After slamming the brakes on its EV push, Ford is charting a new route back to the electrified future.

This week, the Detroit automaker formally announced Ford Energy, a subsidiary that’s repurposing its EV battery-making infrastructure to supply large-scale energy storage systems for utilities, large industrial and commercial customers, and, of course, AI data centers. When in doubt, drive toward the hyperscalers …

Powering Up

The energy unit has been in the works for a long time, and Morgan Stanley analysts flagged its launch as the potential starting point for a $10 billion business. Of particular note, they said, is Ford’s license to use technology from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a.k.a. CATL, the Chinese behemoth that is the Nvidia of battery tech. In fact, Ford has almost finished building its $3 billion “BlueOval” battery manufacturing plant in Marshall, Michigan, despite pushback in Washington over its China ties. Another facility in Kentucky is pivoting from EVs to storage battery units. Morgan Stanley has called access to CATL technology an “underappreciated strategic competitive advantage” for Ford Energy and projected the unit would sign supply agreements with major customers in the coming months. Shares climbed 6.7% on Thursday as Ford reiterated plans to plow $2 billion into the unit, re-energizing investors after its EV strategy flopped:

• In December, the company said it would record a $19.5 billion writedown of its EV business. It canceled a line of EV trucks amid a broader pullback due to lackluster US demand and said it would double down on good ol’ combustion-engine cars.
• That was all before the energy shock from the Iran War prompted drivers to rethink their dependence on oil and gas. Global registrations of EVs rose for the second straight month in April, consultant Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said this week. They dipped 28% in North America, however, reflecting the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit that was still in effect last spring.

Highway Diplomacy: Speaking of international relations, Ford’s CATL partnership may be a sign that Beijing’s presence in America’s auto scene will expand, if politics doesn’t get in the way. During a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in January, President Trump said it was time to “let China come in” and build auto factories that employ US workers, though he later walked back the sentiment. More recently, a bipartisan bill has been introduced to restrict certain Chinese vehicles, software and hardware from entering the US market, though some see such restrictions as self-defeating. “The only way international carmakers can compete with the Chinese carmakers is to collaborate with the Chinese suppliers,” Morgan Stanley’s Tim Hsiao recently told the South China Morning Post. Not for nothing, Detroit’s Big Three was not invited to tag along on the president’s Beijing trip this week.

Austin-based Austin-based biotechnology company Natera was valued at roughly $28.4 billion as of Thursday, more even than the $21.5 billion market cap of gene-sequencing firm Illumina, whose technology underpins much of the measurable residual disease (MRD) sector Natera dominates.

There’s a reason for that. MRD technology, which has the potential to revolutionize treatments for recurring cancers, could be poised for explosive growth, even if it has captured only 6% of a $20 billion US market, according to a Leerink Partners analyst cited by The Wall Street Journal.

Up to the Test

Natera’s flagship product, Signatera, is a personalized MRD blood test that spots recurring cancer by identifying the unique DNA mutations of a patient’s tumor after it’s removed. The tumor DNA can then be detected in the blood, allowing MRD tests to deliver incredible accuracy and specificity months (or even up to two years) earlier than traditional CT, PET or MRI scans. That gives oncologists a big head start in treating patients who need it.

While MRD’s share of the testing market is small, Natera is rapidly advancing toward commercialization. In February, the company applied for FDA approval for Signatera in the relatively small bladder cancer testing market. That would take it beyond a laboratory-developed test analyzed only in specialized facilities and put it on the road to further revenue growth. That may have caught the eye of one of Wall Street’s most famed investors:

• Earlier this week, stock-picking luminary Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest, which has long viewed disruptive biotech as a key growth opportunity, bought roughly $4.1 million worth of Natera shares across two funds, taking its holdings to about $124 million. Ark also trimmed its position in synthetic DNA company Twist Bioscience, cashing in on stock gains of more than 70% in the past year.
• Wood could see a similar opportunity for Natera, which reported earlier this month that revenue jumped 39% in the first quarter to $696 million; executives project total revenue will reach $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion this year. Natera shares, which have lost some of their value in 2026, are still up 30% over the past 12 months.

More Rather Than Less: While Natera has a virtual monopoly on MRD testing at the moment, competition looms. Rival Guardant Health has its own laboratory-developed test, called Guardant Reveal, that performed well in a study earlier this year. And Swiss pharma giant Roche announced a deal to acquire SAGA Diagnostics last month.

In the third decade of the 21st century, “30 minutes or less” goes way beyond pizza.

Amazon launched a 30-minute delivery service dubbed Amazon Now that provides “fresh groceries, household essentials and locally relevant items” in select markets this week, the e-commerce giant said in a statement. The move comes as fierce rival Walmart scours the nation for vacant storefronts to use as its own rapid-delivery hubs, according to a Financial Times report.

Tough Turf

In fact, Walmart has been expanding its hub footprint for some time now. Public filings show the big box behemoth has already opened delivery hub locations, dubbed Walmart Depots, in New Jersey, Dallas and Arkansas; the FT’s reporting revealed it’s exploring more locations everywhere from New York City to Florida and the Pacific Northwest.

Amazon, for its part, launched Amazon Now in Atlanta, Dallas–Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Seattle, with plans for a “rapid expansion” to dozens more US cities this summer. With the moves, both companies are attempting to encroach on each other’s territories:

• For Walmart, the rapid-delivery push is part of a broader effort to rapidly scale its e-commerce game and compete with Amazon. Last year, the company booked about $124 billion in e-commerce revenue; that’s up 24% year-over-year, but still pales in comparison with Amazon’s $588 billion in annual revenue, excluding web services.
• On the other hand, Walmart’s grocery business still wallops Amazon’s, though Amazon said in January that perishable grocery sales through its same-day delivery service grew 40 times over the past year.

In a Hurry: While Walmart’s existing network of 4,600 mainline stores has already provided a bedrock for run-of-the-mill same-day delivery, the Walmart Depots aim to solve a hidden problem: regular Walmarts are massive, and an army of delivery couriers has to navigate the roving bodies of regular customers. The much smaller and closed-to-the-public Depot locations allow delivery drivers to get in and out with much less fuss. Sounds to us like it may be time to revive “Supermarket Sweep.”