The US military stated that it will continue its maritime blockade of Iran, and has altered the routes of 44 merchant ships.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted a statement clarifying that his earlier "Never Sell Your Bitcoin" stance was shared with other Bitcoin holders in his capacity as an individual investor. Saylor said he has never sold any Bitcoin, "not even a single satoshi". He emphasized that Strategy is a public company, not a personal wallet, and has publicly disclosed since 2020 that it may buy or sell BTC for capital management purposes. Saylor noted that Strategy and its investors’ long-term conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged, adding that the company’s related operations are part of its corporate financial strategy, while his personal stance on holding Bitcoin stays consistent. Previously, the market had been monitoring whether Strategy would adjust its Bitcoin holding strategy; Saylor’s latest remarks aim to clearly distinguish between personal Bitcoin holding behavior and public company asset management decisions.

Amazon (AMZN.O)’s cloud unit head said clients are shifting from using its services to train AI models to integrating these models into their own business processes, a trend driving surging demand for inference computing. Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon’s Cloud Computing Division, said on Monday: “We still see some companies using large training clusters, but as these models grow more popular and powerful, more firms are integrating this inference capability into their own workloads.” He noted that the potential of the AI business is “extremely huge,” adding that the company will continue to increase capital expenditure to meet growing demand. As the world’s largest provider of computing power and data rental services, Amazon said last week it projects capital expenditure will reach $220 billion in 2026, up from its prior forecast of $200 billion. The spending hike reflects rising prices of storage chips and other components required for data centers.

According to U.S. network CBS, citing a U.S. official, despite Trump’s earlier announcement that negotiations with Iran would begin Monday afternoon (local time), no new talks are currently scheduled. Instead, ongoing discussions are underway between U.S. Middle East envoy Witkoff, Kushner, and the U.S. negotiating team and Iran via intermediaries.

In July’s crypto asset ETF fund flows, Ethereum (ETH) ETFs emerged as the biggest winner, posting a single-month net inflow of $365 million. Data shows Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs saw a net inflow of $172.43 million in July; Solana (SOL) ETFs had a net inflow of $14.62 million; XRP ETFs $27.29 million; Chainlink (LINK) ETFs $4.54 million; HBAR ETFs $3 million; and LTC ETFs $30,400. By contrast, HYPE-related ETFs were the only products to register a net outflow, with a July net outflow of $15.16 million. Overall, institutional capital allocations in July clearly favored the Ethereum ecosystem, as ETH ETFs attracted more funds than BTC ETFs, indicating sustained growing market demand for Ethereum-related assets.

According to market data from Bit (Bit.com), the Nasdaq’s gain widened to 2%, the S&P 500 rose 1.3%, and the Dow rose 1%. Oracle (ORCL.N) climbed 7.3%, Google (GOOG.O) gained over 5%, Amazon (AMZN.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) rose over 4%, Tesla (TSLA.O) increased 3.8%, and Nvidia (NVDA.O) gained 3.2%.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the wave of AI infrastructure development will not only drive growth in the software sector, but also create numerous high-paying technical jobs that do not require a college degree. Speaking in a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Huang noted that the world is undertaking "the largest infrastructure build in human history," with large-scale construction of AI data centers, semiconductor factories, and AI facilities set to generate massive employment opportunities. He pointed out that future high-paying roles will not only include software engineers and computer scientists, but also electricians, plumbers, steelworkers, and data center construction and maintenance personnel. "You don’t need a computer science PhD to earn a good income," he said. Global tech firms are projected to invest around $7 trillion in AI infrastructure by the end of this decade. As data centers and semiconductor facilities expand rapidly, demand for skilled industrial workers is rising steadily. McKinsey data shows that between 2023 and 2030, the U.S. will need an additional roughly 130,000 trained electricians, 240,000 construction workers, and 150,000 construction supervisors to meet infrastructure build requirements. Meanwhile, the impact of AI on traditional white-collar job markets has drawn attention. Ford CEO Jim Farley noted that AI is reducing demand for entry-level roles at tech companies, but the U.S. manufacturing and construction sectors still face severe labor shortages. Farley added that the U.S. is currently grappling with a major shortage of factory and construction workers, and future AI-driven reshoring of manufacturing and infrastructure investments will require more skilled industrial talent. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has previously emphasized that skilled technical workers like electricians are critical for building and operating large AI data centers.