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The year 2021 witnessed a brief, almost feverish bloom for Snap, its stock ascending to a peak of approximately $83. But such heights, alas, proved unsustainable. The introduction of new privacy protocols by Apple, a company of considerable influence in these matters, cast a shadow over the entire ecosystem of app-based advertising. Suddenly, the precise tracking of user activity – the very lifeblood of targeted marketing – became considerably more difficult. Snap, deprived of this vital intelligence, found itself adrift, struggling to connect brands with their desired audiences.

Clearway Energy owns bits of the sun, the wind, and a few gas plants. They sell the electricity to folks who need it. Long-term contracts. Predictable income. It’s almost… comforting. They’re expecting their cash flow to grow at 7-8% a year until 2030. That’s what they say, anyway. They have a fancy relationship with a renewable energy developer. More projects coming. More cash, maybe. A 4.7% dividend yield. It’s not enough to retire on, but it’s a start. So it goes.

Philippe Laffont, managing Coatue Management, has consistently demonstrated a focus on companies positioned to benefit from disruptive technologies. Recent 13F filings reveal a recalibration of holdings within the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, characterized by both reductions in established positions and the emergence of a new lead holding.

Folks are gettin’ the vapors, see, thinkin’ these AI contraptions will upend the whole apple cart. They reckon these “agents,” as they call ’em, will do the work o’ honest folks, cuttin’ into profits and leavin’ everyone a bit poorer. Anthropic, a company makin’ these clever machines, has gone and built plugins for their “Claude” tool that can automate everything from sales pitches to legal mumbo-jumbo. It’s enough to make a man worry about his job, I tell ya.

The reason? Well, a few things. Valuations are high, naturally. Everyone always wants a bargain, but in the stock market, bargains are rarer than hen’s teeth. And then there’s the matter of tariffs. President Trump, you see, has a fondness for tariffs. It’s like a childhood hobby he’s decided to revisit in a rather significant way. He initially imposed these tariffs using something called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act – a name so cumbersome it feels like a legal challenge in itself. The Supreme Court, in a rare display of decisiveness, decided he’d overstepped the mark. But, never one to be deterred, he simply switched to a different, equally complicated act – Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. It’s a bit like patching a leak with a different type of duct tape. Yale estimates this shuffle has lowered the average tax on imports from 16% to 13.7%, which, while a reduction, doesn’t exactly solve the underlying issue.

Here, then, are two such instances, observed through the distortions of the current epoch, and offered not as recommendations for immediate enrichment, but as subjects for sober consideration.

Investing in these companies early can yield spectacular returns, assuming they don’t encounter any…unforeseen difficulties (like, say, accidentally creating a self-replicating protein that consumes all organic matter – it’s happened in simulations, you know). The risk, naturally, is substantial. So, how does one navigate this minefield of potential breakthroughs and equally potential disasters? The answer, as is so often the case, is to look for a company that’s already managed to avoid the most obvious pitfalls. One that’s, shall we say, demonstrated a minimal level of competence.