Autonomous trucking startup Gatik has raised $200 million in what the company said is its largest funding round to date. The round was co-led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. The financing marks a new capital milestone for Gatik as it expands its position in autonomous freight. Prior to this round, the company had already entered into an autonomous freight partnership with PepsiCo. The update was cited by Techub News, with TechCrunch referenced as the source. No additional terms of the financing were disclosed in the brief.

Liquid Death CEO Mike Cessario declined to confirm a timeline for the beverage brand’s initial public offering in an interview with Bloomberg. The comment comes even though the company hired Goldman Sachs in 2023 and brought in a new chief financial officer from Pepsi. Cessario said the business is currently focused on building profitability at scale rather than locking in a specific exit path, and that it would consider either an IPO or a merger when the timing makes sense. The interview also touched on one of Liquid Death’s viral ads centered on AI data centers. The campaign showed people mailing urine samples to AI data centers as a satire on their water consumption. Cessario said the ad was not an attack on AI itself. Instead, he said it was meant to highlight what he described as a real issue: large amounts of water evaporating from closed-loop data centers during cooling. He also discussed how AI is being used inside the company’s ad agency work. According to Cessario, AI can handle routine production tasks well, but it cannot replace top creative talent. In his view, the technology is more likely to eliminate mediocre marketing output than high-end creative work.

Bitget has listed five new stock and ETF perpetual contracts, according to an official announcement cited by ChainCatcher. The newly added contracts are PEP for PepsiCo, BKNG for Booking Holdings, SSPC for the 2x short SPCX ETF, SPCH for the 2x long SPCX ETF, and GFS for GlobalFoundries. All five products are settled in USDT. Bitget said the contracts support leverage of up to 20x and are available for trading around the clock on a 7x24 basis. The update expands the exchange’s lineup of stock and ETF-linked perpetual products.

The 2026 second-quarter U.S. earnings season is underway, with PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines opening the reporting cycle on July 9 and July 10, followed by a major wave of bank results on July 14 and a series of mega-cap tech releases later in July. FactSet expects S&P 500 companies to post 22% earnings growth for Q2 2026, marking a second straight quarter above 20%. This guide lays out how the earnings season works, why timing matters, and which companies tend to shape market sentiment at each stage of the reporting window. It also breaks down what investors should prepare before a company reports, the five numbers worth checking first when results hit, and the signals buried in management conference calls that headlines often miss. The article also lists common mistakes newer investors make during earnings season, from reacting to after-hours price swings to focusing on headlines instead of guidance, margins, and cash flow. It closes with a sector-by-sector checklist and a step-by-step action plan investors can use over the two weeks before results, on release day, and in the 24 to 48 hours that follow.

Pepsi-Cola announces its debut NFT collection 'Pepsi Mic Drop,' featuring 1,893 generative tokens on Ethereum, minted free (gas fees only), commemorating the brand's birth year with a carbon offset program.

Pepsi has launched its first NFT project, the Pepsi Mic Drop collection, featuring 1,893 generative NFTs on Ethereum. The release references the brand’s 1893 origin year and includes a net-zero carbon offset plan.

Pepsi-Cola enters the blockchain space with its debut NFT collection 'Pepsi Mic Drop', featuring 1,893 unique generative NFTs on Ethereum, free to mint (gas fees only), celebrating the brand's birth year and music heritage.

Pepsi-Cola unveils its debut NFT series 'Pepsi Mic Drop,' featuring 1,893 generative tokens on Ethereum. Free minting available from Dec 14, with a carbon offset program. The collection honors Pepsi's 1893 birth year and its music heritage.