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By the time the trading day had coughed up its last breath, the stock was down by more than 13%. A hefty chunk, that. Enough to make a grown investor frown, and perhaps nibble nervously on a biscuit.

Palantir, at its core, is a constructor of intelligences—a weaver of data into patterns legible to those who seek to decipher the future. Initially conceived as an instrument of statecraft—a digital panopticon for the discerning eye—it has extended its reach into the commercial realm. It offers, in effect, a simulacrum of understanding, a mirror reflecting the potential within the chaos of information. And like all mirrors, it distorts as much as it reveals.

To dedicate a mere $500 to Costco at this juncture? The proposition feels less like investment and more like a charmingly naive gesture, akin to offering a thimbleful of water to quench the thirst of the Pacific.

I’ve been hesitant to dive in headfirst with these ‘pure-play’ quantum companies. It all feels a bit… speculative. Like buying a timeshare in a virtual reality world. Possibly brilliant, probably a disaster. Years, potentially, before they actually generate revenue. It’s a bit unnerving. However, I’m starting to feel a tiny flicker of… optimism about IonQ (IONQ +8.98%). Yes, really. It’s a process.

It seems our friends at Amazon have been rather enthusiastically parting with the company’s funds, a process known, rather mundanely, as capital expenditure. A perfectly sensible activity, one would think, except that they’ve been doing it on a scale that’s caused a bit of a stir. The reason? Artificial Intelligence, naturally. The demand for this modern marvel has prompted a veritable spending spree – building data centres, designing silicon chips, and acquiring GPUs from Nvidia – a most ambitious undertaking, what!

Sandisk, you see, isn’t just making little chips. They’re making the brains of everything! Smartphones, PCs, those fancy self-driving cars that scare me…even those little fitness trackers that tell me how little I exercise. It’s everywhere! And it turns out, everything needs more storage. It’s like a national obsession. They’re the plumbing of the digital age, and believe me, nobody wants a clogged digital pipe! The edge device market – that’s your phones and computers, for those of you still using rotary dials – accounts for a whopping 55% of their revenue. A 63% jump year-over-year? That’s not growth, that’s a rocket launch!

By the closing bell, the stock price had, predictably, ceased its ascent. One wonders if the market, like a discerning physician, simply diagnosed a temporary reprieve rather than a genuine recovery.

Applied Materials (AMAT +8.03%) surged after a decent earnings report. Apparently, making the stuff that makes other stuff is still a viable business model. Who knew? And Rivian Automotive (RIVN +26.64%)? Oh, bless their electric little hearts. Up 26.64% to $17.73 after beating expectations. It’s like watching a puppy win a dog show – you’re happy for them, but also deeply suspicious.

The SEC filing landed like a bad trip. Infini, a fund that once saw Baidu as a cornerstone, a shimmering promise of digital dominance, simply…pulled the plug. $4.4 million in value evaporated, a cold reminder that even in the booming Chinese market, fortunes can shift faster than a fentanyl-fueled nightmare. They didn’t just trim the position; they performed a complete lobotomy on their Baidu holdings. A brutal, clinical severing. The historical record will show a tidy transaction. I see a panicked retreat.

They’re saying the report will be out at the end of February. February! Like that’s some kind of guarantee. I swear, these companies deliberately make you wait. It’s a control thing. And everyone’s all excited about the “equity portfolio.” The equity portfolio! As if that’s the whole story. It’s insurance, it’s private holdings… it’s a whole system. But no, let’s focus on the stocks. It’s just… predictable.