How Brightline is changing passenger rail in the U.S.

Published

2 years ago

August 4, 2023

admin

When it comes to passenger rail in the the U.S., Americans have one option — Amtrak, which is often plagued with high ticket prices and delays. But one Florida-based company is working on changing that. Brightline, which is owned by Fortress Investment Group, thinks that privatized passenger rail in the U.S. could be a better way.

Brightline opened a line from Miami to West Palm Beach in 2018. It was the first privately funded passenger rail built in the U.S. in over 100 years. It will open up an expansion line to Orlando in late August. The total project cost $6 billion, according to Brightline.

“When you look at all the city pairs that exist, the places around the country that would be attractive to you, Miami to Orlando jumps off the top of the page,” said Wes Edens, co-founder and principal of Fortress Investment Group and the mastermind behind Brightline. “It’s kind of a lousy drive between them. It’s this 230 mile trip between the two places with lots and lots of trouble in between.”

The company expects to transport 8 million people per year in Florida once it is fully operational.

“At those levels of ridership, we’re going to be a very profitable organization,” said Mike Reininger, CEO of Brightline.

Brightline is also making strides to create the first dedicated high-speed passenger rail line in the U.S. connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas. It’s hoping to break ground later this year.

“We are planning to make our project, as I call it, the blueprint for America’s high-speed rail industry. And so what that means is we are building in America, we are utilizing American union labor, and we’ll create about 35,000 construction related jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs that are localized within the region that we’re building in,” said Sarah Watterson, president of Brightline West.

Brightline is aiming to finish the line before the LA 2028 Olympics. The project is expected to cost $12 billion. It’s looking to cover about a third of the cost, $3.75 billion, with a federal grant requested in partnership with the Nevada Department of Transportation.

“It is possible for private companies to deliver high speed rail and also to do it well. It seems less possible on the basis of the evidence we have, which generally show that private companies also are not able to make high-speed rail financially viable. So there needs to be a subsidy somewhere,” said Bent Flyvbjerg, co-author of “How Big Things Get Done.”

Watch the video to learn more.

Technology

More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

Published

12 hours ago

October 24, 2025

admin

More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

“Supply constrained,” are the two of the most important words CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he’s heard so far during earnings season and explained why this dynamic is favorable for companies.

“When you’re supplied constrained, you have the ability to raise prices, and that’s the holy grail in any industry,” he said.

Intel‘s strong earnings results were in part because of more demand than supply, Cramer suggested. He noted that the company’s CFO, David Zinsner, said the semiconductor maker is supply constrained for a number of products, and that “industry supply has tightened materially.”

Along with Intel, other tech names that are also supply constrained and performing well on the market include Micron, AMD and Nvidia, Cramer continued.

These companies don’t have enough product in part because the storage needs of artificial intelligence are incredible high, Cramer said. He added that he thinks demand has overwhelmed supply because semiconductor capital equipment companies didn’t manufacture enough of their own machines as they simply didn’t anticipate such a volume of orders.

Outside of tech, Cramer said he thinks airplane maker Boeing and energy company GE Vernova are also supply constrained, adding that he thinks the former will say it’s short on most of its planes when it reports earnings next week. GE Vernova is supply constrained with its power equipment, like turbines that burn natural gas, he continued, which is the primary energy source for the ever-growing crop of data centers.

GE Vernova and Boeing are also set to be winners because they make big-ticket items that other countries can buy from the U.S. to help close the trade deficit, Cramer added.

“In the end, we have more demand than supply in a host of industries and that’s the ticket for good stock performance,” he said. “I don’t see that changing any time soon.”

Jim Cramer’s Guide to Investing

Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every move in the market.

Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club holds shares of Nvidia and GE Vernova.

Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

Want to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – Instagram

Questions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? madcap@cnbc.com

Technology

3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Published

17 hours ago

October 24, 2025

admin

3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Wall Street remains skeptical on Intel despite its return to profitability

Intel snapped a losing streak of six straight quarterly losses and returned to profitability in the third quarter.

In its first earnings report since the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company, the U.S. chipmaker posted strong revenue, noting robust demand for chips that it expects to continue into 2026.

Client computing revenue, which includes chips for PCs and laptops, grew 5% year over year, benefiting from PC market stabilization and artificial intelligence PC prospects.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a call with analysts Thursday that artificial intelligence “is a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth as we execute.”

The chip strength and demand were bright spots, but there were areas of concern as well, with the company’s foundry business still needing a big break.

Here are three takeaways from the chipmaker’s Q3 report:

Cash flow

“We significantly improved our cash position and liquidity in Q3, a key focus for me since becoming CEO in March,” Tan said on a call with analysts Thursday.

Intel landed an $8.9 billion investment from the U.S. government in August, along with $2 billion from Softbank, but has not yet received the $5 billion tied to a deal with Nvidia. The company expects that deal to close by the end of Q4.

With all of those transactions completed, plus the Altera sale, Intel will have $35 billion in cash on hand, CFO David Zinser told CNBC.

The U.S. government is the company’s biggest shareholder, and Intel stock is up more than 50% since Aug. 22, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the deal.

“Like any shareholder, we have to keep in touch with them,” Zinser said of the U.S. stake. “We don’t tell them how the numbers are going before the quarter. We generally talk to them like Fidelity,” another Intel shareholder.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

Intel 3-month stock chart.

Foundry

The firm’s foundry remains a work in progress.

Revenue fell 2% over the year before, and it has yet to land a major customer.

Intel now has two fabs running 18A nodes, which are designed for AI and high-performance computing applications.

“We are making steady progress on Intel 18A,” Tan said of its latest chip technology. “We are on track to bring Panther Lake to market this year.”

Zinser said the more advanced 14A nodes won’t be put in supply until the company has “real firm demand.”

Old stuff still selling

Zinser said the company’s older chipmaking processes, or nodes, have continued to do well, “and that was probably the part that was more unexpected.”

Zinser said the chipmaker met some of the central processing unit (CPU) demand with inventory on hand, but they will be behind in Q1, “probably Q2 and maybe in Q3.”

The supply crunch has been with older Intel 10 and 7 manufacturing technologies.

Many customers are opting for less advanced hardware to refresh their operating systems, demonstrating enterprises aren’t waiting for cutting-edge chips when proven technology gets the job done.