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The infrastructure supporting this AI craze is, predictably, becoming quite the battleground. Broadcom (AVGO 4.11%) seems to be positioning itself rather cleverly. While Nvidia continues to enjoy a moment in the sun – a rather garish one, if you ask me – a growing number of those who actually own the data centers – the hyperscalers, as they’re called – are beginning to eye alternatives. Especially when it comes to inference, which is, essentially, the cost of having these machines actually answer questions. It adds up, you know.

Now, your average language model – the ones currently busy composing poetry or explaining the offside rule – won’t suddenly cease to function because of a few extra dollars on the barrel of crude. It will, blissfully unaware of macroeconomic forces, continue to generate text, presumably. But the companies behind those digital brains? They’re about to encounter a rather inconvenient truth. (It’s not that the machines are becoming sentient and demanding higher energy rations, though that’s a scenario we’re definitely modeling. Just in case.)

The projected revenue for this industry, McKinsey suggests, could swell to $1.6 trillion by 2030, rising from a substantial $775 billion in 2024. This is not simply a number; it is a harbinger, a promise of a world ever more intricately woven with the threads of digital existence. The demand, naturally, is driven by the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence – a phantom limb of human intellect, growing stronger with each passing iteration.

Logos Global Management is a healthcare-focused hedge fund with a reputation for concentrated, research-intensive investment strategies. Their decision to materially increase their Immunovant stake is noteworthy, given the inherent risks associated with clinical-stage biotechnology companies. While institutional activity does not automatically constitute a buy signal, it serves as a prompt for further investigation.

In ’24 alone, Berkshire shed about $134 billion in equities. Just dumped it. Apple, Bank of America, even Amazon took a haircut – a 77% trim on the latter in the fourth quarter. That’s not pruning, that’s a shearing. Meanwhile, the cash hoard grew. From $128.6 billion in ’22, it ballooned to that obscene $373.3 billion. It wasn’t just caution; it was a fortress being built, brick by slow, deliberate brick.

It is not merely a manufacturer of automobiles, but a constructor of dreams—and, more importantly, a curator of scarcity. The conventional wisdom dictates volume, a relentless pursuit of economies of scale. Ferrari operates under a different theorem. It understands that desire, like a well-tended flame, requires oxygen—and that oxygen is limitation. A forgotten text, De Rerum Scarcitate attributed to the Alexandrian scholar Philo Mechanicus, posited that true value resides not in abundance, but in the exquisite tension between longing and attainment. Ferrari, it seems, has internalized this ancient principle.

A judicious investor, however, isn’t swayed by such theatrical displays. He understands that these temporary lapses of faith present opportunities—a chance to acquire assets at prices that, while not precisely gifts, are at least…reasonable. And amongst the currently distressed progeny of the AI boom, one name, predictably, and yet still satisfyingly, rises above the fray.

Two entities currently dominate this particular domain of commerce. The first, Starbucks (SBUX 1.06%), presents itself as a ubiquitous “third place”—a refuge between the domestic sphere and the exigencies of labor. A curious ambition, given the inherent impermanence of all things. The second, Dutch Bros (BROS 1.81%), is a more recent apparition, a chain of drive-through establishments proliferating with a speed that recalls the spread of rumor. Each seeks to capture a larger share of this caffeinated devotion. The question, then, is not merely which stock to acquire, but which illusion to embrace.

Ripple, the entity behind XRP, appears to be attempting the construction of a financial services business, utilising the XRP Ledger as a sort of cryptographic scaffolding. A rather ambitious undertaking, one might observe, given the established and rather robust nature of existing financial institutions. Their recent acquisition of Hidden Road, for a sum exceeding a billion dollars, suggests a certain…determination. They now possess a brokerage clearing some three trillion dollars annually, all of which they intend to shunt onto the aforementioned ledger. Simultaneously, spot XRP exchange-traded funds have attracted a little over a billion dollars – a respectable sum, though hardly enough to trouble the larger players.

Such turbulence, while unsettling for the faint of heart, presents opportunities. A discerning investor, unburdened by panic, may acquire solid holdings at prices that, a few months ago, would have seemed almost quaint. History, after all, demonstrates a tedious tendency for recovery, even in the face of spectacular folly.