Robinhood - March 9, 2026

🤖 Ads enter the chat 📲

A bold, new era of “a word from our sponsors” has begun.

(Koah)

Presented by

Hey Snackers,

Last week, America’s three biggest burger chains competed over not how big their burgers are, but instead, how their CEOs eat burgers. We admit we also clocked the teeny-tiny bite McDonald’s CEO took of the new Big Arch, calling it a “delicious product,” when we first watched his video, but who knew that the CEOs of Wendy’s and Burger King would pile on? Despite their CEOs’ possibly superior burger-biting skills, McDonald’s is still way ahead of the competition when it comes to sales.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 sank on Friday as oil prices continued to climb, with the Qatari energy minister warning of a potential spike to $150 a barrel within two to three weeks if tankers cannot safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The February jobs report posted a big negative surprise, as the US lost 92,000 jobs, whereas analysts had expected a gain of 55,000.

🧠 Test your knowledge of recent Snacks newsletters with our Snacks Seven Quiz. Here’s a sample question:

Which country is the world’s leading oil producer?
Check your answer.

ADS UP

Ads have entered the Chat

OpenAI has begun showing ads in ChatGPT and is in talks with The Trade Desk to expand the effort. Google already runs ads across its AI search products, and Adweek recently reported that Google plans to bring them to Gemini this year. (Google has since pushed back on the idea, but it’s extremely hard to imagine Google, which makes the vast majority of its money from ads, abstaining forever.)

Most recently, The Information reported that Amazon, which is experimenting with ads inside its AI shopping assistant, Rufus, is also exploring licensing that technology to others.

A bold, new era of “a word from our sponsors” has begun.

AI ad marketplace Koah, which recently raised $20 million, is placing ads inside everything from coding copilots to AI pediatricians to meal-planning chatbots.
Why? AI chatbots are the innovation du jour, popping up inside companies and apps of all stripes — and launching as businesses in their own right.
They’ve also been around long enough that the bills are coming due. Running large language models is expensive. As chatbots proliferate across the web, their creators are looking for ways to offset those costs — and, in some cases, build entire business models.
The potential market is enormous, and some analysts think it could rival search engines. Roger Beharry Lall, research director at IDC, estimates that over time, the roughly $300 billion to $400 billion spent annually on search ads could shift toward AI, with one market cannibalizing the other.

While many including ChatGPT are trying subscription models, there’s a ceiling to how many people will opt to pay for those and how much. Advertising, on the other hand, can grow alongside chatbots’ rapidly expanding adoption. It’s the obvious solution.

THE TAKEAWAY

Both Koah and OpenAI say ads won’t influence the information provided in responses — a separation they argue is essential to maintaining trust. If you ask about running techniques, you might see an ad for sneakers, but the ad won’t cause the chatbot to steer its answer toward that particular brand.

OpenAI executives have previously expressed skepticism about ads in AI assistants, warning that monetization could distort incentives. But the economics appear to be winning, as evidenced by ChatGPT’s entry into the space. Anthropic, for its part, has so far resisted advertising altogether, positioning itself as more cautious about commercial influence — even as it advertised on the very big ad platform of the Super Bowl.

Read more

Presented by Nasdaq

Tactical tech trading starts with index options.

Trading the tech market?

Nasdaq-100 Index^® Options give you tactical precision and broad benchmark exposure. Index options allow for more macro expressions than single-stock securities, giving traders the potential to participate in upside or mitigate downside portfolio risk.

Index products also have the benefits of liquidity and leverage. As some of the most liquid derivatives available, trillions in notional exposure are managed daily – ensuring traders can still easily establish and close positions during times of market stress.

With index options, traders also gain leverage to control larger positions than they can access with single stocks. Available in two contract sizes, NDX^® and XND^®, traders of all portfolio sizes can choose the amount of notional exposure they want to take on.

Discover how Nasdaq-100 Index Options can serve your strategy.

ZOOM OUT

Stories we’re obsessed with

Rising oil prices are an existential threat to airlines: As oil prices surge amid the war in Iran, airlines are facing a jet fuel margin squeeze not seen since the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, when devastating storms caused extensive damage to several refineries. According to Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Linenberg, airlines worldwide could be forced to ground thousands of aircraft, while the more financially vulnerable carriers could even be forced to suspend operations.
Apple is heading down-market: Last week, Apple unveiled a lower-end MacBook and iPhones, each starting at $599. As the company has “lost basically a generation of customers” to Google’s Chromebook, the Neo, Apple’s cheapest MacBook yet, could provide opportunities to grow beyond developed markets and into the hands of budget-conscious buyers more broadly. As for the iPhone, Apple accounts for more than half of global used and refurbished smartphone sales. In other words, many consumers want iPhones; they just don’t want — or can’t afford — to buy them new.

THE BEST THING WE READ TODAY

GoPro is dying. Can AI save the company?

GoPro’s share price has somersaulted to a near 99% decline from its 2014 peak. But as video is emerging as one of the most sought-after formats for data-hungry AI hyperscalers, GoPro sees an opportunity to feed users’ personal videos to AI training programs. During its earnings call on Thursday, the CEO shared that GoPro would begin to recognize revenue — which will be split 50-50 with contributing users — in Q1 of this year.

See the journey of GoPro’s skydiving revenue.

Snacks shots

📉 Jobs: Event contracts* showed the odds of a Fed rate cut in June jumping to around 50% in the minutes following the release of jobs data (nonfarm payrolls growth was -92,000 on an estimate of +55,000) on Friday, from about 30% beforehand.
🏛️ Shutdown: As the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security enters its third week, the standoff over funding is seen as having little chance of resolving any time soon. Markets are currently pricing in a 52% chance that the shutdown continues for at least 50 days, with a 17% chance it goes at least 90 days.

*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.

What else we're Snackin'

Data center misadventure: Oracle dropped on Friday after a report that it and OpenAI scrapped plans to expand a data center site in Texas, sending shares of Nvidia and AMD lower as well
Smut cut: OpenAI is reportedly delaying its erotica feature to focus on “gains in intelligence”
Broken token: more than 58% of ethereum’s supply is unprofitable
Dreaded credit: the private credit crunch continues as another firm limits redemptions
Software shares no worse for wear: the once battered cohort is withstanding the war jitters

Snack Fact of the Day

More Americans are dining alone than ever before.

This Week

Monday: Earnings expected from HP Enterprise and Casey’s General Stores
Tuesday: February existing home sales. Earnings expected from Nio, Kohl’s, BioNTech, and Oracle
Wednesday: February CPI. Earnings expected from Campbell’s, Bumble, and Petco
Thursday: Earnings expected from Dollar General, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Adobe, Ulta, and Lennar
Friday: January PCE, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. January Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Q4 GDP (first revision)

Advertiser's disclosures:

Nasdaq® is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. The information contained above is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and nothing contained herein should be construed as investment advice, either on behalf of a particular security or an overall investment strategy. Neither Nasdaq, Inc. nor any of its affiliates makes any recommendation to buy or sell any security or any representation about the financial condition of any company. Statements regarding Nasdaq-listed companies or Nasdaq proprietary indexes are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should undertake their own due diligence and carefully evaluate companies before investing. ADVICE FROM A SECURITIES PROFESSIONAL IS STRONGLY ADVISED.

For the sake of simplicity, the examples included do not take into consideration commissions and other transaction fees, tax considerations, or margin requirements, which are factors that may significantly affect the economic consequences of a given strategy. An investor should review transaction costs, margin requirements and tax considerations with a broker and tax advisor before entering into any options strategy.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for everyone. Prior to buying or selling an option, a person must receive a copy of Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Copies may be obtained from your broker, one of the exchanges or The Options Clearing Corporation, One North Wacker Drive, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60606 or call 1-888-OPTIONS or visit www.888options.com.

Any strategies discussed, including examples using actual securities and price data, are strictly for illustrative and education purposes and are not to be construed as an endorsement, recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell securities.

Was this email forwarded to you? Don’t miss out on future stories — subscribe to Snacks and get your daily dose of financial news straight to your inbox.

Craving more insights in your inbox? Subscribe to Chartr and The Wrap for quality reads.

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more

SHERWOOD MEDIA, LLC, 85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025