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The transaction, recorded against the backdrop of the closing quarter, reveals a trimming of approximately 75% of Shannon River’s InterDigital shares. One is tempted to interpret such a move as a harbinger of doubt, a premonition of unfavorable currents. However, the market, like a capricious landowner, often rewards the cautious, and sometimes, the merely lucky. InterDigital’s stock, it must be noted, has enjoyed a remarkable ascent these past three years – a staggering 397% gain, yielding a compound annual growth rate of 69.4%. Such exuberance, while pleasing to behold, rarely endures. It invites scrutiny, and, inevitably, correction.

One cannot help but ponder the motivations behind such a transaction. Was it merely a matter of arithmetic—a rebalancing of the portfolio, a search for more promising yields? Or did a deeper unease stir within the breast of the fund managers? Sonoco, a company rooted in the tangible world of paper and metal, has long provided a steady, if unspectacular, return. But in an age captivated by the ethereal promises of technology, such solidity may appear, to certain eyes, as a form of stagnation. The allure of rapid growth, of exponential returns, is a powerful force, and one that often eclipses the virtues of prudence and stability.

The spending on infrastructure required to support this AI fever is, frankly, vulgar. Five of the largest ‘hyperscalers’ – a term redolent of bloated ambition – have pledged a collective seven hundred billion dollars this year alone to expand their ‘cloud capacity.’ This sum, one notes, exceeds the gross domestic product of all but twenty-four nations. The beneficiaries will, predictably, be few. Nvidia (NVDA +1.74%) appears, at present, to be amongst them. They command approximately ninety percent of the market for graphics processing units – the very engines of this new digital age – a dominance achieved not merely through ingenuity, but through the shrewd construction of barriers to entry. Their CUDA software platform, one gathers, is where most of the foundational code is written, effectively holding the industry hostage. They have even begun to offer ‘end-to-end AI server solutions,’ which sounds suspiciously like selling shovels during a gold rush. Despite this success, the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just over 23.5, which, in the current climate, is almost… reasonable.

They dropped $203 million on this. Two-hundred-and-three million dollars. For a company whose stock was, let’s be honest, going nowhere fast. Down 2.6% over a year while the rest of the market was having a party. It’s like they saw a slightly dented can of soup on the shelf and decided it was a sound investment. I mean, people are buying this stuff?

Which, one is compelled to ask, is the lesser of the two evils? Let us, with a sigh, attempt to discern some pattern in the prevailing madness.