Strait of Hormuz Reignites Cloudflare Cuts 20% of Workforce

F/A-18 carrier aircraft from USS George H.W. Bush struck the smokestacks of M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda with precision munitions, blocking a blockade breach. The U.S. military simultaneously struck Bandar Abbas and Khesm port facilities. On May 8, Brent traded between $100.53 and $104.07 per barrel, rising $3.62 from the previous close. While Trump asserts the ceasefire remains valid, Lloyd's List classified the strait as effectively closed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported April non-farm payrolls of 115,000 on May 8—more than double the consensus estimate of 55,000. Unemployment remained at 4.3%, while hourly wage gains came in at 3.6% year-over-year, below the 3.8% expectation. Nasdaq rose 1.71% and S&P 500 gained 0.5%, both reaching record highs. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 3 basis points to 4.362%, as inflation concerns took a backseat to peace expectations.

On May 7, Cloudflare announced its first-ever workforce reduction of 1,100 employees—approximately 20% of staff—despite Q1 revenue reaching a record $640 million, a 34% increase year-over-year. The company cited a 600% surge in internal AI usage over three months. Year-to-date tech layoffs have reached 286 incidents affecting 128,000 workers, averaging 1,002 job losses per day. Oracle eliminated 25,254 positions, Amazon cut approximately 30,000 over five months, and Microsoft saw roughly 125,000 voluntary departures—trends indicating workforce-to-AI-infrastructure reallocation.

Spirit Airlines halted all operations on May 3, entering liquidation—the largest U.S. airline bankruptcy in 25 years. The shutdown displaced 17,000 workers. A fleet of 114 Airbus A320-family aircraft (66 leased, 28 owned) dispersed across facilities. Key aircraft remained at Boston Logan and other hubs, with asset disposition accelerating this week.

Sierra, backed by Bret Taylor and led by Tiger Global and GV, raised $950 million, pushing its valuation from $10 billion to $15.8 billion in eight months, with ARR at $150 million. Chinese startup Moonshot AI, led by Meituan's Long-Z fund, closed a $2 billion round, crossing a $20 billion valuation and recording $200 million ARR in April. Anthropic signed an agreement to use the entirety of SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center compute—300+ megawatts and 220,000+ NVIDIA GPUs—coinciding with the general availability launch of Claude Opus 4.7.

CATL announced its next-generation Shenxing 3 LFP battery achieves 10–80% charge in 3 minutes 44 seconds and 10–90% in 6 minutes 27 seconds, directly challenging solid-state battery roadmaps. MG 4X, equipped with semi-solid batteries, arrived at Chinese dealerships on May 7 and officially launches May 11 as the first semi-solid production SUV. SAIC's SolidCore battery is scheduled for European expansion by year-end 2026.

As of May 8, the WHO documented 6 confirmed hantavirus cases, 9 suspected cases, and 3 deaths linked to cruise ship MV Hondius carrying 147 passengers and crew. The vessel is slated to enter quarantine in the Canary Islands on Sunday, with the U.S. and U.K. deploying evacuation aircraft. Snopes debunked social media claims of "first human-to-human transmission," citing documented Andes virus cases dating to 1996.