CNBC Daily Open: Generic problems, AI valuations and earnings on tap

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London.

A busy day for investors with a fresh tariff threat from the White House, more moving and shaking in the AI space, tension in Iran and another massive set of earnings on Wall Street.

Read on!

The U.S. and China are reportedly set to hold AI talks in September, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the White House later that month.

This comes as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration will look into whether Chinese AI models have been distilled from American models.

Speaking to Fox News, he said: "If we see, especially that overseas models are stealing from our great companies, we have the ability to sanction them because of this theft."

Meanwhile, Samsung is reportedly considering a fresh investment in French AI darling Mistral. According to the Financial Times, the South Korean group could inject 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) in the new round, valuing Mistral at around 20 billion euros. Samsung declined to comment on the report, while Mistral had yet to respond.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Iran is not taking peace talks seriously.

Speaking at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting in the Philippines, he said: "The problem we're having right now is that they're not serious about talks. If they're serious, we're serious. If they're not, then we will do what is necessary to protect our interest and also the interest of our allies."

These comments come as U.S. forces struck targets in Iran for an 11th straight night, with Central Command seeking to "continue degrading Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

Investors will look to cut through the geopolitical noise on a busy earnings day, particularly for Wall Street, where giants Alphabet and Tesla will report after the bell.

Futures are holding steady ahead of those releases.

Google and YouTube parent Alphabet has risen 4.5.% in the last three months, but the stock is 15% off its May highs.

Meanwhile, options traders are betting Tesla could see its biggest post-earnings move in a year when the electric auto giant reports on Wednesday.

— Leonie Kidd

These Japanese AI winners don’t make chips. They make toilets, glass fiber and seasoning

At a time when investor attention has been on the semiconductor industry, some hidden gems with businesses quite dissimilar to high tech have turned out to be market winners, riding the AI boom.

Toto is best known for high-end toilets, Nittobo makes textiles and glass fiber, and Ajinomoto makes MSG seasoning. Their shares have gained 78%, 63% and 61%, respectively, this year, as they make use of their core technologies to benefit from the AI supply chain.

— Lim Hui Jie