These payments, while hardly a fortune, can at least provide a temporary distraction from the general unpleasantness of the market. And, during periods of stagnation – or, as some optimists call them, “opportunities” – they offer a smidgen of momentum. One shouldn’t rely on it, naturally. But a little extra income never ruined anyone. Let’s examine two companies that, shall we say, have a history of not entirely collapsing.
Such heady themes took center stage at the illustrious Premiere 2026 gala hosted by KuCoin Institutional in the dazzling metropolis of Hong Kong. More than a hundred institutional clients and partners gathered, not to raise a toast to prosperity but to engage in a sobering assessment of how the industry might respond when the winds of sentiment shift and liquidity begins to constrict like a tightening noose.
They register names, host websites, the usual. They have servers, actual machines humming with electricity, which feels…substantial in a world increasingly made of air. It’s a business, a perfectly ordinary business, which is almost a novelty these days.
For years, Micron was dismissed as a cyclical bore – endlessly rising and falling with the whims of consumer gadgetry. How dreadfully predictable. But this AI business, you see, is forcing a re-evaluation. These tech behemoths – Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, even Tesla – are all dabbling in robots, self-driving cars, and other frightfully ambitious projects. They need processing, of course, but also a prodigious amount of memory. And memory, my dears, is Micron’s particular forte.
Amazon, Alphabet (Google, to you and me), Microsoft, Oracle, and Meta (Facebook, still) are all scrambling for server space. They’re building data centers at a rate that makes the ancient Romans look positively unambitious. Meta, in particular, is throwing everything it has at becoming an AI powerhouse. It’s a bit like watching a determined squirrel hoarding nuts for a winter that may or may not come, only the nuts are GPUs and the winter is… well, the future of everything, apparently. And while several companies stand to benefit from this spending spree, one stock, to my mind, looks particularly interesting.
Consider, if you will, Nu Holdings (NU 1.29%) and SoFi Technologies (SOFI +1.55%). These are not your grandfather’s banks – though one suspects a wise grandfather might approve. They have not simply kept pace with the market; they have outstripped it, leaving the lumbering giants in their wake. Over the past three years, they have not merely outperformed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100; they have positively danced around them, a delightful spectacle for the discerning investor.
Nvidia, a name now uttered with a reverence usually reserved for saints or successful generals, has become the unlikely beneficiary of this technological hysteria. Since late 2022, the company has accrued a market capitalization that would shame a small European principality – a truly remarkable feat, and one that invites a degree of scrutiny often absent in these giddy times.
One observes that companies which consistently share their prosperity are, as a general rule, companies of substance. They possess the temperament for restraint, the good sense to recognize that wealth, like wit, is best enjoyed when shared. And, naturally, they tend to reward those with the foresight to participate in their success.
Brookfield Renewable (BEP +2.15%) (BEPC +1.70%) has, through a process not entirely dissimilar to geological drift, accumulated a portfolio of assets. Hydroelectric dams, wind turbines, solar arrays – these are not solutions, merely points of convergence, locations where the current is momentarily captured and redirected. The company occupies an intersection, a precisely calculated point on a map of escalating demands, pressures to ‘decarbonize’ (a term freighted with an unspoken anxiety), and the need for a continuous, uninterrupted flow of energy – a demand that seems to exist outside the realm of reason.
Investors, naturally, are enthusiastic. A feverish optimism seems to grip the market whenever these titans are mentioned. But which is the better prospect? A question that occupies the minds of many, and yet, feels curiously… futile. Let us examine the particulars, not with the hope of finding a definitive answer, but simply to pass the time.