The design company also cut its revenue growth forecast by 20 percent.
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Bitmine ($BMNR), Led By Tom Lee, Now Holds 4.8% Of Ethereum (ETH) Supply After Latest Acquisition
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), chaired by Tom Lee, has expanded its Ethereum holdings to approximately 4.8% of the network’s circulating supply after another weekly purchase. The company reported acquiring an additional 9,926 ETH during the week ending around mid-August 2026.
This brought its total Ethereum position to roughly 5.815 million tokens.
Valued at about $1,893 to $1,904 per token at the time of the update, the stash was worth nearly $11 billion.
Relative to Ethereum’s circulating supply of around 120.7 million tokens, the position equates to 4.8%.
Bitmine has pursued a consistent accumulation approach since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025.
Over roughly 14 months of weekly purchases, it has advanced to 96% of its self-described “Alchemy of 5%” target—an ambition to control 5% of the total ETH supply.
The latest buy continued that uninterrupted cadence. Lee highlighted technical and fundamental signals supporting the strategy.
He noted that the ETH/BTC ratio had climbed above a multi-year downward trend, reaching levels near 0.02994 and continuing higher.
In his view, this shift suggests markets are beginning to factor in rising demand for Ethereum driven by tokenization initiatives and AI-agent applications running on the blockchain.
Lee also pointed to expected easing financial conditions as a broader positive for the crypto sector. Beyond simple accumulation,
Bitmine emphasizes productive use of its holdings.
As of the mid-August update, the company had staked about 5.067 million ETH—about 87% of its total position—valued near $9.6 billion.
Much of this is deployed through its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), an institutional staking platform.
Projected annualized staking revenues stood around $250 million based on recent yields near 2.61%, with higher potential figures if the full holdings are staked at scale.
The firm’s overall crypto, cash, marketable securities, and strategic investments totaled about $11.4 billion.
This included 210 bitcoin, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, a $73 million position in Eightco Holdings, and roughly $78 million in cash and securities.
Bitmine positions itself as the largest corporate Ethereum treasury and the second-largest crypto treasury overall, trailing only Strategy’s bitcoin holdings.
In parallel with ETH purchases, the company continued share repurchases.
It bought back 1.7 million of its own common shares in the latest week, raising cumulative buybacks since early July 2026 to more than 20.8 million shares under a previously authorized $4 billion program.
Lee described the shares as undervalued and characterized the repurchase effort as significant within the digital asset treasury sector.
Market response was constructive, with BMNR shares rising in the session following the announcement. Ethereum itself posted modest gains over the prior 24 hours.
The company’s approach combines long-term holding with yield generation via staking and selective equity activity, while maintaining institutional support from investors including ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood and others.
Bitmine’s progress underscores a strategy that treats Ethereum not merely as a balance-sheet asset but as infrastructure supporting emerging use cases in tokenization and AI. With the 5% target now within closer reach, the firm’s weekly cadence and staking operations remain central to its positioning in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Can Jim Cramer Save Mortgage Rates?
It seems mortgage rates can’t catch a break lately.
So maybe we need a Plan B. Or rather, a Plan C!
Have you ever heard of Inverse Cramer?
Whenever Jim Cramer says something, the opposite tends to happen. It’s a powerful market signal.
And he just said bonds keep dropping relentlessly, meaning their yields or interest rates keep rising. That could be good news for mortgage rates!
Cramer Says Bond Market Selloff Is Relentless
In case you’re unaware, bond yields correlate well with 30-year fixed mortgage rates, specifically the 10-year bond yield.
Bonds have both a price and a corresponding yield.
When the price of a bond drops, its yield (or interest rate) goes up.
Conversely, when bond prices are rising, their yields fall.
In his X post, Cramer said bonds are getting absolutely destroyed right now, which is pushing their corresponding yields higher.
He seems to see no end in sight for the “sell-off” that he refers to as “unnerving,” which oddly could be bullish for interest rates.
Bullish because most people think Cramer is always wrong, meaning the bond selloff might soon be over.
If in fact bonds do all of a sudden rally, their yields (interest rates) would fall.
That would spell relief for mortgage rate rates as well since the two are highly correlated.
So, in this instance, like in most other instances, we are rooting for an Inverse Cramer.
We are rooting for bonds to become attractive again, which will lead to lower yields. And by extension, lower mortgage rates as well.
That would be good for the housing market, which is struggling with rates near 7% again, and rates above their year-ago levels.
Inverse Cramer Tends to Outperform Other Investments
While it’s kind of a silly thing, Inverse Cramer seems to be one of the top performing investments out there.
There’s even a tracker called Inverse Cramer that does the opposite of whatever he says.
And it always seems to outperform the market and all other metrics.
In fact, it even beat the S&P and Nancy Pelosi’s famed stock portfolio.
So perhaps this is what mortgage rates need to finally reverse the upward trend we’ve seen for months.
And it’s not just a silly meme. You can make the argument logically because bond yields are near their highest level in years.
At a certain point, they become attractive to investors and their yields come down as their price rises.
That’s not to say they can’t go higher, but they could be at the top of their range and due for a reversal.
Which is kind of the whole point with Jim. By the time he, or any other TV personality declares something, it’s usually old news.
So when he’s crying that bond prices keep dropping, and there’s no end in sight, the end actually is in sight. Go figure, right.
Mortgage Rates Won’t Change Because Cramer Said So
Of course, it’s going to take more than Jim Cramer talking about it.
We’re going to need to see actual economic data or news that supports a move into bonds, which will lower their yields.
Most importantly, something positive on the Iran conflict and the Strait of Hormuz.
That’s behind much of the rise in bond yields and mortgage rates this year.
If we don’t get that, it’s probably all just wishful thinking.
Nevertheless, it’s always a good chuckle whenever Cramer chimes in about something at this point.
And I’m sure a lot of prospective home buyers, loan officers, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents will be happy to see that he thinks bonds are cooked!
(photo: Owen Byrne)
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 20 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.
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ICICI Prudential Multi-Asset Active FOF: Diversify Across Equity, Debt & Gold/Silver | NFO Open Till July 14, 2026
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The Midyear Portfolio Review Every Rental Property Investor Should Perform
I lost $40,000 on a flip once because I stopped opening my own spreadsheet. I built that file myself. Then I closed it, and the deal decided what it was going to be without me. The numbers were telling the story the whole time.
A midyear review is not just for your boss coming in to act like “casual Fridays” was their idea. It is opening that same file back up while there is still time to change the ending. Every summer, I go property by property. It takes one Saturday, and it is the highest-paid Saturday of my year.
Looking for a second opinion? The great team at Mynd is offering complimentary midyear portfolio reviews for rental property investors. Their team will review your portfolio’s performance, upcoming lease renewals, local rental market conditions, and operating strategy to help identify opportunities to improve returns before year-end.
1. Compare Performance Against Your Original Investment Plan
Most people compare this year to last year. The right benchmark is the underwriting you did the day you bought the thing. Pull that document up. Yes, you should know where it is and not be scrambling to make sure your child didn’t throw it in the trash (or is that just me?).
Get current on NOI, cash flow, cash-on-cash return, operating expenses, maintenance, vacancy, delinquency, and capital expenditures. Then ask these questions:
- What is beating the model?
- What is missing it, and why?
The “why” is the whole exercise. Everything before it is bookkeeping.
Here is what mine looks like. My Conroe houses are new construction, bought between $200,000 and $220,000, and renting for $1,900 to $2,000 a month.
I underwrote maintenance to be boring, and it has been. The model missed on the other side. Property taxes and insurance moved, and neither one cares how your cash flow is falling. My rent line held. My expense lines are where the underwriting aged.
That is the pattern for most people. The revenue assumption holds, and the expense assumption quietly does not.
2. Review Every Lease Expiring Over the Next 120 Days
A lease is one price you set once and then live with for 12 months. There is no fixing it in October when you realize you were too low.
Pull every lease expiring in the next four months. Look at current rent, what comparable homes actually rent for today, payment history, expiration date, and renewal probability.
My last renewal is a good example of restraint. Property taxes went up, so I raised rent 5%. That is about $98 a month. It covered the tax increase and nothing else. The market probably supported more.
This small rent raise was nominal compared to what it would have cost to turn over the unit. Turning that unit costs me $2,500 to $3,000 before I count a single empty day. Add three weeks of vacancy, and I am out more than $4,000. Pushing another 5% would have earned me roughly $1,170 over the year.
I am not risking $4,000 to make $1,170. Residents who pay on the first are also not a renewable resource.
Run that math before you get brave. And if someone is clearly moving out, start marketing the unit now. Vacancy is the only expense that gets worse while you ignore it.
3. Look for Opportunities to Improve NOI
Rent increases are slow, capped, and require somebody else to agree with you. Cutting an expense takes a phone call and is worth talking to a customer service rep for 30 minutes.
Go line by line:
- Insurance
- Maintenance and repairs
- Vendor pricing
- Home warranty coverage
- Landscaping, pest control, and every autopay that renews without asking
Insurance is where I find money every single time. I am quoting a project right now, and the range came back between $1,900 and $3,400. It’s the same property with the same coverage. The only thing different was the underwriter. That is $1,500 of NOI hiding inside three phone calls.
Then there is the stuff that creeps and makes you question your sanity. Mine was electric, and I didn’t realize how much a 0.01 or0 .02 increase per KWH added up. A little bigger every month, and nobody sends you a letter when that happens.
4. Evaluate Whether Your Management Strategy Is Supporting Growth
I spent eight years selling houses to investors, so I got a long look at how other people run their rentals. The ones who struggled were bad at the 200 small decisions after buying, not the initial sale.
New construction is the easiest version of this job. Almost nothing breaks, which means nothing forces me to check whether my process is any good. That is the trap. Easy doesn’t last even with new construction, and every door you add multiplies the decisions, not just the doors.
Here are things to watch:
- Leasing
- Maintenance
- Inspections
- Resident communication
- Rent collection
- Compliance
If you have not hired anyone, it is you, and free labor is the most expensive in real estate because it never shows up on the P&L.
Check your days on market, maintenance response times, rent collection, resident retention, and the hours you hand in every week. Self-manage or hire it out, but pick on purpose. Most people are not self-managing; they are just not managing.
5. Create an Action Plan for the Second Half of the Year
A bad review ends with a feeling, but a good one ends with dates. Pick three things you will finish before December, such as:
- Reprice the renewals your comps support.
- Schedule preventative maintenance before the season turns.
- Requote your insurance.
- Finish the capital expenditures you keep pushing.
Small operational fixes compound, and that is the entire business.
Don’t Wait to Improve Performance
Most investors learn how they did in April, sitting across from their CPA, holding a number they can no longer do anything about. I already hate tax time, but it becomes really stressful when I have no clue what I am walking into.
That’s why Mynd is offering complimentary midyear portfolio reviews for rental property investors. During your review, the team will help you evaluate:
- Year-to-date financial performance and cash flow
- Upcoming lease renewals and rental pricing opportunities
- Local rental market conditions
- Opportunities to improve occupancy and strengthen long-term returns
Whether you currently self-manage your properties or work with another property manager, you’ll receive practical, data-driven recommendations designed to help you maximize the performance of your portfolio during the second half of the year.
Schedule your complimentary midyear portfolio review today, and head into year-end with a clear plan to maximize your rental property’s performance.
uCloudlink (UCL) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Image source: The Motley Fool.
DATE
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- Company IR – Daniel Gao
- Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors – Zhiping Peng
- Co-Founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer – Chaohui Chen
- Chief Financial Officer – Yimeng Shi
TAKEAWAYS
- Total Revenue — $18.2 million, decreasing 5.9% year over year due to macroeconomic headwinds and geopolitical tensions affecting outbound travel from China.
- Net Loss — $3.0 million, compared to net income of $0.7 million in the prior year period.
- Revised Full Year Revenue Guidance — $75 million to $85 million, reduced from the previous range of $85 million to $100 million in response to global trade headwinds.
- Q3 2026 Revenue Guidance — $19.0 million to $22.0 million, representing a year-over-year change of negative 10.4% to 3.8%.
- GlocalMe MeowGo Revenue — $15.4 million, declining 13.1% year over year as international data connectivity services remained under pressure.
- GlocalMe IoT Revenue — $0.8 million, growing 392.4% year over year driven by expansion in in-car infotainment and security camera sectors.
- PetPhone Revenue — $0.2 million, increasing 1,527.3% year over year from a base of $10,000 in the second quarter of 2025.
- GlocalMe SIM Revenue — $1.3 million, increasing 78% year over year while daily active users for the segment rose 132% to 17,519.
- Gross Margin — 50.2%, down from 52.8% in the prior year period, reflecting industry-wide price increases for memory chips.
- Service Gross Margin — 59.1%, increasing from 56.6% in the second quarter of 2025.
- Product Gross Margin — 26.5%, decreasing from 41% year over year due to rising supply chain costs.
- Cash and Cash Equivalents — $25.2 million as of June 30, 2026, compared to $28 million as of March 31, 2026.
- Total Daily Active Users — 376,376, increasing 13.3% year over year across all platform services.
- GlocalMe Life DAU — 14,471, representing an 801.6% increase year over year reflecting market adoption of local mobile broadband scenarios.
- Average Daily Active Terminals — 341,511, of which 56.3% were from international data connectivity and 43.7% were from local data connectivity services.
- Research and Development Expenses — $2.0 million, an increase of 29.8% year over year primarily due to higher staff costs.
- Sales and Marketing Expenses — $6.7 million, increasing 20.9% year over year due to a $0.7 million increase in promotion fees.
- Operating Cash Outflow — $3.0 million, compared to an outflow of $0.9 million in the second quarter of 2025.
- Japanese Market Contribution — 36% of total revenues, increasing from 33.6% in the same period of 2025.
- Intellectual Property — 212 patents as of June 30, 2026, with 184 approved and 28 pending.
- Total Data Consumed — 46,641 terabytes, representing an increase of 2.6% year over year.
- Average Daily Data Usage — 1.5 gigabytes per terminal as of June 2026.
- Total Monthly Active Users — 744,966, representing an increase of 6.6% year over year.
- GlocalMe IoT DAU — 57,859, growing 277.3% year over year as the installed base expanded further.
Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]
RISKS
- CEO Chen stated, “memory chip cost… almost 5 to 10x increase,” impacting product pricing and operational cash flow.
- Management reported that “uCloudlink 1.0 international data connectivity services remained under pressure” due to geopolitical tensions affecting outbound travel from China.
- The company revised its annual revenue guidance lower due to “persistent macroeconomic challenges and global trade headwinds.”
SUMMARY
Management reported that growth in local data connectivity businesses is beginning to offset the contraction in the legacy international roaming segment. The company is transitioning its strategic focus toward the IoT, SIM, and life-solution business lines while navigating a challenging supply chain environment. uCloudlink Group Inc. (UCL -27.94%) is prioritizing operational efficiency and cost discipline during the commercialization of new products such as the PetPhone and MeowGo G50 Max. Management indicated that recent technological advancements in satellite and 5G integration are intended to differentiate its premium hardware offerings and expand market leadership in the premium mobile connectivity segment.
- CEO Chen stated, “The agent can precisely sense pet’s conditions and emotional state and intelligently support owners at every stage of care from prevention through real-time response and engagement, delivering a seamless pet care experience.”
- The company completed the sale of its entire interest in Beijing Huaxianglianxin Technology Company in Aug. 2026, generating cash proceeds of approximately 11.4 million yuan.
- Management reported that the G50 Max mobile hub has established market leadership in the premium segment by integrating satellite, flight, and ground networks across nearly 100 countries.
- CFO Shi attributed the divergence between GlocalMe Life revenue and user growth to the cumulative nature of the active user base versus quarterly hardware delivery volumes.
- The company appointed Wen Gao as General Manager of Shenzhen Yulian Cloud Technology to lead the expansion of the IoT solution ecosystem, following his tenure as Chief Strategy Officer.
- CEO Chen noted, “Our eSIM solution is gaining strong momentum, leading the market in China and building market share steadily across East Asia and wider Asia Pacific region.”
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- CPE R50/R55: Customer Premises Equipment, specifically the company’s 4G and 5G terminal products for local connectivity.
- eSIM: Embedded SIM, a programmable SIM card that is built directly into a device to facilitate carrier switching without a physical card.
- HyperConn: The company’s proprietary AI-driven technology for ensuring reliable and resilient mobile connectivity.
- MeowGo G50 Max: A premium mobile connectivity hub that integrates satellite, flight, and ground network connectivity.
- PetPhone: An AI-powered device and ecosystem designed for pet communication, safety, and health monitoring.
- PetPogo: The company’s specialized platform for pet-related AI agents and social interactions.
- uCloudlink 1.0: The company’s business model focused on international data connectivity for cross-border travelers.
- uCloudlink 2.0: The company’s business model focused on local data connectivity services for domestic users and IoT applications.
- UniCord Pro: A specific product in the company’s new growth portfolio focused on local data connectivity.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the uCloudlink Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Daniel Gao, Company IR. Please go ahead.
Daniel Gao: Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on uCloudlink’s Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. The earnings release and our earnings presentation are now available on our IR website at ir.ucloudlink.com. Joining me on today’s call are Mr. Zhiping Peng, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors; Mr. Chaohui Chen, Co-Founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Yimeng Shi, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Chen will begin with an overview of our recent business highlights. Mr. Shi will then discuss our financial and operational highlights for the quarter. They will all be available to take your questions in the Q&A section that follows.
Before we proceed, please note that this call may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and observations that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors not under company’s control, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations projected or implied by these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements, risk factors and details of the company’s filings with the SEC.
The company does not assume any obligation to reverse or update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, change in market conditions or otherwise, except as required by law. Please also note that uCloudlink’s earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information and audited non-GAAP financial measures. uCloudlink’s press release contains regulations of their unaudited non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable unaudited GAAP measures. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Chen. Please go ahead.
Chaohui Chen: Thank you, Daniel. Good morning or good evening, everyone. Total revenues for the quarter were USD 18.2 million, reflecting the continued impact of macroeconomic headwinds, geopolitical tensions affecting outbound travel from China and a significant surge in memory chip costs. Our uCloudlink 1.0 international data connectivity services remained under pressure from these factors. However, this impact is increasingly being offset by the rapid scaling of our uCloudlink 2.0 local data connectivity business, which delivered strong growth, particularly from our GlocalMe IoT business. We expect our uCloudlink 2.0 and the new business lines to fully offset the continued contraction in our 1.0 international business by the third quarter as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities.
We continue to see strong momentum across our new product portfolio during the second quarter. GlocalMe IoT and UniCord Pro, in particular, gained solid traction with revenue contribution steadily increasing as the transition out of the initial market ramp-up phase, each with key strategic milestones during the quarter, positioning us well for accelerated commercialization going forward. Across our new growth engine, revenues from GlocalMe IoT and SIM increased by 392.4% and 78% year-over-year, respectively. To drive early adoption and fuel market leadership, we maintained an elevated level of investment in market for the PetPhone and PetPhone ecosystem during the quarter. I will now review the highlights for each of our key business lines.
I will start with the GlocalMe IoT, which saw its installed base expanded further with month reorder now contributing meaningfully to revenue and business operating profitability on a consistent basis. In the second quarter, revenue from the GlocalMe IoT grew 392.4% year-over-year. Our total installed base reached 3.34 million units and MAU grew 210% year-over-year. User adoption is growing rapidly across key verticals as we further solidify our position in high-growth sectors, including in-car infotainment and security cameras. Moving on to our PetPhone ecosystem, which has undergone to a comprehensive upgrade into a dedicated pet AI agent. Building on the AI-powered plus social model, we pioneered in the first quarter.
This marks a major step forward in functionality and performance with redefining AI-powered communication between humans and their pets. The agent can precisely sense pet’s conditions and emotional state and intelligently support owners at every stage of care from prevention through real-time response and engagement, delivering a seamless pet care experience. This powerful agent creates enormous opportunities across pet healthy, veterinary care, pet safety and the pet data analytics, each of which we see a source of new value creation. As we — as consumer acceptance of AI pet services grows, we expect to build both valuable data asset and a leading position in pet AI. We are now expanding our pet AI capabilities across communication, safety and health management.
On the market front, we have made significant progress in branding and promotional efforts, generating substantial external attention with select content pieces reach tens of millions of views in major platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, et cetera. We look forward to achieving even greater breakthrough in the second half of the year. Turning to our GlocalMe Life and SIM business lines where our strategy is beginning to generate results. GlocalMe Life Solutions saw DAU growth exploded, increasing by 801.6% year-over-year, reflecting strong market adoption of the new product line. GlocalMe SIM continued to steadily expand as well with DAU increasing 132% year-over-year.
Our eSIM solution is gaining strong momentum, leading the market in China and building market share steadily across East Asia and wider Asia Pacific region. Together, this result shows 2 product lines at a different stage of maturity with GlocalMe Life growing rapidly with exceptional triple-digit growth and GlocalMe SIM scaling consistently. Our premium MeowGo G50 Max is the world pioneer leading Sky-to-Ground integrated mobile connectivity hub, delivering seamless connectivity across satellite, flight and ground networks. It offers the broadest 5G countries coverage in the industry, spanning nearly 100 countries and have been reliable across a wide range of scenarios from the urban environment to in-flight travel.
Powered by our AI HyperConn technology, the G50 Max has built a market-leading position in the USD 500 plus premium MiFi segment and has set a new benchmark for premium mobile connectivity solutions. While our uCloudlink 1.0 international data connectivity business has been affected by macro headwind, this same condition has created new opportunities for the G50 Max and the premium solution, driving demand from the resilient, reliable connectivity in critical environments. We also made solid progress and created new and strong revenue with our newly launched 4G and 5G CPE product during the second quarter for local connectivity services. Both have demonstrated stable performance and successfully passed smaller batch market validation, receiving positive market feedback.
Several large orders are currently under negotiation, and we expect to accelerate market deployment and drive stronger growth in Q3. We also achieved notable recognition during the quarter, winning the Customer Impact Award at the MVNOs World Awards in year 2026 and being shortlisted for Leading Consumer MVNO/Sub-Brand, further validating our technological leadership and market positioning. Looking ahead, we remain focused on strengthening operational management and cost discipline, with a clear priority on improving cash flow.
Together, with the ongoing commercial progress of the PetPhone AI and social PetPhone, the ramp-up of MeowGo G50 Max and the continued expansion of GlocalMe IoT, CPE R50 and R55, we believe these efforts will position us to navigate the current market environment and emerge stronger. We remain committed to bridging the digital divides in cross-border connectivity as well as the emotional distance between people and their pets, while creating long-term value for our shareholders. With the disciplined optimism in mind, we are confident that we have the right strategy in place to drive sustainable growth going forward. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Shi.
Yimeng Shi: Thank you, Mr. Chen. Hello, everyone. I will go over our operational and financial highlights for the second quarter of 2026. Average daily active user, DAU, and monthly active users, MAUs, represent average number and unique users engaging with our GlocalMe service on a daily and monthly basis, respectively. Those metrics record robust growth in the second quarter. Average DAUs in the second quarter were 376,376, representing an increase of 13.3% from 332,323 in the second quarter of 2025. GlocalMe IoT, GlocalMe SIM and GlocalMe Life all achieved substantial growth with average DAUs up 277.3%, 132% and 801.6%, respectively, for the same period last year. Average DAU from our GlocalMe MeowGo business declined by 7.3% year-over-year.
Average MAUs were 744,966, representing an increase of 6.6% from 698,862 in the second quarter of 2025. Average MAUs from our GlocalMe IoT, GlocalMe SIM and GlocalMe Life business line saw increase of 210%, 53.8% and 599.7%, respectively, from the same period last year. Average MAU from our GlocalMe MeowGo business decreased by 10.1% year-over-year. In the second quarter of 2026, average DATs were 341,511 with 12,763 owned by the company and 328,748 not owned by the company, representing an increase of 7.4% from the second quarter of 2025. During the quarter, 56.3% of DATs were from uCloudlink 1.0 international data connectivity service and 43.7% were from uCloudlink 2.0 local data connectivity service.
In June 2026, the average daily data usage per terminal was 1.5 gigabyte. Average MATs in the second quarters were 306,382 (sic) [ 706,382 ], representing an increase of 6.5% from 663,197 in the second quarter of 2025. Growth was driven by strong momentum across our 3 new growth engines with average MATs from GlocalMe IoT, GlocalMe SIM, GlocalMe Life, increasing 93.6%, 35.4% and 843.2%, respectively, from the same period last year. Average MAT from GlocalMe MeowGo business decreased by 5.7% year-over-year. Following the stable growth last year, PetPhone continued to gain traction with user adoption and engagement increasing further during the quarter.
In the second quarter, average DAU and MAUs were 1,519 and 1,845, respectively, while average DATs and MATs for PetPhone reached 507 and 1,028, reflecting the growing traction of this new offering. As of June 30, 2026, the company had 212 patents with 184 approved and 28 pending approval, and a pool of SIM cards from 398 MNOs globally. Total revenue from the second quarter 2026 were USD 18.2 million, representing a decrease of 5.9% from USD 19.4 million in the same period 2025. Total revenue across different business lines were as follows: GlocalMe MeowGo business, USD 15.5 million (sic) [ USD 15.4 million ], representing a decrease of 13.1% from USD 17.9 million in the second quarter of 2025.
GlocalMe SIM business, USD 1.3 million, representing an increase of 78% from USD 0.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. GlocalMe IoT business, USD 0.8 million, representing an increase of 392.4% from USD 0.2 million in the second quarter of 2025. GlocalMe Life business, USD 0.5 million, representing a decrease of 21.1% from the USD 0.6 million in the second quarter 2025. PetPhone business, USD 0.2 million, representing an increase of 1,527.3% from USD 0.01 million in the second quarter of 2025. Revenue from service were USD 13.3 million, representing a decrease of 9.2% from USD 14.6 million in the same period 2025.
Revenue from service contributed to 72.9% of total revenue during the second quarter 2026 compared to 75.5% in the same period last year. Geographically speaking, during the second quarter 2026, Japan contributed 36%, mainland China contributed 30.3%, North Americas contributed 13.5% and other countries and regions contributed the remaining 20.2% compared to 33.6%, 33.2%, 15.3% and 17.9%, respectively, in the same period 2025. Our gross profit was USD 9.2 million compared to USD 10.2 million in the same period of 2025. Overall gross margins in the second quarter of 2026 was 50.2% compared to 52.8% in the same period 2025. Gross margins on service were 59.1% in the second quarter 2026 compared to 56.6% in the same period 2025.
Excluding share-based compensation, total operating expenses were USD 11.5 million compared to USD 10.1 million in the same period 2025. Net loss in the second quarter 2026 was USD 3 million compared to net income of USD 0.7 million in the same period 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was negative USD 1.8 million in the second quarter 2026 compared to a positive USD 1.4 million in the same period of 2025. For the second quarter of 2026, we record an operating cash outflow of USD 3 million compared to an outflow of USD 0.9 million in the same period 2025.
For the same period — second quarter 2026, our capital expenditure were USD 0.04 million compared to USD 0.2 million in the same period 2025. Turning to balance sheet items. Our cash and cash equivalents were USD 25.2 million as of June 30, 2026, compared to USD 28 million as of March 31, 2026. We continue strengthening our financial position, and we believe we’re well positioned to drive growth in our business. Turning to our outlook. For the third quarter 2026, we expect total revenue to be between USD 19 million and USD 22 million, representing a decreased of 10.4% to an increase of 3.8% compared to same period of 2025.
For the full year 2026, we now expect total revenue to be in the range of USD 75 million to USD 85 million compared with the range of USD 85 million to USD 100 million we previously announced. We are revising our full year’s guidance in line of persistent macroeconomic challenge and global trade headwinds, which have had and may continue to have a broader impact across industries. These estimates reflect our current view on market and operating conditions and customer demand, which are subject to change. With that, operator, let’s open it for Q&A.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Theodore O’Neill with Litchfield Hills Research.
Theodore O’Neill: I have 2 questions this morning. The first is about memory chips and sort of the supply chain and semiconductors in general. You cited here, which everyone has been seeing is memory chip cost increases. So what are you doing to ameliorate that? And are you seeing other issues in — other supply chain issues in the semiconductor area as well?
Chaohui Chen: Yes, I think there are several impacts because I think the supply chain for chipset and AI volume demand for supply chain in China. For the memory chip, everyone know it’s almost 5 to 10x increase. It impacts our sales price for our consumers — our customers. So in the early quarter, we had — we increased more storage, try to offset the price increasing first. That — you can see that’s why our cash flow was somewhat impact — somehow impacted because we increased the memory chip storage first. And the second, you can see we have to cover some cost — chipset costs increasing.
I think also in the second half year, we — just about several months later, we increased our sale price, but we have to consider I think the customer, I think, acceptance for the price. That’s number two. And number three, and also we have R&D revised for some large memory and expensive memory, we try to, I think, revise our hardware, try to minimize, I think, to reduce the memory requirements, it’s number three. And finally, and also we — also like PCB, like all these components extend — I think the period and the cost also is going up.
I think, indeed, this year is worse in supply chain for our product, for like MiFi, like our PetPhone to the — and our [ pet care ] to the customer.
Theodore O’Neill: My other question is about GlocalMe Life business. The — here in the prepared remarks here, GlocalMe Life business revenue decreased year-over-year, but the average daily active users increased over the same period. So were they spending this money? I was wondering if you could explain why one is down, the other one is up.
Yimeng Shi: Yes, sure. Yes, as this second quarter’s figures, the Life’s revenues increased in 2 parts. One part is the hardware’s Life delivery to our customer. So that hardware’s — the volume of hardware delivery in the second quarter is a little bit down a bit. So that account for the total revenues a little bit down. But we delivered Life products in the past series quarters on a stable growth volume. And this Life product used to the local scenarios, local mobile broadband scenarios like our product charge cables that were very well welcome in Japan’s local market. So the MAU figures reflect a cumulative active historical sold hardware of Life.
So that cumulative MAU metrics has increased dramatically compared with last year. The 2 figures — 2 metrics, one’s revenue reflects the second quarter scenarios. The MAUs reflects the cumulative, the whole historical selling stories. Yes.
Chaohui Chen: Yes. I have more comment about this because for Life, on this product, I think because I just mentioned, as you mentioned, the supply chain impact by the AI industry because of the memory chip and the PCB, et cetera. That’s why in the first quarter, before the price increase, we asked our customers to give more order. And so far, I think this is why in the first quarter, we got more bigger order and the second quarter order is a little bit lower. In the second quarter, you can see the order is a little bit lower. That’s because of the supply chain impact and the price increase.
But the total first half year, we compared to the first half last year, it’s increased dramatically.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I’ll now hand back to Daniel Gao for closing remarks.
Daniel Gao: Okay. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to uCloudlink’s Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website or speak to our Investor Relations firm, Christensen Advisory. We look forward to speaking with you again on our next quarterly call. Thank you.
Operator: That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Chaohui Chen: Thank you.
Yimeng Shi: Thank you.
Exclusive: Accounting AI startup Rillet reaches unicorn status with $1 billion valuation. Its founder says he wants to give CFOs back their weekends
Rillet, a two-year-old startup building what it calls the first truly AI-native accounting platform, has raised a $100 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation, the company told Fortune exclusively—joining the ranks of AI-era unicorns racing to unseat decades-old enterprise software giants.
The round, led by ICONIQ with participation from returning backers Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Oak HC/FT, plus new investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Global Equities, Battery Ventures, FirstMark, Scale Venture Partners and Creandum, marks Rillet’s third fundraise in the past year and pushes its total funding past $200 million. ICONIQ general partner Seth Pierrepont is joining Rillet’s board as well.
For Rillet co-founder and CEO Nicolas Kopp, the milestone is as much personal as financial. In an interview with Fortune, Kopp described the company’s mission as freeing CFOs from the drudgery that keeps them chained to spreadsheets long after everyone else has logged off.
“CFOs really struggle day to day. They can’t see their families on weekends,” Kopp said, because they have to spend so much time reviewing data and creating slideshows. Noting that he has a finance and accounting background himself and that his company is full of people with accounting backgrounds, he said he wants AI to change that—not by replacing finance professionals, but by acting as their tireless back office. “Our message is not that we’re coming after jobs. That’s just not correct,” he said, stressing that “domain expertise” is core the company’s mission: “We’re positioning AI as a helper to that individual and what they can achieve.”
From launch to unicorn in two years
Rillet’s rise has been fast even by startup standards. Kopp said the company launched publicly roughly two years ago, raised a Series A led by Sequoia last summer, then closed a Series B just weeks later—a round that saw new annual recurring revenue double quarter over quarter. The company says it doubled its new ARR again in the three months leading into this latest raise, and now serves more than 600 customers.
Those customers include some of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world—Neuralink, Skild AI and Mercor among them—alongside a growing share of decidedly non-tech businesses. Roughly 40% of Rillet’s customer base now sits outside the tech and AI sectors, Kopp said, spanning industries as varied as waste recycling and movie studios, describing the shift as evidence that AI-native finance tools are crossing into the broader U.S. economy. “That’s been really cool to see,” he said.
Mercor, in particular, has become a marquee reference customer: According to the company, its finance team is using Rillet’s AI agents to manage a business scaling past $2 billion in annual recurring revenue with a headcount of just three.
“Rillet is the clear leader in AI-native accounting infrastructure,” Pierrepont said in a press release announcing the fundraise. “What stands out is how customers actually run on it—multibillion-dollar businesses operating with finance teams a tenth the traditional size, closing their books continuously.”
Taking on the legacy giants
Rillet’s pitch to the market is direct: Legacy enterprise resource planning systems—Oracle Fusion, SAP, Workday, Microsoft’s Great Plains and NetSuite among them—were built for a pre-AI era, and are increasingly vulnerable to a challenger built from scratch around artificial intelligence.
“Some of these giants that seemed untouchable” are now facing serious disruption, Kopp said, describing a wave of enterprise customers ripping out legacy systems in favor of Rillet’s platform. The core distinction Kopp draws is architectural. Traditional ERP systems, he said, were designed for humans to input and review data—a workflow that leaves finance chiefs “dragged down into the day-to-day minutiae of numbers” instead of focusing on strategy. Rillet, by contrast, is built “agent-first,” with AI systems capable of running hundreds of operations in parallel, executing much of the manual accounting work that traditionally consumed finance teams’ time.
That shift, Kopp argues, doesn’t just save time: it produces cleaner, more consistent financial data than human-run processes typically allow, while creating what he calls a complete audit trail. “Proving out the work layer is mission-critical for enterprise readiness,” Kopp said, arguing that Rillet is the only system that can combine deterministic accounting data with AI agents completing complex, end-to-end work in the market today.
Rillet has paired that pitch with credibility-building moves in the accounting establishment. Earlier this year, the company launched an alliance with EY for AI-native finance transformation, and it says it now partners with more than half of the Accounting Today top 20 CPA firms.
The AI acceleration
Kopp traces much of Rillet’s recent momentum to rapid improvements in underlying AI models. Accounting, he noted, is “traditionally a very old, stodgy category”—one where AI has emerged as an unexpected catalyst. “Especially in the last six months, things started lighting on fire in a good way,” he said, describing tasks that once took a human a full day now taking a couple of minutes. This frees up time not for job loss, but for higher-level strategic work, he added.
That acceleration comes as the accounting profession faces a separate, slower-moving crisis: fewer graduates entering finance and accounting careers. Kopp sees that talent gap as part of the opportunity. He argued that AI agents can help make up for a shrinking pipeline of human accountants even as business complexity—from pricing changes to competitive pressure—continues to increase.
Rillet’s own product development has sped up in step with its AI capabilities, according to Kopp. He pointed to instances where the company’s customer support team (many of them with accounting training) has shipped feature requests within two to three hours of a customer raising them, as engineers increasingly build tools in direct collaboration with the company’s in-house accountants. “That wasn’t possible six to 12 months ago.”
For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
Allegiant Announces Nine New Nonstop Routes, Expanding Spring Travel Options
Allegiant Announces Nine New Nonstop Routes
Allegiant has added nine new nonstop routes, expanding its network with additional affordable travel options to popular leisure destinations across Florida. Seven of those routes are hyper-seasonal, tailored to meet peak spring travel demand during key local travel periods. Additionally, Allegiant is adding a new year-round route and a seasonal route to connect customers to the Orlando area.
The year-round route between Cincinnati, Ohio via Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) and Orlando, Florida via Orlando International Airport (MCO) begins Feb. 12, 2027, with introductory one-way fares as low at $49.
The seasonal route between Grand Forks, North Dakota via Grand Forks International Airport (GFK) and Sanford, Florida via Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) begins Feb. 10, 2027, and will operate through April 17, 2027, with introductory one-way fares as low as $69.
Allegiant will also introduce seven hyper-seasonal routes in February 2027, providing additional nonstop options during the peak spring travel period.
The new routes between Boston, Massachusetts via Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and the following cities include:
- Sanford, Florida via Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) beginning Feb. 13, 2027, operating through April 24, 2027.
- Punta Gorda, Florida via Punta Gorda Airport (PGD) beginning Feb. 13, 2027, operating through April 24, 2027.
- St. Pete-Clearwater, Florida via St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) beginning Feb. 13, 2027, operating through April 24, 2027.
The new routes between Providence, Rhode Island via Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD) and the following cities include:
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida via Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) beginning Feb. 13, 2027, operating through April 24, 2027.
- Sanford, Florida via Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) beginning Feb. 13, 2027, operating through April 25, 2027.
- Sarasota, Florida via Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) beginning Feb. 13, 2027, operating through April 24, 2027.
And service between Fort Lauderdale, Florida via Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Portsmouth, New Hampshire via Portsmouth International Airport (PSM) begins Feb. 20, 2027, operating through May 1, 2027.
Tickets for all newly announced routes are now available. Flight days, times and the lowest fares can be found at Allegiant.com.
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Sanders Bill Would Ban Social Security Garnishment For Defaulted Student Loans
Key Points
- New bill proposal would ban the garnishment of Social Security income for defaulted student loan collections.
- More than 9 million Americans are currently in default on their student loans, with an estimated 450,000 seniors.
- Collection activity has already resumed, with more garnishments and offsets to come.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced on August 17 that he will introduce the Stop Social Security Garnishment Act of 2026, a bill that would permanently bar the federal government from seizing Social Security payments to collect defaulted federal student loans. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) are cosponsoring the bill, which comes as more than 9 million borrowers are in default (nearly 1 in 4 Americans with federal student loans).
The bill itself (PDF File) amends Title IV of the Higher Education Act to add a new Section 493E, which states that no payments due under the Social Security Act can be offset under the federal debt collection statute when a borrower defaults on a federal student loan. The protection would cover retirement benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance, and would take effect immediately if the bill passes.
Why It Matters
Under the Treasury Offset Program, the government can currently take up to 15% of a monthly Social Security check to collect a defaulted student loan, as long as the borrower is left with at least $750 per month (Congress set this level in 1996 and never indexed to inflation). Senator Warren has estimated that roughly 450,000 seniors in default could lose over $2,000 per year in benefits if offsets resume at full scale.
The population at risk is not small. More than 3 million Americans over age 62 hold student loan debt, and older borrowers are one of the fastest-growing segments of student loan holders. Many are still paying on loans taken out for themselves or for their children through Parent PLUS loans.
Sanders’ fact sheet notes that over 40% of older workers have no retirement savings, nearly half of seniors live on less than $30,000 a year, and more than 1 in 3 Social Security recipients with student loans depend on their benefits to get by.
For borrowers in that position, a 15% offset can be the difference between making rent and missing it.
What The Bill Does
According to the fact sheet from Sanders’ office, the legislation goes further than past garnishment protections by writing the ban into the Higher Education Act itself. The bill:
- Prohibits the federal government from garnishing any Social Security payments, including Social Security Disability Insurance, to collect student loan debt
- Protects older adults from forced collections on defaulted federal loans
- Ensures beneficiaries keep full access to their checks for healthcare, medicine, and groceries
Notably, the fact sheet points out that an estimated 1 in 5 Social Security beneficiaries with student loans may already qualify for a disability discharge but have never received it — meaning many borrowers facing a garnishment may have student debt that should have been forgiven.
The Collections Backdrop
The bill responds to a collections machine that has been restarting in stages. The Department of Education resumed involuntary collections in May 2025 after a five-year pause, then walked back Social Security offsets in June 2025 following public pressure.
Since then, wage garnishment has been slated to restart, and the Treasury Department has taken over student loan collections from the Education Department, putting the agency that runs the offset program in charge of the debt itself.
We’ve heard from some partners that collections has already restarted on defaulted HEAL loans and FFEL loans, and that collections on defaulted Direct loans will resume soon. In fact, some Redditors have recently posted about their loans being sent to collections.
Sanders’ office frames the bill as a response to the default surge following the end of pandemic-era protections and the SAVE plan’s collapse. The fact sheet cites data showing half of beneficiaries who had a check garnished over a defaulted loan skipped a doctor’s visit or went without a prescription because of cost.
How This Connects
Social Security offsets sit at the intersection of two problems we track closely: the record default cliff and the growing number of borrowers carrying student loan debt into retirement. With the average undergraduate borrower taking 17 years to repay, debt that follows borrowers to age 62 and beyond is now a structural issue of the system, not an edge case.
The bill faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Senate, and no committee action has been scheduled. Watch for whether it picks up bipartisan cosponsors, whether the Treasury Department restarts Social Security offsets this fall alongside wage garnishment, and whether the legislation gets attached to a larger package.
Editor: Colin Graves
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