AMD’s big day, Anthropic-SpaceX deal, the jet fuel crisis and more in Morning Squawk

Happy Thursday. If you live in the Sun Belt, you could soon be on the road next to a driverless big rig. Distribution giant McLane is planning to deploy unsupervised, self-driving trucks on routes in the region by the end of the year.

Stock futures are slightly higher this morning after another positive day on Wall Street.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

Advanced Micro Devices wowed Wall Street yesterday with a strong first-quarter report and a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter. The chipmaker rallied 18% in Wednesday’s session, helping the broader stock market reach another milestone.

Here’s what to know:

Fast-food giant McDonald’s beat top- and bottom-line expectations for the first-quarter this morning, reporting same-store sales growth of 3.8% in the period. Shares are up more than 3% before the bell.

In a statement, CEO Chris Kempczinski said the results prove that the company is able to “drive results even in a challenging environment.” Other restaurant companies have said that their sales slowed in March as consumers felt pressure from rising gas prices.

As CNBC’s Amelia Lucas notes, McDonald’s has leaned into value meals to keep diners coming back. It’s also trying to win over customers with marketing campaigns, featuring tie-in meals with brands like “KPop Demon Hunters” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

New government data shows U.S. airlines spent 56% more on jet fuel in March as the Iran war crippled supply and sent prices soaring. In total, domestic airlines shelled out more than $5 billion on fuel in the month.

In Asia and Europe, jet fuel shortages could disrupt the upcoming summer travel season. Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” yesterday, Matt Smith, Kpler’s director of commodity research, likened the fuel deficit to “a slow motion car crash.”

Yet while energy prices spike, quarterly reports from Disney and Uber yesterday both painted the picture of a resilient consumer still willing to spend on vacations and rides. Disney reported a 7% increase in revenue from its parks and cruises division, while Uber posted revenue growth in both its delivery and ride-hailing units.

In a new deal announced yesterday, Anthropic will use all of the compute capacity at SpaceX’s Colossus 1 data center in Tennessee. The AI startup said the deal will help improve capacity for its paid Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers. Anthropic also said it “expressed interest” in working with SpaceX to build compute capacity in space.

Hours earlier, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said at a conference that the company has had “difficulties” meeting compute demand. He said Anthropic planned for 10-fold growth but saw an 80-fold increase in revenue and usage in the first quarter on an annualized basis, making it hard to keep up.

As CNBC’s Ashley Capoot notes, the agreement between the two companies came as somewhat of a surprise considering SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s previous criticisms of Anthropic. Musk has asked whether there’s a “more hypocritical company than Anthropic” and wrote in February that the startup “hates Western Civilization.”

FanDuel CEO Amy Howe has been ousted from the sportsbook after five years, sources told CNBC. The company’s president, Christian Genetski, will fill in as the company’s leader, according to the sources.

As CNBC’s Contessa Brewer notes, Howe led FanDuel during a period of rapid growth in sports gambling and prediction markets. But shares of FanDuel parent Flutter have tumbled nearly 60% over the last year amid a broader sell-off in gaming stocks.

In a goodbye note obtained by CNBC, Howe encouraged employees to “use your voice.” Howe, who was the only female CEO of a major gambling company, also told her women colleagues to “keep supporting each other and raising the bar.” 

A public hearing notice posted yesterday showed Elon Musk plans to spend billions of dollars on a Texas manufacturing plant that would make chips for his companies. Here’s how much it could cost:

• First-phase cost: At least $55 billion
• Full buildout cost: Up to $119 billion

— CNBC’s Katie Tarasov, Lola Murti, Liz Napolitano, Tobias Burns, Sean Conlon, Samantha Subin, Leslie Josephs, Spencer Kimball, Yun Li, Ashley Capoot, Kate Rooney, Contessa Brewer, Lora Kolodny and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.

Davis Giangiulio assisted in the production of this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.