#supply-chain

#supply-chain

It happens to avid fast food fans everywhere: You're scrolling through Instagram or TikTok and see a mouthwatering burger, sandwich, or dessert that looks too good to be real - only to find out it's not sold anywhere near you. A consistent menu or locations that you can find almost anywhere are some of fast food's main appeals. Regardless of whether a chain is regional or national, some of the most-loved food items on menus are tied to specific regions.

Apple's iPhone Air was the company's most interesting new iPhone this year, at least insofar as it was the one most different from previous iPhones. A note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, whose supply chain sources are often accurate about Apple's future plans, said yesterday that demand for the iPhone Air "has fallen short of expectations" and that "both shipments and production capacity" were being scaled back to account for the lower-than-expected demand.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new supply chain attack targeting the NuGet package manager with malicious typosquats of Nethereum, a popular Ethereum .NET integration platform, to steal victims' cryptocurrency wallet keys. The package, Netherеum.All, has been found to harbor functionality to decode a command-and-control (C2) endpoint and exfiltrate mnemonic phrases, private keys, and keystore data, according to security company Socket.

The components found in downed Russian drones and cruise and ballistic missiles range from microcomputers and sensors to switching connectors and converters. Ukraine says they're coming from the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan. Some of these nations are among Kyiv's closest partners. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over 100,000 foreign-made parts were found among the 550 Russian drones and missiles used in a large-scale bombardment, underscoring the scale of the problem.

German Minister for Digital Affairs Karsten Wildberger emphasizes that Europe's call for digital sovereignty should not be confused with protectionism. According to him, Europe must develop its own digital infrastructure. This is to reduce dependence on American technology companies. That does not mean that cooperation with the United States should be ruled out. In an interview with Reuters, Wildberger explains that Germany and the European Union can no longer be mere spectators or customers in the digital sector, but must play an active role themselves.

But companies are able to handle the chaos, conflicts and uncertainty a little bit better now, executives said on panels recently during Shoptalk Fall in Chicago. They've gotten used to having to pivot, whether there's an issue locally or internationally. And artificial intelligence has made adapting somewhat easier than five years ago, thanks to tools that flag delays, help optimize inventory and automate tasks.

Nike yesterday revealed that it expects $1.5 billion in gross incremental costs, on an annualized basis, because of tariffs. That's a 50% increase from Nike's last estimate, provided in June, of $1 billion. Meanwhile, Nike's gross margin for its first fiscal quarter of 2026 decreased 320 basis points, in part due to "increased product costs, including new tariffs, and channel mix headwinds," EVP and CFO Matthew Friend said on a call with analysts.

For Walmart, it's a priority to quickly stock store shelves with the freshest food possible. In doing so, the nation's largest grocery-store retailer can prevent food waste from eating into its profits, even in an industry known for thin margins. Yasemin Gunay, a managing director at Boston Consulting Group, told Business Insider that retailers and restaurants have historically planned their inventory levels based on their internal data, mostly based on past sales trend data.

In the fast-paced world of technology investing, where megacap giants like Apple ( NASDAQ:AAPL ) and Nvidia ( NASDAQ:NVDA ) dominate headlines with steady but modest gains, true wealth-building opportunities often hide in emerging sectors. The three stocks below represent innovative bets on transformative technologies that could redefine logistics, transportation, and space exploration. With strong cash positions, strategic partnerships, and accelerating milestones, they offer the kind of upside that could set you up for life.

That's because most top AI companies - like OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, or Meta - operate in a primarily virtual space, processing unfathomably complex rivers of information into more digital information. AI-adjacent companies like Nvidia, Intel, and Oracle focus on providing the physical infrastructure upon which the AI machines function. Then there are the companies that are using digital intelligence to deliver physical results through automation and augmented experiences, like Tesla and Amazon.

Since launching Flexport in 2013, Ryan Petersen has helped more than 10,000 companies move over $175 billion worth of goods worldwide, raising $2.3 billion and redefining how supply chains are managed in a volatile, tech-driven era. After stepping down as CEO in 2022, he returned less than a year later to steady the ship and chart its next phase of growth.