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By the closing bell, the stock had gained 5.8%, though earlier in the day it briefly touched a more optimistic 16.4%. A fleeting moment of enthusiasm, quickly tempered, as is so often the case.

The hype machine is working overtime, painting a picture of a glorious future. But let’s be real. Building cars is hard. Like, really hard. It’s not like launching a meme. And while I appreciate Rivian’s foray into self-driving tech – because who doesn’t want a robot chauffeur? – they’re playing in a sandbox where Tesla already owns all the shovels and buckets. Even Google, with its Waymo taxis, has a bigger pile of cash to throw at the problem. This isn’t a fair fight. It’s like bringing a spork to a gunfight.

The clever chaps over at Polymarket, those who wager on these sorts of things, aren’t exactly bursting with optimism. They reckon the chances of Bitcoin hitting $150,000 this year are… well, let’s just say a particularly small slice of the pie. About 10%, if you’re keeping score. Which is remarkably low, considering they also give it a 10% chance of plummeting all the way back down to $20,000. A most peculiar situation, wouldn’t you agree? It’s as if the market can’t quite decide whether to send it soaring or shove it in the mud.

The incoming administration, it appears, intends to redraw the cartography of trade. The initial year, a deceptive calm, masked a subtle erosion of the dollar’s dominion – a weakening, as if the very foundations of exchange were shifting beneath our feet. The recent judicial pronouncements, while seemingly reversing course, are but temporary dams against a tide of potential re-evaluation. The proposed tariffs, now recast and threatened anew, are not simply economic measures, but acts of ontological disruption, altering the very being of value. The refund of collected tariffs – a sum bordering on the astronomical – feels less like fiscal policy and more like an attempt to square a circle, a desperate measure to reconcile the illusory with the real.

Observe, if you will, the current state of affairs. The market, puffed up with its own importance, trades at valuations that would make even the most audacious speculator blush. Growth stocks, those glittering promises of future riches, are priced as if already delivered. The S&P 500, that grand index of American enterprise, boasts a price-to-earnings ratio of 30—a figure so lofty it threatens to detach from reality. It is as if the entire exchange has succumbed to a fever dream of perpetual prosperity!

The market, it seems, has decided to be frightfully sensitive to the company’s rather sensible decision to prioritize user acquisition over immediate monetization. One assumes the chaps in charge have considered the long game, even if the short-term results are causing a bit of a flutter amongst the more excitable investors.

Everyone’s talking about ‘growth potential.’ Please. It’s crypto. Growth is a frantic, jittery beast that can turn on you faster than you can say ‘blockchain.’ So, what we really need is resilience. And that, my friends, is where things get interesting.

The question for any investor is not merely where to place capital, but how to avoid being swept along by the prevailing mania. The temptation to chase the latest novelty is strong, but prudence suggests a focus on the foundational elements. In this instance, that means semiconductors. Regardless of the sophistication of the software – be it a complex algorithm or a simple browsing program – it is ultimately reliant on these unassuming chips.

Come the close of trade, Dell’s stock was sittin’ pretty, up a considerable sum. A fella could almost smell the profits in the air. And a profit, mind you, is a beautiful thing – especially when a portion of it finds its way into the pockets of those who’ve held steady through thick and thin.