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The electric current, it seems, hasn’t quite reached everywhere it was expected to. Sales have flagged in certain territories (the United States being a prime example, though the reasons are, as always, complex and involve a surprising amount of civic pride in large, inefficient vehicles), and the price of lithium – that essential alchemical ingredient for the energy-storing crystals – has decided to take a holiday on the far side of reasonable.¹ But don’t write off the electric carriage just yet. The future, while delayed, hasn’t entirely forgotten its appointment.

There is talk of a fleet, these ‘robotaxis,’ scaling across the cities like a creeping vine. A possibility, certainly. But the path, as always, is not paved with certainty. A single obstacle, a bureaucratic winter, threatens to delay the thaw.

For those who wish to share in this climb, to place a small wager on the future, there is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme, mind you. It is a slow, steady accumulation, like a man planting a tree, knowing he may not live to see its full shade. But it is a share in the growth, in the labor of others, and that has value.

Some commentators, with the predictable haste of moths to a flickering bulb, have posited that Tesla’s capital expenditures—a veritable avalanche of investment amounting to some twenty billion dollars—represent a retreat from the electric vehicle realm. This is, to put it mildly, a misapprehension. The discontinuation of certain models—the Model S and Model Y, if memory serves—isn’t a surrender, but a strategic pruning. It is a recalibration, a focusing of energies upon a vision far grander, and considerably more audacious, than simply displacing the internal combustion engine. A vision, one suspects, fueled less by pragmatism than by the sheer, unadulterated force of Mr. Musk’s imagination.

The optimists, those tireless architects of belief, spoke of a new era, of limitless growth. Yet, beneath the surface, the currents of unease gathered strength. It wasn’t the obvious threats—the geopolitical storms or the unpredictable whims of consumers—that truly worried those who understood the long rhythms of history. It was the possibility of a disruption originating from within the very institution meant to safeguard the realm: the Federal Reserve. For Mateo, and for those who remembered the cycles of boom and bust, the true danger wasn’t a sudden catastrophe, but the slow erosion of trust, the quiet unraveling of the delicate balance that held everything together.

It’s a curious thing, though. This ain’t some fresh-faced startup, mind you. Palantir’s been around for over two decades – a veritable Methuselah in the tech world. For a long spell, they were mostly known for workin’ with the government – a respectable trade, to be sure, but not exactly the stuff of headlines. But lately, they’ve stepped into the limelight, and it’s all thanks to a part of the company that, not so long ago, their own chief, Alex Karp, called a “backwater.” A backwater, he said! Seems a curious thing to brag on, doesn’t it? But let’s mosey on over and take a look at this little stream that’s turned into a mighty river.

Eaton. They make electrical stuff. Switches, transformers, you name it. It’s not glamorous, but someone has to keep the lights on. And apparently, these data centers—these black holes of electricity—are big customers. Their backlog is “at a record level.” A record level! Like that actually means something. It just means they’re busy. But okay, okay. It’s a decent business. They’re even talking about spinning off their vehicle division. Which, frankly, I don’t understand. Why separate the things that make cars go from the things that power your toaster? It feels… disjointed. But, I suppose if it unlocks value for shareholders, who am I to judge? Although, if it messes with the supply chain of, say, a simple tail light bulb, I’ll be the first one to complain.

The recent administrative adjustments – the removal of one executive and the appointment of another, Mr. Lores from HP – feel less like strategic maneuvers and more like rearranging deck chairs on a vessel already charting a course towards the inevitable. The new steward arrives on March 1st, a date that carries the weight of a formal decree, yet offers no discernible hope of altering the trajectory.

Now, I’m a market watcher, see? I’ve seen empires rise and fall faster than a Goofy pratfall. But this Mouse House? It’s got staying power. And recently, it gave investors a nice little ten billion-dollar reason to cheer. A ten billion! That’s a lot of churros, let me tell ya.

UiPath—the name itself feels… functional. Like a tool shed, not a temple. They build “agentic AI toolkits,” which is a polite way of saying they create machines to do the work of men and women. And Wall Street, predictably, is taking notice. Vanguard, BlackRock, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley – the usual congregation of capital – have been steadily increasing their stakes. Not a frenzy, mind you. A measured accumulation. Like vultures circling a field, not rushing the kill.