable system,” Firefly wrote in its mission update.

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Firefly 1 month stock chart.

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