President Trump's January 2026 executive order bars major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin from dividends and stock buybacks until they boost arms production and meet deadlines. Frustrated with delays despite high budgets, the move redirects funds to manufacturing, causing stock drops and industry upheaval. This prioritizes national security over shareholder profits.

In 2026, the logistics sector faces severe disruptions from labor shortages, technological failures, geopolitical tensions, and rising costs, causing widespread mail delays and lost packages, especially via USPS and private carriers. These issues erode customer trust and highlight systemic failures. Urgent reforms are needed to build resilient supply chains.

Amazon's AI shopping tools, like "Shop Direct" and "Buy for Me," scrape small retailers' websites without consent, automating purchases and sparking backlash over privacy, fair competition, and unauthorized data use. Retailers are pushing back with potential lawsuits, while Amazon defends it as consumer innovation. This highlights ethical tensions in AI-driven e-commerce.

Samsung Electronics is poised for record profits, projecting $66 billion in 2026, driven by AI-fueled demand for memory chips like DRAM and HBM amid global shortages and price surges over 50%. Competitors like SK Hynix and Micron also thrive, though challenges like overproduction loom. This boom reshapes the semiconductor industry.

McDonald's 2026 strategy features permanent Big Arch burgers overseas, official secret menu hacks and Pokémon Happy Meals, with U.S. launches uncertain. Nostalgia and virality aim to counter spending caution, though pricing draws fire.

Saks Global hurtles toward Chapter 11 filing as soon as Sunday, burdened by $2.7 billion merger debt and a sales plunge. Investors circle a $1 billion rescue as vendors flee and leadership shifts, threatening iconic brands like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Walmart's new partnership with Google's Gemini integrates AI shopping and checkout into the chatbot, challenging Amazon and boosting e-commerce. Drawing on real-time inventory, it enables seamless buys from queries, expanding with Shopify and Wayfair for broader reach.

Walmart is expanding drone delivery through a partnership with Alphabet's Wing, targeting 150 more stores by 2026 and over 270 by 2027, reaching 40 million Americans with under-30-minute deliveries of small items. This intensifies competition with Amazon and advances automated retail logistics, despite regulatory and safety challenges.

Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol at the 2026 NRF conference, an open standard developed with partners like Shopify and Visa to enable AI agents for seamless, agentic shopping—from discovery to transactions. This initiative aims to standardize e-commerce, boost personalization, and address fragmentation, positioning Google as a leader in retail innovation.

Google Cloud unveiled AI innovations at NRF 2026, including Gemini Enterprise for autonomous customer agents, Vertex AI for retail tasks like forecasting, and partnerships with Walmart and Shopify for seamless commerce. These tools promise efficiency gains and personalized experiences. Real-world deployments show significant cost savings and query resolutions, positioning Google as a leader in agentic retail transformation.

Amazon's "Buy For Me" AI feature, which sources products from external websites without consent, has sparked backlash from small retailers over data scraping, unauthorized listings, and trust erosion. Critics demand an opt-in model amid legal and ethical concerns. This highlights tensions in AI-driven e-commerce.

Micron Technology warns that memory chip shortages in DRAM and NAND will persist beyond 2026, driven by surging AI demand and past production cuts. This structural crisis prioritizes high-bandwidth memory for AI, leading to higher prices and shortages in consumer devices like smartphones and PCs. Relief is unlikely until 2028 or later.