🐂 Beef Prices Are Rising

In today’s newsletter I discuss how beef prices are rising, Amazon is making a cell phone (again), we’ve lost a true legend Chuck Norris, Uber and Rivian signed a $1.25 billion dollar deal for 50,000 robotaxis, Meta trying to convince stars from TikTok and YouTube to start posting their content on Facebook, Elon Musk’s Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI are launching a massive joint venture that they are calling a Terafab AI chip manufacturing plant, Mastercard is acquiring the stablecoin startup BVNK for $1.8 billion dollars, and Max Verstappen won his first endurance racing....before they took it away from him

Let’s get into it!

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🐂 Beef Prices Are Rising

Right now in the U.S. 1 pound of beef costs a record $7.85 dollars per pound as of March 2026, and that’s for a pound of beef that’s 80/20, as in it’s made up of 20% fat, unlike that 96% fat free beef that my kids will only eat, but I digress. That price is up 72% from the $4.63 dollars per pound consumers were paying just 6 years ago, or in 2020 for those of you like me who are math challenged.

Wholesale beef prices are expected to rise another 6.9% in 2026, after gaining 13.9% in 2025. Families are feeling the weight of this surge in beef prices at the checkout, and they’re not happy. But what can they do? The only real option is to choose a fattier cut, but then you’re only saving like $.50 a pound, and making a short-term cost savings trade-off today with the high cholesterol and clogged arteries you’ll end up with 20 years from now. Those aren’t really options I want to choose from.

You know who’s not upset at all with higher prices of beef? Cattle ranchers, and companies like Omaha Steaks who are anticipating that the price of ground beef will hit $10 dollars per pound by September 2026. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS to economics geeks like me, recently reported that while general food prices rose by 2.4 percent over the last year, the price of beef outpaced that by a wide margin! Ground beef prices have surged nearly 20 percent during the last year. It’s getting much harder to find affordable protein options for dinner. And guess what? You’re probably just gonna have to get used to it, and you can thank Mother Nature for that.

The price of beef began climbing 5 years ago when a severe drought hit states in the Southwest, like Texas and Kansas. Ranchers didn’t have enough hay or water to keep their animals healthy, so they had to sell off their herds. What happens when you have too much supply, and not enough demand? Prices typically go down, but in this case they didn’t. How come? Well, the meat packing industry is dominated by 4 major companies, including Tyson Foods and Cargill. Those companies were still dealing with the impact from the Covid pandemic’s labor issues, so even though there was a lot of beef available, there weren't enough workers to process it all, so the price for 1 pound of beef remained high instead of going down because of the oversupply of beef in the marketplace.

You know what happened to ranchers’ herds when they slaughtered most of their cattle? They no longer had the livestock to rebuild their herds. The typical life cycle for cattle is around 2 years from the time of conception to the day the cattle is taken to be slaughtered and turned into the beef you buy at the grocery store. That long lead-time is why beef costs so much at the grocery store right now. Cattle can’t be raised any faster, so when there’s more demand for beef prices go up, while ranchers have to weigh the risk of investing in growing their herds and hoping the price of beef 2 years from now will be profitable. Spoiler alert: it usually isn’t.

Right now the size of the nation’s cattle herd has dropped to 86.2 million heads of cattle, which is the lowest level the country has seen in 75 years. It’s just gotten so expensive to bring a head of cattle to market, and the risks have only seemed to grow. According to researchers at Oklahoma State University, the herd of new calves, or baby cows, was only 32.9 million head of cattle. That’s the smallest number recorded since the early 1940’s. There just aren’t enough calves being born to replace the ones being sent to market. And that’s a problem. The number of beef cows fell by 1% to 27.6 million head of cattle in 2026. It’ll take a long time for the industry to grow these numbers back up to a point where prices will go down for consumers at the supermarket.

Remember how I mentioned a few minutes ago that the meat packing industry is dominated by 4 major companies? Those 4 companies control 85% of the meat packing market. Right now the current market is very challenging for meat processors, especially the 800-pound gorilla of the industry Tyson Foods, which reported an operating loss of $319 million in its beef segment for the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

On February 6, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to help lower the price consumers pay for beef, by allowing an additional 80,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings to enter the U.S. market from Argentina without any tariffs. While this sounds like a lot of meat it’s actually less than 1% that consumers purchase each year. While consumers cheered this news, even though it did nothing to actually lower the prices they are paying at the grocery store, cattle ranchers in the U.S. weren’t happy.

It seems a little counterintuitive to allow for more imports from another country, which will directly impact American cattle ranchers. I thought we were putting America first? Did I get that wrong? By importing more beef from Argentina that increases supply, which will drive down the prices of beef that U.S. cattle ranchers will be able to get when they bring their cattle to market.

It’s not like U.S. cattle ranchers need something else to worry about. The price of feeding cattle has reached an all-time high in 2026. The Producer Price Index for hay, which is apparently a thing, reached a record level of 334.59 at the beginning of 2026, and it’s only going up from here. Once again, thank Mother Nature. Wildfires and dry weather in the South West have made grazing land hard to find for many cattle ranchers. The head of the Meat Institute, Julianna Potts, says that feed prices are a major burden for the whole cattle industry. Ranchers are spending much more just to keep their animals fed, and while they’re getting more for bringing their cattle to market it’s pretty much a wash. That’s not exactly helping U.S. cattle ranchers to get ahead.

Then we have the latest war in the middle east: Iran edition. This new war in Iran is having a massive impact on fertilizer prices, which will directly impact U.S. cattle ranchers. It’s almost a perfect storm if you wanted to increase the price consumers are paying at the grocery store. I thought I heard some politicians say they were going to bring down the price of groceries?

Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which has stopped ⅓ of the global fertilizer trade from getting to market, or around 16 million tons of fertilizer. Supply and demand people! Less fertilizer means higher prices, which means it’ll cost more for U.S. cattle ranchers to raise their herds, which means U.S. consumers will be paying more for beef at the grocery store for the next few years at a minimum, and mostly likely they’ll be facing increased beef prices well into the future as a result of the war in Iran. I thought we weren’t going to get into any more wars? Funny how those promises keep getting broken.

Want to know something else that comes from countries in the Middle East that can’t be exported right now? Urea. No, not the kind that comes from pee. I’m talking about the colorless, odorless, synthesized form of urea that is produced in massive quantities by reacting ammonia and carbon dioxide under high pressure. Countries like Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in the Middle East export nearly half of all global urea, which is a key ingredient in fertilizer. You see the problem there?

Urea prices just jumped from $475 dollars per ton to $680 dollars per ton in the last 2 weeks since the war in Iran began. That’s a 44% price increase, and it’s not done rising. If you’re starting to get the feeling that world-wide supply chains are breaking down, then you’re not wrong.

So literally everything is getting more expensive for U.S. cattle ranchers to raise their herds. Like I said, it’s almost like it's a perfect storm that’s resulting in increased prices consumers pay at the grocery store.

If you think that paying the current record price of $7.85 dollars per pound of ground beef at the grocery store is a lot, then just wait a few months when you’re paying more than $10 a pound for those burgers you’re grilling on the barbecue this Summer. Good times!

Quick Hits

📱 Business

Amazon is jumping back into the smartphone market, even though their last attempt was a total disaster. Amazon launched their first attempt at a smartphone with their original Fire Phone, which resulted in a $170 million dollars loss for Amazon. Now Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon, is pushing a new device code named "Transformer." The new phone has been designed to replace traditional apps with AI, which will convert users into customers who will hopefully buy more products on Amazon.com without opening an app - all by using voice commands through Amazon’s new Alexa Plus.

Call me skeptical, but if I can already do nearly everything on my Android Google Pixel phone using Gemini, why would I need to buy Amazon’s new Transformer smartphone?

🥋 Entertainment

The entertainment world is mourning that loss of a true legend. Chuck Norris has passed away at the age of 86. Chuck Norris was a massive martial artist actor who built a net worth of $70 million dollars throughout his incredible career. Chuck Norris might not have reached the same box office heights as Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone during his storied career, but he paved the way for action stars to be successful. Chuck Norris became a cultural icon for not only his starring role in the TV show Walker Texas Range, but also his dedication to martial arts.

The internet is littered with some of the most hysterical Chuck Norris jokes, but I think one of my favorite ones is "Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice."

Rest in power Chuck Norris.

🚕 Tech

The transportation world is shifting fast as Uber and Rivian announced a $1.25 billion dollar deal to put 50,000 robotaxis on the road. This partnership between Uber and Rivian goes a long way toward proving that the billions of dollars that companies like Uber, Google, and Tesla have been pouring into autonomous vehicles has been a smart bet.

Elon Musk, never one to like sharing the spotlight in the electric vehicle industry, highlighted what he is calling a major victory as the Tesla Semi truck has been winning over their toughest critics - truck drivers. Tesla’s new $250,000 dollars electric big rigs have been receiving rave reviews from veteran truck drivers, who especially love the center located seat and 360 view of the truck from cameras mounted all around the truck. Part of me thinks Elon Musk might have seen the future of the trucking industry (see what I did there?). 😉

📹 Social Media

The content creator economy is heating up! Meta is offering cash rewards to convince stars from TikTok and YouTube to start posting their content on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg rolled out their new Creator Fast Track program, which will pay content creators up to $3,000 dollars every month if they have more than 1 million followers on TikTok or YouTube, while creators with at least 100K followers can still take home $1,000 dollars per month just for sharing 15 Reels.

As a content creator myself, there’s one thing I know:

Content
Rules
Everything
Around
Me

🤖 AI

Elon Musk’s Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI are launching a massive joint venture that they are calling a Terafab AI chip manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas. The chip fab will build semiconductors for Tesla’s vehicles and Optimus robots, SpaceX’s rockets and spaceships, and xAI’s data centers.

Analysts estimate that in order to build the Terafab chip manufacturing plant it’ll cost between $20-$25 billion dollars for the initial construction and equipment during the startup phase, and then it’s anyone’s guess how many more billions of dollars it’ll cost to run the plant once it’s complete. Elon Musk has described the project as a massive joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, that is intended to consolidate every stage of the semiconductor production princess, including design, fabrication, and testing of AI chips under one massive roof. The Terafab will ultimately manufacture 1 terawatt of chip output per year.

If you’re thinking this is a lot of money to spend to build AI chips, then you’re not wrong, but now imagine if they also begin selling their chips and start competing with the likes of Nvidia and AMD. I can’t wait to watch this competition!

🪙 Crypto

Mastercard is acquiring the stablecoin startup BVNK for $1.8 billion dollars. The deal will allow Mastercard to integrate BVNK’s stablecoin cryptocurrency payment solutions into Mastercard’s global network, which handles trillions of dollars in volume. This huge deal highlights how traditional financial giants are willing to spend billions of dollars to secure a spot in the future of crypto finance. It’s not hyperbole to say this is a bold play by Mastercard that positions them at the center of the digital economy.

🏁 Sports

Racing addict Max Verstappen won his first race in the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series, which is a premier endurance racing league that holds a 438.69 mile, 4 hour long race at the massive 15.135 mile long Nordschleife circuit located in Nürburg, Germany. 

Max Verstappen drove a Mercedes AMG GT3 for the Winward Racing team, along with fellow drivers Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon. The team had a dominating performance, and Max Verstappen crossed the finish line 59 seconds ahead of the 2nd place car.

Unfortunately, soon after winning the race, Max Verstappen’s team was disqualified for breaking the rules that a race team can only use 6 sets of tires for qualifying and racing. The team made a mistake and used 7 sets of tires, giving them an unfair advantage over the other drivers.

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.